Shawn Atwood
Foundations of Instructional Design
Sept. 5, 2008
Foundations of Instructional Design
Sept. 5, 2008
“What is an instructional designer? What is technology?”
As class ended a few nights ago, a couple of things have been racing through my mind concerning education, learning, technology, and the instruction that takes place. It is still a very complicated task to try to attempt to define what an instructional designer is and in addition, what technology is, but I will attempt to give it my best shot. So, what is an instructional designer? And what is technology? Fasten your seatbelts because here we go!
First, what is an instructional designer? An instructional designer is one who attempts to continuously facilitate learning in their student through a wide variety of teaching techniques. The more variety the better, because variety is what will keep the learner interested in what is being taught. According to Dick and Carey, there are a few things to consider when deciding on the instructional design. They include four instructional goals: First, is knowing who the learners are. An instructional designer is one who is constantly informally assessing his/her learners. Once an instructional designer understands who their audience is, they will know how to design their instruction to best fit the learner’s needs. They are constantly evaluating themselves as well, deciding how to change their instructional design so they can instruct more effectively. This is a vital step in the effect that just because an instructional designer knows the content, does not mean they know how to teach it.
The second goal is understanding “what learners will be able to do in the performance context” (Pg. 25). Essentially this is the objective of the instructional designer for the learner. Without an objective, instructing is pointless. These objectives will, and should, often change as well based on the level and performance of the learner. The challenge with this is deciding how the learners will learn the content and how long it will take for them to master the content because every student is at a different level. The third goal is how the skill will be applied. If there is no application coinciding with the instruction, then the instructional design failed. I believe that this is the most crucial step because it completely validates the instruction.
The fourth goal is describing “the tools that will be available to the learners in the performance context” (Pg.25). To me, the forth goal helps to actually answer my second question: what is technology? Technology is what the student or the instructional designer uses to collaborate learning, whether it is tools, techniques, or procedures. Put simply, it is anything that makes something, including learning and teaching, more efficient. That is why technology and an instructional designer go hand in hand, because they both have a common purpose: to facilitate learning.
2 comments:
Hey Shawn,
I like your broad definition of technology being anything that makes something more efficient.
On the question of what an Instructional Designer does I think we see that from differing perspectives. Yes, the designer may be a teacher with students, but could also be a text book publisher, web master or television producer, if the media being produced is part of a systematic plan to aid instruction.
Just my two cents. Hope you and the fam are enjoying this great fall weather!
Rich
I liked your statement that the designer "attempts to continuously facilitate learning". Teaching takes a lot of forms and variety but it is the attempt to continuously facilitate learning that teachers are always trying to do. I don't know that anyone ever gets it perfect we just keep trying in new and ever more efficient ways.
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