Su-Ling

It is all about technology- Future Directions

2004-12-06T21:58:00.001-08:00

Technology leads the future directions of instructional technology. It is no longer a question if we should use technology in instructional design, but a question regarding how to skillfully use the technology for better achievements. As Molenda and Bichelmeyer addressed Performance Improvement is a focus in corporation, the yielding results are more important than methods. We need to overlook the effectiveness of instructional materials in a long run.

Technological equipments evolve in rapid speed. They contain more and more dynamic functions which can not be provided by tradition media such as cassette tapes, VHS tapes and etc. Even though there are still some portions of people do not accept high-tech products as Molenda and Bichelmeyer mentioned in the articles, they still need to accept the reality of technology’s pervasiveness and convergence. It is more constructive to find a way to fully use technology in instruction and other fields instead of blindly rejecting it.

In other words, the philosophy and method of adopting technology should be emphasized. People are unconsciously afraid or rejected things they do not know because it takes enormous time and efforts to be familiar with new invention or materials. In addition, the new concepts or techniques mean “change.” Changing is quite scary, but it is how the life is. Life is evolving daily as the same as technology. Developing better tutorial or helpful materials to help people overcome fear of technology appears necessary. Contrary to the concept (technology controls people) of the movie, “Matrix”, knowing technology can prevent us from being controlled.

Ethical Dilemma

2004-12-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

While Coral and I were preparing the instructional activity for “ethical dilemma”, I realized there is always a way to solve ethical problems. Even though everybody has different approach to solve the problems, the win-win situation should be the goal to achieve. I summarized the following steps according to our experience in preparing the activity:

Understand laws and regulations along with ethical codes.
Know the bottom line among stakeholders.
Perform “give-and-take” strategy.
Write down reasons why we choose to comply or violate with some ethical codes. (This can prevent future confusion and criticism).
NEVER cause human harm.

Every job has ethical dilemma, don’t be too panic to meet all ethical codes. Choose the best solution for all stakeholders, and always remember our main stakeholders are learners.

Yes, be moral in instructional design.

2004-12-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

As my posting regarding moral and ethics of instructional design, I believe the moral issue is very important. Unfortunately, it is usually neglected. Dr. Osguthorpe mentioned instructional designers are leaders. They should have correct and moral concept while they are doing design. When users interact with instructional materials, their values and concepts have been influenced. It is like videogames and movies. Many people discover kids imitate characters in violent video games and movies.

Even though instructional designing process usually does not involve with violent or too emotional materials, the material itself is somewhat influencing. Since we are interacting with our learners, we should bring current and constructive knowledge to them. Lead people in the right path. The moral codes carry out the righteous intentions. If the intention is right, the product can be modified and modified till it becomes effective. However, nothing is good if the intention is wrong.

More career and competencies reflection

2004-11-24T18:26:00.000-08:00

After reading Byun’s article, I think instructional designers should keep themselves current and stand in technological edge. They are required to catch the technology flow, for example, from print design to web/computer based design. The value of their job is to bring new information and communicate (transfer) it with others. For getting the job done better, they should have attractive personality to be respected and listened to, namely, the professional image. I start to wonder how easy to get an instructional designer job. I ask myself, how can I present my self professional enough to obtain an instructional designer’s job? Do my professional abilities match the survey competencies? Am I learning what employers need?

Even though Neil Postman does not agree education should be led by the employment market in “the end of education”, I still believe it is important to have enough training to meet career requirements. It is why we are in the school. I separate competencies into two categories:

1. For getting a job, we need to be trained with good professional skills: instructional design and development, computer and writing skills.

2. For maintaining the job, I think management and communication abilities are the most important competencies because they bring interaction with others, which can help smoothen job progress.

Moral Dimensions of Instructional Design

2004-11-24T18:06:00.000-08:00

In Osguthorpe’s article, the moral is defined as “instructional designers conduct and view their wok in relation to those who will use their instructional products.” That is, instructional designers need to focus on learners (users). They not only need to be a good artist, but also a leader who has good conscience of craft, membership, sacrifice, memory, and imagination. In other words, for being a good instructional designer, a person needs to be able to lead the situation and come up alternative solutions in a short time with wise judgment.

Instructional designers can not treat their jobs as same-old routine. They need to probe into depth in every scope and relationship with team members and users. Recently, I watched a movie, “Groundhog Day”, which is a quite popular film. Phil, the main character, is the weather man who provides information to his audience. However, he does not enjoy the job and treat it as the same old routine. There was no human interaction in his job, and he is not happy. In the end, he has changed to a person who is willing to look into people’s need and leads (changes) the situation. He becomes a subject to act instead of an object to be acted upon. Similarly, instructional designers are active subjects to act and lead the situation.

Since the instructional products can influence users’ minds and mental activities, instructional designers need to be careful with what/how they lead others. They play the role of teacher or the weather man, Phil. The information they provide is inactive, but the personality and their approach directly interact with users. Instruction and teaching seek to change the current situation. If users can feel the care and understanding from the program or instructional materials they are using, they have better retention and are willing to be changed. Then the learning (the change from the current status to be a better being) can occur.

Career Research Reflection

2004-11-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

From the researching process, I have discovered the gap between what we have learned and the real world situation. Those techniques we focus are more general, and the real-world situation focuses on design and development.

Obviously, instructional technology and human performance technology are separate in the work place. They belong to different types of firms. HPT plays the role of consulting, and IT is more like developing training materials such as job aids, instructional materials, etc. Instructional technologists think they have dealt with human performance, but not too much. I speculate if working in the HR department of general companies instead of instructional design firms, IT needs to be involved with HPT field

I start to think about what kinds of jobs I can do if I am planning to work in USA. Technical writing is an important task for instructional designer. If I want to become an instructional designer in USA, it will be hard for me to be qualified unless the subject deals with Chinese. This makes me to reconsider my career preparation regarding abilities and working locations.

I don’t think salary is not too competitive comparing with other jobs. Does it mean “say goodbye to big money”? I don’t know about the answer. It depends on how good we are. Even though most instructional designers are not satisfied with the pay, they still feel comfortable with it. They enjoy the ongoing learning process and stay in the edge technology. Therefore, I guess salary is just on indicator to help get satisfaction. The most important thing is “happiness”, isn’t it? Be happy with what you do.

Skill Set for the Human Performance Technologist

2004-11-13T23:04:00.000-08:00

I like Stolovitch’s article which synthesize variety of theories, knowledge, and practical experience about HP. As like Stolovitch et al mentioned “HPT is empirical and evolving”, it brought general view that HPT searches for expertise through practice. Experience and practice in technical (analysis and design abilities) and people (management and communication) skills prepare HPTs to be skilled.

There are three important messages from this article:

Personal growth: The first step of being HPT is personal growth. I believe HPT’s skills are not only for organization, but personal growth. If a HPT does not know how to calculate his personal PIP (potential of improving performance), how can he correctly calculate PIPs in organizations? It reminds me of a famous personal growth instructor (maybe HPT as well), Anthony Robins. He helps people to change their lives after he performed the same personal growth system on himself. It brings strong force to convince and change others.
Result (solutions) driven: It is in vain to perform operation on the dead. Result is the same as “accomplishment.” If a HPT can not solve problems with good solution, that means they are not good performers.
Sociability construct: In George Kelly’s book, he noted “sociability construct” as “playing a role in the social process involving the other person.” That is, we need to know people we are serving, or we won’t know how to provide the best for them. Knowing stakeholders, situations, and relationship provides great opportunity to succeed. In addition, every step should be done with flexibility when applying standards and systematic solutions in situations.

Design Experiments

2004-11-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

Collin’s article: The long-term goal of design experiment is “to construct a design theory for technology innovation.” It is not hard to picture how the future education will be. Technology leads education. As the speech in CID exhibition last week, the future research needs to connect with the technology with effective pedagogy. Software is updating and renewing so rapidly to meet the education’s need. Maybe in the future, people do not need to go to the school for their complete education and obtain better knowledge than the classroom instruction.

I like Brown’s article about design experiments, whose goal is to increase lasting retention. However, when conducting design experiment, those effects: Bartlett effect (sample selection), Hawthorne effect (better performance in experiment), and Dewey effect (readiness and pedagogical creed) can occur to influence results. I think there is another effect affecting experiments: personal constructs. Before conducting experiment, we have set up our hypothesis (our construct) to invisibly influence our experiments.

It seems Brown appreciates reciprocal teaching, community learning and personal constructs. Reciprocal Teaching is different from traditional teaching. Learners are no longer passive receivers but are assigned to some specific task which includes question formation and answer searching. Instructors provide background information and remind students when they are astray from the topic or the solutions are not appropriate. Through practical question-answer quest, learners realize the model and know how to solve problems. Reciprocal teaching is not only benefits reading and writing classes, but other fields of learning subjects.

In short, the design experiment is the process to discover better pedagogical ways (for example, communities of learner) with the help of technology. It searches the methods to improve retention and metacognition in real-world situation, which is the lifelong learning.

KM and EPSS examples and related links

2004-11-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

Leading way is a KM company set up by James Li, graduated from USU IT department.
The demo page: http://www.leadingway.com/demo-download.htm

KM Demo from ASKME (it is slow demo, be patient): http://www.askmecorp.com/demo/intro.html

Here is a good website for more information about EPSS;

http://www.pcd-innovations.com/free_downloads.htm

KM2: additional information

2004-10-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Knowledge can be separated into two categories: explicit knowledge (formal knowledge) and tacit knowledge (informal knowledge). Explicit knowledge can” be articulated in language and transmitted among individuals”; tacit knowledge means “personal knowledge rooted in individual experience and involving personal belief, perspective, and values” (Barclay & Murray). In business organizations, tacit knowledge is a key to getting things done and creating new value instead of explicit knowledge, which is “learning organization” emphasizing “internalization of information (through experience and action) and generation of new knowledge through managed interaction” (Barclay & Murray).

Knowledge management (KM) captures categories, customer service skills, institutional style, personality and inventory system. It utilizes technology to solve problems. Karl-Erik Sveiby (2001) separate KM into two tracks: IT-track (management of information) and people-track (management of people). IT-track KM is involved with people in computer and information science major. They treat knowledge as objects which can be identified and handled in information systems. People-Track KM is involved with people in philosophy, psychology, sociology or business/management majors. They focus on “changing and improving human individual skills and behaviors. Knowledge is a process, a complex set of dynamic skills, know-how etc, that is constantly changing” (Sveiby, 2001). The importance of KM is to know how to maximize the ability of an organization’s people for creating new knowledge and how to build conducive environments to share knowledge. Look up leading way, set up by Dr. James Li, for more information.

Learning organization helps people mixed by different technology and skills to know where the business is. It allows people from everywhere entering the information and keeping records in central system. Everyone makes entries to the database and records customer service. The system not only records organization and negotiation terms with the customers, but evaluate the budget. There is always a major cycle in the business function. Within the cycles, we may find several sub-cycles regarding daily basis. Organization people know their responsibility, communication, types of organization (controlling, negotiations, etc.), products and procedures from the KM system. KM is centrally the database issue. Information is connected together, split apart, or combined into larger matrix to be used. Functions can be performed by data, multimedia presentation, and regular communication. Instructional designers need to know the training system of functions and provide manual or CBI tutorials, manual or CBI performance aids, references manuals, checklist, collaboration, and help. The database stores reusable knowledge to support raw materials (information) or combination materials.

References

Barclay, R. & Murray, P. What is knowledge management, Knowledge Praxis . Retrieved from http://www.media-access.com/whatis.html

Sveiby, K. (2001), What is knowledge management. Retrieved from http://sveiby.konverge.com/articles/KnowledgeManagement.html

Knowledge Management

2004-10-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

I think the main goal of knowledge management (KM) is to help ‘decision-making”, which is problem solving and strategy making. My simplified process about how knowledge is formed: Data-> Information (contextual data) ->Knowledge (integrate with experience). Since all sorts of knowledge are formed, it needs organized method to use them in right situations at right time. It is like cognitive approach: retrieve the right information from the long-term memory.

Even though this century is called “knowledge era”, the knowledge is dead without using. KM is a dynamic process which involves prompt and easy dissemination and fits users’ needs. I like Figure 1.2. in Serban’s article, “knowledge management processes”, it includes the complete process of KM. Knowledge in not only creating and organizing, but sharing and collaborating. I view tacit knowledge as personal expertise, which is hardest part to deal with. The value of a person to the corporation is “specific skill and tacit knowledge.” I hope rewards can elicit sharing tacit knowledge as like Serban mentioned in the article.

Even though knowledge management is applied into organizations, schools or associations, I picture who useful the process can help personal development. There is so much data and information from classes, internet, commercials and other places. Swarms of data bring frustration because we can not compete with its speed. We often feel like turtles chasing rapid (rabbit) information. If we apply the processes: create, capture, organize, access and use, in our own learning path, we should have more capacity to smartly utilize what we have learned and read. That is, the person who can combine explicit and tacit knowledge well can have better achievements.

Gordon: Attack ISD

2004-10-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

I read similar articles attacking ISD before. The main complaint focuses on time consuming and long process. Is the product more important than process? Yes! Gilbert evaluated worthy performance and accomplishment (ISD: the final product) than behavior (ISD: the process) in "Human competence." It is the reason why rapid prototyping is adopted widely in corporation and school settings. Even though quick and dirty prototype does not present the complete contents, it represents the method and skeleton of the final product.

Speed and cost saving are main features customers are looking for. They do not look for "how well and organized the process is", but "how fast the prototype can payback." Getting the right product and saving the cost (including saving time, labors and materials) for customers are key elements to determine successful (instructional) design.

LS vs. IT (class discussion)

2004-10-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

From the classroom discussion on Oct 13, 2004, the following is my thought regarding to LS vs. IT. (I found that listening to others’ discussion, individual thought can be formed.)

(Learning) Science vs. (Instructional) Technology

As Dr. Gibbons mentioned Technology focuses on synthetic effort, whereas science is analytic. In addition, science intends to be descriptive, and technology is much prescriptive. I found this concept can imply in Learning Science (LS) and Instructional Technology (IT). IT does not only focus on instruction, but learning theories to achieve better performance. Maybe in the future, LS and IT will have separate domains; however, I think the overlapping fields will always exist because learning and instruction are connected closely.

The discussion reminds me of philosophers like Descartes, Hobbes, etc. They do not intend to separate any fields of learning, but learned broader knowledge to have ability to perceive more knowledge and skills. For example, Descartes was a mathematician and philosopher. Because of cultivating much knowledge, he developed more capability. Similarly, Salsa Barab is very rational to express that he considered himself both an instructional designer and a learning scientist. He increases his realms of learning and career achievements. It is like HPT’s focus on increasing human performance. For helping others to improve their performance, shouldn’t we start thinking “how we carry the best value to our future employers and learners”?

Do you personally identify more with the goals of instructional technology or human performance technology?

2004-10-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Personally, I identify more with the goals of HPT because it is much practical methods and knowledge. It has more expertise to deal with the real world situation. As to IDT, I would consider it as a method to research and develop effective instructional solution. I think the skills of IDT can be utilized in HPT areas if the problem is identified as employee’s instructional problem. However, HPT can apply broadly and train specific skills to foresee problems. It deals with “problem-solving” skills. HPT makes things visualize and prepare IDT students what the work place will be like. In work or educational circumstances, employers are looking for the cheaper, faster and better methods. Sometimes, the program cannot be solved through IDT, but other problems such as ROI. With IDT skills and knowledge, the person can have more flexibility at work.

What distinguishes HPT from IDT?

2004-10-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here is my thought, correct me if you don't agree.

In AECT 2004 definition of IDT and HPT, IDT is a discrete element within HPT. However, I think in some cases, IDT can be counted as part of the HPT.

The following is my thoughts to distinguish HPT from IDT:

Distinctness	HPT	IDT
Definition	A practice that helps link business strategy and goals, and the capability of the workforce to achieve them through interventions. In some situations, it includes IDT to increase human performance.	IDT is a systematic process that involves the creations of detailed specifications for the development, implementation, evaluation and maintenance of particular set of conditions (Barab, 2004). Reigeluth (1999a) thought IDT is to help people learn better.
Scope	HPT's scope is larger than IDT. HPT focuses on improving performance in the workplace through many different means, including training. However, HPT can be applied in education setting to increase the performance of faculty, students and staff.	IDT can apply in school, independent study or work place when there is a need. Its focuses are in effective instructional methods, strategies and deliverary.
Purpose	To increase the worth (revenue) and PIP. It does not only deal with instructional problems, but evaluate the overall context.	To increase learning effectiveness and efficiency in less budge and time. That is, less input with the best output in learning.
Simple Description of Procedures	1. Analyze 2. Design & Mine 3. Develop, repurpose and reuse 4. Deliver assess 5. Maintain & Retire (Evaluation from 1-5)	1. Analyze 2. Design 3. Develop 4. Implement (Evaluation from 1-5)

The founder of Human Performance Technology

2004-10-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

The founder of Human Performance Technology should be Thomas F. Gilbert (1927-1995). He did reserach with B.F. Skinner and started practicing what he learned instead of reseraching. He said he was a behaviorist and employed methods of behaviorism. He did not believe any theory is complete wrong or right so that he adopted eclectic systems.

He separated behavior, performance, accomplishment and worth. He believed we can evaluate them. From my current understanding, I think the most important thing in HPT is to observe the situation and find the worth and PIP (potential for improving performance).

CPT: Certified Performance Technologist (CPT)

2004-10-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

The Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) designation shows that you have demonstrated proficiency in the performance improvement profession. It requires a minimum of three years of experience in performance improvement or related fields to apply for the certification. HPT has become a very professional field.

Look at the following link:
http://www.certifiedpt.org/index.cfm?section=WhatisCPT#WhyCertification

Recommended website for HPT

2004-10-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

This organization published some good books about HPT.
The website is: http://www.ispi.org/

David Wile's Why Doers Do

2004-10-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

David Wile's new factors of performance helps understand what's underneath peroformance. When we separate the performance into external and internal sources, the clear pictures demonstrate. There are som any aspects to consider under HPT scope, including organization systems, incentives, cognitive support, tools, physical environment, skills/knowledge and inherent ability. HPT deals with both tangible and intangible problems to reach better performance.

Rosenberg's Human Performance Tehnology

2004-10-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

Personally, I really think this is a dry article with a lot of valuable information. Because it is my first time to know about this area, I don't think I capture enough information from his writing. Therefore, I listed some important points he lists to refresh and strengthen my memory in this topic:

Performance’s characteristics:
1.Performance will never improve by itself, except through proper training, correcting mistakes and conveying the expectation.
2.Once deteriorated, performance becomes increasingly resistant to improvement.
3.Performance will only stay improved if there is continuing support from the performance improvement system.

Human Performance Technology (HPT) is a systematic thinking applied to human resource activities. It identifies problems and becomes a strategic business tool. There are six performance improvement factors:
1.Consequences, incentives, and rewards: provide adequate rewards.
2.Data and information: provide standard, feedback and documentation.
3.Resources, tools, and environment support: provide high-performance environment.
4.Individual capacity: match performance and work.
5.Motives and expectations: know worker’s internal views of themselves and jobs.
6.Skills and knowledge: appropriate education and training.

The performance technology model:
1.Performance analysis: determine the gap between what people are supposed to do and what they currently are able to do.
2.Cause analysis: don’t move too fast.
3.Intervention selection: ??
4.Implementation and change management: build change acceptance attitudes.
5.Evaluation of results: evaluate reaction, learning or capability, transfer and results.

The 1994 Definition of the Field: Barbara Seels and Rita Richey

2004-09-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

I like the following definition: Theory consists of the concepts, constructs, principles, and propositions that contribute to the body of knowledge. Practice is the application of that knowledge to solve problems and gains knowledge from experience.

According to Barbara Seels and Rita Richey, the 1994 Definition of Instructional Technology is: “Instructional Technology (IT) is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.” However, it does not identify categories of learning. Should it be efficient, effective, direct, adroit and cost-beneficial learning process and resources? Even though it is somewhat dangerous to merely focus on “efficiency and effectiveness” without research or theory examination, it is an unavoidable reason why instructors or instructional designers choose technology in their instruction and design. In addition, as like Dr. Gibbon’s talk, IT should provide various ways (environment) to present instructional materials in order to enrich learning experience. In short, I think the 1994 definition of IT seems to cover all aspects of designing process. However, is it the better definition for IT or Instructional Design (ID)? How do we identify IT and ID?

Gentry's "Educational Technology"

2004-09-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Science vs. Technology:

Science	Technology
· Pure thought	· Action
· Fact + relationship of observed phenomena in nature	· Tools (machines) + techniques + process (procedures) + solutions (economic values) or artifacts.
· Exclusion of human factor	· More human considerations

Education vs. Training:

Education	Training	Instruction
· Employ critical, independent and creative judgment	· Inculcation of skills, habits, attitudes, beliefs and process.
· The enterprise of supplying the conditions which ensure growth, or adequacy of life, irrespective of age.		· The act of providing activities materials and guidance that facilitates learning, in either formal or information situations.

Instructional technology (IT) deals with instructional problems; however, technology (T) is to use systematic application or knowledge to find solutions of variety of problems. Educational Technology (ET) is related to educational problems which are related to instruction, learning, development and management. The following figure is my understanding of these three areas:

Who am I? A scientist or technologist?

2004-09-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

I view myself as a technologist because my work intends to be synthetic most of the time. The reason I don't think I am a scientist is because "science is an attemp to deduce and verfy casues from observed effects". It is much more like descriptive. In intructional design, finding the causal relationship is important. However, it is much more important to plan actions, utilize strategies to reach the probabilistic success. Being a technologist needs to presribe the phenomena (situation and problems) and provide many acceptable solutions to one problem or problems. Therefore, I consider myself a technologist.

to be continued...

Instructional Technology & Instructional-Design Theories

2004-09-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

The Gibbon’s and Reigeluth’s articles are somewhat conceptual and a little difficult to break down into small elements to be fully understood. However, these two articles provide appropriate fundamental knowledge for instructional designers. They remind us the unseen theory in instructional design along with instructional practice. The similarity of these two articles is: “different teaching methods should be applied in different occasions; variety of instructional solutions and methods are proper to solve the same instructional problems.” As Reigeluth mentioned, “an instructional-design theory is a theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help people learn and develop.”

The main focus of instructional design is to assist learners learn effectively, efficiently in behavior changes and knowledge accumulation. Instructional designers should have ability to flexibly use the relatively better methods in an instructional situation. These two theories are prescriptive and intend to predict the consequence in the instruction. They are probabilistic instead of questing for “destined successfully.” Instructors no longer consider themselves as “sages”, but employ “fellow learners”, “local real-world resources” and “remote resources” in instruction. Methods of the instructional design have been broadened, and more strategies have been adopted.

Behaviorism, Cognitive, or Constructivism?

2004-09-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Instructional design practitioners not only need to be familiar with learning theories; behaviorism, cognitive and constructivism, but also skillfully adopt the most suitable strategies for specific learners in different task settings. The eclectic approach might be disputable; however, the mission of an instructional designer is to deliver the best solution to tasks for specific learners. As Ertmer and Newby (1993) described successful instructional practices depend on three perspectives: active participation, interaction, practice and feedback. Without the learners’ full participation and interaction, the optimal theory is in vain. Understanding theories helps instructional designers skillfully analyze the instructional environments, learners and tasks. However, the main skill is to know when, what and how to successfully develop and deliver instructional products. As the Chinese saying goes, “spend money on the edge of knife,” get to the point as like giving the proper remedy for the disease.