In our final class for the semester, we discussed the final career presentations. I really enjoyed learning about lean manufacturing and I felt that it has a lot to do with instructional design. It was interesting that this particular type of manufacturing relied so much on Behaviorist principles. I wonder if that was more successful in one set of people than with another set of people. It just goes to show that sometimes behaviorist principles, though they may not acknowledge the agency of the learner, they work! The principle of making processes more efficient was also interesting to me. I know in a previous job, I observed that there was a lot of waste in the production of instructional products. While it was nice to have that freedom to make mistakes, I think lean manufacturing could improve the processes and make people more aware of the consequences of certain design/production choices.
I have really enjoyed this class this semester. Looking back on my notes I really feel like I've learned a lot. I've been able to understand topics well enough to develop my own opinions towards them, and teach others about ideas I have learned.
Just the other day, both of my parents asked me questions about technology in education. I shared with my father the thoughts I had about how the moral dimensions of instructional design were applicable to family life, and he liked my ideas and asked me for a way that as a family we could each post our "crafts," what skills we've each gained that would be useful for each other, and where we could each post goals that we'd like to receive help achieving. I told my Dad about the Web 2.0 technologies I'd learned. Using NetMeeting, I showed him how to create a blog and I also showed him the capabilities of a wiki and we compared the two and decided that we're going to create a family blog for this purpose. My mother teaches Math to Special Needs students in middle school. She has one student who cannot yet read and she was wondering if I knew of a way to create a story with sound and pictures to teach the student how different sounds go together. I was able to tell her about Photostory and imovie, and I told her that I would gladly help her create such a story. But I explained that some of the other ideas we learn about in Instructional Technology include allowing students to learn by helping them create the stories about how sounds go together for themselves. I could tell my mother hadn't yet explored that idea, but she was really excited to try it.
I feel that the things I've learned this semester have helped me see things in a new perspective. I've enjoyed the people and topics in the class very much. I believe that from what I've learned I can have added value and influence in any context in the world.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Career Presentations, cont'd.
Notes from Class:
Aaron- Foreign Language “Concerned Professor”
- Journals: CALICO (Computer-Aided Language Instruction Consortium)
- How can we create something for this type of math course and make it so that other people can use that in a different course and be able to change it according to their needs?
Mike Johnson, Project Manager at the
Ric Ott, Director of Research & Evaluation at the MTC
- “I love the challenge, and I like to do things that are hard to do.”
- A lot of writing
- Excited about data crunching
- Measures success by quality work
Foreign Language Professor Michael Bush (Anneke)
- Keep a journal of how you learn the language- ideas you have
o Could do through your blog
- Challenge your own belief system of how you learn a language
Virtual
- Something a little beyond paper
- WE can give a vision to people. We can
- All of this has come together, right now, right here. We can do this.
- If you can think it, you can do it. Take time to produce something of church quality, you need the Spirit of the Lord as you’re putting this together
- Give others a vision through technology-
Jason Mitchell, Manager of Training at MTC
- Loves his job—has passion for learning about learning
- Background in Public Administration
Steve Hume
- “There is no typical day.”
- Make sure every person has the class they need; that their CPR certification hasn’t expired
- A lot of running analyses of data
Personal Summary:
I really liked class today. I thought all of the video presentations were well-done. It was interesting to see the one about the MTC because that's a bit of a mystery to me, and it was neat to see what it's like to work there. I also enjoyed the comment that we as designers might consider writing down our ideas in a notebook somewhere so we can have them. I know a lot of times I think of things I want to follow up on but then I forget them before I can do so. It's hard to think of a medium that will always be easy to access, though. But it's a really good idea.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Career Reports
Today in class we had presentations of interviews of various professionals. The professions observed included a project manager, another project manager, an evaluator, an instructional designer, and a math professor. It was interesting to see the variety of professions that use instructional technology and that use design principles in their work.
I really liked learning about the evaluator, because that's the profession I know the least. In evaluation, it seemed like the most important thing was experience, just having experience participating in and conducting evaluations. There are a lot of evaluation jobs, but very few of them actually say "evaluator" in the job title. For example, a Research Analyst is a good name for an evaluator.
I also enjoyed learning about the Instructional Designers because that's what I want to do. I liked when the one Instructional Designer who had started his own company said that to get good designs you have to write and re-write your designs in order to improve. I think the design process is a time-consuming process, and the idea of re-writing what you design seems a daunting task, especially for someone juggling more than one project at a time. However, I think it would be a really good way to improve design.
I really liked learning about the evaluator, because that's the profession I know the least. In evaluation, it seemed like the most important thing was experience, just having experience participating in and conducting evaluations. There are a lot of evaluation jobs, but very few of them actually say "evaluator" in the job title. For example, a Research Analyst is a good name for an evaluator.
I also enjoyed learning about the Instructional Designers because that's what I want to do. I liked when the one Instructional Designer who had started his own company said that to get good designs you have to write and re-write your designs in order to improve. I think the design process is a time-consuming process, and the idea of re-writing what you design seems a daunting task, especially for someone juggling more than one project at a time. However, I think it would be a really good way to improve design.
Instructional Design: The Career
Things I learned from making this video:
Some competencies of an Instructional Designer:
(from correspondence, video, and experience)
- Project Management
- Organization
- Research
- Optimism
- Problem-solving
- Familiarity with Instructional Design principles
- Ability to communicate with faculty and other staff/students
- Willingness to learn new things constantly
- Proficiency with standard office software
- Familiarity with process of designing and creating graphics, flash animations, and video
(from US Dept of Labor)
Professional Development:
(from correspondence, interviews, and experience)
- Materials from other areas What Doctors Do- help see design in new ways, give creativity, and increase your understanding of different subject areas
- AECT journal TechTrends
- Online journals about secondary education
- NACOL, FIPSE, SLOAN-C, and WC3
- One yearly development conference required, second conference presenting an article/paper is highly encouraged
- Designers have access to further schooling and are always encouraged to pursue advanced degrees
(from correspondence)
- You can advance through levels of Instructional Technologist positions, and there are other administrative opportunities in the four Associate Director positions.
(from interviews)
- Helps you know how to work with people
- Brings the Spirit into learning and good designs
- Keeps you interested in a lot of different subjects
(from personal insights from interviews)
- More administrative-type work
- More time spent interacting with people than working on the project
- Usually there is a production team so Instructional Designers don't always do the production work
- Time and budget constraints are real concerns and create boundaries for a project
Monday, December 1, 2008
Moral Dimensions and Ethical Issues
This was quite possibly my favorite class of the semester. Although I read the article by Osguthorpe before class, it was not until our class discussion that I realized how many different contexts could use these same principles. Here are my notes from class, which describe my thoughts on the topics discussed:
- Conscience of Craft
- As a student, with PLEs—having ownership of what you create and making it good
- When people do something they’re proud of, they have conscience of craft
- Limitations of resources--using them to the best of your ability.
- Can be limiting- there are times when good enough has to just be good enough.
o * I like this, because I feel that this is so true! Although idealistically, we all want to do our best all the time, there is just so much to be done that we must prioritize.
o Larger problem to do your best work?
§ *interesting- I don’t believe it is responsibility or duty that drives someone to do something; they have to desire it. A good project is good because I enjoy that project, because it’s fun for me.
Conscience of Membership
- What do I owe my profession?
- In our field, a lot of people don’t feel like a “member” of Instructional Design
- Important, because for instance in the example, people made judgments about online courses because the Instructional Designers put deadlines over quality.
- Have to feel that the profession is important in order to represent it well
- Instructional Design is an individual thing, but you have to feel membership in order to help give it a good name.
- Example: Chiropractors-
· *With IPTSO we try to develop this conscience of membership. If this is an important part of the moral dimensions of instructional design, we need to emphasize this more.
o Conferences
o Networking
o Outlets for display of student work
o Contributions
o Volunteering
Conscience of Sacrifice
- People who left at closing time vs. people who knew what would make the project better who sacrificed to achieve the better quality product
- Giving of yourself, putting yourself on the line
Conscience of Memory
1) Building on traditions of the past- “Rootedness”
2) Looking at own talents, strengths, desires and goals and using them in your work—giving of yourself as opposed to just jumping through hoops. Personal strengths can contribute.
- ex) Dani with music education- brought her interest and her history to try to craft an issue discussion to benefit all of us.
Conscience of Imagination
- Thinking outside of the box—doing things that haven’t been done before and exploring those avenues
- Doing what you’ve always done really well vs. coming up with new ideas—doing something differently or more effectively
- Ex) 3rd Grade teaching- getting bored doing the same thing, so coming up with new ways to do things. Jeopardy- gave each group whiteboards, every group member had to write the answer down so that everyone, not just the smart ones, would contribute
- Oftentimes we get into a routine. It might not seem that there’s room to innovate and work out of the box. Efficiency vs. creativity.
* I think this is a very powerful concept.
* I see this as a pattern for the moral dimensions of my own family:
- Craft is what we produce as a family- food, community service, academic success, political involvement, arts, sciences, etc.
- Membership is the family name—what it means to be a Chapman. This includes chores, contributions, and reputation.
- Sacrifice is putting forth extra effort to create the best product or the best relationships—putting family first
- Memory is the acknowledgement of and respect for family traditions and the recognition of what each member of the family contributes to the family.
- Imagination is exercising your authority of your family to do things differently than anyone else—come up with new ideas, new rules, new traditions, new discussions, new ways of setting up your home, etc. I think this is why family council is so important, because it gives family members the opportunity to discuss this.
I think exercising these moral implications is what makes being a part of anything fun. It is what guides our development and progress.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)