Oak Brook Productions

ID as a set of principles

t.stafford — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:59:34 +0000

Merrill delineates instruction into three specific programs or practices. A principle is defined as something that exists given the right circumstances and environment regardless of programming or practice; a practice is a specific activity and program is defined as a set of practices that is more or les prescriptive to fulfill the principles that are in play. (Merrill, 2002). This give rise then to the idea that instruction must be based on a asset of principles and establishing those principles are what are important and not merely attempting to propose a particular program that may or may not be suitable for every environment or learning scenario. Merrill goes on to discuss how he has found that regardless of model, there are still key principles that are being established for the instruction to be effective. His work captured not only the rigorous aspect of implementation but also of design from a much les esoteric level than merely prescribing a one size fits all models for every situation.

As a trained musician, this is a very easy concept to understand. In music there is a set of principles that applies to any situation given the right set of circumstances. When one goes on location one can very quickly look at his music and then begin to make connections and decisions based on what will be needed. These principles help to define what will follow. So then there is a real need, as Merrill points out, for there to be a content first modeling that allows for the instructional designer to see what the content is and then analyze the situation to determine what principles are important (Merrill, 2006). These set of first principles are common to the majority of all instructional scenarios, but the way that they are designed around and implemented could be quite different depending on the customized needs of the learning environment and learners themselves.

References
Merrill, D. M. interviewed by Silber. (Speaker/Author). (2006). Interview with D. M. Merrill [Online audio]. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Capella University.
Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 50(3).

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Is ADDIE dead?

t.stafford — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:59:11 +0000

The ADDIE model lends itself to the compartmentalized thinking of many who feel the need for a model that covers all aspects of a project from cradle to grave as it were. ADDIE gives a great look at the components of what needs to be accomplished when designing instruction and for the most part curriculum of any kind, however its boxed in approach tends to leave the innovators tied to certain aspects of the ID process that could prove problematic in many cases, especially when the Instructional Designer may be performing another role in the process. Instructional designers and teachers need to know what complete set of strategy components has better results (for desired outcomes) than any other set under given conditions. They are also interested in complete models and theories of instruction. The Iterative design, as an example is an approach of incremental development and refining a based on a real time feedback and evaluation feel that is different than the traditional Addie evaluation phase (Kranch, 2008). The Iterative design applies to a learning experience, the creation of media, or the development of learning systems. These tools, according to Reigeluth (1999) “provide the overt means through which individuals engage and manipulate both resources and their own ideas” (Reigeluth, 1999, p. 128). An example of how an iterative mode is used in a classroom is through the use of a wiki, where the “Page History” facility allows tracking back to prior versions. Modifications are mostly incremental, and leave substantial parts of the text unchanged. This is just one example of other ID models that are replacing the ADDIE design by attempting to give a more customized tool for a particular set of demographics and needs for the instructional design environment.

References
Kranch, D. A. (2008). Getting it right gradually: An iterative method for online instruction development. The Quarterly View of Distance Education, 9(1), 29-34.
Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). What is instructional design theory? In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models (Vol. II, pp. 5-29). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

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Historical Landmarks of Instructional Design – Part VI

t.stafford — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:59:36 +0000

ID Historical Wrap-up and Look Ahead
In general, instructional design has seen many paradigm shift over that last few decades, but one overarching theme seems to be that there has always been a need and desire for the learner to be centered in his education and educational model. The film and media training successes of the forties laid the foundation for Gagne’s work in the sixties. Gagne’s work sought to shift the paradigm to and event driven model where the learners behavior was the issue and not just the teaching strategies. This led to seeing another distinct shift in education philosophy with Merrill’s first principles. Merrill modeled that learning is facilitated when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems and that existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge. This has put the learner in the center of the knowledge model and its evaluation. This eventually led to Gardner’s work in learning styles and multiple intelligence theory, where the learner can now be understood by the way he learns and not just by the behavior of what he has learned. It became well understood that learners learn differently and therefore the definition of intelligence was undergoing a shift as well. Cognitive load theory seeks to understand how much a learner can learn and how to help a learner understand highly complicated behaviors and concepts through smaller pieces that are connected together to form larger schema sets. These schemas allow the learner to journey from novice to expert and be largely in control of where they reside on that journey.

Educational technology has thrust our institutions into the e-learning reality that has put the learner in the center of his education in ways that were not even thought possible in the forties. Industries and corporations must continue to understand the development of these educational models and environments to position themselves as industry leaders in professional development and innovation, using new technologies to help foster not only life time learning environments but also to help establish the schools of tomorrow for the next generations of skilled workers, mangers, and executives.

Series References
Erstad, O. (2003). Electracy as empowerment: Student activities in learning environments using technology. Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 11(1), 11-28.
Gagne, R., Briggs, L., & Wager, W. (1992). Principles of instructional design (4th edition ed.). Fort Worth, Texas: HBJ College Publishers.
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1983)
Kolb, D. A., & Fry, R. (1975). Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In C. Cooper (Ed.), Theories of group process London: John Wiley.
Marx, G. (2006). Sixteen trends, their profound inpact on our future: Implications for students, education, communities, countries, and the whole of society. Alexandria, VA: Gary Marx and Educational Research Service.
Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). What is instructional design theory? In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models (Vol. II, pp. 5-29). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Learning, 12, 257-288.

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Historical Landmarks of Instructional Design – Part V

t.stafford — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:59:26 +0000

2000 – Educational Technology and the Learner-centered model
The last ten years has seen a rise in the use of and the design and implementation of educational software and hardware for use by instructional designers to deploy coursework to learners. Asynchronous online course rooms and synchronous course modules for existing coursework have captured the educational world through several realities. First the need for educators to understand what the next generation of learners will be requiring and one of the themes that presents itself often is the idea of customizing education (Marx, 2006). Customizing education is attend that will seek to rewrite educational practice by allowing learners to fully customize their education to meet their individual goals. This has created the need of and response to the learner-centered model of education. For the first time, education is seeing a real sift from the teacher centered focus that has dominated education for many decades, to a learner-centered focus where each learner is responsible for his own learning and strategies of completion. Learners have become course evaluators and are often looked to for guidance in making the course more meaningful and significant to the future of the learners who are involved in online learning. Instructional design has answered the call by embracing the e-learning environment and even establishing online universities who specialize in training learners to design coursework for online environments. The instructional design community continues to be on the cutting edge of these new constructs and environments.

For the corporate world, the e-learning environment could be a key to the survival of training in the corporate setting. Many experts and corporations who would spend millions of dollars to host conventions and seminars are now turning to webinars and e-learning environments. Instructional designers are being hired by top companies and e-earning consulting is quickly becoming a road for many seasoned instructional designers to move towards as the demand for these types of environments becomes stronger. Many industries and consulting firms are investing in and conducting needs assessments and proposals for how it can leverage e-learning to impact the training needs of the firms’ employees and experts, but also the professional communities that are represented in the firm. These measures have been designed to help shift the paradigm of learning by going to seminars and conventions to the power e-learning and experiential learning environments that allow a corporation to customize their learning environments and training module to suite their specific needs and goals for the future (Erstad, 2003).

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Historical Landmarks of Instructional Design – Part IV

t.stafford — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:59:52 +0000

1992 – Cognitive Load Theory

In answer to the Constructionist ideology that learning can not be separated from experience, J. Sweller proposed a theory on the idea that learning is made up of schemas that are intertwined and acquired over a life time (Sweller, 1988). This would make the more experienced learner or practitioner to more closely resemble the expert and the learner or practitioner with little to no experience the novice. The span between these poles then resembles the differing stages of what can be known and accomplished in a given field. This theory puts instruction in the working memory to begin with attention paid to the amount of memory load that is required to accomplish each set of tasks or to learn a set of concepts. Smaller pieces mean a lessened cognitive load and this means that the learner can master is with more ease and with better retention. As these smaller pieces are added together, a wider set of macro skills or concepts are then learned. These ten are combined until a complicated set of skills of concepts are not only understood, but mastered to the point of being easily used and a pat of the learners’ schema in general (Sweller, 1988).
For many industries, the depths of the issues are in minute details that are often found through complicated mathematical, engineering, and financial formulas that must be a part of a working schemas of all who are a part of a project. Often these complicated schema transfer themselves to other projects and there is a sense that a project manager or expert needs to be able to see the big picture through a filter of very small details in order to trace tem to the root of whatever the building problem may be. In training field workers and experts alike, the cognitive load theory brings a great deal of clarity to a very complicated set of sciences that most everyone who works on a project must have a cursory knowledge of and this learning theory has allowed for instruction to be designed in such a way that these precepts and individual schema can be developed while keeping the broader view in mind.

References
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Learning, 12, 257-288.

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Historical Landmarks of Instructional Design – Part III

t.stafford — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:59:49 +0000

1983 – Learning Theory Changes
In the 1980’s, education underwent a significant change that would forever affect the way that instruction was designed and delivered to learners, because multiple intelligences of the learner himself was the subject of a new trend of educational theory (Gardner, 1983/1993). Howard Gardner’s studies and research would revolutionize the way that instructional designer would understand learners and how they learn. Every industry who was involved in learner training would be affected by these new insights. This reality would lead to a tendency to see everything in light of a behaviorist model and so for the building forensics world to operate within the constructs studied by Gagne and Merrill was not a stretch for this industry.

However, Gardner’s work opened the doors for different types of learning and therefore many different niches began to be carved out within an industry, and many of these are now considered specialized areas and not all of them have to include a psychometric understanding or underpinning in order for some one to gain expertise in a field. Kolb’s four stage cycle of learning showed that concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation were the keys to acquiring and integrating knowledge and he went on to merge these stages into a framework of learning styles that would show tendencies of learning in relationship to tendencies of personality and work mode (Kolb & Fry, 1975).

References

Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1983)
Kolb, D. A., & Fry, R. (1975). Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In C. Cooper (Ed.), Theories of group process London: John Wiley.

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Historical Landmarks of Instructional Design – Part II

t.stafford — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:59:10 +0000

1974 (2002/2006) – Merrill’s First Principles
There is always a need for new learning and innovative ways of solving issues and being proactive about issues that might occur in the future. Merrill’s work in the early 1970’s is a model of instruction that can address this kind of need in the building forensics industry because buildings are constantly changing and adapting to their surroundings and many times this is the cause of the issues that become pervasive in building forensics.
Merrill modeled that learning is facilitated when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems and that existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge (Reigeluth, 1999). He also spoke of the facilitation of learning as the new learner demonstrated and applied knowledge and was further able to practically integrate that knowledge to solve problems within the learner’s world.

Further, these same experts also have a propensity to be able to apply these concepts to new building types and be proactive about understanding what will be needed in the future as new building types are created. There is a constant flow of the old and the new that occurs in this industry. Merrill’s work in instructional design is a perfect fit for solving problems in the training of workers and experts because it seeks to build on prior experience and integrate new skill sets through real world application.

References

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 50(3).

Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). What is instructional design theory? In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models (Vol. II, pp. 5-29). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

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Historical Landmarks of Instructional Design – Part I

t.stafford — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:59:40 +0000

1965 – Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction
Gagne’s nine events of instruction provides a snapshot of how many of the ideas, theories and practical field applications have been discovered and applied in the last fifty years of academics. In addition, it is also clear how much of the learning at the higher institutional level has been framed within the context of Gagne’s theories and continues to be a viable way to provide on-going education in many professions today. As a behaviorist, Gagne believed that it was important to create a learning environment where objectives were clearly stated, prior learning was recalled, and learner guidance and performance were essential to the success of the instructional design model (Gagne, Briggs, & Wager, 1992).

Changes in this training type have been minimal in many industries in the many decades following Gagne’s work, even though the technology has continued to change. The technology used to train these experts and field workers have made it easier for them to have access to updated knowledge and new trends and the accuracy of what is being tested is far superior to that of even ten years ago, but the instructional design method still continues to look the same in many situations.

References
Gagne, R., Briggs, L., & Wager, W. (1992). Principles of instructional design (4th edition ed.). Fort Worth, Texas: HBJ College Publishers.

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Some Thoughts on Educational Futuring – Part II

t.stafford — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:57:13 +0000

Blaylock and Newman write about the phenomenon of virtual campuses in the K-12 school scenarios and make a number of observations that help to define how this phenomenon will help to shape the face of primary and secondary education in the future. The authors talk about the personalization of education through the use of these virtual campuses in light of economic irregularities, insufficient course offerings or course instruction, and demographic inequalities that often neuter some students in their ability get the very best education that America has to offer (Blaylock & Newman, 2005, p. 375-376). They go on to highlight the virtual schools and their philosophies, vision and mission statements and their effectiveness within the communities that they serve from a broader perspective. It is not secret that these schools are offering coursework that simply would be unavailable to some students, but they also show that at the heart of the philosophy of many of these virtual schools (like Florida Virtual Schools) is desire to give responsibility back to the student. It is very much like the home school movement philosophy where the student is given the responsibiliity of his/her education not the institution. The difference is that the student can personalize his/her education by either supplementing the coursework that they are enrolled in within their matriculating schedule, or utilize these courses to fulfill the requirements of the state for High School graduate. No matter the degree of hybrid, these virtual campuses are making a huge impact on the education world for now and for the future (Blaylock & Newman, 2005, p. 389-381).

All of the articles have a certain amount of bias and assumption that the trends of the technological and virtual classroom are here to stay and may become the template of the future classroom. Success for the future of academe in America however is taken from different views in each of these articles. Marx believes that knowledge creation, breakthrough thinking and coordinating learning and problem solving across the disciplines with an emphasis in the arts will be the formula for the future success of the educational institution (Marx, 2006, p. 172-178). Yankelovish believes that a return to a dialogued approach concerning educational sequencing, framing the appeal of science and technology to the general students, a paradigm shift away from the ethnocentric pathways of the present and past and towards a most diverse approach to social life, and a trend in thinking that has put nonscientific ways of seeking truth on the defensive all contribute to the growing trend of fermentation of society and less a scenario of healthy growth and creative gain (Yankelovish, 2005, p. 8-9). Blaylock and Newman can see the eventuality of the virtualization of the classroom and make a number of assumptions regarding its effect on the American culture especially within the institution of education. They are of the bias that this new form of schooling will significantly provide for the students who are subject to more difficult demographics and the tendency to become disenfranchised (Blaylock & Newman, 2005, p. 380-381). They also have found that the quality of work and retention is proving to usurp the concerns that were present at the beginning of this virtual school movement in 1997 and the data seems to show that the students are excelling in these environments (Blaylock & Newman, 2005, p. 382-383).

All of the authors believe that the future of education is within the grasp of the American institution even now, but something must be done quickly, so that we as a nation are not left behind with our traditional methodologies, objectives and philosophies that in only a short time will become obsolete.

References

Blaylock, T. H., & Newman, J. W. (2005). The impact of computer-based secondary education. Education, 125(3), 373-384.
Marx, G. (2006). Sixteen trends, their profound impact on our future: Implications for students, education, communities, countries, and the whole of society. Alexandria, VA: Gary Marx and Educational Research Service.
Yankelovish, D. (2005). Ferment and change: Higher education on 2015. Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(14), B6-B9.

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Some Thoughts on Educational Futuring Part I

t.stafford — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:53:54 +0000

Gary Marx writes a compelling article about the release of human ingenuity that will become a primary responsibility of education and society; in effect the acquisition of information will lead to the creation of new knowledge and breakthrough thinking. The conclusion is that knowledge will become the new currency or the future and the new entrepreneurs will be intellectual (Marx, 2006, p. 163). Marx calls this the new era of enlightenment where connections will be made across disciplines in the forms of teaching, learning, and thinking. The acceleration of knowledge is already affecting our world on almost an exponential level and Marx points out the new mandates of education will come in the form of teaching towards cognition and creation will be rewarded highly in the next generation of the educated (Marx, 2006, p. 173-174). Thinking and reasoning will not be elective any more in the sense that formal training in logic will not just be for the elite classical or Socratic/Platonic environments, but it will be the expectation for all students who attend school in the future.

Yankelovish defines three critical trends in his article that peak to the future of higher education and a picture of what it could look like in 2015. He contends that the trend of changing life cycles will have a greater affect on the educational demographics of the future (Yankelovish, 2005, p. 2). As the country ages, the expected life span in nearly forty years greater than that of the average member of society in 1900. This has a dramatic effect on our culture because with monger life spans there is a tendency to breed longer adolescent periods and we are witnesses to this clearly in the United States. This leads to an elongating of the college education to as many as twelve years and is more closely related to work (Yankelovish, 2005, p. 2-3). Another trend is America’s growing vulnerability in science and technology. If the United States has aspirations of keeping its status as a world superpower then it must make real strides in the education of mathematics and science within our educational system. Unfortunately, the past twenty years has proven to equate business to science and finance to mathematics and so we are falling critically behind to the Asian countries of whom the majority of students graduate with math and science degrees (Yankelovish, 2005, p. 4). The “American Dream” has replaced the American presence in the global academic arena. Other trends that are listed include the need for greater understanding of other cultures and languages, an increase in commitment to social mobility within higher education and public support for other ways of knowing. Yankelovish contends that the obstacles of language illiteracy, debilitating poverty and racial issues, as well a need to understand terms like theory, truth, logic, and enlightenment are critical for the further success of our culture socially and academically.

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