Class Notes - September 12, 2007

Analysis~

*Instructional Designers take something they have no idea about and design a program that teaches that subject. This could be a daunting task. I keep thinking that it must take a LOT of time to get to know enough about the steps of a process to be able to design some type of instruction that teaches it.

* 3 Components of teaching – ideal situation, doesn’t always happen:

Content, Instructional Design, Delivery

In a classroom, all three components of teaching have their place and have to happen. However, an Instructional Designer creates instruction and then turns it over to somebody else. If I want all three components present, I have to design the instruction to allow for that. Time would also be an issue. In the design stages as well as delivery.


I keep thinking that there must be more to the whole ID process. Right now, it doesn't seem much different from teaching - except that I won't be the one delivering the instruction.

*** Analysis – keep breaking things down….break them down until it gets silly***

* Start at a high level and then break it down to the point of silliness

* Shapes – diamond vs. box

I learned something new tonight (tuition money well spent!). When using a flow chart, the shapes have meaning! I may be one of the world's biggest idiots, but I had no idea. A box indicates a step. Diamonds indicate choice, where boxes are more linear. Who knew? All this time, I just thought the shapes were meant to be pretty.

• Box is more linear: here is A, B, C, and D; step-by-step
• Diamond has more variables; can go this direction or that…with diamonds, instruction has power!

Get beyond the boxes!!!!
As an Instructional Designer, what are my options?

• Where can I change things? Where are variables in instruction.
  

Types of Learning
As any good teacher knows, there are different types of learning. ID's should also know this...and the learner. This will be more difficult because I won't actually know my students. I can't assess and change in the process of teaching. That's kind of scary.

- Declarative Knowledge – “knowing that”
- Procedural Knowledge – “knowing how”
- Discrimination: knowing when to say/do things. Making judgments.

Ex: When the oil light comes on, I know there must be something wrong with the oil in my car.

***Real learning occurs at discrimination level.

Discrimination is making different responses to the different members of a particular class. Seeing the essential differences between inputs and responding differently to each

Concrete Concept – classifying
Rule Using – how do these concepts fit together?
Problem Solving – take a bunch of rules and put them together
Cognitive Strategies – ex: shooting a picture, doing a math problem, crossword puzzle, processing something in your head
Attitudes – ex: teaching a course on diversity, choosing a healthy lifestyle
Psychomotor Skills – ex: changing a tire, shooting free throws, Tahitian dancing

Class Notes - September 5, 2007

Audio as an Instructional Media (presentation)

- Firevox – plug-in from Firefox that allows students to have text read to them (ELL)
- Materials streamed online
- “Voice of America” News in diff. languages. http://www.voanews.com/english/portal.cfm
- Library of Congress: archived audio material
- Radio Diaries (ELL) http://www.radiodiaries.org/
- Youth Speaks (LA) http://www.youthspeaks.org/
- Youth Radio http://www.youthradio.org/indexx.shtml
- Podcasting – increases students’ awareness of tone, intonation, speed of delivery, and expression
*helps students focus on content and delivery
*provides “virtual window” into schoolroom
*creative outlet
For ELL:
- Listening skills used twice as often as speaking in classroom
- Listening is the first skill used in a new language, then speaking follows
- http://www.esl-lab.com/
- http://shiporsheep.com/
- http://www.elllo.org/
- http://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/
- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
- 50% of school day is spent listening
- Hearing: sounds coming into brain. Listening: receiving sound, processing it and finding meaning.

I'm teaching an ESL class this year and I've been looking at different websites that provide listening exercises. This group just made my life much easier. I'm excited to look at these websites and see how well they work.

• Note: I've found that using the Youth Radio, Youth Speaks and Radio Diaries are a great hit with my students. We've done a few listening practices and used these sites. I'm hoping to start podcasting soon. That will help the students hear how they pronounce English and work on improving their issues.
• Dec. 3, 2007

Teacher Lecture

- According to Smith & Ragan:

Instruction, training, and teaching initially seemed to mean the same thing. However, they do have slight differences. Instruction is more focused on educational experiences. For example, I took an online literature class. The focus was on Romantic Literature, and we were very focused on that particular subgroup. Training hones in on a specific skill, like sewing or tiling, something that can be applied almost immediately. Finally, teaching generally refers to an experience facilitated by a human. This made me think of how I learned to make tapa cloth. My grandma taught me step-by-step. I watched her, she helped me practice, and I did it on my own.

• Instruction: focused educational experiences
• Training: experiences focused on v. specific skills that are normally applied almost immediately
• Teaching: learning experiences that are facilitated by a human being

3 Questions to Answer in Instructional Design

* Where do we need to go? (Analysis)
* How will we get there? (Development)
* How will we know when we’ve arrived? (Evaluation)

This refers back to ADDIE, and classroom teaching practice. What's my core content? What are my objectives? How am I going to teach the class and get them to meet the objectives?


*Guard against the bias…not everything is an instructional problem!!


When designing instruction, it's vital to know what your needs are. Needs could include, but definitely are not limited to: learner needs, client needs, material needs, time needs, and so on. Figure out what your needs are before designing instruction. It's also important to evaluate what types of needs your dealing with.

Types of Needs

· Normative Needs: compared to a national standard
· Comparative Needs: compared to another group (SAT’s, ACT, etc)
· Felt Needs: expressed desire to improve performance
· Expressed Needs: action to improve performance
· Anticipated/Future Needs: Identified future changes
· Critical Incident Needs: rare but significant incidents that may occur**

Clarify Instructional Goals

-Which things can be solved by instruction? Which can’t?
- Somewhere along the line you’re going to have to have a goal. Create a standard.
- Be aware of Means vs. Ends
-Goal statement: what is the learner going to be able to do?
* Watch your verbs….verb determines how you’re going to measure learning
*ASK QUESTIONS!!!! Don’t take a goal statement at face value.
* Goals should be more specific than general, although not as specific as objectives

*** Learning Goals: statements of the purpose or intention, what learners should be able to do at the conclusion of instruction

Class Notes - Aug 29, 2007

A.D.D.I.E.

A – Analysis

• Collect data that will impact the design.
• Questions to ask:
• Need for Instruction *Goals of Instruction
• Characteristics of Target Group
• Skills/knowledge needed to learn
• Contexts of the Instruction

D – Design

• Come up with the idea; “This is what we’re going to do….”
• Blueprint process
• Try and thin of everything, try to lessen surprises!
• Teaching – How?
• Assessment – How?

D – Development

• Production of materials
• Medium? Text, Audio, Visual (8 types)
• Cost/Budget?
• Time?

I – Implementation

• Purpose of Instructional Design process
• Trying to control variables (time, materials, students, etc.)
• * The actual “doing!!”

E – Evaluation

• Provide the designer with information to improve instruction
• One-to-one
• Small group
• Field trial

As an ID novice, I'm looking at the ADDIE format and really liking it. I am a list maker, I like to know what I've done, know what needs to be done and know how I'm going to do it. That's the way I approach my lesson plans at school. Without putting a fancy acronym to it, I've been using a modified version of ADDIE. Hopefully, that will help with this class and, ultimately, becoming an Instructional Designer.

Here's a Thought

I really like the A.D.D.I.E model. It's a more structured way of approaching lesson design. When I create a lesson for my middle school students, I don't always remember to analyze all the different parts of the puzzle. The planning part of a project is always interesting to me. I like to think things out, and the A.D.D.I.E. model forces you to do so in depth. I really like the way it breaks instruction down into 5 steps: Analysis, Design, Development, Instruction, and Evaluation. Taking your thoughts and compartmentalizing them makes creating the whole project a little easier and definitely more focused.