Development, Development, Development, after reading chapter 22 and going back through the previous chapters on instructional design it seemed that the key word in all of this was development. It took many different shapes however, in the corporate context it seemed like it was the development of materials to be used by employees, the P-12 aspect it seemed to be the development of ideas and a whole enity with the systematic change. Instructional design in the realm of higher education seemed to be the development of all three. A professor would have to develop students through teaching and guidance. They would also have to develop materials through there writing in journals and other periodicals. They have to develop whole enitites in what they call faculty development. The key in all of these is that something is being created, to take this back to teaching terms we as teachers are also constanting developing things, we have to develop materials and ideas so that we can develop the minds of our students.
Another thing that really jumped out at me while reading chapter 22 was the emphasis on the hierarchy of higher education. It seems that every synopsis written by one of the professors delved deeply into the what exactly everyone's role was and that there was a ladder that needed to be climbed to get to a certain point. Now, I know that there is a hierarchy in life, and there that people are always trying to climb the ladder to get to certain points. I see it at my school, although we are all teachers and in the hierarchy of the school are ranked the same, so people get more things then others. This usually comes from experience and leadership tendencies. I am sure that this is the same idea in the business sector. They may not have the distinct roles like in higher education, but they do have promotions, some businesses have manger programs that can work on a hierarchy. I wonder if this idea of the hierarchy can work in a k-12 environment? to me seems like it has some merit. After a teacher becomes tenured there are losing part of what makes someone work hard which is working to keep your job. Many people will still do the same if not more because of the value system they have, but not everyone. If there were steps to climb past tenure could this make a difference? I think it could. Older teachers sometime get a bad reputation as mailing it in to retirement, it my short career it has been the opposite the older teachers I have encountered have been great mentors and some the best teachers I have seen, maybe we should reward them for their time spent and leadership the exude.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Google Map Activity
View Places of the Civil War in a larger map
In this activity the kids would have to use the Google maps in order to find famous places of the Civil War. This could be used as a review at the end of the unit, a pretest to see what they know. You could also help all levels with this. If you have students who need a challenge they can just get a blank canvas and go to work. If you have kids who need more direction, you can give them a list of places to find. The teacher could add as little or as much detail as they deem fit.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
R/D9
So far I have thought that the class is great, and has given me a lot of things that I plan on incorporating into my classroom. None of the tasks have been super challenging, but they have introduced things to me that I didn't previously know or use so it has been nice. I find the amount of support you have provided to be adequate, also having a forum where you can discuss things with classmates is nice. As far as having this class early in the program it is great because it is a wide variety of things that are being done.
R/D8
1. The first thing that I found interesting was the Ecological systematic change. After reading it I immediately thought of our school districts and the State of Michigan. In it it says that systematic change is based in a clear understanding of interrelationship and interdependency within a system of interest. If there is a large change in one part of the system it requires changes in the other part. It remind me the the school funding issue, back when we were under proposal A there were many schools who were doing just fine getting enough money to support themselves just from property taxes. There were other schools that were not even close to making it. When we got rid of the Proposal A, we became interdependent on the state much more then we were. It was great for some, and has probably hurt others. regardless when one changed all the others had to change. It still happens today as must schools have to adjust and readjust budgets according to what the State provides. There is a definite interdependent relationship.
2. In the section titled needs and Future directions it brings it all together nicely but also brings up a couple great points. One multiple occasions it says whole-system improvement. This is key in anything school, business, and life. If everyone is not on board it never is going to work. if there is one person who doubts what the final picture is going to look like it is going to be a failure. This is something that is dealt with in coaching a lot. It needs to be a whole- system improvement, or a whole team improvement. Just like in coaching your whole school needs to buy into improvement in order for it to work. Seems easy enough, however it is says in the text it isn't the easy way to do it. The easy way is to stay where you are, but with that attitude there will be no whole-system improvement.
2. In the section titled needs and Future directions it brings it all together nicely but also brings up a couple great points. One multiple occasions it says whole-system improvement. This is key in anything school, business, and life. If everyone is not on board it never is going to work. if there is one person who doubts what the final picture is going to look like it is going to be a failure. This is something that is dealt with in coaching a lot. It needs to be a whole- system improvement, or a whole team improvement. Just like in coaching your whole school needs to buy into improvement in order for it to work. Seems easy enough, however it is says in the text it isn't the easy way to do it. The easy way is to stay where you are, but with that attitude there will be no whole-system improvement.
R/D7
From reading chapter 18 on instructional design in business and industry couple things really jumped out at me. First was in the section called technology-based training delivery. I personally have never truly worked in the business and corporate field, so everything I have ever known is things I have seen, mostly through TV. These things can be sensationalized so much that it is hard to know what is true. When I saw the fact that 70% of all training is still done classroom and lecture style, I was blown away. I always thought thought that large corporations used the latest and greatest technology to get their employees up to speed on the company and procedures. After reading that it made me think of the field I am in, and how those numbers relate. I wonder how many classrooms are still led by a teacher who stands in the front of the room and lectures about a certain topic? Could it be 70% or more? My guess is that it is close to that. Is this method truly the best method to reach our students? Most studies say it isn't and just by personal experience, things that are done hands on in learner first manner are almost always better received and recalled much easier. To relate it back to the business sense, it seems like using technology to train your employees will probably cost a little more up front, but could save you alot down the road. Not only do you not have to pay the trainers, but you are developing a much more technical savvy work staff which could pay dividends in the long run.
Another thing that I found was the discussion of globalization of training. For this i want to just think of teaching as training, truly that is what a teacher does they train someone for future endeavors. In this section it talks about all the things that you need to think about when designing training materials. Some of these seem a little old fashioned and out of date, but they bring up a good point. Do we think enough of the culturally differences in our classroom? I know it isn't something that I really think about, but maybe I should. You never really know if something this bothering a student if they don't tell you, so maybe you could be offending someone without even knowing it. One way I try to avoid this is by building a relationship with the students and making a safe environment for them, so if something is bothering they share it.
Another thing that I found was the discussion of globalization of training. For this i want to just think of teaching as training, truly that is what a teacher does they train someone for future endeavors. In this section it talks about all the things that you need to think about when designing training materials. Some of these seem a little old fashioned and out of date, but they bring up a good point. Do we think enough of the culturally differences in our classroom? I know it isn't something that I really think about, but maybe I should. You never really know if something this bothering a student if they don't tell you, so maybe you could be offending someone without even knowing it. One way I try to avoid this is by building a relationship with the students and making a safe environment for them, so if something is bothering they share it.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
D/B6
HPI or Human Performance Improvement is a term that I have never heard of until reading chapter 14 of the Trends and Issues book. However after looking into what it means and some ideas they gave about it, I would say that it sounds like what most k-12 schools want to accomplish.
On page 135 in the book it says " conceptually, HPI is a movement with a straight forward mission-valued accomplishment through people. Via systematic means, from analysis of performance gaps, design and development of appropriate, economical, feasible, and organizationally acceptable interventions." this really sounds like how most classrooms are run in 2010. First a teacher is looking for what needs to be taught by doing pretests, which could be searching for performance gaps. Once those are found you want to design and develop ways to solve these problems, this is just like in the HPI where it says you will need to look for appropriate interventions. This happens in the classroom all the time, if a student isn't getting something the teacher needs to step back and say how can I do this differently so the kids understand?
I could also see where this would apply to someone in the field of educational technology. If you took someone who was maybe a network administrator at a school, this person would want to build the best and strongest network possible. They would look for gaps in the performance of the network, they would then try to find a ways to fix it. The previous quote uses words like feasible and economical which are both great words to describe what someone in this position would look for when they are trying to fill in performance gaps in their network.
On page 135 in the book it says " conceptually, HPI is a movement with a straight forward mission-valued accomplishment through people. Via systematic means, from analysis of performance gaps, design and development of appropriate, economical, feasible, and organizationally acceptable interventions." this really sounds like how most classrooms are run in 2010. First a teacher is looking for what needs to be taught by doing pretests, which could be searching for performance gaps. Once those are found you want to design and develop ways to solve these problems, this is just like in the HPI where it says you will need to look for appropriate interventions. This happens in the classroom all the time, if a student isn't getting something the teacher needs to step back and say how can I do this differently so the kids understand?
I could also see where this would apply to someone in the field of educational technology. If you took someone who was maybe a network administrator at a school, this person would want to build the best and strongest network possible. They would look for gaps in the performance of the network, they would then try to find a ways to fix it. The previous quote uses words like feasible and economical which are both great words to describe what someone in this position would look for when they are trying to fill in performance gaps in their network.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
R/D5
First off as a relatively new teacher, I have always said that I don't know how people taught before the Internet. It is such a great tool and can make the life of a teacher so much better. Having information at your fingertips 24 hours a day is something that really is amazing. I think it sometimes gets taken for granted what the Internet has done in the classroom. It has come so commonplace that people don't even realize how much it gets used. In the first ten minutes in my classroom I use the Internet to do at least five different tasks. it really is incredible, and is such a time saver.
With all that said, I wonder if the Internet has a plateau??? Could there come a time when there is nothing new created for the k-12 classroom? I don't really see that happening anytime soon, many programs are in their infancy and have so much room to grow. For example, at my school we have just started online learning last year. The program is great but there are so many things that could be better. In fact they have just upgraded and improved the program to add AP classes. I for one have never used a podcast in my classroom or linked up cellphones to use them as an educational tool. These are all things that have either just been introduced or in the grand scheme of things just for a little while.
If I would guess the Internet has been in the k-12 building for probably 15 or less years, there is room to grow. There are probably way less teachers who know and can use the Internet to great capability then can teachers who rarely use it and depend mostly on pen and paper. This is why programs like the one we are in are so important to the future of the Internet in the classroom, first we need to build teachers who are capable and after that we can have students who are the same.
With all that said, I wonder if the Internet has a plateau??? Could there come a time when there is nothing new created for the k-12 classroom? I don't really see that happening anytime soon, many programs are in their infancy and have so much room to grow. For example, at my school we have just started online learning last year. The program is great but there are so many things that could be better. In fact they have just upgraded and improved the program to add AP classes. I for one have never used a podcast in my classroom or linked up cellphones to use them as an educational tool. These are all things that have either just been introduced or in the grand scheme of things just for a little while.
If I would guess the Internet has been in the k-12 building for probably 15 or less years, there is room to grow. There are probably way less teachers who know and can use the Internet to great capability then can teachers who rarely use it and depend mostly on pen and paper. This is why programs like the one we are in are so important to the future of the Internet in the classroom, first we need to build teachers who are capable and after that we can have students who are the same.
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