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Departmental History -
Instructional Technology
The instructional technology program that is now part of the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology had its beginnings as the Department of Audiovisual Education in the 1960s.
That first department and its successor were housed in Baldwin Hall until the program was moved to Aderhold Hall when that building opened in 1971. Dr. Garland Oliver was head of the original department. The focus of the program was on preparing individuals to work in schools in this expanding field. Effective selection and utilization of materials such as motion pictures, filmstrips, audiotapes and still photos were important objectives of the program.
Around 1970, the department’s name was changed to Educational Media. Dr. Juanita Skelton was named Department Head in 1972 and continued in that role after the department’s name was changed in 1976 to Educational Media and Librarianship. At that time the department had about six faculty members. Production of graphic materials, photos, audiotapes and motion pictures was incorporated into the curriculum. The ability to manage instructional resource programs in schools and commercial production houses was also added to the curriculum. The department offered undergraduate courses to support the various teacher preparation programs in the college and offered a master’s degree for those specializing in the field.
The department also operated an instructional resources center that served all the departments located in Aderhold Hall. The resources center was the forerunner of the Center for Educational Technology that was removed from the department and placed under the Dean’s Office in about 1985.
The center later was renamed the Office of Information Technology, as it is known today. Originally, this service consisted mostly of maintaining and distributing projectors, tape recorders and related equipment. Later, it managed the first personal computer laboratories in the college and did limited production of graphic materials. It also began to offer its services to students as interest in using instructional resources expanded.
Increased availability of more sophisticated equipment, along with passage of Federal legislation for materials and equipment acquisition by schools, resulted in rapid growth of interest in this emerging field from both potential students and employers. To strengthen their production and use, facilities design resulted in expansion of both content objectives and employment opportunities.
Late in the 1970s, the appearance of the first personal computers was attracting the interest of educators who began to conduct research and experimentation into their classroom use. Initially the application of personal computers tended to emphasize their use for drill and practice or as “tutors” with rigorously designed software. Later, a wider array of instructional strategies emerged and was included in the curriculum.
In the early 1970s, there also was a Department of Library Education headed by Ruth White. The goal of that department was to prepare librarians for both schools and public libraries. However, it was not accredited by the American Library Association and did not grow and prosper as its founders had hoped.
In the mid-1970s, the two departments were merged into the new Department of Educational Media and Librarianship under Dr. Skelton. The library component was integrated into master’s and specialist degrees preparing school personnel who were called Media Specialists and certified for these positions by the State of Georgia. School Media Specialist preparation continues to this day to be an important part of the department’s offerings.
Dr. Skelton retired and Dr. William Hug became Department Head in 1979, serving in that position until 1982. The curriculum increased its emphasis on the emerging concept of instructional design, especially as it related to computer-based educational applications. Instructional design is based on principles from the fields of educational psychology, research, evaluation and management along with materials selection and utilization principles from educational media.
New faculty were hired to match the changes in the curriculum and its production objectives were de-emphasized. Because their training programs were becoming more complex, sophisticated and important to success, businesses also were interested in hiring individuals with instructional design experience. This development resulted in some curricular changes and widened the employment opportunities for the department’s graduates.
By this time, new faculty were being hired to keep up with the university’s increasing emphasis on graduate education and research productivity. Two major topics, instructional design and educational computer applications, received much of the increased research emphasis. The department also planned to begin offering a doctorate in conjunction with its expanded research activities.
In 1982, Dr. Kent Gustafson became Department Head and later Dr. Alphonse Buccino became Dean of the college. Dr. Buccino strongly supported the department’s efforts to offer the doctorate and later in the decade the first students were admitted into the program. The department changed its name to Instructional Technology at this time to reflect its increased emphasis on application of instructional design principles in both education and training.
As available technology became more powerful, the ability to more easily design and produce interactive instructional software that integrated audio and video resulted in further curricular modifications. Software with which users could design their own interactive environments also began to influence the curriculum. Initially, the doctorate was to be an Ed.D. degree, but this was converted to a Ph.D. degree before the first students graduated. Many of the initial doctoral graduates became college faculty, but some took positions in industry training programs and other agencies. This pattern continues today.
The department continued to offer a track for school media specialists to meet the need of schools. Undergraduate courses continued to be offered as an important component of many teacher education degrees. It also cooperated in developing an interdisciplinary degree in computer-based education in response to a university request. This degree was intended to meet what was perceived as a growing demand by schools and industry for individuals with such expertise.
The department managed the computer-based education degree with courses being offered by faculty from several departments including Mathematics Education, Science Education, Occupational Studies and Social Science Education. However, interest in the program did not meet expectations and eventually it was discontinued with some of the courses being integrated into the Department of Instructional Technology.
The size of the faculty increased to about 12 in the 1980s and ‘90s to meet the demand for both graduate and undergraduate courses as the use of various educational technologies expanded. Faculty were now being recruited from major universities and two faculty transferred to the department from other departments in the College. The department began to attract significant numbers of international students into both the master’s and doctoral degrees and its faculty were increasingly developing international reputations.
During this period of rapid growth and change Dr. Murray Tillman (1990-92) and Dr. James Okey (1992-94) served as Department Head, at which time Dr. Gustafson reassumed that role until 2000. It was during this period that the department became part of the School of Professional Studies and remained in that unit until the school was dissolved. Dr. Rob Branch was the last chair of the department serving in that capacity until the department was merged with Educational Psychology.
An important related development was the creation of the Learning and Performance Support Laboratory and the establishment of an Eminent Professorship to serve as its director. Dr. Michael Hannafin was hired to fill this position and became a member of the department. The laboratory obtained significant external financial support that resulted in the ability to attract high quality graduate students. The size and complexity of research projects also grew, providing additional opportunities for both faculty and students to participate in more sophisticated projects in a wider variety of settings.
When a major reorganization of the college occurred in 2005, the department was merged with the former department of Educational Psychology to form the new Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology. This merger was based on the common interest of the two departments in the areas of learning theory, measurement and evaluation. The Chair of the new department was Dr. Randy Kamphaus from Educational Psychology and the Assistant Chair was Dr. Janette Hill from Instructional Technology. No degree or program changes resulted from the merger, but faculty did become more aware of each other’s research and program offerings as a result.
By Kent Gustafson
Professor Emeritus
Instructional Technology
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