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.