IDET -- what is that?

Last week was the first week of fall semester, and the first week of my new IDET program!! What is IDET, you ask? It's Instructional Design and Educational Technology. Wow! That's a mouthful!! What does it mean?

Well, I actually spent the summer working on classes in the IDET program, so maybe I have a different perspective on what exactly Instructional Design is (than I otherwise might). I don't know much about educational theories and principles yet - that's my Thursday class - and although I have spent time in a classroom as a teacher, I am not a trained educator. To me, IDET is made up of two things: Infomation Design is the first; Educational Technology is the second.

"Information Design": The word "design" makes me think of art -- designing something, like a beautiful lanscape, or a scrapbook page (yes, I am a "scrapper"). Design is something that generally alludes me, as in my previous life (at the U anyway!) I was a mathematician. I proudly tell people that I am a math person, and not in any way an artist. And although I love to scrapbook, I sometimes feel woefully inadequate as I watch my sister-in-law, who was an art major, and who can somehow sense what elements of design fit best on her pages.

"Information Design", however, I think, has a broader scope. We are now talking about designing the presentation of information in a way that is appealing, engaging, and understandable to the user. I don't know if this field is generally used by other disciplines, or if it is usually oriented towards education. For my own purposes, however, I intend to study with the ultimate goal of improving my ability to teach and present information.

"Educational Technology", then, must be the study of the technologies that are available, appropriate, and useful in an educational setting. I spent the summer working with technology as I learned how to design and program web pages, make photoshop and fireworks images, animate things with flash, and put it all together into a useful product. I have to admit, I really love technology! It was great to learn how to use the adobe suite. But as we discussed in class last Tuesday, the word "technology" has a much broader definition as well.

We usually think of "technology" as an electronic or computer-oriented product that we can use to get something done. But what about all of the other disciplines out there? Artists might talk about using the newest "technology" much the same way they might teach a new "technique". Are the two words related? (I don't know. . .) What about other areas, like gardening, construction, or decorating? I'll bet they use the word technology too, and not always (in fact, I'll bet usually not) in the sense of a computer program. (I wish I had some specific examples, but in my own field -- mathmatics -- the technology is generally computer-dependent!) Dictionary.com lists technology mainly as a word dealing with "technical" implementation, but it's last definition is interesting:

3. Anthropology The body of knowledge available to a society that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials.

Hmmm. . . I look forward to more discussion in class about what exactly technology is.