Back to Week 2

If the name of the field changes a lot, do we really have a field?

• Ideas have evolved with respect to media and technology
• The thought process about instruction has changed from behaviorism to constructivism (constructivism is the type of learning where the learner creates his/her knowledge base depending on interests and strengths).
• The field itself is evolving
• New tools are being invented
• It is not a mature field like others, where subgroups are created
• It is a mix of many fields
• It is a collision of many fields and that’s why it is hard to define

IDT a science?

• Jeremy points out as more data driven we get then IDT moves more toward a science.
• It is becoming a science because it’s becoming more empirical

Is Education a science?

• Teaching is craft and not a science.
• Education Teaching Instruction Learning. Moving towards a more scientific approach.
• 1977 definition: it is a mix, everything is in the pot.
• 1994 definition: it’s not media centered, it’s about instructional design, it is grounded in theory and practice.
• AECT latest definition: the use of Educational Technology, moving away from the instructor.
• Learning can happen without instruction and instruction can happen without learning.

Why should we call the field IDT?

• It is encompassing.

Trivia What is a science? What really makes something a science? Federico: Science is a way of obtaining knowledge about phenomena. This knowledge is obtained following a method, and this is what makes a science: the scientific method, which relies on observable and measurable phenomena and in ways of conducting research that can be replicated, and, thus, corroborated or falsated. This is the origin of the knowledge that we can call scientific, different from other ways of adquiring knowledge, like authority or rebelation, for example. (I hope I did not mess things around)