Chapter 18 was interesting but it frustrated me. If I were interested in HOW to design an instructional program for a business, this would be my guidebook. But, I found it lacked explanation for what types of uses ID has in business. It would have been very helpful to have an example of when the HOW TO steps would be used. Maybe I missed something, but it is hard for me to connect any method from this chapter to something I could use in my teaching career (unless I’m asked to design a training program).
Although I may not be able to find real connections with my music class, I would like to discuss the topics I surmised from the chapter. First, the 2 primary goals of instructional design in business are to reduce the time it takes to design a program and to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of training. Of course, both of these IDEAS could be useful in the field of education. Teachers would love to reduce the amount of time it takes to teach a lesson or subject WHILE also improving student comprehension.
Another important idea I identified with was to include members of different departments when forming a team of any type. As a music teacher, I feel I am sometimes overlooked in decision-making. Whether a team is being created to plan an assembly, to pick out new furniture or to evaluate a reward system, there should be a combination of different types of teachers and staff involved.
Lastly, it is somewhat comforting to know that, while teachers have ever increasing standards and certification requirements, so do designers. Previously, designers received basic training and then (hopefully) work experience. Now, designers are expected to have specialization and general business knowledge on top of basic ID skills (and that is the minimum). I know that all of the requirements, for teachers or designers, can be challenging but are for the best.
As I pointed out, this chapter on ID in Business and Industry was hard for me to connect with. While I understand the importance and contribution of instructional design in these fields, I felt the description in the chapter was too abstract to relate to education. Along with all the explanations of different roles and constraints and facilitators, it would have been much more helpful to have a real life example to envision the process.
If I were involved in the technology department of a school, I feel there are many ideas in this chapter that would be useful. From the detailed step-by-step instructions, I think it would be a great manual for myself or to give to my administrators to explain the process I hoped to utilize.
Hi Suzy,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that music teachers are overlooked for input! It's as if we are periferal and not essential! AARGH!
I agree about your key point that applied to teachers was figuring out a way to reduce time and increase effectiveness. ;)
Suzy,
ReplyDeleteBeing a math teacher I am guilty of sometime overlooking the "essential" staff as we call them in our building. I have been on a team/ commitee for PBS and we have an essential teacher and it is always so enlightening to hear her input on things such as scheduling, class dynamics and such.
This chapter was very confusing for me as well, but I was able to pick out a few ideas thatI thought went with teaching just as you did. You mentioned Reducing training time and increasing training effectiveness. As you said, both are very important in education. If you think about all the state standards we have to teach as well as all the social norms we have to teach on top of the behavior issues and class building, we definitely need to increase effectiveness in less time. If only there was a magic formula, if you find it let me know.
Jackie Sowle
Like you, I have found this chapter, and a lot of this book, very hard to relate to. I am so glad I'm not the only one who is working hard to understand. However, as you probably have read in my post, I could relate to this chapter, but not in an eduational way. Working construction helped me with understanding a little bit.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can tell by reading this chapter, I'm not sure I can relate anything to education. I just think this chapter was to give us another perspective as to how and where else ID is used. Maybe some of the ideas can trickle over to education, but someone would have to explain it to me. Maybe I'll find out more as I read everyone else's posts.
Getting content to the students faster is important and their understanding it is more important. If ID helps with this great. Students learn at their own rate, but people learn in different ways, so every new way we can teach is good.
ReplyDelete