{"id":381,"date":"2021-11-21T07:30:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0202\/?p=381"},"modified":"2021-11-21T07:30:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T15:30:59","slug":"selecting-design-models-searching-for-the-ogopogo-of-instructional-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0202\/selecting-design-models-searching-for-the-ogopogo-of-instructional-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Selecting Design Models: Searching for the Ogopogo of Instructional Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am going to take a moment to be honest and admit that, upon the commencement of this course, I felt out of my element and rather anxious about my perceived gap in knowledge and understanding of Instructional Design (ID) models. However, as I navigated through the course readings, I came to realize that instructional design has been embedded in my practice all along. Wi<\/span>thout consciously labelling what I do every day, many elements of instructional design and ID models have become automatic components of best practices in my classroom teaching. Certainly I have made good use of a number of ID models including: Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Response to Intervention (RTI), Understanding by Design (UbD), Bloom\u2019s Revised Taxonomy, Webb\u2019s Depth of Knowledge (DoK), and Problem Based Learning (PBL).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The reality of K-12 education is that there are many factors and conditions that are out of the average teacher\u2019s control. The content we teach is mandated by our provincial governments. Our audience is a group of students designated by geographical location to a particular school building. In the building, students are sorted into groups based on chronological age. The number of students in our classes is determined by funding provided by provincial governments (my biggest class this year has 37 middle schoolers in it!). A plethora of unique educational needs, mental health struggles, socio-economic disparities, religious beliefs, cultural diversity, and more, exists within each group of students. Students access content and skills in a number of different areas all day long. At any given time a student might be figuring out how to calculate unit rates, 30 minutes later be exploring the themes of a short story, and an hour after that playing a rousing game of volleyball. Although this might lead one to believe that K-12 education is a relatively inflexible environment in which innovation has a small role, I have come to realize how important it is to think outside of the box and take advantage of opportunities to be creative. I have learned that it is okay to step away from tradition or the \u2018normal\u2019 way of doing things in order to best reach learners. Yes, there is much that a K-12 teacher encounters that is out of their control, however; it is possible to think innovatively and design learning experiences that are rich and engaging.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Engaging<\/span> in this professional reflection while also pondering what I have learned so far in LRNT 524 prompted me to determine a number of considerations to take into account when designing learning experiences. I was particularly impacted by Brown and Green\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Beyond teaching instructional design models: exploring the design process to advance professional development and expertise\u201d<\/span><\/a>, Parchoma et. al\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Designing for learning in the Yellow House: A comparison of instructional and learning design origins and practices<\/span><\/a>, Bates\u2019s <\/span>Teaching in the Digital Age<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and Heaster-Ekholm\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Popular instructional design models: Their theoretical roots and cultural considerations<\/span><\/a>\u201d, and want to give credit to these researchers for leading me to these thoughts regarding selecting ID models:<\/span><\/p>\n