Final Blog for EDPS 6430

I end where I began, with the questions we were asked to answer and at the beginning of this blog. What is technology? What does an 'instructional designer' do? How would I explain to friends, co-workers, or my mother-in-law what it is that I am learning and what I will be able to do with my future degree?

Technology is a tool that is used to accomplish a task. Technology includes the alphabet, paper, a wheel, a computer, a video camera, and on and on. It was surprising when Dr. Monson shared in class that technology isn't necessarily helping us do new things, but helps us to things we would already be doing anyway- only we can do them faster (please correct me if this not what Dr. Monson said as my memory could be fading).

As I said in my answer to this question at the beginning of the semester, I still believe an 'instructional designer' works to set up steps to solve an existing problem in the most efficient and effective way. Only now I believe the process is more detailed then I did before. An instructional designer needs to be able to analyze a problem to see if instruction is even the correct solution. It can take restraint to say 'what I do as an instructional designer' is not the solution to this problem'. If instruction is needed, the designer needs to know what questions to ask to determine what kind of instruction is needed and we willing through the process of designing to evaluate what they are doing and if they are still on track solving the problem that started the design process. An instructional designer, like other professions, needs to be persistent in their questioning so the instruction meets its intended objectives. An instructional designer needs to constantly seek feedback on their work from subject matter experts and people in their target audience to see where the instruction can be improved to meet its objectives. An instructional designer needs to stay up to day on instructional media and methods that are being created so they can use the best method to present the instruction. I learned in this area of instructional media and methods I need to do more study to be up-to-date. The media presentations in class were eye opening to what is out there to aid in instruction.

And what do I now tell people about what I am learning and what I hope to do with my future degree, I think I was on track at the beginning of the semester. I hope to be able to begin lesson preparation and presentation with my end goals in mind. I hope to design instruction that engages different senses of each student to make it a richer learning experience for them. Outside of work, I hope to be able to more efficiently and effectively solve problems at home and in other areas of my life. I think the fact that I still feel on track with what I wrote at the beginning of the semester shows that I choose the right program of study.

To Dr. Monson and everyone in class, thank you for a great semester!

The Final Project

The process of analyzing, designing, and producing a product for instruction was way more detailed then I thought it would be. As I llok at it, I think the reason for the attention to detail is to help the learner understand the information so whatever problem existed that was the genesis for the product would be solved through the instruction. I appreciate the attention to the learners perspective. Thanks for Josh and Wade, it was great working with you.

The Final Class

It was great to see what every group did for their projects. It was great to sit and learn from each group- such a wide range of interests. I was also amazed at all the new things people learned by during the creation of their project, I think I'll try Googledocs. Thanks everyone for teaching the class and for encouraging me to try new things in my teaching.

Restructing Education Through Technology

I enjoyed this article for three reasons (which made it easier to discuss with our class). First, I thought this article was understandable (language and content). Second, the ideas presented were interesting. Breaking education down to teacher, student, content, context, and environment caused me to think about my teaching experience and how this five things combine was a good experience for me. Teaching is much more then lesson plans or classroom discipline. Thinking about the learning process from the students perspective, about what content would be most needed, etc., helped me look at my teaching (changes to teaching are still in process). The part of the article where the five parts of teaching were paired with each other (context-student, content-environment, etc.) helped isolate each component in my mind. This made it a much better learning experience for me! The third reason I enjoyed the article was Frick's 'Now' and 'What if...' section. Frick wrote this article in 1991, when the internet was bring to be used. His what 'What if...' section is our now, so as I read it was fun to see if Frick's possibilites had come to fruition. In the seven areas, some of the ideas were in use but not all of them were used. Overall, I'm glad my group had this article to discuss with the class.

Instructional Strategies

Tonight our group did our media presentation on 10 Instructional Strategies: presentation, demonstration, drill-and-practice, tutorial, games, discussion, cooperative learning, simulation, discovery, and problem solving. I hope the class got something out of the presentation. It wells good to have it done, but also it feels good because I learned from the preparation for the presentation.

Being at this point in the semester, I am convinced that education and specifically instruction are like cultivating a garden. It takes a lot of work to get a learner ready to learn. As an instructor, my role is to determine when instruction is needed and when it is to prepare and deliver material in the way where that seed of knowledge will have the greatest chance to take root and grow in the mind of the individual student. The lessons, discussions, readings, and presentation have reinforced this belief.

Olympic Cauldron Park Visit

We visited the Olympic Park at the south end of Rice-Eccles stadium as our first and last class field trip for our EDPS 6430 class. We were looking at the design of the 'Park' to analyze the objectives in the purpose and design of the park. I think the purposes were to be a historical record of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, to remember the efforts of the athletes that competed in the games, to inspire the efforts of aspiring athletes to continue their efforts, and to inspire visitors to the park to incorporate into their life the theme for the games "Light the Fire Within". I enjoyed the whole experience. As far as what was intended in the design and if the objectives were met, I'll leave that for wiser minds to debate. I was able to remember my experiences during the Olympic Games and what a unique and inspiring experience it was to have the world come to Utah and compete. I want to take my family to visit the Olympic Cauldron Park and especially see how my wife remembers her experience as she explores pictures, discriptions, and movies.

Bad Designs

Our assignment to look for bad designs in the world around us was not too difficult, I even found a web site that is dedicated to it: http://www.baddesigns.com/examples.html. It was amusing to see how the bad designs cause us now to go, huh? or why was that done? Hopefully we, as instructional designers, do not stop just with finding bad design. The next step is identifying why the designs are bad and formulate a plan for fixing the design problem, remembering to keep in mind the problems that may result in consequence of the your efforts to fix the first bad design you came across.

Design Document

It feels great to have the design document done. It was a good learning experience; thanks to Josh and Wade for all of their hard work. Going through the analysis and design part of our project helped me to see how important each step of the process is, and how each of these steps leads to a the final project when the first two steps are done correctly.

A brief history of Instructional Development

The article by Sharon Shrock was enjoyable to me for a least two obvious reasons. First, as the name implies it was brief. And second, it is a history. I love the study of history! When I hear people say they can't stand history, I find it hard to believe. Everyone has some part of history that they find fascinating- the history of theatre, baseball, their hometown, their family, a favorite actor/actress, etc.. Part of having an interest in something is (in my opinion) knowing something of its history- what makes it the unique thing that it is.

As Shrock examines the history of instructional development (ID), she touches on hot the government and the military each influenced the emerging field of ID. I thought it was interesting to note the practice of evaluating instruction was being done for 35 years before it was called formative evaluation. It seems that parts of the ID process have been awhile since one person was trying to instruct another person in something. I like how this article gives a brief glimpse into the gathering of the different parts of ID under one umbrella.

Web 2.0

The presentation on Web 2.0 was well done and gave a good glimpse of the massive amount of information on the web and the tools that are being designed to shift through all that information. I was amazed at the various sites for presenting information, networking, and bookmarking web sites a person has visited; many of the sites the group mentioned I had never heard of! It just goes to show how little I know and/or plethora of possibilities Web 2.0 puts at the finger tips of users.

Media or Method? Why not both?

The reading for the media vs. method debate made interesting points. Richard Clark focused on looking at using media has a tool to accomplish instructional methods, but made it clear that it is only one tool among others that are used to accomplish the intended objectives. Robert Kozma did not see the need to separate media and method. He showed how media (computer programs, video, television, radio, etc.) are used to enhance learning methods. As technology continues to reach new limits, it can continue to improve the learning experiences of students. And while the media is a great tool, it should not be used just because it exists. An instructor should always keep in mind the needs of the students, and use whatever organized plan of instruction will most effectively and efficiently meet the learners needs as they relate to instructional objectives.

The Great Debate Reading

The Clark article I read was written in a foreign language! I'll show my ignorance and say that I understood little of what he was trying to say, other then his analogy that media is like a delivery truck. Does anyone speak acadamia and plain english that will translate this for those without minds as immeasurable as gifted as others? Hopefully the article other side of the debate will make more sense. Should I be doing something to cultivate the soil of my mind to understand these types of articles more? It really makes it hard to read them when I'm missing the intent of the author due to a language barrier.

Media Presentation on Video

We had a great discussion on 4 forums of media that are used in instructions: still photo, audio, video, and text. I was part of the audio only group and I was frustrated at hearing instructions saw 'put your finger here' or 'fold here while...'. When we came back to class and I had a chance to go make a lotus flower with the written text and still photos it was SO much easier. It is a fact that individuals learn differently, and I might add that maybe the activity might dictate what media or combination of media to use. If video or audio is used, it is helpful to have the ability to pause and rewind the instruction so the learner does not get behind or miss a step. It was helpful to consider how different learners learn from each of these media or the combination of them.

Project Analysis

The analysis document we turned in this week was a huge learning experience. I was surprised at all the details we took into account to provide the needed instruction. I enjoyed going on a 'field trip' to gather information and talk to our SME and finally going into depth on each step of the analysis portion of our project. I can see why the instructional design process can be time consuming when it really addresses a problem and creates instruction to contribute to the problem's solution.

PS- I'm really enjoying Fall Break!

Analysis Documentation

Yesterday our team (Josh, Wade, and I) went to a game processing plant to gather information for our task analysis. I am glad there are SME's out there! Wade's cousin, Clay, answered all the questions we had related to our project for class. Talking with Clay the SME, provided detail for our project that it would have been difficult to gain through my own experience. With this detail we go forward to finish our Analyze!

Class Discussion on Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructiviism

Our class discussion about Peggy Ertmer's article was very helpful. The time spent talking of the major tenets of each learning theory to build a knowledge base really shed light on the material and things made more sense (this probably proves that verbal learning is one style of learning that works best for me). With the base of knowledge in place, the examples given by both the presenting group and members of class helped take the material to a pratical level and cement the learning experience for me. At one point, the point was made that maybe students have been conditioned to find out what is expected and perform to those expectations. I must admit that I felt like a lab rat. Have I allowed myself to be conditioned to perform to an expected level? Is there any hope for an older student to learn to learn at a higher level? Does anyone have advice or experieces that would help me?

Instruction- not always the answer?

In class last week as we talked about analyzing a problem to determine the most efficient way to solve it, it was pointed out that instruction isn't always the answer to the problem. I must admit that I am still confused by this. Dr. Monson pointed out that Instructional Design are tempted to believe that instruction is always the answer because that is their field. However, I don't think my confusion comes from this belief. I think that instruction is frequently taking place, both in and out of the classroom and it is hard for me to imagine a problem coming up that wouldn't benefit from the process of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation in form or another. If anyone has examples to share that could help me understand situation where instruction to a problem wouldn't be a part of the answer, please share.

Presentation on Audio

We discussed an idea in class last week that was new to me: A.D.D.I.E.. This acronym stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. As I have thought about A.D.D.I.E. a bit, it is easy for me to see ways to apply it to solve problems in various areas of my life. I wish I had learned this tool earlier in my teaching career.

Another thought, I don't think I ever answered Dr. Monson's original questions he wanted us to write about when he asked us to begin blogging. Those questions were: what is technology? What does an 'instructional designer' do? What am I learning? What will I be able to do with my future degree?

The first night of EDPS 6430 opened my mind more to what could be considered technology. I admitted I am like many others who see the computer or other electronic advances as 'technology', however when Dr. Monson talked about the alphabet, paper, and other more basic tools we use to communicate, to learn, etc., it made me think about were our 'modern' technology would be without the alphabet. As Dr. Monson put it, the computer is really a dumb box, it does what you tell it. With all this said, I am working to expand my definition and use of the varied forms of technology.

As far as what an instructional designer does- I believe they work to set up steps to solve an existing problem in the most efficient and effective way.

I am learning a little about the history of ID and a lot about how to design instruction. As each new piece of knowledge is planted and nurtured in my mind, I hope it bears fruit in my efforts as a student and as a teacher.

With a degree in Instructional Design and Educational Technology I hope to be able to begin lesson preparation and presentation with my end goals in mind. I hope to design instruction that engages different senses of each student to make it a richer learning experience for them. Outside the classroom I hope to be able to more efficiently and effectively solve problems at home and in other areas of my life.

Internet Working Again & Go Cougars!

I enjoyed reading about the components of the Systems Approach Model, it seems to fit perfectly with the 'Fix a Flat Tire' assignment we were given in class last Tuesday. There are many details to think about when using the Systems approach to come up with a solution to a problem. Also, after our class discussion about considering the unintended consequences that may come when a solution is designed and tried to solve a problem, I have thought about different examples in government and even as I write this I can see examples as I try to teach and solve problems in the classroom. I hope to get the skill of designing solutions down, so I can be a better teacher.

Get out the tools and begin!

This is the first time I have done any blogging and it is no coincidence that this blog creation coinsides with an assignment given in my first masters class as I begin Graduate school. I decided to know this blog 'Cultivate a Mind' for a least two reasons. First, I view education as similar to gardening in various ways. The students minds are like the garden and a teacher or fellow student helps to plant a seed in that garden as knowledge is shared. Whether the knowledge is learned and put into practice depends on the work done by the learner, much like the gardner that must weed, water, thin, and harvest. The second reason the blog has it's name is that it reflects my own learning in general and my experiences this past week. Being out of school (as a student) for 5 years, I feel I have let the garden of my mind get grown over with mental weeds that need to be uprooted so my mind can be nourished and learning can happen. I felt this happening while sitting in classes this week and joining in the discussion of what technology is and what theory of learning I believe and practice in my teaching. While learning brings challenge, I look forward the process of cultivating my mind and being able to help cultivate the minds of my students by employing the knowledge and experience of graduate school.