TechEduTrain

Instructional Design and the Web

I've worked as an instructional designer for over 20 years. After receiving an M.Ed. in human development (aka, ed psych) from the Univeristy of Maryland and having decided to leave public school teaching, I met a man named Len Nadler, a professor at George Washington Univeristy in DC who encouraged me to enroll in a program of which he is widely known as the "grandaddy," Human Resource Development or HRD. HRD was and is a combination of training (for proficiency in ones current job), of which instructional design is a subset, eduction (for a specific future job such as management), and development (for trends affecting existing and future jobs such as government compliance requirements). There are various new terms more popular today. Despite much criticism, ISD is still in vogue in most organizations, particularly the federal government.

In all my years as an ISD professional, I have never been part of a project that gave more than lip service to delivering a full "ADDIE" (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) ISD process due to limited time and money. Since competition has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, training companies--particularly government contractors--are scurrying more than ever to win government contracts that still require a "thorough ISD process." In order to win those contracts, those bidding on them have got to be creative and adapt the ISD process to current organizational realities.

Doing so boils down to a creative way to redefine ISD using modern methods and technologies, and a unique approach to developing training using the redefined methods. In the past, for example, the designer often sat down with one or two "subject matter experts" to define the body of content to be covered in the training and, in some cases, define the instructional objectives. This process usually involved days, weeks, or even months, plenty of travel, and face-to-face meetings. The widespread use of the Internet and related technologies such as videoconferencing, however, opens up new streamlined possibilities for determining course content. The savvy training company will take a careful look at ways the ISD process can be implemented to save time, labor, and money to make that company more competitve.

In addition, new technologies open up the means for delivering training. New knowledge in cognition, emotions and brain research suggests new learning paradigms. The clever training company will combine this knowledge and technologies in creative new ways so they can stand out from the crowd of competitors.

While I realize that some examples would be helpful to illustrate these points, since I'm still looking for gainful employment, someone's going to have to hire me to hear more about them. However, if you've got some intriguing cases, approaches, or thoughts that you'd like to share, I and any readers who may happen along, will surely welcome them.

Digital Color

While switching from a laptop to an older desktop, I realized to my horror, that the colors I'd selected for this blog were not the ones I was seeing on the desktop and that you, poor reader, likely saw (unless you're on a laptop, too). Even though the color bit depth was the same, the colors weren't. And I thought I knew how this worked. Apparently, not. Point is, it's important to test, test, test. However, in my own defense, I only have one computer with one monitor which makes all needed testing virtually impossible.

I have tried to fix the offending colors but since this monitor, even at full brightness, is still quite dark, I can't be sure I succeeded.

What I'm going for is a very pale yellow/cream background in the main colum and a lightish rust (NOT orange) in the right column. Since I don't have the ability to test the color, won't you do me a favor and let me know via a comment if that's what you're seeing?

Thanks in advance!

Synchronicity

Yes, I know I have another blog with that title. I have yet a second blog that relates to syncronicity, too. But this is another kind.

Yesterday I wrote:

...there's so much new knowledge, people can't absorb it all and, therefore, need to specialize.

Today, I'm reading an article referenced from the TypePad blog about adding Google Adsense ads to a blog to make a little money when I ran across this:

Focused blogging isn't that popular but I'm convinced it's the only way to have a chance to carve out a niche on the web. If you want to proclaim yourself as an expert on a topic to both an audience and search engines so that people will know you're the one site to go to for information, you'll have to focus. Focus and be as specific as you can.(Blogging for Dollars)

Ah ha! So, here's someone else talking about the trend toward specialization in today's economic environment, albeit in a slightly different way. Still, the point is there, if for different reasons.

Sometimes, I think the most valid indicators of a trend are similar observations from different perspectives.

Marketing "New" Technology

Not only is technology changing at the speed of light, but the environment in which it's implemented is, as well. This leads to new strategies for buying and selling.

I've become more interested in this area since my friend Steve (Visible Light) has asked me to help him redesign his website and beef up his marketing efforts.

I first began marketing website design services in late 1996 and early 1997. I resumed Internet marketing this summer and couldn't believe how much things had changed. "If you build it they will come" used to be true. No more!

A new, "Internet marketing" field has developed over these last six years. And that's not mentioning offline marketing, which is bound to have changed as much, since the world has. (Not having much experience in offline marketing, I'm forced to speculate.)

Take a look at the changes that have occured since 9/11. We have a new cabinet-level department in addition to a host of economic, political, and social changes. The implication is that there's so much new knowledge, people can't absorb it all and, therefore, need to specialize. They also need to communicate more effectively with those in other specialties and be able to work within teams.

For example, Steve is a specialist in digital media technology and I'm a specialist in media design. We're both honing our knowledge and skills in the area of Internet-based marketing. Lucky for us, we communicate regularly and well.

I wonder, though, what happens in those educational media organizations where people do not--where ego and turf wars trump sharing and communication. Does that kind of pettiness, of which humans are so susceptible, lead to the inevitable demise of an organization? How do today's businesses--especially in the ed tech areana--account for the rapidity of change in technology and business, and stay afloat?

The Marriage of Linear and Non-Linear Media

A year ago last spring, after a numer of years of mulling over the idea, I embarked on a project to recocile the linear nature of stories with the interactivity of digital media and began writing a book, New Media in the New Hollywood: The Marriage of Movies and Multimedia. I also created a demo DVD to illustrate the concept described in the book.

For the demo (and a full product I hoped to sell at a later time), I choose a 1947 feature film, Life with Father. Since the story is set in 1880s New York City, the film lends intself nicely to non-fiction links about general Victoriana and Victorian New York.

Stories appeal to the affect and provide interest and motivation. In an educational setting, that motivation can be used to create interest in related factual information, typically considered "boring." Look at how many people developed an interest--including teens--in Titanic and that era, based on the movie. The story of Titanic's demise would not likely have garnered much interest among teens, without the movie.

I thought this approach could create a new way for film production companies to gain revenue from films collecting dust in their vaults, by adding new value. This value would derive from a digital version with supplemental links to the movie's content as opposed to its making--the primary addition to current DVDs. I believed this approach would be especially appealing to parents as a way to supplement their children's learning.

Since I was heading to LA last summer for a social get-together, I combined the trip with meetings with some of Hollywood's top multimedia developers, during which I showed them my demo.

While they found it intriguing, they believed Hollywood wasn't much interested in multimedia since the few excusions they had made had not proved profitable. Putting out DVDs was about as far as these executives were interested in going. The developers did feel, however, that there was a niche for this approach in the education market.

Since other things competed for my attention, I didn't complete the book or full DVD product. I do have the demo and am waiting for a time when other educational technologists see the inherent value in embedding links to supplemental material within a digital movie. I suppose it's simply an idea whose time has not yet come.

Blogs, Learning, and LMSs

This morning I started thinking about the use of blogs in education and training. Other than as a vehicle for students to express themselves (and, simultaneously, develop computer skills), how might blogs be used, otherwise, in an instructional setting? Quite effectively, I concluded.

A teacher-owned blog gives him/her control of the primary blog content. At the same time, students can use comments to respond to topics posted by the teacher.

While most of the blogs I've seen do not have a threaded discussion capability, a few do. This feature would enable students (and the teacher) to respond directly to each other, related to the topic.

A blog can also be set up as a community so that students, as well as the teacher, can post an entry for response of others in the group. Unlike a discussion board or forum, the author's original entry would have prominence over comments.

The desire to not be viewed as lacking to peers or the teacher also serves as a motivation for improvement in written communication skills. Many bloggers testify that they notice their writing skills improve the more they blog. I'm sure the exposure provided by a blog provides the motivation to check ones p's and q's before publishing--an added benefit of educational blogging.

I recently read a fascinating article regarding blogging, storytelling, and knowledge mangement (KM), related to learning.

In this article, we share our experiences with a strategy and technology so simple in design, that it could present the next wave of grassroots KM implementations. We are talking of the "storytelling" as the killer strategy, and "blogs" as the killer technology. Both of them share one common ground: grassroots interaction — a concept voiced by the likes of John Seely Brown, Larry Prusak, Steve Dennings, Dave Snowden, David Weinberger, among other prominent KM personalities....

The article got me wondering whether any learning management systems (LMS) or learning content management systems (LCMS) provide the ability to include a blog as part of the content. In other words, if one creates a blog using MovableType, for example, can that blog be imported into or referenced by the LMS/LCMS?

I did some "Googling," but didn't find anything relevant. Technically, it seems quite possible, but I don't know if any LMS/LCMS providers have bothered.

If anyone knows, please let me.

An AI Application that Might Be Useful to Educators

I found a post on an AI application on my friend, Carmen Maranon's blog. It's worth playing with "Tia" to get some ideas how "she" might be used for an educational or training application. Right off the top, I can think of several--especially K-12.

(Can see I've got a lot to learn about using trackback!)

A Terrific Online Resource

Encyclopedia of Educational Technology, published by San Diego State University, not only contains articles on just about every facet you can think of related to technology-delivered instruction, but the articles are short, sweet, and contain nifty little multimedia elements.

Here's a partial list from the Table of Contents.

-Cognition and Learning
-Active Learning
-Andragogy
-Artificial neural networks
-Attention: getting it
-Attention: keeping it
-Attention theory
-Audio: Does it help?
-Autodidactic learning
-Bloom's learning domains
-Bloom's taxonomy
-Bloom's taxonomy revised
-Brain-based learning
-Brain hemispheres: fiction and fact
-Cue summation in instructional multimedia
-Cooperative learning
-Cognitive dissonance
-Cognitive load theory
-Cognitive style assessment
-Computer hardware as brain
-Discovery learning
-Early childhood computing
-Ecological psychology: Tools
-Egagement in mathematics
-Flow: Optimal experience
-Gagne's nine events of instruction
-Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences
-Gender and technology
-Gestalt theory
-GIS and the K-12 Teacher
-Hemispheric dominance
-How eLearning changes the classroom
-Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory
-Humor in instructional design
-Hypnopaedia: sleep-learning
-Information quantity and cognition
-Interactive whiteboards
-Keller's ARCS Model-Attention
-Keller's ARCS Model-Confidence
-Keller's ARCS Model-Relevance
-Keller's ARCS Model-Satisfaction
-Knowledge systems design
-Learning theory fundamentals
-Learning styles
-Long term memory
-Maslow's hierarchy of needs
-Memory model
-Metacognition
-Metacognition v2
-Mind as rhizome
-Multi-Channel learning
-Multimedia and the learning process
-Multimedia and multiple intelligences
-Multiple intelligences, Part 1
-Multiple intelligences, Part 2
-Music enhances reasoning
-Music's contribution to academic success
-Piaget's developmental stages
-Piano lessons and spatial-temporal reasoning
-Postmodern instructional design
-Reactive vs. active theory
-Sense and memory
-Sensory modalities for learning
-Short term memory
-Social learning theory
-Stereotypes
-Structural learning theory
-Subliminal learning
-Techniques for memory retention
-Technology supports learner-centered principles
-Transfer: a principle of learning
-Transfer of learning
-Using simulations to facilitate learning
-Visual perception: Gestalt laws
-Visual perception: illusions
-Working memory

And those are only under the first category! If San Diego State's ISD program is anything like this website, then it sounds like a winner!

'Cuz Keeping Up is Hard to Do

Trying to keep up with the current state of educational technology is like trying to catch the wind. It's there and then, whoosh, it's off to Tokyo!

In the early '80's, the company I was working for created a videodisc authoring system. Since I was the initial user/designer, I re-programmed the user interface, myself, (using BASIC), so I could get my job done. Although I put in plenty of extra hours, I had a usable program after two weeks. The days where one person is able to handle most of the job of creating instruction delivered using technology are long gone. I've heard it said that software development cycles are now running semi-annually, even quarterly in some companies. The same can be said for educational technology.

Since the web has taken off, it's carried web-based training, (aka, WBT, e-learning, online learning, etc.), right along with it. One of the biggest expenses companies face in providing training to employees is the cost of the trainer, as well as travel expenses for students located remotely. WBT, therefore, provides a terrific means of reducing training costs as well as making training more accessible to employees.

The instructional designer, (the title of the person who designs the instruction), however, needs to add knowledge of the Intenet, along with HTML or one of the WYSIWYG HTM editors like FrontPage or Dreamweaver, to the authoring packages with which his/she is already familiar, such as Macromedia Director or Authorware. In fact, most of the CD ROM and hard disc authoring packages such as Director and Authorware can also be used to generate WBT. However, this is hardly the end of the challenges faced by today's instructional designers and technologists.

In the 80s, a very savvy educator and business woman named Gloria Gery, coined a concept called an electric performance support system (EPSS). The goal of an EPSS is to provide workers, via their computers, "just in time" information to help them perform their jobs. Now, however, we have web-based performance support systems (WBPSS), along with a plethora of new knowledge about how to use and design them.

As technology innovations such as XML, AI, CGI, Flash, Shockwave, RSS feeds, new APIs, streaming video and audio, (and this list only scrapes the surface), appear on the scene, developing expertise required for most instructional design and technology jobs becomes more and more daunting.

In addition, computer-managed instruction (CMI) has been replaced with learning management systems (LMS), also called a learning content management systems (LCMS). Standards have been developed, particularly the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). Some employers now require, not only instructional design experience and/or coursework, but a certificate. One can be obtained at George Washington University (Washington, DC) for the paltry sum of $3,495--a steal--especially in a profession that usually only pays in the $35K - $65K range.

There is no doubt that technology has proved itself an effective means of educating children and adults since the first widely-used system, PLATO, appeared on the scene in the 1970s. However, keeping up with an ever-changing technology landscape is a different matter, altogether. And that's not counting changes in the "soft" areas such as learning theory!