Running head: WHAT'S HAPPENING IN INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1

What's happening in Instructional Technology: Trends and Outcomes

May Matti

California State University, Monterey Bay

October 20,2019

IST524 Instructional Technology

Dr. Sarah Tourtellotte

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What’s happening in Instructional Technology: Trends and Outcomes

Technology is at the core of virtually every aspect of our daily lives and work, and we must

leverage it to provide engaging and powerful learning experiences and content, as well as

resources and assessments that measure student achievement in more complete, authentic, and

meaningful ways (Gray, Thomas, & Lewis, 2010) (as cited in Reiser & Dempsey, 2017,

p.176)

There is no doubt that technology influences all aspects of life, and when involving

technology in education, this has a significant impact on all aspects of the educational process.

The students represent the axis of educational process, the curricula are considered the guidelines

of education, the teachers are the means for delivering instruction, and technology is the vehicle

to convey these instructions.

The most implemented models that an instructional designer can incorporate technology to

support learning and teaching are the Puentedura model that includes; substitution,

augmentation, modification and redefinition (SAMR). The other model is the technology

pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). In the field of educational technology, The

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has set six standards for students in K-

12 education that are essential in order to layout a basis for assessing students’ progress towards

achieving development goals. These standards embrace: creativity, communication, research,

critical thinking, digital citizenship, and technology operations. In order to enhance educators’

capabilities to incorporate technology effectively into their instruction, (ISTE) has set five

requirements that the educators need to practice: facilitate student’s learning and creativity,

design and develop learning experiences and assessments by using technology, model digital age
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work and learning, promote and identify digital rights and responsibility, and engage in self-

professional development (Reiser & Dempsey, 2017).

Today, teaching methodology has evolved to support and promote student-centered learning

approaches; where, students are involved deeply in solving problems through critical thinking,

analyzing, and interacting with others to personalize their learning. Technology will enhance

student-centered learning approaches, as students are digital natives and technology savvy.

Mobile learning offers a solution, opportunity and facilitates the delivery of information and

instruction for educational purposes. Mobile learning is a new instructional delivery method that

supports learning and enhances performance by using feasible learning devices. According to

Quinn (2011), mobile learning is based on the 4Cs unique affordance model to support learning

and performance; content, compute, communicate and capture. Content is available for students

to access, such as multimedia. Compute is a feature that gives the student opportunity to interact

dialectically with a device used to meet the desired result, such as a calculator, translator, or

other computational functions. Communicate is a property used to keep the students engaged

with classmates by voice, video, or text. The last affordance is capturing contexts of the learning

module, where students are able to capture images, video, sound and ideas as notes. The benefit

of using 4Cs model in mobile learning is to supplement formal learning or to promote

performances (Reiser & Dempsey, 2017).

The conceptual framework of mobile learning applications is analysis, specification,

development, and evaluation. Analysis is where instructional designer determines a performance

gap and sets a design goal to address the gap. Specification of solution focuses on pragmatic

limitation of experience designed such as scope, alignment and media used in order to limit the

feature of mobile devices; also limits the best cognitive augment, and consolidates performance
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and learning results. During the development phase, a decision is made to adopt a suitable

application. The evaluation phase is about testing all of the technical capability elements

involved and evaluating the desirable outcomes using a matching sample of the actual users.

Using mobile tools and apps in K-12 classroom will assist in conceptualization of instructional

material and increases performance level; thus, sustaining a lifelong learning experience (Reiser

& Dempsey, 2017).

Mobile devices such as cell phones, tablets, and laptops, are considered technology-based

tools and resources for Mobile learning. According to a study conducted by Pearson Education,

72% of elementary school students, 66% of middle school students, and 54% of high school

students are using mobile devices in the classroom and complete school assignments (Pearson,

2015). By using mobile device, students can access learning content and continuously be

involved in several subjects, and learning based on technology applications has now become part

of new digital native lifestyle.

While there are benefits of mobile learning, there are also some challenges of using mobile

learning in education. The teachers need to know what are the benefits and challenges of using

mobile devices in their classroom for delivering successful instruction to their students

(Swibel, 2019 & Gautam, 2018).

According to Lai et al (2007), mobile learning enables learners to learn at their own pace.

Also, it allows students to access the content material and resources any time anywhere, and

increase their ability to document their findings based on their comprehension (Reiser &

Dempsey, 2017). This benefit of mobile devices can support and engage students to view

textbooks, study, participate in class tasks online, take a test, and generate media-rich projects.
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Similarly, teachers can interact with their students by following their progress, observe students’

assignments, and administer exams (Lahullier, 2018).

Mobile learning facilitates sharing learning material with the students prior to the instructional

hour to allow a self-paced preparation for the topic under discussion. For example, teachers can

post a short video about the topic prior to the classroom to activate their students’ schemata and

motivate them. In the classroom, mobile learning supplements classroom instructions through

enhancing students’ enthusiasm to learn. In addition, mobile learning can be of great asset in

conducting post class assessment and providing feedback to the students to consolidate their

acquired comprehension. Moreover, the students can use the module as a refresher material to

retain their knowledge on the need (CommLab India Bloggers, 2019).

Obviously, technology is being integrated and implemented in all fields of work. Nowadays,

most people have already involved mobile devices consistently in their workplace. Therefore,

teachers should prepare their students to be more creative and innovative for better learning

outcomes. At this point the accessibility to the mobile devices for students could be through the

1:1 initiative (each student use on device) or by BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program. Both

methods provide a great way to engage students and motivate them to be creative and actively

involved in their learning (Reiser & Dempsey, 2017). Integrating mobile devices early in the

learning process makes students more comfortable with advanced technology and hones their

communicative skills required for societal interaction. If the teacher allows the students to adopt

a mobile device in the classroom suitably, this will help them become more involved and

embrace the learning process, and make them develop their habit of exploratory learning

(Swibel, 2019).
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The classroom has a vibrant environment bringing learners with different learning styles and

personalities from distinct backgrounds together. Using this trend of technology enables students

to have hands-on activities during classes as well as increases their meta-cognition to be

autonomous learners, thus, creating a positive learning environment in the classroom. In

addition, by using videos, images, games, and other platforms students develop more knowledge

and critical thinking (Swibel, 2019 & Gautam, 2018).

The teachers should use mobile devices in classroom with certain objectives in mind. They

must ensure that mobile devices are not used for other purposes than learning in the classroom.

In fact, students can easily connect with their friends by texting, watching funny videos, and

play online games or browse social media that are not related to the lesson. However, teachers

can implement exciting learning activities by using mobile devices to engage the students in

order to enhance and increase their learning. Other challenges include the overuse of mobile

devices might cause eyes train. In addition, the mobile device has a limited power source that

may run out; also in some areas, the devices have poor connectivity issues that may affect the

learning process and lower student motivation and engagement (McPheat, 2019).

Conclusion:

The field of education has been enriched through the implementation of mobile technology.

Today technology is more integrated into providing classroom instruction and motivates students

to be autonomous learners. Moreover, integrating technology in classrooms assist students to

develop the skills required by the industry in the 21st century to improve their critical skills. This

new trend of instructional technology can supplement the instructional material and curricula,

offering students an out of class access to learning material in addition to engaging them in
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communicative activities at their own pace. The extensive implementation of mobile learning

technology is flourishing and providing more dynamic and pervasive educational potential.
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References

CommLab India Bloggers, (2019, April 24). 3 Tips to Integrate Smartphone-based Modules in

Blended Learning. [Web log post]. Retrieved from

https://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-development/tips-to-integrate-smartphone-

based-modules-in-blended-learning

Gautam, P. (2018, November 23). What The Advantages And Disadvantages of Mobile Learning

Are. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-

mobile-learning

Lahullier, S. (2018, October 25). Top 10 K-12 Educational Technology Trends. Retrieved from

https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/top-10-k-12-educational-technology-

trends

McPheat, S. (2019). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobil Learning. Retrieved from

https://www.skillshub.com/advantages-disadvatages-mobile-learning

Pearson. (2015). Student Mobile Device Survey 2105. Retrieved from 

https://www.pearsoned.com/wp-content/uploads/2015-Pearson-Student-Mobile-Device-

Survey-Grades-4-12.pdf

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2017). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and

Technology. 4th ed. New York: Pearson.

Swibel, D. (2019, August 14). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Learning in K12

and Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.newrow.com/the-advantages-and-

disadvantages-of-mobile-learning-in-k12-and-higher-education/