- Hybrid classes
1. Distributed learning based at physical locations – Dallas TeleCollege
This was an easy choice for me as this is the online or distance ‘location’ for the DCCCD. The telecollege acts as a clearinghouse for the online courses at each of the DCCCD schools. Students can take 100 percent of their degree courses online, but must choose a ‘home’ college if they want to be awarded a degree. They never have to set foot at the college, but there is a physical location attached to their degree or certification so it is a unique situation. Some courses that are hybrids have an on-campus requirement, so students who are at a distance have to be careful in the selections that they make. Through partnerships with the military, the TeleCollege has fully online programs that are available to soldiers serving around the world. Since the online courses are taught in real-time by faculty members at each of the colleges, there are physical locations where students can work personally with an instructor if they are close-by too. 2. Free distributed learning - MIT OpenCourseWare
3. Skills-based training – Adobe Communities
4. Knowledge based learning – TED
• Reusability – Explain how the course could be redesigned to improve reusability without changing the underlying content.
When I think back over the majority of my college career, it is far enough back that there was little chance of reusability for much of it. One thing that sticks in my mind as one of my favorite courses though was my Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies course. I think that there would be a great deal of rich media and online resources which would now be available that could be integrated into this course for students who are interested in this historic topic.
Just a simple Google search turned-up this: Shakespeare Online that has full text versions of all of the plays available for free. There are essay and analysis for many of the plays along with a glossary, full character listing and even a quiz.
There are a number of videos on YouTube that feature speeches from the plays performed on stage or screen, but a significant number of the plays can be viewed in film versions from online providers or local video stores. Once all the materials have been gathered to read and prepare for discussion, having a public wiki for the course would add a reusability to the discussion.
• Rich Media - Find or create a visual for instruction describing its surface and functional features.
My college was planning to switch to a newer version of Blackboard Software, so they offered classes for those who had used the program before to upgrade to the new package. If we didn’t want to take the training class, there were a series of tutorial videos that were made available online. I chose these as the rich media to review. You can see one of the tutorials.
The surface features of the presentation have detailed screenshots of the actual program. Throughout the training program various areas of the screens are ‘circled’ in red to show the new users exactly where on the screen information or options will appear as well as where to place their cursor to find menus. Functionally, the visuals are highly effective because they show a true representation of what the teachers will be seeing and where the options will appear on-screen as they work with Blackboard. There are portions of the tutorial that show the exact process, scrolling and entering data, necessary to complete a certain task.
The only audio component is a rather loud clicking sound each time you advance a slide in the tutorial. These tutorials would benefit from having narration instead of just visual instructions. All the visual content within the tutorial breaks the rule of “seven plus or minus two chunks.” With all the menus visible, there are pages where the written instructions can get overwhelming. “When instructional materials include complex visuals such as animations, presentating words in the form of text can overload the visual/pictoral channel” (318).
• Describe how nanotechnology could be used to improve a specific job or task you are familiar with.
The idea of implanted nanotechnology is more than a little bit frightening to me. I’m sure that there is a horror movie buried somewhere in the capabilities of this technology. While nanotechnology does not have to be implanted to be effective or used, the example given in the book brought these fears to mind. Spurred by the idea of the digital paper, it occurred to me that I had a job done at my house last week that would benefit from this sort of technology. We had to have our washing machine repaired and the plumber brought a ream of instructions and manuals and trouble-shooting guides. We had to send the repairman a message that included the model number for our machine before he came out for the service, so he could look for the relevant materials to bring with him. If he were able to have a single sheet that was able to access the full manuals of each brand and model of washing machines with him, then his work would be much simpler.
• The Inclusive Road
I have to say that I would consider taking the narrow road for the future of instructional design and technology as a failure. In the somewhat brief history of instructional technology as a field, the definition has progressed and grown as the field has developed. To narrow the focus of what it means to work in instructional design and technology would be a defeat of this growth in my opinion. The 1970s definition looks at instructional technology as “the media born of the communications revolution which can be used for instructional purposes alongside the teacher, textbook, and blackboard” (5). While the latest ACET definition highlights the “study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological process and resources” (6). It’s obvious that what it means to be an instructional designer or to use instructional technology for design has evolved greatly in the last 30 plus years.
Beyond understanding the essential definition of educational technology, to hold to a narrow road would threaten one of the strongest technologies at our disposal. The Internet has evolved from a mindset where content is a single stream pushed out by the companies and institutions who wish to communicate with customers, or where content is posted by users as a static entity. The new mindset taking hold on the Web is that the Internet is a place for relationships and interactions; where information and ideas are pushed and pulled by users and where everyday users can now be contributors and active partners in creation on the Web. If educational technology does not adopt an open mindset that fits with this new mindset, then the Web becomes little more than a really big and complex textbook. If instructional technology does not accept a similar mindset, that a broad audience can become a broad base of contributors, then I can’t see how the new Web users would accept the Web tools that are created.
Now, I am not advocating for a free-for-all with those who are untrained or unknowledgeable to be the driving voices behind educational technology, but the field should be open to the ideas of those who are learning to use technology in new and creative ways. Learning is a relationship between teacher and student, so the field can only benefit from including those who are thinking about and using technology in ways that elicit new and different relationships.
The risks are valid for choosing the broad road. By opening to participation, and perhaps practice, by those who are outside the direct discipline of educational technology there is a significant risk of redundancy, but that I think, is unavoidable no matter the field. Loss of identity is no more a risk than for any other teaching discipline since so many people do think that anyone can teach. The benefits from opening the field to new ideas from more sciences, new methods of inquiry, new methods of sharing and new approaches to working can only benefit those we train as we are better prepared to help them reach their goals.
