Professional Documents
Culture Documents
07/30/2017
EDTECH 592
Reflection/Research Paper
individualized for each student. The goal of the K-12 program is to prepare each student for the
real world. The Coast Guard, on the other hand, has a different goal when it comes to education.
While the intention is to develop and grow our servicemen and women professionally, our first
responsibility is always to the success of the mission. This mindset of service before self can
leave some members behind concerning education. Through my time in the educational
strategies, and different teaching methods. It is through this knowledge and skills acquisition that
I believe the Coast Guard can both ensure mission success while individualizing instruction. The
better trained and educated the entire workforce is, translates to a more effective and efficient
Coast Guard.
Before this Masters program, I would have been self-described as a strong believer in
personal learning styles. However, during the first couple of weeks in Theoretical Foundations of
Educational Technology, that thought process was completely debunked with information that
learning styles is mostly a myth. This realization was a shock and made me rethink most of the
ways I thought about how people learn. As EDTECH 504 progressed, I slowly transitioned into
the belief that the most effective way for people to learn is through authentic activities.
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My professional work has been and will continue to be focused on the education of people to
effectively carry out Coast Guard jobs and missions. With the full understanding that my
students will take the knowledge they learn in the classroom and be required to transfer it
directly to real life scenarios gives me an appreciation for the power of situated learning. The
theory of situated cognition is defined by Collins (1988) as the notion of learning knowledge
and skills in contexts that reflect the way the knowledge will be useful in real life (p. 2) (in
Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2009, p. 13). Situated learning helps to support knowledge
retention, but also behavioral transference. One of the struggles that the Coast Guard and any
training system faces is whether the training that occurs in the classroom transfers to the job site.
As an instructional designer, I fully intend to allow authentic and situated learning to influence
my instructional designs to improve the transfer of knowledge to the performance context and
therefore improve mission success. Through my assignments in the MET program, I was able to
allow authentic learning to influence my designs, for example, my online Moodle course ensured
assignments linked directly to job duties. By continuing to allow these principles to influence my
Due to both limited professional experience and formal knowledge in the education field,
I found the principles of cognitive resources and its connection to student performance
particularly informative. Clark and Mayer (2016) described three types of cognitive overloading
situations that impact a students ability to learn. They include extraneous overload, where
students waste effort on information unrelated to the lesson objectives; essential overload, where
the lesson is too large to process in one period; and generative underutilization where students
lack motivation or are not actively engaged in the learning (pp. 37-38). In the past, I have fallen
into the trap of erroneously overloading students. As a subject matter expert in most of my
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previous instructional design projects and course instructions, I always felt the need to pass as
much information as possible. However, understanding that students only can store so much
information, I will strive to present my instructions concisely and encourage others to do the
same. In the MET program, I was able to create presentations in EDTECH 513 that met the
principles of multimedia, and I used these principles to create an effective and concise briefing to
all the Coast Guards Training Center training officers. By maximizing the cognitive abilities of
each learner that passes through the Coast Guards Training System, we will improve their
ability to retain information and improve their effectiveness while operating at their home unit.
towards the instructional design aspects of education rather than instructing, I found many topics
this program, I was slightly discouraged by a false understanding of what educational technology
truly was. I believed that since the Coast Guard, as with most government agencies, restricts
access to many innovative educational products that a majority of the information I would learn
would be invaluable. However, I learned that the integration of educational technology is not
necessarily solely about the most innovative and earth-shattering application, but rather it is
about utilizing the technology that is most appropriate for the situation to produce the effective
learning environment. This allowed me to reopen my eyes to technologies that I had disregarded
as antiquated. For example, Microsoft's basic suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and see that it is
not necessarily the product that has to be innovative, but an innovative instructional designer or
instructor can create engaging lessons with the resources available to them.
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The Coast Guards training system works to closely align learning objectives with
create testing scenarios that would mimic the performance context. While I felt that real-life
student evaluations was rooted in authenticity, I reflect back on designing lessons that were
behaviorism influenced. My future practice designing instruction will be deeply influenced now
by the theory of situated cognition. Gessler (2009), described situated cognition as [k]nowledge
develop[ing] and exist[ing] as a relation between an individual and his/her situation. The
individual reaches back to experiences that again bear the reason for their existence, the
situation, within themselves (p. 1613). This theory had a great impact on my understanding of
how people learn. Moving forward in the education and training system, my goal will be to
develop or modify instruction to best situate learners in environments and scenarios that mirror
the performance context. Unlike K-12 educators, I have the distinct advantage of knowing the
authentic situations that my students will be placed in which will aid my design focus. In this
program, I was able to begin this endeavor of situating learning through the creation of a project-
based learning course, which allowed officers to learn about their positions while actively
experiences with Coast Guard training, one of the key elements that I found to be missing after
training was a community of practice. Wenger (2007) described, communities of practice [as]
groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it
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better as they interact regularly (as cited by Smith, 2009, para. 5). Interaction with others,
particularly those people that have significant amounts of knowledge to share is greatly
and social constructivism that I am most excited to integrate the social network learning aspects
of educational technology into the Coast Guard. Harnessing the social networking platforms,
such as Twitter or Facebook, to build Coast Guard communities of practice, will be able to
bridge the educational gaps that formal training alone cannot fill. I anticipate many obstacles to
the integration of social media due to a misconception of the educational benefit of the
technology. However, through integrating the technology on a small scale and assessing its
success, I intend to show the effectiveness of social networking. The ultimate goal of integrating
social learning and communities of practice is to break down the traditional walls of formal
education, learn from peers and experts, and create a more effective Coast Guard through
I believe when you look at design and evaluation of instruction you have to think of it
using the ADDIE model, in that, you cannot simply design instruction without knowing what
you are designing for; therefore, the design process must begin with an analysis. When thinking
about the analysis of an instructional design project, I reflect back to a module from EDTECH
505, Evaluation for Educational Technologists, which described analysis as a three-legged stool.
One leg is your current state, one is your goal state, and the final leg is the solution to get from
you from your current state to your goal state. This lesson, in particular, expanded my
understanding and knowledge of design and evaluation. Before this master's program, I would
look at where I want to be regarding trying to solve a performance problem and then go right to
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designing a training solution. Larson and Lockee (2014) further expanded on this by stating that
instructional design projects are typically initiated to solve a need, and you have to analyze
information to determine if instruction is actually the best solution (p. 21). Jumping straight to
designing can cause a lot of extra work when it is determined that your need and solution are not
aligned.
Another profound lesson that I took from this masters program came again from
design products that failed, and I felt that if instructors could execute the designs as intended that
my designs would work. The issues I had with my instructional designs occurred because I
neglected to collaborate with key stakeholders. This specific issue was described by Boulmetis
and Dutwin (2011) as sometimes one of more groups are left out. Sometimes project staff
members are left out because the evaluation is viewed as an activity for someone elseso there
is no need to bother staff with more duties (p. 49). Boulmetis and Dutwin (2011) further
described that the clients, in my case students, are often not consulted about instructional design
projects. I learned that it is vital to design with these stakeholders in mind because if an
instructor cannot implement your design due to numerous constraints and then the product is
From the standpoint of the Coast Guard Training System and instructional design, I am
most excited about the advancements in online distance learning technologies. With a personal
mission to always be a good steward of government resources, I believe distance learning needs
to be an integral part of our training system. Creating instruction in a fully online medium will
help to minimize travel costs, while simultaneously maximizing students time at their operational
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unit. I am also excited to evaluate the effective use of technology especially through
Kirkpatricks four levels of evaluation once I can begin technology integration. Kirkpatricks
model for evaluation as described by Rajeev, Madan, and Jayarjan (2009) assesses four
questions, what was the learners reaction to the course, how well were objectives met, did job
performance change due to training, and what is the cost benefit. Since many of the
technological resources I learned about are not fully integrated into the Coast Guard Training
System thus far, I am excited to evaluate the following: what are students reactions to the
technologies; how the technologies affect the accomplishment of performance objectives; how
do the technologies support behavior transfer; and does technology integration provide a
significant return on investment. Ultimately, I look forward to utilizing these newly acquired
design and evaluation skills and knowledge to create a more effective Coast Guard.
This program taught me a lot about the power of social networking and collaboration.
EDTECH 543, Social Network Learning, introduced me to the power of social networking and
how it can positively impact professional development. As I began the course, I would have
described myself as a lurker in the context of social networking. Edelmann (2013) described
social lurking as someone who observes what is going on but doesnt participate or remains
bystander behavior (p. 645). The course pushed me out of my comfort zone and required active
participation in different social platforms, such a Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Once I
began to become a more active participant in the conversation I began to see the tremendous
value for my professional growth. Through the utilization of Twitter live chats I was able to
connect with like-minded professionals and discuss topics related to education and educational
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technology. This practice not only connected me to people that I could reach out to in the future
for professional support, but it also gave me an opportunity to critically think about topics that
interested me. Utilizing technology to support networking allows for an increase in the size and
scope of your personal learning network, and it helps to continually grow your own knowledge
base.
assignments without any collaboration or social engagement. However, through this masters
program, I found that while I may have completed my assignments as an undergraduate student,
if I had included social engagement and collaboration those assignments would have been
completed with increased effectiveness and efficiency. As noted by Zheng and Smaldino (2009),
social interaction can reduce the sense of isolation of individual participant[s] attending distance
courses, make participants adjust themselves to new environment more flexibly and add the
variety of experiences individual learners have (p. 114). The last statement by Zheng and
Smaldino is the most important aspect I feel of social interaction and collaboration. By working
with others, you open yourself to the experiences that each of your peers possesses. Additionally,
collaboration increases the number of connections you possess and therefore increases your
knowledge. This idea of learning through connections is described by Siemens (2005) in his
information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our
current state of knowing (para. 23). Based on connectivism, the more connections you have
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As a large organization, the Coast Guard has a wealth of experience in both instructional
design and educational technology. For my own growth, it will be vital for me to connect to
encouraging students to develop personal learning networks and join communities of practice
will support the improvement of the workforce. Formal instruction only has a finite amount of
time to influence the knowledge of a student; however, if you can support the student to find
answers once training is complete through networking and collaboration than the Coast Guards
Its obvious that the world is now changing more rapidly than at any other time in
human history. An education based on the world today will not suffice for living and working in
the world of tomorrow (Chen, 2010, p. 242). Chen described the need for education to continue
to grow and advance in order to remain on track with the rest of the world. The only way that
this is possible is for education professionals to commit to reflective practice rooted in research.
technologies exist or are being developed and how they can enhance instruction.
Cordingley (2015) noted that teachers in the late 1970s investigating pedagogy through
different ways of realising curriculum goals gave birth to highly effective curriculum and
professional development by teachers through action research (p. 237). The premise of Chens
book about the Education Nation is that there are pockets of the country where teachers are
conducting innovative practices that are greatly improving the learning environments for their
students. As educational technologist and educators, it is our duty to research these techniques
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like the teachers described by Cordingley and integrate them into our own practice to continue to
As I have progressed in my Coast Guard career, I have come to learn that the government
is slow to change. Training, however, needs to change more rapidly than it currently is in order
to best support our people. One of the best ways I have found to influence change in the Coast
Guard is to support your recommendations for improvement with facts and research. It will be a
challenge to create Coast Guard wide changes to our instructional system; however, through
sound research practices, I will have the best opportunity to make these changes and support the
Closing Thoughts
Januszewski and Molenda (2008) defined educational technology as the study and
ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and
managing appropriate technological processes and resources (p. 1). In the Coast Guard, it will
be my goal and duty to utilize this definition to support the improvement of the Coast Guards
Training System. This program has provided me with the content knowledge, authentic practice
environments. I learned about different educational theories, such as situated cognitivism and
authentic learning which support improved learning. I additionally found that all education
solutions need to begin with an analysis to ensure you understand the entire problem before
trying to solve it. Lastly, the most profound lesson I learned was that technology integration is
only effective if the most appropriate tool is selected given the circumstances and is utilized to
support teaching rather than as its own pedagogy. In conclusion, appropriate technology
integration can support the professional grown of all Coast Guardsmen. By ensuring each
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member of the workforce is provided the means to develop, we will improve their effectiveness
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References
Boulmetis, J., & Dutwin P. (2011). The abcs of evaluation: Timeless techniques for program and
Chen, M. (2010). Education nation: Six leading edges of innovation in our schools. San
Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R.E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines
for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
Edelmann, N. (2013). Reviewing the definition of lurkers and some implications for online
D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work
Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., & Oliver, R. (2009). A practical guide to authentic e-learning.
Januszewski, A., & Molenda, M. (2008). Educational technology: A definition with commentary.
Larson, M.B., & Lockee B.B. (2014). Streamlined ID: A practical guide to instructional design.
Rajeev, P., Madan, M., & Jayarajan, K. (2009). Revisiting kirkpatricks model: An evaluation of
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Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory of the digital age. International Journal of
Smith, M. K. (2009). Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice. The Encyclopedia
and-communities-of-practice/
Zheng, L., Smaldino, S. (2009). Key instructional design elements for distance education. In A.
Orellana, T.L. Hudgins, & M.R. Simonson (Eds.), The perfect online course: Best
practices for designing and teaching. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
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