TechTeacher

  The Evolution of My Career Goal  In 2022, I decided to embark on a new academic journey as a graduate student, venturing into a field I was unfamiliar with. The reality of 2022 was that I was burned out, looking for an opportunity to one day transition away from a career I believed would be my lifelong pursuit. For the longest time, my career goal was to be a school administrator, because a school administrator is someone passionate about learning, encourages others to be innovative when developing learning solutions, advocates for students, and ensures learning is at the highest standard. I wanted to be a leader. When I decided to part ways with teaching, that also meant I was shutting the door on my career goal.  Or, I thought.  When I started my studies, I went in wanting to focus on learning and understanding instructional design better, but also, taking the opportunity to grow and develop my skills. Fast forward to now, 2024, and I am in the final months of my...

 Learning Update What I Have Learned      Since my last blog post, we have had the opportunity to create both a description and an outline of our course. What I have learned through developing a course description and outline, is the support they provide when developing other parts of the course such as the facilitator guide. When my group was developing the course description and outline, we determined how the training was going to be conducted, the objectives and goals, we determined the activities we wanted participants to engage in and more. The benefit of this was that when we began to design the facilitator guide, we just had to provide the details on things such as the expectations of the facilitator and participants, what should be accomplished each day of training, and where materials that would be needed could be found. If one's course description and outline are thoroughly thought out, then it can support other parts of the course development.   ...

 How Do We Process Information?  The Big Three     How individuals acquire knowledge has been talked about for years, and three main concepts have been developed on how knowledge is obtained. The three concepts are behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. With each theory of learning comes different roles of the learners and instructors. The different learning theories play an important role for instructional designers, because the learning theories may require different activities, learning objectives/goals, and different assessments to be implemented.     Constructivism     Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky are the individuals responsible for constructivism. The idea of constructivism focuses on three main things...     1. Learners are active participants in their learning.      2. When learners can interact with their peers, they can learn from each other.      3. Learners benefit and can obtain info...

 Go, Team!           Picture it... January 2023         One individual works for a shipping company.         One individual works as an educator at a charter middle school.        One individual works as a public elementary school teacher.  Each has different backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, and familiarity with the ADDIE model, how could a team comprised of individuals who are vastly different in a lot of areas, possibly work together in a team?     When you are put in a group, where the most you know about each person is their first and last name, it can be worrisome. As my team and I navigated through a project for three weeks, one thing that I learned very quickly is how none of us having anything in common came to our advantage. Due to our differences, each member of the team had strengths, and we utilized each member's strengths to design ...

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous  What is Asynchronous?      Asynchronous is a type of learning delivery system that is done strictly through one's computer. Asynchronous learning does not have learners engaging with an instructor, it instead involves a learner engaging with modules that consist of activities and lessons for learners to go through at their own pace.  How to Create an Asynchronous Course     When an instructor is present, it creates a safety net, where if the technology doesn't work then learners have their instructors to guide and support them. In the case of asynchronous learning, there is no instructor to serve as a safety net, if the technology fails, it fails. Before diving into the creation of an asynchronous course, the most important thing that you must consider is, do you have the appropriate resources? If you do not have the appropriate resources then, according to Piskurich (2015), "Your learners will suffer." If it is determined...

 TechTeacher  November, 12th 2022  Universal Design  By: Brisa Willis  Universal Design  Universal Design Standards      Before discussing what Universal Design Standards are, we must first understand what is meant by Universal Design. Universal design ensures that all individuals, regardless of disability, can obtain the appropriate information. Universal design also ensures according to Burgstahler (2009), that schools and companies are creating products that are usable and accessible to all. Universal design is a concept used not only in education but also in other realms as well. To ensure that Universal Design is being implemented correctly, there are a set of standards that are put in place. The following Universal Design standards are as followed according to Burgstahler (2009)…     - Equitable use: The design must be attainable by all individuals with all levels of abilities.      - Flexibility in use: The lea...