Do you like Green Eggs and Ham?

Hello my fellow designers!

This has certainly been an interesting week. Following some initial confusion on the assignment (confusion which I created myself... note to self, next time, listen to the talkshoe recording first, then email the team!) it became clear to me exactly what it was that we were to do this week. So, how did I contribute to my team you ask? Well, let me say that I:

• worked with Mikko (our awesome synchronous meeting rep) to clarify the assignment to my group mates when it was unclear
• wrote a document that broke down Dr. Newberry's expectations for the project
• started the google document on which our team did all of our work
• organized the roles for each group member
• wrote a first set of questions to get the ball rolling with my team
• looked at team members questions and added more based on their ideas
• organized my previous questions into the 11-step process
• organized Limin's questions into the 11-step process
• edited the entire document to try to eliminate duplicate questions or condense questions of similar ideas into a single (or at least fewer) question(s)
• edited the document to make sure that each of the questions was as clear as possible
• worked with Mikko to try and make sure that all team members had the opportunity to contribute... and again... and again... I don't think everybody likes green eggs and ham.

That's about it for our work this week. I'm looking forward to the work next week as this assignment is really bringing clarity to a part of the design process that I had previously found confusing. Moreover, my team, Mikko in particular, has really contributed to this clarification.

Thoughts on Instructional Design

Dr. Newberry mentioned that in the real world of instructional design, instructional designers are able to think of the problem knowing the content and still ask generic questions. After having completed this week, I am SO glad that he did not tell us the topic. My thoughts from the first get-go were about the context and not having it really made me extend myself. I know that I am NOT ready to be an instructional designer on my own just yet.

This outside of context generic question design will be a really critical part of the overall design process and I really look forward to additional development of this throughout the course. Dr. Newberry mentioned that most instructional designers (as they have designed their own process) condense the 11-step process into 5 steps or so and I started to get a sense for that as I was editing my group set of questions. After having written questions, it was often challenging to decide exactly which category they should fall under. For example, should the question, "what is the expected performance level of students in this course?" fall under the "identify what to teach" step or the "identify prerequisites" step?

I have been happy to be a part of a group and unhappy to be part of a group for this task at various times throughout the week and have come to the conclusion that I would like to do my instructional design in a team, but that I want the team to be comprised of people that I know and trust, whose strengths account for my weaknesses and vice versa because it is challenging to put forth your best work when all members aren't giving your task their all. 

Cheers,

Michelle