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Week Seven

  “The history of organized education and training can be viewed as a long struggle to extend opportunities to more people and to devise means of helping those people learn better than through the events of everyday life” (Molenda, 2008, 5). I earned my B.S. in Education in 2003 and though I’ve not spent many years in the classroom since then I’ve been under the education umbrella enough to see the pendulum swing right and left a few times. There will always be a next best thing. A next best end all be all that turns out to just be another swing of the pendulum. Always things to be learned but there will never be a ‘one size fits most’ solution. Even the solutions that leave lots of space for independence and not pigeonholing will never fully fit the bill. I am frustrated with the premise of Deepak Prem Subramony’s research—that IT scholars neglect cultural diversity. Although I cannot relate personally to the level of instructional technologists, I can as a graphic designer. I wor
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Week Ten - Strategic Direction

Thoughts on Strategic Direction Convincing consumers they need something can be a slippery slope. Some consumers who will buy on a whim and others will never be convinced. When you instill an appreciation for a company beyond the product itself consumers are more likely to purchase because they have a deeper appreciation beyond a single product. I think this is a similar phenomenon to employers/employees. It’s why in recent years so much more care, concern, and effort has been put into hiring employees who may not have the perfect skillset but do fit the culture and who embrace the mission and vision of the company. Skills can be taught and learned. Culture, mission, and vision don’t come quite so easily. “Watkins, Triner, and Kaufman (1996) suggest that strategic plans frequently fail to guide decision making by focusing on processes instead of results. When strategic plans focus on process, describing what employees should do rather than what results should be accomplished, they lose
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Week Nine - HPT Overview

  “Human performance technology is the study and ethical practice of improving productivity in organizations by designing and developing effective interventions that are results-oriented, comprehensive, and systemic” (Pershing, 2006, pg. 6). Pershing warns that no definition will ever be as relevant as it was in the time period it was written but his definition seems all-encompassing. There are a few specific aspects of HPT that stood out to me from Pershing’s detailed explanation of the words used in his definition. HPT is results-oriented—first and last (Pershing, 2006, pg. 13). I have used the very common SMART goal strategy for as long as I can remember. SMART goals force the goal setter to think ahead to analyze the problem being addressed as well as providing a valid way to measure success. Pershing also walks through a model of HPT, the starting point being a void or gap. In the years I have used SMART goals with clients the struggle is never identifying that there is something
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Week Eight

I find myself circling around to the same things every week from our reading. There are multiple ways to do things and every theory or practice or method or medium tries to put people and learning into oversimplified boxes. Sure media and methods influence learning. Everything we ‘come to the table with’ influences learning. And since no two people are the same so to think that one solution exists is just silly. Should we ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’? No, of course not! There is much to be gained from seeking an understanding of ourselves as professionals and the people we seek to help through our profession. But at some point, we just have to come to terms with knowing we are putting our best foot forward. That we are making design decisions based on what we know to be the most effective solution. That our designs will never fully be complete because life does not standstill. The methods we used one day will work great for one person and not at all for another. And then ano
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Week Six

The more we dig into the various theories of learning the muddier the water gets and the more I find myself unclear about where I stand! As with every other week I’ve left trying to figure out how to piece together the various theories and cherry-pick a bit because I simply don’t buy a one size fits all approach. One of my favorite young adult novels is the dystopian story The Giver by Lois Lowry. In the story, there are no real choices to be made. All children at age five are learning and doing the exact same things, and again at six and seven, and so forth. At the ripe age of twelve, they are assigned their role in the community. For the most part, everyone in the community thinks this way of life is great. Those who disagree are punished by being “released” but very few know what happens when someone is released. In the end, the main character realizes what he’s missing out on because of his assigned role in the community and decides the benefits of being the same as everyone else i
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Week Five - More Learning Theories and Graphic Design

  This semester has been a bit rough re-acclimating myself to vocabulary that has not been in the front of my mind for 20 years. This week brought back many words that were buried deep down in my long-term memory. My Psychology of Human Learning professor would be proud to know she did force us to memorize definitions for nothing.  What I find most helpful to consider is how all the theories of learning piece together. Each theory adds another piece to the puzzle. Using them on their own would leave learners lacking on various levels. A recent campfire conversation with friends revolved around their 1 st graders math homework and the concept behind common core math. One of the mom’s, an early childhood educator herself, was a bit frustrated with the amount of higher-level thinking required by her daughter before she’d even begun to learn math facts. Another mom was frustrated with the abundance of strategies being taught to her son. She said having different strategies is good but h
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Week Four - Behaviorism

 What is Learning? Learning is moving from a state of ignorance to understanding and incompetence to a state of skillfulness, or at least gaining more skillfulness (or knowledge) than where one began.   I am sure I learned about behaviorism in my undergrad program. I would certainly not have been able to name it in more recent years. After reading this week, my short definition of behaviorism is how we behave, why we behave in those ways and how we alter those behaviors.   Reading through Driscoll’s article I chuckled at myself—thinking about my behaviors in regards to this particular course and how I need to make some modifications so I can be successful, but let’s put self-reflection to the side. A good majority of my hands-on experience with behavior management came in the form of being a paraprofessional in an upper elementary special education class for kids with severe physical and cognitive disabilities. Our days were filled with behavior management. “Put simply, behavior
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