New Directions for Instructional Design and Technology

1.) Below are 5 examples of distributed learning. These examples are combined examples of corporate and academic distributed learning, distributed resource support, distributed learning via virtual institutions, skills-based learning, and knowledge based learning.

• The Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) works towards building tools and facilitates educational communities that support teaching and learning. Working with faculty and students to understand instructional challenges and brainstorm possible solutions that can be shared among campuses, are guided in all of the projects by the way teachers teach and students learn. Then they apply the knowledge of web technologies and design to create powerful applications and tools that support faculty and students in their teaching and learning processes.
• Online@ucf established an institutional goal of expanding its services to include students who might not otherwise have access to higher education. The Center for Distributed Learning was created to leverage new opportunities for flexible Web-based course delivery to benefit campus-based students as well as off-campus and distant students. UCF now offers over two dozen totally Web-based degree, degree-completion, and certification programs, and hundreds of individual Web-based courses.
• The National STEM Education Distributed Learning (NSDL) is a program that aims to establish a national network of learning environments and resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels. The program has four tracks: pathways, pathways II, services, and targeted research. The existing NSDL Resource Center will provide collaboration assistance across all projects; undertake strategic partnership development on behalf of projects particularly with respect to non-academic entities; coordinate and, in some cases, perform thematic research and evaluation studies related to the program.
• The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative was established to standardize and modernize training and education management and delivery and is part of the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness). The vision of the ADL Initiative is to provide access to the highest quality learning performance aiding that can be tailored to individual needs, and delivered cost effectively at the right time and at the right place.
• The Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning provides leadership, coordination, management, and support to the distance and distributed learning (eLearning) activities of Virginia Tech. As an academic enterprise, the Institute works collaboratively across the university community to:
• electronically extend Virginia Tech's campus throughout the Commonwealth and beyond;
• provide an open learning environment where teaching and learning occur anytime and anyplace;
• share the practical applications of the university's knowledge and expertise to benefit society and support the economic vitality of Virginia;
• increase Virginia Tech's access to the world and the world's access to Virginia Tech;
• research eLearning environments and emerging technologies.

2.) I have felt that within my undergrad and graduate courses I have come across several that have been useless to me and my education/library field. The most recent class that I have taken that I felt was the least reusable was my Cataloging and Classifications course. Although, I felt that it was necessary to learn how to do MARC records, this was almost all that we did in this course. I feel like MARC records could have been included in the practicum or another course. We could have learned how to do MARC records and practiced creating them ourselves, but I believe that a whole course is not necessary. In our school district, the librarian does not even do MARC records. There is one person for the whole district whose job is to created them.

3.) The following video that I have chosen is called Physical activity sample videos for elementary students form Fitness for Life. As a Physical Education teacher, I know that P.E. is not all about teaching students how to play sports. My job is to teach them the importance on fitness, and how to incorporate it into their daily lives. We, PE teachers, are always looking for new and fun ways to get the students to exercise and making it fun for them. The following video are several small excerpts that facilitate total school involvement by using physical education lessons, classroom activities and discussions, recess, before and after school activities, and even family nights to deliver appropriate physical activity, plus concepts to promote health related fitness and active lifestyles.

4.) The inclusion of nanotechnology into the science curriculum will foster interdisciplinary explorations of science in K-12 curriculum. Because nanotechnology is an emerging interdisciplinary field, it can be included in physical science, chemistry, physics, biology, environmental sciences, and engineering. Nanotechnology provides connections between and among the sciences that will help students to develop an understanding of the relationship between disciplines. Many teachers have questioned where this field fits into national and local science standards and how something that occurs at the atomic and molecular level can actually be addressed in the K-12 science curriculum. It fits into the curriculum because it relies on numerous science concepts and processes which are part of the National Science Education Standards.

5.) In Chapter 32, the points of view on the direction of the field of technology both make valid points. However, I tend to agree with the broad and inclusive road because I feel that there is more flexibility and allows and promotes people to be more creative and imaginative. The idea is always open to change and discussion; there is not just one right way. I also like the potential benefits more as well. The textbook states," Good chance at finding innovations to adapt and move forward." This is compared to the other which progresses slower and narrower.