Many recent models of learning and instruction center learning on real-world tasks and problems to support knowledge application and transfer. Among these models are problem-based learning and task-centered learning, two different approaches to learning that are often mistaken for one another. However, there are important distinctions between…

Instructional designers face tremendous pressure to abandon the essential characteristics of educational approaches, and settle instead for routine practices that do not preserve the level of quality those approaches originally expressed. Because this pressure can be strong enough to affect designers almost as gravity affects objects in the…

A survey of students and instructors in the Physiology Department of London University showed that students preferred lectures to acquire information needed to pass examinations. Instructors had positive attitudes toward using computers, but none used the programs written in accordance with their expressed aims of teaching to improve student…

Instructional objectives do not allow teachers to focus on the method or strategy which is employed to assist the student. (DAG)

Integrates the theoretical foundations of distance education programs with the selection of appropriate media. The principles of learning that take place in traditional instruction are discussed; instructional objectives and methods are described; matching objectives, methods, and media is considered; and types of communication are discussed. (10…

Discusses the prescriptive propositions underlying the analytical approach to instruction, including emphasis on the identification of valid instructional needs, use of content experts, and the accurate classification of instructional objectives in determining effective instructional strategy. (RAO)

Relates differences between education and training to the difference between hunting and fishing. Discusses instructional methods and design, principles, objectives, and theories. (AEF)

Presents ideas and issues to consider when thinking about the opportunities and choices involved in using learning technologies. Discusses technology impact issues, teaching applications, and institutional issues. Lists characteristics that make technology/technology use "feel elegant." Also addresses key teaching tasks. (AEF)

The Tri-Cycle Process described in the model permits for the first time an integrated system for designing an individualized instructional system that would permit a rational, diagnosis-prescription-evaluation system keyed to an accounting system. (Author)

Describes the NETg (National Educational Training Group) approach to instructional design where training products and content are developed to meet clearly defined learning objectives. Illustrates how "instruction" is more than "information." Discusses implications of learning in the Information Age and what is in store for the…

Examines the constructivist educational philosophy. Highlights include the significance of written materials, the aims of education, the subjective base of constructivism, the need for more understanding of social and cognitive processes, the limitation of consciousness to the present, the need for constructs and constructs of objects,…

This article discusses the importance of private interactions, in which a student works alone with learning materials, and public interactions, in which a group of students engage in discourse around learning materials. While traditional technology requires that designers choose one type of interaction over another, the authors show how handheld…

Presents a four-step conceptual framework for designing workshops to teach educators software infusion (SI), i.e., the use of computer software to enhance instructional effectiveness in school academic areas. Suggestions for implementation and sample worksheets accompany the discussions of each step. (MBR)

Discusses problems of centralization versus decentralization, tradition versus modernization, teacher status, administrative burdens, and educational objectives in relation to the use of educational technology in the Arab world, and suggests some possible remedies. (MBR)