Section 5 Trends/Issues Various Settings

1.       Chapters in Section V identify trends and issues in IDT in various contexts: business & industry; military; health care education; P-12 education; and post secondary education. Select at least 3 of these 5 contexts and compare/contrast the IDT trends and issues. Then explain how they are similar or different from the IDT trends and issues in the context in which you work.

The trends and issues involving IDT in business and industry seem to revolve around the idea of expansion and profit. Businesses are consistently looking to grow and expand. Designers must address issues of ways to work “cross-culturally”, as corporations often look to expand on a global level. It is important for designers to be mindful of societal cultural factors, as well as learner cultural factors in order to develop a design that is sensitive to the cultural impact that the project may have. Other important issues for designers working in the business field are to find ways to “complete training design and development in less time” and to “ensure the training be delivered quickly, so that it will result in a “positive impact on the profits of the corporation”. These issues can best be summarized by saying that corporations are looking for IDT designers to develop results that are “better, faster, and cheaper”.

Just as our nation’s military has changed over time, the trends and issues in IDT as they relate to the military are consistently changing and evolving. Since the end of the Second World War, “America’s national protective force has evolved from national to global defense”, thus the scope and issues facing the military have changed. These changing issues are ones that instructional designers are expected to meet. Two challenges that impact designers in this field are “international responsibilities of a national or multinational military force, and new technologies”. Designers must prepare and design products that can be purchased and used by not only national forces, but international forces as well. With new technology becoming increasingly available throughout the world, instructional designers that work with the military must learn to work within security constraints, established to help prevent illegal access to important information. Another important issue for designers in this context is to provide designs and alternative choices that address the needs, while adhering to budget guidelines. In addition, the technological scope of the projects that are designed ranges from simple to extremely advanced and designers must be mindful of the fact that “training products must be adaptable to all environments”, as training can take place wherever personnel are. Designers working with the military are often faced with various design constraints unique to this context. As the author states, “designing for the military differs from designing for large corporations on a number of fronts: management, configurations, implementations, and expertise of training instructors”.

There are many issues and trends within health care education that greatly affect IDT designers within this field. Significant factors include: “knowledge and research, costs and managed care, regulations and standards, and convergence”. The fact that health care is such a broad field and encompasses many areas, means that “knowledge advances rapidly”, accompanied by the need for improved instructional design. The introduction of managed care within the health care field, along with attempts to cut raising healthcare costs, has had great impact on the delivery of services as well as education and training. These changes have caused increased interest in the use of informational technology to help “lighten the burden of teaching” and educate patients and consumers. Instructional designers in the field of health care education must also adhere to set regulations and standards when developing their projects.  There are also requirements that must be considered when it comes to the certification of personnel and their continuing education.

When comparing the IDT trends and issues in business versus those within the military and health care education, they appear to have a few elements in common. All of these fields are similar in the fact that they are consistently changing and the role of instructional designers is expected to evolve as well. Designers in these fields must be mindful of the fact that they are often tasked with developing designs that must work “cross-culturally”. In addition, designers are also expected to develop ideas that are: “better” than those previously used, can be developed at a “faster” pace, and are “cheaper” in cost or effectively fit within a set budget. While there are some similarities between the IDT issues faced within these contexts, there are also distinct differences.  Although the goals for implementing IDT within these different contexts are to facilitate learning, the purposes for that learning are all different. Within the business sector, the essential purpose is that of growth, expansion, or profit. The purpose within the military appears to be to create a solid foundation and improve upon that foundation to better equip the individuals who serve and maintain a strong defense. It seems that the purpose, as it relates to health care education is to develop ways to better educate professionals in this field, as well as patients.

I would say that the IDT trends and issues within my workplace are similar to many that are listed within the contexts above. As technology changes and becomes more accessible to the general public, in a public library setting, we are always searching for ways to better educate the public on how to use this technology. This is often a challenging task however, because we are forced to work with limited resources and must adhere to strict budgets.

2.       Chapters in Section V discuss global trends and issues in IDT. As the world’s population grows exponentially, we face unprecedented challenges that have implications for learning. How and can we prepare our youth to address the problems of living in a world with 9 billion people when earth’s resources cannot sustain that many? Does our current education system, curriculum, and instructional practices help learners foster the complex problem-solving skills necessary to tackle these issues? Are there methods and practices used in European and Asian countries that we should use here in the US? Why or why not?

I believe that the key to preparing our youth to address the problems that come with an increasing population and decreasing resources involves educating them on ways to recycle current resources and examine alternative options such as renewable resources. The idea of limited resources in not a new concept and although the population is steadily increasing and the resources dwindling, there are many steps that have been made and continue to be made to attempt to solve this problem. I believe that there are individuals that, if given the right tools, can develop concepts and inventions that can assist us in our struggle to find balance between the world’s population and it resources. The key factor is working to bridge the gap between cultures and economic status that prevents individuals from having the necessary resources to foster their learning and expand their knowledge. As the author points out in Chapter 23, there are many areas where children are privileged to even attend school and in many cases, if they are able to do so, their learning environments leave much to be desired.

I think that in many ways, here in the United States, efforts are being made to adjust our current educational system so that it fosters the complex problem-solving skills necessary to tackle these issues. Over the past few years, we have seen the increased integration of technology within the classroom setting, as well as a greater emphasis on STEM classes (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in an effort to improve competitiveness in technology development.  Although changes are being made, I believe that we could still learn and adapt instructional methods used by other countries in order to continue to improve our educational system. I think that many of the methods used in Korean schools would be helpful if implemented in our school system today. The use of computers and technology within the classroom is commonplace, with “low student-computer ratios”. There is also an expectation that teachers and administrators will continue to receive training and update their “technical and pedagogical knowledge and ICT skills every three years”. Performance indicators are also established in order to ensure that instructors are continually updating their knowledge and skills. The author states that “Korea has set national e-learning policies and plans and provided adequate budgets for their implementation”. I think that a key factor in our school system being able to implement some of these ideas is having the necessary resources or budget to do so. It seems that although educational standards and goals are set, budgets are increasingly tight or sometimes non-existent in certain areas. If we truly want to adequately prepare the coming generations, then I believe that we are doing our youth a disservice if we do not explore other ideas that appear to be successful and look for ways to implement them into our current educational system. Most importantly however, we must make an effort to ensure that the resources needed to achieve this goal are available and can be distributed in such a way that all students have the opportunity to reach their full learning potential.