Tuesday, December 11, 2012

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.
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment