Section 5

“Rapid prototyping involves the development of a working model of an instructional product that is used early in a project to assist in the analysis, design, development and evaluation of an instructional innovation” (Reiser & Dempsey 179).  An example of rapid prototyping is storyboarding.  Rapid Prototyping can be used in the education

al field by reducing cycle time without sacrificing product quality.  While the teacher is in the beginning stages of seeing if a new project or theme will work, they might make a prototype to see if and how it will all be put together.



As a military consultant one of their jobs is to do trainings and a use technology a lot however, sometimes you do not have electronic access, most times you do in today’s society but there are occasions you do not.  Another way you could present this training with technology, but no electronic access is going wireless, having online courses and videocasts for the military to take while they do not have any electricity.



The Step-Up-To-Excellence methodology (SUTE) is a process methodology designed to help change leaders in school districts create and sustain whole district improvement.  GSTE is Guidance System for Transforming Education, a process model for facilitating systemic change.  To show teachers both of them in a staff development meeting us could do a PowerPoint showing the differences in the two methods and then have the staff members split into two groups and have them come up with an example of SUTE methodology and GSTE model.

A good institution has support for its faculty and provides faculty development opportunities to grow and learn.  Here are three different universities that I looked at about faculty development.

University #1 UNT

• What are the different names used for faculty development? Professional Development or Leadership Development
• What division is it under? The Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
• What services does it offer? Workshops, conferences, and on-campus meetings
• How often are programs given and what specifically are they? ACE fellows, CLEAR, and Leadership Texas

University #2 Eastfield

• What are the different names used for faculty development? Professional Development, Staff Development
• What division is it under? Office of Organizational and Staff Development
• What services does it offer? Convocation, face-to-face, online
• How often are programs given and what specifically are they? Convocation, day/day of service, RAIN, EOP, FERPA

University #3 Texas A&M

• What are the different names used for faculty development? Professional Development
• What division is it under? The Office of the Dean of Faculties and Associate Provost
• What services does it offer?  Online and face-to-face training/development
• How often are programs given and what specifically are they?  DoF-CTE (6-8 workshops during the Fall and Spring semesters), Orientation, CTE, ITS

Section 4

Human Performance Improvement is defined with three different terms, vision, concept, and desire.  One of the performance problems that I see at my school is communication between management and the teachers.  I think a solution to this is to maybe put out a weekly reminders sheet, or a daily reminder sheet.  I think that the success of any good school is communication to make sure the teachers are doing what they need to do and making sure the students are on the same page.

Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) according to Wikipedia is any computer software program or component that improves user performance.  Electronic performance support systems can help an organization to reduce the cost of training staff while increasing productivity and performance.  Dictionary.com states that EPSS is a system that provides electronic task guidance and support to the user at the moment of need.  EPSS can provide application help, reference information, guided instructions and/or tutorials, subject matter expert advise and hints on how to perform a task more efficiently.  The third source I looked at by techscribe said that an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) is one method of supplying online support to people who use computer systems.  I prefer the second definition from dictionary.com because of its detail and conciseness.  This definition also gave examples of how it can be used in the business world as well as the teaching field.  I do not think that EPSS has been widely used because it is so new and people have not caught on to it yet, as well as it takes some time to set them up, however, I believe once it becomes more known and they are set up it will become something that is used more and more.

        

In Pre-Kindergarten they take an assessment at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the year.  This is not a state test but a test set up by Primrose corporate.  The problem is that the way the questions are worded for the administrators to read verbatim is not the way that the teachers are told to teach the lessons.  There is a gap that needs to be filled somehow, either the wording of the test needs to be changed or the way the teachers teach so that students are not confused.  Using the blended learning system will help this gap close.

I have been exposed to several different types of informal learning, especially this semester having all online classes.  I have had to learn how to do blogs, plan my time accordingly so that assignments get done.  I have learned to use the virtual office, doc sharing and the dropbox.  These are different ways to turn in assignments when you are not face-to-face in a “normal classroom.

Section 3

One of the models that I found was the ASSURE Instruction model that was developed by  Heinich, Molenda, Russel, and Smaldino.  This model is an instructional model for planning a lesson and the technology that will enhance it. The ASSURE model contains six steps and the letters in ASSURE form an acronym.  ASSURE stands for Analyze the Learner, State Objective, Select Media or Materials, Use Media or Materials, Require Learner Participation, Evaluate and Revise.  This model is great for teacher to plan lessons with technology in it, the picture to the left is great for starting out and then it will eventually become second nature to incorporate the model without even thinking about it.

The second model for evaluating instruction is the 4C-ID model which is an instructional design model by Van Merrienboer and others.  "4C" means "four components", "ID" means "Instructional Design".  This model can also be found in Merril's first principles of instruction.  According to Martin Ryder, the 4C-ID instructional model is characterized by four components:

(1) Learning Tasks,

(2) Supportive Information,

(3) Procedural Information

(4) Part-Task Practice.

The tasks are ordered by task difficulty and each task offers at the beginning a lot of scaffolding which is reduced as the learner progresses.  This model is good for the classroom because it has the idea of scaffolding which has always worked for me but this is a way of planning.

           I teach Pre-K at a daycare and technology is not a big thing there, they do not even do anything on the computers.  Technology innovation at Primrose is almost non existent.

I would use Situational Leadership in a professional development session focusing on technology use in the classroom by telling them that is not one right way to be a leader, just as there is not one way to use technology.  It is all based on the task at hand; going with the lesson that will be taught will depend on what technology will be used.  The Situational Leadership theory is very effective because it has a very independent approach to it, giving the teacher the ability to choose.

Section 2

I teach Pre-K at Primrose School of Rockwall, one of the goals we have for our kids is to be able to identify and write their alphabet.  To do this we like to use the theory that Skinner came up with, which is the Behavioral Learning Theory.  The students are shown in multiple ways what the letters look like as well as the motions of how the letters are made.  When the students are going through the process of learning the letters and writing them they are consistently given encouragement and praise.  The other theory that would be great to use for this goal would be the Situated Learning Theory. This theory is good for students when they see the relevance and importance of identifying and writing their alphabet.

            According to Wikipedia Gangne’s Nine Events of Instruction is what he calls “conditions of learning.”  He breaks these down into internal and external conditions. The internal conditions deal with previously learned capabilities of the learner. Or in other words, what the learner knows prior to the instruction.  The external conditions deal with the stimuli (a purly behaviorist term) that are presented externally to the learner.  For example, what instruction is provided to the learner.”  Identifying and writing all of the letters in the alphabet could also use all of the steps in the first principles of instruction by starting off with the problem center where the students are shown real world relevance and what the whole task is going to look like.  Then it’s the activation where they recall what they know and what the relevance is, the students look at the letters and recall where they have seen the letters and whose name has those letters.  It’s on to demonstration next where they look at examples; the students can look at their names and at their friend’s names to see what letters they have in them.  The forth step is application where the students get to practice themselves and practice, they write their names as they say the letters out loud.  The last step is integration where it leaves the students being able to use it in other areas.

Gangne’s Nine Events of Instruction	First Principles of Instruction	Compare and Contrast Gangne’s and First Principles
Gain Attention	Problem Centered (Let me do the whole task!)	They both get the attention of the students and a place to start the lesson/goal.
Informing the Learner of the Objective	Activation (Where do I start?)	First Principles is a step by step process that starts at the beginning and goes to the end.
Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning	Demonstration (Don’t just tell me, show me!)	They both have a part where they do a recall.
Presenting the Stimulus	Application (Let me do it!)
Providing Learning Guidance	Integration (Watch me!)
Eliciting Performance
Providing Feedback
Assessing Preformance
Enhancing Retention and Transfer

Whole task approach is where you make sure that the student gets the whole concept as well as understands the importance of it.  Scaffolding is helping them with everything and then slowing backing away/off.  With the goal of writing letters, I start by writing the letters and then the student traces them as they get better at that then I write it in highlighter and then they do it then I dot the letters and then they write it on their own.  Mathemagenic is where you make sure the students know what they need to know to advance to the next level.

            The first was Attention I think a good attention getter is always something technological because we are in such a technological world, starting out with a video or computer game would be good.  Then there is relevance which is important to students as well they will be more willing if they understand how it relates to them.  Confidence is important for students to succeed, getting the encouragement and praise will build this.  Lastly, there is satisfaction, which is very important for students to continue in the right direction, they get satisfaction from the confidence I think.

It is important to study design research so that you know the latest and are up to date.  Not all students are the same and they do not learn the same, it is important to reach all of your students and the way they learn best.  It is important to incorporate all the different learning styles in your lessons.