The End of ID

In all honesty, I think I learned more in this class than I did in both of my other two classes combined. Not only did I get a crash course in different on-line technologies such as blogs, web page design, KSOL, Moodle, and GoogleDocs (which I use like crazy now), but I also learned about how involved the science of Instructional Design is. The main issue I struggled with (mostly that I noticed during my project work) was just how difficult a thorough design would be to complete for a traditional classroom environment. I don't know if this is just because I didn't see enough solid examples from the book on how ID is used in classroom work (in a secondary, non-collegiate sense), or perhaps it was because my topic was difficult for me in general, but it seemed to me that a teacher would either need a great deal of outside help (to help with planning and testing and evaluation), or they would need a great deal of extra time and compensation to complete a good instructional design project with all steps intact. Now, when it comes to non-traditional class planning (like software development or more individualized educational "packet" teaching), this might not be as difficult, both because you would likely be working with a team, and also because you would have more time for planning, since students are working mostly independently. This process also seems a better fit in more technical type environments such as trade or career education, but perhaps it was because I saw more of those examples mentioned in the book (or I'm just crazy, and that's not the case at all). I'm sure as teaching and education continues to evolve, it will fit this process more and more clearly, since I believe that's the way the educational system is developing in order to provide students with an efficient and effective education.