In my opinion, A hallmark of good instruction is the building of community. A sense of community in the classroom helps to foster motivation - especially with reluctant learners. In addition, community helps with cooperation among the students and teachers. One of the key ideas in designing instruction is to work community building into the lesson design. Here is a link to a great article on how to build a sense of community in all grades ... https://www.edutopia.org/article/10-powerful-community-building-ideas

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change may be. – John Wooden

One of the best ways to learn is through failing and trying again. Learning from our missteps and growing our idea into something better is the hallmark of a true learner.

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that's where you will find success." Thomas J. Watson

Fail Forward !
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Daniel Pink, in his fantastic book on Motivation called Drive, gives this flow chart of when to use Rewards...

I've explored Instructional Design for a few months now and I am finding ways to link these ideas with some of the other topics I have been reading about. Motivation in education is important. It gets students interested in the topic and in the frame of mind to WANT to learn. But How? Can we design with motivation in mind? I plan on doing more with this idea, but for now I have learned that "If/Then Contingent" rewards are bad for Creative tasks such as learning. Giving someone a reward for something that should be intrinsic and something that requires depth and creativity narrows their focus - The short-term prize crowds out the long-term learning and thinking... When we design courses, the feelings of Connectedness and Community are what bring out the best in the class. 

Reminds me of another great quote I came across:

Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible.

My journey through Instructional Design continues. This week I explored a lot of ideas surrounding educational theory and the connections to design theory. For educational goals to be met, assignments should not only be visually appealing, but also educationally sound. I was most interested in the design models. According to Dr. Vallera, Instructional Design models help instructional designers to make sense of abstract learning theory and enable real world application. It helps to provide structure and meaning. I was most drawn to the UbD - Backwards Design as described here educationaltechnology.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/backward-design.pdf

I have liked the idea of Beginning with the End in Mind ever since I read Steven Covey's 7 Habits of High Effective People.

​Here is a quick Graphic to help explain this idea...