EDLD+5368+Instructional+Design

Week 1 It was nice to review the learning theories. It had been a while since I had taken my psychology classes. You can see how different teachers and teaching practices have their background in one of the different learning theories. I read about a few I didn't hear about the first time through and reviewed some classics like Piaget and Pavlov. I also found it interesting to see how the definition of Literacy has changed so much over time. It is interesting that new demands are being put on teachers. And once they meet those demands instead of congratulations the demands just increase. I have enjoyed seeing the results of the student surveys also. Most of the students fell where I expected them to but their was one student that seems to be very auditory and I never would have guessed. I have used a lot of visual and hands on activities in my tutoring of this child. I can't wait to see if a few weeks of auditory tutoring will be more effective. I also had one that I think answered what he thought I wanted to hear. He had only two that weren't marked often. Learning Theories Knowledge Base Learning Theories Knowledge Base (2010, March). at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved March 18th, 2010 from http://www.learning-theories.com How People Learn: THe Design of Learning Environments, Chapter 6- J. Bransford, A. Brown, R. Cocking  Branford, J., Brown, A., Cocking, R. (Ed.). (2000). How people learn. pp.129-154 (Chapter 6). Washington DC: National Academy Press. Retrieved on March 18, 2010, at file:///Users/m1g1recap/Desktop/Lamar/Instructional%20Design/w1r3%20How%20People%20Learn.webarchive

Week 2 To me all the terms mean the same thing. Understanding, internalizing, getting to the core or essence all imply that it has gone past facts and concepts to a deeper individual meaning being made. This deeper meaning can be used when the person encounters a new situation. I like the way Wiggins and McTighe (pg. 52) say that"To know which fact to use when requires more than another fact. It requires understanding- insight into essentials, purpose, audience, strategy, and tactics." I have to be honest I don't know if i have always done a great job of assessing for understanding. I have used teacher observations, discussions with the students, projects and of course test and quizzes. Have I always been asking the right question? No, is the honest answer I had to come up with. I can tell though that this had me me look at my planning and my questioning. I have really learned a lot form the chapters this week (although it was hard to access them a couple of times). Wiggins, Grant; McTighe, Jay. Understanding by Design (expanded Second Edition). Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. p 52 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/lamarDoc?id=10817770&ppg=51  Copyright 2005. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All Rights reserved.

Week 3 When I design my curriculum I look at the model the district has put in place. I like to look at the assessments to see what the district considered the important point of the unit. I then look at the lesson and see if I can teach the concept a better way or a way that is more in line with how it is tested. I often find that the lesson the district provides skates around big concepts hoping that students will come to it on their own. Some do indeed but many students need to have the thinking process modeled for them. A lot of our students have never been shown how to extend the concept past the lesson. In fact I think some teacher may in effect teach our students not to make connections but to memorize certain facts so that blanks can be filled in "correctly". <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">My district has now(this year and last) come up with a form called the KUDs for each unit. The K stands for know, U understand, and D for do. This has been very helpful in playing instruction it helps to get to those "Big Ideas" that we want students to "Really understand". I would like to say it makes it idiot proof but many teachers don't invest the time to actually read the document. The fourth grade team leaders met and discussed them. We found a typo. It has been there for a year and no one had let the district know in that whole time. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">In the reading this week I thought the quote, "A state's broad vision for online education should recognize that online programs can expand educational outcomes and opportunities while challenging existing policies." I think this very true. One way a oversight committee could keep track of programs would be to use the Backward Design to ensure that all students are getting an education that was promised to them. This would would apply to "brick and mortar schools" and online ones. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">I want to say sorry for the late post in this class. I am working on buying a house and had TAKS like so many of you had this week. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">National Standards of Quality for Online Learning <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> North American Council for Online Learning (2006). National standards of quality for online learning. Retrieved o March 18, 2010, at http://www.inacol.org/research/nationalstandards/NACOL%20Standards%20Quality%20Online%20Courses%202007.pdf

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Week 4 <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">On my campus their is almost no online courses. We use programs like Lexia and the site Destination Math to have lessons available to students who need it. In my district more and more training is being offered online to teachers. We have access to trainings such as TAKS trainings to Word and Excel training. In fact every year we have to do either the Sexual Harassment training or the Acceptable Use training online during our own time. Also my district offers a few online course to High school students. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">I think this area has the potential to grow dramatically. I can see large districts helping smaller neighboring one (for a fee of course) and letting at student take an online course through the larger district. One can tell from the growth mentioned in the Sloan Consortium report that interest in this type of course is high and online getting higher. In order to meet this demand the districts will need to come up with a professional development to train teachers on using online classes. I think a good way to train the teachers to do that is for them to truly make an online class similar to what we are using with Schoology. This would be a wonderful time for districts to seek help of nearby colleges. They can find out what programs they use, how effective have they found it, hurdles to using the system, things they would do differently looking back. If the school district was lucky it might even have some teachers that had graduated from the college and can offer their experiences as well. Unfortunately not all districts would have an opportunity like that, but I think that is when you use the other networks you already have in place. Most teachers and administrators belong to some form of professional development organization. This would be a good way to actually use that membership when at the annual conference or even just through the organization get names of people in the district you wish to talk to. I think we all got into this job in order to improve the learning of todays students. Why hold back knowledge from other districts we are in a common noncompeting business. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Business would love if schools trained more students using online learning. That is a way in which many large organizations synchronize. Having new employees that already have those skills would save business time and money in training. These new employees could even give educated feedback on the companies training and meeting systems because they have a reference to compare it to. I know that some businesses already use online training for their employees and see many more following. In our modern society some business are becoming less about where the work done and more about what is done and for how much. With this in mind employees can be all over the globe and need to work as a team for the goal. If schools use "Backward Design" with authentic assessments using real problems the students will be ready to jump in and contributing to the team. Like Wiggins and McTighe (pg. 152)says "Given a focus on understanding, a unit or course will naturally be anchored by performance tasks or projects, because these provide evidence that students are able to use their knowledge in context." They may even be the ones showing the boss how to fix problems with his/her "system". <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Wiggins, Grant; McTighe, Jay. Understanding by Design (expanded Second Edition). <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. p 152 <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">http://site.ebrary.com/lib/lamarDoc?id=10817770&ppg=51 <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> Copyright 2005. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All Rights reserved.

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Week 5 <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">I see many benefits in knowing how to design and implementing online learning. First I think it allows teachers to share their knowledge with their fellow educators. It allows for a teacher to provide just in time support for students that forget a skill. They can go and review a video or other instructional aid provided the teacher. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">I am using the course I designed to review the soil unit we learned earlier in the year. It is important to review this because fifth grade talked about the lack of knowledge and misconceptions that many students come to them with. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">I would use online learning to help in educating my fellow teachers. I would try to arrange for some staff developments to be online this would allow for teachers to do the training when they have time as we all know this is a big issue. Teachers are always complaining about their lack of time. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">One of the questions I still have about online learning is whether or not we can store lessons? Or are they dumped after a certain amount of time has elapsed. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">I really enjoyed learning the "backward design" process. I will be using this process in designing my important lessons. I honestly feel that this improves the teaching and learning taking place. Having the standards in mind is always a good place to start. That is not a new concept for me. I did learn that the next step is to look at the assessments and deciding how to assess is an important part of the process. I had not given much thought to the assessments before and had just used short answers or multiple choice that I now know do not give a full and accurate assessment if a student "really knows or developed a deeper understanding" of the material. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2000). //Understanding by Design.// Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

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