Journal for my Instructional Design Course

Today is Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 and this is my first journal entry for my Instructional Design Course. We are supposed to answer five questions about each class in order to track our focus of the course. First, however, I am going to choose a word per week that describes my experience for that class so that I can use it in my final comment to the journal which is due at the end of the semester. The journal word for this class is:

endurance

Even though I knew that we were in a synchronous real -time environment, I felt like I was enduring the pains of asynchronous, time lapsed communications. We had to wait for David to finish his verbal instructions. We had to wait for our fellow students’ typed bios. I felt like I was in a time warp. When it was finally my turn to communicate, my transmission was interrupted by my real time daughters with real time requests.

I also get the impression that some of my fellow students might have been overly cautious about using the video capabilities of the Adobe software. When it came time for their turn, they did not know how to activate their camera. It has been my experience in the field of technology that you can learn the most by trying as many angles as you can find. This is the, “throw it on the wall and see what sticks” method of testing. A new window pops up when you have been named as a presenter. Click on the camera icon!

Conclusions for this class:
1. Real time, synchronous instruction cannot be made to feel as if it is asynchronous. We would have “lost” many students’ attention in this type of presentation.

2. Clear instructions and rules of engagement must be publicized and practiced beforehand in order to deliver effective instruction.

3. Note to self:

SearchNetworking is a great site to look up technology terminology.

Five Questions Template to Cut and Paste each week:
1. Most engaged:
2. Most disconnected:
3. Affirming action:
4. Puzzling or confusing action:
5. Most surprising:

Now, for the five questions:

1. At what moment in the class this week did you feel most engaged with what was happening?
I liked pointing out to the class how to use the status icons to indicate a question. I think that this helped with the flow of the session. I definately felt “engaged” when I was finally able to click on the camera icon and give my real-time bio. Otherwise, it was an effort to stay focused.
2. At what moment in the class this week did you feel most disconnected with what was happening?
I felt very disconnected while we were waiting for each student to type their bios. I would have encouraged the students to give one phrase answers to the background, program, expectations and what do you want to learn questions. The discourse of reading through paragraphs was like watching grass grow.
3. What action that anyone (teacher or student) took in class was most affirming?
I truthfully did not find much very affirming. I had to struggle to stay focused.
4. What action that anyone (teacher or student) took in class this week did you find most puzzling or confusing?
Trying to determine if I was still connected to the session when there wasn’t any discourse was most confusing.
5. What about the class this week surprised you the most?
I was surprised at the duration of the course using mostly one format which was chatting. We might as well have used AIM.

Today is Wednesday, September 12, 2007 and this is the second journal entry for my Instructional Design Course. I keeping with my tradition of identifying one word to describe the class, I have to choose…
DownloadDog! We are now assigned a group challenge to analyze this video and answer two questions pertaining to Instructional Design:

Challenge One:
1. what is good and bad about the father’s instruction?
2. how would you improve it?

Here are the five questions that have to be journaled:

1. Most engaged: I was most engaged when I was chatting with Rachel and Jennie in our own Group Chat.
2. Most disconnected: The class seems to be dominated with connection problems. They are very distracting to the course.
3. Affirming action: It was affirming when one of the students asked me a question about a comment that I made during the class chat. She had asked about my source for the statement that I had made that most teachers were visual learners. Since I am recalling that fact from my past readings, I was unable to provide an exact source. I was able, however to give her a link to the website Learning Styles Online which provides tests that teachers can use to evaluate the learning styles in their classroom.
4. Puzzling or confusing action: My entire system rebooted when Linda tried to make me a presenter in the Group Chat Room. I have to investigate my webcam connection.
5. Most surprising: I thought that we would cover more course material during the online session. We were just able to talk about Learning Styles, but there was so much more in the “TI” book, that I would like to have covered more topics in the class.

Today is Wednesday, September 19, 2007. This is my third entry into the Journal for my Instructional Design Course. David sent us a questionnaire concerning Learners. I have cut and pasted it for future reference:

Learner Needs and Characteristics Questionnaire

1. Who are the learners?

2. What do they already know about the proposed topic?

3. What should they know?

4. Do they think the information will be useful?

5. When and how? Under what conditions?

6. How will instruction solve the problem that led to this need?

7. What prior knowledge do they have related to the design of instruction (for example, previous and current employment, education and training, reading level, knowledge about the topic, vocabulary and language skills ,visual literacy, computer skills)?

8. Have they ever learned this way before?

9. What are their motivational characteristics (for example, values, interests, short- and long-term goals, attitudes toward the subject matter and learning in general, self-concept, anxieties, confidence, competitive tendencies, preferences)? What factors could detail their success?

10. What are their cognitive and physiological characteristics (for example, cognitive developmental level, language development, preferred learning styles, general learning abilities, specific aptitudes manual dexterity, mobility)?

11. Under what circumstances will they be learning? What sort of time, social support, resources, and equipment will be available?

12. Under what conditions will they apply the skills? How often?

13. Who will make the decisions to participate in instruction? What are their characteristics?

In keeping with my format of providing one word to describe this session, it would be:

Learn

Today’s discussion was about focusing on the Learner. I would like to fine tune the Instructional Designs that I will be doing with my teachers at Reach the World. I need to focus more on the Learners and plan to use this questionnaire.

1. Most engaged:
I think we have finally ironed out most of the technical questions, so I felt more engaged in the overall discussion.
2. Most disconnected: Again, my webcam didn’t work. I think that the USB port in the back of my CPU is not working. I need to practice using the “share my computer screen option”.
3. Affirming action: I was glad that David asked to see my e-portfolio. I really want to know how to better construct ID lessons, so his feedback will help.
4. Puzzling or confusing action: Some of the chat conversations seemed disjointed, although it was easier to follow the dialog this week.
5. Most surprising: That the class felt like it went quickly, rather than dragging on and on.

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