Week 9 - Module #10: Trends and Issues in IT
There are several factors to take into consideration when talking about the trends and issues in instructional technology. During the pandemic, designers and educators faced situations where they had to implement technology in their courses quickly. At that time, many educational institutions had never provided distance education settings before. According to Bonk (2020), "Although learning from a distance has continued to evolve over the centuries, there has never been a moment in the history of humankind when professional development guidelines, resources, programs, and other training initiatives were more desperately needed" (p. 596). Some educators were able to navigate through those drastic changes. Others did not have the chance to learn how to use technology or adapt their teaching styles to these new scenarios.
Since there were swift changes in the last year, some schools and universities decided to standardize some synchronous and asynchronous courses. As an educator, I have seen schools that chose to uniform the curricula, the assessments, and the type of activities covered in a class. In other words, they did not give some space to educators to be creative or be different. During his talk, Dr. Punya Mishra mentioned that "the biggest danger for any pedagogical move is when we think of them as being uniform. I think that as there is a strong tendency for uniformity in these spaces, even in a face-to-face classroom to online" (Mishra, 2021).
I think this is the right time for designers and educators to review the actions taken during the pandemic. As stated by Bowling and Smith (2018), "We can engage in discussions about the tools and processes we use without having to end those discussions by choosing just one of these as 'the right one'" (p. 327). There is always an opportunity to reinvent education, but designers need to continue giving a chance to educators to be creative in the classroom. There are so many instructional settings that instructional designers could explore after the pandemic. According to Martinez and Whiting (2021), "The evidence is clear that often, learners gain knowledge predominantly outside of formal settings" (p. 10). It seems that this is the time to start with the conversations that can lead to revising changes in face-to-face and online settings. I am sure that there is always room for improvement and that in the upcoming years, instructional designers will continue to have a significant role in education.
Martinez, S., & Whiting, J. (2021). Designing informal learning environments. In J. K. McDonald & R. E. West (Eds.), Design for learning: Principles, processes, and praxis. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/id/designing_informal
Boling, E., & Smith, K. M. (2018). The changing nature of design. In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th Ed.) (pp. 60-67). New York, NY: Pearson Education.
Bonk, C. J. (2020). Pandemic ponderings, 30 years to today: Synchronous signals, saviors, or survivors? Distance Education, 41(4), 589-599. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1821610
I have seen this uniformity debate play out at the higher education level. On the one hand, students need some consistency in how their online classes will function and look (at least aesthetically). On the other hand, instructional design departments sometimes take the easy route and 'cookie-cutter' their entire curricula. This could include reliance upon expository essays, quizzes and discussions as assessments, chapter readings and a short unit video as educational resources, etc. As a project manager and data analyst, I do not work directly in an ID department, but I have warned against this type of repetitive coursework as a potential retention issue. IDs need the authority to balance efficiency and creativity as they serve the needs of teachers and their courses.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting point I read from one of the articles from week9 is that HPI should never be seen as pure training process, but a strategy-making, which needs to be worked with CEOs and senior managers in business. I wonder how many opportunities we can have to access CEOs lol.
ReplyDeleteIt is always hard to step into a change you weren't seeking. I work in higher education and I heard how some older professors couldn't get into the online learning in the beginning, but through training provided by the CISTL department, those professors got the hang of teaching online. I believe if you are patient and work greatly with the newbies to online learning that they will continue to use it in when they have classes. Some students now are still working face-to-face and online with certain professors because the professors grew to enjoy the online zoom teaching.
ReplyDeleteHi Claudio,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your findings from this week. In my personal experience, I was invited to support educators in higher education with transitioning from in-person to the learning management system. Although my support was not needed since there was already a team of instructional designer, I do know that there was quite some resistance from educators switching their courses online due to the rapidly changing events with the pandemic. When sitting in some of the instructional designer meetings, there did seem to be strong opinions which I believe were assumptions about educators being poor with transitioning their courses online. Yes, there may have been some or a lot who struggled, but I believe it is important for instructional designers to check their attitudes towards those in need during stressful time and act as a support/guide with the major changes. Thank you for posting an insightful post!