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.
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