Reflection and Rejuvenation!

Thank God for a three week Winter vacation! I am definitely enjoying break, and after one week of rest, I am settling into planning, reading and grading mode. I have three novels I would like to finish before school resumes: Love in the Time of Cholera, Talk Talk by T.C. Boyle, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Have to catch up on my reading of the LA Times and New Yorker, and I would like to check out a few movies: The Great Debaters, No Country for Old Men, and Juno. I wish all reaaders a prosperous New Year!

Students and Blogging

Today, my students in AP English Language created their own blogs. You would have thought that I gave them each a Christmas present. Students customized and shared and expressed genunine excitement about the possiblities of learning with blogs. I can't wait to see their educational blogs take shape. Until next time!

Evaluation of Instructional Design

I found the specificity and detail of the Chapter on Evaluation in Instructional Design to be important for teachers to take note of. In my opinion, many classroom teachers could benefit from additional professional development aimed at how to accurately assess student learning, and to plan further instruction based on those assessment results. I found Kirkpatrick's 4 Level Model of Training Evaluation particularly useful to incorporate into my own evaluation of curriculum, in addition to teacher made assessments, and mandated state ones. Of the components of the model: Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results, I found the section on Transfer of learning especially significant. Educational Design evaluation includes measures to see if the skills learned in the design environment are transferred to the work environment. Education, specifically secondary education could do much more to assess transfer and application of classroom learning to the real world. Some of the activities that I can think of at the moment include problem or project based learning, which is also discussed in the text; and incorporating media into lessons for students to construct knowledge (as well as present it). Giving students authentic audiences for writing, by having students write letters, blogs, journals, stories, book reviews, etc stress many of the same skills as a traditional essay, but give them an audience to do so. This may help students see the ultimate value in writing well, when students write for more than just a teacher.
I found table 10.2 Factors facilitating transfer of training to be an appropriate set of questions that could be adopted for classroom use. Reflection is an important part of evaluation and the questions identified can help prompt more of it in my classroom.

Using Rich Media Wisely

Chapter 30 of the text Using Rich Media Wisely, presents us with the age old caution against overkill. The chapter presented research on the value that media can add and enhance learning, if media tools are wisely chosen and are suited to meet the function of the learning objectives. As a high school AP English teacher, I made the connection between the text and rhetoric: effective communication has to be tailored to suit both audience and purpose, it must take into account audience background, expectations, prior knowledge. The communicator must then sort through her "tool bag" of sorts, to find and utilize strategies that are most appropriate and relevant for learners. So must media. Media tools that are mismatched or are only added to arouse, what the authors call "seductive details" actually depress learning. Conscientious media designers must be aware of the purpose of a media design tool or environment which they are creating, its ultimate purpose for the learner, and use appropriate rich media techniques (sound, graphics, animation) to match the learning objectives. Hence, knowledge of audience, and purpose is extremely important. I found it striking that the chapter notes that it is more important to use good design principles for low-knowledge learners than for high knowledge learners, just as it is more important for classroom teachers to use well planned lessons with explicit strategy instruction, modelling, guided and independent practice with students with lower skills than those without. For advanced students, these assist their learning; for students who are low skilled they can not survive without them.

New Directions in IDT- Distributed Learning and the Field of Instuctional Design

It was ironic and rewarding reading Chapter 28 on Distributed Learning and the Field of Instructional Design three weeks after the media debate on the question "Does Media Influence Learning?". Although not the intent, this chapter poses very persuasive information on how media influences learning by making learning convenient for the learner. The chapter notes, and I quote how "the Internet and its environs are saturated with opportunities for incidental learning outcomes. More than any other medium, the Internet allows for Serendipity in acquiring or expanding knowledge. This may be online learning's most powerful and unexplored feature (pg. 293)". But for now...back to distributive learning and the opportunities and challenges posed for those in IT design.

According to the text, distributed learning is any educational or training experience that uses a variety of means including technology to enable learning (290). It can provide for planned (intentional) or spontaneous (incidental) learning outcome. In teacher talk, I compare this to a lesson as planned, and the impromptu student questions that arise as the lesson is delivered that are opportunities to inject information not anticipated-- those "teachable moments". In my opinion, this is why the internet is such a powerful learning tool- it is filled with ways to initiate and satisfy "teachable moments" (and without a teacher, no less!)

Distributed learning eliminates constraints of time (and location) and can take the form of distance learning, online learning and e-learning. Each of these types offer the learner flexibility.

Benefits of distributed Learning

The text outlines many benefits of distributed learning in both academic and corporate settings:

• These include, as mentioned, greater accessibility to learning outcomes without time or proximity constraints.


• Lower costs especially for businesses to train employees.


• The ability to track what learners know and are able to do.


• The ability for the learner to become a part of a virtual community.

Of course there are challenges for those involved in creating distributed learning (and those distributive learners). These challenges, in many ways relate back to the ultimate challenges of using technology in education without a shift in the overall educational paradigm. One of the challenges in distributed learning is the great need for online learning products- as more and more companies and higher education institutions rely more and more on them, while not compromising on quality. The latter poses a special problem as those outside the field often lack the skills to initially judge a distributed learning environment on anything other than appearance (which of course is misleading). Hence the ubiquitous argument of quantity versus quality surfaces. In my opinion, this is an opportunity for instructional designers to reach out to traditional educational practitioners (teachers, professors, curriculum specialists) to co-create distributed learning environments that are constructed on solid learning theories. This, according to the text, represents the importance of having a strong development team. Often, educators who are "thrown in" to creating distributive learning environments (i.e. curriculum for online courses) had no idea how the medium would change their delivery of the message. According to the text, "supplementing or replacing lectures with an online interactive learning experience requires more skill than most educators present are present (pg. 296)." I would argue that this is especially true of college professors who are often used to the traditional lecture, but I might add that educators at other levels-- particularly elementary and secondary (middle/high school) teachers have more experience creating interactive classrooms because of the nature of the client being serviced (a talkative, interactive, hyperactive, young mind!). Were I to get involved in design/consulting, I think this is where my talents lie. I could envision myself as an educational consultant assisting professors and designers use the learning theories to create online learning environments that are more interactive and engaging for online learners that are creating with the medium in mind.

The text argues that it is critical for designers to be life long learners to consistently produce high quality distributed learning environments and tools. I see distributed learning placing new demands on educators as well: the need to learn how to create curriculum that is effectively serviced online. A window of opportunity for both groups indeed!

Trends and Issues in P-12 Educational Change

As a student in the Reading Masters Program at Cal State L.A., I have always been interested in curriculum and instruction. Very early in my career as an English teacher, I enjoyed sharing best practices with my colleagues. To that end, I am interested in how instructional design programs and curricular tools can maximize students literacy development. As an English teacher, I am interested in the role of media in the types of texts students read and construct each day. Today's new media tools such as social networking, blogging, hypermedia and hypertext revolutionized communication yet again. These media can be powerful tools to help students hone and develop multiple literacies. I think the techonological tools can also help reinforce the traditional types of literacy as well, but are often unused in classrooms. I see a natural fit between media tools and the English/Language Arts classroom, as my goal as a teacher is to teach students to think with multiple types of texts. Hence, my fascination with media tools that facilitate literacy. Aside from the aforementioned tools, curricular programs that promote online writing portfolios and promote student (and teacher) writing of multiple drafts for authentic audiences fascinates me in that these tools have the potential to increase student writing and relieve teachers of a physical paper load.

As schools are social institutions, they are often slow to change, and hesitant to embrace the full potential of technological tools. As noted in Chapter 21, many of the changes adopted by schools are often piecemeal changes, and don't alter the general school culture vis a vis instructional design. Hence, one of the challenges I might face in working with instructional designers to design literacy fostering programs might be an overall resistance on the part of schools to adopt a programs not geared to high stakes testing. There is still in some ways an understimation of technology, in my opinion, on the part of educators who only view it as a method for knowledge presentation rather than a vehicle for knolwedge construction and management.