Review of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

For the IDT 530 course, Planning, Designing, Developing, and Evaluating Technology-based Instruction, one of the other three required texts was A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink.

Pink has written five books,is no stranger to the New York Times best-seller list and has attained the status of business guru; he has been on the board of directors of many non-profits and start-ups. This 304-page business text was a logical choice for inclusion in the Instructional Design curriculum, as it emphasizes the roles of creative individuals in today’s business world.

He starts off the book by recapping the four “ages” that he says define progress of the modern world: Agricultural, Industrial, Information, and Conceptual. He asserts that society is now in the Conceptual age, which is marked by creators and empathizers (right-brain people). He looks at how there are many things that the Western world is not competitive with anymore, as many tasks are no longer in demand or can be done better (and cheaper) via computer or overseas.

Once this background is set, he goes on to describe essential differences, or “senses,” that can give industries a comparative advantage. I am not going to ruin the surprise of what these are, but he does seem to make sense and fairly reasonable arguments here for how our business focus needs to adapt.

I am not going to go so far as to say that Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future is a must-buy (unless, of course, your professor puts it on the required text list), but it is interesting enough that you might want to thumb through it if you have the time. The book is reasonably priced, with new ones selling for only around $10 on Amazon, so there is not much to lose if you do not like it.

Daniel H. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York; Penguin Group

Review of Peter F. Drucker’s Management Challenges for the 21st Century

Hello!

For the IDT 5300 course, 530, Planning, Designing, Developing, and Evaluating Technology-based Instruction, one of the three required texts was Management Challenges for the 21st Century by Peter F. Drucker.

Drucker was born in Vienna, and became a US citizen in 1943. He was an educator, management consultant, and author, having written 39 books. Over time he became a mythical figure in the study of management, and he was known as the “Founder of modern management.” Management Challenges for the 21st Century was published in 2001, so it is not terribly new, but this was one of his last works as he died in 2005.

This 224-page text is not a terribly onerous read, and when people saw me reading it they would comment that they had read it before (usually as part of an MBA program). The text is broken up into six sections, each of which is a nice stand-alone essay. They include: “Management’s New Paradigm,” “Strategy – The New Certainties,” “The Change Leader,” “Information Challenges,” “Knowledge Worker Productivity,” and “Managing Oneself.” The book still seems relevant 14 years later, and a lot of the things that Peter foretold have actually come to pass.

Of course, this has to all fit in to an Instructional Design program, so what were the takeaways for me? Well, the details of the changing world economy and how information were used were certainly interesting, but the real meat were the chapters on knowledge workers (which instructional designers are) and how to manage oneself. Drucker did a good job of defining knowledge workers and discussion their importance to an organization, as well as how to properly treat them and keep them motivated. And the information about managing oneself was also valuable as I am in the last half of my life and should start considering my role in the world more carefully.

Though I initially did not see how it was going to apply to me, Peter F. Drucker’s Management Challenges in the 21st Century ended up being an interesting read, and I think it was a good use of my time. If it sounds like you might enjoy it, this book is not terribly expensive, with new ones selling for only around $10 on Amazon. Or I could loan you my copy…

Drucker, P.F. (2001). Management challenges for the 21st century. New York: Harper & Row

MSIDT 530: Planning, Designing, Developing, and Evaluating Technology-based Instruction

Hello!

The third semester of my CSUF MSIDT program (Summer 2015) included MSIDT 530, Planning, Designing, Developing, and Evaluating Technology-based Instruction. The course description and objectives were (from the university website): “1) The ability to determine appropriate design strategies for an assigned instructional program. 2) The development of storyboards and flowcharts for an interactive lesson with appropriate tools. 3) The recognition and assessment of factors impacting cost and scope of multimedia projects. 4) The assessment of the capabilities of authoring tools, programming languages, and HTML.”

The course met these objectives for me. Students in Cohort 13 were expected to work in small groups to produce a multimedia learning object using Captivate 8, prepare small group peer reviews of other groups’ projects, lead a discussion thread (again in a small group), complete weekly assignments on the web forum, and write a summary paper. There was also a final exam thrown in for good measure.

Supporting the course were three main texts (reviews of two these will be provided in subsequent blog posts, and one has already been reviewed):

-- Multimedia for Learning: Methods and Development, by Alessi and Trollip (already reviewed)

-- Management Challenges for the 21st Century by Peter F. Drucker

-- A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

There was nothing in the coursework that was really hard to do, but the small group dynamic did give me some problems. The instructor assigned the small groups (3 students in each), and this was the same group that worked with on each of the projects (except for the final exam and the summary paper). I had difficulties understanding my team mates and communications were poor at times, so there was a lot of stress involved with the projects as my grades were dependent on what I thought they were supposed to be doing. I would have preferred to pick who I worked with, which was the case in the rest of the courses in the IDT program. Everything worked out well in the end, and overall this course was very beneficial.

Thanks for checking out the blog, and next we will take a look at the texts we used for this course.

Mahalo!

CSUF MSIDT Summer Semester of 2015

Hello!

My third semester in the MSIDT program was in the Summer of 2015, and like the other four semesters, it lasted for 16 weeks. Six units are taken at a time, so there were two courses: IDT 530: Planning, Designing, Developing and Evaluating Technology-Based Instruction and IDT 535, Instructional Strategies and Universal Design Issues in Learning Environments.

This third semester was the toughest one of the program, and it got off to a rocky start for me because there was a very short break after the Spring term, so there was not much time to recharge my batteries. Once things got started, the 535 course was very straightforward as we prepared lesson plans and worked on research papers. The 530 course was difficult, mostly due to a group project that I was involved in where things just did not go very smoothly. As a result, there was a lot of stress for me (though I still learned a lot). When it was all over I was relieved to get a few weeks off before the Fall semester, and had the chance to take a wonderful vacation with my family.

Stay tuned to the blog –- I will be writing in more detail about both of the Summer semester classes as well as the texts we used in them.

Mahalo!

Rex

Review of Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (3rd Edition)

For the Spring of 2015 IDT 525 course, Instructional Approaches in Learning and Cognition, the required text was Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (3rd Edition) by Sharan B. Merriam, Rosemary S. Caffarella, and Lisa M. Baumgartner.

This text has a little bit of everything in it, as it covers adult learning from many angles and addresses a little bit of a lot of different theories. Unfortunately it lacks focus and order, making it a tough read, and when you combine this with its bloated size (560 pages), this makes it a tough sell. At least it is not terrible expensive for a textbook, coming in at $48 from Amazon.

By trying to cover so much ground in one book, the authors were often unable to provide and context or background for the learning theories, and there is not enough depth for most of the theories so that additional research will need to be done by the reader if they want to learn more than the most basic details. Making matters worse, there is obvious bias to the writing, particularly when it comes to newer approaches to adult learning, including embodied, spiritual, and narrative learning, as well as non-Western learning perspectives.

The nicest thing I can say about this book is that it did lead me to do my own research into pedagogy, so slogging my way through it was not a complete waste of time. I decided to hold onto this book because I was not going to get much money for selling it back, but I certainly would not buy another one if it became lost or damaged.

Thanks for checking in, and next time we will start getting into the courses and books from summer semester of the MSIDT program.

Merriam, S., Caffarella, R. and Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide (3rd Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

MSIDT 525: Instructional Approaches in Learning and Cognition

Hello!

The other course in the second semester of my CSUF MSIDT program (Spring 2015) was MSIDT 525: Instructional Approaches in Learning and Cognition. The university website says that this course “Focuses on behavioral, cognitive, constructivist learning theories, related concepts, and their implications for designing instruction. Develops students’ critical thinking about desirable cognitive outcomes when designing educational experiences.”

The course objectives were (again from the university website):

- The ability to examine learners’ learning preferences and their capacities to organize and coordinate information

- Comparing and contrasting emerging theories of adult learning (andragogy) with theories of how children learn (pedagogy)

- Recognizing the impact of learning theories on the design of learning environments including environments where technology supports learning

The highlight of this class for me was fulfilling the second objective, and to this end I wrote a research paper on Knowles’ andragogy and its application to multimedia learning. This helped me to bridge the gap between theory and application, and components from this paper will be essential in the preparation of my final program thesis and project.

On the fun side of things, I got to work in a small group to author a PowerPoint presentation on learning theory as it applies to online learning. This was probably the most enjoyable group project that I worked on in the program, as the other members were cool people and everybody pulled their weight and respected each other.

And lastly, there were ten discussion forums that the members of Cohort 13 were expected to participate in. These provided a lot of different viewpoints on learning theories and helped to continue building the learning community that was established in the first semester.

Supporting the course was only one main text:

-- Merriam, S., Caffarella, R. and Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in adulthood (3rd Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The readings were difficult ( a review is on its way) and in this course it took a surprising amount of time to do everything right. There were no quizzes or exams, and from the course description it may look like there was not a lot going on, but the paper and discussion boards were very involved and we kept busy throughout the 16 weeks of the course.

Thanks for checking out the blog, and next we will take a look at the text we used for this course.