Communication
Communicate clearly to achieve professional goals using visual and verbal modes to explain and persuade.
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Introduction/Context
For the EDTEC Communication standard, the artifact I chose was the World History for Us All (WHFUA) Project that I developed individually for EDTEC 795A, graduate seminar/practicum. EDTEC 795A required us to act as instructional design consultants. I had the privilege to work with Dr. Ross Dunn, Professor Emeritus of History, San Diego State University. Dr. Dunn has been developing a site called World History For Us All, which is a model curriculum for history instruction.
My job was threefold:
- Design a workshop for SDUSD middle school history teachers in order to implement the WHFUA approach in their class.
- Produce a unit for WHFUA
- Maintain a journal of the experience
Working with Dr. Dunn was a special experience for me. I admire his work tremendously and really believe in the WHFUA approach to history instruction. In addition, I felt my work was necessary because the World History For Us All curriculum is not reaching enough teachers and/or being implemented by them. Applying the research I did on Well’s key design factors for professional development as well as Clark, Nguyen, and Sweller’s Efficiency in Learning, I developed a workshop that aims to be efficient and engaging for social science teachers to implement World History For Us All.
Connection to Standard
Communication was extremely important throughout the duration of the World History for Us All (WHFUA) Project. The workshop is a full day from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm that is chunked into three sessions. Each session contains all tools that teachers need for understanding and implementing the World History For Us All approach. I use Gagne’s nine steps for each session. See sessions here:
1. 8:00 am – 10:00 am: Getting Started – Teaching Unit 0.1
2. 10:00 am – 10:15 am: Break for 15 min.
3. 10:15 am – 12:15 pm: Demonstrating Scale
4. 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm: Lunch (1 hr. 15 min.)
5. 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm: Get Acquainted with the WHFUA website
Dr. Dunn and I were able to collaborate on the workshop’s development through the Googlesite I built called the WHFUA Project. In addition, he was able to understand my thoughts behind each element of the workshop because I kept a blog of the whole process. We also communicated via email, text, phone, and a couple of in-person meetings. Each time we communicated, I kept meeting minutes that I emailed to him and to Dr. Bober, my EDTEC 795A instructor. In addition to meeting minutes, I produced briefings that were posted to Dr. Bober’s Moodle site weekly. I liked this process because I could be honest about my challenges in my briefings to Dr. Bober without Dr. Dunn knowing them. Then, Dr. Bober emailed and conferenced with me to give me support and offer tips to handle some delicate issues.
Problems/Opportunites
The WHFUA Project was challenging at times because I was trying to bridge the gap between a university professor and middle school teachers. For instance, Dr. Dunn gives a lecture about World History for Us All. Teachers like what he has to say, but they are not implementing the approach in their classrooms. Using Wells’ key design factors was an essential way to bridge this gap. I developed a workshop that engages teachers through modeling the WHFUA curriculum and then allotts time for teachers to explore the World History For Us All website and develop their own units. I think this demonstrated my ability to take the theories I have learned as an educational technologist and use World History For Us All content for application. Dr. Dunn is a content area expert, but he is not aware of the challenges that teachers have for implementing a way of thinking in their classrooms. Giving teachers time to develop a unit while in the workshop is not something Dr. Dunn had ever thought to do, yet it is a key design element when training teachers.
I will continue my work with Dr. Dunn as I assist in the development of a unit on the Renaissance that he can post to his website. My unit will be unique to all other units on his site, however, because it will entail more digital tools. This was one of my recommendations to Dr. Dunn and I hope he will bite when he sees what I’m working on.
My works in progress can be accessed here:
- Florence: Cradle of the Renaissance (web quest)
- Virtual Walking Tour of Florence e-learning simulation (in progress)
- Who’s Art is It Anyway e-learning game (in progress)
Reflection on Growth
Developing the WHFUA Project also gave me a chance to improve technical skills for communication such as power point, instructional videos, and Web 2.0 tools. Using Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within I learned to communicate more effectively in power point (Getting Started – Teaching Unit 0.1). I developed an instructional video to communicate how to navigate the WHFUA website. I had to learn how to use Jing and then configure the video so it would be on the WHFUA Project website (Get Acquainted with the WHFUA website). And finally, my skills for Web 2.0 tools have improved since using the mediums of Googlesites and WordPress as a means of communicating with Dr. Dunn. This was an extremely time-consuming project, however, I learned so much and became more confident as an instructional designer through this project.
The final report can be accessed here:
Juliana Liebke's e-Portfolio 