Technology in instruction

What does an instructional designer do?

My answer to this question has changed based on the readings addressing the problem of how educators can integrate technology in an appropriate manner without sacrificing deep learning.  Teachers and administrators don't have the time and resources to evaluate the effects of using technology in the classroom- so as ID's it is part of our job to address this issue.  In the article "Integrating Computers in the Schools: A Review of Criticisms (Smith et al. 2007) the authors propose a not-for-profit program created to evaluate educational technology currently available to teachers and students.  This program would help us as ID's to integrate technology into instruction in an educated, purposeful way. 

A position as an instructional designer is more complex than I had envisioned at the beginning of this course.  Creating meaningful instruction is involved and requires the designer to keep on top of current research.

Merrill's Five Star Design

How can instruction meet the criteria for each of five categories: Problem, Activiation, Demonstration, Application and Integration?  Resources for educators is so limited that it is unrealistic to ask for 5-star instruction in our classrooms all the time.  It is reasonable to ask that learners understand the task they will be learning, be engaged at the problem level, and that instruction follows a progression of problems.  However, encouraging metacognitive processes while teaching concepts in a particular domain is not always feasible.  For example, is is very difficult to create instruction that is personalized to the extent that each learner is directed towards resources that address the gaps in prior domain knowledge and the knowledge to be acquired through instruction.

To encourage metacognitive processes it may be best to be more selective in choosing which instructional designs will benefit most from strategies suggested by Merrill. More specifically, Merrill's strategies for integrating activites to reflect on prior knowledge, practice the newly acquired skills in real-world situations, and to "predict a consequence of a process given conditions, or to find faulted conditions given an unexpected consequence". 

Learning with Media

My thoughts on the debate this past week were definitely influenced by the current research I'm involved in.  As part of our research we are analyzing the effects on learning of using Adaptive Learning Environments.  Adaptive Learning Environments provide learners with tailored guidance for particular learning tasks based on the learners' prior knowledge of concepts in a domain and the concepts that build upon that existing knowledge.  This learning environment is highly personalized and therefore encourages deeper learning processes and learners' integration of new concepts into existing domain knowledge. 

While it is the goal of a classroom teacher to tailor instruction based on students' existing knowledge of concepts and the knowledge that needs to be acquired, it is unfair to ask a teacher to accomplish this goal with every student.  With the use of media (computers in this instance), tailored instruction can be extended to each student ensuring each student acquires the desired knowledge in a domain and integrates the new concepts into their prior knowledge.

Losing Something

This week's online discussion led me to consider whether the use of technology in education is causing us to lose the benefits of traditional face-to-face teacher/learner and learner/learner interaction such as fostering creativity, learning of social skills, hands-on activities, etc.  I believe there are situations where the targeted learning goals can only be achieved by social interaction and hands-on activities.  Art classes are a good example:  while students can benefit from new technology in the classroom, there remains a need for visually sharing of ideas in a group of peers.  Interacting face-to-face with one's peers encourages students to develop personal relationships and exchange ideas without the use of "cutting-edge technology".  Perhaps online learning and other technologies used in the classroom aren't always beneficial to the learners.  Now I question how, as an ID, I can keep the positive aspects of traditional learning and still use cutting-edge technology (when appropriate).

Online Learning

Technology has broadened the scope of education and instruction with the development of online learning.  Before the last class discussion on Online Learning I saw only a few downfalls in using the WWW for education- one being the extra cognitive load placed on the learner when sifting through endless information in hopes of finding accurate information relevant to the subject at hand.  I learned that in order to create effective online learning I need to consider some drawbacks of using the WWW, such as inappropriate material, student plagiarism, technical difficulties and access to online learning tools (computer, internet, camera, microphone, etc.)
So as an ID I need to consider accessibility to online learning tools and ability to navigate the design.  I also get to extend the opportunity for learning to people all over the world- to people that would never be able to attend an in-person lecture.