New EdTech Podcast: Using Instructional Theory in Instructional Design

A few months ago I recorded a podcast with my good friend John Jeon. We discussed using Instructional Theory in Instructional Design and I found our discussion to give some interesting ideas for using theory to improve learning experiences. Here is the link to the podcast.

Here is a description of the podcast from The EdTech Dojo:

There is a body of knowledge called instructional theory that provides clear prescriptions on how to help students learn. However, these theories can often be difficult to apply in our daily work. In this podcast, Joel speaks with John Jeon, Senior Instructional Designer and Project Manager for Continuing Education Outreach and E-Learning at the University of Wisconsin. Joel and John describe what instructional theory is and provide tips for applying its principles to real-world situations and instructional design settings.

AECT 2012: Summary of my Conference Experiences

#AECT

This is my summary post for the he AECT 2012 International Convention. I had an outstanding experience and in previous posts I blogged some of what I learned throughout the week. If you missed the conference, these links share my experiences.

I feel like I met my goals for the conference - I met some great new people, got oriented to what is going on in the research, and got to interact with old friends. Below is a summarizing list of the blog posts that I wrote about the conference this year. Thanks AECT for a great conference!

Before the Conference
Here are a few posts before the conference and during the drive from Columbus to Louisville.

• AECT 2012 International Convention - Looking Forward!
• Traveling to AECT 2012
• The Galt House Hotel and Suites

At the Conference

• Day 1: Ontology, TCL, and Opening Social
• Day 2: Part 1 - Microscenarios
• Day 2: Part 2 - Problems With Sampling in EdTech Research
• Day 2: Part 3 - The Future of the Field of Educational Technology
• Day 3: Part 1 - Sharing Your Work as an Academic
• Day 3: Part 2 - Invisible Forces That Influence Instructional Design
• Day 3: Part 3 - EdTech Dojo Podcast

Day 2 AECT 2012: Part 3 - The Future of the Field of Educational Technology

This post is part of a Multiple Part Series on the 2012 AECT Convention.

#AECT 2012

The Future of Our Field
What is the future of the field of educational technology? Of education in general? Higher education has clearly undergone rapid transformation over the past 10 years- how will it transform over the coming years?

The panel: Patricia Young, Andy Gibbons, Elizabeth Boling, Ana Donaldson, David Wiley

In this panel session, several leading scholars discussed their take on (1) what changes will occur and (2)what changes should occur in the field. Note: This post will be a little different because I am going to basically share my notes (slightly edited) on what was said during the session.

Anna Donaldson

• Learning Design is another way of looking at design. We should consider thinking deeply about our learners' experience instead of the processes we use as designers.
• Our designs are often seen another resource for learning and not just the only source of learning.
• Learning analytics will likely have a powerful impact on the field. Understanding and using them will help us know how to interact with our students.
• We should really rethink how we think. We are stuck in what we think we know.

Andy Gibbons

• The economics of instructional design. Instructional designers should be aware of their value added. Decisions made by designers are tradeoffs that eventually have to do with economics, and we should think of what we do in terms of economics. 
• We must view design in terms of constraints. We often think there is some kind of ideal, but this is not necessarily true. We are working under actual constraints that change how we approach our work.
• Ask the question: what is going to be important in the future? What represents progress in the field of instructional design? Potential answers, potential opportunities:
• Intelligent Tutors.
• Data mining for educational purposes.
• Bayesian statistics - Book to read: "The Theory That Would Not Die."
• Corporate universities are nearly as many as educational universities. (We seem to be totally unaware of this presence.)
• There seems to be a change in the business approach of education. What used to be the public schools only is now taken over by many different types of institutions, and these will potentiall totally take over many aspects of higher education.
• Themes that should be included in our thinking about instructional design: portability, pallatability, accessibility, efficiency, scalability, sustainability, generativity, adaptivity, manufacturability, cost, actionable knowledge, popularity, coalition support

David Wiley

• Problem: The demand for higher education will increase exponentially (times 10) over the coming 15 years. We have demand for higher education but we do not have a plan in place to handle the demands that will inevitably come in the future. We don't really talk about these things very much, as a field.
• Openess
• Open Content - take instructional content and make it available to anyone. Allow people to use it, tweak it, localize it.
• Open Research - We should make the research that we perform totally available to others in an open way. Taxpayers pay for the research (through NSF for example) and then have to pay more to read the article. Doesn't make sense...
• Open Data - We should be showing the products of our work to each other. We should allow others to use our data in meaningful ways.
• Open Teaching - We should make our teaching available to anyone who would like to learn.
• Analytics will allow us to improve our instruction, and using open content allows us to change whatever we want to change.

Openness + Analytics 

= 

Chocolate + Peanut Butter

• Credentialing. We should allow people to credential others in meaningful ways (such as open badges).
• Our designs don't have any kind of quality that is independent from the interaction with learners.
• Science vs. Arts. We might have some kind of science envy. There is an art to what we do, and we don't talk about that very much. We should consider that important aspect of the work of designers.

Elizabeth Boling

•  Our field could potentially just dribble away if we are not willing to take a look at how the world and how learning is changing. We could potentially just go away and become obsolete.
• We often confuse values with scholarship. We confuse theory with design philosophy. For example: learning design and instructional design are mainly a difference in design philosophy.
• Questions we should be asking ourselves about our field:
• Why do other sectors in the world adopt technology faster than we do
• Why is human performance seen as different than Instructional Design and Learning Design?
• Why don't we guarantee our work? How do we get away with consulting people on how to design without a guarantee that it will improve learning?
• Why can't we guarantee our tools?
• Why don't we show each other our work?
• We have theories that do not really reflect our practice. How we practice should inform our theories, not the other way around.

Patricia Young

• Situating learning in the context of culture. What do kids do in their daily lives? We should localize our instruction to needs of particular groups.
• Culture influences how people learn and perform in e-learning environments.
• We should explore culture's impact on learning. What does it mean to move away from westernized thinking? How do you move more toward this culture-specific application? To design for aboriginals? or for Caucasian mountain dwellers?
• We should include a course on instructional design, technology, and culture.
• If we ignore culture, we will have poor ramifications.

Day 2 AECT 2012: Part 2 - Problems with Sampling in EdTech Research

This post is part of a Multiple Part Series on the 2012 AECT Convention.

#AECT 2012

Went to a presentation by Patrick Lowenthal on some of the issues that we come across in higher education research. He discussed a few interesting key points:

• We assume that we know what the research shows. For example: "Most of the research in _____ is quantitative in nature." Unfortunately, this is often just an assumption and it may not be totally accurate. A systematic review often reveals that our assumptions are incorrect.
• We often have issues with our research because we do convenience sampling. For example, the research done in some forms of online interaction nearly all focused on classes in education-related fields in higher education. This tends to skew our view of what education is like. Anyone going into education most likely had a nice educational experience, so they might approach their learning in different ways. 

Patrick asks a key question:

These kinds of ideas are appropriate and important for researchers. We base our assumptions about instructional design on the models research we are exposed to. And we base our work on those assumptions. This is a pretty scary proposition, and it implies that we often do this in other areas of life. I have my assumptions on how things work - instructional design, business, higher education, nutrition, etc. - but these are only based on what I know, on what I think based on my limited experiences and exposure to the environment. By gaining knowledge of what is actually there and identifying my own assumptions, I could potentially increase my personal ability to be effective at what I do.

This is related to something my philosopher friend at Franklin University continually hammers on. We live, believe and behave based on our assumptions about life.  However, he argues that most people usually do not base their assumptions on evidence or logic, and this can have disastrous consequences. I hope to write more on this when I have a little time.

the miracle of hearing (and instructional technology)

This post is a little more personal than many of my previous posts.

Today my daughter had ear surgery to correct a hearing loss that she has had since she was born. She has always worn hearing aids and struggled more than most to learn to hear and speak, but we recently learned of an innovative surgery that will correct her hearing. It has been an incredible experience and we are grateful for the blessing of having our little girl be able to hear again.

As an instructional technology geek, I couldn't help but get a little excited at the doctor's use of technology to teach us what he did during the surgery. Below is an image that he drew for us on his i-pad just after the surgery. He emailed the image to me and I have added the text to replicate what he said as he explained the simple image to us.

As a technology lover, I am just blown away by the powerful technologies that have blessed my life. Most important were the technologies that have given my beautiful 8-year old daughter an increased capacity to hear and live life with greater advantage. The incredible combination of skill, technology, and knowledge is miraculous to me. And (as an instructional tech geek) it was a pleasure to see technology used in an innovative way to teach us how our daughter's ears were improved.