Section 7 New Directions in Instructional Design and Technology

For my final blog I’m going to address four new directions and emerging technologies for IDT through the eyes of a future librarian.

 

1. Distributed Learning

I agree with the text book that distributed learning is both challenging and an opportunity for growth in the field of instructional design. “Distributed learning is any educational or training experience that uses a variety of means, including technology, to enable learning.” (290) Three types of distributed learning I feel a librarian could use to enhance learning opportunities (but not limited to) are Webinars, references websites and blogs.  Webinars (synchronous) are a great way to interact and learn with people globally. It’s just a challenge to be there in real time. References websites (asynchronous) are good sources for information and blogs (also asynchronous) are a great way to learn from our peers on thoughts and ideas. I like blogs because you are not on a time restriction to learn but you still can interact with others. 

 

2. Reusable Design

In order to apply reusable design to your instruction, you have to understand what it is. The text book defines it as, “Reusability is defined as the ability to use same resources multiple times in multiple ways and in multiple contexts.” (302). There are four requirements or questions I need to ask to see if my resource falls under “reusable design”.  1. Can I find it? 2. May I use it? 3. Will it work? 4. Can I use it in a way that works for me? I look at it like recycling brain power and working smarter not harder.A very basic place I would start looking for a reusable design for the library is on Google. Google has an advance search area that you can look up by keyword other peoples PowerPoints that have been created and use them. It saves so much time then creating your own.  The next one I’ve chosen is at promethean planet.com. We have promethean boards in our school and promethean planet has 100’s of flip charts already created and read to use. The plus side, it’s already created but the downside, it takes time to sort through all the different flip charts.

 

3. Rich Media

When I read the definition of rich media, which is “learning products that incorporate high-end media such as video, animation, sound and simulation” (312) it made me think of an avatar. I’ve created and seen awesome avatars used to teach students basic rules of the library and how the Dewey Decimal system works. There are several avatar programs, my suggestion would be just check them out and ask around and see what others used and liked. Then just pick one and go for it. They are fun and easy to create. I do like this quote from the text book, “Using good design principles is more important for low-knowledge learners than for high-knowledge learners” (321). This made me think of my ESL learners and lower level learner and how an avatar could be used to engage them in higher level of learning.  

 

4.  Emerging Instructional Technologies

Emerging instructional technologies is just that, up-and-coming instructional technologies. This area I believe will be ever changing. I think what I blog today about it will be outdated in 5 years or less. In a library setting, I think that the most useful EIT would be Web 2.0. The best site I’ve found with Web 2.0 information at one place is http://www.go2web20.net/. This site seems to have it all. My mind does become on overload looking at all the Web2.0 tools, I do tend to get overwhelmed. The best advise I’ve been given is to pick one thing and use it. Master it and then move on to something else. Don’t try to use too many Web 2.0 tools because then you will end up not using any of them due to frustration and brain overload. Some good Web 2.0 library online tools I would suggest are (but not limit to) Google survey, Blogs, Wikis, YouTube and Facebook.

 

 

 

Section 6: Getting an IDT Postition and Succeeding at It

“The mind is like a parachute: it works much better when it’s open.” Author Unknown

My current job is an elementary PE teacher. I took this job @ 11 years ago after I was an Art teacher for 4 years. When I turned 35 I decided that even though teaching PE was fun, it was not something I wanted to do beyond my 40’s. That is when I went on my soul-searching journey to find what else was out there. I started to witness job security around me become scarce and knew that I had to get my Masters if I wanted to secure my job in education or at least have a fighting chance. With much research and interviewing, I ended up talking to our librarian and started to spend time in the library. I was amazed to see what all goes on behind the scene and the “real world” of a librarian, and not just the clerk part. I was hooked… and the fact that I love to read was a bonus. That is when I enrolled in to the Library of Science program here at A & M-Commerce. I plan on getting a librarian job next year. But it looks like the traditional librarian job is non-existing in today’s public school system and that I will be more of a computer/librarian specialist. Either way, I look forward to a career change and I pray there will be a job out there for me. That is one of my biggest fears is that they will replace all librarians with aides to save money.

 I may be biased, but I am a first level service person. I am education all the way. My dream is to be a librarian, but to my surprise, maybe not at an ISD level but higher education. The features that are important to me are location, low travel, and high promotion opportunity. Because I live close to Commerce, and Paris Jr. College, I see some potential of opportunity.

 Based on theses intentions, life lessons, and my text book reading, I’ve learned that I need to know someone on the inside to truly have a good chance to interview. The education market is flooded with good teachers and for every job opening I bet there are at least 50 applications to fill it.  I have found out that it’s not what you know, but who you know. In order to be a school librarian, I need a Masters in Library Science and pass the Texas Library certification test. I believe have received these skills in the LIS program to fulfill theses requirements. I need to take as many technology classes that I can, because I foresee the library being more and more technology savvy.

There are several library professional organizations and publications that

I would suggest any future/current librarian to get involved in. The Texas Library Association (TxLA) is a great organization to get involved in. It keeps you up to date on local issues and has an awesome conference (so my librarian says). Also American Library Association (ALA) is another great association to keep you up to date and informed on today’s library issues and they are great advocates for the librarian and library system. I would love to attend one of their conferences. I think I could meet some really interesting people that I could use to my benefit to network with for a job. I’ve joined an email list server for librarians that is really helpful to see/read the day to day operations a librarian will face. I also created a twitter account and follow a few organizations and professional people in the library world. You would be amazed to see how much information is being tweeted.

 

In conclusion, my dream job is to be a librarian at any public school level, but I not so narrow minded that I would not take a job outside of the library and branch off to the second, third or fourth level service job. I’m keeping my mind and options open. My advice to any of my peers is to do the same. I believe we can take advantage of this poor economy, land a job we never would have taken otherwise but out of desperation and who knows, it could turn out to be the job of our dreams.

 

 

Section 5 Trends and Issues in Various Settings

Section 5 was very interesting to read. It was amazing to see the different types of professional settings that instructional design effects. The different fields that IDT are: business & industry, military, health care, P-12 education, higher education and around the world. I work in the P-12 field, so my blog will reflect on one thing I learned in each chapter from the other fields and how I can adapt that to my P-12 field.

Business and Industry 

One of many things I learned in this chapter is “The Role of Instructional Designers”. According to the text book there are three categories of the role of instructional designers: sole designer, designer as consultant, and team member/leader. I believe a job is always better if everyone knows what their role is and how it works. I feel that a teacher can play a part in each role solo or simultaneously. Teacher that work without a team would be consider “solo designer”. That would be most enrichment teachers: music, art, reading, GT, PE or ELS. In the “designer as consultant”, I feel would be a librarian. The librarian serves as the middle man between the teachers and technology and administration and provides feedback to both sides. Under the “team member/leader” category, this could include anybody on our campus. The important thing I got from this section is that everyone has a role and part and it needs to be clearly established in order for projects to work out successfully.

Military

One thing I learned in the military chapter was the ever changing roles and responsibilities of the military. I learned that the military has a plan/goal about the technology and its future. If you were to look at my field of work you would see a lot of teaching styles with technology that are all over the scale and no one really knows there role or wants to take responsibility in technology . A tiny example: I have teachers that use smart boards, some use dry erase boards and some still use chalk boards. What I take from this chapter is that I need to be involved in transitioning myself to modern technologies in my classroom. I need to always look at what the future holds and not get stuck in a teaching rut. I need to be the facilitator that moves my students from the past to the future.  There is so much more I learned from this chapter. The military is so organized and well put together, unlike most public school systems.

Health Care Education

One thing I learned about health care education is the Hippocratic Oath. As teachers we have an understood oath we personally take, but we don’t have an oath and guidelines that set the standards for our conduct. That is something I think should be implemented in education. Now that I think about it, why would we not as educators of children not sign an oath of conduct? Yes, we do sign a computer usage oath but that is not really the same. Something that really strikes me as strange and curious of why?

 

 

Higher Education

The overall thing I learned from this chapter is that being in higher education is a lot like my job of P-12 education and that it’s global. We all basically have the same responsibility to: teach, consult, and stay on top of the latest trend, be trained, train others and serve our community. Both job fields takes a lots of time and energy and some make more than others just depends where you work. What I take from this chapter to my job is that we do it because we love it. Education is a labor of love and no one can understand that unless they do it. No matter what demands our careers hold for us, if we are trained and prepared we will succeed and so will our students.

Around the World

What I found new in this chapter is how the public schools in Japan are staffed. The Japanese tradition only allows schools only hire principals from within the school and the principals are ex-teachers over the age of 55. And that each individual teacher’s background is specialized in one or another subject area.  And the Japanese teachers teach their subject without any help from others. What I take from this is how thankful I am to be working in the USA. As a US teacher we have support and training to help us become better teachers for our students. The next time I start to complain about my job, I will always think back to this chapter and remember maybe I don’t have it as bad as I think and smile.