How Instructional Media Will Change the Way We Learn

Hi there! Today I am taking a break from discussing the CSUF MSIDT program to talk a bit about how I see the future of learning in my industry.
In the 12 years I have been writing curriculum, instructional media has already changed the way that education takes place in all phases of education: primary, secondary, and post-secondary, as well as in industry and the military.
Learning will have to become much more student-centered than in the past. Traditional lectures with the instructor telling everybody what they are supposed to know (with the student involvement through note-taking or asking questions) are gradually being replaced with activities that the students will complete at their own pace on mobile devices, and in many cases, remotely. In our company, paper books went away years ago to be replaced by CDs (and now flash drives, and the cloud in the future) as the students indicated that they rarely used the books after the class was over. Tablets will probably eventually replace paper worksheets, as that is what many of them are now using in their workplaces and at home.
As I see it, the interactive media to support technical training will mostly consist of:
- Tutorials to present the subject and help guide the learner
- Drills to practice basic skills and to provide competency in basic essential tasks, such as searching online databases
- Simulations to practice more complex processes (such as diagnostics) and to verify that learning has taken place
For this future instructional media to be successful, there are at least a few crucial components that must be addressed:
1. For any given institution there has to be an IT infrastructure and networking to support all of these mobile devices, as well as to give the instructor an overview of what the students are doing at any given period of time (especially important when conducting labs).
2. Students, teachers, and the administration (if possible) will have to receive training on how to use these technologies, as well as on how to successfully participate in a distance learning program.
3. Without an instructor’s physical presence the students will have to be motivated to participate in the process. This means that there will have to be some manner of accessibility to the instructor, possibly through some type of chat arrangement. And the learning itself will have to be attractive and engaging, as if it is miserable to access and complete the students will find some way to complete it in the easiest / quickest manner possible, which will reduce the effectiveness of learning.
4. With the increased share of learning that will be accomplished online, the evaluation phase will be even more important as the instructor will not be personally present to verify that the learning took place and that the student was able to actually accomplish the objectives of the course. Tests and quizzes will be a part of this, but realistic simulations (where possible) would be the best indication that the learning was successful.
Thank you for checking out my blog today!
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