Part A: Select and answer ONE of the reading questions listed at the bottom of this page. Select just ONE of the questions from any chapter you choose.
Part B: Future of the Field: What do you feel are the challenges for the field of instructional design and technology and what it might look like in the future. Why? Obviously, technology for production and delivery will change. But I’m also interested in how you think instruction might change. What will be the impact of constructivism, NCLB, performance assessment, etc. How might we be doing things differently five to ten years from now. You use the three reading articles as a springboard for ideas as well as posting observations from your own experiences.
Part C: Perspectives on the Field: Describe your perspectives on following questions:
Where the field of instructional technology and design came from
o what your personal definition of the field is,
o where you see the field going in the near future, and
o most importantly, please comment on your views of what your role will be in that future.
There are several different directions that the field came out of: audio visual material, corporate training, military training, etc. This has led to some unique, and somewhat separate, cultures within our field. One clear example of this is the P-12 educational technology folks. The corporate training professionals also have different professional organizations (ASTD) and journals (Training and Development). There are also different leaders in these cultures. There also subgroups that focus on multimedia, ONLINE LEARNING , research, etc. You can see this reflected in the various divisions and special interest groups (SIG) within AECT.
Your answers should be in paragraph form and demonstrate your ability to read the assigned material, critically reflect on it, and use it and real-life examples to answer the question. Papers that are not professionally written will not be accepted.
Save all your answers in a single MICROSOFT WORD or a Rich Text Format (RTF) file. Your answer to each part of the assignment should be at least one-half to three-fourth pages, single-spaced.
1. How would you describe the field of instructional design to a friend who is not an instructional designer?
2. As a novice instructional designer, which aspects of developing instruction do you consider to be inherently artistic? Which aspects of developing instruction do you consider inherently scientific?
3. Which model of instructional design/development would you most likely follow? Why do you suppose that model is particularly appealing to you?