Standard 3: Learning Environments
Candidates facilitate learning by creating, using, evaluating, and managing effective learning environments (AECT,2012).
Performance Indicator: Creating - Candidates create instructional design products based on learning principles and research-based best practices.
Artifact: GDIT 715 (Learning Theories and Instructional Design) Final Project
Description: This artifact was created as part of my doctoral course work. It is an online learning module titles "Design the Life you Love" created using the Kemp Model of instructional Design.
Reflection: This artifact represents an instructional design product based on the Kemp Model, which takes an iterative approach to design with a goal of student-centered instruction. This method of instructional design lends to learning principles and best -practices that facilitate a learning environment where differentiated learning styles may be more supported than one created using backwards design. Kemp allows for designers to use the live classroom for their user testing of the course blueprint. In other words, the course is constantly evolving and changing base don the real time needs of the learners.
Performance Indicator: Using - Candidates make professionally sound decisions in selecting appropriate processes and resources to provide optimal conditions for learning based on principles, theories, and effective practices.
Artifact: Jira Screen Shot
Description: At a large American university, where I work as an Instructional Designer for E-Learning, we use the Agile Method of product design to create our courses. This is an iterative process that utilizes a computational thinking strategy to break the development process into smaller chunks or stories. The screen shot (artifact) shows the software, Jira, that we use to create, manage, and assign the stories to team members. We employ backward's design to create all courses. First we start with a course concept document, which is a a product skeleton. Next we create the final assessment, module topics and skills, and select the materials for the course. Finally, we develop the formative assessments for each module, ensuring that they all map back to the course competencies and support success on the final assessment. The Agile method requires that before any of these items can be finalized, reviews from two additional instructional designers, subject matter experts, the product owner, the chief product owner, an editor and a content architect are required. (Note: I was not permitted to show any artifacts of the our design work by this client.)
Reflection: This artifact is an example of the Agile product design method. I was selcted because it represents the process that we use to manage the design of our courses. This method has been shown to ensure higher quality products, a more stable development process, and a better user experience for the learners.
Performance Indicator: Assessing/Evaluating - Candidates use multiple assessment strategies to collect data for informing decisions to improve instructional practice, learner outcomes, and the learning environment.
Artifact: ED Puzzle video with integrated formative assessments
Description: (no longer available) This artifact was created for the course Foundations of Instructional Technology in the summer of 2017. The original video, found on youtube, was modified to include questions to help the learner assess their understanding of the video content. Feedback was immediately provided on their responses and they may have been been cued to review a specific part of the video if an answer was incorrect.
Reflection:
Unfortunately, the video is no longer able to be accessed as ED Puzzle seems to have made changes to their site, eliminating the free version and making it strictly an LMS integration application. This tool allows you to take any video file and embed formative assessments throughout as an alternative method for collecting data from students to improve instructional practice. This transforms the experience of watching videos, assigned by instructors, from a passive experience to an active one, facilitating deeper cognitive processing of the content.
Performance Indicator: Managing - Candidates establish mechanisms for maintaining the technology infrastructure to improve learning and performance.
Artifact: (Academic paper) Technology Integration for TESOL Instructors: Combining TPACK and SAMR to Support Comprehensible Input.
Description: This paper was created for the course Developing a Learning Environment Using Instructional Technology. It highlights the need for teachers of English Learners (ELs) to establish a method of check and balances for the use of technology in their courses.
Reflection:The use of multimedia and technological tools to facilitate and support language acquisition may both help and hinder the process. Through the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) framework, and the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) approach, we can help learners achieve their language and content goals while ensuring we are not overloading their cognitive processing. It is important to first develop one's TPACK and then apply the SAMR model to ensure the technology we select will support our intended outcomes.
Performance Indicator: Ethics - Candidates foster a learning environment in which ethics guide practice that promotes health, safety, best practice, and respect for copyright, Fair Use, and appropriate open access to resources.
Artifact: Online module created with a Creative Commons License
Description: This online module was created as a professional development tool for pre-service and practicing teachers. It was created with a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike License. This license permits users to share the work with others, and make adaptations to it, as long as they cite the original author (me). This online module was used to present on the topic at the E-Learn conference in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2017 and members of the audience were informed of their rights, under this licence, to share and adapt the work.
Reflection: This artifact represents Ethics in Learning Environments for several reasons. First is demonstrates my commitment to Fair Use and appropriate open access to resources through the use of a creative commons license. Second, the choice of using a free tool to create the learning modules serves to model and demonstrate -for learners- appropriate open access to resources.
Performance Indicator: Diversity of Learners - Candidates foster a learning community that empowers learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities.
Artifact: Prezi Slide Deck: "Pedagogy of Discomfort: New Learning for the Digital Age"
Description: This artifact represents a presentation that was given during the course Ethics and Social Justice in the Digital Age. It is grounded in the overarching theory of 'A Pedagogy of Discomfort' which is commonly referred to in social justice literature (Boylan, Woolsey, 2014) .
Reflection: The presentation discusses how a concept or paradigm shift in a teacher's values and beliefs about instructional technology is required despite the discomfort it may cause them. If we are to foster a learning community that empowers learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics and abilities, then we must challenge ourselves to evaluate our identities in these new learning spaces.
Reference:
Boylan, M., & Woolsey, I. (2015). Teacher education for social justice: Mapping identity spaces.Teaching and Teacher Education,46, 62–71. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2014.10.007