Reflection Week 5

Photo Sharing and Instructional Design

Photo Sharing can be a wonderful assignment for our students and can be incorporated into educational activities or a unit. One activity/lesson which comes to mind involves students sharing their life story through the use of photo graphs. Another activity which I found fascinating was the development of a slide show. Personally, I found the creation of a slide show a great deal simpler using photo bucket as compared to Microsoft office. Along with this concept would be monitoring the quality and content of the photos (an area of concern). Guiding students on materials, photos, or graphics is essential. Many of my students have trouble focusing on the essential elements of a unit so guidance is especially relevant. Whenever we use computer technology in the classroom, consideration is given to content and the learning objectives.

The instructional design processes involved in the ADDIE model explains the five elements of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. These activities according to the authors are not linear but rather offer a cyclical process where it becomes necessary to move back and forth among each. What was intriguing were the characteristics of learner centered, goal oriented, and focus on performance, assumption that outcomes can be measured in a reliable way, the Instructional Design is reliable and valid, ID is empirical, iterative, and self-correcting, and ID is a team effort. When I read through the model, I was reminded of our school improvement process and the operational functions of the school improvement team (SIT). Some the key characteristic of the SIT team include:
o Analysis & Planning tools for collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, guidance for analyzing causes and establishing improvement priorities, and a model for action planning and matching needs to resources.
o Collaborative Implementation: Develop an online resource guide of research-based programs and strategies, serve as a liasions to programs and interventions to facilitate goal attainment, and provide technical assistance with implementation.
o Professional Learning: Coordinates programs to build KRESA/school capacity, broker services to facilitate training and development, and guide implementation of national professional development standards.
o Quality Assurance: Disaggregates and analyzes outcomes and policies, reports the impact on student achievement, provides guidelines for program evaluation, and recommends action.