By scope of educational technology we mean the jurisdiction, the limits or the boundaries within which it works. It needs demarcation of the boundaries within which the process of education can go on. Being a fast growing modern discipline it is almost practical all through and is expanding with a tremendous speed, aiming at all- round development in the area of education.
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National Policy on Education (1986), recommends that, “Educational Technology will be employed in the spread of useful, information, the training and retraining of teachers, to improve quality, sharpen awareness of art and culture, inculcate abiding values etc., both in the formal and non-formal sectors. Maximum use will be made of the available infrastructure.”
The scope of Educational Technology can be accessed from the following points:
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1. Determination of Objectives:
Educational Technology provides different methods and techniques for writing instructional objectives in behavioural terms such as Bloom Taxonomy Magar’s Approach and RCEM Approach.
The needs and requirements of the people and hence education need be revised from moment to moment. Educational technology helps in fixing-up the right objectives in the light of the changed circumstances and changed environment.
2. Improvement in Teaching Learning Process:
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It helps in improving the teaching learning process and makes it more purposive. It tries to discuss the concept of teaching, analysis of teaching process, variables of teaching, phases and levels of teaching, principles of teaching, maxims of teaching and relationship between teaching and learning.
3. Development of Teaching Learning Material:
Teaching learning materials are also as important as anything else in the teaching learning process. In this age of science and technology, the materials of teaching cannot be unscientific.
Everything of the society including values of life need be reflected in the materials. Only right type of material will be able to modify the behaviour of the learner suitably making him a fit person for the society.
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4. Improvement in Teaching Training:
The change of environment with ne curriculum and new materials need be handled by the teachers. The teachers equipped with old strategies and methodologies of teaching will remain misfits.
Right type of training to the teachers is the need of the hour. Educational Technology can render its valuable help in the training of teachers also. The use of video tapes and close circuit T.V. will help the teachers to remodel and reshape their teaching behaviours suitably.
It includes micro teaching, simulated teaching, term-teaching, teacher effectiveness, modification of teacher-behaviour, class-room interaction and interaction analysis, etc.
5. Development of Teaching Learning Strategies:
A strategy plays an important role in the hands of a teacher in every learning situation. The strategy has to be the right one which should be according to the materials and is able to bring about effective teaching- learning.
The different strategies are being evolved by educational technology. The knowledge of those strategies is a must for every teacher. Then only the teacher will be able to do justice to their jobs.
It tries to describe the ways and means of discovering selecting and developing suitable strategies and tactics of teaching in terms of optimum learning and available teaching-learning resources; the availability of the different types of teaching methods, devices and models of teaching-their appropriate selection and use for the optimum results.
6. Proper Use of Audio Visual Aids:
Audio Visual aids have always played an important role in the teaching-learning process. They need be used according to the times.
The software aids, the hardware aids, the computer and other such appliances, equipment etc., have to be used in the present type of teaching-learning environment. Computer assisted instructions will help the learner as well as the teacher to achieve the goals of education more conveniently.
7. Utilization of the Sub-System of Education:
Educational Technology considers education as a system operating in a systematic and scientific way for the achievement of educational objectives.
For the coverage of its systematic approach, it tries to include the topics dealing with the theory and principles of a system approach, explaining education as a system, its different sub-systems in terms of input and output. It is helpful in solving scientifically educational administrative problems with the help of system analysis.
8. Development of Curriculum:
Educational Technology is concerned with the designing of a suitable curriculum for the achievement of the desired objectives.
It is helpful in describing the ways and means of the selection of suitable learning experiences, organisation of the contents in a suitable framework in order to bring better results. It provides the scientific foundation to education as well as develops theories of teaching and learning.
9. Proper Use of Hardware and Software:
These days’ hardware and software are playing an effective role in the attainment of educational objectives. Educational Technology helps in the proper use of these aids. It tries to describe these resources in terms of their specific functions, their solution, proper handling and maintenance.
10. Provides Feedback:
It provides an appropriate feedback to the learners as well as teachers for bringing necessary improvement at the preparatory and implementation stages of their specific acts.
For this purpose, educational technology discusses the ways and means of suitable evaluation techniques, their planning, development selection and appropriate use in relation to the objectives of teaching- learning system.
In this way Educational Technology is concerned with all those who are connected in any way, directly or indirectly, to the processes and products of education.
It teaches the teachers the art of teaching, the learners the science of teach the educational planners the structure of planning and administrators or managers the skill of managing or administering the task of teaching and learning.
It works for the individualization of instructions as well for improving the group dynamics of the class-room.
Therefore, in any way, the scope of the educational technology should not be confined to the limited boundaries, but it should be left free for the necessary expansion and development for carrying out its mission, tasks and objectives.