Friday, September 26, 2014

Trends & Issues Various Settings

Chapters in Section V identify trends and issues in IDT in various contexts: business & industry; military; health care education; P-12 education; and post-secondary education. Select at least 3 of these 5 contexts and compare/contrast the IDT trends and issues. Then explain how they are similar or different from the IDT trends and issues in the context in which you work.
I selected business and industry, P-12 education and post-secondary education for this assignment. All three of these are similar in that each one requires constant evaluation of the IDT process in an ever-changing environment.
Trends in business and industry include cross cultural training, technology based training delivery, understanding human performance and project management versus instructional design. The key similarity of this industry to my field is the increase in technology based training delivery. In secondary education field there is an increased focus on providing, managing and supporting training for teachers through technology. This will only increase as cost-effective approaches are sought and the abilities of technology expands.
The focus in higher education as it relates to instructional design is working with faculty to improved instruction. In higher education the instructional designer is most often working with professors that are content experts but often not strong in best practices for instruction. In this setting there is an inherent need to develop relationships with those professors and the ability to explain what you know in common terms. This is very similar to my experiences in secondary education. Relationships are the foundation for learning regardless if you are teaching middle school or adults. It was mentioned in this chapter that often the hardest part of working with faculty is getting them to attend training or workshops. I have also found this to be true as I work to help teachers better integrate technology in the classroom. The attendance for my training sessions is minimal and something I need to improve.

For P-12 education there are three types of instructional design development: system ID, product ID and classroom development. Since classroom development is most similar to my field, I will focus my discussion on that aspect.  The key component of classroom development is using tools to construct knowledge in an authentic context. In simple terms this is getting the teachers to actually use the tools while encouraging use in a way that promotes higher level thinking or creativity (vs drill and practice.) As CTE coordinator, this is exactly what my goal has been the last three years in supporting teachers with technology integration. Although the goal is moving towards the “best practices” in integrating technology, I feel it is important to recognize and support the basics as teachers begin the process of using technology to enhance instruction. This is a balancing act and requires a good understanding of the technology tools, the design process and quality relationships with the people involved.

3 comments:

  1. Hello Winston,
    I am very curious to hear more about your position as a CTE coordinator. What would a day in the life os a CTE coordinator look like? Are there any best practices you know of that would cross over from business and industry to education? I think you are right on point when you stated. "Relationships are the foundation for learning..." Relationships are the foundation for everything! Relationship establish boundaries and etiquette, relationship is the only way we can touch the life of another.
    Great post.
    See ya in class,
    Joe

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  2. Hi Winston, you did a great job of comparing the similarities between IDT trends in business, P-12 Education and Post Secondary Education. I thought it was interesting that you noted the cost effectiveness of e-training. This makes so much sense as companies look for ways to save. If you can provide E-tools or E-training you will save so much in the long run on providing effective supports for your staff. You will not need a meeting space, you can use the same videos over and over, staff can utilize the training when it is convenient which makes them more likely to use the training. This definitely seems like a win win situation.

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  3. Winston,

    Sorry for the late post. Great Blog! As an Information Technology manager working in a Higher Ed business office, I have often wondered if getting experienced, older educators to adapt to technology and use is as challenging as getting the experienced, older business office workers to adapt and use technology. It sounds like it is. I would imaging its fairly similar in that experience office workers, like experience educators are set in doing things a certain way and don’t like or appreciate change. I have found the mindset among many of them to be, “If it’s not broken, when fix or change it. What many of them don’t realize is the technology can help them do their jobs more efficiently, saving time and costs. I know that mind set exist with some of our Higher Ed professors too. I am looking forward to working in the Instructional Design field and hoping to help change the outlook for some of these naysayers that think technology cannot work for them.
    Thanks
    David

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