Response to “First Principles of Instruction” by M. David Merrill & Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, by Will Richardson

“Today’s schools are faced with a difficult dilemma that pits a student body that has grown up immersed in technology against a teaching faculty that is less facile with the tools of the trade” (Richardson p.6)

After reading the first three chapters of Richardson’s book, and reading Merrill’s “First Principles of Instruction” it became clear to me that the fundamental challenge that awaits the system of education is how to use current instructional design theories to implement a change in how we use technology (mainly the Internet) in the classroom.

Merrill explains and elaborates on the commonality of many of the widely excepted instructional design theories. He discusses Reigeluth’s ideas that we should “…concentrate on what is taught rather than how we teach” (Merrill p.43). Merrill alludes to Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, Jonassen’s and Shank’s ideas on problem solving, and Van Merrienboer’s ideas on sequencing. What Merrill’s paper stressed is the idea that these theories all have some common elements. So how can these common elements all relating to problem solving; integration, activation, demonstration, application, and experience, be used to solve the problem of the read/write web discussed by Richardson?

First, we need to discuss the problems with the read/write web in education. As Richardson states, “…the Read/Write Web is changing our relationship to technology and rewriting the age old paradigms of how things work” (Richardson p.3). The main problems Richardson discusses are how technology is ever changing and we as teachers are behind where are students are in the learning curve. He also talks about the “toolbox” of ways to publish and maintain information. He list Weblogs, wikis, rich site summary, aggregators, and social bookmarking as some of the main tools. The question shared by both Merrill and Richardson is how teachers, schools, and the system implement this technology in the classroom?

When you “mesh” the two readings together the answer becomes clearer. We (as educators) need to approach the implementation and pedagogy of these technologies the same way we would approach any new curriculum. We must take instructional design theories that we know work in the classroom and apply them to the read/write web. I know what your thinking, sounds to simple. What is really going to blow your mind is when I ask you, how do we choose the instructional design theory, if as Merrill states; they have so many common elements?

The answer is one of the best parts about being a teacher. We get to decided what will work best for our students through trail and error. We have to approach the read/write web with the basic understanding that we know less then our students, not easy to admit but true. As Richardson discusses, we are really showing students the way to effectively use the technology with what we are teaching. There are so many benefits of weblogging, and wikis that we can not afford to not use them in the classroom or we have failed as educators.

~Jeremy Mellon

Times have changed

Times have completely changed over the last 10 years in schools throughout the country. 10 years ago we didn't even have computer labs in school, most students were carrying around beepers and getting their 911 page to let them know the number calling them was important.
Students today have to deal with cyber bullying, Internet hazing, other people placing photos of them online and making comments.
It almost makes you wish for the old days when it was just a guy named Biff bullying a skinny kid named McFly.