Week Six Reflection

Based on what I know and based on what was presented to me in Chapter Three, I absolutely believe that the World Wide Web and Internet will have a major influence on the way instruction to learners. I almost feel that this question is too simple to answer because we are constantly using it already in classrooms, which means it is taking over and changing certain aspects of instruction. 

The book, in Chapter Three, discusses the history of instructional media and the important events that took place in the United States. I found it interesting that events from other countries were not included in this chapter at all when it was the "History of Instructional Design and Technology" chapter...not stating "in the United States". But anyway, the chapter starts from the beginning (1st decade of 20th century) and talks about school museums using slides and 3D photographs, then moves on to how we started using more films, viewers, and even more slides. During the years, audiovisual-incorporating sound into the media, along with radio, movies, and media that we would know better today, came into place. The book, while describing these events, also describes that these new forms of media were used in instruction for learners as they came out. The chapter goes on to speak of televisions, radio, computers, and then recent developments. The recent developments section was interesting to me because even though this book is not old at all, it is missing so much that we are using already in classrooms today.

Page 23 states that "Another reason that newer media are being used to a greater extent may be due to their increased interactive capabilities." This is exactly true and I believe it is why we are using the Internet and WWW in classrooms more and more. There are so many capabilities that save time, are more efficient, do not require one-on-one assistance from a teacher, and create more of an independence in the student. Page 23 also says that technology has "made it easier for educators to design learning experiences that involve more complex interactions between learners and instructional content than has previously been the case." This sums up the answer to the application question in itself. Why wouldn't teachers and instructors at every level want tools that helped them to do this? Different learning experiences for different types of learners is something that most teachers strive for and often times struggle to accomplish. The answer is of course...of course the Internet and WWW will have a major impact on all areas (K-12, Higher Education, and Adult Education). It already has major impacts on the instruction because of what it is capable of. Plus, the capabilities change and improve every single day and people are using these new features every single day to enhance instruction. The proof that people will not stop being curious about and implementing new forms of technology or new features of a technology tool such as the Internet of WWW is in the history that we read about in Chapter Three. Each time there was a new media, it was tried and used and changed until something new came out with the goal of enhancing instruction for learners. The history speaks for itself: technology will always have a major impact on instruction for learners, especially because it changes so much and creates so many new opportunities for leaners that were not available years ago.