Exploring IDT in Different Contexts

This week the first part of our readings explored how IDT works in the business, military, health care, P-12 (pre-kindergarten to 12th grade), and post-secondary education fields. I'm going to delve into this topic first from the business sector which I have a bit more background knowledge on and then I will compare the issues found in IDT in business with those in the military and health care fields.

IDT in the Business Sector:

In Reiser & Dempsey's work, the authors list three types of instructional designers in the business sector:

1. Sole Designers-An in-house employee who typically works individually on "design, development, assessment, formative evaluation, revision, and implementation" of a project (2012, p. 179).
2. Team Members/Leaders-A team of several in-house instructional designers who work together on a project. They may meet face to face or for those working at different business branches they may meet virtually. This allows for global cooperation.
3. External Designer/Consultant-An instructional designer hired by a client company as a freelancer specifically to work on a project. Due to "current economic decisions...companies (have) reduce(d) in-house training departments and increase(d) the use of external consultants" (2012, p. 80). 

When I think of instructional design in different fields, specifically within the business and manufacturing sector, the first thing that pops into my mind is the classic 1950 film, Cheaper by the Dozen. Now for those only familiar with the 2003 remake of the film which bears little resemblance to the original story, this might seem like an odd comparison to make. Let me clarify! The lead characters in the film are an example of external IDT consultants.

The original Cheaper by the Dozen film is based on the 1948 eponymous novel written by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey about growing up in their large family headed by well-known efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Gilbreth. Growing up, I did not know that this movie was based on the novel and a true story. While completing an Intro to Business class during my understudies, the Gilbreths popped up as great influencers on workplace efficiency and training.

The Gilbreths were management engineers and pioneers in the field of workforce efficiency in terms of motion. Essentially they used cameras to capture people performing processes in the workplace. They then determined how to eliminate excess movements in order to allow workers to perform process using the least amount of physical movement or steps. Once they had the answers in place, the Gilbreths designed and implemented instruction for workers and workplaces to teach them these new efficient movement processes and to improve workplace conditions that could be causing decreased efficiency. By increasing efficiency of movement, they decreased the amount of time needed for a worker to complete tasks. Doesn't this seem quite like what we might do in the classroom for increased efficiency? We watch how our students perform tasks and then we determine how to teach them the most efficient was of learning and internalizing the information within the process they are completing. We try to do this in a manner that allows for the least amount of wasted movement. It is essentially behaviorism which we use heavily for classroom management.

I think increased efficiency leads to increased worker efficacy no matter what the context is. An some stage in creating curriculums or products in any sector really you will need to examine the efficiency of the processes.

Trends and Issues in Business IDT Today and Education IDT Crossover

In the business world, the two big trends today are designing instruction that is culturally relevant and time efficient. Cultural relevancy is something that is important in many different context. What is relevant to one culture may mean something entirely different in another. Reiser and Dempsey noted that IDT designers must find ways to gather information on societal cultural factors including "generational and social heritage or traditions; the ideas, values, and rules for learning; the way problems are solved; the interpretation of patterns, colors, and symbols; and the comprehension of ideas and behaviors" (2012, p. 182). The text also notes that training must take learner cultural factors into account. These may include "learner/role expectation, the concept of time and the use of authentic activities, learner's communication styles, and how learners approach interpersonal relationships" (2012, p. 182).

Being culturally sensitive is truly important. Did you know that something as simple as writing someone's name in red can be a huge taboo? In some Asian countries, including China and Korea, a name written in red indicates death. The well meaning designer who chooses a red font to match a company's colors may find themselves in quite a bit of a pickle if they write the managers names in red. For more information on this taboo, you can read this article: A Chinese Taboo: Never Write Other People’s Names Using Red Ink.

The text also notes needing to understand how problems are solved and patterns are interpreted. This image from Kaplan's work shows how people from different cultures approach rhetorical thinking differently:

Source: Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education

I think issues with accommodating for cultural differences are very relevant to IDT in education as well. The USA is a melting pot of citizens from around the world. Chances are highly likely that a teacher will have at least one student from another culture in their classroom. IDT designers need to understand other cultures in order to create educational programs that are unbiased and relevant to the students. I first learned about Kaplan's work and the cultural taboo I mentioned when I was studying to become an ESL teacher.

The second trend in the business sector is toward getting things done as quickly as possible for the least amount of money. This can be done by creating rapid prototypes, using technology-based training delivery, and advanced evaluation techniques. We do much the same thing in education.

Think of a prototype as the beta release of a software program or piece of curriculum. As teachers, we are occasionally given the option to field test prototype or beta programs within the classroom. In an educational context, how could a program be tested to prove it's worth without actually being implemented in a classroom? A need for educator training whilst not needing to provide and pay for multiple external sessions has led to an increase in the usage of technology-based training for teachers. In general, things have been shifting in the past years toward an instructional method that is more online based.

Cost effectiveness and funding for new programs is something that affects IDT in multiple sectors. Funding for new programs is often set to a specific limit and designers must work to create programs that match the available funds.

IDT in the Military Context

There are two big challenges facing instructional designers in military contexts: "international responsibilities of a national or multinational military force" and "new technologies (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 189). There is one word that flashes like a neon sign there....international. Just as business designers and educational designers must look at culture when working, military designers must be able to accommodate for the diversity of cultures which exist within the soldiers. They must also be able to accommodate for training with overseas allies. They need to take into account all of the same cultural issues as business IDT.

Another issue facing IDT in the military is the emergence of new technologies. Reiser and Dempsey point out that these technologies are also available to our adversaries, which means that designers need to be prepared to develop security solutions (p. 189). Though this wasn't mentioned in the text, it is applicable in the business sphere right now. New technology means that people will exploit the holes to damage businesses. Recently there has been a rash of malware affecting companies worldwide. Designers need to be aware of these vulnerabilities in order to avoid them. See CNN for more: Europol: There's no 'kill switch' for malware attack. In the classroom context, designers need to build in safety features such as identity protection, to keep students safe when using design solutions that connect them with people outside of the school environment.

IDT in the Health Care Context

In the medical field, the most significant factors affecting IDT are: "knowledge and research, costs and managed care, regulations and standards, and convergence" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 202).  In the health care field, new advancements in knowledge are being made practically daily. With so many advancements being made, trainings could quickly become out-of-date. This is in contrast to many areas of the educational field. In an ELA class, the concept of a verb and how to use it is not going to change overnight. IDT designers can create products for parts of speech that will be content relevant for a long time. In the health care field, things change rapidly as new discoveries are made.

Due to the implementation of managed care systems, medical practitioners feel "more pressure...to spend less time teaching and more time seeing patients and to limit the duration of individual patient encounters, further eroding the time faculty can coach students" (p. 203). In other words, in order to save time and money, they see as many people as possible, BUT the amount of time spent training and spent with individual patients is decreased. This means training would need to be adjusted to accommodate for shorter available training periods. I'd think it would also need to train staff to be able to assess a patient in the more limited time available.

The health care field also has to deal with many regulations regarding safety and privacy of information. In the health care industry, providers must follow HIPAA standards which dictates the "rights of access to medical information and sets standards for privacy that impacts how educators and researchers can use medical records (DiBenedetto, 2003)" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 203). This is similar to how the education field uses FERPA to control the access to educational records.

With the constant emergence of new technologies, IDT in the health care industry and in many other sectors is experiencing convergence. Convergence is when two technologies can come together. "For example, it is possible to link to a patient's record to databases and automatically conduct research literature searches related to a patient's condition" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 203).

Global Trends and Issues in IDT

Globally, cultures have many different approaches to creating programs for learning. In many Asian countries, education is still focused on drill and kill and rout learning. Although there is a huge emphasis on testing here in the USA, there is an even bigger focus on this in Asian countries. With the increased pressure on testing and the need to pass the tests, they do not focus on learning things in a constructivist manner like we favor in the USA.

Although we enjoy a fair amount of open-mindedness and access to knowledge in the USA due to free speech, this isn't the case in many other places. In China, large parts of the internet are blocked off to citizens.  This article from the Council on Foreign Relations goes more into detail about the problems created by censorship in China: Media Censorship in China. Internet censorship has also taken over in many other Southeast Asian countries as evidenced in this Time Magazine article: Internet Censorship Is Taking Root in Southeast Asia. This censorship of information must trickle down to IDT. Designers have to follow the laws of censorship or in many places they will end up in trouble with the government. With the government controlling what information people can access, how will students learn to think critically about issues that they are being blinded to?

In some countries, students may not even have the ability to attend school. Reiser and Dempsey noted that in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), "parents...choose between...children they will send to school...boys are, as a rule, far more likely to be chosen than girls" (2012, p. 231). Often these schools have limited resources or are overcrowded. While many countries employ e-learning solutions, many online learning courses are designed for rout learning and not practicing critical thinking.

The biggest thing that I think many countries overseas are doing right that the USA fails on is bilingual education. In many countries, students begin learning a second language in early elementary school and it is required. Although some materials are censored, the ability to read and understand in multiple languages opens up the door to understanding other cultures because you are able to read and watch authentic materials. With my knowledge of Spanish, if there is a global issue taking place in a Spanish speaking country, I have the ability to research and read information from the source culture. I am not limited to solely reading English interpretations of events.

I think in many ways the youth of the USA are very fortunate that we do not have as many issues with censorship here and children are afforded the ability to go to school. In terms of design, I think that the constructivist nature of many learning programs here does aid students in the development of critical thinking and problem solving. I think we lack more in a cultural connection context. I think that the USA should create programs in order to mandatorily teach a second language starting in early elementary school. This would allow our students to be globally competitive and perhaps more open to learning about and understanding other cultures.

I think another area where we fail in the USA is our constant need to have more programs and solutions in the classroom. Yes, we might find something great that works, but there's the old saying, if it's not broke, don't fix it. How many times must the same thing be altered just slightly? It seems these days designers come out with a new version of a program or curriculum every year. It's important to keep up to date on information, but I think there is a lot of resource and financial waste generated through this.

We were asked "How and can we prepare our youth to address the problems of living in a world with 9 billion people when the earth’s resources cannot sustain that many?" How can we prepare our youth to address these problems when we ourselves model waste in the classroom? We are given programs to use that include workbooks. These workbooks are tossed out at the end of the year. Our textbooks are updated and switched out every few years, more waste. We go through hundreds of pencils a year in one classroom. The solution? Design needs to continue moving forward in a digital direction with online workbooks, textbooks, etc.

I also think that we need to use the availability of our global online community to foster connections between our students and students from around the globe. By learning about each other and understanding our cultural differences, we will be able to work together to solve issues for the benefit of the planet.





Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Evaluating Educational Programs

What is the purpose of educational program evaluation models?

"Evaluation is the process of determining the merit, worth, and value of things, and evaluations are the products of that process" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 97).

Living in our constantly changing world where new ideas about learning and innovative programs are popping up and pushing the boundaries of educations, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a method of evaluating the worth of these innovations. According to Reiser and Dempsey (2012) educational program evaluation in the 1950s-1960s focused on traditional instruction and the "main purpose of the evaluation was to determine the value or worth of the innovation that was being developed" (p. 96). As a result of a failed curriculum reform in the 1960s, educational psychologists determined that educational program evaluation needed to be re-conceptualized and the terms formative and summative evaluation were first coined (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 96).

Just as teachers must assess students during the process of learning the skill (formative) and then at the end of the learning process (summative), educational programs can be evaluated or judged based upon how they are working while the program is in the process of implementation (formative) and the outcomes after implementation/completion of the project (summative).

In the following sections, a brief overview of two models for program evaluation are presented.

Using the Logic Model to Assess Programs

While researching educational evaluation models, one of the models that frequently showed up in search results was the Logic model. According to the University of Wisconsin-Extension, logic models date back to the 1970s and "the first publication that used the term 'logic model' is usually cited as Evaluation: Promise and Performance by Joseph S. Wholey (1979). Bennett's hierarchy, The Seven Levels of Evidence (1976)...is an early forerunner of today's logic model" (University of Wisconsin-Extension, 2003, p. 10). 

A simple logic model is comprised of three basic parts: inputs, outputs, and outcomes. In the simple model, the inputs represent the investment or resources that go into creating the program in order to achieve the desired outputs. The outputs represent the activities done to reach the target audience. The outcomes represent the short, medium, and long term changes or benefits. An example of an extended simple logic model is below:

Source: University of Wisconsin-Extension, 2003, p. 17

The following example shows how the simple logic model has been used to evaluate a program to minimize child abuse:

Source: University of Wisconsin-Extension, 2003, p. 19

A complete or full logic model is comprised of six parts: situation, inputs, outputs, outcomes, assumptions, and external factors. The situation is "the problem or issue that the program is to address within a setting or situation" (University of Wisconsin-Extension, 2003, p. 24). Part of understanding the situation is defining the problem. UW Extension recommends asking the following questions to fully understand the situation:

University of Wisconsin-Extension, 2003, p. 24

Assumptions are our underlying beliefs about how the program will work and about the people involved in the process. Based on prior knowledge we may ASSUME that a certain output or outcome will occur. External factors are things that may affect the output and/or outcomes of the project that are non necessarily able to be controlled. For example, if a school program is dependent upon certain staff members and those staff members quit necessitating the hiring and training of new staff partway through the implementation process, this may affect the results of the program.

A sample of a complete/full logic model is below:

University of Wisconsin-Extension, 2003, p. 23

So, how can we use this to evaluate an individual classroom unit? I've frequently mentioned a units I've done in the past on stop motion and videography. In terms of a classroom, the situation will not necessarily address a problem, but will most likely address a skill to be taught. Let's take a look at how a camera shots and angles unit could be evaluated using this model:

Step One - Situation:

• The students need to learn camera shots and angles and they need to understand the psychological response of various camera shots. 

Step Two - Inputs:

• The inputs or invest include the technology and equipment used, the time spent to develop the lessons and teach them, research into shots and angles, the teacher, and other materials.

Step Three - Outputs:

• The output includes activities which include live demonstrations, videos, quiz games, student websites for shots and angles, and student video projects. The students and teacher are the participants.

Step Four - Outcomes:

• Short Term: The students learn shots and angles and are able to identify them and the represented emotional subcontext.
• Middle Term: The students are able to create a video which uses the camera shots and angles taught. The students are able to choose a shot/angle that will convey an emotional response appropriate to the setting/scene. 
• Long Term: The students are able to analyze shots and angles when watching movies or television outside of the classroom. The students are able to think critically about why a filmmaker chose to use a certain camera shot in a particular scene. The student will be inspired to learn more about videography. 

Step Five - Assumptions:

• Most humans react in a particular way to a specific camera shot/angle. Based on varying cultures and upbringing this may not be the case. It's a similar issue with colors used in movies. If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die is a popular book that analyzes color use in film from a psychological perspective. However, it should be noted that not all cultures have the same reactions or feelings about specific colors. What a color represents on screen in one culture may not be the same as in another. In the same way, how one culture or group of people reacts to a camera angle may not be the same as another culture. I've included a preview from Google Books of the color analysis book below for those who are curious. 

Step Six - External Factors:

• Filming spaces being occupied, broken equipment, student absences, other classes occupying filming spaces around the school, fire drills, and weather that makes filming outside not possible. 

Additional resources:

• There are a large amount of materials on logic models available online. The University of Wisconsin-Extension website provides examples, templates, training guides and other resources at the following link: http://fyi.uwex.edu/programdevelopment/logic-models/. 
• The training guide I used for this blog entry is available in .pdf format here: Enhancing Program Performance with Logic Models. 
• An additional training guide published by the U.S. Dept. of Education Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance is located here: Logic Models for Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation: Workshop Toolkit
• A webinar produced by the U.S. Dept. of Education Institute of Education Sciences from Youtube: 

Kaufman's Organizational Elements Model (OEM)

Kaufman's OEM model is based on Kirkpatrick's training evaluation model. The model is comprised of five steps: inputs, processes, products, outputs and outcomes. "The OEM identifies what an organization uses (Inputs), does (Processes), produces (Products), and delivers (Outputs) and the consequences (Outcomes) for external clients and society" (Kaufman et al., 2003, p. 64). The focus in this model is on results. OEM separates categorizes results as occurring at the "Mega level (societal), Macro level (organizational), or Micro level (operational)" (Kaufman et al., 2003, p. 64).

A breakdown of the three levels of results as applicable to a few different situations is presented in Kaufman's (2003) book Strategic Planning for Success: Aligning People, Performance, and Payoffs:

(P. 65)

One thing I really like about this model is that it asks evaluators to look at what is happening versus what should be happening. This essentially allows the evaluator to examen performance gaps in order to improve the program. This table by Lisa Llewellyn presented on the HPT (Human Performance Technologists) Toolkit provides a breakdown of the model:

Source: Lisa Llewellyn, HPT Toolkit

The following is an example of how this might be used in education:

Source: Ryan Watkins, Is Distance Learning Right for Your Organization

Applying my shots and angles lesson to the example above, I needed instructional materials, equipment and students (input), the unit had required a lot of planning (process) as I had no course book, a curriculum and materials were developed (products), the students performed their "job" by creating videos (outputs), and the students were able to use their skills to analyze videos later in life aka they became self-sufficient at achieving the task (outcomes).

Additional Resources:

• An overview of using OEM by Ryan Watkins:  Is Distance Learning Right for Your Organization
• A Google Books preview of Strategic Planning For Success: Aligning People, Performance, and Payoffs: 

• A webinar with the theories main founder, Dr. Roger Kaufman, facilitated by Boise State University, on HPT and Applying the OEM is below. The website here provides a transcript of the video.

Investment Return in Evaluation

When evaluating the efficacy of a project or program, I believe it is equally as important to consider the potential return on the investment and the management throughout the process. If we implement a program that is fabulously successful and our students suceed, BUT the program was so cost-intensive that it cannot be sustained long term OR the school faces major budget fallout, was it really the most effective program? Was there a better way to do it that would result in less investment fallout? In terms of management, how effective were the managers at carrying out their tasks? When the project ends, will they still be there to continue implementation?

This sort of situation reminds me of the TIPPS grant and resulting programs that were a part of my school campus during my first and second year teaching. My school had been awarded a TIPPS grant during the year before I began teaching. As a result of that grant, they implemented new computer programs on campus which required the campus to upgrade the computers. The campus also purchased iPads for the classrooms. With all of the extra technology, a special technology coach was hired. The school was also able to hire social workers and community liaisons. On the surface, the technology was awesome! It was great having the extra staff. Our scores rose by just a bit. That was the good side.

However, even with the seeming success of the programs, teacher and administrator turnover was excessively high. This resulted in a lack of consistency in the implementation of the programs in terms of administrative practices and classroom procedures. Additionally, once the program ended, all of the extra staff who were funded by the TIPPS grant program were released from employment with the school. The following school year, without guidance, the programs were less faithfully implemented. In fact, the iPads that we had spent so much money on ended up collecting dust in a corner of the library until the second semester. This happened for the next two years running. Without a social worker on campus, many of the outreach sources for students and parents were gone. Evaluation models should consider the impact or longterm outcome of what happens when the program is ended in terms of investment and human capital.

Human Performance Investment and Performance Support

Reiser and Dempsey's (2012) reference to Gilbert's 2007 principles and theorems regarding performance stood out to me:

"If you pit the individual against the environment, the environment will ultimately win" (p. 137).

On my campus in the past, many teachers stressed that fact that the hostile environment caused by a particular principal was the cause of many classroom problems at the school. In a sense we were all fighting against the environment that we were placed in. I think there's a difference in how teachers succeed between having supportive leadership in an environment conducive to happiness in the workplace and working in a hostile environment.

"Hard work, great knowledge, and strong motivation without valued accomplishment is unworthy performance. A system that rewards people for their behavior...without accomplishment encourages incompetence. A system that rewards accomplishment without accounting for behavior incites waste" (p. 137).

This is essentially saying that teachers should be motivated a judged on both their work AND demonstrated outcome. This brings to my mind the example of a previous teacher of the year at my school. That particular teacher was very popular with the staff and students. She definitely met the first criteria of being hard working, having great knowledge, and strong motivation. However, the majority of her students did not pass the STAAR test. In fact, she had one of the worst passing rates for her subject in the school. As teachers we want to make our classes fun and engaging, but we can't forget that our students are there to learn. It is not just a popularity contest. With whatever fun activities we are using to engage the students, they must still attain knowledge.

I think it is vitally important for administrators to support the educators on their campuses. Without a supportive work environment, teachers will not reach their full potential. Stifling teachers making them feel stressed, unsafe, or incompetent at work is going to effect their ability to help their students reach their full potential. If a teacher is motivated to do better, but there is no one to turn to for help, will things change? At my former school, one thing many teachers noted was the lack of available professional development. A possible solution to this problem would have been for the school to implement professional development via an online learning management system like Moodle or Google Classrooms. With these programs, teachers would be able to complete professional development from anywhere at their own pace and on their own timeframe. They'd also be able to go back and reference the materials.



Kaufman, R., Oakley-Brown, H., Watkins, R., & Leigh, D. (2003). Strategic planning for success: aligning people, performance, and payoffs. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.

University of Wisconsin-Extension. (2003, February). Enhancing program performance with logic models [PDF]. University of Wisconsin-Extension.

What is Epistemology?

According to Encyclopædia Brittanica, epistemology is one of the four primary branches of philosophy. It is defined as:

"the study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. The term is derived from the Greek epistēmē ("knowledge") and logos ("reason"), and accordingly the field is sometimes referred to as the theory of knowledge."

So, what does that mean? Essentially, epistemology is the study of how we learn and attain knowledge. As humans, we are constantly driven by the need to know and understand the world around us. As teachers we are always searching for the best ways to introduce material to students and to understand how they will best acquire and process that knowledge.


Epistemology vs Instructional Methods, Models, and Theories


Epistemology and instructional methods, models, and theories are all related in the sense that they build upon one another in terms of lessons. Epistemology is what researchers use to develop their ideas on HOW the students acquire information. Once the researcher has an idea of HOW the student best learns, they create a THEORY like constructivism or behaviorism. Dictionary.com provides us with two relatable definitions of theory:

"1. A coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena.

2. A proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact" (Dictionary.com).

Basically, theories like constructivism and behaviorism are what researchers have come up with after testing their ideas on HOW knowledge is acquired. Behaviorism, based on the ideas of B.F. Skinner states that:

"Learning can be understood, explain, and predicted entirely on the basis of observable events, namely, the behavior of the learner along with it's environment antecedents (cues...that signal the appropriateness of a behaviors) and consequences...(which) then determine whether it is repeated and thus considered to be learned" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p.38).

Once a THEORY is in place, instructional MODELS are created to guide the creation of lessons and instruction using the ideas set forth within the theory. A classroom following a behaviorist theory might use a model like Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction to plan a lesson. According to Northern Illinois University, "follow a systematic instructional design process that share the behaviorist approach to learning, with a focus on the outcomes or behaviors of instruction or training." A guide for each of the nine steps published by Northern Illinois University is available here: Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction.

After choosing a MODEL to use to plan a lesson, the teachers must that choose the individual activities aka METHODS or instructional strategies for each step of the model that they will use to actually introduce, teach, reinforce, or evaluate the skill being taught. A method could be something like a gallery walk, book talk, bringing in a guest speaker, debating, etc.

The image below provides a look at the differences between a few theories of instruction, how they believe knowledge is acquired, and what some methods that may be utilized within that learning theory. The image was created by Debbie Morrison for Online Learning Insights.




I'll note that although the image above lists lecture as a behaviorist method, Reiser and Dempsey disagree stating that lecture is often miscategorized and this is "a mistake since behaviorist learning requires above all active responding" (p.46).


Why I'm a Constructivist at Heart


While I was growing up, the majority of my schooling followed a mixed behavioralist/cognitivist approach. I remember spending hours in classrooms listening to lectures, copying seemingly endless notes projected in the front of the room, doing drill and kill, and numerous multiple choice assessments. Did I learn the material in a way that allowed me to pass the class and any necessary assessments? Sure! Of course I did. All learning theories that are still around today are there with some form of back-up that the method does work; however, I think some things that work in the short term are NOT always as effective in the long term. Did I learn the material and pass my classes, yes. Fifteen years after graduating, do I remember the material I was taught? Not necessarily. I will admit that many of the drill and kill exercises for facts did help the facts stick with me, but how useful is a random fact about 16th Century history in a daily real-world context?

One of the things I LOVE about constructivism is that it allows students to form their own knowledge by relating and learning the knowledge in the context of the world around them and their own experiences. Some of the lessons that stuck with me the most when I was in K-12 were those that required a hands-on, exploratory, student-centered exploration of the material. I am a contextualist. I believe that we build our knowledge based on our own backgrounds, communities, and life experiences. I think adopting a constructivist approach is the best way to serve our students who may come from many different backgrounds and have varied upbringings. As teachers, we can't expect our students to learn in the same way using the same contextual connections we made growing up. Students need to be able to relate the knowledge they learn to their everyday lives and not to some concept solely living inside a textbook.

Prior to attending college, I had learned about various learning styles, but I did't know anything about learning theories. Therefore, I never really question my K-12 instructors as to why we had to learn a lesson in a particular way. We were taught to sit quietly, listen, and copy notes. We were not taught to question the status quo. Looking back, I wish that I had understood that putting knowledge into a relatable context would help me to use and retain that knowledge. One of my biggest academic weaknesses in K-12 was mathematics. I could understand the formulas and complete the problems if I wanted to but at that time I never saw how advanced math could be applicable to my daily life. Studying concepts like geometric proofs seemed like a waste of my time. I'm the type of person who will learn a new fact or issue and I immediately go and Google to find several additional sources to provide confirmation or more information. I love finding CONTEXT and making connections! My math classes made no connections beyond me wondering if I would ever be on a train traveling 60mph to Boston while there was a NE windspeed of 25 mph that could potentially cause a travel delay of x minutes.


Problem-Solving in Behaviorist Versus Constructivist Approaches


As previously mentioned, behaviorism is generally focused around the idea that humans can learn following a systematic procedure by using antecedents which we will consider to be positive signals and positive or negative consequences for fulfilling an action. Essentially, the student is conditioned to react in a certain way to stimuli in order to learn. Although Reiser and Dempsey's book does not seem to directly mention it, behaviorism is basically operant conditioning. One of the big problems with this type of approach is that it does not encourage students to think creatively or work outside of the box. Students may be able to problem-solve in the context that they will puzzle out the correct way to respond in situation x in order to attain y; however, that does not necessarily lead them to be capable to apply that knowledge to other unrelated situations when they come up against different antecedents and consequences.

Constructivism on the other hand is practically built for problem solving. Since constructivism follows the belief that students should construct their own knowledge based around the context of a situation, students must be able to think critically and problem solve in order to learn. It is no longer the teacher who is in charge of shepherding every morsel of knowledge to the students.

Constructivism places an "emphasis on authentic performance in realistic settings, (so) constructivist learning can potentially be more relevant to out-of the classroom needs" and most importantly it "as learners encounter more complex problems and tasks during instruction, they should be able to transfer that knowledge...more easily" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p.47).

Constructivism even spawned a model of learning that is solely based upon learning via problem solving. Problem-based learning or PBL, works by "centering instruction around a key statement of a problem, prompting team-based inquiry and problem-solving processes" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p.46).


Motivation!


Reiser and Dempsey referenced J. M. Keller's principles of motivation two of which I've referenced below:

"Motivation to learn is promoted when the knowledge to be learned is perceived to be meaningfully related to one's goals" (p. 87).

Learning with behaviorism, which does not focus on providing a real-world context, may make it difficult for students to understand how a skill is related to their life and their goals.

"Motivation to learn is promoted when learners believe they can succeed in mastering the learning task" (p. 87).

This particular principle of motivation could be considered a strong point for behaviorism. Since students are conditioned to arrive at the desired result, they may develop confidence that they can complete a task by following the prescribed behaviors. Unfortunately this conditioning could also be a downfall for those who consistently fail to master a task and are constantly presented with negative consequences. This may cause "maladaptive conditioning that is highly resistant to change" and "failure continues as a result of not believing success is possible" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p.88).


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Northern Illinois University. (n.d.). Gagné’s nine events of instruction [PDF]. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Stroll, A., & Martinich, A. (n.d.). Epistemology. In Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Theory. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved June 15, 2017 from Dictionary.com website: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/theory

Delving into Instructional Design and Technology

Just what is the instructional design and technology (IDT) field? According to the book Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology by Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey, the definition of the field has evolved over time. Prior to beginning my degree in Educational Technology & Library Sciences, I would have defined IDT as two different ideas. In my mind, instructional design involved using educational theories and best practices to design lessons for the classroom. Educational technology involved media used to supplement and enhance classroom instruction. While completing courses at Texas A&M Commerce, I have come to see how these two concepts are combined to become IDT.

The Early Days of IDT & Beginning Teachers

The field of IDT has it's beginnings in the 1920's with the rise of educational film use in the classroom (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012). In the early days of IDT, definitions of the field focused on "Instructional media—the physical means via which instruction is presented to learners" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012). The field was associated with visual aids and their usage to enrich the classroom environment.

The early definitions and ideas of what was involved in IDT draw parallels to how a beginning teacher might see and incorporate technology in the classroom. For those who received their initial teacher licensure via an alternative certification program, they may not have had a large grounding in educational theory and designing lessons prior to stepping into the classroom. I think for a lot of us our first year teaching is really overwhelming and we might use a lot of tech tools and media without really digging into the process of how to best use the tools to enhance learning and instruction.

The Evolution of IDT

By the 1960's and 1970's, IDT was beginning to be viewed as more than simply using visual aids in the classroom. Instead, it was considered to be a process by which educators looked at instructional problems and found solutions to those problems using media. Thus IDT became "a process for systematically designing instruction" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012).

During the 1990's, "cognitive and constructivist learning theories began to have a major influence on design practices" (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012). In 2008, the AECT committee defined IDT, referred to as educational technology as:

"The study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources."

Reiser & Dempsey's (2012) definition spotlights both the early and evolved definitions of IDT. They believe that:

"These two practices—the use of media for instructional purposes and the use of systematic instructional design procedures (often simply called instructional design)—are the key defining elements of the field of instructional design and technology."

As a fervent lover of the use of technology in the classroom and a teacher who appreciates having a solid lesson setup, I really like Reiser and Dempsey's definition. I think that instructional media usage in the classroom by itself is awesome, but if we don't think about properly designing lessons for its usage it is pointless. The usage of media in the classroom to serve a purpose or to further enhance the learning atmosphere in place of simply using technology for the sake of using media in the classroom is a frequent topic of discussion. Reiser and Dempsey's definition allows not just for the use of the tech, but also notes using a systematical design procedure. In my opinion, this is the direction that IDT needs to go.

The Characteristics of Instructional Design

Reiser and Dempsey (2012) identified six characteristics of instructional design. A successful instructional design should be:

1. Student centered.
2. Goal oriented.
3. Focused on meaningful performance.
4. Provide outcomes that can be measured in a reliable and valid way.
5. Empirical, iterative, and self-correcting.
6. A team effort.

Looking back on the lessons I have designed in the past, there are a few areas mentioned above where I feel I have occasionally fallen short. As an elective teacher, I have never shared a planning period or been on a team with other teachers which has led to few opportunities to collaboratively create lessons. 

During the 2015-2016 school year, I designed a unit for my Intro to Television classes where the students created stop motion videos. For the content of the video, the students were asked to use stop motion to explain a concept they had learned in a CORE area class. The project easily fit the first three characteristics. Since my classes had more students than available equipment, I ran several different station activities in the class each period. Typically I ran three stations. One with a single group of students at a chromakey wall (green screen), then I had six student teams working on stop motion at round tables, and finally 12-16 students working individually on editing on iMacs. With so much going on, it was vital that the activities be student centered! I think this was also very goal oriented and meaningful, because the students were working toward gaining proficiency in the skill by performing authentic tasks. 

The projects were graded using a rubric. Students within the class also provided a peer score for every project. In doing this project again, I think performance could be even more accurately measured if I used a checklist to observe how students were contributing to their projects. The students all worked in teams, so with the way the outcome was measured, it's difficult to determine individual student outcome.

This was the first time I had attempted this sort of lesson. I came up with the idea after seeing a presentation on stop motion at the Region One ESC Technology Conference at the end of the prior school year. Aside from my notes on that conference, I did not have a lot of data or empirical research on the use of stop motion to convey a classroom concept. In terms of it being a team effort, I think it would have worked better if I could have collaborated with the CORE area teachers to find out what they were currently covering in their classrooms. 

Are Teachers Instructional Media?

Reiser & Dempsey (2012) defined instructional media as "the physical means, other than the teacher, chalkboard, and textbook, via which instruction is presented to learners." They justify this definition by referencing Saettler's idea that: 

"Materials (were)...viewed as supplementary curriculum materials. They were not intended to supplant the teacher or the textbook...teachers and textbooks are generally viewed as the primary means of presenting instruction, and teachers are generally given authority to decide what other media they will employ."

I do not agree with the authors. I think that with the definition of media equaling a medium for informational delivery, teachers, chalkboards and textbooks should be included. With the advancement of our increasingly digital society and online learning, teachers are no longer a necessity to deliver information. While there are many online learning apps that do have teachers serving as information deliverers, many commercial learning apps like Rosetta Stone lack teachers.

Textbooks are no longer a necessity. Commercial apps like Coursera allow universities around the world to share information with students. None of the classes I have completed on that site require a textbook. Instead the information is presented via video lectures. In this case a teacher is still serving as a medium for conveying information, even if there is no specific textbook.

Chalkboards are not a necessity. Chalkboards have evolved over time. Reading Reiser and Dempsey's thoughts, I came to wonder if chalkboards only referred to the traditional black or green painted surface that is written upon with chalk. Whiteboards are an evolved form of chalkboards. Smart boards are an evolved form of whiteboards. They are all a medium used to aid in the delivery of information.

As a society, we are moving past being constricted to learning solely within the bounds of a traditional brick and mortar school house. We may or may not have a teacher using traditional textbooks or a digital chalkboard proctoring an online course to provide us with information. 

If we consider instructional design to be the process of systematically creating lessons, and if we include teachers, textbooks, and chalkboards as instructional media alongside things like online courses then instructional media becomes an integral part of instructional design. Any lesson that is created must have some delivery method. In that sense, we could consider instructional design as the practice of determining the best methods to utilize instructional media to meet a desired outcome.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.