1.
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 2 of these 5
contexts and compare/contrast the IDT trends and issues. Then
describe how knowledge of IDT trends and issues you captured from
those two fields can better inform your work.
I have chosen to focus on P-12
Education because it is what I have worked in for so many years and
Healthcare Education because informal research in healthcare is one
of my hobbies. These two fields, at first, seem vastly different from
one another. However, their ultimate goal is the same: make possible
for their audience/customers to efficiently acquire necessary
knowledge and skills.
In
P-12, we are focused on many different contents, goals, and subjects.
That is to say, we are not really very focused, at all. Each teacher,
at least above a certain grade level, may focus on one or two
subjects, but never delves very deeply into that subject.
Additionally, P-12 education is one of the last professional sectors
to adopt new technologies and techniques, for many reasons, not the
least of which is lack of funding
Healthcare
Education, on the other hand, is much more effective in reaching its
goals because it focuses its purpose and addresses only what needs to
be addressed. Where P-12 education is about building a foundation on
which to build future knowledge, healthcare education is about
putting the finishing touches on previously built structures.
Additionally, healthcare education, instead of being last to adopt
new technologies and techniques, they often develop them or drive the
develop of them.
While
we use some Problem Based Learning in P-12, it is all too often
disconnected from real-world application. In fact, in my experience,
PBL in P-12 most often winds up driving the lessons, instead of being
a tool to accomplish a task or goal.
2.
Chapters in Section VI discuss global trends and issues in IDT. What
have you learned from the selected chapter and how can/will it
enhance your teaching? In a global and more connected society, we
face unprecedented challenges that have implications for learning.
How and can we prepare our youth to develop cultural sensitivity when
working with people from the another (or your selected) region? Does
our current education system, curriculum, and instructional practices
help learners foster the skills necessary to tackle these issues?
What can be done in your role?
European trends in educational
design are so fractured as to give one a raging headache just trying
to figure out who is doing what with what. Each country that is part
of the EU tends to have it’s own trends, ideas and preferences in
education and education design. As the author, Phil Green, states:
some countries don’t even recognize teacher training and
certification as having any validity or relevance. Instead, they have
adopted the attitude that the only person qualified to teach someone
else is the person who has “been there, done that.” Because those
people are generally business leaders who are still engaged in their
regular, everyday jobs, teaching takes a backseat to other
considerations and obligations. According to Green, only the United
Kingdom has made efforts to create a professional, structured
environment in teaching. And, technology in education is little
better. Green states that technology in education is really just a
digitized version of the same old content and methods. As I
understand him, they just use technology as a new way of doing the
same lessons and activities they have been doing since the 1960’s
or even earlier. But, he did mention that there are places where
technology has a bigger role, but not a much more effective one: the
most effective and “modern” use of technology that he describes
is the use of technology to disseminate information and lessons, i.e. video lessons that take the place of in-persons lectures.
References
Raiser, R.A. and Dempsey, J.J. (2012) Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology 3rd Ed.
References
Raiser, R.A. and Dempsey, J.J. (2012) Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology 3rd Ed.
I agree that PBL ends up driving the lesson instead of the 'ultimate goal', which should be student success in the TEKS. I think that we are trying, at least I feel my schools are, to move towards real world applications. Not just the how or brunt of the lesson, but why it's important and how to apply it. I think that's the best to really get kids engaged and learn more efficiently.
ReplyDeleteI agree that teachers are doing the same lessons, but integrating technology or substituting as in the SAMR model, which doesn't really help students apply the technology skills. I did like how Green pointed this out, too, it made me look at things a little differently when observing teachers.
That is interesting and eye opening to read about the P-12 education system and the level of criticisms that it goes through on the levels that they focus one. I wonder if the the no child left behind act had a lot to do with the focus on the level of attention to give the students. The program seems to me more counter intuitive to the different assessment models that we read about. If the focus only plays out economically then it becomes counter intuitive to the focus on taking consideration of the students level of learning.
ReplyDeleteI can see how trying to keep up with the students and making sure that they have the basics will cause many to criticize how our education system is not preparing them for real world or in translation, the workforce.
Excellent discussion and questions raised.
ReplyDelete