Reflective Essay #5

I find it noteworthy that legal issues and training play a big role in instructional design/technology. I would never have thought that a lawsuit could result from training. Interesting enough, failure to perform certain mandated tasks can land an employer in that position. I guess the most obvious type of lawsuit that I could see filed against someone in the technological field would be lawsuits involving property rights. I have had friends sued for “stealing” songs from the internet. I could see property rights being an issue in schools due to the fact that students use the internet for information on reports and papers. Often times, I have to remind students to cite or quote all work from their sources. Instructional designers need to aware of these times of laws governing rights and materials. Another aspect of instructional design and technology that I found to be interesting and that I could relate to was the globalization of training. For a corporation to be able to expand its business beyond its typical boundaries it must be able to be compatible with other nations and languages. “Problems and solutions resulting from the use of software in different cultures provide contexts and strategies for designing instruction for different cultures.” There is an entire workforce out there creating software that is accustomed to different cultures. I find this interesting because we have several Spanish speaking students that attend my school. Many times I have to find support and/or adjust their workload due to a language barrier. These students sometimes prefer to read and write in their book using the Spanish glossary/dictionary. Luckily our textbook comes supplied with many ways to aide Spanish speakers. Such tools include online resources that have been recorded in Spanish, printable letters to send home updating parents on content taught in class (Spanish), and like I said before, a Spanish glossary. I find it interesting that it is someone’s job to create these tools for students to expand globalization of training.
One trend that I find interesting in schools is the Step-Up-To-Excellence process. It is “designed for successful or average-performing school systems that want to step up to the next higher performance level. It can also be used with failing or low-performing districts if these districts develop the necessary conditions for successful whole-district change.” What is most interesting to me about this piece is that it can help failing schools by requesting leaders who can act as an entire system, not just a school. These leaders must convince their followers to reshape their thinking. I also thought the strategic leadership team was interesting. I like the fact that it was a small group, no larger than 15 that combined leadership from varies aspects of a school district. Those on the team included the superintendent, one principal and teacher from each grade level. I think this would benefit my school because these people are not responsible for daily work of improvement but to provide leadership for whole-district improvement.