Nick's Instructional Design Space

  Write a blog reflection about what you learned from your three readings and note items, theories, and elements that you would like to know more about and whether it impacts your design or tells you more about how you learn.  The first article talked in-depth about an example and look at Problem Based Learning, and how it’s iterative process works with the constructive theory of learning.   I really liked, and use as often as I can, the idea of putting learners in an authentic situation where they are “constructors of their own knowledge in a context which is similar to the context in which they would apply that knowledge.” (Savery, Duffy 1995) I like it’s real world application process, where all of the learning revolves around solving a problem.   The 2nd article that I choose to do some research on is a study of the effectiveness of discussion forums in online learning vs face to face learning.   The learning I took from this is while the goal of a discussio...

Examine your design plan for your final project in the course. Which principle(s) of multimedia learning could be implemented in your proposed instructional materials?  What could you use from the Method of Loci? Explain how you would apply the principle(s) of multimedia learning into your proposed design. In my instructional design I place to use a couple of these principles.  The interactive google slides will have the temporal contiguity principle, where words and pictures are presented together.  Multimedia principle, where the students will be able to choose picture examples of their work.  The main focus will be attempting to follow the Personalization Principle - where they will be able to personalize each lesson by selecting images and answers from their own life, and in their own words. 

Prompt 1: Reflect on the Method of Loci in your blog. What worked? What didn't? How could you use such a cognitive activity, mental or visible to users, to improve the acquisition of knowledge in your designs? What was different last time vs. this time? Did what you built before stimulate this kind of visualization in learners or did the media do it for them? Which do you think is better? I have enjoyed attempting the Method of Loci, and have really started to see some results from it.  It's enjoyable to me to try and find something that relates to what I am trying to remember as a visual for a particular part of the room.  What can I think of that reminds me of a learning community that has its own values?  How about a desk (learning community) with a scale on it (value)?  Now it also has a check for $1,000 on it (desired outcomes) and a picture of two people shaking hands (acceptable conventions and practices).  I have now created a visual representation o...

Prompt:What does it mean to manage/regulate yourself (self-regulate) and others during learning experiences? How does it bring you towards goals? How important is communication in this process and what helps/impedes it? I have always looked at self regulation as once of the more difficult things for me to handle when it comes to learning experiences.  When I am the facilitator or teacher, I have the likelihood to rush through things I have already done, or think the students should have already learned.  Taking time to go back and remember that this is the first time some of these kids are hearing this, or that hearing it just one time is not enough for all kids to understand it is a difficult thing for me to remember. When it comes to others, I have a much better understanding how to regulate experiences.  Frequent checks for understanding and personal questions of motivation are used my class often.  Often times I use simple visual cue for understanding such as...

Reflect on your experiences creating Project A from start to finish. What worked and what did not? What do you think was the strongest aspect of the design process? The weakest? How do you think the experience will effect you on Project B? I would like to start my reflection by saying this was a very rewarding process.  I have been writing curriculum for many years at my current job, but I have never done so with as much purpose and structure as this instructional design course has laid out. Being a very data driven person, learning about how to look at data before you start, pick the data that best represents the goal you are trying to reach, and then using that data as the backbone for what kind of curriculum you create was a very logical system.  The analysis report really allowed me to understand what was happening currently for my client, and what needed to be done by the end of this.  The design and development process were the ones that I was most famili...

Prompt - Reflect and share how the current situation related with COVID-19 outbreak has been impacting you and your classwork.  What are the challenges? Any positives? Any visions of how the situation may impact your project, classwork, and career? Covid-19 has changed the way I work,  how I interact with friends, and how I spend my leisure time.  My wife and I are both teachers, and this year our spring breaks fell on different weeks.  Mine was two weeks ago (the same as UNT's) and my wife's was this week, so I have been kind of social distancing for about 2 weeks.  This first week back has been all about setting up what online instruction is going to look like for my district.  We have had trainings on google hangouts/meet, google classroom (our LMS of choice) and I have been asked to write some virtual curriculum for a couple of classes I teach so we can have take some pressure off fellow teachers next week when kids come back.  It's bee inter...

Prompt 1: Reflect on the Method of Loci in your blog. What worked? What didn't? How could you use such a cognitive activity, mental or visible to users, to improve the acquisition of knowledge in your designs? Write a blog entry on this.  The first time I heard about the idea of a "mind" palace was watching the hit BBC TV show Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch.  Oftentimes in this show, when Sherlock wanted to remember a minute detail from an encounter, he would go to his "mind palace" and pull the memory from there.  At first I thought this was just a TV plot device that would explain his almost un-human like ability to remember even the smallest of details.  A cleaver trick by the show writers to make the main character more relatable to people who couldn't do what he did. It wasn't until starting this masters program that I thought I found out this was indeed a real method that anyone can use to help them remember certain things.  While the show...