In just a few, short weeks most of us will be participating in our school district's Institute. For most of us Institute includes at least a two hour session of "sit and listen to people present powerpoints" to cover various trainings required by the State Department. Now, don't misunderstand, I know these trainings are necessary, but they quite often are not examples of good instructional design.
Choosing the correct technology for instruction is an important part of the design process. Larson and Lockee (2014) discuss the factors that influence technology decisions in instructional design in chapter 9. These factors include technology that supports the instruction/learning, the learner's prior knowledge/motivation/capability, and addresses the desired learning outcome.
The "Universal Precautions" training presentation is a great example to use when discussing these factors. For one, the presentation is not always given by the person who designed the instruction. So, the presenter sometimes finds themselves reading the material to us, which is in direct opposition to supporting the learner's motivation. Another factor to consider is the learner's prior knowledge. Most all of us have heard this material before--many, many times--so the material could be more tailored to the audience. However, I would say that the Universal Precautions training does address the desired learning outcome--no one wants anyone to get sick.
As teachers we are always looking for ways to motivate our students to learn, and to keep them engaged. Recently, we have looked to technology to help us in these areas since our students are constantly using some type of device, and seem to be most motivated and engaged when using technology. For about the past three years, our school has used a program called XtraMath as supplement for our daily math instruction. We began using the program because we were looking for a way to track and document our students' math fact fluency. Using this program is an excellent example of using technology during instruction.
Our students are to show fluency in math facts based on grade level. Xtramath is web-based, so it can be completed on any device with Internet access--and students can even practice at home! The program administers students with an initial test that determines their prior knowledge, and which facts they need to practice the most. It is timed, so students are able to receive daily practice answering within the 3 second interval they will be required to meet during benchmark testing. The program moves at the student's individual pace. Once they have mastered an area, the program will move them on. Best of all, teachers can print out a graph showing their progress over time. The media used during instruction should be in direct reflection of the performance context (Larson & Lockee, 2014).
My students have enjoyed the program. They can complete it during math centers, or when they finish their morning work. They like being able to tell me, "Mrs. Sloan, I'm on subtraction!" And I love it when they tell me because that means they completed addition, and they know their facts.
References
Larson, M. and Lockee, B.B. (2014). Streamlined id: A practical guide to instructional design. New York: Routledge.
I love the xtra math idea! That sounds great, it sounds like it would be very helpful for PST documentation as well. I also agree that our institutes aren't always the best example of instructional design. They usually don't consider that the "learner requirements, needs, and characteristics differ by career environment" (Larson and Lockee, 2014, p. 58). Most institutes include career tech, special education, alternative education, elementary, high school, middle school and everything in between, all of which have very different needs. I've often thought much of this general assembly could be split into groups and be much more effective by specialty or area.
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