Section 1: Defining the IDT Field

1. How do the definitions in the first chapter compare to your own definition of instructional or educational technology?  What experiences or other influences have shaped your definition? How has your definition changed from examining the definitions in the first chapter of this book?

When I was reading the different definitions presented in the first chapter throughout the years, I had difficulty with their use of the phrase "instructional technology" and "educational technology".  To me, educational technology has always been the tools that a teacher uses during instructional design and implementation.  My view on technology is more in line with the definition created by the textbook authors in that the focus is on the process of design and implementation by using technology as a resource.  I view technology more as instructional media than an entire design process.  I still have problems with the label "instruction design and technology".  I consider technology similar to textbooks, lab manuals, manipulatives, overheads, and chalkboards; they are tools that I use as a teacher when I am design lessons and units that I feel will most effectively allow my students to learn what they need to learn to satisfy whatever entity need satisfying.  If anything, the chapter has more firmly cemented my opinion on how technology should be labeled and utilized. 

2. Next, think of a lesson or unit of instruction that you have developed. Or if you haven’t ever taught or developed instruction, think of one that you have received. How does that lesson adhere or fail to adhere to the six characteristics of instructional design? How would you redesign it to better adhere to the six characteristics in the chapter. 

I am a science teacher, so I use laboratory activities as a tool to teach my students in a way that allows them to directly interact with and manipulate variables within a particular concept.  Today, we had a lab in my AP Environmental Science class in which the students were manipulating blocks of wood in different ways.  They had thin pieces and thick pieces of wood that were supposed to represent the different types of tectonics plates that rest on a layer of shaving cream "magma".  The goal was to understand and predict the movement of tectonic plates (Goal oriented).  The activity was design so the students had to explore the results of different scenarios, explain what was happening to the wood pieces, and related that to how tectonic plates moved.  The lab could have been completed without me present; some of the content that my students were dealing with we had not explicitly discussed in class and one of my classroom procedures is that students look up answers to "basic" questions on their own and then come to me when they have trouble stitching the elements together to make the "big picture" (learner centered).  I think that the activity meets most of the other characteristics; the outcome of the lab can be measured reliably and validly through the conclusion questions that require them to focus on the actual processes and it is self-correcting in that they fill in the gaps of their knowledge as the go.  Focus on a meaningful performance is hard because I can't get my students out there to directly manipulate tectonic plates (I've been told my budget is not big enough for field trips...) and it wasn't a team effort per se because I modified an activity that I acquired through a teacher group I am affiliated with.  

3. In the 3^rd chapter, Reiser distinguishes instructional media from instructional design, excluding teachers, chalkboards, and textbooks from the definition of instructional media. Why? Would you consider teachers, chalkboards, and textbooks as instructional media or not? Most importantly, is the purpose of instructional design to incorporate media into instruction?

Technically speaking, teachers, chalkboards, and textbooks are physical means of instructional delivery but they have been separated because they have become such an integral part of teaching.  Teachers are the experts that convey information and faciliate learning, using boards as a method of conveyance and textbooks as an informational support.  They are as ubiquitous as the walls and ceiling of a traditional school building.  

I think the one of the purposes of instructional design is to incorporate media into instruction.  I wouldn't say it is the purpose, though.  The overall purpose is to create learning opportunities with specific goals in mind and part of that process should include evaluating the best tools to use to achieve that goal.  It should not, however, be in incorporate instructional media for the sake of the media alone.