Trends and Issues in Various Settings

1. Chapters in Section V identify trends and issues in IDT in various contexts: business & industry; military; health care education; P-12 education; and post-secondary education. Select at least 3 of these 5 contexts and compare/contrast the IDT trends and issues. Then explain how they are similar or different from the IDT trends and issues in the context in which you work.

I chose to focus on the IDT trends and issues in P-12 education, military, and business & industry.  In all 3 areas funding was a key concern. Providing sufficient training within a specific budget creates many challenges.  It requires the instructional designer to be creative and focus on what is most important and present it in the most efficient format.  Another issue that all three areas face is having a variety of skill sets among the learners.  This means that the instructional designer must be creative in the way that the training is set up so that all of the people participating in the training walk away with new knowledge. In the military and business/industry areas, collaboration was mentioned as a way to get the training needed in the most effective way.  The military works with its allies to train its members in many aspects of required military knowledge.  It also works with with other branches within the military to train its soldiers.  In the business & industry fields, corporations may collaborate with other branches or even other corporations to set up and train its employees.  This provides a cost effective way to train more people more effectively.

There are several differences between these three areas.  In the military the focus is always on training.  It is important that they stay up to date on what they are facing in the field.  Many times technology outpaces the building of new equipment needed by the military so this creates a need to stay up to date on the newest technology available.  In the P-12 area, technology is mandated by NCLB (No Child Left Behind).  However, the way that technology is implemented into schools will vary from school to school and even from classroom to classroom.  It will depend on the knowledge and training of the teachers in the classrooms.  In the business & industry area, technology is changing the way that we do business and so business and industry have to stay up to date on the newest technologies.  The different levels of skill sets in the business & industry area provides a difficult task for instructional designers to overcome.  Also, finding the time and place for training is a large problem as well.  Many times in the business and industry area, workers would have to be out of the office to attend training so they would lose a day of work.  

I work in the P-12 industry.  I am a 5th grade teacher and I try to use technology as much as possible. I have students in my room who have very little experience with any kind of technology and some who can show me how to use different forms of technology.  This makes it difficult but not impossible to use technology.  Funding, I think, is the biggest challenge because we (both the teachers and the students) do not have enough access to technology.  Limited numbers of computers and access to computers is a difficult obstacle to overcome.  

2. Chapters in Section VI discuss global trends and issues in IDT. As the world’s population grows exponentially, we face unprecedented challenges that have implications for learning. How and can we prepare our youth to address the problems of living in a world with 9 billion people when the earth’s resources cannot sustain that many? Does our current education system, curriculum, and instructional practices help learners foster the complex problem-solving skills necessary to tackle these issues? Are there methods and practices used in European and Asian countries that we should use here in the US? Why or why not? 

I believe that if we are to have any success in preparing our youth for a world with 9 billion people and limited resources, we are going to have to work hard at uniting countries.  Collaboration with other countries will allow the sharing of resources and will be a necessity for survival.  We need to learn to use what we already have in the most efficient way possible and develop new technologies as well.  Our youth will have to be able to problem solve like no other generation before them.  

Our current education system and curriculum has the potential to help learners foster the complex problem-solving skills necessary to tackle the issues of our future world.  However, with such a focus on high stakes testing, students are more focused on learning what they need to know to pass a test rather than how to use what they are learning to solve problems.  If we were to move away from the high stakes testing and more project based learning, I feel that we would be on the right track to help students develop the complex problem-solving skills that they will need to tackle the many complex issues facing them in the future.

In Japan, new teachers are assigned mentor teachers.  I think this is a great idea.  Some schools in the US use mentor teachers but many do not. I think that having a mentor teacher my first year would have been a huge help to me.  

In Korea, there is a national e-learning policy.  The government plans and provides an adequate budget for the implementation of this policy.  This would be a big step in the right direction for the US. Right now the policy is there but the money is not.  Having both the money and the policy would help schools to increase student learning.  Korea also requires teachers to upgrade their technical and pedagogical knowledge every 3 years.  Inservice training in the US, is left up to the individual districts to decide what and when it is received.  The state of Texas requires a teacher to receive 120 hours of professional development every 5 years but in what areas that professional development should be in is left up to the individual teacher or the district in which he/she works.  I feel that having a set amount of those hours be in the area of technology would help teachers build their comfort level with technology and therefore want to use it more in their classrooms. 

Section 4: Human Performance Technology

1. Chapter 14 discusses the concept and evolution of human performance improvement. Several sections of chapter 14 present a variety of non-instructional solutions to performance problems. Identify a performance problem in your area of work and identify non-instructional solutions that may help solve the problem.

The biggest performance problem, I feel is the lack of communication between the elementary campuses in my district and my campus.  Not knowing what the classroom expectations were for the students that we are getting from year to year puts us at a huge disadvantage.  Also, for the students who struggle or have behavioral concerns, it would be nice to have some input from former teachers as to what worked and what did not work for those students.  This would be a huge time saver and help the students’ current teachers have an idea of where to start.  Right now we have no idea and it takes us several weeks, sometimes longer, to find out what works for each of our students.

A great way to fix this would be for each department to be able to sit down before the school year starts and the past year’s teachers talk to the current year’s teacher give them what works and what does not work with their students.  If they could not meet face to face, then a written report would be another great asset to a student’s current teacher.

Because classroom procedures and expectations vary from campus to campus, it would also be a huge asset for this information to be shared as well.  So that as students move from campus to campus the new teachers have a clear idea of what the students were expected to do.  It makes a difference if a child comes from a campus where they were changing classes multiple times for different classes versus changing just once.  When they get to my campus they will be changing for every core subject so this is a huge adjustment for many of my students and they get really stressed out about it.  It would be nice to know ahead of time which kids are going to struggle with that before they start so that we can ease any stresses that they may have faster.

2. Chapter 15 presents performance support systems. Define performance support systems and explain how a performance support system might (or might not) help solve the problem you identified above.

A performance support system is defined as “a system that provides performers with varying levels of access to support information and tools at the moment of need.”  I think that the administrators in the district I work in provide a good performance support system and would be willing to figure out a way to develop a more consistent set of procedures at each campus.  They would also be supportive of setting up some sort of portfolio system for the students who have behavioral and/or learning difficulties.  This would make a huge difference for these students, I feel because their teachers would have a better idea of what works for them and what does not work.

3. Chapter 16 explains knowledge management: the way we manage information, share that information, and use it to solve organization problems. Organizations, such as schools, accumulate a great deal information/data, which must be organized in a way that we can make sense of it in order to use for making decisions. What knowledge would help solve the problem you identified above and how would that knowledge need to be collected and managed to help facilitate problem solving?

The way a student’s general information is organized in the district where I work is very well organized.  I have access to it online 24/7.  This is great when I need to talk to a parent about their child.  However, when I am asked to attend an ARD meeting on a student, especially at the very beginning of the school year, this information is not as helpful.  If there was a way to have access to what interventions or behavior management techniques have been used in the past and whether they worked or not, that information would be very valuable to have when working with the student.  It would also help when setting up modifications and accommodations for students with learning disabilities to know what has worked and what has not worked.  I have had to attend ARD within the first few weeks of school on students who I have barely had time to learn their name.  I am always fearful of the choices that I make for modifications and accommodations for that student because I have not had them long enough to know what really works for them.  I use the modifications and accommodations from the previous year as a guide because that is the only source of information I have to go by.  This works as long as those modifications and accommodations are allowed on STAAR.  I believe that with better communication and sharing of information between grade levels would be very beneficial to these students.  I think it would help close gaps much faster.

4. Chapter 17 describes types of informal learning. What informal learning experiences have you participated in at your organization? Could those informal learning experiences be shared with others? Could the knowledge gained in those settings be codified and managed? And should it be managed or should the informal experiences be replicated or broadened for others?

Three years ago, my 5^th graders were given the opportunity to attend a 3 day 2 night camp that was designed to reinforce 85% of the Science TEKS that are tested on STAAR.  The students were divided into groups and we (their regular teachers) were only there for behavior management.  The groups were lead by a person who they did not know but had a way of catching their attention.  The lessons were very project based and student centered.  The students were able to make connections with what we had talked about in class with what they saw in the real world.  It was amazing to watch.  I saw kids who had struggled all year finally understand how weathering, erosion, and deposition worked to tear down and build up land.  It also provided us (the teachers) the opportunity to get to know the students on a more personal level which was a very heartwarming experience for me.  When we came back to school all I had to do was show a picture of an activity when we were reviewing and the kids knew exactly what I was talking about and they were able to explain it to their peers who were not able to attend.  I have recommended this camp to many of the teachers that I come in contact with from other districts.  I think that it is a great way for students to connect what they learn about it class to the real world which shows them how what they are learning is relevant to them.  When we took this trip, we took half of our 5^th graders 2 weeks before STAAR and the other half 1 week after STAAR.  The results were substantial.  The kids who went before the test showed significant growth.  So I know the program works.  We took all the 5^th graders last year, all at the same time and the experience was very good for the students.  We are planning on returning this year with our students and I cannot wait to tell the students about it.  They are going to love it and I will use the activities that they do at the camp to reinforce concepts I am teaching in the classroom so that they can develop a better understanding of the concepts.  This will help the students have a stronger foundation in Science to build on as they go through school.

Section 3 Evaluating and managing instructional programs and projects

Chapter 10 discusses evaluation in instructional design and provides you with two evaluation models, the CIPP and Kirkpatrick models for evaluation. Search for at least two other models used for evaluation and summarize these models. Describe how you would use them to evaluate your instruction. Reflect on what other questions that instructional design evaluation should address besides whether the instructional design leads to comparable amounts of learning and learner satisfaction as traditional methods. What else would be useful to know? 

In my search for other models for evaluation, I discovered the ADDIE model.  The ADDIE model consists of 5 steps – analysis, design, developmental, implementation, and evaluation.  In the original model, each phase must be completed before moving on to the next phase.  This idea has been modified over time.

In the analysis phase, who the learners are and the knowledge and skills that they have are identified.  The learning environment is also assessed as to what is available and what is needed.  A timeline is established based on these findings.  The next phase is the design phase, which establishes the learning objectives, assessment instruments, activities to be used, what media will be used, and lesson plans for the project are developed.  In the developmental phase, the learning objectives are actually developed into lessons, storyboards and graphics are created, materials and procedures are tested and revised if necessary, and if e-learning is involved, the development and integration of technology occurs.  The implementation phase involves the development of procedures for training the facilitators as well as the learners involved.  It also involves evaluating the design and ensuring that all the materials that are needed are in place and functioning properly.  The evaluation phase involves both formative assessments that will occur throughout every level of the program but also a summative assessment at the end of the program.

The other model that I discovered was Kaufman’s 5 Levels of Evaluation, also known as Kirkpatric Plus).  This model was developed as a modification to Kirkpatric’s model of evaluation.  In the first stage, resources and processes are analyzed to find out what is available and its quality.  Also the quality and effectiveness of processes being used is analyzed not only for their effectiveness for the organizational factors but also for how satisfied are the learners with the processes being used.  In the next stage, acquisition, the focus is on the small group and individual benefits of the project.  Also, whether learning objectives are being met and desired outcomes of the learning interventions are effective is being assessed.  In the application stage, whether the learners are using their new skills in new ways is assessed.  Organization payoffs stage involves looking at the overall results and deciding if the learners met the desired learning goals/objectives.  In the fifth stage, societal contributions, how the new material learned relates to the client and/or the needs of society are assessed.

I feel that instructional design evaluation should also address how relevant the instructional design is to needs of the learner.  If the learner sees little to no relevance to how it will help them or why they should know the information being presented then they will not be as successful because it will be of little importance to them.  Therefore the more relevant the design to the learner, I feel the more effective it will be for the learner. 

I would like to know how learners continue to use the information they learned in other ways.  This information would be a great asset to revise the original design so that it would better benefit the learner in their future. In many of the trainings that I have been to in my 14 years as an educator, I have only been asked to evaluate the training immediately following the training.  In many cases, I was introduced to some very creative ideas that would have been very useful in my classroom but unfortunately enough time was not spent on the topic for me to be comfortable enough to take it back to my classroom to use with my students.  If the trainer had done a follow up evaluation several weeks or a month later, they would have known that what they had presented was interesting to the learners but that the learners were having difficulty implementing it into their classrooms.  I think follow up evaluations would be a great asset to any training for both the learner and the trainer.

Chapters 12 & 13 focus on project management and how to manage projects when resources are scarce. You have been assigned to develop a series of professional development sessions focusing on technology use in the classroom for teachers during a time of economic decline. How will you use Situational Leadership to facilitate this project and manage scarce resources? 

I would first survey the educators about what kind of technology they currently use, their comfort level with that technology, and what technology they want to learn more about.  I would ask about some specific technology resources such as Edmodo, power point presentations, prezi presentations, and website design.  I would also survey the campus administrators to find out exactly what kinds of technology resources are available on each campus. 

From this survey, I would meet with educators who felt comfortable with specific technology resources that are considered of high need and train them to become presenters to those who are lacking in skills with those resources identified.  Then provide after school or Saturday trainings for those teachers who need to learn new resources to attend at campuses that have sufficient resources to accommodate the resources being taught.  If necessary, more than one date could be available or training could be ongoing for several weeks so that problems or questions that arise could be addressed and answered more quickly.  In order to see if this is effective, I would ask for frequent feedback from both the presenters and the learners.  As an incentive to participate in this training, I would provide both the presenters and the learners to count the time that they are giving up after school hours to count towards any professional development comp time requirements that they would have to have.

Section 2: Theories & Models of Learning & Instruction

1.     1. Epistemology (the study of what and how we come to know) is discussed in multiple chapters in this section. Distinguish epistemology from instructional methods or theories. What are the differences between theories, methods, or models of learning and epistemologies or underlying beliefs about ways of knowing?

Epistemology is the study of what we know and how we gained the knowledge. In the reading it describes epistemic curiousity as the desire to know why or how something is happening. My students are always asking me why something happens the way that it does.  Right now they are very curious about why I have a couple of different kinds of insects in  my room.  They are making predictions about why they are there and what I am going to use them for in our class.  I allow them to wonder and make their own predictions because it keeps them more interested in what I am teaching.  Instructional methods or theories are the study of different models or methods of helping others to learn. These theories or models focus on how best to teach others new concepts or ideas. 

2.     2. Chapters in this section discuss three contrasting epistemic stances: positivist, relativist, and contextualist (or hermeneutical). Positivists believe that the only truth or knowledge is objective truth. Relativists don’t believe that objective truth is possible and that all knowledge is subjective to perception or relative to a particular frame of reference. Contextualists believe that truth or knowledge is relative to context rather than individual, subjective understanding. While designers and educators with a positivist stance generally apply behaviorist principles to the design and development of instruction, those with either a contextualist or relativist epistemological framework employ constructivist theories and methods. Reflect on whether your stance is primarily positivist, relativist, or contextualist. Then, identify an instance when your perspective or stance as a learner conflicted with that of your instructor. Describe the conflict that you experienced and analyze whether opposing epistemic stances may have been at the heart of the conflict.

My epistemic stance is primarily contextualist because I do have a more constructivist approach in my classroom.  I am the facilitator more often than the instructor in my classroom.  This helps my students build their own knowledge on concepts with my guidance and therefore it makes their level of understanding and retention of the concepts increase.  It also helps because I have students of many ability levels in each of my classes and they need concrete, tactile activities to help them understand many of the concepts that I have to teach them.

When I was in high school geometry, I struggled to understand what my teacher was trying to teach.  I now believe it is because of her epistemic stance which was positivist.  She definitely used the behaviorist approach in her teaching.  She would show us an example of how to do a problem and then turn us loose to do an assignment.  I think I would have done better if she had taken a more constructivist approach so that I could have developed my own understanding of the concepts that she was teaching. I never really developed a firm understanding of Geometry and as a result I struggled in some of my college level math classes later on in life.

3    3. Differing epistemic stances lead to differing approaches to learning and instruction, and ultimately to problem-solving. Explain differences in problem-solving when approached from behaviorist and constructivist perspectives. How do the approaches differ in both the nature of the problem to be solved and in facilitating the problem solving process? Finally, what effect might these differences have on learner motivation?

Using the behaviorist approach, the teacher is the primary source of information and students may or may not be interested in what he/she has to say.  Students today have a very difficult time staying focused for long periods of time so any lecture time lesson falls on deaf ears in many cases.  I know that when I have to do a direct teach lesson, I make sure to include some things that break the flow so that I can redirect students who are having trouble focusing.  I use weblinks, videos or questioning to break up the flow of the lesson.  This helps to keep the students more engaged.  Teachers that lecture on a consistent basis or use textbooks for most of the learning are not helping many of their students because they lack the ability or desire to learn what is being taught.

Using the constructivist approach, the teacher becomes a facilitator and the students are given more control over what they are learning.  It is an amazing thing to watch when a student gets what I am teaching.  When that connection is made for a student on their own it is something they will not forget.  Teaching Science lends itself very well to this theory but I know that if I were teaching any other subject area I would still give the students more of an opportunity to develop their own understanding of the concepts.  My students love to come to class every day because they never know what we are going to do. They notice everything in my classroom every day.  They want to learn what I am teaching because we can have fun and learn at the same time.