Week 4: Trends and Issues in IDT
Section V in our readings for the week addresses trends and
issues in instructional design technology in various fields. I will compare the
business industries, military, and healthcare education. I will then compare
the three to the education field, which is my current career field.
Business and Industry
The business and industry sector is one of the primary
fields for ID as there has been a growing need to improve human performance.
There was a time when I was determined to join the human performance
improvement arena. Even now I still receive notifications from the Association
for Talent Development.
The business industry focuses on increasing effectiveness
and efficacy of training, international growth and expansion of corporations
and design cycle reduction time.
As I read through the chapter, an issue in the field that
peaked my interests was the need for cross cultural training. As the world
continues to diversify both in the United States and abroad, ID must evolve in
order to take into account the societal and cultural factors that play into the
efficacy of a training program. Designing training for a multicultural
workforce means that the designers must be able to take on the viewpoint of
another culture and understand how that affects training.
Another issue in the business realm is one that I feel that
I can relate to in the education world. The need to complete training and development
in less time. The term “better, faster, cheaper” is used in Trends and Issues in Instructional Design
and Technology. New ways to pump out quality training in a timely and cost-effective
manner is nothing new to the design industry. Technology based training
delivery, rapid prototyping, and advanced evaluation models are some ways that designers
have used to produce training in a “better, faster, cheaper” way.
Military Education
and Training Environments
The military of today is different from the military of the
past. As times have changed, the military has taken on a lot more responsibilities.
With this increased responsibility, effective ID and training is crucial.
The military faces issues with funding, technological range,
delivery environment, design constraints, and people. Of all the issues listed,
the textbook sites people as the most crucial of these areas. The military
cannot function without highly trained and quality men and women to serve. An
ID professional must examine the military field and the limited budget and make
the necessary trade offs that result in maximum impact in terms of overall
quality for trainees.
Health
Care Education
The healthcare industry is very broad. There are many
different sub fields and specialties. The more obvious areas for ID are medical
schools and other professional schools. This field varies from others in that adequate
training can literally be a matter of life or death.
The healthcare industry focuses on problem based learning
and evidence based medicine. ID must consider the nature of risk involved in
the field for both patients and students, the nature of the field being a
service field in which care giving is involved, the use of all the senses
required in making a diagnosis, the scientific nature of the field, and the
need for innovative technologies in order to advance the field and improve
training.
Some of the factors in healthcare that affect performance
are:
·
Knowledge and research
·
Costs and managed care
·
Regulations, standards, and licensure (dictate
what must be learned)
·
Convergence
Comparison
of Business, Military and Healthcare to My Field
As an elementary school librarian/media specialist, I can
identify with several of the other fields. For instance, the business fields
issues with cross cultural training is similar to training culturally sensitive
teachers.
Our student populations are rapidly diversifying in certain
areas, and we must be culturally and societally sensitive to our students needs
to provide a quality learning experience. I live in one of the most diverse
cities in the United States, and I have seen the type of unintentionally pain
that a teacher can cause due to lack of cultural understanding. I personally
feel that teachers in my area would benefit from cultural training so that they
can then teach their students to be culturally sensitive to fellow classmates.
Regarding the military education and training environments,
I saw similarities in the viewpoint that the people are the most crucial factor
in the overall success of the military. I believe that is the same for the
students that come into the school. The doors to our schools cannot stay open
without students just as the military cannot run without people to serve in the
armed forces. With this in mind, all IDT efforts must be made with the needs of
our students in mind.
Finally, the healthcare education section was one in which I
was struggling to relate to the education field until I read about convergence.
Convergence is making a big impact on the healthcare education system just as
it is in the education field. As technologies converge, we are seeing the
benefits when preparing out students to become 21st century
thinkers.
Are We Future Ready?
I have noticed through my interactions with Vietnamese and
Chinese families (my previous school district had a large Vietnamese
population), that countries in Asia seem to place an importance on education.
Education is something that is valued and its importance is instilled in
children and emphasized in a way that I have not seen in the United States.
The way that our public education system is set up, I do not
believe that we’re adequately preparing our students to solve the problems of
tomorrow and be competitive on a global scale. The standardized testing
pressure is an issue, and it places more emphasis on test taking skills than
problem solving strategies and higher-level thinking.
Also, adequate teacher training is an issue. As a new
teacher, I felt abandoned after I was hired. I wanted to quit after my second year
of teaching because I felt that I was failing my students. I had little to no
training on classroom management skills nor instructional design.
Many students are leaving the education system without
practical life skills and confused on what steps to take next. Some students
simply are not interested in attending college, and those students should have
the opportunity to be exposed to trade skills so that they can develop in a
meaningful way.
Recently at a high school graduation, my mother made a
comment about how few honors graduates there were and how students were just “making
it”. She commented that the students really didn’t care about school and did
what they needed to do in order to get out.
I realized that there was some truth to her words, and that’s
part of the reason that I didn’t leave the education field three years ago. I
wanted to stay around and learn more so that I can better serve the students and
help them to do more than “just make it”.
Ashanti, I enjoyed reading your post this week. It was interesting to read your connections to the other fields of ID. They were all valid points that I had not considered. However, I do relate in the same way as you. It's wonderful how these blog postings can work almost as well as true interaction in the way that we are learning from each other. Great post!
ReplyDeleteNice work Ashanti. I liked how you related yourself to several of the fields we read about this week. You made a profound statement with, "..we must be culturally and societally sensitive to our students needs to provide a quality learning experience." I've worked in districts with cultures from one extreme to the other, and it is shocking to see the difference of support and values from those involved in the education of the children. I think teachers should spend time in a variety of diverse cultures before their first job.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the government should spend more money on evaluating the programs in other countries and less on revamping the standardized tests. Training should be a priority of spending money, to train and prepare teachers for improving the education of our future.
Ashanti, I really liked the way your post simplified this weeks lectures. In particular I was able to relate you the paragraph in which you relate the similarities between the business and educational sector. The terms "better, faster, cheaper" does seem to resonate with the pressures we experience in our field. We have to produce and increase our performance with decreasing budgets and constant cuts. Accordingly in the business sector they need to consider multicultural views. The trainer needs to prepare to reach a diverse audience in the global market. As educators we too have to prepare for our diverse students. The need to accommodate the different learning styles affects the way we plan. Overall great post !!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that several of our students are leaving without basic life skills. That's how the #adulting came into play. I believe that we do need to include more trade skills in schools. As much as we would like for ALL of my students to go to a college or university, there are several that aren't prepared or would prefer to do something else. It's difficult to see so many enroll in a 4-year university and then 2 years later decide they would rather be a hairdresser or an a/c technician. ID is something that everyone needs to consider, not just teachers.
ReplyDelete