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...

Lots of great ideas this week.... I mostly explored Project Based Learning and Indirect Instruction. Both of these approaches to education are student focused. The control on the learning falls squarely on the student. Project based learning goes all the way back to John Dewey… the idea of learning by doing. The ideas of PBL are also rooted in Constructivism...

1. For project based learning to work, clear goals and objectives need to be set
2. A project is not a recipe
3. Indirect instruction seeks a high level of student involvement in observing, investigating, drawing inferences from data, or forming hypotheses. It takes advantage of students' interest and curiosity, often encouraging them to generate alternatives or solve problems.​
4. Here's a chart comparing a Traditional Unit with a Culminating Project to and Entire Project Based Unit

Busy week and Lots to Learn! 
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I like to think of my classroom and a "workplace" for my students. Dan Pink discussed 6 traits that make a job meaningful and I believe these work for a classroom as well:

1. Authenticity (being your true self)
2. Agency (exercising autonomy)
3. Self-worth (feeling valuable)
4. Purpose (an urgent goal)
5. Belonging (a shared identity)
6. Transcendence (a greater cause)

As teachers, we should design our classrooms and our instruction around these themes.

Another topic this week was the difference between instructional design and teaching... We can say the ID is THEORY and Teaching is PRACTICE... But, successful learning outcomes need both. This reminds me of a Yogi Berra quote: "In Theory there’s no difference between theory and practice, but I practice, there is!" Teaching is in the trenches work.

We also explored memory. This weeks reading confirmed a lot of what I do as a teacher.  I try and design lessons as a constructionist/connectivist hybrid and I believe CHUNKING is a great way to learn. Finally, anything that you do remember (makes it to long term memory) becomes part of a series of associations—you don’t learn anything in isolation. Association is KEY...

As always, Thanks for reading...

Welcome to week one of my Journey through TLT 403 - Instructional Design 

Instructional design is easier to understand than it is to explain! "Instructional Design is the systematic development of instructional specifications using learning and instructional theory to ensure the quality of instruction. It is the entire process of analysis of learning needs and goals and the development of a delivery system to meet those needs". We need this in education. Teachers should always be thinking of ways to improve the delivery of their lessons - as times change and tools change, the way students learn will change as well.