Connecting Some Dots...

This weeks readings really seemed to connect some dots for me. I say this because as a student, I didn't always recognize the techniques that were being used to get me to understand information - and yet, I probably never had the need to connect to those techniques. But this week, the readings helped me recognize what I once didn't see...and I now have names to go with the techniques that I have been put through throughout my time as a student. The reading that had me connecting all of the dots was the "Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice Saskatchewan Education". And upon reading this article, I found that there are three types of instructional methods that I relate to the most...

1. Discussion

I really connected with the line "Effective Discussions are normally based on material familiar to the students." This relates back to the way I interpret information. I tend to have "light bulbs" go off when I am part of a good group discussion. There are times when I will read material...and *think* that I understand it...and when I am able to talk about what I have read amongst my peers, I tend to find myself understanding the material better and sometimes in a deeper way. It's always interesting to me to be amongst a group of people with very different backgrounds...such as we have at Marlboro...because I really think that different backgrounds improve the value of discussion. The more one has to work from, the more diversity in the way you apply the information you are learning.

2. Visual Aids or Focused Imaging

Having the ability to see something through a visual representation can help pick up the missing pieces when it comes to understanding something. I have a respect for visual aids...whether they be pictures or videos...or simply a concept map of a subject...especially when they help me connect the pieces of a subject together. Focused imaging...or "the process of visualizing an object, event, or situation" is something that I think is beneficial to a student. Sometimes is difficult for me to completely understand something unless I can see myself using it in a situation that's current to me.

3. Hands on Experience

What surprised me was that I didn't see any direct method that related to Hands on Experience in the reading. For me, hands on experience was what helped me get through my preliminary collegiate years in the television studies department at Lyndon. What helped me understand the concepts being presented throughout my first two years as a TVS major was to be hands on with the television cameras I was going to be using not only in years that followed, but in the field as a photographer for a news station. That experience made me that much more comfortable with the things that were thrown at me later in my career.

Hopefully as the few weeks in the semester tick by I will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel (so to speak) when it comes to instructional design. Though I know that instructional design is something that will only perfect itself as I use it more...it's something that I have really started to sink my teeth into...and I think that I'm starting to connect the dots that have been laid out before me.