Chapter 6 Writing Performance Objectives
One of the obvious parts of instructional design is writing performance objectives also known as behavioral objectives. At the beginning of the chapter the authors talk about studies being done to see if using objectives has any effect on learning outcomes, I find that very interesting. For me, when I was teaching, I needed objectives or I had no direction of where the lesson should end up. However, that being said there were many times where the objective was never written down, but was merely in my head, either way they found no evidence for or against. I think, as an ID using objectives will help me be directed and also answer to the powers that be when they say what are you doing? The authors agree that it is essential to the designer to have an objective in order to guide the design process.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right, an instructional goal is what the learner will accomplish in the world at large when the objective is mastered. The terminal objective is made up of subordinate objectives; all of this refers to what the learner will do in the learning context. Dr. Zheng, if that’s not right, please clarify, the author promises although there is a lot of jargon, that once I’ve had enough experience I will understand what this all means. Because objectives come right from the analysis they must mirror the behaviors that have already been identified in the instructional analysis.
Parts of the Objective
3 Parts of Mager’s Standards on Developing Objectives:
1. Describe what the learner will be able to do (the action and content/concept)
2. What will the learners use when they perform a skill (ruler, computer, calculator)
3. How will the learner be evaluated
How does the goal and terminal objective differ? The goal is what the learner will be able to do in the world, when they have this skill they will be able to transfer it from learning environment to work, home, etc. The terminal objective is the conditions for performing the goal at the end of instruction. (Dick, Carey, Carey; 2009).
The bottom line is it is important for the ID to keep in mind that the performance objectives should be able to be used to evaluate/test the learners at the end of training/learning. If they are able to demonstrate the skills/knowledge then the objectives were appropriate and the training /teaching was successful.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right, an instructional goal is what the learner will accomplish in the world at large when the objective is mastered. The terminal objective is made up of subordinate objectives; all of this refers to what the learner will do in the learning context. Dr. Zheng, if that’s not right, please clarify, the author promises although there is a lot of jargon, that once I’ve had enough experience I will understand what this all means. Because objectives come right from the analysis they must mirror the behaviors that have already been identified in the instructional analysis.
Parts of the Objective
3 Parts of Mager’s Standards on Developing Objectives:
1. Describe what the learner will be able to do (the action and content/concept)
2. What will the learners use when they perform a skill (ruler, computer, calculator)
3. How will the learner be evaluated
How does the goal and terminal objective differ? The goal is what the learner will be able to do in the world, when they have this skill they will be able to transfer it from learning environment to work, home, etc. The terminal objective is the conditions for performing the goal at the end of instruction. (Dick, Carey, Carey; 2009).
The bottom line is it is important for the ID to keep in mind that the performance objectives should be able to be used to evaluate/test the learners at the end of training/learning. If they are able to demonstrate the skills/knowledge then the objectives were appropriate and the training /teaching was successful.
http://www.pinterest.com/cgarrety/instructional-design/
History of Instructional Design-Robert A. Riser
A History of Instructional Design and Technology
Robert A. Reiser
This history has come at an interesting time for me. I was thinking last night about how we are teaching our children and how most undergraduate college classes are being taught. This article validates what I have been thinking, we are still teaching the same way we taught in the last century and materials (computers, visual aids, hands on experiences, etc.) are simply supplemental to the textbook and teacher. I was thinking that kids these days are not going to tolerate a teacher standing in front of the class and lecturing to them, they simply will find an alternative to a traditional college environment. An article I read in the Washington Post today stated, “My generation, it seems, had the last of the truly low-tech childhoods, and now we are among the first of the truly high-tech parents.”http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/09/29/parenting-as-a-gen-xer-what-its-like-to-be-the-first-generation-of-parents-in-the-age-of-ieverything/ "
I have 2 kids at Rowland Hall where they make every effort to use technology to teach all the children kindergarten thru 12th grade. My 7th grader does everything on his school ipad, they do a lot of research, multimedia, power points and discussions. My little girl has 12 field study trips planned with her school, they learn about a subject and then go visit, the state capital, Little Cottonwood Canyon, the Great Salt Lake, etc. These field studies have a lasting impact on my children. When they reach 8th grade they travel to Washington D.C. while learning about government. I am not naive, I understand the kind of money it takes to make the activities I am talking about come to fruition, however; there must be a better way to engage our public school learners, even in the lowest income neighborhoods, in this age of technology.
If only Thomas Edison could see what there is to watch on YouTube or Tedx today. Cuban (1986) claimed that the reason visual instruction didn’t take off was due to money, resistance of teachers and difficulty in using equipment and irrelevant films, clearly they didn’t use an instructional design model when making them.
Next came the audiovisual instruction movement, The Association for Educational Communications and Technology was created in 1923 and still plays a large role in instructional design and technology. Again, this medium did not take hold, the radio wasn’t the next best thing in education. I have a son who has difficulty reading, I have an account on audible.com, I pay a monthly fee and am able to download audio books, in this way my son is able to keep up with the readings in his English class. My other children just like to listen to the stories. Do audiobooks help kids with reading is the question? “It might be appropriate to list the benefits of audiobooks for all students.” Audiobooks can be used to:
• Introduce students to books above their reading level
• Model good interpretive reading
• Teach critical listening
• Highlight the humor in books
• Introduce new genres that students might not otherwise consider
• Introduce new vocabulary or difficult proper names or locales
• Sidestep unfamiliar dialects or accents, Old English, and old-fashioned literary styles
• Provide a read-aloud model
• Provide a bridge to important topics of discussion for parents and children who can listen together while commuting to sporting events, music lessons, or on vacations
• Recapture "the essence and the delights of hearing stories beautifully told by extraordinarily talented storytellers" (Baskin & Harris, 1995, p. 376) http://www.readingrockets.org/article/benefits-audiobooks-all-readers
Again the authors point out poor equipment and teacher resistance as a few of the reasons the radio never took off.
For a few years, World War II, the audiovisual instruction movement really seemed to take hold. The military used training films as well as audio to teach language to military personnel. It is not a coincidence that the military was able to make audiovisual instruction work, first of all the military works on command, someone tells you what to do and you do it, therefore the instructors are not able to say no. Furthermore the military has a lot of money and let’s face it audiovisual instruction takes money, equipment and training needs to be up to date.
In the 50’s instructional television began to take hold, this started with the Federal Communications Commission setting aside 242 TV channels strictly for education. Again the movement didn’t take hold and for the same reasons as the past, money, equipment and teacher resistance. When they mention teacher resistance there are a number of reasons for this resistance. They may not have been properly trained; the audio and films quickly became outdated, to name a few causes. I was surprised this chapter didn’t mention Sesame Street. Sesame Street had a big impact on several generations. “Cooney's goal was to create programming for preschoolers that was both entertaining and educational. She also wanted to use TV as a way to help underprivileged 3- to 5- year-olds prepare for kindergarten.” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sesame-street-debuts Even today you can find children all over the world tuning into Sesame Street and they have managed to keep the show up to date and even introduced a character on their African show with HIV during 2002. It would be interesting to have more time to discover if their teaching took hold and made a difference in the lives of underprivileged kids.
The next big thing was the computer, computer assisted instruction (CAI) was created in the 1950’s for the public schools, by the end of the 1970’s CAI was being used very little. Next the personal computer came on the scene, again the computer was being used in the schools for instructional purposes. I got my first Apple computer in 1987 when I was a sophomore in college, basically it was a glorified typewriter, it was not connected to the Internet. By 1995 the computer had little to no impact on the average classroom. With the advancement of technology and the speed and access to the web, the past 10 years has seen advancement in the use of technology for education. More people of all ages are using online schooling and the use of computer based training is far more prevalent. In the past teachers used the computer for drill and practice, they now report using the computer to do research, create multimedia projects and for visual displays, to name only a few.
There are several reasons the use of technology is on the rise not only in higher education, but also in business and the military. The most common reason of course is money. With the Internet learners all over the nation can be taught, this includes trainings in the military and private sector and distance education in the academic world and all for a fraction of the cost that it would be otherwise. The other aspect is the abundance of devices available to people, from hand helds to tablets to personal computers and free Internet access at various businesses and libraries. In conclusion the author makes the point that while the use of computers is on the rise, so far none of the other medias introduced ever took hold. What is the future of education and technology, will it continue to be embraced and grow or will in fizzle out like all of the rest?
History of Instructional Design
The military continues to rear it’s head in technology and technology based learning, For two decades, “from the early 1940s until the early 1960s, the armed forces of the United States were the single most important driver of digital computer development.” http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/cw.ch2.pdf As stated earlier in the chapter the military played a large role in audiovisual instruction and again during WWII several educators and psychologists, including Robert Gagne, were called upon to create training for the military and that is where instructional design was born. It is no coincidence that the military lead the way with computers and training, the bottom line in MONEY and the military has a lot; the schools can’t keep going what they learn from the military because of lack of MONEY, but surely I digress. When the war ended many of these psychologists continued to study instructional problems and create ways to solve them.
B. F. Skinner played a role, using his theory he recommended instruction be presented in small steps with immediate feedback, thus constantly monitoring the learner and giving feedback. These psychologists would create objectives fir instruction and this lead to the belief that educators should be taught to write objectives for their teaching, although teachers were using objectives long before then it came back around at this point and was re-popularized. The 60’s brought with it the creation of process or model in which one could follow to create training from onset to evaluation. The 70’s brought with it more models, more interest and standards in the field. Instructional design stayed strong in business and the military in the 80’s, however, it slowed in the public schools. At this time the due to the personal computer new models of design were being established. The 90’s brought with it the emphasis on on-the-job performance, the constructivist view of learning, meaning the designing of tasks that reflect the real world, and of course an interest in computers for instruction and to help with performance. Here in the 21st century much instructional design is being driven by e-learning and informal instruction in the workplace.
As outlined in this chapter the military, schools and workplace have played vital roles in the research and development in the instructional design process. Psychologists have broached the subject of learning and the brain and have created models to create training and learning. I have to wonder what would have happened to instructional design without the computer and it’s advances.
Robert A. Reiser
This history has come at an interesting time for me. I was thinking last night about how we are teaching our children and how most undergraduate college classes are being taught. This article validates what I have been thinking, we are still teaching the same way we taught in the last century and materials (computers, visual aids, hands on experiences, etc.) are simply supplemental to the textbook and teacher. I was thinking that kids these days are not going to tolerate a teacher standing in front of the class and lecturing to them, they simply will find an alternative to a traditional college environment. An article I read in the Washington Post today stated, “My generation, it seems, had the last of the truly low-tech childhoods, and now we are among the first of the truly high-tech parents.”http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/09/29/parenting-as-a-gen-xer-what-its-like-to-be-the-first-generation-of-parents-in-the-age-of-ieverything/ "
I have 2 kids at Rowland Hall where they make every effort to use technology to teach all the children kindergarten thru 12th grade. My 7th grader does everything on his school ipad, they do a lot of research, multimedia, power points and discussions. My little girl has 12 field study trips planned with her school, they learn about a subject and then go visit, the state capital, Little Cottonwood Canyon, the Great Salt Lake, etc. These field studies have a lasting impact on my children. When they reach 8th grade they travel to Washington D.C. while learning about government. I am not naive, I understand the kind of money it takes to make the activities I am talking about come to fruition, however; there must be a better way to engage our public school learners, even in the lowest income neighborhoods, in this age of technology.
If only Thomas Edison could see what there is to watch on YouTube or Tedx today. Cuban (1986) claimed that the reason visual instruction didn’t take off was due to money, resistance of teachers and difficulty in using equipment and irrelevant films, clearly they didn’t use an instructional design model when making them.
Next came the audiovisual instruction movement, The Association for Educational Communications and Technology was created in 1923 and still plays a large role in instructional design and technology. Again, this medium did not take hold, the radio wasn’t the next best thing in education. I have a son who has difficulty reading, I have an account on audible.com, I pay a monthly fee and am able to download audio books, in this way my son is able to keep up with the readings in his English class. My other children just like to listen to the stories. Do audiobooks help kids with reading is the question? “It might be appropriate to list the benefits of audiobooks for all students.” Audiobooks can be used to:
• Introduce students to books above their reading level
• Model good interpretive reading
• Teach critical listening
• Highlight the humor in books
• Introduce new genres that students might not otherwise consider
• Introduce new vocabulary or difficult proper names or locales
• Sidestep unfamiliar dialects or accents, Old English, and old-fashioned literary styles
• Provide a read-aloud model
• Provide a bridge to important topics of discussion for parents and children who can listen together while commuting to sporting events, music lessons, or on vacations
• Recapture "the essence and the delights of hearing stories beautifully told by extraordinarily talented storytellers" (Baskin & Harris, 1995, p. 376) http://www.readingrockets.org/article/benefits-audiobooks-all-readers
Again the authors point out poor equipment and teacher resistance as a few of the reasons the radio never took off.
For a few years, World War II, the audiovisual instruction movement really seemed to take hold. The military used training films as well as audio to teach language to military personnel. It is not a coincidence that the military was able to make audiovisual instruction work, first of all the military works on command, someone tells you what to do and you do it, therefore the instructors are not able to say no. Furthermore the military has a lot of money and let’s face it audiovisual instruction takes money, equipment and training needs to be up to date.
In the 50’s instructional television began to take hold, this started with the Federal Communications Commission setting aside 242 TV channels strictly for education. Again the movement didn’t take hold and for the same reasons as the past, money, equipment and teacher resistance. When they mention teacher resistance there are a number of reasons for this resistance. They may not have been properly trained; the audio and films quickly became outdated, to name a few causes. I was surprised this chapter didn’t mention Sesame Street. Sesame Street had a big impact on several generations. “Cooney's goal was to create programming for preschoolers that was both entertaining and educational. She also wanted to use TV as a way to help underprivileged 3- to 5- year-olds prepare for kindergarten.” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sesame-street-debuts Even today you can find children all over the world tuning into Sesame Street and they have managed to keep the show up to date and even introduced a character on their African show with HIV during 2002. It would be interesting to have more time to discover if their teaching took hold and made a difference in the lives of underprivileged kids.
The next big thing was the computer, computer assisted instruction (CAI) was created in the 1950’s for the public schools, by the end of the 1970’s CAI was being used very little. Next the personal computer came on the scene, again the computer was being used in the schools for instructional purposes. I got my first Apple computer in 1987 when I was a sophomore in college, basically it was a glorified typewriter, it was not connected to the Internet. By 1995 the computer had little to no impact on the average classroom. With the advancement of technology and the speed and access to the web, the past 10 years has seen advancement in the use of technology for education. More people of all ages are using online schooling and the use of computer based training is far more prevalent. In the past teachers used the computer for drill and practice, they now report using the computer to do research, create multimedia projects and for visual displays, to name only a few.
There are several reasons the use of technology is on the rise not only in higher education, but also in business and the military. The most common reason of course is money. With the Internet learners all over the nation can be taught, this includes trainings in the military and private sector and distance education in the academic world and all for a fraction of the cost that it would be otherwise. The other aspect is the abundance of devices available to people, from hand helds to tablets to personal computers and free Internet access at various businesses and libraries. In conclusion the author makes the point that while the use of computers is on the rise, so far none of the other medias introduced ever took hold. What is the future of education and technology, will it continue to be embraced and grow or will in fizzle out like all of the rest?
History of Instructional Design
The military continues to rear it’s head in technology and technology based learning, For two decades, “from the early 1940s until the early 1960s, the armed forces of the United States were the single most important driver of digital computer development.” http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/cw.ch2.pdf As stated earlier in the chapter the military played a large role in audiovisual instruction and again during WWII several educators and psychologists, including Robert Gagne, were called upon to create training for the military and that is where instructional design was born. It is no coincidence that the military lead the way with computers and training, the bottom line in MONEY and the military has a lot; the schools can’t keep going what they learn from the military because of lack of MONEY, but surely I digress. When the war ended many of these psychologists continued to study instructional problems and create ways to solve them.
B. F. Skinner played a role, using his theory he recommended instruction be presented in small steps with immediate feedback, thus constantly monitoring the learner and giving feedback. These psychologists would create objectives fir instruction and this lead to the belief that educators should be taught to write objectives for their teaching, although teachers were using objectives long before then it came back around at this point and was re-popularized. The 60’s brought with it the creation of process or model in which one could follow to create training from onset to evaluation. The 70’s brought with it more models, more interest and standards in the field. Instructional design stayed strong in business and the military in the 80’s, however, it slowed in the public schools. At this time the due to the personal computer new models of design were being established. The 90’s brought with it the emphasis on on-the-job performance, the constructivist view of learning, meaning the designing of tasks that reflect the real world, and of course an interest in computers for instruction and to help with performance. Here in the 21st century much instructional design is being driven by e-learning and informal instruction in the workplace.
As outlined in this chapter the military, schools and workplace have played vital roles in the research and development in the instructional design process. Psychologists have broached the subject of learning and the brain and have created models to create training and learning. I have to wonder what would have happened to instructional design without the computer and it’s advances.