What is my unique contribution to my team? What role(s) do I play or wish to play in this project? What are your individual goals and how have you planned to attain them (action plan)?
I think I have lots of inspiration and ideas that can be shared with my team. I had some experience of doing the similar projects before, but I was involved with the technological part, such as the design of database, webpage, etc. So I thought I could work as a technological guy in this project, however it seems that we do not need to do this :>) I also think I am a person who thinks ahead. Sometimes I prefer to think questions from the outcome rather than from the beginning. Therefore, I think I can offer some practical and applicable thoughts to my team.
What role(s) do I play or wish to play in this project? Honestly speaking, I found I still had some language barriers to communicate with native English speakers. There have been lots of times that I had some good thoughts, but I cannot find the exact and appropriate words to express myself. And I made my classmates and teachers feel difficult to catch my points. I hope things will be fine in future. So based on my weakness, only more work and consideration before class can help to contribute to my team. Maybe I will bring some flow charts or the finished templates to class. It would help my classmates and teacher understand me better. So I guess my role in the team is just like a silent Magian in a kingdom. I am not the knight who always arrests attention. But sometimes, when the knight is at his wits end, the magian works :>) and a silent magian always makes others feel mysterious, isn’t she?
My individual goals can be listed as follows:
1) By incorporating the real project with the theories in textbook, formulate my own understanding of instructional design, especially my own way of exploring.
2) Through team-working, get the skills to communicate with team members, and accept others’ opinions rather than insisting on mine. Feel the power of the team, and be able to cooperate well with every team member.
3) Get used to the American learning environment. There is indeed a big contrast from the learning environment in China.
4) Improve my spoken English.
Do I have adequate support, tools and guidance to work as an effective team member? A major type of support necessary to accomplish project tasks and goals is ongoing feedback provided by you to team members, and by team members to you. Consider how such feedback can best be managed within your team.
Feedback is always an effective support to a team work. I can find some missed information from the feedback my peer offered. Also some comments can help to modify my design better. So I would seriously offer feedback to my classmates, because we are a team. The outcome would be all the people’s effort instead of individual. If we want such feedback be better managed within the team, attentions should be drawn to it. Team members should treat the feedback seriously. And the feedbacks could not be as easy as “good job”. You need to tell what you learn from your peer’s work, such as listing some points you learned (3 or 4points). It is better than just saying a single “good job”.
Does our team have a shared vision of what is to be accomplished? If so, Explain from your own perspective what that shared vision is?
From my own perspective, we need to use what we learned about instructional design in textbook to accomplish two real projects (one is artsmart museum, and the other one is climate change). In this process, teamwork is essential because we need to find out a perfect way to design the project, to meet all the requirements our clients made. And different people have diverse opinions about the same project, so it would be a gorgeous moment when we reached the final agreement and completing the projects.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Blog #1 Reflection
What do I currently know about instructional design, working on teams, and working with community partners that will help me succeed in this course?
After reading Chap 1 of Instructional Design, I have got a clear clue about many concepts. The reason why I was not fully aware of these concepts was, in the past time, I was designed as a learner. Yet when I stepped out of myself and looked at myself from an instructional designer’s angle, things become distinct.
Instructional design is a systematic development of instructional specifications using learning theory to ensure the quality of instruction. It also has a close relation to planning. Instructional design is like a translator, translating instructional principles to plans for activities, goals, evaluation. When we begin a process of instructional design, we need to think about the goals of the instruction, the instructional strategy, the result of the task, how to evaluate the task and how to revise the materials to make it better. They can equally be expressed by three activities: analysis, strategy development and evaluation. They are the essence of most instructional design models.
There are several advantages of using instructional design. When a designer designs the instruction, he/she needs to stand in the learners’ shoes. So it could be easier for designer to receive sympathetic response from learners. Also the process of design focuses on effectiveness and efficiency, coordination among designers and developer, dissemination, development of alternative delivery and congruence, which could be a great help for learner. However we cannot turn a blind eye to its limitation. When learning goals cannot be indentified in advance or no particular goals are ever identified, instructional design is not applicable.
Working on team and working with community partners could be a great help for me to succeed in the course. Just as the saying goes, “Many heads are better than one”. Our society is a stratified one, so people from different walks may offer different opinions on the same task. Particularly in a team or in a community, people adopt various methods to achieve a same goal. Therefore, multi-understanding is critical in a team. I need to construct my ideas on an overall horizon, rather than insisting on my own originality. I think my experience has taught me how to be a team member. And I definitely believe the power of a team.
What will I need to learn as I work on the project?
I think working on the project could offer me a vivid example of instructional design. Totally participating in the project could help me understand the concepts of instructional design, the components of ID, how these components relate to each other. Also as to the specific project, I think I will learn to find out/represent the problems, generate and select the solutions, evaluate if the solution could work, and revise the solution.
What do I expect to get out of this course?
There are some objectives for me to achieve:
1) Know the basic concepts, theories and principles of ID.
2) Use what I learned to analyze the real case.
3) Be able to apply what I learn into a real instructional design in future.
4) Use the textbook as a guide book to help me see the forests despite trees :>)
After reading Chap 1 of Instructional Design, I have got a clear clue about many concepts. The reason why I was not fully aware of these concepts was, in the past time, I was designed as a learner. Yet when I stepped out of myself and looked at myself from an instructional designer’s angle, things become distinct.
Instructional design is a systematic development of instructional specifications using learning theory to ensure the quality of instruction. It also has a close relation to planning. Instructional design is like a translator, translating instructional principles to plans for activities, goals, evaluation. When we begin a process of instructional design, we need to think about the goals of the instruction, the instructional strategy, the result of the task, how to evaluate the task and how to revise the materials to make it better. They can equally be expressed by three activities: analysis, strategy development and evaluation. They are the essence of most instructional design models.
There are several advantages of using instructional design. When a designer designs the instruction, he/she needs to stand in the learners’ shoes. So it could be easier for designer to receive sympathetic response from learners. Also the process of design focuses on effectiveness and efficiency, coordination among designers and developer, dissemination, development of alternative delivery and congruence, which could be a great help for learner. However we cannot turn a blind eye to its limitation. When learning goals cannot be indentified in advance or no particular goals are ever identified, instructional design is not applicable.
Working on team and working with community partners could be a great help for me to succeed in the course. Just as the saying goes, “Many heads are better than one”. Our society is a stratified one, so people from different walks may offer different opinions on the same task. Particularly in a team or in a community, people adopt various methods to achieve a same goal. Therefore, multi-understanding is critical in a team. I need to construct my ideas on an overall horizon, rather than insisting on my own originality. I think my experience has taught me how to be a team member. And I definitely believe the power of a team.
What will I need to learn as I work on the project?
I think working on the project could offer me a vivid example of instructional design. Totally participating in the project could help me understand the concepts of instructional design, the components of ID, how these components relate to each other. Also as to the specific project, I think I will learn to find out/represent the problems, generate and select the solutions, evaluate if the solution could work, and revise the solution.
What do I expect to get out of this course?
There are some objectives for me to achieve:
1) Know the basic concepts, theories and principles of ID.
2) Use what I learned to analyze the real case.
3) Be able to apply what I learn into a real instructional design in future.
4) Use the textbook as a guide book to help me see the forests despite trees :>)
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