1. Business and Industry
Companies are no stranger to IDT; every company that I
have ever worked for (of a decent size – not a mom and pop business) has had a
department or individual that oversees training. One of the main uses of IDT in business and
industry is looking at human performance.
Businesses want efficient and knowledgeable employees and it is usually
up to a trainer or training department to dig through the performance issues
and come up with viable solutions to get employees in shape. External consultants are also an important
part of corporate IDT for those companies that cannot get employees over the
performance “humps” or those companies that are simply not large enough to have
in-house IDT support.
Healthcare Education
Healthcare education and IDT have a relationship similar
to that of business/industry and IDT.
IDT and training are essential parts of the healthcare system. Medical technology changes at a very rapid
pace and with those changes comes the need to train healthcare administrators
and practitioners in those new technologies.
In addition to technology, patient care laws and policies also
change. Those that are not on the
administrative side of medicine probably do not find about these changes as
quickly as they need to. This is the
niche of the in-house IDT educator or consultant; they find ways to deliver
this training and set about implementing the training. They also tend to have familiarity with the
healthcare system due to some of the proprietary terminology used in that
setting.
Post-Secondary Education
IDT takes a more direct role in post-secondary
education. Where K-12 (or P-12 as stated
in the book) teachers worry more about methods and pedagogy, the desire of
post-secondary instructors is to deliver content (that they happen to be very
knowledgeable about.) Instructional
designers are charged with taking this content and adapting the delivery to it
can be effectively given to the students.
All colleges/universities have an in-house IDT team that constantly
works with outside vendors and outside consultants to maximize the experiences
that students have while taking their coursework.
Across all sectors, IDT has a very influential role. Our society’s reliance on technology has
opened up opportunities for those that are good at integrating technology with
learning to help out on every avenue.
Instructional designers and IDT experts across the spectrum use the same
process: they identify the problem or bottleneck, design cost-effective
solutions, and implement those solutions.
One of the main differences between instructional designers in these
settings an in my setting (K-12/P-12) is the clientele that we deal with. Whereas
business/industry/healthcare/post-secondary instructional designers cater
primarily to adults or young adults, our primary audience are the students who
do not possess the same drive and mentality as many of the adults do. Our instruction has to be designed to “catch”
before it can deliver.
2. The first thing that we must teach our students is
that we are all stewards or our society and our world. This means that problems (and solutions) have
global implications (environment and economy.)
It does not take great effort to see that we need to change the way we
do some things in order to change the impact that we have on our planet. If we learned to live more efficiently and
cut down consumption, then we would be starting on the right path to alter our
future. The answer, though, is not
simply legislating the problems away; we have to have innovative solutions to
solve our problems. My goal as an
educator is to make students aware of our situation and foster an environment
for critical thinkers to thrive and move on after high school. Students are afraid to take chances because they
feel that they are owed something; instead of relying on their hard work, they
take the easy way out. Our culture must
learn that life is not always about everyone winning; it is about learning to
be competitive and shining through your merit.
This applies to athleticism as well as coming up with great ideas; I
agree wholeheartedly with the statement that often times “great risk leads to
great reward.” I found that to be the
case in my engineering career as long as I knew how to make a calculated risk.
Todd,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you with your healthcare education, and business and industry statement that, “Companies are no stranger to IDT; every company that I have ever worked for (of a decent size – not a mom and pop business) has had a department or individual that oversees training. I am proof of this statement as there is a department at my job specifically assigned to handle all IDT related issues, concerns, ideas, etc. It baffles me that most organizations and especially that schools don’t have such a department.
Technology is snowballing and there’s no way it’s going to slow down – in fact, it’s only going to continue to increase! Thus it’s imperative that ALL sectors properly include IDT into their line of business. This pretty much echoes your statement that, “Our society’s reliance on technology has opened up opportunities for those that are good at integrating technology with learning to help out on every avenue.”
Regarding global trends and issues in IDT, indeed we must make everyone aware that we’re all part of this world, so the change starts with “us”. It’s truly not that hard to change our ways and do things that make more sense for us and the planet. However, I think we tend to be lazy, or maybe it’s just that we’re not fully aware of what we’re doing…? Hmmm ;)
Great post, thank you!
"Our instruction has to be designed to “catch” before it can deliver." Is a statement that rings true for me on a daily basis in teaching. I find that students are only interested if the activity is engaging or meaningful to them. That creates a very difficult situation for the teacher to connect with all of the students.
ReplyDelete"The first thing that we must teach our students is that we are all stewards or our society and our world. " I could not agree more! If we foster this idea then we will make way for global thinkers and problem solvers.
" It does not take great effort to see that we need to change the way we do some things in order to change the impact that we have on our planet." I find this to be true as an adult but not for children. Children have a hard time seeing the" big" picture of things outside their world bubbles. They have to see how little changes can make a difference in their world. We as educators have to show this to them and how to follow through with these changes in our schools. Doing theses changes in school daily could get the students to make the same changes at home and then later in their adult lives.
I really enjoyed reading your post. Thank you for sharing.
I enjoyed reading your blog Todd! I love how so stated that each area is influential in IDT ( which is true). The other instructional designers cater to the older audience whereas we cater to children. In order for our instruction to be successful, the students must "catch" it first!! Love it!! I agree....students seem to stray away from taking chances and working hard. A lot of them feel that the world owes them something. I try to instill strong work ethics in my students no matter their backgrounds. It is true that in life you do not always win. Part of learning means sometimes taking a loss in order to gain!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!!
I love your post. Very down to earth and insightful. You made me think about teaching problem solving with my students. I have struggled with making them see that problem solving is so essential and THAT is why we learn geometry. I am a fairly new teacher and very prescriptive in my approach to teaching. I have difficulty thinking "outside the box". Your #2 has made me think about how to approach my issue. You are very insightful and explain very clearly.
ReplyDeleteAs to your comment about "Catching" the student before you can deliver, I agree. It seems that many educators and proponents of technology in classroom believe that this is the reason for technology, even in the higher levels of administration. "catching" is important but it is important that educator understand that it doesn't stop there.
Awesome Post!