IDT Instructional Design and Technology

My definition of Instructional or Educational Technology was simply the use of technology to convey instruction to students. But, the further I move into the online courses, the more in depth my thinking and understanding grows towards a more complex use of technology and the Instructional Design of the Technology. Instructional Design and Technology definitions change to include whatever technology is available at the time. I would have thought the definition would have been inclusive and related to technology as a whole instead of individualizing it according to the media available during the time frames of 1960s to the 1970s. According to Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey, "early definitions... focused on instructional media--the physical means via which instruction is presented to learners." After the 1970s, the definitions changed to include the design processes and analysis phase of the planning process which includes according to Reiser and Dempsey, "design, production implementation, and evaluation." Somehow this still sound incomplete. The inclusion of "ethical--high levels of professional conduct--in 2008 from the AECT (the association for Educational Communications and Technology), enhances the definitions, but it still doesn't seem a strong enough definition. I believe the definition should be inclusive of the name, Instructional Design and Technology. Instruction is determined on how students learn and how teachers teach the content. This becomes relevant in that it isn't just the content that is learned, it is also the process of that learning. It is what needs to happen on the large and small scale for the student to understand the learning. It is what needs to happen on the large and small scale for the teacher to be able to communicate the content necessary for the learning. This would be the focus of where we are trying to go and how we will get there. Which design systems will we need to use in order to get to our ending point. When we look at the design of the instruction, we should be looking at how we will bring student learning to the forefront. We design the road we travel in order to maximize results using the available technology. When we look at the technology end of our definition, we must look at the technology available. Which systems and processes do we need to use to ensure student learning and teacher clarity for that learning to take place. This is on the larger scale of our scope. How far will student need to travel in order to reach their destination? Will a simple technological source be sufficient and video/audio or will we need to allow the maximization of technological skills--should students create, analyze and synthesize? This brings us to the Design which includes the operation and use of the media. How does it work and how do those mechanisms help conform to the use of the media and how will this media get us where we wish to go with our instruction. This focus is on the engine, the tools we use to to fulfill our obligations to students and to teaching as a profession to move us forward. After reading this first chapter of the Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, my definition changed  drastically from the simple definition I started with in my online courses.

I was and am in the process of designing a unit of lessons from a novel unit on "Swallowing Stones" by Joyce MacDonald using technology. I am still revising the more I understand concerning the Instructional Design and Technology. With the six characteristics of Instructional Design, I am getting closer to meeting my mark. There are other things I need to do in the beginning of my novel unit as well as towards the middle, but I believe my inclusion of technology in the end of the unit is adequate. And I know this simply because students who saw the technology piece (from student presentations) requested I sprinkle technology throughout the reading, plus only a few students were able to complete the full assignment to get to the technology piece (which was my plan--I only wanted a quality sampling instead of qualitative sampling to test the inclusion of technology at the end of the novel unit.) The first characteristic of Instructional Design is that it is Student Centered. After reading the novel, students were to choose scenes of the novel that spoke to them either in a positive or negative way and choose a specific number of computer images and audio to display these scenes. This is student centered in that it is generated by student interest, involvement in the story line of the novel and their own preferences and prejudices. The second characteristic is it must be goal oriented. Technically students had already earned their grades (this may not have been successful with students who weren't just interested in expanding their knowledge and skill base), but I informed them it was the added piece once they completed their essay. It was to showcase and improve their personal technology skills. Their completion goal was to express their thoughts and feeling concerning the novel through the images, audio and words they need to use to express themselves on screen. The next characteristic is to focus on meaningful performance. Students weren't just expected to recall incident in the novel, but to create, analyze and synthesize the incidents, form an opinion and pull related information to express their thoughts and feelings and to make authentic connections to the literature. When I looked at Outcome Measurements and if the measurements are reliable and valid, I need only look at the rubric and the clarity of the directions. Students were able to give me exactly what I asked for (except for a Works Cited page which I forgot to request). In fact, one went above and beyond. The data as far as student enthusiasm, dedication, complexity of work, completion of the assignment showed the Instructional Design was Empirical, Iterative, and self correcting or at least for the most part. The final characteristic was team work or a team effort. This was not required on this project, although two students decided to team up to produce one project. It still worked out well plus they also worked side by side with another student who decided to work alone. Looking at the whole scheme of Instructional Design and its characteristics, I believe I could improve in some areas; but on the whole I did a good job without having read this textbook before I attempted to include technology in my instruction at the end of the school year.

Reiser and Dempsey excluded teachers, chalkboards and textbooks from the definition of instructional media because instructional media is viewed as supplemental means of presenting instruction and teachers and textbooks are considered primary means of presenting instruction. If we use the definition of instructional media as the physical means via which instruction is presented to learners according to Reiser & Gagne in 1983, then yes teachers, chalkboards and textbooks would be the physical means via which instruction is presented to a learner. In fact, just about everything in the classroom used for instruction would be considered as such because the definition is broad in its scope. I do not believe it is the purpose of instructional design's to incorporate media into instruction per se. But within this belief, I must also remove the teacher, chalkboard and textbook from the discussion and only use technology as the media we discuss. Instructional Design, by definition from Reiser and Dempsey, is the use of media for instructional purposes and the sue of systematic instructional design procedures to analyze learning and performance ant the design, development, implementation, evaluation and management of instructional and non instructional processes and resources intended to improve learning and performance. It is the purpose of Instructional design to analyze learning and solve problems that arise. If additional media would solve the problems of learning and instruction then its use is supported. But if media would not solve the problems, then it would be useless to incorporate it into the learning and instruction. it would thus become a hindrance to the very process it is trying to solve. I'm of the proponent that if media is to be thrown into instruction just for the sake of saying I've used media, then we defeat the purpose. Media use must be designed into the instruction with the mindset that it will bring instruction and learning up to a higher standard and reach higher goals. If it does not, then there is no reason to use it.


Reisr, Robert A. and Dempsey, John V. Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology.Pearson:
       Boston 2012. 3ed.