Design Review

The tools, processes, and technologies that we have explored are invaluable to instructional design because they give it the structure, life and future it needs to successfully empower the learner with the knowledge and skills required in this twenty-first century. The tools are all of the acronym-named systematic designs we now have to choose from. The processes are those we design using guidelines formulated by those who came before us. It is by using these processes a better design is developed. Without them the design would depend upon but one person—the designer.

If the whole instructional design depends upon no more that the personal intuition of a designer, and if that designer did not instinctively know the appropriate methods and theories, learners themselves and their learning styles, tasks and objective outcomes, information available for instruction and technologies that could be used, it would be impossible to design well.

The new element of technology in the design is something few instructional designers can master for long—because it changes! Technologies are constantly changing and challenging both instructor and student. This cooperative challenge is part of what will revolutionize learning. By having to face similar challenges together, student and teacher, the democratization process begins. I would hope to use this to best advantage in my design. I would hope more viable programs will be developed in Spain and Latin America. It is not the direct translation of software from English to Spanish that would most help this program. It is the direct creation of technological advances custom made from these Spanish speaking cultures that would be most useful to these children. In order to build upon existing knowledge the base must be native to Spanish not only in words. Its very form must be true to the language and culture.

It is in this spirit of constructivist learning that I design this program. The efforts I have extended to write a Saturday School design for the children of new immigrants for whom Spanish is their first language could be put into action with sufficient funding and a year of lead time to establish it. During this time I would have to run preliminary evaluations of students as well. At present it is a theoretical construct.

I could imagine applying for a grant and working on a pilot program, even as a study program for a PhD and ending in a wonderful story told in journal article form. This would be a model for programs around the country, and even if the program extended no further than preschool to third grade it could potentially make a huge difference in society. Well done and well attended such a program would achieve all the goals I set. These are not meerly wishes or goals that only point direction but may never be achieved. These are goals that can and should be achieved in the Latin American community. Similar goals have been met in the Asian community to great success.

The topics covered in this course are all of vital use in creative teaching in schools, or in instructional design. The birth of constructivist theories, many formulated before I was born, was not enough to change the way children are taught. It is the application of these theories that will revolutionize learning. It may be through instructional design that these ideas spread. The basic framework or structure of the design of educational programs was easily based upon ADDIE in my model, and could be for others as well. It is a good starting point for learning design.

The whole idea of Needs Assessment is not explored in everyday teaching. I found it fascinating and shall make it a part of all planning in the future. It is just as viable to traditional education as to constructivist reforms and should be used in all teaching scenarios. The Learner and Contextual Analysis is closely tied to this and although I could not use it in my design because I do not know my learners nor do they exist, I can see that it is key to successful programs. In fact, other research in Educational Psychology points to just this fact—a teacher who better knows his/her students promotes more learning.

The Goals and Outcomes portion was very important, and I applied it to the Strategic Planning Committee work I did for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. As they set goals I could critique them intelligently and comment knowledgably upon their effectivness and measurability. I used the ABCD method for lining up goals with outcomes and found it very useful; as I am sure Instructional Designers do in the real world.

Although the New Technologies we explored in the classroom are not directly applicable to the program I am designing, unless in Spanish or adapted for small children, we did learn how they can be applied to the young university student who is familiar with all the newest software available. In my project design it is discouraging that materials I would like to use are not yet available online from Spain and Latin America. This could happen in the not too distant future though.

The beauty of the Assessment and Evaluation process is that it can be applied throughout and not in classification of students but in aid of their learning. This is a threatening concept to traditional style teachers. I can imagine it in the classrooms I observe and find it would work marvelously well. Would the teacher agree? Perhaps not. That is the sad truth. The more Instructional Designers that show the effectiveness of alternative evaluations the more convinced teachers will be. As far as my design is concerned, these alternative assessment techniques would be used often and as part of the learning process. As the Saturday School is not part of a formal school, letter grades would not be required, and it is a perfect place to begin such assessments. This type of alternative assessments described in our readings would be wholeheartedly used in my design.