Trends and Issues in IDT

1. For this module, I chose to focus on comparing and contrasting business & industry, military, and healthcare education.

An instructional designer in the business world must deal with fast-paced technology-driven goals and projects that may expand globally. An instructional designer very often will work on a team, which may be a physical or virtual team. Some constraints that instructional designers face are limited time and resources, “locus of control for decision-making” (Reiser, 2012, p. 181), and tools or techniques that may not have been tested for accuracy or effectiveness. In addition, an instructional designer’s own beliefs and theoretical perspectives can conflict with other members of the team or job productivity. An instructional designer must aim to complete training in less time across cultures while positively impacting company profits.

Instructional designers in the military field are immersed in rapidly growing technological advancements. They must be very knowledgeable in the instructional technology field. The future trends of the military involve international responsibilities and the evolution of technology. Instructional designers must also consider how to best utilize available money, and may have to make “trade-off decisions” in order to stay within budget (Reiser, 2012, p. 189). Instructional designers working for the military must also have knowledge of learning theories and instructional strategies. They must take into consideration cultural and learning differences among clients and trainees, which includes examining and analyzing the knowledge and skills of a target audience and offering remediation strategies. The environment in which they work can range from a classroom, to virtual, to wherever personnel are deployed. Reiser (2012) notes that an instructional designer’s job for the military differ from that of a business in a variety of ways: “management, configurations, implementation, and expertise of training instructors” (p. 190).

Health care education is varied because the field is very broad. Education transitioned from that of observation and speculation, to basic information learning, to more rigorous problem-based learning. Because erroneous healthcare education could be detrimental, educational programs are constantly being evaluated and researched. Hands-on learning and simulations are ideal because of the need to constantly solve problems and look for patterns. Some factors that affect healthcare performance and education is the rapid advancement of knowledge. The rising costs of health care also put pressure on faculty to spend more time in the office with patients and less time teaching and training. Imposed regulations and standards dictate what personnel should be learning, which could conflict with current curriculum and examinations. The instructional designer and healthcare industry are also faced with the rapid evolution of technologies.

In my field of P-12 education, I can see many similarities. In all of the above mentioned fields and P-12 education, instructional designers, teacher, and students are faced with the rapid evolution of technology. As more technology becomes available within budgets, more technology can be integrated into lesson design. Like the aforementioned fields, an instructional designer must first analyze and evaluate the different skills and knowledge of the students. Also like the fields above, especially military and healthcare, problem-based learning is seen as a relevant and effective learning technique. Preparing learners for future advances in technology is also important to P-12 learning. However, Reiser points out that a “report from the U.S. Department of Commerce revealed that education is ranked as the least technology-intensive enterprise among fifty-five U.S. industry sectors” (Reiser, 2012, p. 213). Society is challenged with educating today’s youth and teachers to use technology more effectively and universally “as our nation attempts to address global changes to ensure economic stability, international competitiveness, and the welfare of its citizens” (Reiser, 2012, p. 214). Instructional designers in this field are critically needed to help close the gap of technology integration.

 

2. In order to prepare out youth to address the problems of living in a world with 9 billion people and limited resources, I feel like we need to reiterate and reinforce the complications and detriments that will come with continued waste. I think there are many programs that already do this, whether they be television stations like KERA that play quality children’s programming that address these issues to P-12 and higher education to organizations like Greenpeace.

Instructing our students to use technology is one way to prepare them for the future. There are some good practices in Japan that I think we should be more mindful of. One of those practices is allowing teachers be creative in developing their own teaching methodologies. Teachers, according to my own observation, come into the profession because they feel like they have something to offer. Taking away their ideas and replacing them with mandated practices stifles creativity and enthusiasm. I also thought it was interesting that the wisdom of older, more experienced teachers is respected. In America, I feel like sometimes we do not respect the wisdom or advice of educators who have been teaching for a long time.

Something that is not required in Japan is renewal of the “IT Basics” certification a teacher must have in order to be licensed. In Korea, however, it is expected that educators “will continually receive training, not only in ICT skills but in e-learning development, online collaboration, IDT, and knowledge community building” (Reiser, 2012, p. 244). Korea has high expectations for ICT-based learning and teacher performance in instructional design. Something that American schools should adopt are higher expectations for teachers integrating technology in instruction, but also, like Korea, offering in-service training to help teachers continuously renew and review their knowledge and skills in IDT.

I feel that America’s current educational system is diverse. Some states have higher standards than others. However, I do think that teachers strive to foster higher-order thinking skills and problem-solving. I think administrators realize that future generations will be inheriting a fast-paced mess, and that we need to prepare them for the future.

References

Reiser, R. A. & Dempsey, J. V. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology, 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson.