Course+Reflection%20Page--Instructional%20Design

July 30, 2010 So, this instructional design course begins in a couple of weeks. I am nervous about it. Last fall, I took two courses, as I am doing this semester, and at the end of the semester, I vowed to never do it again. So, why am I taking two now? Well, if I don't step up and do this, I'll never finish this EdS!

I have been thinking about how I study, and here is something that has always plagued me as a student: I do a fabulous job of reading the beginning of my textbook, but then I end up not reading much of the remainder of my textbook. It's a problem of perfectionism. In those early days of the course, I will read slowly and carefully and repeatedly. I will take copious notes that bog me down further. Then, a deadline comes and more are on the way, and suddenly, I don't have the luxury of this slow-mo note-taking. I end up skimming key sections of the book, and feeling guilty and feeling like a failure.

As I sat on the couch staring at my textbooks a few days ago, it occurred to me that I do it all wrong. So, I did a quick web search on note-taking strategies, and I am going to heed some advice I found. Read a section. Then, jot down notes in your own words. Do this repeatedly until you're finished with the chapter. Then, you might go and take a global view of the chapter and see how it compares to your global notes on the chapter, tweaking as needed.

This approach, much quicker than what I instinctively would do, may be a revolutionary new approach. We shall see. It's a little experiment I will run this semester. If I manage to actually read all my textbooks, thereby benefiting from their good information, and jot down notes over the big ideas, I think I will learn better and feel better.

On another note, I have been looking at my textbooks, and I am trying to get a head start on where this course is going. The first book, Understanding by Design, covers the concept of backward design, which I believe is a sort of lesson planning approach. I have read about backward design in brief, and I am excited to be studying it a little more closely this semester. Here is how I see this topic helping me in my current roles: 1. In the courses I teach, MEDT 3401 and MEDT 3402, I have my students write 4 technology-connected lesson plans. I am always revamping how I teach lesson planning, and I believe it's because I have been trained under so many different paradigms. Granted, they are all very similar. But, I like the idea of getting trained under a new comprehensive paradigm at this point, because I need coherence, and I need to put my lesson planning module building, revamping to rest for a change. I need to stop changing the template. Stop changing the instructions, expectations. 2. I will probably play a role in re-designing the graduate course MEDT 6401, which also has a lesson-planning component. I will use the lesson-planning module I build for the undergraduate course in this section as well.