- distributed or e-learning environments
- reusable design or learning objects
- networks or Web 2.0 technologies
- rich media
- digital games or simulations
- virtual worlds
I've been wondering, throughout most of this course, if I was an Instructional Designer and didn't know it. After careful deliberation, I've decided that, for the most part anyway, I am. I teach high school and in this day and age of budget cuts, STAAR testing and a constant monitoring the scores to improve averages, if you aren't a little bit of instructional designer, you won't last long. Other teachers and I are always looking for ways to keep the kids interested and wanting to learn. Learning objects is a good way to do just that. Learning Objects, plainly put, is anything that can be used to help you learn. Done right, learning objects can be a work of art. They can be and are meant to be interchangeable. Multiple lessons taught using the same ideas, just modified a little. An effective learning object connects the learner and the course and sometimes even their own personal experiences, all the while accommodating multiple learning styles. This is especially important today as the classrooms are a study in multicultural backgrounds and mainstreaming the learning disabled into regular classrooms. Another emerging technology, that I believe will be instrumental in helping kids learn is Web 2.0. Basically, the second generation web. This one, though, acts as a host for people to share their knowledge. If you have taught, then you know one of the hardest parts of teaching is getting all of the students to participate. You can threaten, you can call class participation part of their grade, you can even try bribing, but in the end you still have five percent of the kids doing ninety percent of the talking. Web 2.0 connects people together. People learn by giving their opinions and ideas on a given subject and receiving other people's ideas and opinions on the same subject. Web 2.0 opens the door of the classrooms and lets learners interact with more than just a classroom of thirty. It encourages interaction between all kinds of learners, explorers, adventurers, even professionals of all kinds. Of course, as with all good ideas, there are drawbacks: loss of control is one, lack of privacy would be another drawback. Teachers would have to relinquish control to allow the students to venture out and that would cause the lack of privacy. In my opinion, if you control everything for a person, that person will never learn control.
Fred Rodgers stated; "Play gives children a chance to participate what they are learning." I believe that. I also believe it can be stated; "Children learn while playing." Well thought out games provide an incentive for people to learn. I personally would rather learn from a game than inside a classroom with statistics and dates being thrown at me from every direction. These days learners may be from one hundred different parts of the world, but they all understand X-Box and Playstation. Hours upon hours are being spent in front of the TV playing these games. It wouldn't take much for these games to evolve into a computerized learning tool for the classroom. And the best part is, the kids seem to already be hooked. Even though game learning still seems to be in its infancy, I believe it has the potential for a long eventful life.
2. Section IX focuses on issues related to instructional design, rather than new technologies: professional ethics, diversity and accessibility, the nature of design, and providing instructional guidance. For each of the technologies you selected above, discuss what ethical issues using the technology might present. Does the technology enhance accessibility and accommodate diverse learning needs? How and/or can you design instruction using that technology? How much guidance would instruction with that technology require? What kinds of guidance would be necessary?
Ethics? What's that? The term ethics is a pretty broad term in some ways. Some people believe it's interchangeable with the word "morals" . It probably is, on a personal level. However, on a business level, it goes a little deeper, means a little more. Most businesses have a code of ethics they at least, try to follow. Learning Objects, Web 2.0, Learning games, all are excellent ways to instruct, but are they ethical? Sure. Ethics can be applied to all three. No negative stereotypes. Not a problem. Learning Objects, Learning games, both are ways to teach that include and embrace diversity. Web 2.0 is perfect on the ethics scale. It's all about getting people involved, people from all cultures and backgrounds. No one left out. No one feels left out.
Well designed games, web sites and reusable design, have the potential to support meaningful learning across a variety of cultures, problem learners and learners with disabilities . Assistive technology refers to devices and or software specifically designed to aid people with disabilities. Different types of disabilities need different types of technology. Games, networks, learning objects, all can be adapted to enhance the learning capabilities of the handicapped. Changes in software have literally leveled the playing field between the fit and the disabled.
Providing instructional guidance with the technology we have today is the easy part. What we have to decide on is, how much guidance is necessary to achieve the goals that have been set. There are plenty of arguments between the "minimal guidance" people and the "fully guided" people.(Personally, I am a minimal guidance person) . Unfortunately, according to trends and research, "the only rational future course is to focus instructional design on fully guided instructional methods for all but a very small percentage of students. The very few being the very intelligent and highly motivated. Can students change? Designers (teachers) must provide the students the opportunity to learn from what they have seen demonstrated and to demonstrate themselves how much they have learned. Full guidance may not be needed as the students learn, but it needs to be on hand if the students experience problems. The designers of today and in the future need to keep an open mind concerning the ability of students or the designers themselves could be the ones left behind.
