September 16

Micro-Worlds

My favorite presentation of the day today was the one on Micro-worlds. At first when she was explaining them I thought, “Well, yeah – duh.” But, I loved her example of the ski hills and then the baseball playing (starting first with tennis balls and a machine, and then moving to real balls, and a real field). That’s what life is all about – it’s all about slowly moving from a smaller micro-world to a larger one (whether that be in the sense of the gospel or just life in general).

I was thinking about my life and how the older I get the more I can expand my microworld to include more and more of my surroundings. I think that one thing that comes with more knowledge is an automatic expansion of our microworld – one of the greatest blessings I can think of that I have received from coming to college is an increased understanding of everything around me – and with that I think comes an automatic shift in micro-world.

As teachers it is so crucial to not only have an understanding of the micro-world the student is living in but to also constantly seek to push that and enlarge it. The implications that come with the proper understanding of a micro-world are also huge to an instructional designer. We need to start with the world they currently reside in and consistently create experiences that will place the learners in larger and more complex micro-worlds. The key is to constantly build on the knowledge and experiences gained in the previous experiences or micro-worlds (like scaffolding) so they are not overwhelmed.

I liked the idea as well that was shared in class about Gagne’s 9 steps. I think that they are all good and important to follow, but as we come to an understanding of each one we will naturally gain the ability to take artistic license in which order we use them in and which we chose to admit. As was said in class – just as Mozart had a firm understanding of what it took to make music and was able to work around and within those parameters, we as instructional designers can take artistic license and work around and within the steps shared by Gagne.

I like learning about all the theorists and seeing how I can use that knowledge in my own life or in the future – for example, the VoiceThread application that we were shown – that was great. I can very well see myself using that in the future as I prepare to become a teacher.