Section 5: Chapters 18-21

* Chapter 18 discusses instructional design in business and industry. Give an example of rapid prototyping and discuss how this could be used in education.

"Rapid prototyping involves the development of a working model of an instructional product that is used in a project to assist in the analysis, design, development and evaluation of an instructional innovation" (Reiser 179). Rapid prototyping speeds up the development process and helps to ensure "customer" satisfaction with the end product. Using rapid prototyping in the lesson cycle process while developing plans and experiments etc. it will allow teachers to more effectively plan an activity that will have the desired outcome and please the "customer"/student at the same time. It can allow us to "see" what the possible outcomes and effects of our lesson might be and possible problems that may arise in our lesson. Examples include many things educators should be doing already anyways, creating "models" or "bare-boned" examples for the students to build off of and modify in their own ways.

* Chapter 19 discusses instructional design opportunities in military education and training environments. I had the opportunity to work two summers in Orlando on a faculty fellowship in the advanced distributed learning lab (ADL) discussed in the book and saw first hand some of the constraints placed on some of the tools that could be used for learning. Pretend you are hired as a consultant for the military. They want to use technology in its training, but electronic access is not always available. Using the Full Spectrum diagram, what alternatives could you suggest for a successful program?

Using the Full Spectrum Design as noted on page 193, with little access, it would be important to have rugged, terrain safe computers that have blue-tooth, or other networking capabilities to allow the computers to "talk" and "communicate" with each other. This would allow easy access to shared information and sharing of said information. If this type of technology, even low-tech as it is, is not accessible, then a paper system of some sort should be in place. However, when dealing with paper systems you need to be careful that a "paper trail" is not left, and no paper is lost anywhere. I almost wonder if allowing iPhones, iPads, or iPads with document sharing capabilities is an acceptable or feasible means to solve this problem.

* Chapter 21 looks at radical educational change in P-12 settings. I visited the Chugach School District in Alaska and know Richard DeLorenzo very well. I can assure you that this change can occur in our schools. Review the Step-Up-To-Excellence methodology and the GSTE. Outline a staff development activity that will introduce both methodologies to your colleagues.

The Step-Up-To-Excellence method requires specific conditions to allow the school using it to be successful. These include senior leaders who act on courage, passion and vision, not on self-preservation and survival; senior leaders who see their district as a whole system; leaders and followers who have a clear "we can..." point of view; leaders and followers who possess professional intellect, change-minded attitudes and the skills to lead to high-level performances; and finally sufficient human, financial and technical resources to launch the change without undermining the efforts.
The GSTE method, also known as the Guidance System for Transforming Education method, is comprised of three main characteristics: a core value system regarding the change process, some "discrete events" leading to the desired change, and some "continuous events" that should be addressed continuously throughout the event. Some of the "core values" could include: caring for children and their future, systematic thinking, evolution of mindsets and education, inclusiveness, stakeholder empowerment and ownership, participant commitment, co-evolution, facilitator, process orientation, context, time, space, respect, responsibility, readiness, collaboration, community, ideal vision, wholeness, common language, conversation, democracy and culture. The "discrete events" are broken up into five phases: initiate systematic change effort, develop starter team, develop district-wide framework and capacity for change, create ideal designs for a new educational system, and create ideal designs for a new educational system.
To introduce these two methods to my work colleagues I would discuss the importance of having strong leadership, the importance of emphasizing a strong passion and vision as a whole school and enforcing that together. This would be a good time to come up with a school-wide vision together, develop goals that we could work towards as a community, and have the attitude towards change that would allow us to be successful. We would need to create a leadership committee comprised of one member of each grade-level to meet and spear-head the endeavor and communicate findings back to the group. These members should be change-minded and not set in their ways. To incorporate the GSTE method we we develop a list of characteristics that we think should be "required" of all staff at our school, and help each other be mindful of whether or not we are meeting those characteristics. We would take the team developed in the first model and follow the last three phases to finish it out.

* Navigating through the ranks of a faculty member in higher education can be tricky. A good institution has support for its faculty and provides faculty development opportunities to grow and learn. Research three different university offices for faculty development. Answer the following questions for each office:
o What are the different names used for faculty development?
o What division is it under?
o What services does it offer?
o How often are programs given and what specifically are they?

Armstrong Atlantic State Univeristy
This site only refers to it as Faculty Development, but this is often also referred to Staff Development at some locations. This is found under the Academics tab, then Faculty and finally Faculty Resources will lead you to the Faculty Development page. This site offers information about Awards, Grants, New Faculty Information and Training, Teaching Resources and Contact Information. This site does not list specific information about when specific trainings are offered, however it does offer tips for what should be done during your first week, and your first semester.
California State University: Fullerton
This site refers to the process as Faculty Development. This site is linked from the Home Page to the Faculty and Staff page, and then under the Faculty resources tab, the Faculty Development Center page can be found. The site lists 30 available workshops that faculty members can register to be a part of; these include: plagarism, paperless grading, using blogs and wikis, grant writing, grade center information, scantrons, creating on-line lessons, quizzes and surveys, there are workshops on planning ahead, creating on-line portfolios, using specific programs and tutorials. They are offered several times throughout the semester and different times.
Northern Arizona University
This site can be accessed via the homepage by clicking on faculty and staff I am assuming. However starting from the beginning I am having a hard time tracing the links directly to the faculty development page without typing it in directly. They do not use the term "staff development" similar to the others. They offer courses on the following: global learning, international teaching and research, diversity, clubs, and they also conduct webinars. These are offered weekly it seems and the times do not vary much. Their mission states their goals to include: offering opportunities for development that will enrich student learning, strengthe a learning-centered campus, advance new teaching and learning initiatives, foster collegial dialog among the faculty and campus partners as well as showcase faculty expertise in teaching.