5 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2024
    1. Potential consequences to actions — What are some of the possible consequences for any actions taken to solve the dilemma? How would the people involved like to be treated? What is the role of the designer in solving the conflict (whether or not the designer is involved in causing this conflict)?

      This is an important factor to consider when navigating conflict, especially conflict that involves ethical breaches. A student may have had their data used without their consent, or a student's information may have been accidentally taken without use. It is important for the instructional/learning designer to first determine what happens, and they must serve as someone that the student can trust in this situation. Fair treatment should be paramount and a learning designer should never dismiss a learner's real concerns, feelings, or motivations for feeling the way that they do. It is also important to set a clear role of the learning designer, so that students and instructors involved in the course are not thrown into more disarray due to the confusing actions of the learning designer. It is very important to curate learning experiences that are enjoyable to the learner.

    2. What was once kept private between the learner and institution on paper can no longer be assumed as safe. Records which are now held in digital format are vulnerable to hackers and are enticing to outside agencies that are seeking to monetize the data.

      This is a new and important impact to the learner. Information that was once stored in a paper setting that could be easily stored and destroyed is now in a digital format. Furthermore, student data is utilized for learning analytics, in which school organizations or districts use student data to improve or understand how students learn. Is this process ethical? Is using learner's information without their consent in order to better their learning a sacrifice that is okay to make? Those are the questions worth asking in a 21st century learning environment.

    3. For example, if there is only one computer, or limited internet bandwidth, but two parents and two children all need to access it for their job or homework, then there is not sufficient access. Similarly, the computer or internet access may be too old to play the instructional multimedia in a module. Thus, it is important to look beyond the statistics to truly understand the level of access.

      This is absolutely an important aspect to consider for learners. When conducting a learner analysis, it's important to not just look at the surface level conditions of access (whether a student can or cannot access technology), but at the deeper dimensions of why. As the article points out, it is not as simple as "Student A does not have a computer." Student A may have a computer that she shares with her entire family, and Student B may have a computer that is old or faulty. Access issues are oftentimes more complex than the surface level, which this article does a wonderful job at pointing out.

    4. Who are the learners?

      All of the learner characteristics are important; however, I feel as though "who is the learner/who are the learners" is the most important question that a learning or instructional designer should ask before creating a persona, developing a training plan, or doing anything involving designing curriculum that others will use. The learner identity determines who you are catering to and what the learner will be doing. It is the heart and soul of the entire project that you are building. A learner's identity determines their age, their socioeconomic background, their race, and who they are as a person. It is key to understanding the learner's needs.

    5. For example, an instructor teaching a biology master’s program can expect learners to have a solid foundational knowledge of biology. At an undergraduate level however, the instructor may expect students to have a somewhat limited understanding of biology.

      This aspect of the article is extremely helpful to me as someone who created a learning persona for students in Kindergarten, this article assisted me in understanding how to create a persona for young learners. A young learner who has not been to school before would not know as much as a student who has been to school; therefore, there is an expectation that depending upon grade level and skill level, that a learner's material and understanding of the subject would change. A learner at the beginning of Kindergarten would have different needs than a learner in first grade; therefore, this thought process allowed me to understand what to ask of my learners and their needs.