Weekly Reflection--Whitney Anderson

During this class session we learned the basics of the Instructional Architect (IA) program. Professor Tom Caswell was kind enough to come and share what he knew about the program. IA has about the same purpose as WebQuests, it is designed to provide students with online experience and present websites in an organized manner to help students learn. While they have about the same purpose they are executed in different ways. I really like that IA is free to all teachers and that you are able to take projects that other teachers have done and adapt them to you and your needs. Many times we find great ideas but we need to tweak it to fit our situation or our teaching style. It was also really easy to pick a layout and format the lesson exactly the way you wanted, it allowed for a bit more creativity. Yet having less structure can really vary the quality of the projects. I also really enjoyed how it had the resources that you could search right through the program. The web has limitless information sources available but these programs are wonderful in narrowing down the information to provide a quality experience for our students.

Learning about these wonderful tools makes me wish that they would have been utilized in my practicum and even during my own schooling. Really the only experience the children in my practicum had was using a computer once maybe twice a week and most of this was spent at one site dictated by the adults. Programs like IA and WebQuest not only give the students control over their learning it gives them necessary technology skills. Teachers cannot afford to overlook this generation and their needs. I plan on incorporating both of these helpful resources and tools into my teaching.