Shawn Atwood
Foundations of Instructional design
EDPS 6430

“1 Step Closer”

Congratulations everyone! We survived week #2. This has been a fascinating week for me as far as teaching and learning are concerned. I think that both teaching and learning really go hand in hand with each other. As you teach, you learn so much about yourself as well as the learner, and as you learn new things, you naturally have the desire to teach and/or explain it to another person. As I have completed the readings for this week as well as last weeks and in addition to the classroom discussions and student blogs, I have walked away with an even better understanding of what it means to be an instructional designer, and even perhaps more importantly, what it takes to be an effective one. I don’t have it completely down by any means, but I at least feel 1 step closer.
In class on Tuesday we learned that there are three questions to ponder when considering your instructional design: where do we need to go? How will we get there? and how will we know when we have arrived? It seems to me that in instruction there is a lot of emphasis placed on the “how will we get there?” that that becomes the major focus, rather than on the end results. I also appreciated Rich’s acronym with DAN that he explained: Desired results, Actual results, and Need. I think that an instructional designer is one who is constantly assessing themselves and trying to continually improve so that the learners can achieve success. I also think that an additional question an instructional designer may ask might be something like this: “what will the learners be able to do? According to Dick and Carey “the instructional design approach stresses doing” (Pg. 40). It is one thing to understand something, but it is a completely different thing to be able to do something with what you understand.
Finally, an instructional designer is one who focuses on the intellectual skills of the learner. These include “forming concepts, applying rules, and solving problems” (Pg. 41). These skills enable a learner to be able perform and not just understand something. With each step, however; there should be an observable outcome because that is how an instructional designer is able to really monitor if learning really taking place. Have a great week everyone!

Dick W., Carey L., Carey J (2005) The Systematic Design of Instruction (6th Ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.