In reading chapter 27 of Trends and Issues In Instructional Design and Technologyy by Reisner and Dempsey I was intrigued by the history of the formation of a career field. It has been said that the jobs we and our children are training for have not yet even been invented and some maybe not even thought of yet. That thought is the basis of my intrigue.
In viewing the ID, training manager, and instructor competencies listed on page 275, Table 27.3, I was able to identify my areas of competencies and my areas of needed growth and improvement. I found this list to be very helpful. My professional plan include the continuation of Summer Aviation Camp, and possibly other small business ventures. I first identified my greatest strength as falling under the Instructional Designer Planning & Analysis section. I am good at seeing the big picture or the overall plan. The six steps helped me to identify, well just that, steps to planning and analysis. I then compared my planning and analysis process with the steps in the text and found that I had been fairly thorough in this area. It was great to have some confirmation that the planning path I had chosen did not seem to have any huge gaps. I likewise felt that under Instructional Designer the process of Design & Development was an area where I had excelled. The competencies listed do not go into great detail as to what is should entail but having them listed is a great jumping off place.
Before settling on my strength lying under the area of Instructional Designer I studied the competencies listed under Instructor and Training Manager. I stopped at Professional Foundations under Training Manager and a few of the competencies listed there were definitely areas that I need to improve on. The one that really jumped out the most for me was number 4 under this column. Number 4 states: Update and improve professional and business knowledge, skills and attitudes. I am a science/biology/techno geek major and the finer points of the business end of business are not always my strong point. If my goals are to proceed toward small business ventures I need to increase my knowledge in the overall business specifics.
Number 2 was the next area of needed development. It states Comply with established ethical and legal standard knowledge and skills. I have no problem with establishing and complying with the ethical portion it is the legal standard knowledge and skills that is the issue. Could we put an emphasis on the SKILLS. Legalese is not my strong point and I will have to initially, I guess find someone to trust to guide me in the beginning steps. I may be selling myself a bit short in this area but I know enough to know that what I don't know can hurt me.
The last (well in improvement there should never be a last) competency that jumped out at me was under Instructional Designer, Professional Foundations, Number 2 and number 4. I know that is not the last one but rather the last two but they go hand in hand. Number 2 states: Apply current research and theory to practice and Number 4 states: Apply basic research skill to design projects. By increasing my knowledge base in applying current research to the projects I design I will better be able to share my visions with other professionals. It would move presentations out of the field of lay person to documented research professional. One giant step for man(or woman in this case) and one giant leap for my professional career goals.
Oshkosh Airventure camping
We all have the same amount of hours in a day. It's what we do with them that sets us apart.
5 comments:
The way I stay up-to-date on info that is pertinant to my areas of interest are the web & publishing companies. I find a lot of information just by doing simple searches on topics & reading other people's blogs & websites. As far as publishing companies go, if you have any books you like, see if they have a common publisher. That's how I found out I really like Stenhouse Publishers education books. Most publishing sites have sales on books every once in a while. I just stock up on new titles that help me stay informed.
These classes are only the start of our knowledge base and we have lots to learn. I think we are strong in some of the competencies because we are teaching and we have been taught how to plan curriculum. I found that looking over all the competencies a little overwhelming. I found myself just looking over them and seeing it as a place to get to.
Your opening comments made me think a bit. I hadn't put my finger on it quite as ably as you, but I think I was having similar thoughts about how interesting the start of a new career is, and how instructional design has been around for awhile, but only recently seems to be gaining rapidly in popularity. I appreciated your perspective about how our kids will be doing jobs that we don't even know about yet... kind of exciting to think about.
I think you have a great handle on incorporating technology in your teaching. The experiences you have created at Aviation Camp go a long way in showing us all how much we have yet to learn. Those students are very lucky to have you and I am truly impressed in all that you do with technology.
Margie
Applying current research and theory to practice is definitely an area where all of us can improve. I am enjoying chapter 30 in our book because it provides a nice summary of research on proper use of rich media that I think is very applicable. And like you, I also felt that the area of instructional designer best fit me.
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