Well reading chapter ten has cause a level of frustration I would normally save for my nothing-on-tv viewing of reality tv show "stars".
The terms educational technology and instructional technology have been used interchangeable on more than few occasions. The text has only eluded to educational technology being the evolutionary end product of what was once referred to as instructional technology... completely contradicting the texts own attempt at creating a distinction. I prefer to take away this end message even if it was not intended
Why? I can wrap my head around it as frustrating as it was to read! I associate this attempt (was this intended or accidental by the author?) to the trades person once called graphic artist being changed to computerized graphic artist and then to desktop publisher before going back to graphic artist. We changed our processes to incorporate computer hardware and multiple pieces of software. We were forced to become applications specialists as well as being artists. The name changed over the years as we attempted to incorporate, in a simple job title, the technological aspect of graphic arts. We learned our lesson long ago that it is what you do and not what you call it. We quickly realized, through this evolution (as we replaced motor skill with computer processing), that the quality spectrum was in jeopardy. It was jeopardized by taking a 2D visual artist and adding the application specialist skill set. Everything comes full circle it seems.
Today the industry uses the term "desktop publishing" for those individuals for whom quality is less important than quantity. We resurrected graphic artist as a means of identifying the highest caliper of artist. We know that the hardware and software is implied and don't need it to be explicit to be recognized. For many people they don't know any other way.
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The operational definition of terms is vital to precise communication of research findings, for putting study results in context, and to provide a means by which other researchers orient themselves within and in relation to the study. So, your frustration with the use of terminology and job titles is warranted - it is all related to the very human need, amplified in research, to define ourselves and to define our world. So, good job grappling with these distinctions.
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