ETEC 561 Blog

Trends and Issues are known to be present in every field. In this week’s post, I would like to focus on the Business & Industry, the Medical Profession, and P-12 Technology Integration. Business & Industry Various trends and issues exist in the Business and Industry in regards to IDT. Businesses are willing to spend a plethora of their resources on external instructional designers (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012.) There are multiple resources that impact how businesses function in today’s world versus just a few years back. With the click of a button, a team member can log in to a virtual meeting when faced with being in a different geographical location. With the creation of communication tools including Skype, Google Docs, and Adobe Connect, employees within the industry can collaborate with distance not being a factor (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012.) This has revamped how businesses operate completely. I can relate to this in the sense that we use tools such as Google ...

1. I was intrigued by the models of Instructional Design and Evaluation. The two models that I would like to focus on are Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method and Patton’s Utilization-Focused Evaluation. Let’s begin by looking at Brinkerhoff’s Method. This model is focused on finding out what worked in a particular training or other organizational intervention. The founder of this method designed it with it being “a quick and simple process that combines analysis of extreme groups with case study and storytelling….to find out how well some organizational initiative is working.” Brinkerhoff’s model has five steps to ensure this process is carried out effectively. Identify and Define the program to be evaluated, explicate its purpose. Explicate the major program goals and listing all impacts/outcomes that are hoped for or expected to result from the program. Conduct a survey to identify the best cases and worst cases. Schedule and conduct in-depth interviews with both succ...

1. In delving into the instructional learning theories and methods outlined in the reading selection for this week, I was taken by the approach of each theory. I count this as an incredible opportunity that allows me to become familiar with each and in turn, allows me to navigate through them with more ease. The Behavioral Learning Theory (Skinner, 1938, 1969, 1987) is based on the belief that learning can be understood, explained, and predicted entirely on the basis of observable events. It also important to note that it is empirically based, which means that behavior is observable both before and after an intervention such as instruction has been implemented. (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012) The Cognitive Information Processing Theory regards the environment as playing an important role but it differs from the Behavioral Learning Theory in its assumption of internal processes within the learner that explains learning. (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012) The Schema Theory believ...