Designing Group-Paced Instruction and The Webcon

This week the teams were asked to rethink improvements on our Edweb based on the pacing of our instruction. In the former where I participated, we only had 2 major threads. The first one was the thought I contributed regarding creating the big picture for the learners. The jump-off point for me was the 3 Bricklayers’ Story which was appropriate in characterizing the differences people view instruction. Chad replied that seeing the end in mind helps in his motivation. Kerry wrote that the challenge of instructional designers is helping the learners envisage the cathedral from the pile of bricks.

Chad brought another interesting issue, that of distinguishing between effective repetition and annoying redundancy. While it is true that adult learners benefit from the former, they find unreasonable duplication insulting. In response, my second contribution for the week was to identify other areas in the Edweb development wherein we need to decide on these thin lines between effectiveness and annoyance. It is true that each facet of our project development involves designing for our target learners who are not heterogeneous in one or more aspects.

A value-adding discussion this week was participation in the Jan 2008 cohort’s Webcon. As a formative evaluator, I was tasked to participate in the Blogs & Wikis session. I found this to be an eye-opener, being a newbie in the uses of the Social Web. The information I gathered and the practice skills afforded by the session in a safe environment engaged my curiousity. Moreover, the exchanges regarding the issues associated with web 2.0 such as Intellectual Property which I started, helped me compare and contrast the Asian versus the US perspectives.