Thoughts - Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology by R. Reiser and J. Dempsey

Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey, Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 2nd Edition, breaks the definitions of Instructional Technology into a time line which spans from the 1920s until now. My thoughts about instructional technology have always revolved around its use, at the time I have been introduced to it. For instance, my earliest memories of technology were in the banking industry, working as a word processor. We had IBM computers and used telex machines and dedicated word processors. Having recently graduated from high school (1976), the term used was computer technology. It wasn’t for instruction; it was a tool of work. We worked in computer labs. Programming languages I learned, in college, 1976-1979, were FORTRAN and ITRAN and we were working towards becoming Computer Scientist. My earlier years in high school, we had media centers, located in the libraries. There wasn’t any cross-over between these media centers and departments which ran the main frame computers which the school districts, I assumed housed in some secret lab somewhere. Students did not have computer labs in school, as we have today.

I am not impressed with inner-profession squabbles over how best to name the field. I can suffice satisfaction that its practical use and applications have broadened over time. I see how terminology has evolved and changed with the introduction of new technologies and their uses. Technology is evolving so fast, naming the field, would seem to be a trivial event.

A few other tidbits of interest to me include the fact that the inclusion of a standard of ethics, “the AECT Code of Ethics (Welliver, 2001),” had not been introduced earlier within the field. Another thing I did not know was that the study of the field of technology went as far back as the early 20’s.

Social Bookmarking - Tart or Tastee "Delicious"

Social book marking is another technology tool that allows for the creation of tags, and gives you the ability to save web pages within a centralized source. There are a few features that I would find useful as both a teacher and a student. To have the accessibility of your bookmarks from any computer, would be helpful to anyone who has experienced the frustration of sitting down at a computer and suddenly realizing when going into favorites that what you are looking for is not there. It has happened to me both as a teacher and a student. I can also see using the feature of bookmarks that allows the sharing of the information that you bookmark. In my Reading Strategies class I teach, I always group students and these groups are responsible for the exchange of information and documents in preparation for presentations. Being able to share resources, it appears to be similar to the wiki in this regard, can be an advantage to students working on collaborative efforts, as they decide on resources that can be used for their presentations. Being able to find your collaborators and others that have bookmarks on the same topics, to be able to rapidly gather pertinent information through others bookmarks are beneficial to teachers preparing lessons as well as students who are preparing their lessons. I am still learning what “Delicious,” does and can probably come up with other apropos things to say about its usefulness to the educational field, but I am still working at it, (i.e., tagging, book marking, networking, subscriptions, searching, navigating). My fear is that once I learn and become familiar with its uses, Delicious will have changed.

Understanding Web 2.0 Technologies

Tim O’Reilly in his article What Is Web 2.0, Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, speaks about the transition of emerging technologies. He starts this article with commentary on the era of the “dot-com,” making the point that these web applications had their time and have been replaced by new technologies and applications. These new technologies through a process of thought, development, marketing and distribution, emerge and integrate into an every changing competitive system that is driven by the consumer market. O’Reilly uses the term “shakeouts,” defined as “the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage.”

As the frenzy for space and place in the industry continued, a niche in the market emerged. This niche consisted of companies who could provide web services. Program Models discussed in the article include, RSS, which has emerged as one of the most viable in the area of “highly reliable programming environments for distributed applications,” and Amazon.com web service of which their “REST,” application is most widely used. Google Map’s simplicity of use is presented as an example of how pirating can occur. Their concept was “remixed,” by hackers and their data was redistributed “into new services.” Google Maps also is an example of a free application, which others took inspiration from and created their own web-services. The article outlines several lessons learned that can be derived from these models.

The article presents the “competencies,” of Web 2.0, and breaks them down into what O’Reilly identifies as “seven principles.” These competencies are considered a litmus test whereby other company’s features can be compared. Web 2.0 is considered to be the future of emerging technologies and provide these competencies for our consideration if we want to be cutting edge. It purports to be the future of the internet.

[Wiki Site]

The Blogging Experience- Reflections on Dale & Siegal - My Own Blog Creation

My first thought after creating my blog was, about publishing. I wondered if the blog was considered a published work. Does anyone know? I then thought as I looked at the blog, that the challenge is to get people to subscribe. How do you get others to subscribe to your blog? The RSS Reader was phenomenal. I started searching for websites that I frequent, such as The Chronicle of Higher Education and Education Week. The Google Reader took me right to the feeds and put it into the Google Reader, where I was queried to subscribe. This cut out the step of having to hit subscribe and cut and paste the link. I’m not sure about the Wiki yet. The fact that this is a whole new world for me to explore is exciting and I’m anxious to become proficient at using these tools.

I believe the base of the Cone is where our experience with the Blog and RSS begin. As stated in the reading, “the base of the Cone represents the concrete, direct, firsthand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning.” (p.111) here is where the excitement of discovering the new Blog and RSS tool comes to play. As I described earlier, my eagerness to explore the blogs and feeds I subscribed to correlate with Dale’s description of this phase, where we as participants in the process are engaged in “the exploration of the world,” which Dale feels “helps to build up our wealth of meaningful information and ides.” The Blog, RSS could be part of the Contrived Experiences part of the cone, as we look at the “models,” or examples given on how to make and/or utilize the Blog, RSS. Without a model, we would feel limited in our capacity to move towards a finished product, without the examples, video directions, making the process easy to understand. The Blog, RSS can also lend itself to Demonstration, in that the Google website provided “visualizations, facts, ideas and process” in the form of “guided motions,” to engage us in creating the Blog and RSS. My choice of what lends itself best to each tool; overlap in that what part of the Cone is being used during the experience of working with the Blog, RSS is not concrete. One could be doing a combination of parts of the Cone. For the learning of the concepts involved in creating the Blog, RSS to be rooted, all parts of the Cone are experienced, to various degrees.

The Cone is just one way of thinking, presenting a variety of methods of classification about ways in which we think. At the time the article was written (1969), it probably was considered cutting-edge information about the evolving world of technology in education at its time. Dale, in creating the Cone of Experience reminds me that we do not use one medium of communication in isolation. Rather, we use many instructional materials to help the student conceptualize his or her experience so that they can deal with it effectively. (p.133) As with the Blog, incorporated with the RSS, integrating not only our class blogs, but other feeds showed me, the more variety of applications we use in learning technology, the retention of concepts will be more likely to be sustained.

Siegal in his article Falling Asleep at Your Keyboard, The Case for Computer Imagination (2003) talks about the need for "computer imagination, "to achieve some desired end." At least one "imaginative" educational use of the blog is a single location for easy viewing of blog moods, and the effect the blog has on people, and rating of value added for creating answers to problems that, effect people. At least one "imaginative" educational use of RSS is to be able to check your research sites and blogs for new content, feeding relevant information needed for research topics. The ease of control of the RSS is there; you can limit or broaden sharing of information with your colleagues, educational community or with whomever you wish to share with the built-in public page. The RSS could be an excellent forum for research.

Beyond or Before Technology - Education

I teach a Reading Strategies class, which I have typically taught in a classroom with computers. The textbook, as written, requires students to utilize the computer to traverse the numerous exercises, quizzes, test and examples given in the textbook. The class itself is set up in Blackboard, which is the same classroom setup that we use for this class. I stood in front of my class the first evening, without computers and heard myself say, “I have not conducted this class, without computers before,” “this should be interesting.” The class meets for two hours and 40 minutes. All the materials I brought to the class, instructed students to go to perform various tasks on the computer. I never factored in the possibility that I would not have a classroom with computers. As I read Neil Postman’s article, Of Luddites, Learning, and Life, my Reading Strategies class came to mind. I had no idea I would be reading this article, and it would pose such a question as: “What is the problem to which the new technologies is a solution?” So in my case, did I really have a problem, not having computer technology in my Reading Strategies Class? I guess not, I defaulted back to what I knew to do prior to having computers. I taught the lessons, right from the book, utilizing the overhead I had, the bulletin board (white board) and engaged my students to participate in the learning process. There were a lot of interaction and two hours and 40 minutes later, we were all surprised how quickly the time had gone by. I see how as an educator, we can become dependent on technology as the tool for instruction and learning, and should stay mindful that it is not the sole vehicle of which learning should depend.

I am an advocate of Mastery Learning. Being a special education teacher and having written numerous individual education plans, I am in agreement with the concept of “a learning-focused paradigm of education, ” as outlined In Charles M. Reigeluth and Roberto Joseph’s article Beyond Technology Integration: The Case for Technology Transformation.

Both articles point out that the correlation between purpose of education and the methods of instruction are misaligned with the possibilities that technology offers. I do not want to give in to the cynicism of Postman in prescribing a revisit to the roots of the practical application of knowledge minus technology. However, what a powerful question he asks, again, “What is the problem to which the new technologies are a solution?” What problem does technology integration vs. technology transformation fix? C. Reigeluth and R. Joseph suggest that, “technology might allow us to transform our teaching methods in ways that could result in a quantum improvement in learning.” (p.9) I certainly understand Postman’s point of view, but as our society continues to evolve, I believe we should learn from the past but embrace the new paradigms, with hope that we rectify some of our mistakes, but advance in embracing a technologically integrated future for learners.