Borja, Lucille Mae P.2014-55017EDUC 50 Educational Technology

A. Teacher-made vs Commercially-made Instructional Materials

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

TEACHER-MADE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

The material content is created for the specific group of learners.

The teacher can manipulate the instructional material with mastery.

TMIM are made in specific with the learners’ needs and interest.

Provides opportunity for the teacher to develop their skills in developing creative materials for learners.

More authentic since the examples (e.g. in books) are adapted from the cultural background of the learners.

Reflects content relevant to the learners.

Can be easily revised as per student needs.

Takes ample time in creating the material.

May be difficult to organize. Not as durable as the

commercially-made materials. Not for long-term use/storage. No back-up (e.g. modules with

hardcopy and digital copy). May not be cost-efficient if there

are limited resources for the material.

COMMERCIALLY-MADE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

The instructor may simply purchase a CMIM/easy to purchase.

CMIM now comes both in hardcopy and softcopy/digital forms (e.g. books & modules).

The images, examples, and design are standardized.

Organized into a set and may include manuals for both teachers and learners.

May not be cost-efficient, specially the materials of foreign authors.

The teacher needs to review more about the content of the material.

Most of the examples (e.g. in books) are American-based.

Needs frequent modification.

B. Media in Education: The Good and the Bad

Media has been a YINYANG in the field of education. With its many innovative aspects,

media comes also with a dark side. Education, as it seems, is controlled by media. What the

children learns today are reflected by the information that they see, hear, and get from it.

For instance, homework, projects and paper work are easily accomplished with the help of

internet. As easy as 1 2 3, and as convenient as A B C, everything that has been in question

can be accessed thru web. This sure comes handy for all, especially students, who have a lot

of things to accomplish. However, it is noteworthy that many others simply copy-paste info

from the internet; failing to realize the importance of understanding the content of the info

presented. The good thing about media is that the information is usually updated and more

entertaining. On the other side, there are no guidelines on which information is correct or is

accurate.

C. Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright

Copyright can fall under the Intellectual Property Rights. As a future educator, creating

teacher-made instructional material is inevitable. However, most of our materials in today’s

educational system are adapted from foreign content. Thus, the originality of the material is

compromised. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that educators today try to be creative

and innovative. In this regard, educators still have to consider the fact that we must cite and

credit the original author or creator of the material we used as patterns. For example, it is in

my understanding that most of the modules we used during my undergrad were authored

by our college professors. Then again, it was noted that the content were gathered from

different websites, books, journals, and another module. With this, citation of the original

author/creator of the presented idea must be referenced. Another example is during

Research; citing the source of the information written in research literatures and studies is

a must to avoid plagiarism.