EDT 502 Unit 1 Discussion Post

 EDT 502 Unit 1

Given that my knowledge about the Origins and evaluation of instructional design is not all that great other than the Readings this week on Rober A. Reiser. I would have to admit that my impressions of the Recommended readings were negative.  The thing that struck me the most was how outdated it was as a reference written in around 1996 and referring to subjects and topics in Media from 1910 to 1980.With a couple minor additions to bring it "Somewhat Current". However, in the last 20 years or so since it was written I've seen so many advances in Technology, so many advances I had hoped had occurred in the educational field.  That's what I'm hoping to see in the following courses.  Knowing History is good, but standing on the shoulders of Giants is better.  If there haven't been many advances in the last 20 years we are doomed.  As for his sojourner into instructional Design it was a little more interesting, perhaps because more of it was new to me or perhaps it was just more aligned towards my goals. Discussing Learner Directed or Leaner centric focused learning is the path forward. I don’t have an institution YET, with which to apply my ideas and topics in this class but at some point, look forward to applying them in practice. 

“How might the instructional design process be applied to create more engaging learning experiences for students?” That’s exactly why I’m here. I wish to find this out. I have ideas, and thoughts, however because of my background, I keep coming back to teacher, Chalkboard, Textbook. Snippets of text or videos of a teacher or all the types of things that I know aren’t the best way. I’m hoping that by the end of this course I’ll be better able to answer this question. 

As for the “Element of instructional design process is assessment and evaluation, Broad array of data and analytics, should we adopt the perspective that instruction design has become an iterative process?” Gosh I hope not. What I really hope to see is a major disruptive event or many disruptive events in the timeline. TV being invented, and see that as the next great thing. Radio become prevalent and that being the next great thing those are lazy ideas. Seeing there is a new technology and applying it to the learning process in hindsight? Yeah, anybody can do that. Making it better as time goes by is just evolution. It should get better as time goes by, better fonts, better presentation methods, integration of different types of media into the learning process that should be natural. But my real question: What is the next great thing to happen? Has it happened or does it need to happen. How did the pandemic alter the way Learning happened? Has it been better? Has it been better for all students. I suspect the answer is a resounding “NO”. I see my grand-kids as a small sample group and know one is studious and the other is not. The Studios grandchild has thrived in this environment. The non-studios grandchild has not.