Comprehensive Reflection
What's love got to do with it?
Scenes from an EDTEC Life | ADDIE Model | Gagne's Nine Events
ARCS and Flow Theories | Quiverist | The Sequel | References
Prologue
In 1999 I started teaching part time at MiraCosta College. At
that time I had a “day job” as a Creative Director and Webmaster
for a small in house ad agency. Soon I was interested in teaching computer
graphics and Web design full-time at a local community college.
In order to teach full-time at the college level I felt I would need
a Master’s Degree.
A couple years later I started to seriously pursue this. At that time I was teaching three to four courses at two different colleges. I asked my lead instructors at both colleges as well as two Deans what Master’s program they would recommend? They unanimously recommended EDTEC program at SDSU.
Funny thing, neither of my lead instructors had a Master’s Degree and both said they had no plans to pursue one. I thought, “Gee, if they don’t have a masters getting one would give me a leg up.” Then I thought, “What is Educational Technology, anyway? Maybe we learn how to use computers to teach? Cool!”
I started the Educational Technology program at SDSU in the summer of 2003.
Scenes From an EDTEC Life
May, 2004. I just learned I was laid off the job I held for the past twenty-one years. It is a blow that was not totally unexpected, but it still left me numb. I am scared to death I won’t be able to support my family. I fear we will lose our home and I will have to declare bankruptcy. I am desperately applying for any job I can, but none are panning out. When I go to class I feel like a walking zombie. EDTEC theory is meaningless when I can’t pay the mortgage, much less my tuition. However, some things do manage to sink in. The ADDIE Model lodges in a recess of my mind, along with Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction.
Flash forward to July, 2006. I’m sitting in my cubicle inside the Bank of America offices in Downtown Boston skyscraper creating online training. Three of my co-workers are standing nearby, all instruction design professionals. They are having a discussion about how to organize a future project and are talking about the ADDIE model. They then start referring to Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction and how to make sure the training includes them all. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. These concepts are simply a normal part of their regular conversations. I’m thinking, “I guess people do use the ADDIE model and Gagne’s Nine Events in the real world after all.”
Back to October, 2003. I’m enjoying making an educational video in Bob Hoffman’s 561 class in Advanced Web Based Multimedia. I marvel at how well conceived the class is, especially the video-making manual. It is the first time I ever use iMovie. Digital video is so much easier than the analog video I learned as a Visual Arts Major at UCSD. What a great learning tool! He also uses an interesting model to organize the class: ICARE – Introduction, Connect, Reflect, and Extend.
Flash forward to late August, 2004. I have been out of work for nearly three months now. I don’t know where the money for the next house payment is coming from. I’ve been trying to get a job all summer long. I’m literally at the end of my financial rope. I’ve even applied to be a high school ROP computer applications teacher. I interviewed for two jobs with the San Diego School district. I’m waiting by the phone for a response. It’s nearly my last hope. Teachers are scheduled to report to work tomorrow. If I am not hired today, I'll have to wait until next year. The phone rings. The jobs have been given to someone else. I’m totally crushed. I feel completely useless. I can’t even get hired at high school. I don’t know what I’m going to tell my wife. Two hours later, I get another call. They have an emergency opening. They need someone to teach Video Production at a new small school, the Multimedia and Visual Arts School. I jump at the chance. Taking Bob Hoffman’s class along with my past video training gave me the confidence I could do this. In two hours I’ve gone from the depths of despair to total ecstasy.
Jump to February, 2006. I’ve just been “hired” by San Diego County’s Human Resources Department through my ED 795A class with Allison Rossett and I’m meeting with the HR staff members at their Little Italy office to discuss the project. They want me to develop their first interactive online course. The topic will be Resume Writing. To organize the course they would like me to use the ICARE System, the same one I learned in EDTEC 561. I’m also starting to see there are more places I could work in education than just the school system. I might enjoy working in an office like this, too.
Flash back to winter 2005. I’ve just finished Bernie Dodge’s 670 class in Exploratory Learning Through Simulation and Games. I am learning about Keller’s ARCS Model for Motivation, and Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory — both fascinating concepts. I am also discovering the joy of creating games that teach. I want to help my multimedia students develop a learning game like we did in class. They love gaming so much. I know this would be a very engaging activity for them. In the process they would learn both the subject matter used in the game and some computer programming basics.
Fast forward to May 2006. I’m experiencing one of my finest moments yet in education. I’m standing on the stage a the Spreckles Theater next to one of my students who’s receiving an IVIE (Instructional Video in Education) award at a ceremony similar to the academy awards sponsored by the San Diego County Office of Education. Tonight my students won three awards, including first place in the Interactive Media category for an English language learning game. It’s the first time anyone from our school has ever won an IVIE, much less three students. The kids from our school, the Multimedia and Visual Arts School at the Crawford Complex, are primarily the children of immigrants from all over the world. In addition, the majority are in the school lunch program and many come from broken homes or have gang affiliations. The students who is standing next to me leans over and whispers, “Mr. Dean, this is the first time I’ve won an award in my whole life.” He’s beaming. His friends and family are yelling out his name. I’m fighting back tears while I pat him on the back.
Back to April, 2006. I have to make a presentation in Allison Rossett’s class based on a reading in the ID Case Book by Ertmer and Quinn. It’s a case study about how someone who is a traditional Behaviorist Instructional Designer is hired to help develop a course created by a woman who loves the Constructivist approach. During our class discussion we decide at certain times there’s merit to both approaches, especially when it comes to online learning. Allison points out all theories are simply arrows in your quiver that you can use when the need arises. It is then I realize how much I dislike strict adherence to one school of thought to the exclusion of the other. I realize, I am a “Quiverist.”
How Do I Love Thee, EDTEC Concepts? Let Me Count The Ways.
Why ICARE about ADDIE
My initial exposure to the ADDIE model was in the EDTEC 541 Web-Based Multimedia Development class. The instructor said the password was what we learned in 540, all the students said, “Oh, yes, ADDIE.” At the time I hadn’t taken 540, Introduction to Educational Technology, yet because the course wasn’t available when I started the program in the Summer, 2003. When I was finally took the Intro class in Spring 2004 I recall thinking, “Oh no. This program is too theoretical for me. No one uses this stuff in the real world.” How wrong I was.
I was lucky I took ET 541 and 561 before 540 because I found I enjoyed doing the work of an Instructional Designer. The heavy emphasis on theory in 540 was initially a turn-off. If I had taken that class first perhaps I wouldn’t have persevered to the end. It wasn’t until this year, when I took 795A and had to develop a course for a real client, followed by my internship at the Bank of America last summer, that I truly began to appreciate why models like ADDIE and ICARE have value.
These kinds of instructional design models give you a framework to build your courses upon. By using them you automatically follow a process that gives you an excellent chance for success. The mantras of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation, or Introduction, Connect, Reflect and Extend help you not do things half-way.
Both models can be boiled down to three major activities: analysis, strategy development, and evaluation. Analysis and especially evaluation are usually fudged due to time and budget constraints (or laziness). However, because we analyzed and evaluated at San Diego County and the Bank of America our end results were much better. I’ll never forget these lessons as I enter the world of professional instruction design.
The Case Against ADDIE
Even though ADDIE has been the rock that instructional design sat upon for decades, the speed of the digital world is forcing a rethink. Concepts like Rapid Prototyping or "Ready, Fire, Aim" are now popular. The main complaints are few companies have time to use this deliberate approach since their competitors are on their heels. Others say the approach is too top down. It doesn't include the learner in the process until after the instruction is implemented.
For instance, even though the Bank of America IDs tried to apply ADDIE, it was mostly a modified version. The Analysis component was done as quickly as possible, or not at all in some cases. They are very consciencious about evaluation, however, but not until after implementation.
Gagne’s Nine Events
Similar to ADDIE and ICARE, Gagne’s Nine Events provides an instructional model to to effectively organize almost any lesson plan. When we were creating online training over the summer at the Bank of America all courses incorporated these nine events to some extent:
1. Gain Attention
2. Inform Learner of Objective
3. Recall Prior Knowledge
4. Present Material
5. Provide Guided Learning
6. Elicit Performance
7. Provide Feedback
8. Assess Performance
9. Enhance Retention and Transfer
We would always start with an attention getter. In one case it was a series of headlines about executives going to jail or being hit with huge fines because of accounting scandals. Next, each segment began with the objectives for that lesson followed by examples that they may have already encountered in their work (recall prior knowledge). For instance, we would remind them of things they may have gone through when servicing a client’s account.
Then the material would provide guided learning presented step by step. One tool that was used to do this is Captivate. It’s very useful when demonstrating how to use a software interface. Interacive Captivate movies help elicit performance and then provide feedback since you can make interactive lessons that respond when the user clicks in both the right or wrong place. It can even be used to assess performance since tests can be created that share results using the SCORM standard.
Our training, which was created using the Lectora Learning Management System combined with Captivate, always finished with a quiz the associates needed to pass in order to be certified and a recap of what they had just learned. Lastly, there was a human follow-up by their supervisors who would ask the employees what they got out of the training. The combination of tests and human follow-up was designed to enhance retention and transfer. The use of this formula is a constant in their training, at least in the Boston group I worked with.
One thing that deeply impressed me was how the instructional designers at the Bank of America included as a matter of course several levels of assessment of the training itself. They started with online surveys and then phone calls from managers asking impressions of the training. Then the instructional designers would discuss the feedback and make any needed changes to the training. Seeing our classroom theory put into action this way brought it alive for me.
John Keller’s ARCS Model and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow Theory
When taking Bernie Dodge’s Exploratory Learning Through Simulation and Games class (EDTEC 670) we were exposed to several motivational theories that can undergird game development. The two that affected me most were John Keller’s ARC Model and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow Theory. Long before I took this class I had a passion for learning through games or learning as play. I bristle at the thought students need to be force fed learning by threatening them with high-stakes tests and eternal damnation in the minimum wage hell of McDonald’s or WalMart. Why can’t learning be fun? This class and these ideas provided a guide to this possibility.
Keller’s ARCS Model states that for someone to be motivated something must first capture their Attention, then the subject must recognize the Relevance of what they are doing, next they need to feel Confidence, and finally, a sense of Satisfaction. This is not a separate system for instructional design. Instead, it can be incorporated within Gagne’s Nine Events.
This model makes sense to me. Someone definitely needs to see the purpose of what they are doing, feel it is something that is doable, and then have a sense of accomplishment when done. Recently, a group of students started a Video Game Club at my school. They meet in my classroom. We hook up their games to my multimedia projector and speakers for maximum effect. They would sit there for hours if I let them. I’m not a gamer myself, so I had a hard time understanding the attraction until the other day when one of my students said, “Hey, Mr. Dean, would you like to play.” So I did.
An amazing role reversal happened. The student became my teacher. He patiently guided me through the basics and made sure I was totally comfortable with the game environment. Then we started playing. At first I was getting beat all the time and feeling a little frustrated. Then I started winning. Suddenly, I was having a great time.
It was the ARCS model at work. My attention was drawn by the amazing graphics and sound effects. The game had initial relevance because was to try to get closed to my student. After I won once I gained confidence I could win again. Beating my student gave me a sense of satisfaction, but also the fact that we were sharing an experience together did, too. Soon I started getting into “the flow” of the game and lost track of time. Which brings us to the next theory…
The fact that I had lost track of time while playing the game confirms Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory. Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory deals with the factors that need to be present for people to feel self-absorbed in a task, something he calls being in “the flow.” These factors include complete involvement or concentration, a sense of ecstacy, great inner clarity, knowing the activity is doable, a sense of serenity, timeliness (losing track of time), and intrinsic motivation. These concepts are similar to Keller’s, but with a zen twist.
I love Buddhist philosophy. For that reason Csikszentmihalyi’s added emphasis on total concentration, ecstacy, inner clarity, serenity and loss of a sense of time has a special appeal for me. These elements of the Flow Theory are also things a good game should strive to invoke in people. Just think, if you add learning to the mix of a game and students get into its “flow,” how powerful a learning tool it could be.
I was able to apply what I learned in 670 with one of my students who I helped develop a game to teach English. He became totally engrossed in the project and happily spent many extra hours working on it. He is an English Language Learner from Mexico so, in the process of creating the game, he improved his own English skills. He also learned something about graphic design, cartooning, game production, computer programming, and some human psychology. He won several awards with the game. and he was only a high school Sophomore when he created it. I can’t wait to see what he does as a Junior and Senior. At the IVIE Award ceremony, his mother thanked me profusely for helping his son. I hope to replicate this success with many other students in the future.
While in the Ed 795A capstone course I created a report based on a case study the Ertmer and Quinn's The ID CaseBook. My report was subtitled: "How do you deliver effective instruction when the SME is from planet Construk and the ID is from planet Objek?" It was about the conflict that arose when two people working on a project adhered to opposing schools of thought, Objectivism VS Constructivism.
Sadly, Skinner and Miller's world of lab rats in mazes leaves me cold, but I recognize its effectiveness. After all, powerful learning tools like flight simulators have been created based on their concepts. Unfortunately, the way our schools have to live or die on the sword of standardized testing is not one of the better outcomes of their research.
I am more drawn to constructivism and social constructivism. Especially significant is Dewey's and Bently's "transactional" concept. They observed that the activities of person and environment are parts of a mutually constructed whole. I have been a student of Buddhism for most of my life. Their view parallels the Buddhist concept of Esho Funi, a term that literally means "the person and environment are one." It makes total sense to me.
I also subscribe to Piaget's and Vygotsky concepts of exploratory and social learning. These seem to be ideas that neatly fit with online learning where students are able to range the Internet for information and create custom learning experiences. Vygotsky's model also underlies the current emphasis of project-based learning, a teaching method I adore. However, there still needs to be some objective ways to measure what people learn. Plus, there are certain things, especially topics that require memorization of facts or formulas, that may be better suited to objectivist or cognitivist approaches.
I was inspired by the consilatory approach expressed in one of our course readings, Theories of Learning and Computer-Mediated Instructional Technologies by David Hung. He writes, "...instead of regarding the learning theories as discordant, it is rather proposed that human cognition is complex and that there is a role for behaviourist, cognitivist, constructivist and social constructivist models of learning based on the objectives and context of learning."
In the course of our class discussion Dr. Rossett echoed this by mentioning that all these ideas have validity at some point. We should simply keep them in our quiver of concepts and nock our bow with the concept that best suits the need at the time — after careful analysis, of course. At that moment I became a proud "Quiverist."
What will be the sequel to “Scenes from an EDTEC Life?” At this time two distinct paths lie before me, along with others less clear. I can choose to stay in education in a job I love. Since I am tenured, this job is somewhat secure, but not that lucrative. Or, I can enter the corporate world and work at a job I may not love as much, that is not as secure, but one that’s much more rewarding financially and could lead to an even larger stage I can perform upon. The other shadowy paths include a career in government, as a consultant, creating educational games, or…who knows. Considering the fact that my wife and I want to send our only child to the best possible schools, and give him every opportunity for success, I will most likely choose the corporate route.
However, I have guilt feelings about this choice, especially after attending a recent faculty training in cultural awareness. We watched a sequence from “Stand and Deliver,” the movie about Jaime Escalante’s amazing achievement at Garfield High. In the film there was a scene at a faculty meeting where the principal was trying to get ideas from the teachers. One replied, “This may not be the best time to bring this up, but I’ve accepted a job in Aerospace.” While watching I think, “Damn, I’m going to be that guy that ran away to Aerospace. I’ll never be another Jaime Escalante.” I have to remind myself that even though the movie made Escalante into an international hero his real life did not have a Hollywood ending. He left Garfield, citing faculty politics and petty jealousies, and has retired to Bolivia. Ultimately all he had was that brief, shinning moment. (On the other hand, he is a national hero in Bolivia, and revered throughout the world as a great educator.)
With that in mind, if this is last semester at the school I helped bring to life, I'll strive to make it my brief, shinning moment. I will leave the program in great shape for whoever follows after. If I accept their offer, the Bank of America is generously allowing me to start at the end of this school year instead of this February. That will give me time to better apply what I learned in EDTEC to the Multimedia program I am helping to form. I would also hate to leave them in the lurch mid-school year.
The things I want to apply to my current program from EDTEC are to establish a tradition of educational rigor in the multimedia work we produce so the students can learn while they create. I want to help them establish the habit of using some form of the ADDIE mode so they always think in terms of analyzing what’s the best way to create a project, developing it to the best of their ability, testing to make sure it accomplishes their goals, and then presenting it to the widest possible audience. This audience should include adults who can connect them to the greater world when they graduate. Hopefully my classes will help them have dreams greater than the narrow world they now inhabit.
For the lesson plans I create for both my college and high school classes I want to get into the habit of always using Gagne’s Nine Events. I also want to master how to create a good mix of behaviorist and constructivist elements and be open to new ways of doing things. All the above would serve me well if I enter the corporate world as well.
I would like to expand my experiments with gaming and education. The future world where we are represented online by avatars is not just arriving, it is already here in places like SecondLife, The World of Warcraft and The Sims. The Web 3.0, an Internet based on a kind of “fuzzy logic” that mimics human thought processes also may be on the horizon. People like Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, think technologies like XML will help make this happen.
Perhaps this is just a Pipe dream (What would Peter Pipe think about this, I wonder? Didn’t he champion an ID decision-making process with Mager similar to computer programming?) Whatever new technology is brewing it is certain to be something that will change our lives in unanticipated ways, especially in Educational Technology.
One of my strengths, and weaknesses, is a tendency to become overly enamored with new technology. Returning once again to the core ADDIE principle, I hope to temper my tendency to use a new technology just for the sake of using it. Instead, through thoughtful analysis, I want to develop the wisdom to match the best solution to the situation.
Lastly, I will dedicate myself to lifelong learning. The first time I went to college I dropped out and developed a fairly successful career in advertising. However, once I finally returned to school and completed my degree in Visual Arts at UCSD in 1993 I never looked back. I fell in love with learning new things and telling others what I learned.
All I learned since I returned to college has paid off in one way or another. It has allowed me to reinvent myself and broaden my horizons. In the near future I may pursue a PhD or EED, or perhaps an MBA or MFA. I have always wanted to become fluent in Spanish, too. There are so many things I want to do. However, I now want to take a year off to re-acquaint myself with my family and let what I have learned these past forty-two months sink in.
Whatever happens, I can’t wait to see the sequel, “Scenes from an EDTEC Life: Part 2, The New Career.
I loved Part 1.
References:
Books and Journals:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Clark, Ruth Colvin (1999). Developing technical training, Silver Spring: International Society for Performance Improvement
Ertmer, Peggy A., & Quinn, James (2003). The ID casebook: case studies in instructional design, Upper Saddle River: Merrill Prentice Hall
Hannum, Wallace H. & Briggs, Leslie J (1982). How does Instructional Systems Design differ from traditional instruction? NSPI Journal, April 1982
Hung, David (2001). Theories of Learning and Computer-Mediated
Instructional Technologies. Education Media International
ISSN 0952-3987 print/ISSN 1469-5790 online, 281-287.
Mager, Robert F., & Pipe, Peter (1997). Analyzing performance problems or you really oughta wanna, Atlanta: CEP Press
Pregent, Richard (2000). Charting your course: how to prepare to teach more effectively, Madison: Atwood Publishing
Rossett, A. (1999). First things fast: A handbook for performance anaylysis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Rossett, A., & Barnett J. (1996). Designing under the influence: instructional design for multimedia training. TRAINING, 33(12): 33-43.
Electronic:
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/gagnesevents/index.htm
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/j/sjm256/portfolio/kbase/Theories&Models/theoryintro.html
http://www.itrc.wvu.edu/coursedev/preproduction/addie.html
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/icare/index.htm
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/attention/start.htm
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_5.htm
http://www.deepfun.com/funflow.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/idmodels.html#comparative
http://www.rhassociates.com/scorm.htm