November 2009 Archives

Joan Hughes' study on The Role of Teacher Knowledge and Learning Experiences in Forming Technology-Integrated Pedagogy really struck a cord with me. It examined how teacher's learning experiences and knowledge affected their use of technology in the classroom. What was really great, however, was that the four examples specifically dealt with literacy and how technology integration was able to change things. Since I'm working on redesigning a lot of composition courses this made things personal and allowed me to think about how I go about introducing new technologies to instructors and then training them in order to make the final experiences more effective, or amplified or transformed when considering the RAT Framework.

The main thing that I took away from the study was how we as instructional designers need to better state how the technologies that we are suggesting for implementation work to amplify the learning process. I like to say a lot that we work with a generation that expects instant gratification from everything that they do. What I realize now, is that we need to present the same thoughts to the instructors. If we blast through introducing a technology, the instructor is more apt to not fully understand the major benefits of classroom use, get confused and discouraged, and either decide to stop using it entirely, or not use it to its full potential.

Since I am currently working on introducing the Blogs at Penn State platform into undergraduate composition courses at Penn State, I will use this technology as my example. It is really my job to help the instructors interpret the value of adding the platform to their course before just letting them go. If I were to just tell them to use the blogs platform without discussing how or why, chances are that they might use the platform, but only as a replacement technology. An example of this would be a student posting a short story to their blog instead of turning in a Word document. The student does not really gain anything from the experience.

By spending some time to show the instructors the potential growth opportunities for the students using the blogs platform I can help to aid in the instructors' reflection process and possibly change their current beliefs to adopt additional methods. For example, now that students have posted a short story online, think about amplifying the assignment by being able to have students comment on each others' postings--immediately. While peer review sessions are not a new concept, they usually only take place in class during specified times. Now, the blogs platform allows students to comment at any time. Also, students can add to conversations by reading other student postings and adding to the thought process.

I think I need to give time to instructors to get comfortable with simple additions and amplifications in order to gain some "buy in" to the blogs platform before then introducing other, more transformative additions. The short stories could eventually include pictures and videos. These items would help the students to enhance their projects while also enhancing their knowledge of other technologies.

In practice, I have an instructor now that was very timid to use the blogs platform two semesters ago. She was unsure about the technology herself but pushed herself to overcome. I made sure to stay in contact with her via phone, email, and one-on-one meetings and we really walked though how to continue the advancement of the learning process. She has now completely transformed the course, goals of assignments, and overall learning for the students. Never before were podcasts, screencasts, and videos part of the composition curriculum. Now there's no turning back.

This example is meant to remind me how important encouragement and well-rounded training and support are to keeping instructors engaged while learning something new and continually helping them to push the envelope with the technologies. A simple day of training is not enough to understand the abstract possibilities that any technology has to offer, but by showing some decent examples of replacement, amplification, and transformation up front, we can at least get a start. The most important learning happens after the initial training and follow-up is key. Otherwise the number of missed opportunities could be huge.

We did a few different things for INSYS 447 (Multimedia Design) this week. The first was more of a reflective assignment on how we were going to integrate our video assignment into the lessons that we are redesigning. The second was creating a storyboard to lay out exactly how we think our video is going to be shot so that we can just get right into the studio and already have an action plan.

The integration piece was just meant to be a couple of paragraphs to let the instructor know what we were planning to do. On a deeper level, however, the project made us, as a team, brainstorm and decide exactly how we felt a video would enhance the learning process in a specific lesson. What we decided to make is a video that would come at the end of a lesson as almost a visual lesson review. Some students learn/understand better by seeing and hearing. The video will help because sometimes people just need to hear things a second time, or a different way, for concepts to make sense. Also, a lesson can have a lot of material in it and we feel it would benefit students to get a "wrap-up" of important topics. We are basing the video around the questions that the students are asked to complete at the end of each lesson. This way, the main points will be fresh in their mind when they move to the written assignment.

The storyboard creation this week was a wonderful task. In my job as an instructional designer I can say that I don't have as much experience with video projects as I would like so I am really enjoying getting the opportunity to try things out. We tried out four or five storyboarding sites (with some hard luck... including losing all our work in one) before I realized that Google Docs had a storyboard template! This was definitely my "find of the week." The scenes were so easy to create so with an intuitive design coupled with the collaboration ease that Google Docs provides I would not go back to anything else.

Here are a couple of sample frames:




As far as where my project falls into the RAT Framework (replacement, amplification, or transformation), I could argue for both amplification and transformation. Storyboarding is an activity/planning step that can be completed on paper. By moving it to the computer it would be amplification because I have not only replaced my method of delivery, but also amplified the task by making it more efficient and productive with being able to copy/paste, and save. Adding a video to the current lesson would be more of transformation because I'm changing the learning process and quite possibly they way that students think about the subject matter and the extra skills they pick up.

I thought a lot about applications for further study and I'd actually like to test our class on if a review video raises quiz scores. I talked with Stevie and hope to actually do a short quiz on the lesson material after having fellow students read it and then re-quiz after they watch our review video. I am hoping to see improved test scores. I think one of the biggest variables in teaching is how students learn. As I've said before, some learn by reading, but others learn by seeing, doing, or hearing. Hopefully the video review will improve the learning process/development for some students.

The RAT Framework assesses technology integration and breaks it into three categories--replacement, amplification, and transformation. Using my integration of the Blogs at Penn State into courses as an example, I believe that most of the work I do fits into the amplification and transformation categories. The Blogs@PSU platform can be considered a means, such as Microsoft Word, for writing. Teachers can write on the blog instead of hand out an assignment sheet. Students can create an entry instead of turn in a Word document. Basically the technology has replaced the old way, but has not changed established instructional practices for the given assignment. The difference is that instructors and students alike now have the ability to go back and review/reuse old content. Instructors can use their sites again, while students can re-purpose their personal work for other assignments as well as review material in one place. The learning process remains the same, but efficiency is increased.

Moving to transformation, the Blogs@PSU does not just have to be for word processing as described above. For example, one assignment used to be to create a typed resume to hand out at job fairs. By introducing the Blogs@PSU into the course, students now create online e-portfolios to supplement their written resumes. In doing so, students learn a new use for a technology as well as expand their learnings to include thoughts on layout and writing for a public audience. They also expand their thinking beyond what was expected of the traditional assignment. For this reason, the learning is transformed and goals and outcomes of the assignments were changed to fit.

Developing Instructional Multimedia from Donna Rubinson would work very well in a real instructional design situation. It lays out a 12-step process for designing instructional resources. As said in my previous post, these steps are essential to proper planning, development, and delivery of a lesson(s). Having a step-by-step process to work with allows for smooth creation of timelines and deliverables while also making sure that learning objectives are met and presented in a positive teachable/learnable manner.

Steps Outlined in Developing Instructional Multimedia

1.      Determine your overall goal.
2.      Define your instructional goal and develop your learning objectives.
3.      Analyze your students or audience.
4.      Determine what expertise is needed for your project.
5.      Determine your computer hardware and software requirements.
6.      Draw your conclusions.
7.      Write your design specifications.
8.      Develop an implementation plan.
9.      Develop a field test plan.
10.    Develop your project.
11.    Conduct your field test and revise as needed.
12.    Implement your module, use it, and monitor its results.

While the author created the document as a guide for developing instructional multimedia, I also believe that it can be used to greatly improve the design of any piece of instruction. For example, I am an instructional designer and design/redesign courses for a living. It is very important for me to take the time to plan the course out ahead of time and have a clear picture of what the goals and expected outcomes are to be before I even think about single pieces of a course. I also need to take into account who I am designing for (yes, there is a big difference between undergraduates and graduates in terms of motivation), determine the class setting (computer lab, traditional classroom, etc.), and try to field test or at least get opinions of a group of others (including instructors, students, and other designers).

Multimedia Developers vs. Instructional Designers

"Multimedia developers study communication design, video, photography, graphics, layout, and design, as well as computer technology. Developers specializing in instruction also study instructional design and learning theory."

Also...

"The process of instructional design is defining where you want to go instructionally, and developing a "map" of information and experiences to guide your students to the same destination or goal."

Instructional designers tend to have the upper hand at learning theory. Multimedia developers are able to take what instructional designers suggest for lessons and expand upon what technologies are available and fit best with the goals and outcomes that the designer creates. They know much more about how to lay something out and give it the best visual/audio appeal based on what an instructional designer wants the audience to focus on and take away from the assignment.

While there are a few differences of note, I also need to point out that the line between the two jobs can become quite blurred. Good instructional designers will want to take the time to learn about different technologies and how to best create and implement so that they can suggest them to others and use them more effectively. Multimedia developers will want to understand basic learning theory in order to suggest the best use of a technology for a particular audience and outcome. It is very important that people understand bits of both job function in order to be as successful as possible.

I really learned a lot completing the instructional multimedia plan. It really makes you sit down and think out every piece of the assignment and determine exactly how long specific sections are going to take to create. For design purposes, the plan can be used to create/brainstorm a lesson, an assignment within a lesson, or even an entire module that includes multiple lessons. The organization is great in that it allows for the creation of a visual reference to make sure that all of the design questions have been answered and all pieces of each project have been accounted for and allotted the time necessary to move forward.

When looking specifically at the plan as it relates to our project team in INSYS447 I realize how "on-task" all four team members are going to need to be in order to keep up with deadlines and produce quality material. I had a bit of a rough time this week because I had zero contact with the other three team members and ended up completing the plan by myself. It was a bit frustrating and difficult because I didn't have anyone else to bounce ideas off of or make sure I was doing things right. Also, I was hoping to get a sense of each person's strengths or interests so that I could assign each person as a team lead to something that suited them. I hope that everything goes smoothly from now on because our tight schedule basically means that if one person misses a deadline on something they hold the rest of the team up from being able to complete supporting pieces.

If I were to give one key takeaway from this assignment it would be the usefulness of incorporating the Twelve Steps for Developing Instructional Multimedia into the design process. These steps are essential to proper planning, development, and delivery of a lesson(s). Having a step-by-step process to work with allows for smooth creation of timelines and deliverables while also making sure that learning objectives are met and presented in a positive teachable/learnable manner.

Below are two posts that I read from Terra Incognita. Under each title I have pulled a few key points that I will use in my analysis of what open education and open educational resources mean to higher education, education as a whole, and specifically with regard to my role as an instructional designer.


Article 1: James Dalziel - Learning Design and Open Source Teaching

By fostering sharing, we not only improve education through open dissemination, but as educators can adapt and improve the Learning Designs they receive, and share the improved version back with a global audience of educators. This could lead to improved educational outcomes while at the same time reducing preparation time.

If Learning Designs capture the heart of the education process, then could we, by analogy, call them the "source code" of teaching? And if teachers then share their Learning Designs with each other under open content licenses, then does this represent the birth of open source teaching?


Article 2: Farideh Mashayekh - Lifelong Learning in Knowledge Society

Four Pillars of Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century
•    Learning to know by mastering cognitive skills & collaboration.
•    Learning to do by mastering skills & production.
•    Learning to be by admitting multiple intelligent (MI) and sustainable human development.
•    Learning to live together by dialogue and tolerance.

In a world of active lifelong learning, an individual's skills portfolio will be built and documented based on a mix of real-life experiences, achievements, and formal learning certifications.


Analysis:
Open education and the resources created in this manner have a huge effect on education and how content is designed and delivered. It is basically the 21st Century approach to the field that is allowing us, as educators and designers, to advance not only our knowledge but also those that we teach and create for.

The two pieces that I chose to focus on from the Dalziel post really get to the heart of how learning design is tied to open education. If we as designers focus on creating content without researching to see what others have done, we are really doing a disservice to instructors, students, and ourselves. An idea can only get as big as the brainpower involved. By harnessing the power of this open education concept we can learn the best of the best while at the same time learning what pitfalls have hit others and avoiding them along the way.

The piece about designers being the "source code" of teaching is very true. This is where ideas start, where issues are hammered out, and the best practices learned and hopefully shared. We really should think of ourselves as the source code. With the ability to follow this trend of open education we can not only learn from others but also share what we create. It goes back to the old adage of "why reinvent the wheel" when our time could be spent improving what has already been created. I hope to see a large upward trend toward idea-sharing and best practices in the next decade.

I shared the four pillars of lifelong learning from the Mashayekh post because after discussing what open education and resources can do for the field I think it is important to dig down to the designer level where we need to think about what open education and resources can do for the people we serve. You must "know," "do," and "be" in order to be well-rounded, and a persons skill portfolio will reflect this. Production does not occur anymore without some form of collaboration. It is really our duty to remember to search out the best and think about the four pillars when designing course material. Working to create content that touches on each area will make for more overall success of the material as well as the student.