Section 7: New Direction in Instructional Design and Technology

 New Direction in Instructional Design and Technology )

How you might apply each of the following in your current or future position in the IDT field:

• distributed or e-learning environments-
• reusable design or learning objects
• rich media
• emerging instructional technologies, such as artificial intelligence, cybernetics, Web 2.0, virtual worlds, electronic games, etc.
  
  
  I am currently a 5^th and 6^th grade science and social studies teacher at a small school district where all teachers wear many “hats” and spend lots of time trying to find ways to reach all of our students without having to spend financial resources allocated to other necessary purchases in the district. Many times we are meeting on our lunches discussing new ideas we want to try and getting feedback from our peers on how to improve the ideas. I have taken the interest in technology integration for our district. Many of the courses I am taking is for pure knowledge and do not apply to my curriculum and instruction degree. I earned my Master's almost totally though distributed or e-learning environments and hope that many middle and high schools start offering options for students through these types of instructional designs. My future plans for e-learning environments are to add a section to my current class website that includes reference websites, simulations, threaded discussions, and web videos that students and parents can access at anytime at school or at home. I started this year by sending a summer science program that gives students a short activity to complete at home each day to get ready for 5^th grade science this year. The students who completed the optional program received homework passes when they arrived for the new year. This next year I would like to include some of the e-learning activities to the summer program.

In my current position reusable design has become another goal I have set to accomplish before the next school year. In the past three years, we have changed curriculum’s for science twice and each time I have to start fresh developing lessons for both 5^th and 6^th grades. This summer I purchased a center based program that allows me to make small changes to materials in each center each week for students to compete at their own pace. There is a vocabulary exercise, literature connection, graphic organizer, hands-on activity, and a quiz that is placed at each station for the students to complete. This will be used along with the kits that I prepare that will be used for each unit taught. These kits include a master copy of all handouts and teacher directions, group lab materials, and assessments for each unit. In teaching science, re-usability is extremely important since majority of the time is spent setting up lab activities and cleaning it up to store for the next use.

As far as rich media goes, I plan on using simulations when lab activities are not feasible due to time or lack of materials and animations that are included with new digital textbooks we are receiving for the next year. Students also have access to digital audio lessons that I will assign and require students to take notes on before I teach the lesson in the class for activating prior knowledge. I will use rich media to enable effective instructional methods to promote learning.

It is important to note that the introduction of new technologies is not to distract from the learning process but to enhance the learning environment. Web 2.0 tools such as Prezi presentations, podcasts, and blogs are only a couple of tools that I will use in my classroom. Our students are entering our rooms already knowing much about many of the social media uses for entertainment purposes but they are clueless to how to use these same tools as educational tools. It is our responsibility as educators to understand how to reach our “new” age students and teach them how to use all of the tools available to their benefit. Students must be taught how to responsibly use social media to problem solve and collaborate with others. Technology is here to stay and we need to try and keep up with the trend as much as possible or at least give our students to basic knowledge to find the correct tools to use when needed.