Ranvir Bahl – Learning Portfolio

I really enjoyed doing this project discourse with my colleagues Janet and Janice. I set up a website on Weebly and here is a link to our project work.

Here are some pearls of wisdom from Dr. Zhao’s presentation that I found valuable:

• Reflecting on Winston Churchil’s quote “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us”, we build educational technologies and thereafter the tools change the ecology in our teaching and learning environment.
• Reflecting on the sci-fi movie “Matrix”, he says  “Never send a man (person) to do a machine’s job”. All technologies and human beings should complement each other rather than replace them. We need to find the functional niche… what should teachers do and what should computers do in the teaching process.
• Reflecting on Henry Ford’s first car that was developed to reduce horse wagon congestion on roads, he questions whether the road congestion has decreased in all these years?
• “We tend to overestimate the short term effects and underestimate the long term effects of innovations” – Betram (Chip) Bruce Computers that were once a solution to a problem are now a problem seeking solution! We need to focus on multiple, digital literacy now and figure new ways to reach out to students.
• Focus on – developing teaching and learning networks; sometimes no change is very efficient rather keep changing learning modalities; PD for teachers should be activities where teachers can ‘play’ with computers; lots of technology uses are forced uses which may not be required; computers should be treated as part of our pedagogical ecology.

Here is an abstract of the ETEC 511 Scholory Essay for your reference –

Instructional systems design (ISD) is a complex intellectual process. It requires higher-level cognitive thinking integrated with professional skills and abilities to systematically design training solutions (Nelson, Macliaro & Sherman, 1988). It is hard to argue that ISD requires proper planning, analysis and design which reinforces why instructional purists revere Dick and Carey’s well known ADDIE model even today. However many instructional designers agree that ADDIE is ‘showing its age’ and needs agility to adapt to the shifting learning needs, training goals in today’s knowledge economy. Classic models like ADDIE provide a structured, linear approach to ISD very similar to the Waterfall model in software development. The traditional approach works great when learning needs are very clear, instructional context is stable and the possibility of changes during development are minimal. In today’s competitive work environment, change is inevitable and customers are looking for flexible systems that embrace change rather than control it. In this paper I review the limitations of linear ADDIE approach and propose Adaptive-ADDIE, a hybrid ISD approach that blends best practices from Agile/Scrum methodology with ADDIE to provide a collaborative, value driven instructional design methodology.

Although I am not a teacher by profession, I have conducted product trainings online and plan to offer customized training in the future on various educational technologies.

My e-teaching philosophy is –

• Design my courses with a sharp focus on learning competencies and ensure the learners understand what they are and how to achieve them.
• Use blended teaching approach – Leverage synchronous technologies like webinars, online meetings to add face/voice to a name and ensure periodic learner feedback (taking cues from communication theory and ensuring the messages are understood properly by all learners)
• Facilitate online workshops and discussions to provide guidance and build initial momentum. I believe its important for the instructor to take initiative and kick start the initial discussions so that the learners are motivated and actively participate.
• Use assessment techniques appropriate for the competency to be assessed.
• Have fun with the learners!