Collaborate effectively with others.
The group process is what humans seem to have been built on. We have worked together for many thousands of years to build a collective understanding of how to do this thing called life. It’s hard. We can’t do it alone. In fact, I heard about this cool study that had children play together to see how they would act together. Often they would create a game to play with one another. They would make up the rules and play with one another. But as they pulled each kid aside separately and asked what they were playing they didn’t know how to answer the question. Singularly they had no idea what the rules to the game were. However, when in the group they could play the game together as if they had played the game for years. Together we can have the complete picture/view of what the answer to the question is. It is the inclusion of group processing that makes this learning space dynamic, like life. When students reflect and discuss quality and effectiveness they are creating real-world learning. Constantly evolving giving the need for continuous improvement.
Cooperative learning is when the essential components of learning are structured within group lessons. It is when students contribute what they know best and learn from others who have contributed to what they know best. In a collaborative group setting students provide one another with feedback and assistance to create high-quality outcomes for everyone included. The process combines both competitiveness and interdependence in team environments where success is achieved through shared responsibility. In the end, cooperative learning will produce stronger individuals. It’s like learning from many teachers versus just one.
Cooperative learning is when small groups of students use instruction and work together to maximize their own and each other's learning. There are specific learning outcomes and instructional tasks that are unique to collaborative versus individual learning that make it worth using when developing learning. Collaborative learning is helpful for the students learning because cognition and interpersonal dynamics occur when students work with one another. Working together in groups supports social influences and various problem-solving techniques.
The benefits of cooperation are cognitive activities and interpersonal dynamics, social influences, personal patterns, exposure social cues, give and receive pressure, and strengthen character. I learned a lot about collaboration in a project that had a live weekly video meeting. Check out my Collaborative Learning Technology Paper: How Google Hangout affected my collaboration this semester. WHere I explain the collaboration capabilities and my experience with the Google Hangouts application.
Give and receive constructive feedback.
Constructive feedback is necessary to improve yourself and others. Compared to return on investment, companies must be certain that they know the purpose of the progress. Is the return happening for the right reasons? Remember, there are important returns that don’t have easily measurable outcomes. Capitalism has a way of placing a price on everything. Monetary amounts get placed on everything. Society is trying to quantify worth and value. I feel sometimes the value in something cannot always be quantified monetarily. Especially when a value is linked to the environment or assessed from a variety of viewpoints. Value is a place holder for the understanding at any specific time. Do people get paid to raises the abilities and worth of individuals around them? This will strengthen the company. This constant improvement and adaptation can occur over brood applications of instruction making it hard to measure. Sometimes not represented in monetary gain.
Build positive relationships with team members, clients, and other stakeholders.
Solid teams are built on many aspects because people are complicated. Positive relationships are built on trust and hard work. Instructional Designers use tools, contracts, group processing, meetings, and shared resources to make this job easier. I worked in several collaborations with people from other countries. With planning documents, communication, and dedication we were able to compose learning materials for class in a timely manner.
Recognize and accommodate individual and cultural differences.
There are becoming blurred lines with educational hierarchies. There are more lifelong learners because of the internet. Education has become a personal journey of experience, creation, and collaboration. In the classroom or on the internet content is king! Content is the rock instruction is built on. The best approach to instruction, in my opinion, is to hit learners with everything. Not only use every appropriate teaching model but also pull every user’s data record while they are in the system. Collect all relevant learner characteristics in order to create a learner model that is able to integrate adaptive learning environments.
Scaffolding in a learning system is the practice of presenting simple to complex sequencing information concepts. The learning system is accessing working memory and can present a leveled approach with high and low questions. It creates stages for instructions, content, or problem-solving. As the process continues the instructor should be able to fade away. The system uses hints, prompts, and feedback to encourage and motivate the learner.
Fuzzy logic is a flexible algorithm that operates the same way human tutors evaluate learners. Similar to how an individual builds their understanding of the world by resolving to higher truths, A.I. does the same thing. Then in quantum computing, they use the on and off binary system together to create a third state. This possibility of computing will be way faster than the old systems. Giving the ability to compile data at unheard of rates. Maybe this can be implemented into current learning systems?
Learner analysis is trying to find the zone of proximal development to gauge the gap in understanding in order to reach the individual learning goals. The cognitive knowledge structure is the pathway to understanding. It places the individual in the educational system based on the results of evaluation and analysis. Hopefully, Instructional Designers will start to build learning systems that are advanced enough to develop individually adapted content per user.
Organizations cannot ignore that interpersonal and small group skills that affect the success of cooperative efforts. Forming social awareness is the initial set of skills managers need to direct projects. They are also the ones who direct the behavior of the individuals and establish the norms of appropriate behavior. Instructional designers grouped these behaviors into four categories:
Forming: organize the group and establishing the appropriate behavior.
Functioning: manage the group's activities, complete task, and maintain effective working relationships among members.
Formulating: master and retain the material being studied, build a deeper-level understanding of the material, and stimulate the use of higher quality reasoning strategies.
Fermenting: stimulate cognitive conflict, search for more information, communicate of the rationale behind one’s conclusions and reconceptualization of the material being studied.
Adhere to legal guidelines and ethical standards of the profession.
Instructional Designers have to uphold a code of honor. I am always aware that what I say and do are how I am perceived. I talk a little bit about choosing a path in a Personal Theory Paper where I look at how actions create target objectives that are critical to developing collaborative learning and work environments.
Instructional Designers are ready for the worst. If things get really bad and even the backup plan is not working use the burning platform. Managers should never run out of tools to use while leading a project. Best for extremely urgent business situations Instructional Designers need to communicate more frequently with everybody. They got to give the audience what they want (know your audience). They design a formal communication plan tied to project deliverables and involve the entire organization in the plan. It is up the Instructional Designer to prepare the team a deliver a consistent message.
Stay current about advances in instructional systems and learning technology.
Instructional designers use learning models to structure learning experiences. Computer-assisted feedback is producing better results in specific areas than human-directed learning. There are advantages in mobile technologies for improving student learning like reducing costs and extended learning environments.
I keep up to date with the latest trends concerning automation, artificial intelligence, coding, gaming, robotics, VR, augmentation, and deep learning. I’d like to believe that there is something to life like consciousness and there is some kind of soul within. However, the nativist and behaviorists have an interesting take on existence. I was blown away by B.F. Skinner the first time I read about his position on existence. A forefather of the Instructional Design field. I watch the video linked below about Dr. Skinner's bird in a box. Dr. Skinner is talking about free will and says,
“The object of the science of behavior is to find causes. Once you have found those causes there is less you need to attribute to an internal act of will and eventually we need to attribute nothing to it.”
These words can help us analyze our programmed instruction. People are products of their environment. Is free will just an illusion? It’s hard to tell sometimes.