Turning in the first assignment was very positive.  I was quite a fun experience and I have a great team to work with.    Looking forward to working on the next project.

On to class…..

Tonight’s class was centered on analysis and the importance of it.  In reviewing the discussion postings it is interesting to see different viewpoints.  There has been a good observations of the material in the class so far.  There is many different viewpoints in the discussion that would be applicable to my current professional career.

Mr. Monson discussed the triangle of analysis.  As the project progresses, the project begins to break down into different levels.  One of the thoughts that comes to mind is that we all use help when we need.   We often forget that we lose the basics of the principles that we originally learned rather than the practices of the the information.  This could cause unforseen roadblocks that could hinder a teaching career.

It is important to make connections in educational pursuits that help us develop our personal and professional skills.  One of the things that I begin to realize when thinking about these connections is that we all need to be flexible enough to widen our perspective.  By looking “outside” the box, we  often discover specialized characteristics of our life that we didn’t know we had.

Discussion Topic:  Five Views of the Field

In this discussion, we talked about views of the field as building blocks of instructional design.   One of the major aspects of this design pattern is being “blind” to other things just because it’s the way it has been done.  As an instructional design specialist, we need to establish credibility to engage trust of our peers and colleagues in order to accomplish a given task or responsibility. The possibilities of turning experience into teaching came up.  It is interesting that SME’s often times can’t function in a classroom simply because of the lack of skills to teach others.  It is kind of like an expert witness for a legal case.

Often, as SME’s we have the knowledge that backs up our point of view, but lack personable skills that help make the connections necessary.  In the national report card, it states that

“As with teaching practices, there is debate surrounding the preparation and qualifications that characterize high-quality teachers. Compared to other fields, disputes and ambiguities regarding the knowledge base and competence required of professionals are particularly striking in teaching (Sykes, 1990). There is little dispute that teachers ought to have a postsecondary education and possess strong knowledge of the subjects they teach, but beyond this there is some disagreement about what individuals need to know and be able to do in order to teach effectively. Moreover, as researchers struggle to quantify teacher preparation and qualifications, some critics feel that studies of teachers’ credentials and knowledge do not provide enough information about teacher quality— that is, indicators of teacher preparation and qualifications do not directly address the actual quality of instructional practices. As these debates are highlighted in the paragraphs that follow, however, it is important to note that there are some well-established indicators of teacher preparation and qualifications that do inform researchers, policymakers, and education consumers.

Taken from http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/1999080/index.asp?sectionid=2#teaching1

More on the discussion of the evening….

Four fuctions of analysis:

1.  Identifies steps of a particular job or task

2.  Identifies critical needs that impact completion of the task

3.  Priortize selection of appropriate intervention

4.  Provides effective baseline data for future use

This is interesting in this list because we often skip over steps just to solve a problem.

It will be interesting to see where this discussion goes.

Tidbits and thoughts from class….

learning about the instructional design process was something that I knew about, but really had no clue as to what it meant.  I knew about lesson design and classroom management, but this gave me a whole new outlook on things.  It is great to be about to be an SME in Instruction and Curriculum, but even better will be an SME in Instructional Design.

Mr. Monson discussed several things to ponder and I begin to question what the process really holds and how I am using it to my advantage.  Most of my instructional design experience comes in the professional business world through Six Sigma..  As we currently pass through our ADDIE project, these essential skills are becoming clearer. 

One question stands out…..  How important is instructional design when the basic needs of the student are not being met and how can we improve that?