- Demonstrates ability to read and understand educational literature related to Educational Technology.
- Demonstrates ability to describe fundamental theories of human learning.
- Applies knowledge of human learning, diversity, and effective pedagogy to solution of problems.
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Artifacts: EDCI 672 Reflection on Developing Expertise Fall 2016
Narrative:
The final analysis work in the Instructional Designer Expertise course is designed to showcase the synthesizing of varied inputs and inferences in numerous case studies and discussions into a coherent method of operation. Each case study was accompanied by at least two scholarly papers related to the topic and of which it was key to read and understand the educational literature related to Educational Technology in order to provide a relevant analysis. Each week's case study involved evaluating these multiple sources, producing a detailed analysis, and spending the week debating positions with peers.
The studies cover a wide range of situations that an Instructional Designer might encounter from project managing training development at a large corporation to deploying technology in a semi-rural school system. The wide array of situations required a regular review of theories and pedagogy options to find a 'best' fit.
The case study evaluation process required students to take a 'big picture' view to ensure that they identified all the challenges, including those implied and inferred. A highlighted takeaway from a case study reflection was a need to 'linger longer in the analysis area' to ensure that a solid foundation is built for my recommendation.
I leveraged my 23 years in Telecom to understand the executive thought processes in the case studies which provided a perspective that is often misunderstood when analyzing situations from the educational mindset point of view. In particular, the Tina Sears case involved a technology donation from a local business owner and his interest in seeing direct results. I often found myself defending his position in the class discussions while directing my peers to consider other proposals for meeting all the parties needs.
My ability to describe fundamental theories of human learning was both challenged and reinforced with the 'Tina Sears case which was focused on how to best drive evaluation results. My cohort engaged in some heated discussions regarding how to best deploy and measure (ID methodology and subsequent evaluation strategy) the impact of technology.
"My takeaway from this case study was to believe in myself and know that the knowledge and skills that I bring and build are exponentially increasing in usefulness as I encounter new case studies. I felt that I was reaching elements of Expert-level ID work on this case study, and was proud of that as this situation was one that shows up regularly in my niche of the education industry."
As my professional vision is to deploy quality, rigorous online secondary courses, the Gibson case was beguiling as I had a tendency to only view the world from his digitizing perspective. This also drove me to delve strongly into the supporting readings that provided significant and diverse guidance for digitizing current instruction. My knowledge of human learning, diversity, and effective pedagogy was shone through my problem-solving capabilities as in "my perspective...that Malcolm was an ID consultant always on the look for work, and the situation at the college was seeing support only from the department head. What I read from the instructors was that they would minimally comply with the direction to move digital and would match that level of compliance when making attempts to deliver the courses as well." Sometimes the most impactful insight is what you don't 'hear'.
The case study venue combined with intriguing topics provided a fertile environment for significant vision growth in the area of digitizing courses. I discovered the power that a case study can bring by framing a lesson in engaging context. As I produce content in the future, I will always consider case study options as platforms for lesson modules. The case study analysis at this point in my LDT career reinforced that, although effective pedagogy is key, deeply understanding and describing the fundamentals of human learning constraints and strengths and consideration of the diversity of all parties involved must be addressed accurately before pedagogy options should be considered.