Week 3

We are now in the Development Phase of our project. Our group met again, which is extremely helpful. We accomplish at least double the amount of work when we meet face-to-face as we do when we try to communicate through email, chat, or other virtual means. We have a unit outline and have divided responsibilities for the major parts of the project- essentially we've completed our prototype. Now we are working on the specific lessons and curriculum. We have a basic blueprint for our website made and our digital story is half complete.

Something that really interested me in our reading this week is

The Role of the Course Developer

A good course developer understands both instructional design and training delivery.

When the course developer creates content, two questions are paramount:

• Does this material meet the learning objectives?
• Will the material work in the classroom?

For example, an instructional design document might call for an activity where learners gather into small groups and discuss case-based scenarios. It's the course developer's responsibility to write scenarios that will interest the learners and promote discussion. If the course developer doesn't understand classroom dynamics, those scenarios might fall flat or seem contrived.

Intulogy- ADDIE and Developing Training Materials

I was reminded of my work situation. My head-honcho boss is an idea man. He dreams big and has "vision." However, he doesn't know how to put those ideas into practice in realistic ways. Unfortunately this means his ideas often fail. I think he forgets to ask himself those questions- "Does this meet our objectives?" and "Will this work in real life?" Also, he has no education experience, but refuses to ask for advice from those that do. He could save himself a lot of trouble and embarrassment if he were to ask advice from experts and those in the trenches. Just as development teams might call in experts for parts of projects, he could get expert advice before throwing everything into chaos every year.

I am reminded of my work situation in another regard. I need to remember to ask myself the question, "Does this meet my objectives?" while planning every lesson. I ask if it will work in the class, but sometimes I forget about those objectives. I know it will help my curriculum be more focused and helpful to my students if I will do this.