Section 7: New Directions for Instructional Design and Technology

1.   Distributed learning in academic settings refers to traditional colleges and universities offering online courses in addition to traditional “go to class” courses. It also refers to virtual universities. These are universities that do not offer the choice of physical classrooms. All courses are on-line, and there is no traditional campus per se. A student is able to get a degree without ever stepping into a traditional classroom. That’s pretty amazing to me. I can see this avenue of getting a degree getting more and more popular. It would also seem to be more economical. A student would be able to stay at home and take classes, however, there is something to be said for going away to college and soaking in that experience. I wouldn’t trade my four years in College Station for anything.

Corporate distributed learning offers training via a corporate intranet. These training sessions are always available to employees so they don’t have to wait on a corporate training schedule with limited offerings for classes. This is fiscally sound to companies and corporations. Out-of-town training and all the costs associated with that are eliminated or greatly reduced with this type of distributed learning. The courses that employees have taken are managed by a learning management system, so companies can keep track of who has taken what courses and what they have learned.

Virtual classes are classes that are experienced via the internet and called an online class. Virtual classes create a learning environment with live chats, and questions for teachers are sent via e-mail or asked during virtual office hours. Groups of students can even meet at a predetermined time in a chat room to discuss ideas for a group project.

Hybrid classes are online classes that still retain some element of having a traditional physical meeting place. Students may meet the instructor a few times a semester for presentations or for assessments. I had a library science class that met at the beginning and end of the semester.

Learning Is Wonderful!!

Skills-based training involves training for specific skills. For example, a plumber might take a course on pipe fitting. She is taking a class to learn a specific set of skills to improve her ability to do her job. There are many benefits to this type of training: increased productivity, reduced employee turnover, and reduced need for employee supervision.

2.   The text defines reusability as “the ability to use the same resource multiple times in multiple ways and in multiple contexts”. This allows learning to be reinvented and repackaged so it can be used in other contexts and fields. Applying the learning and adapting it to your needs can save time and money. New content can be reused instead of redeveloping it. I took a library course in cataloging and classification a few semesters ago. I really enjoyed the class, and I think because of my biology background I really enjoyed the classification aspect. It was sort of like a puzzle to solve. Overall, the cataloging and the MARC records information, such as where to put the comma and what needs a semicolon verses what needs a colon and where the period should go, all seemed a little tedious. I work in a district where I don’t have to do any cataloging at all. All cataloging is done at our Library Services Department. So, I guess the reusablility aspect of this class is pretty low for me. I think librarians would be better served if there were two cataloging classes. One could be for students who want to pursue a career in cataloging, and then a class for librarians who want to work in a school or public library.

It seems so easy!!

3.   For an example of rich media, I found a video online that demonstrates how to change a tire. This video incorporates sound and text as well. Each step is written for the viewer to read, and a narrator talks the viewer through each step. The video is of a real car and a real tire being changed. This is much more visually informative than, say, an animated video. Even though I have changed many tires, I still learned something new (the lug nuts are to be loosened and removed in a star pattern). I think this video would be very effective in teaching someone how to change a tire because it is very media rich, however learning how to change a tire by actually doing it is probably the ideal way to learn.

Wow! That's small!

4.   Nanotechnology has to do with the miniaturization of technology.  A definition I found defined it as “the branch of engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers (especially with the manipulation of individual molecules). I remember reading a series of books, when I was but a lad, called the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (truly a genius who wrote scholarly works on everything from physics to Shakespeare). In this series, all devices were powered by microscopic nuclear reactors. I thought about how impossible that sounded, but science fiction can become science fact. Computers that are the size of a wrist watch would be a wonderful device to have. You could use voice commands to write e-mails or documents, and then tell it to print to a wifi printer. It could be used to locate books with the online catalog in the library. All of it would be voice activated, of course.

5.   It seems to me as if the “straight and narrow road” is sort of like the old school way of thinking or doing things. It wants to cling to its traditions and keep sacred its foundational tenets. Its methods of inquiry are the “established research methods”.  Its language is precise and straightforward, and it wants to keep outsiders out (“Tighten up the boundaries to ensure expertise and encourage strong credentialing and certification requirements.) I guess I tend to lean to this way of thinking. I think tradition and sticking to foundational tenets is important in keeping core ideals at the forefront, otherwise it becomes something else or a watered down version of itself. You might call these people purists. On the other hand, sometimes this way of thinking is resistant to change even if the change is for the good. You shouldn’t cling to something if it is outdated and ineffective just because it’s what we are used to or comfortable with. Sometimes change is for the better (What a cathartic last sentence for my blog!!).

Ain't that the TRUTH!!