Social Bookmarking and Trends and Issues Response

I am apologizing for the length of this response in advance. I think it was just one of those days. Thanks for sticking with it if you make all the way to the end!


Part 1 - Social Bookmarking

What a great name for a website: delicious.com. It just sounds inviting. With that, I am not super impressed with this tool. I love the idea that I can have all my bookmarks in one place that can be accessed remotely. However, and maybe it’s just because I don’t bookmark sites as much as other people(?), wherever I am, I can usually remember some keyword, such as a title, or some key content from a certain website and simply look it up in Google or other search engines and it takes me right to where I need to go. I think it is fantastic that I can search for certain topics based on tags or keywords, but the tags found on delicious.com seem pretty narrow in topic, unless you are super technologically advanced, like creating your own websites and programs. And for some reason, much to my surprise, listing all my bookmarks for everyone to see seemed really personal, which was a little unsettling for me.

All gripes aside, I definitely see the multitudes of uses that this website affords in education. Why couldn’t (and shouldn’t) teachers start adding more tags and bookmarks for education. Right now the delicious.com website seems very technology biased, but it only takes a few to start using an easy tool like delicious.com or other social bookmarking sites to get the ball rolling in other areas of interest. I love the idea that you can build and tag off of other websites and other’s delicious.com links and go from there.

In terms of sharing this tool with the educational community, I know that there are many colleagues that I steal, oops, I mean borrow, ideas and lessons from. I can only imagine the possibilities that would come if the people with whom I collaborate daily would start sharing the many useful bookmarks I know we all have shared on our computers. I also really like the idea of skipping the “middle man,” instead of having to get the address from someone (written or emailed) then type the address in the browser (usually long) only to have to search out the information that I really need from a main page. I also love that not just my group of teachers could access these links, but anyone subscribed to the social bookmarking site.

The same idea of quickly and easily sharing specific website through a social bookmarking site would be helpful with students. Instead of creating a hotlist in a Word file and posting it on my school website, I could just use delicious.com to keep a running hotlist that is always available online and needs no other application to create. I think my kids would like it because they can then start building on their pages in a social bookmarking site, thus making the process a two way street, instead of me just providing a hotlist of website only I am aware of. Collaborating with the students to enhance the activity would help me find even more information and tools on the web, but it would also give my students a sense of ownership in whatever we doing.

I definitely don’t see myself using this website in my daily life, especially since I am already addicted to the RSS readers and the blogs, but what an awesome tool, yet again, that could enhance my lesson planning as well as my student’s interests in what they are learning and doing.


Part 2 - Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology

While reading Chapter One in our “Trends and Issues” book, I found that the authors did a fantastic job explaining themselves in an uncomplicated and straightforward fashion. As a new student in this field I was surprised by many things, including how early on this field began making its way into education and some of the ways the definitions of the field have changed over the years.

When you think back to the technologies that made a big difference in the 1920’s, such as photography and lantern slides (p. 3), it’s often hard to imagine what a difference they would have made to society at the time, as they seem like such basic forms of technology today. However, after putting it all into perspective, it is amazing how far we have come in such a short amount of time. The description of how the view on Instructional Design and Technology has developed over the years, from visual instruction to audiovisual instruction to our present day views, shows such an amazing progress that I only hope can continue.

Reading about the process of developing a definition for our field really opened my eyes to the importance of why defining what we are really doing in the field of Instructional Design and Technology is such a significant endeavor. As each definition was introduced, I seemed to be nodding my head in agreement to some or all of the idea put forward. It all seemed to fit and make sense. Yet, each new definition held something that called to me even more.
The most recent and published AECT definition brought about in 1994 really struck me with emphasis on the idea that “it does not separate teachers from media,” and focuses more on “incorporating both into the phrase “resources for learning.’” (p. 6). I definitely teach my students to use me as a resource for learning, but also teach them to be independent learners when finding helpful and reputable resources for learning which they will be able to use throughout their lives, including various sources of media and technology.

Also, I really responded to the addition of the term ethical in the 2006 AECT definition of Instructional Design and Technology. With the variety of uses of technology, from helpful to hurtful, I think it is imperative for teachers to realize “the fact that those in the profession must maintain a high level of professional conduct” (pg. 6). There are many easy ways to stray when it comes to using and teaching technology in the education field, and I feel it is very important for any educator to really understand how they are using technology to educate their students, not just to entertain or distract.

Finally, I never would have critically thought about how the Instructional Design and Technology field and its facilitators have made an “effort …on improving human performance in the workplace” (p.7). As a part of the generation that has grown up in a technologically advanced society, it seems a natural part of my world. But, when I step back and think about the ways in which this field has improved my everyday performance as an educator, it is terrifying to think about what I would do without it.

I really enjoyed reading this chapter as it only reiterated my belief that the Instructional Design and Technology field is one that is vital to our world, for students, teachers, parents, and communities around the globe, as well as a field in which its professionals are always striving to make a difference and looking towards the future. And, I am very excited to be apart of it all.