Trends & Issues Various Settings - Section 5

Trends & Issues Various Settings

Section #5

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.

Business & Industry

Instruction designers in industry my find themselves in small teams or large multinational teams on global projects (Reiser & Dempsey, pp 178-184, 2012).  Because the IDT team leader may find himself in a virtual global team with multicultural members as well as a go-between the corporation and outsourced consultants.  As a secondary teacher in a local high school I would not be as concerned with multinational issues as I would be with a global business.  However, I do have many students from various cultures.  I cannot take it for granted that my students are aware of all of the local customs of our community.  Just by looking at the verity of surnames in my 150+ students you would find that many of them are first generation Americans with many different cultures at home.

Military

The military is made up of individuals from many diverse cultures.  Because the military has to operate within certain financial constrictions, it must be as efficient with its training dollars as possible.  The military would not be training its solders for future jobs as much as it would be concentrating on current military needs.  I, as a teacher of business, would be emphasizing the economy and jobs available after graduation from high school.  I have more time to spend with my students than the military because I am not preparing them for emergencies in the very near future.  The military does train solders in skill sets that will be useful in civilian life but that is only a useful consequence of the military’s major goals of supporting military missions.

Health-care

The health care industry is very broad and the students should be concentrating on a very narrow area of medical care (Reiser & Dempsey, pp 197-201, 2012).  There is a great risk in the health industry will involve lifesaving or threatening consequences (Reiser & Dempsey, p 200, 2012).  The health care person must keep current on all innovations in their field.  The cost of a health care education is usually very substantial because it is in addition to most academic studied.  I will be training my students in high school for college or entry level industrial jobs.  My job is important because it is up to me to instill a love of learning and the necessary skills for obtaining and understanding knowledge.

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? 

While I don’t think EDT addresses the world’s population problems it could be affected by the ever increasing cost of face-to-face education in the United States.  In chapter 24 of Trends and Issues in Instructional… ( Reiser & Dempsey, pp 244-245, 2012) we are told about advances in IDT in Japan and Korea that are taking root.  Universities in the United States is using e-learning in upper education with very good results.  I would not be able to attend a face-to-face class while earning my Master’s degree at TAMU-C.  I am only finishing college by the grace of e-learning.  I think our high schools could use e-learning for some subjects in order to shorten the number of hour at school.  Because many parents of children in the K-9 students work it would be difficult for them to arrange child care for the younger children.  I would like to see at least a trial project for e-learning in high school.  The first thing that would have to be accomplished would be getting the state education agencies to agree to certify the e-classes.  If student could do at least half of their classes at home it would immediately reduce the number of teachers and classroom needed.  I intend to champion e-classes at the high school level when I earn my Masters in Education Technology Leadership.  We could see more students graduating and a reduction in the cost per student be reduced.  I personally have seem little that would ever convince me that Europe has any advantage over the United States in the area of education.

 References

Reiser, Robert A. and Dempsey, John V. (2012). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 3td ed. Allyn & Bacon, 501 Boylston street, Boston, Ma, 02116. (pp. 178-255).

Section #4 Assignment

Chapter 14

   I am an intern in a high school and a member of the school board visited the school and noticed that the students were using cell phones and playing games on school computers and IPads.  This generated an e-mail to all instructors banning the use of cell phones in halls and classes while also banning playing computer games on school equipment at any time.  During the next few days I monitored the students and asked them to not play games on the computers.  The students are complying but I can only guess about how long it will last.

There were very few details in the new orders and many questions were not answered.  Could the instructors use an exception to the game playing rule to give the students and incentive to finish work promptly?  That has been the practice in the past.  Students can, and do, sync with the computers to do work in the class room and at home.  Should this also be banned?  I seriously doubt if any teachers will be approaching management with questions before parents start showing up at the front door.

Chapter 15

Performance support systems supply support to workers,

with information about how to perform task(s),

1. Acts as a broker to find information,  
2. Provides an internal data base,
3. Provides access to certain outside data bases,
4. And the support may be manuals located in the work space (Reiser & Dempsey, pp 148-149, 2012).

The above issue would have been softened if there had been some call for input from the faculty.  This could have come in the form of a blog, available only to people concerned) in which the instructors could have discussed the issues.  By not having this very simple Web 2.0 feature available to instructors and management, a possible crisis could have been avoided.  Faculty and staff only have a very short e-mail to justify abruptly stopping a practice that has been in effect for several years.

Chapter 16

According to the Reiser & Dempsey (pp 158-159, 2012) most organizations usually have only four kinds of knowledge.  These four kinds of knowledge consist of:

1. Explicit knowledge is usually considered to be text documents, web sites, and manuals.
2. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that you can see. Many times this knowledge is not documented.
3. Common knowledge that is known by all those who need to know about it.
4. Undiscovered knowledge is the grates challenge and is a very big problem for business.  This is customer, market, and competitor information that they do not have yet.

I learned another definition of knowledge in business management class and it is “Knowledge is actionable data (source unknown).”

To have an effective knowledge management system the knowledge has to be accessible, peer-to-peer sharing of data, and the information has to be collected and codified.  To be most effective the knowledge would most likely have to be partnered with a support system.  Without a way to access the knowledge, the knowledge would be useless.

In the case of my issue with misunderstood directives and vague policy statements, a knowledge base would have to be continually available and updated with new information.  There is a web site with policy and rules but it is not updated on a regular basis.  The faculty would be helped if they could point to a web site with up to date information.

Chapter 17

One type of learning is to visit locations were practices are being performed that you want to learn about.  Go to vineyard to learn about grape growing and wine making.  Learn about recreation by visiting parks and playgrounds.  Googling is one way to learn about the world, but is also important to see life yourself.  In the class room it is possible to let the students, with some direction, do research on subjects in groups. 

I would like to see photo design classes work as partners to learn Photo Shop.  It is very boring to listen to the detailed instruction for how to modify a still life photo.  Students are very interested in using the computer and it would be good to let them try to learn more on their own.

References:

Reiser, Robert A. and Dempsey, John V. (2012). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 3td ed. Allyn & Bacon, 501 Boylston street, Boston, Ma, 02116. (pp. 96-102).

Section 3 Evaluation, Implementing & Mang. Inst. Prog. & Projects

Stufflebeam’s CIPP Evaluation Model - is comprised of four distinct evaluation models that could each stand alone, According to Reiser & Dempsey (p 96, 2012). The four segments are:

1.                    Context – The determine the environment in which the evaluation will be given also called a needs assessment

2.                      Input – Answer such questions as what resources will be used? What people, funds and other recourses will be available?

3.                      Process – Is the ways and means of developing a program and monitoring program as they are developed and implemented?

4.                      Product Evaluation - Focusses on the fidelity of the produced product with the original evaluation plan.  Summations of results would be provided to interested parties.

Rossi’s Five-Domain Evaluation Model - according Reiser & Dempsey (p98, 2012) five domains are:

1.     Needs Assessment – Evaluating learners’ needs and attitudes through the use of anonymous questionnaires.  With the results from questionnaires and input from instructors, knowledge about the effectiveness of training could be determined.

2.                Theory Assessment – Is the program planed in a manner that will work?

3.                Implementation Assessment – Answers the question of did this model work or not.

4.                Impact Assessment – Tests for the intended impact on the target learner group.

5.                Efficiency Assessment – Tests for the cost effectiveness of the program.

Kirkpatrick’s Training Evaluation Model – There are four levels, according to Reiser & Dempsey (p99, 2012) to Kirkpatrick’s Model and they are:

1.     Reaction – Anonymous questionnaires given to participants ask questions about how they perceived their learning experience.

2.     Learning – Testing for changed attitudes, skills, and knowledge to judge the effectiveness of the program.

3.                 Behavior (Transfer of Training) – Test and/or observe the participant’s change in behavior on the job or at the task that was being taught.

4.                  Results – A measure is made of the change in the participants’ behavior or skill but does the change profit the sponsor of the training model.

Patton’s Utilization-Focused Evaluation (U-FE) – Patton’s evaluation focusses on doing evaluations with a focus on its being used (Reiser & Dempsey, p 102 2012).  The text goes on to describe the nine major steps in conducting a U-FE evaluation.   The nine steps include includes conducting a situational analysis and determining the political context and stakeholder context.   The U-FE evaluation has such a broad scope that it would be very costly and time consuming.  Unless the organization was extremely large or has vast resources it does not seem possible that such a detailed evaluation could be justified.

I agree with Kirkpatrick in that the decision makers have to be on board with the results of the evaluation, no matter what they may be.  If I did not know the decision makers and the stakeholders before the evaluation, I would not do the evaluation.  If the powers-that-be are not on board the train will not move.

 Situational Leadership

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 pick a team consisting of at least one decision maker and the rest would be people involved in the technology department.  Find out who knows what is needed and if they have a list with quantities and prices.  Compare the list of “wants” to an inventory of “got that’s” in order to get an idea of what is wanted/needed.  Have a brainstorming session about what is obsolete and what is just old.   Review software and ask the question “is Microsoft the only option for software?”

Continually pole the decision makers and stakeholders for their opinions about costs and feasibility.  If they are not on-board, change the plan.

References:

Reiser, Robert A. and Dempsey, John V. (2012). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 3td ed. Allyn & Bacon, 501 Boylston street, Boston, Ma, 02116. (pp. 96-102).

ETEC 561: Theories and Models of Learning and Instruction

1.      Epistemology (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p 46) is a philosophy that looks at what we know and how we know it.  Additionally, it challenges our assumptions of how knowledge is acquired and how to judge the way we judge the truthfulness of our knowledge.  Instructional methods and theories concern themselves mostly with how the instructions are presented to the learner, not so much as how the teacher knows the truth of the presentations.

2.     My personal teaching philosophy is contextualist constructionist.  My content areas are business and technology in education.  In the case of business I feel that there has to be theory and real world examples combined at the same time.  Teaching the future value of money has no meaning without specific instances of how it affects the students throughout their whole lives.  The other content area, Technology in education, is developing methods for combining technology in other content areas to further enhance learning.

3.     The approaches differ in both the nature of the problem to be solved and in facilitating the problem solving process between behaviorist and constructivist perspectives.  Constructivism is a theory that explains how we know what we know (A U, 2014);  People learn by doing and learn by discovering the consequences for what they are doing.  Behaviorism , according to Cherry (2014) teaching by using specific stimulus to get learners to absorb knowledge.  I think that in a constructivism class the students would be encouraged to learn and participate.  In a behaviorist class the student’s wants and needs would be second to the institutions wants and needs.

References:

Reiser, Robert A. and Dempsey, John V. (2012). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 3td ed. Allyn & Bacon, 501 Boylston Street, Boston, Ma, 02116. (pp. 1-34).

Author Unknown, (2014), Learning Theory: Constructivist Approach, American College of Education, viewed at http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2174/Learning-Theory-CONSTRUCTIVIST-APPROACH.html

Cherry, Kendra (2014), What is Behaviorism?, about education, Viewed at http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/f/behaviorism.htm