Participating
Group Members:
Mark Anderson
Lisa Bailey
Richard Butler
Robin Culbertson
Jennifer Farr
Nancy Turner
Updated April 5, 2002
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It did not seem
appropriate to expect a group to reflect collectively, therefore
each member of our team has composed and added his/her own
thoughts regarding the case study and the group process.
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| Mark
Anderson's Reflection: The
case proposed common frustrations many new teachers feel. The
negative feeling Hernandez had having not been involved in
education for a period of time may have forgotten the challenges
of teaching students. She did try to use the resources available
to her for help by asking Spaulding. He just happened to be new
to the position also and not very familiar with working in the
educational field. His posed double the problem in the
case. Each had good experience but both were new to the school.
They may have had other opinions and options available if they
had been there longer. The feeling I have is that the case will
be resolved but it may take some time. The recommendations of
our group can help resolve the problems but the effect will not
be immediate. This is the way in many solutions. Good planning
and adjustments to methods are needed for a lesson or course to
work. It even needs to be adjusted form class to class.
The
group was very efficient. We had input from all members and each
person put forth their ideas so we could read, add, and comment
on these ideas. I would be happy to work with any of these
people on any project. We had some that took the initiative to
organize and go that extra step to make the solution of the case
go smoothly. The case reminded me of my own situation starting a
new position after 18 years in a different one. The learning
curve is still there no matter how much experience you have.
Each situation presents different challenges and solutions.
Careful analysis and planning is the key to success.
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Lisa Bailey's Reflection: The study
of the Hernandez case has certainly broadened my sights a bit
more. It was
interesting working with a group on this assignment, I certainly
wouldn’t have been able to see all the different perspectives
if I had only worked by myself.
This group is by far the best I have ever worked with and
the experience is one that has helped me to grow as a
professional and as a beginning Instructional Designer.
Working through the process has instilled the importance
of process when such cases arise. I want to thank all the members of the group for sharing
their expertise and ideas in this case and throughout the
assignment; it has definitely been a positive experience for me. |
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| Richard
Butler's Reflection: I
thoroughly enjoyed working with my fellow group members.
While this was not my first time doing a group project as
a graduate student, this was indeed my best experience.
Given the fact that we’ve never met each other in
person, one can imagine the team dynamics involved with this
project.
Our
conversations on the discussion board were great.
Everyone seemed to have something to say, and we all
provided feedback to each other’s comments. Personally, I
haven’t had this much communication and collaboration in ANY
of my “face-to-face” classes!
I was also
impressed by the constant improvement of our work.
Our project began with our comments being posted on the
discussion board. It
later developed into a “colorful” document, which compiled
each person’s input as time progressed.
With each release of the document, I grew more excited
about this project. As
if that wasn’t enough, the document evolved into a very
professional-looking Web site.
Because of our unwillingness to be complacent, we were
able to take our work to greater levels.
I won’t say
anything about the case study itself because the Web site says
it all! I would like to thank Mark, Lisa, Jennifer, Robin and
Nancy for a job well done. |
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Robin Culbertson's Reflection: The
group I worked with was great. They were all willing to
contribute equally to come up with various solutions to the
problems. The process of instructional design is truly harder
than I imagined it would be. Working this case study has truly
been an enlightening experience for me.
I would like to thank all my team members for helping me
through a difficult time these past couple weeks.
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Jennifer Farr's Reflection:
In our case study Hernandez found teaching challenging and
perhaps a little frustrating and Spaulding found that working
with professors as an Instructional designer in a university
setting was as difficult as "herding cats." When
I first read this case study I worried because I felt my
understanding of engineering principals was limited -- how could
I possibly make recommendations for instructional strategies and
formulate solutions for curriculum that was so alien to
me? Then, I realized that the case study also involved
personalities and developing strategies to help convey
instructional material. It would be impossible for any Instructional
Designer to know all curriculum -- perhaps the ultimate goal of
the designer is to focus on the teacher, students,
circumstances, and setting of the instruction -- presumably the
instructor already knows the curriculum. I found my
ideas flowed once I got past the curriculum focus.
It was also
interesting to see the solutions that individuals in our group
developed. Each member of our team brought a different
perspective and developed unique solutions that contributed to
the recommendations for the case study. I can't help but
wonder, wouldn't it be wonderful if Instruction Designers in
real life had an opportunity to collaborate on various cases as
well?
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Nancy Turner's Reflection: Just
as Hernandez struggles with creating learning experiences for
her students that will transfer to real world situations,
working to solve a case study provides the opportunity for us,
as instructional design students to wrestle, with “real
world” design challenges. Instead of a dry set of questions to
answer about a theoretical subject, working to solve a case
study scenario involves consideration of many factors we will
encounter in our professional endeavors. Of particular note in
the Sandra Hernandez case study is the prominence of
personalities and their unique (and not necessarily compatible)
perspectives on the reality of the situation and possible
approaches to enhancing learning outcomes for the students. As
the questions in at the end of the case suggest, multiple
possible solutions would be especially appropriate to put
forward so that not only may several be employed in an eclectic
solution to the challenge. But, also, so that the instructor may
choose a style that best fits his/her instructional style and
that of the students.
It
was a great experience working with our team on this project.
Everyone jumped right in to share ideas and work out solutions
to our case study. This has definitely been the most organized
and dedicated group in which I have been involved.
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