ETEC561 Trends and Issues in Various Settings

The goal of instructional design technology is to develop and use technology and other knowledge to improve student learning.  The goal does not change regardless of setting.  We use technology because it is a helpful tool to teach, share, and evaluate information and learning. 

In the business world, companies use instructional design to train employees, focusing on speed, cost and profit.  Why spend money to train employees if it will not increase the bottom line for the company?  Unfortunately, corporate instructional designers face unique problems like training in a global economy with a social and cultural sensitivity, while improving the efficiency of learning, and justifying their cost in profit margins.  They often must design instruction for programs they themselves are not trained in using untested delivery tools on short budgets with looming deadlines.

In the P-12 educational environment, instruction design technology means using what school districts can afford to their best effect – student learning.  P-12 education has a goal of more than imparting information to children; educators must nurture a love a learning and provide children with training needed to function in the world after high school.  Teachers struggle with limited budgets, a lack of administrator or technical support, their own perceived notions of technology and a lack of training.  The teacher is the facilitator in their room, their attitude towards learning and technology shapes the way children view it as well.  Teachers are also stressed by standardized testing, state evaluations, and the emergence of computer based instruction.  Teachers must train often to keep current on emerging technology and instructional design practices in order to continual strive to improve student outcomes and prepare students for the real world.

Post-secondary instructional designers have focused on distance learning.  Distance learning must balance the need for low cost versus high quality and the ease of use versus the rigor of learning.  Like the previous two environments, budgets are limited and constant training is required to keep up with technological advancements.  Like P-12 educators, instructor preconceived notions play a large part in their ability and willingness to adjust their instruction based on current trends in technology.  Also like early educators, post-secondary instructional designers must teach real world skills that prepare learners to be productive and successful employees and encourage life-long learning.

I feel like all three of these instructional design challenges apply to me as a technology instructor in a high school setting and an online graduate student.  I am preparing students to enter the business or college world and need to provide them with concrete skills they can use to be successful.  I am also aware of the deadline of graduation quickly approaching for some of these students and hope the district’s money and my time have been spent as efficiently as possible.  As a graduate student, I enjoy the flexibility of online classes because there are some weeks it is all I can do to get the work done.  Other times, I miss the days of classroom instruction with face-to-face interactions with knowledgeable professors.  I have also experienced the full spectrum of professors both in the classroom and online.  I had the Ben Stein-like professor for a Biology class I took years ago, but I will never forget the thrice-weekly struggle to stay awake in class.  I also took an online Accounting class that would have been more accurately described as ‘professor-less’ for all the assistance we received for our concerns and questions.  I have also taken really great classes both in the traditional setting and online with responsive, caring, and inspiring professors who have helped me become the person I am today.  I have come to believe instructional design is most efficient when the person behind the wheel is personally invested in the student outcomes.

I feel my primary goal as a technology teacher is to prepare my students for life after high school.  I am fortunate to have no state tests to judge my success in that area, but I hope students will look back someday and appreciate what they have learned in my class.  It has been a consistent goal of education to create, not just people who know information, but people who can think about and evaluate information.  I remember spending time in high school twenty five years ago discussing and practicing problem-solving. 

In order to properly prepare students for a global economy and possible global catastrophe we must first teach students to be aware of other cultures and societies.  We so often get caught in our own little lives we forget to look at the global picture, at our own insignificance.  Students need to feel like part of the global community so that global problems are their problems.  Teachers need to foster global community awareness as well as designing lessons to help students practice problem solving skills. 

I like the use of e-learning in Japan as an instructional tool, but I am not sure how effective it would be in this culture.  I have found many high school students here lack the discipline and focus required to complete learning in a strictly online environment.  Our school offers Odysseyware courses for students who for some reason or another are unable to acquire instruction in a regular classroom.  Most students struggle with no instructor to help them stay on track and no social interaction to make it entertaining.  However, my husband claims since the invention of Youtube anyone can learn how to do anything they want, because the information is out there for our use.  It’s really a matter of desire and discipline.

European instructional designers face challenges similar, but more extreme, than we do here in Texas.  We also face language and cultural difficulties providing challenges for students who learn English as a second language.  We can also empathize with the trend toward ‘infantilism.’   Students today accept what they see on Twitter and Facebook without ever using common sense or doubting the credibility of the sources.  Their idea of ‘news’ is not political or even informational, it is entertainment based on celebrity activity and so-called reality shows.  My classes have already covered reliability of internet sources and we will revisit it on several occasions though out the year.  Web based communication and networking between instructors is a great idea and many teachers are already using services like Twitter for that purpose.  Technology can be a powerful tool when used properly.  It seems we can take some of the things European educators have discovered and utilize them in our classroom.