Week 3: The Franken-course Approach

 As a former middle school teacher looking to move back into the education arena, I find myself most interested in instructional design - how things have shifted in the past 14 years that I've been out of the classroom.  I've stayed on top of what is current by reading articles and watching what is happening in my sons' classes (often with much younger teachers that are familiar with new methods of teaching).  

Through reading "7 Innovative Approaches to Course Design," I found myself thinking of different topics from my former Language Arts classes that would fit into the different approaches listed.  As someone who has a short attention span myself, I always was looking for ways to make classes engaging for self-indulgent reasons - it was more interesting for me than an "information transfer" experience. 

Students DO learn in different ways, and using the different approaches, education becomes customizable, accessible and engaging.  My son recently had a project on The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. He was given the option to create a soundtrack, write a song, perform a dramatic scene, write a news article for the time an event took place, or make a timeline of events.  Not only does project based approach allow students to tap into their interests - supporting what John Dewey suggested in his Pedagogy, but it also allows the other students to VIEW the content in a variety of ways after the projects are created.  

I also love the idea of the Case Study based approach - students can see real-world applications of what they are learning from the start, and come to individual conclusions rather than sitting through information transfer.  

Not only do the different approaches listed lend themselves to different content areas, and different topics within those areas, but they also allow students greater ability to extrapolate knowledge to other topics and use the same ideas and thought processes applied to other issues. Some approaches, like Decoding the Discipline could encourage students to consider a career that would engage in analysis and research. 

Children and young adults enjoy video games, which is problem solving at its basic level, and also game based.  I'm not suggesting that courses be designed like video games, but then, why not?  

I do think there is value in backwards design and learner-centered approach while considering the other approaches, but if they are done well, they will take these elements into consideration anyway. 

Comments

  1. DreamCatJanuary 23, 2022 at 1:40 PM

    I love your reflection, Kate. I am in a similar situation as you. I am not a teacher, but I am working close to education because my company is university and I have two children. Also, I have two different backgrounds, developer and education. This special position allows me to see the different side that education people can't see.

    As you pointed out, the advancement of technology has provided various approaches to improve education, such as game based, customized learning, and you can name it. The game-based learning is quite effective in early elementary learning, in particular math. This approach adopts some features of game, and it it not game. It can the frame of game and content is learning. Please check this site: https://todomath.com/. They provide various game-like learning activities for PreK to 2nd grade. This approach can attract more attention from young students, and they can learn it without additional help. Also, scaffolding was applied, so students can reinforce their knowledge by learning same concepts via different activities.

    I think individualized learning is the best approach for effective learning, but it is not practical in the current educational system. As you know, students have different learning styles and backgrounds so they can perform well if proper learning is provided. In this sense, VR/IR, big data, and machine learning are being considered for providing individualized learning to individual student. I think it will be possible soon.

    You said that you are interested in instructional design. What are required skills for instructional design?

    Sunmi

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    Replies
    1. KatieFebruary 4, 2022 at 10:09 AM

      Thank you for your reply, Sunmi. How old are your children?
      When we're looking at instructional design, I think a firm grasp on the objective is key. We can then structure the learning backwards or forwards, but if we don't know what our ultimate goal is, then our lesson won't have much success (I've learned from experience! - I think this was one area where I was weakest when I left my undergrad program and had to figure it out through trial and error. I know that this is included in planning on a much more specific level now).

      From there, making sure that the learning is accessible and engaging, and that we can evaluate the learning is essential. Rachel Koblic this week talked about post processing and how essential that piece is to "seal" the information that is given. This is another step I feel is often overlooked.

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  2. KarriFebruary 21, 2022 at 1:30 PM

    I love your "Franken-course" moniker! I may have to steal that one for my own use. :) Just as I feel the best courses are designed with a patchwork of educational theories and approaches, I also feel that the best student work comes when we give them this same freedom to pick and choose what's the best fit for them and for the topic being covered. The teaching and learning processes leave so much room for miscommunication, and as such, it's wonderful when we can keep things really open to ensure that communication is accurate. Are we asking students what we think we are? Are they doing what we asked or what they think we asked? It gets really confusing really quickly, so the more ways we can give students to express that they can demonstrate the skills (or learning objectives) we've set out to teach them, the more likely we are to truly capture evidence of student learning. Motivation plays such a large role in engagement as well, so between the natural buy-in that comes with being given a choice and the good Universal Design for Learning principles being outlined by your son's "The Outsiders" lesson, I'm all in for this one!

    Thanks for sharing,
    Karri

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