IDT: Week 1 Defining the Field

The definitions in the first chapter accurately compare to my own definition of IDT.  When we think of technology, I mostly think about the media tools that we can use to help us enhance our lessons.  When taking technology courses or being trained on technology integration in the classroom has helped shaped my idea about educational technology.  After reading the first three chapters of our text, I began to examine instructional technology differently.  When examining the each of the parts of IDT, it opened my eyes to see that it’s a complex way of teaching and not just teaching on the surface level.  IDT is student centered which means that the focus is on student learning.  IDT is also goal oriented.  Goals are determined before the beginning of the project and this helps the student understand what they need to accomplish on the assignment.  IDT focuses on meaningful performance.  This was definitely my favorite because students are not just retaining information to recall facts.  Students must actually show what they know.  They have to be able to perform and display what they have learned. This helps the instructor know if students have truly mastered the concept and can use what they have been taught in a way that shows their understanding.  These key parts of IDT changed my way of thinking when it comes to educational technology. 

One unit that I worked with students on was our Career Unit. During this unit students researched possible careers and created a poster to show what they learned about the career of their choice.  The first week of the unit students completed a Career Scavenger Hunt where they worked in groups to come up with careers for each letter of the alphabet.  This task was completed easily with some students needing help on the difference between a place of employment and an actual career or job that someone would perform at that particular place.  Students were able to choose the career they wanted to research using the Department of Labor website.  They have a section that is geared towards students.  When I think of the six components of instructional design, my unit failed to meet all 6 characteristics.  The project was student centered.  Students were able to decide what careers they wanted to research and the project was focused on them learning as much as possible about possible careers that they can pursue.  The unit was goal oriented.  The goal was for students to learn more information about careers they wanted to pursue.  I believe that I partially met the performance characteristic.  Students were able to create a poster displaying facts about each of their chosen careers.  I could have enhanced this lesson by having them create brochures that displayed what they learned about their career and then we could have presented the information to their peers or even the younger students.  This would be considered meaningful because it allows them to be able to understand the careers they are choosing.  The outcomes could be measured in a valid and reliable way.  The teacher could view the information on the brochure and this can show if the students understand the information presented to them.  During this unit, I didn’t look at empirical and self-correcting aspect.  I could change this by having students complete a pretest on careers and information about careers.  At the end of the unit, I could have students take a posttest to see the information they mastered about careers and this will let me know what I need to review.  Team effort is something that I focused on for the first part of the unit but they moved into individual work when they began the assignment.  I could change this by having students work in groups to complete the brochure electronically and let them present their information to other classes in the form of a career fair. 

In the third chapter, Reiser distinguishes between instructional media and instructional design.  He omits teachers, chalkboards,  and textbooks from the definition of instructional media.  I agree with this because I don’t view a chalkboard or teacher as instructional media.  I view media as being CDs, DVDs, document cameras, etc.  These are media tools because they are incorporating some form of technology.  I believe that instructional design has a purpose of incorporating technology into our lessons.  This is done in an innovative and complex model.