Criteria for Selecting Instructional Technology

Some ways of teaching have been used in our schools for a very long time. The teacher tells a story, asks questions and takes answers, explains the meaning of a lesson, or gives a long lecture. In each of these the teacher does most of the talking and the students mostly listen. Used on their own, these traditional styles cannot make teaching very effective, and they rarely lead to strong learning achievement.

Every classroom is a mix. Students differ in age, in interest and in how quickly they learn. One student understands at the first explanation, while another needs to see it done twice. A teacher has to manage this variety and create an environment in which everyone can learn easily. This is called facilitating learning. To do it, knowledge that lives only in books, and the old style of teaching, both have to be made modern and easier to follow.

Modern teaching pays attention to these things:

• a good learning environment
• proper management of the classroom
• simple and meaningful presentation of the lesson
• friendly behaviour between teacher and students
• what students already know, their age and their ability to learn

Because so many things have to be balanced, a teacher cannot pick a teaching technique at random. The choice rests on a few clear criteria.

Six important criteria guide the choice of a technique for teaching and learning:

• (a) Educational aim: the first thing to look at is the aim of the lesson. The technique chosen must be able to achieve that aim. If the aim is for students to read a map, a lecture will not do it; they need a technique in which they hold a map and practise.
• (b) Economic condition: the school must be able to afford the technique. Before buying teaching material or running an activity, its cost has to be considered. A school that cannot afford an expensive smart board can still teach well with charts and models made from local materials.
• (c) Easy access: the technique must be within reach of both teachers and students. It should be one that every teacher and every student can take part in and use. One computer shared by forty students is not within easy reach of all of them.
• (d) Classroom environment: the choice depends on whether the classroom suits the technique, how many students there are, and what students must already be able to do before they can take part. A projector is useless in a room with no electricity, and an online project cannot be the first task for students who have never used a computer.
• (e) Social setting: how society looks at the technique, whether it is already in common use in that society, and whether the community will support it are all important criteria. A technique that parents and the community back is one that lasts.
• (f) Sustainability: a technique lasts when it can be used for many purposes and stays relevant, when the school has its own teachers or staff who can run it, and when it can be operated and repaired at the lowest cost. These are the bases of sustainable development, and a choice should respect them.

To reach the aims set in the curriculum, modern teaching joins role play, demonstration, interaction, student participation and interaction among classmates with technology-friendly teaching. This is why new techniques keep appearing and developing in teaching.

The methods now used in formal education include:

• the question and answer method
• the experiment method
• the field trip method
• the self-study method
• the discovery method
• the problem solving method
• the discussion method
• the micro teaching method

Among the techniques in common use today, two groups stand out: participatory instructional technology and instructional technology for self-development.

Education can be formal or informal. The world's education began informally and has now taken a formal and modern shape. Along the way many teaching methods were researched and adopted. Participatory instructional technology is one of the methods that research has shown to be effective.

In this technique the teacher does not finish the lesson by talking. The teacher tells students what to do and then lets them do the work. The classroom must be arranged so that students can be active and learn for themselves. Students get the chance to learn by doing and by practising, in the way they choose.

Here is an example. To teach the parts of a plant, the teacher does not draw on the blackboard and lecture. Instead the class is split into groups of four. Each group brings a small plant from the school garden, separates its root, stem, leaves and flower, and shows the class. The teacher walks from group to group, asks questions, and helps only where a group is stuck.

Self-development techniques work best when students stay active in their learning and turn, on their own, to original and creative work. The student is given a problem to solve alone. Suppose a class has to write an essay on a village fair. The teacher teaches a fixed format (introduction, main body, conclusion) and offers a few points. Each student then writes the essay in his or her own original style.

Working this way does three things for a student:

• It builds self-confidence.
• It gives the courage to go looking for new things.
• It inspires the student to be original and creative.

There are five main self-development techniques: classwork, homework, programmed learning, learner-controlled learning and the library method.

Once a lesson has been taught, classwork is set on that lesson to see how much the students have understood. Students take part in it directly, which is why classwork counts as a self-development technique. Depending on the subject, classwork can include:

• noting down the main points
• essay writing
• debate
• writing dialogues and monologues
• solving mathematical problems

Setting homework at the end of a lesson is a long-standing practice. It is considered a good technique for a student's originality, academic level and self-improvement. A teacher should set homework only after understanding the students' age, level and feelings, and should encourage them to do it happily and in an enjoyable way. For example, instead of asking young children to copy out long answers, a teacher might ask them to talk to the people at home and write down one old story from their family.

Programmed learning is one of the effective self-development techniques, and it motivates students to study. It is built to move from simple to complex. A programme on fractions, for example, might first show a half and a quarter, then teach how to write a fraction, then how to compare two fractions, and last how to add them. A student moves to the next step only after understanding the one before. In this way the student can become his or her own teacher and develops the habit of leading his or her own learning.

Here the student decides everything: the steps of learning, the activities, how to evaluate the work and how to get feedback, all according to his or her own wish. The learner sets the problem, studies to solve it and reaches a conclusion. For example, a girl wonders why the tap in her neighbourhood gives so little water. She makes that her question, asks her neighbours, goes to look at the tap and writes down what she concludes. Learner-controlled learning is also a learning process of the informal education system.

The library method is a strong example of self-development. To reach a conclusion on any subject, a student can read, search and research the related material. When a research-based article has to be written, the student goes to the library, studies the reference materials and prepares the article. The library method works well for:

• reaching a conclusion on a current issue
• studying facts from the past
• studying a subject in depth and comparing ideas