repository of teaching tools, awards their students have received), and more.
It should be apparent that technology will play a crucial role in the success of the post-industrial paradigm of education. It will enable a quantum improvement in student learning, and likely at a lower cost per student per year than in the current industrial-age paradigm. Just as the electronic spreadsheet made the accountant’s job quicker, easier, less expensive, and more enjoyable, so the PIES described here will make the teacher’s job quicker, easier, less expensive, and more enjoyable. But instructional theory is sorely needed for technology to realize its potential contribution.
Conclusion
In the post-industrial world, we need to transform most of our educational and training systems from ones that are designed for sorting students to ones that are designed to maximize learning – from ones in which student progress is time-based to ones in which it is attainment-based. This transformation will require advances in both instructional theory and instructional technology.
Merrill’s First Principles (task-centeredness, activation, demonstration, application, and integration) provide a good, albeit general, summary of the most important features for high quality instruction. For more detailed guidance, we must look at the “situationalities” that determine the ways in which instruction should differ from one situation to another. Research to date indicates that these are based primarily on differing means (different approaches to instruction) and differing ends (different learning outcomes or kinds of learning).