Week 11 Response

One significant theme that seems to be in all three chapters is the idea that if you have a job in instructional design/technology, you will be constantly adapting and adding to your profession. In the business world there is a chance that you will play many different roles with in the team and organization, which means that you will have to learn how to accomplish multiple aspects of your job. In P-12 there is a chance that through the requirement of continuing education you will move up to different levels of the school structural system. By achieving a masters degree new possibilities open up and if you have a instructional design/technology degree there is even more possibilities. The last reading of higher education seems to be the straightest forward of the three. To gain a full time professor’s job you must gain experience working with in the instructional design field. This makes complete sense because these are the teachers that are teaching all college enrolled students.


Another theme that works is way through all three chapters, at least to me, is the systematic approach that is taken when it comes to holding an instructional design/technology job. All three chapters have at least one system laid out in a graphic organizer that lays out the successful steps for change. For example the higher education reading lays out the promotion/tenure progression of both the Australian and US educational system. Both of the systems are different, but have necessary steps in place to further the education and specialization of their staff. In the P-12 there is a Step Up to Excellence program laid out in a lovely step format. Each step of this program is put in to better the improvement ideas for a school district by having a greater input of information and opinions from different sources. The business portion on the other hand allows the input of one person to determine a part, then the team as a whole puts the project or plan together.


One major difference between the three chapters is each area of employment seems to have a different component to the role that instructional design/technology plays in the work place. In a business the idea that seemed to be a theme to me was that an instructional design/technology employees were to work as part of a team. They could be the manager, a designer, or just a member of the group, but they each only did their assigned job. Then everyone would come together to produce the final product the team was working on. While in the P-12, or school environment, the aspect of the team was everyone working together to develop new approaches for improvement for the schools. Unlike the business approach, the schools would have to pull members from different levels together to weigh in their opinions on every step of the process. Higher education is a lot like the P-12, except the readings makes it out to be more specialized. In higher education the professors have obtained their high level degrees and are training others to become more specialized in their field of expertise.


The idea that I can positively say would work the best in my place of employment is the importance that is placed on communication and cooperation at every level of the school. If each level of the school system would come together and try to work a great deal of our differences, then more plans could be implemented with out a great amount of up rise.