Friday, October 10, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Thoughts on "New Paradigm of Instructional Theory"
Reigeluth (1996) articulates a vision for a new
instructional design theory consonant with the information age. His list of ‘key markers’ of this new theory
reflect the broad technological and economic shifts that have prompted
innovation in how learners should learn.
These key markers reflect the concerns of social constructivists. Learners need to be focus of instruction, not
the content of the course. In centering
instructional design on learners, each learner should have individualized
instruction plans, the educator becomes a ‘facilitator’ of learning, and
learning is done in a community of learners.
Reigeluth suggests that learners should use variable methods for
learning, such as using a variety of technologies to learn a concept and
document their learning.
While this article is nearly twenty years old, I find it
oddly prescient. In my recent research on
the flipped classroom, I found these sentiments echoed by educators like
Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams; innovative educators value students as ‘content
creators’ and embrace the fact that most students do not learn with traditional
lectures and printed learning materials.
It is uncanny to read essays like this on how learners should choose how
to learn and document their learning long before technologies like YouTube and Prezi
were invented, technologies that allowed students to create content and learn
in individuated forms. While I’m excited
about the prospect of a user-centered instructional design, I’m also a bit
cynical that these new instructional design theories will be adopted on a large
scale by a variety of educators. While
we have free and inexpensive tools that could transform education, most schools
and colleges are also saddled with the additional demands of assessment. It seems that accrediting agencies like SACS
are clamping down on schools that churn out graduates who don’t actually
learn. The ‘culture of assessment’ that
many schools tout might cause educators to retreat to basic instructional
methods, methods “which have been scientifically proven to consistently
increase the probability of learning under given conditions” (Reigeluth, 1996,
p.2). The need for hard data, in my opinion,
often squeezes out the desire to adapt experimental forms of learning and
assessment in favor of predictable, if often superficial, data. Having worked at several colleges that offer
online courses and degrees, I have observed that the online teaching environment
is more homogenous than the traditional classroom. The syllabi are pre-written and the textbooks
and pre-selected in many schools, reducing the instructor to the role of facilitator
and grader. The instructor in this
setting is encouraged to ‘play by the rules’ and deliver a consistent, if
sub-par, product. This conservative
approach means often rules out the individualized instruction and alternate
forms of assessment that educational technology has paradoxically made more accessible. Do I believe that a new instructional design
theory is impossible in this setting? No.
I do think, however, that instructors will have to be very intentional
in permitting alternate forms of learning and assessment while producing demonstrable
evidence of student learning.
Work Cited:
Reigeluth, Charles M. (1996). What
is the new paradigm of instructional theory [White paper].
Retrieved from http://itforum.coe.uga.edu/AECT_ITF_PDFS/paper17.pdf
Saturday, August 30, 2014
How I learn conceptual knowledge
I created a mind map of how I learn conceptual knowledge.
The second map is an actual example. I recently wrote an article for Tennessee Libraries on the 'flipped classroom' and I did not understand social constructivism related to flipped instruction, which several of the article mentioned. This is how I gained an in-depth of this concept.
These maps apply to conceptual knowledge - I'm not sure how I would apply them to other types of knowledge, like doing kinesthetic tasks or learning soft skills like reading body language.
The second map is an actual example. I recently wrote an article for Tennessee Libraries on the 'flipped classroom' and I did not understand social constructivism related to flipped instruction, which several of the article mentioned. This is how I gained an in-depth of this concept.
These maps apply to conceptual knowledge - I'm not sure how I would apply them to other types of knowledge, like doing kinesthetic tasks or learning soft skills like reading body language.
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