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STUDENT EXCHANGE
The Importance of Understanding Both Educational and Technical Facets
of Instructional Technology
Vince Kwisnek
This piece was written with primary and secondary educators in mind. I was a fourth grade teacher, and over a year ago I resigned my position and ventured into distance learning at the corporate level. Having made the transition from public education to the business world, I now look back and see other public educators attempting the same transition. Whether such an attempt should be made is up to each individual, but I can offer advice for those interested in moving into the business world. Become well versed in both the educational and the technical facets of the instructional technology field.
My experience as a student in a graduate-level IT program has shown me that a traditional teacher preparation program does not prepare an instructor for the online environment. Distance learning removes much of the face-to-face interaction that a traditional instructor depends upon to communicate with the learner. Online courses succeed when a community of learning is created, online etiquette (netiquette) is practiced, instructor and learner communication is clearly written, and both the instructor and the learners are prepared for each session. Because of the Instructional Technology program, I have the teaching techniques needed to continue my career as a distance educator.
Some may read the above paragraph and think that it covers the necessary components of a quality distance-learning course, but my employment experience has shown me that more is required. I am the Manager of E-learning for a mid-size corporation, and my task is to build intranet-based health and safety training for the corporation’s employees. My position is experimental; therefore, I am the sole designer and developer of the employee training. Understanding and applying the teaching philosophies of distance learning is only half of my job. The other half involves understanding and utilizing various tools to create and deploy the health and safety training. Knowledge of Authorware tools, web-development programs, HTML, and JavaScript enable me to build training courses. Just as important, I continually learn to utilize new tools and programs that will ensure future training course meet the latest technical and design standards.
From my experience, it is important to understand both the educational and the technical aspects of distance learning. Instructional Technology is an ever-changing field, and a distance educator must also continually adapt and improve if s/he hopes to remain effective and productive.
About the Author:
Vince Kwisnek is a student in the Graduate-level IT program at Duquesne University. He may be reached via e-mail: kwisnek@hotmail.com.
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