Educational Technology--good field?

Is anyone in this career field? I see a large number of online programs in this area. I took one class in ed tech during my masters program. My husband is going to be in the market for a second career when his military time is up. I'm wondering if this is a good field to go into. He would like to do something in the field of education though not something that requires him to do student teaching and necessarily be a "classroom" teacher.

 

I'm not presently working in the field but this is my area of graduate study.

It seems to me that the field of educational/instructional technology is wide open. It is so multi-faceted at present that one can select a wide variety of paths.

For me, it's applied technology in music education but many folks I know are using this field as a step into corporate training and development leadership roles. Instructional Design looks to be the money maker right now.

I know a few too who are using this as a step into educational television production and one that I know is using it as an advancement in applications development.

I know alot of present teachers who are using instructional technology for pay advancement -- as it's generally a curriculum and instruction sub-field and the latest hot button with school boards.

As best I can tell, the field is not defined well enough for anyone to be able to say exactly what it is and what it isn't. It may be that this is going to be one of those fields that never gets pigeon-holed. It will probably start dividing out into specialties before long though and the present Inst. Tech. degrees will be the generalist degrees of the field. I do know that the program I am working into does not have enough platform teaching time in it to be considered preparation for teaching. But then, mine is not an MEd but an MSc.

Most states don't have an Ed Tech certification for public school teachers, some do. This means that many who want to work in that area must either have a subject certification or work as a consultant.

For university jobs not teaching ed tech but teaching ed tech as it applies to a major field of study - my ultimate goal - the world still requires at least an MA with 18 hours in the subject.

A caveat -- it looks to me that alot of people are getting a degree in Ed Tech all of a sudden. I do fear a saturation of masters degree holding job candidates before long. I'm covering myself by working into an additional content area MA and plan on the doctorate afterwards.

There is a great opportunity for those in the field to be involved in the real future of education. Some of those in the field are going to be the people who set the direction of education for years to come...

 

I have been active in the profession of Educational Technology since 1987. I could not recommend the field more highly. My colleagues and former students work in K-12, higher education, non-profit, industry, government, healthcare and the military. Many schools, colleges and universities are looking for those possessing masters degrees in ed tech to work with faculty in the integration of technology into teaching or to put courses online. There are many positions open for masters level instructional designers inside and outside academia.

The field of educational technology is actually a merging of two fields: instructional media/technology and instructional design/programmed instruction. The field tends to interact with many others, including educational psychology, information systems, computer science, curriculum & instruction, graphic arts and several others. Most of us find the "ill-defined" nature of the field to be an advantage. I have been able to work as an employee of or consultant to educational institutions, Fortune 500 corporations, small business, government agencies and the U.S. Dept. of Defense. My ed tech training has been a definite source of opportunity and income.

There are some 200 masters programs and about 80 doctoral programs in ed tech and related fields--some higher regarded than others. It is true that many new programs in ed tech have emerged in the past few years and several have been offered online (a natural ocurrance, given the subject matter). Some, like San Diego State and Florida State, have programs and faculty that are well-known in the profession. Others, like Fort Hays, Capella and Northcentral, are not well-known in the profession. As faculty and students from these programs become more involved in scholarly activities (e.g. publishing in the journals, presenting at the conferences, participating in the professional associations) their stature in the discipline will rise. I am seeing this happen currently with Nova Southeastern University.

Tony Piña
Coordinator of Learning Technologies
Northeastern Illinois University

 

I just picked up the March 11 issue of Aerotech News and Review and there was an ad for Curriculum Developers by Northrop-Gruman. Job is to "design instructional programs, performance objectives and evaluations to ensure the expected goals of the curriculum are achieved. In addition, reviewing of training material concurrency and conformance to customer's requirements will be ongoing."

Among the candidate requirements are:
- Master's degree in Education or related discipline desired,
- Experience in multi-media
- Experience in design and production of ISD materials,
- Experience in curriculum development including formative evaluation.

I know nothing about this area but I thought this might be informative.