Section 7 New Directions in Instructional Design and Technology

Distributed learning is any educational experience that uses many things, including technology, to enable learning. This certainly includes distance education.  I use all sorts of materials with my students and they all help enable learning but at first it was hard to think of a way that I could do any sort of distance education with my kindergarten students! I did however do something very much like distance education a month or so ago. Discovery education sent me (and I am sure every other teacher that they had email addresses for) a link to a live lesson about the solar system.  My students and I watched the live lesson and learned so much! It was a great experience for all of us! I also considered for myself the many online classes that I have taken to make myself a better teacher, whether it is at the university level or local classes offered online by my district. 

Reusable design was something totally new to me when I began reading about it.  I learned that reusability means being able to use a resource (most often reachable through a web browser) many times, many ways and for many reasons.  I think that Google™ Docs has really helped me make my lessons more reusable! I plan all of my lessons in Google™ Docs as well as create slide shows to aid in instruction and it is very easy to go back and make changes to them as necessary.  I share these documents with my colleagues and they are able to reuse them as well.  Tumblebook™ Library comes to mind as well! I use Tumblebooks.com very frequently.  This is a website with various eBooks for children.  They are relatively short and it is easy to search for a specific topic or author.  I have used these eBooks in various content areas or sometimes just for fun!





 

Using rich media in the classroom is something that most people find easy nowadays! It seems that there are many programs that are specifically designed for educational purposes.  One of the things in the chapter that really caught my eye was the section on simulations adding value to an instructional program.  It was interesting to read and find out that the students who participated in one particular math simulation learned better than their peers who did not.  In the past, I have used programs like IXL math, which is actually found online, to have students practice math problems.  I have often wondered if they were really learning from such a program.  The text mentions that learners may need scaffolding in making sense of a simulation.  This made me think that maybe I should provide manipulatives for my students to help make the transition from the concrete to abstract a little less trying.

 

Although Siri is not real artificial intelligence, this could be a great tool for my youngsters to use when wanting to research a topic.  How easy would it be for them to simply say something like “search the web for volcano pictures” and have them pop right up?  I think this would be a great help for someone who may not have the skills to type in what they are looking for.  Just having a few iPads in the classroom would be beneficial! There are so applications that are educational and would help students learn or practice skills. 

Section 6: Getting an IDT Position and Succeeding at It

I began teaching six years ago.  I have only taught kindergarten and that is what I am currently doing.  I absolutely love this age for children! It seems that this is a great time of learning for them and it is very rewarding to be a part of that.  I often tell people that I have the most important job in the world because each year I get 22 little people who barely know the alphabet and when the year is over, they are able to read and write! That may not really be the most important job in the world but it feels very important to me and I am proud of what I do.  I am working on getting my masters in curriculum and instruction. I really have no plans to go anywhere or do anything different for a long time (if ever)! My main reasoning behind going to graduate school was that I felt like many of the things I learned in college were useless because I didn’t have a way to apply them when I was learning them.  I wanted to be a better teacher and now I feel like I am learning so much and it is all relevant to me! If I decide that I do not want to be a regular classroom teacher, I think the only thing that would be left for me to do is be a reading specialist.  I cannot imagine a time when I wouldn’t want to work closely with children. 

I want to continue teaching young children, this will take place in an elementary school such as the one in which I am working.  When completing the WorkMatrix™ I was not at all surprised to see that the most desired type of work for me fell under the first-level service.  Part of me is interested in developing instruction but only as far as curriculum writing goes.  Geographic location is a huge deciding factor for me when considering the features of work.  Right now I can walk to work in about 5 minutes and it is wonderful! I can’t imagine having to commute after being so close!  The section in our textbook about psychological and economic income was interesting to me.  While I may wish that being a kindergarten teacher was a high income job, it is not and I am perfectly happy to stay where I am and that is where the psychological income comes into play.  Simply because I plan on staying where I am, teaching kindergarten, for a very long time doesn’t mean that I do not have things to learn.  I have already obtained a teaching certificate but in order to keep it renewed I have to participate in several continuing education classes each year.  I have already noticed that some of the things that I learned as an undergrad have changed and evolved of the last few years.  I must make it a priority to keep learning and stay up to date on new developments in the educational world.  I will be a student for the rest of my life!

 

There were so many professional organizations to choose from! Many of them would not benefit me but I did find a few that I thought would be helpful as far as keeping me updated in my field.  The first one that I chose was the International Society for Technology in Education.  Their website states “The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving learning and teaching by advancing the effective use of technology in PK–12 and teacher education.” One of the things that sold me on this organization is the fact that they acknowledge and include the younger grades, so many times when discussion technology in education, the younger students are not included.  I believe that we do not give our youngsters enough credit sometimes when it comes to what they can do, especially involving technology.  They certainly aren’t strangers to it like I was as a child! ISTE is holding a conference in San Antonio this summer, which is close and reasonably priced and I think I would like to attend.  It promises hundreds of sessions and sounds like a great learning experience!

The next professional organization that I chose was International Technology Education Association.  Similar to the last organization that I mentioned, this organization also speaks to educators of young students.  When I visited their website the name was different but the description very much the same.  The new name for the organization is International Technology and Engineering Educators Association.  They have developed a curriculum called Engineering byDesign™ to help promote technological literacy in education.  This program seems to begin early and continuously build skills as students gain more knowledge.  I looked at some of the sample activities and I was impressed at how cross curricular the program was! There was a quote on the website that I wholeheartedly agree with, "The Engineering byDesign™ Program is built on the belief that the ingenuity of children is untapped, unrealized potential that, when properly motivated, will lead to the next generation of technologists, innovators, designers, and engineers." This sounds like a great program from which I could learn much!

Section 5 Trends and Issues in Various Settings

I teach kindergarten so I would definitely fall in the P-12 category.  While reading the section on P-12 educational change, I found the explanations of the different types of change very helpful.  I now understand the difference between piecemeal and systemic change and how it applies to education.  I also understand that it the process of change and not the product that needs attention.  I think we must do what we can to stress the importance of ecological systemic change to our administration in order to get the school system where it needs to be.

While reading about instructional design opportunities in military education and training environments, I felt like I could really identify with the delivery environment section.  It mentioned that training is always center stage for members of the military.  I certainly think that teaching is that way as well! I feel like I am always being trained for something new! The difference is that members of the military must be trained where they are, whether they are in a classroom or deployed somewhere.  I think that if administration gave teachers more options on the delivery environment of trainings we might get more out of it.  I am often uncomfortable sitting all day in a workshop but I took several online trainings this summer sitting on my couch and learned as much, if not more, than I would have if I had to sit in a training room somewhere. 

 

 

In health care education, whether learning from a problem based program or evidence based, certain things pertaining to dealing with patients must be learned.  I found that I could really relate to the section on altruism and professionalism.  Medical practitioners are much like teachers in the way that they deal with people.  Medical practitioners and teachers both require open lines of communication to help build trust and great interpersonal skills.  Medical students are sometimes required to diagnose hired actors that are trained to mimic varied diseases and conditions.  It would be interesting to see how something similar for teachers would work. 

 

During my reading about instructional design in business and industry, I found the success factors of a project very interesting. Klimczak and Wedman found that the two most important factors for a successful program were training strategies and tangible resources. While trainers felt that implementation support was relatively important, instructional designers felt it was least important. Their roles were the sole reason for the difference in opinion. As an educator, I fill both of the roles in a lot of ways. Just as an instructional designer should, this section reminded me that when planning (for myself or my team), I should also make sure to consider how it will be implemented. That directly affects the success of the project.

I found many things that I could identify with in the higher learning chapter.  It seems that, much like me and my colleagues, these people who work in higher education feel the pressure to get things done! As I was reading the section by Byron Howard, I felt the pressure that he was under and his comment about often taking on too much really hit home! I think that we all stretch ourselves thin at times trying to better ourselves and our students.  We have to remember that what we push ourselves to do and what we accomplish offers us the greatest reward, being appreciated and valued by our students and colleagues.