A Thought on Frick

What to do? What to do? What to do?

Lately I have been fascinated and annoyed at the same time with dealing with students ho don't care. They show up to class but that is about it. I loved this thought from the Frick article. It was nice to hear an expert in the field address student apathy. Frick states: "Education cannot occur without a student who intends to learn. According to Steiner, if a student does not intend to learn, then no education is going on. A student's mere presence in a classroom is no guarantee that education is occurring. There has to be an intent to learn, which is facilitated by the guidance of a teacher. But this guidance does not have to involve face-to-face contact, nor does it need to occur in a classroom. I wonder though, how does a teacher facilitate that?

Revising Instructional Materials

“Revising Instructional Materials”

One of the things that I have really learned this past week is that an instructional designer is always revising and fixing things that didn’t quite go right. I think that revision is an important step in the designing process. However, revisions are only effective if there has been proper evaluations and feedback; otherwise, the designer does not know what needs to be revised. I think that one of the biggest areas where revisions are made, are in the objectives. If the objectives are not solid, then the instruction will be lacking as well. Therefore; once objectives are solid, then that will minimize the amount of revisions that need to be made.

According to Dick and Carey (2005) there are essentially two types of revisions to consider, more specifically, when it is dealing with materials that are being used. They are “changes that are made to the content or substance of the materials to make them more accurate or more effective as a learning tool. The second type of change is related to the procedures employed in using your materials” (p.315). Considering this, I really think that the core objectives can majorly help in these areas of the design.

A Picture is worth 1000 words.

Shawn Atwood

"A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words!"

With the discussion that we had this past week, I am even now a more firm believer that a picture really is worth a thousand words. I use pictures on the time in my teaching. As we study a particular topic, somewhere in the middle of lesson, I will often find it helpful to change the pace of a lesson for just a little bit and show a picture that ties into the lesson. I will then ask a question such as "what stands out to you in this picture?", "Come up with the moral to the story", or "If you were there, what would you think?". I have noticed that it gets the students back on board with the lesson and it can be used for a good readiness. Pictures are a great thing to use in a classroom.

Media Will Never Influence Learning - Ya Right!

Shawn Atwood

Foundations of Instructional Design

“Media Will Never Influence Learning – Ya Right!”

This past week I recently studied an article entitled: "Media Will Never Influence Learning," written by Richard E. Clarke (1994). It Clark’s article he makes the argument that media makes no difference in a student's learning or motivation, but rather that instructional methods are responsible for achievement gains.

He states that "media are mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement" (p.22). He likened media to a truck that delivers groceries. Sure, the truck delivers the groceries, but it doesn't change a person's nutrition, just like media does not change a person’s motivation or learning.

Clarke also agrees with the arguments of Gavriel Solomon (1979) that it was certain attributes of media that can be models by the learner that influences a person’s learning, and not media itself. Therefore, Clark concluded that we need to continually ask the question as to whether or not there are other media or other sets of media attributes that yield strong and efficient learning gains, because media in general in the classroom just does not cut it.

As I studied this article I didn’t buy into it because I believe that an instructional designer should use media in the classroom to enhance the learning experience. I don’t think that a teacher should ever just put in a movie and walk away, but I do think that media USED EFFECTIVELY is a great instructional tool and indeed does motivate the learning to learn, especially if the media is used as an instructional tool, and not the instructional tool.

"Thoughts on Media and more on Assessments"

Shawn Atwood
Foundations of Instructional Design

“Assessments and Media”

This past week as I have taught my classes at the Lone Peak seminary as well as been instructed here at the University of Utah, I have experienced the highs and lows of being a teacher as well as being a student. I have noticed the flaws in the instructional design of myself as well as other teachers. A few weeks ago we discussed in class the importance of assessments. It is a true statement that assessments are important. I think that they help show the teacher whether or not the student understands the concepts at hand and they also show the teacher how well they have done in their instruction. However, I strongly feel that although assessments are a method of checking for student understanding, it is not the only method. I will use myself as an example. Personally, I am simply not a good “test taker.” I can know the material forward and backward, I can explain it to other people, and I can easily find concepts in the chapters and articles if I am asked to do so. But I am not a good “test taker.” I believe that all formal assessments do is assess one’s ability as to how well they can take tests. There simply needs to be others sets of evaluations.
Regarding this week’s reading, I strongly believe that media can and should play an important role in instruction design. Whenever there is an element in the class that can appeal to more than one of the senses, the learner will have more success remembering the content. However, just as I mentioned above with assessments, media should be a type of instruction, but it should not be the only type. It can be overly used as well. It is a type of variety to help establish the readiness of the learner and if used properly can greatly enhance the learner’s ability to understand a given concept.