Instructional Technologies Designed by and for African Americans: An Examination of Several Works‪.‬

When society has failed to properly educate black people, African Americans have created instructional products, using the available technologies, to better educate themselves. These instructional technologies exemplify products that are culture specific or specialized to a particular target audience. Therefore, these contributions to history should be documented in the fields of African American education and instructional technology. Instructional technology is a discipline concerned with the "theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning" (Seels & Richey's, 1994, p. 1). This study focuses on those resources for learning. That is, it deals specifically with the classification of products as instructional technologies and how African Americans used the communications media of their time to create instructional technologies for better educating African American children and adults. Past and present histories of instructional technology have excluded representations of African Americans as producers of instructional technologies. This omission is represented in key publications in the field (Jonassen, 2004; 1996; Reiser, 2001; Saettler, 1990) and continues to be a void or avoided in research journals, books and practitioner articles. This may seem insignificant for those who do not write or study in this area; however it is imperative that African American technological history be substantiated in the 21st century. Further, it is apparent that scholars must be diligent in documenting, researching, and publishing an African American version of this history.