Week 12 - Applying Technology & Web-based Tools

Ch. 17 The Learner-Centered Paradigm of Instruction
Reigeluth provides yet another piece centered on a paradigm shift in the institution of education; from instruction based on time and a student's progress within that timeframe to instruction based on the student's mastery before moving on to the next level, or attainment-based student progress. As we shift to learner-centered instruction, instructional designers have an opportunity as well as an obligation to support instructors with providing methodology. One of the things I do struggle with is how teachers can keep up and manage a student base that is all progressing at different rates. Reigeluth definitely provides quite an in-depth framework for accomplishing this type of system; we all just need to get on board.

Ch. 20 For the Foreseeable Future, Instructional Technology Devices and Products - No Matter How Well Designed - Will Not Eliminate the Need for Human Teachers
I was pretty interested in reading this chapter because I have heard from many of my friends who are teachers that have expressed concerns about online education replacing them and the potential for them to lose their jobs. In the first segment Cates et. al. talk a lot about Human-robot interaction "HRI", which had me thinking they were almost making a case that robots could replace human teachers. I was glad to see that the reading turned more to addressing how teaching involves addressing the nuances of students' various needs. Human teachers are needed to be able to adapt to the ever-changing needs of instruction, to respond to students and their emotional needs, and for an opinion, the need for human-to-human interaction.

The last couple of weeks have been rather interesting in our organization as we have transitioned all non-essential employees to working from home. In our everyday lives, we utilize Microsoft Teams for internal chat, IM, and videoconferencing. Our customer care team utilizes several different programs to support customers that include MS Teams, and other software for online live chat support and email support. Earlier this week, our warehouse team gathered in the main breakroom and we have a live video call with our COO and other members joined the call from their homes; he was in his living room which was kind of cool. One of the features that I used when setting up the call was the ability to record. I recorded the meeting so that I could then email it out to our site for everyone to reference and for anyone who hadn't been able to attend in person or online. MS teams has certainly become an integral part of how we conduct business now more than ever before.

In this first image, you see there are teams that we can create for specific projects to keep each updated. In the second image, this is a group of our HR team with files we've shared over the last week responding to COVID-19 changes in employment and legislation.

Here is the video that I recorded and was able to share via Microsoft Stream:

Week 11 - Reflections & Screencasting/Screenshots

I was pretty excited about the tasks this week for Screencasting and using screenshots. I use both of these tools almost daily, especially the screenshots at work. It's often the easiest way to show people in other work locations v. trying to explain. I support two work sites locally, but often have to communicate with coworkers in California, Utah, Ireland, and China. Given the language barriers, visual representation is extremely beneficial.

For this week's exercise, I created a demo video for creating an Individual Development Plan within our HRIS program. This would be a helpful tool that I would share with my management team on how to navigate the system.



For screenshots, I used to use Ctrl+Alt+PrtScr in order to capture the entire screen. Then, I would have to open up the image in MS Paint to crop out what I didn't need. Thankfully, there is a much handier option, the Snipping Tool. I often have to direct employees to our intranet for certain HR-related documents. Typically, it's easiest to provide a snip and highlight where the documents can be found (as seen below):

I certainly enjoyed playing with the different tools more than the reading. The chapters in this book can be somewhat difficult to digest. 

Ch. 18 Learning From and With Media and Technology

Reeves is articulating that individuals can both learn from media and technology as well as with. To assume that learning only has happened if long-term memory is altered is somewhat shallow. Learning can be measured in many other facets which include, biochemical activity in the brain, behavior/behavioral dispositions, conceptual change, problem-solving, social negotiation, and creativity (Reeves). To be perfectly honest, I really had a difficult time digesting this article. What did resonate with me was Thomas Edison's statement about our school systems would be completely changed due to technology. If only Edison could see how students learn in classrooms today!

Ch. 19 Building Educational Technologies to Scale in Schools

I think Foshay's article has some good points but I feel like it was rather short-sided. While I agree that the educational programs have to take into consideration the aptitudes of the teachers, I'm not sure it's fair to say that all teachers share the sentiment that Foshay outlined with respect to students wasting time on off-task activities, that they'd be playing with the tool/technology, or that all teachers are shying away from new technologies because of a fear that they would fail in front of students and damage their credibility. That seemed to cast a shadow on his perception of all teachers that I didn't exactly agree with. Overall, I do agree to his point that whatever technology is introduced, it has to take into consideration all impacted parties: teachers, students, administrators, parents, etc. in order to be designed to guide and facilitate more sophisticated users.

Week 10 - Reflection and Google Sites

This week's readings were vastly different and didn't seem to flow together like the beginning of Part 3, but nonetheless, had some valuable information to ponder. In Marker's article, he addresses the neuroscience of intellect vs. wisdom, but I think, and seeing what some of my classmates wrote, that his point might have been a bit lost as people seemed to glean that he was talking about companies being too focused on profit. When I read the article, however, I felt like Marker was trying to make a point that we, as a society, are overwhelmingly set on immediate or instant gratification, the immediate positive impacts of someone's intellect, and not focusing enough on delaying gratification, or imparting wisdom in decision-making processes for the greater good.

Watters' article on Women in Educational Technology deeply resonated with me because I have had my own similar experiences of online harassment, harassment in the workplace, and being challenged in my role simply because I am a woman. The company I work for is really great, but we don't have a single woman in executive leadership, not one. I have had some of my ideas brushed off and then brought to the table by a male counterpart and recognized. It's incredibly frustrating and demeaning. And when you have a louder voice so you can be heard, you're "too loud", or "too aggressive", or "you rub people the wrong way". While I do see more girls at a younger age encouraged to participate in STEM education, we collectively have to do better. When we know better, we do better.

I used Google Sites this week to develop something that my company would use as an internal communication tool, an intranet to access resources, called The Hub. This would be for our two sites in MI that are separate business units of the organization. Employees can access HR documents, and read announcements.
Check out The Hub!

Week 8 - Concept Mapping

Week 8 was our introduction to Part III - Contexts of Learning, Design, and Technology, and concept mapping using Bubble.us.

I happened to really like Schank's somewhat rant of an essay. I have been saying this for years about the educational system. I have used some algebra here and there, I have learned some history and civics, economics, and even how to write effectively and with purpose. BUT, everything I have learned in my profession and how to be a good human has not come from sitting in a lecture or in a classroom. I agree that the entire educational system is a broken money-making institution and is not conducive to teaching what kids truly need to know at age-appropriate stages of life. Is he probably laughed out of every collegiate/university setting? Most likely. We're sheeple, unfortunately. That being said, Peck's response is still accurate, it's not "broken", the system or "mechanism" absolutely works. People follow, comply, and eventually get employed in careers where they continue to follow and comply. Even though it might not work in the way it should. Why not go back to the traditional sense of apprenticeships? I think that changes are always happening in education though and Schank saying we can't fix it isn't entirely true in my opinion. I think people are trying to "fix" it. One radical idea at a time. My hope is that at some point and in some way, we as a society can push for change at the collegiate and political level because that's where the money is doing the talking and decision-making.

Reigeluth's stats that he initially shared were pretty astounding to me. I had no idea that so many HS students are not proficient in reading and math. I can definitely see where our communities are segregated by socioeconomic status though and that has been a problem for many years. In one of the previous chapters I read in this text, there was a position that we need to shift away from teaching fixed content in a fixed amount of time for the purpose of standardized testing. Rather, we should be teaching children and allowing students to learn at different rates without penalty. We have a school locally that operates in this fashion. But to speak to socioeconomic segregation, it is one of the only institutions and it is private and expensive. So, while I know my daughter would thrive in that type of environment, she is at an educational disadvantage because I can't afford that type of learning environment for her. Like Reigeluth said, "until schools make this fundamental structural change, they will continue to leave children behind" (Reigeluth). When we have claimed "no child left behind" in some of our government programs, we are significantly lacking in educational paradigm reform.

The below concept map is a basic outline for students to follow when structuring a response paper to assigned reading. Traditionally, I was taught to use an outline format when structuring and drafting a paper. While that was always helpful for me, this visual is great for students to see the whole layout in one visual aid. Students are expected to complete the assigned reading and write a response paper proving one out of the three assigned theories. Each paper should follow the established format as indicated below:

Week 7 - Reflections & Mapping

This week I started with chapter 9, "Necessary Ingredients for the Education of Designers", Irene Visschler-Voerman. I felt the author put together some very key aspects that need to be included in the educational programs that make up the "ingredient" list. Fundamentally, I think that t-shaped professionals and students as partners are things that should be a part of every educational program. In my own education, I strive to deepen my knowledge in my field of human resources, but also enhance my skill set by learning other aspects of the business that I support such as operations, logistics, marketing, and sales. I like that the author states that students should be expected to take responsibility for their own learning process. It speaks to a higher level of education when a student should be more invested in what they are learning. In the response, Tracey makes it sound as though the author expected that students be working with real clients on day one. However, I didn't take that away from what the author meant. I felt as though the author was clearly making the case that students can and should widely have more control over the final educational destination and making it their own journey. One of the other suggestions that I really like is the idea that the learning schedule should be determined by the stage of the project, rather than some rigid form of scheduled lectures, etc. The responder countered that the learning should be determined by the development and growth of the student. I think both are essentially right. The teacher could take an approach that takes into consideration both the designer's development and the stage of the project.

The second reading this week was chapter 11, "My Hope for the Future of Instructional Technology", M. David Merrill. The author's plea is to move the training of instructional designers to the undergraduate level and that programs should emphasize both the science as well as the technology of instruction. This was definitely more of an eye-opener for me as I've always looked at the technology aspect of instruction and, until now, had no understanding of the science and theory behind instructional design. Merrill questions what someone would do with a master's degree in instructional design, possibly become a training manager? A manager who then hires designers-by-assignment to create? I thought this was rather shallow of the author to make that implication. Personally, I'm obtaining this degree so I can create the learning and development and training department from the ground up, and I anticipate being the one designing, creating, and developing instruction. I can be a manager of processes and not necessarily people and be successful. Ultimately, I agree with Merrill that undergraduate programs should be developed to start cultivating better designers.

The map project was pretty cool as I created a map of my favorite places around where I live. The assignment I designed was for an audience of high school students in either a geography or social studies class. Using the map that I created, the students are to create their own geocaching scavenger hunt. There are two teams and the students are transported around town by a parent volunteer. The teams must follow the set of clues to each of my favorite places around town and discover a hidden item based on the latitude and longitude coordinates that have been provided. The first team to find all items and take a picture with each will win!

My map is called "Mi Casa" and is the starting point for the scavenger hunt. I think, in real life, this would be a fun activity to do as a bar crawl or something like that with my adult friends.

Week 6 - Prep of ID and Podcasts

I read chapter 7 - Developing Design Expertise and thought that it was the message that I have been waiting to read in this course. Fortney clearly makes the case that there needs to be better development of Instructional Designers in the educational programs, which I can agree with 100%. What is interesting, though, is that I happen to feel that I fall more on the creative side of ID with the desire to question, find creative ways to engage, and looking at problems and solutions in more than one light. What I'm learning in this program is that there are actually models and systems and "rules" to follow as an Instructional Designer. While that may be the foundational knowledge necessary, it's certainly important that instructional designers have the ability to create and solve in the real world. I particularly liked Fortney's explanation of Norman's three levels of design: visceral level, behavioral level, and reflective level. Design that appeals to both our rational and emotional selves. I think this speaks to the root of why I desire to further my ID education. I am passionate about exciting and engaging training, and development in the workplace. I also appreciate the response from Boling clarifying that there have been significant advances in the education programs for instructional design. While the programs are expanding, there is still an opportunity for existing ID practitioners to get more involved.

Since Elizabeth Boling authored the response to Fortney's chapter, I thought it'd be fitting to read Boling's chapter 10 - Teaching the Complex Performance of Instructional Design. A reoccurring theme in these chapters is how instructional design cannot be taught in one standard approach of models, theory, and data because it limits the student's ability to tap into how to approach real-world problems and solutions. There has to be a way to bridge the gap between the standard methods of instruction and teaching students to be "prepared-for-action, not guided-to-action" (Stolterman, 2008).

I chose to create a podcast this week instead of finding one to listen to. I have a hard time staying focused long enough to listen to the podcasts so I did a short, 5-minute first episode of my podcast, HR Advocate. I am an HR Business Business Partner and like to share with others some of the challenges I face in the workplace.

Week 5 - Online Collaboration

As we progress in this course and I go through some of the readings, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm truly in the right field. I reach chapter 2 - Toward Understanding the Nature of Design and I truly struggled with just trying to understand what the author was talking about. I get that the author was making the case that ID is a very complex practice, but I think it was the theory that was losing me. One of the redeeming sentences though was Bannon suggesting that we further understand how designers actually derive solutions creatively rather than focusing on models and algorithmic solutions. Bannon also shared some excerpts from Gero, et al.'s (2014) research that I believe may have been more simplistic and easier to follow. Perhaps, much like Gibbons's response notes, I was hoping for more focus on finding the "true nature" of design that Bannon had prefaced for the entire piece.

On the flip side, I was able to engage more in reading chapter 4 - Design Beyond Content because of the focus on developing content that the learner can retain. The content alone is not enough, it's in the design, delivery, methodology, etc. that create the entire learning experience. The key point that stuck with me was the idea that learning the content isn't enough. It's when the learner goes beyond the content to seek more, learn more, understand more, building "deep learners". Would you rather teach a child a set of facts, or how to be creative, etc. to develop skills AND character traits. What a novel concept?! Develop a learner, not a robot who can memorize content.

I will admit, my faith in ID as a field of study was heavily questioned after reading chapter 2. However, faith restored after reading chapter 4! The supplement activities that we've been doing also feel like I'm doing what I should be doing. The activities are simple, but useful, and have a practical purpose in my life. For example, this week's assignment to generate a Google doc and collaborate is something I do on a daily basis for work. In this example, I generated a promotion memo for another employee and had her review and sign. I played around with some of the add-ons and downloaded Docu-Sign. I've included both the original here and the fully executed, signed version here.

I am looking forward to learning more about the functional design activities, maybe less theory for me personally.