Book Trailers

This month my students are working on creating Book Trailers for the book they have read in Literature Circles. Like a movie trailer, the purpose of these short films is to capture the interest of a potential audience, introduce them to the story, and remind them of the book's title so they will go get a copy for themselves.

Some of my published friends have also been using Book Trailers to help promote their books. Check these out!

The 13th Reality: A Journal of Curious Letters by James Dashner


Already Asleep by Julie Olsen

Middle Ages Tech Support

So, Until My Grad Classes Are Finished . . .

. . . this blog may be filled with writing that will make you all insane. Ha! If you decide to give this one a go, wondering if you can figure it out, then I'll give you a hint: ISD stands for Instructional Design System which is the theory about how teaching is supposed to be developed. Let me tell you though, any teacher who spent as many hours doing the ISD preparation for a single hour of classroom instruction like each of us in this class has been required to do would never in a lifetime have lesson plans to take them through one school year.

Rebuttal to Gordon & Zemke

The critics of ISD outline four charges: “ISD is too slow and clumsy to meet today’s training challenges; there’s no “there” there; used as directed, it produces bad solutions; and it clings to the wrong world view.” (Gordon & Zemke, 2000, p. 44) Although there are benefits with ISD, the key to success is when the design process has been cost effective, is completed in an appropriate time frame, and produces hard evidence of successful learning. (Subramony, 2007) In an effort to defend or modify ISD against these charges, several solutions have been offered.

Although the six-step ISD process seems straightforward, some companies and educational institutions become so bogged down that the need for design passes before the solution to performance gaps is discovered: “The slow and clumsy argument doesn’t really indict ISD as a learning system but rather as an administrative system.” (Gordon & Zemke, 2000, p. 47) Therefore, the ISD system itself is not broken; it just needs to be speeded up to become more effective. Robert O. Brinkerhoff and Anne M. Apking describe “an altered design paradigm,” which “mirrors the key elements of the more traditional ISD methods that have stood the test of time,” embedding ISD “into the conceptual framework of the HIL (High Impact Learning) approach, building on what we know about sound instructional design, adding new ideas and methods, and revising others to achieve HIL results.” (Brinkerhoff & Apking, 2001, p.140) Describing this new system, “It is a process that uses rapid prototyping to get an approximation of a solution quickly, then deploys it to its customers to both meet needs and to test it, revamp it, and deploy and test it again, repeatedly.” (Brinkerhoff & Apking, 2001, p. 143) In addition, “Tom Peters, in his . . . handbook The Project 50 (1999), stresses the importance of quick prototyping to the success of any project, noting that it is possible to build and test some piece of any project within a few hours to two or three days. (Brinerhoff & Apking, 2001, p. 143) Christopher Westrup adds “Many see that the interaction of designers and users is a key consideration for the successful development of IS, . . .some of these ideals have been translated into widely used techniques such as prototyping . . .” (Westrup, 1993, p. 8) Using these faster methods will solve the first charge made against the ISD system.

Geary Rummler describes a more effective approach to ISD is “to put together a SWAT team of experienced designers who are quick to see the real problem, who have a repertoire of imaginative solutions, and who can come up with a basic design in three days, not three months.” (Gordon & Zemke, 2000, p. 48) The problem that keeps ISD developers from addressing the substance of the instruction seems to be that too much time is spent on the analysis, but Arias and Clark call for “the front-end analysis phase of the design process to go beyond the traditional instructional needs assessment approach.” (Arias & Clark, 2004, p. 52) Time and money spent in the analysis phase can prevent unnecessary steps or development of unnecessary training. Knowing more about the problem early might solve the suggested problem with substance.

Sivasailam Thiagarajan argues, “The process tends to create boring, cookie-cutter programs geared to the slowest and most ignorant learners in the audience.” (Gordon & Zemke, 2000, p. 51) Westrup counters: “An early criticism of much of ISD theory was that it was based on poor research designs which prevented useful, i.e. replicable results . . . Iven and Olsen (1984, p. 601) reviewed the literature and concluded as follows: ‘The practitioner may have found this discussion disheartening. Not only has empirical research been unable to foresee when and what types of user involvement are appropriate, it has not convincingly demonstrated user involvement contributes to systems success.’” (Westrup, 1993, p. 267) Perhaps the problem lies not in the process, but with the designer for a specific ISD solution. The better one becomes at developing design, the more effective is the product produced.

The final charge states: “The ISD model assumes that a job is a known quantity. It assumes the presence of a master performer who knows how to do the job in the best possible way. It assumes we can derive a set of best-practice procedures from that master performer and then teach them to everybody else.” (Gordon & Zemke, 2000, p. 52) The argument continues, “The core skill becomes problem-solving.” (Gordon & Zemke, 2000, p. 53) In the educational realm, the most significant difficulties with effective ISD could be the unwieldy amount of needed course design and the lack of a team as educators often work in isolation. Cost may also prohibit the effective development and implementation of ISD. Additionally, there is an assumption that the designer is a subject matter expert. Although this may be the case with the classroom teacher, it is often not true in the development of policy, procedures, and training for both education and business settings. As described in an abstract for Said Another Way Subject Matter Experts: Facts or Fiction?: “Subject matter experts (SMEs) can be valuable resources, but there are no standards or criteria for their selection. The temptation to assert one's self as an SME in the absence of actual expertise is great. As a consumer, where does one turn, how does one know who to believe, and where does one place trust? . . . The question, “Is your subject matter expert really an expert? (Lavin, Dreyfus, Slepski & Kasper, 2007, Abstract)

Westrup offers: “To summarize, existing studies of ISD tend to concentrate either on improving techniques or methodologies based on fairly abstract criteria or, when they do represent the practices of ISD, restrict themselves to inadequate techniques such as questionnaires (Cicourel, 1964) or retrospective accounts of ISD processes through periodic interview. Instead, it is suggested that to establish understanding of the use of methodologies and the role of users in this process requires an ethnographic and longitudinal study into the processes of ISD.” (Westrup, 1993, p. 268) Like the ISD process itself, these studies may prove to be too time-consuming, requiring considerable access, and be representative of only one site. Like the critics cited in the Gordon and Zemke article, some experts felt there were an “unwieldy amount of rules and regulations over the proper way to carry out each step of the model,” (Gordon & Zemke, 2000, p. 43), but the suggestions given in this rebuttal might reduce the impact of the complaints to the point where ISD remains a valid and useful tool in instructional design.

References

Arias, Sonia & Clark, Kevin. (2004). Instructional technologies in developing countries: a contextual analysis approach. TechTrends, 52-55, 70.

Brinkerhoff, Robert O. & Apking, Anne M. (2001). High Impact Learning: Strategies for Leveraging Business Results from Training. New York: Basic Books.

Gordon, J., & Zemke, R. (2000, April). The attack on ISD. Training, 37, 43-53.

Lavin, Roberta P., Dreyfus, Michael, Slepski, Lynn, & Kasper, Christine E. (2007, October) Said Another Way Subject Matter Experts: Facts or Fiction? Nursing Forum, Vol. 42 Issue 4, p189-195, 7p.

Subramony, Dr. Deepak. (2007, September 26). Instructional Systems Design. Lecture Powerpoint, Slide 16.

Westrup, Christopher. (1993). Information systems methodologies in use. Journal of Information Technology. 8, 267-275.

Officially Brain-Dead

I just finished reading over 100 pages of text for my next paper for my graduate class. Now, my brain is officially dead. I have an I.Q. of over 120; I'm an excellent reader; and I could decode every word, but I still feel like I could have done better at reading an astrophysics text than the numerous treatise we were assigned.

Honestly, it's no wonder there is such difference in the quality of education given around the country. Here we have two adult men who have been arguing for over twenty years the validity of media vs teachers in the delivery of material that will cause students to learn. Now I'm supposed to write a paper about it, choosing which one of them is right!

Isn't there something inherently wrong in the fact that I'm counting days until this graduate class is over?

Dare I Blow Your Mind?

As some of you know, I'm currently enrolled in graduate classes at Utah State University where I'm working toward a Masters in Education in Instructional Technology. I've already completed my courses for the Library Media Endorsement that accompanies this masters. This term I'm taking classes in Instructional Design, and recently I had to write a research paper for one of my classes. I thought I'd post it here for anyone who dares to read it. I just hope it doesn't blow your mind like it fried mine during the writing process!

The relatively new field of Instructional Technology has no single universally accepted definition. “One type of definition equates instructional technology with a particular set of instructional media, often referred to as audiovisual devices. The other type of definition describes instructional technology as a process often labeled the systems approach process.” (Reiser, 1987, p. 11) Other sources define the field as, “The use of a systematic approach to creating and delivering instruction” (Rosenberg, 1999, p. 27), “a blend of psychology, educational, communications, management, systems theory, and social science” (Shiffman, 1995, pg.132), and the definition prepared by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Definitions and Terminology Committee is as follows: “Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.” (Seels & Richey, 1994, pp. 1-9).

According to Dr. Deepak Subramony, (Utah State University, 2007) educational technology “combines and applies instructional, learning, developmental, managerial, and other technologies . . . to the solution of educational problems.” The layperson often confuses the area of study with technology education, which is learning about and operating various forms of technology. This classification is more in line with the instructional media application of audiovisual devices. AECT states, “Educational technology is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization, for analyzing problems, involved in all aspects of human learning.” (AECT, 1977, p. 1) Educational technology, therefore, not only becomes the heart of educational lesson design, but also allows for application in the business world.

One of the earliest fields within educational technology was instructional systems design (ISD), developed by the United States military during World War II. Although several models of instructional development are used in schools today (Essential Elements of Instruction, Collaborative Education, Project-Based Learning, Outcome Based Education) the most common model in instructional technology courses seems to be the ADDIE Model, “analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.” (Strickland, 2006).

Three main theoretical schools---Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism---are present in both psychology and educational technology literature. The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology places the theories and practices into six categories: “cognition and learning, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.” (SDSU Department of Technology, 2007), thus, affirming the use of the ADDIE model by its organization.

Instructional Technology

A subset of Educational Technology, instructional technology is more than exclusively the use of technological hardware in the classroom. The field has expanded, requiring its own subsets including human performance technology for the pure management of the research and application of the new concepts. Because of the labor shortage in the U. S. during World War II, instructional technology came to the forefront as a way to provide methodology for training workers in a systematic and efficient manner. Defined as, “the systemic and systematic application of strategies and techniques derived from behavior and physical sciences concepts and other knowledge to the solution of instructional problems” (University of Wyoming, 2004), instructional technology went beyond theory to the practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of resources and processes for learning.

Performance Technology

Performance Technologies, often referred to as Human Performance Technology, are systems where thinking is applied to human resource activities or “the systematic set of methods, procedures, and strategies for solving human performance problems.” (Talaq & Ahmed, 2004) As an example, the layman might remember seeing the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen based on the book by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, which depicts the life and research of their father, Frank Gilbreth, a pioneer in the field of motion study who often used his family as guinea pigs with amusing and sometimes embarrassing results. As other psychologists such as B.F. Skinner studied the way people learned, educators moved from the simple model of apprenticeship toward programmed instruction. Soon the importance of instructional feedback and reinforcement were noted, ideas were shared, and systematic approaches were created to deliver instruction. These approaches are now known as instructional technology or instructional design systems. “Task analysis became critical as instructional technologists realized the need to identify, before instruction was designed, what they intended to teach people to do.” (Rosenberg, 1999, 27).

Relationship of ET, IT, PT

As one considers the relationship among educational technology, instructional technology, and performance technology, the first apparent similarity is their reliance on the definition of technology. Accepting that the meaning can be something deeper than just the manipulation of devices such as computers, projectors, or audio devices, technology must also include the system or process by which information is learned, then applied in a variety of situations.

Educational technologies may include systems other than those directly related to instruction. Instructor policies and procedures, library media acquisition and availability, and school adopted mission statements are all areas that are important to the educational community, but that are not necessarily taught to students as part of the learning goals.

Educational technology solves educational problems. Instructional technology is a subset of educational technology, meant to solve instructional problems. Going beyond just theory, instructional technology allows the means for educators and those in the business world to study a problem, then craft ways to present information that allows success in not only learning, but also applying information to increase performance quality. As Dr. Subramony explained in class, “Sex education is about attitudes and values, whereas sex instruction is about How-To concepts, principles, and training procedures.” This is where performance technology ties in. Our world is always looking for ways to build the proverbial better mousetrap. The worker who is trained to use information in the most time efficient manner becomes an asset in the workplace.

Conclusion

Despite the narrow view that society has of instructional technology, the study and implementation of design models such as ADDIE can increase proficiency levels for students by giving the instructor more focus and direction when preparing educational materials.

Bibliography

Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (1977). The definition of educational technology: a summary. In The definition of educational technology, (pp. 1-16). Washington, D.C.: AECT.

Gilbreth, Frank B. & Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth. (1948). Cheaper by the Dozen. New York, T.Y. Crowell Co.

Reisner, Robert A. (1987). Instructional technology: a history. In R.M. Gagne (Ed.), Instructional Technology: Foundations (pp. 11-48). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 

Rosenberg, M. J., Coscarelli, W. C., & Hutchinson, C. S. (1999). The origins and evolution of the field. Ch. 2 in Stolovitch & Keeps (Eds.) Handbook of human performance technology, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

San Diego State University. (2007). Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/.

Seels, Barbara B. & Richey, Rita C. (1994). Instructional technology: the definition and domains of the field. Washington, D. C.: Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

Shiffman, Shirl S. (1995). Instructional Systems Design: Five Views of the Field. In G.J. Anglin (Ed.), Instructional Technology: Past, Present, and Future^nd ed.) (pp. 131-142). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. (2

Strickland, A.W. (2006). ADDIE. Idaho State University College of Education Science, Math & Technology Education. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from http://ed.isu.edu/addie/index.html.

Talaq, Jaleel & Ahmed, Pervaiz K. (2004). Why HPT, not TQM? An examination of theHPT concept. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 23 Issue 3, 202 – 218. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from Emerald database.

University of Wyoming (2004). College of Education Department of Adult Learning & Technology. Retrieved September 15, 2007, from http://www.uwyo.edu/alt/introduceprogram.asp.

Cleaning House the Clean Sweep Way

Just letting all of you know about my latest national publication.

Visit Desert Saints Magazine at the following link:


http://desertsaintsmagazine.com/2007/09/01/cleaning-house-the-clean-sweep-way/

Technology of the Future Comes to Today

While I was in Logan for my graduate classes this week, I had the opportunity to visit the Adele & Dale Young Education Technology Center (YETC) on the campus of the Utah State University. The YETC is a resource center for the College of Education and Human Services, houses open-access computer facilities, a K-12 curriculum materials library, a NASA Educator Resource Center, as well as collections of educational technology products.

Our first stop, was a PC computer room where we explored the Teacher Link website. (http://www.teacherlink.usu.edu/TLYETC/index.html) This site takes users to resources that teachers can immediately use in their classrooms, but teacher or not, you’ve got to visit the Clip Art section which contains over 1 million free pieces and backgrounds to use in presentations, newsletters, etc. Be sure to visit the NASA link as well where you can see what’s happening at the Space Centers in real time. If you run into any pages that require a password, just contact the YETC center or email Nathan.Smith@usu.edu and they can help you.

Next we visited the Mac computer center. I used to use a Mac, but so many educational programs were not compatible all those years ago when I bought my first computer, so I abandoned the system I loved. Now I may go back! These computers read both Mac and PC programs, and the programs are easy to use. In less than 5 minutes, I learned how to use iMovie and made a little film of myself, using the built in camera and music tracks.

Our third computer room took us back to PCs where we learned about Vegas Movie Maker, a professional quality editing system that lets budding film makers produce independent movies on DVD. One of the latest things in computer use that they demonstrated is to have two monitors connected to your computer so that you can work in several programs at once without needing to switch from tab to tab.

All of this technology surrounding me made me feel like I was on the set of Star Trek, but it was also exciting to learn about the capabilities that home computer systems can have today. Now I want to go spend a few hours learning how to use some of these new programs so that I can introduce them to my students not too long into the future.