Introduction
These three chapters discussed
the history of Instructional Design and Technology. After reading these chapters I have learned a
lot. It also caused me to reevaluate my
classroom and ultimately my district and how it designs the use instructional technology. In the past I have not be overly impressed
and have chosen not to use this in the classroom. However, these chapters have inspired me to reconsider
how I can use technology in the classroom.
Definition of IDT
When I first started out as a
teacher five years ago, I thought that instructional technology meant that you
were using the document camera or showing some sort of instructional
media. As I begin to continue learning
about how I needed to use technology and that idea began to change as my school
would show the staff different technologies, most of the designed for one
specific subject however, so it did not change that much. My definition of what
instructional technology was developed over years of me watching my teachers in
high school and of course my undergraduate studies. When I was a student in high school most of
the time I saw my teachers using instructional media and for a while there I
thought that was what teacher used as technology. The only classes that I actually used
technology was the computer business classes or English writing papers. When I was doing my undergraduate studies
through the history department they wanted to focus on content and not
technology. So when I first started out
as a teacher all I had to base it on was what I saw in my history classes in
high school. After reading the definitions in the first chapter of the book my
perspective was that I was not too far off in realizing that I was using a form
of technology. I was using instructional
media, which according to what I read does not lead to a lot of student
engagement. The impression that I got was
that technology should foster be based on student centered learning.
Six Characteristics of Instructional Design
The six characteristics of
instructional design seems to be the basis for which curriculum coordinators use
to create curriculum. Now in my own
lessons, I tend to do what is best for my students. Now in most of the lessons that I can think
of that I could present here, none of them actually fit into the six characteristics
of instructional design. I contribute a
lot of this to the fact that in my district particularly US History, where it
is STAAR tested we tend to focus on the content over anything else. Here is the lesson, where I would teach the
subject and then have the students do a primary source analysis or guided
reading to reinforce their knowledge of the content. Now this is how I would change this lesson to
ensure that it would better adhere to the six characteristics of instructional
design. I would still start out with me teaching the content, because in US
History and in nay history class the content is very important, and I have done
my own research and showed that many of my students remember their history
after I teach them because of how I teach it and I teach in as if it was a
story. The student centered portion of
the lesson will still be the primary source analysis, but instead of giving
them a worksheet, I would turn it into a gallery walk to where they would have
to find the next primary document based on the clue that they are given. This lesson can be measured by how well the
student would perform on the class test and of course district set tests. Unfortunately,
I would still not have time to change in of the lesson and correct the problems
until in my curriculum there is a day where I can, which are built into the
lessons. This is how I would change the
lesson to ensure that it adhered to the six characteristics of instructional
design.
Instructional media vs.
Instructional Design
The reason that I think that
Reiser needs to distinguish instructional media from instructional deign is because
instructional media is usually like a historical documentary. It does not really lead to a student centered
learning. I use them in class because it
backs up what you are teaching and presents the information in another
format. However, it does not fit very
well into the six characteristics of instructional design. I would not consider
chalkboards or textbooks as instructional media because it really does not give
good information. Teachers at least will
design a lecture in a way to make it more instructionally beneficial to the
students. Like in my class where we
learn the history by telling the story of how our country was created to the present
day. However, the other does not lead to
very good critical thinking skills and that is the whole goal of teaching to
develop the skills students need to be successful. However, I do believe that part of
instructional design is to incorporate media into instruction because it does
at least present instructional information in a different light.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think that there
is still a lot for me into learn about technology and instructional design and
look forward to learning new things.
