Week 9 - Chapter 18

The fist interesting fact to me in this reading is the idea that instructional designers are spending, “much of their time is now spent as project managers, supervising contractors with varying degrees of instructional design expertise.” (Reiser and Dempsey pg.177) To me this sounds like a major application of technology within a teacher’s classroom. With the right amount of training, conditioning, and technology a teacher can create a classroom atmosphere where the students have the necessary skills to be successful at various levels. When the teacher creates this type of classroom they can become more of a manager of learning, rather than the main component of learning. Meaning that the students are taking more self initiated approach to their own education and the teacher is the guide. This frees up the higher end or more experienced students to move at a faster pace, while allowing the teacher to “manage” students that need assistance. This is where we as teachers in this class are aiming for our classroom to be. To have technology be an educational tool that frees both students and teachers from traditional chains and allows for new avenues of learning to be built.


The second interesting idea from the reading for me comes from the globalization of training. Instructional Design/Technology has led to the necessary requirement of training employees to the ever changing work force. This is not just a US idea; it is now part of the rest of the world that is moving at a quick pace of life. Cause and point is the fact that a great deal of “text and instructional strategies must be modified for different cultures.” (Reiser and Dempsey pg. 181) This is just like the classroom because as a teacher you are required to gain new knowledge through the wonderful world of professional development. As a teacher you are always refining you skills and this training that is put upon you is to achieve the idea of progress and change. Once you have this new information you have to take it to the classroom and change the language and ideas for the different students in your room. Just as Instructional Designers have to change the language to fit different cultural ideas, the teacher must change the language of a lesson or idea to fit the various levels of students. In a way a classroom is a small cultural globe contained in a single room, but as the teacher you must reach each end of that globe.