Connection ID in Business, P-12, and Higher Ed

            One theme that seems to be consistently coming up in these readings about business, P-12 education, and higher education is the inflexibility of some.  In the business world, it is seen in the stubbornness of those providing the services and/or the client.  If the instructional designer is not willing to take the clients need into consideration and instead just plod along with their plans, their end goal will not be effective.  Likewise, if the client is not open to new ideas or any sort of change, the work of the instructional designer will be for naught.  The same can be seen in education.  P-12 teachers (typically those with more experience) are often resistant to change because they see what they have been doing is working fine.  Higher education experiences the same problems, whether it is inflexibility regarding to new practices or working well with other staff.

            This is something I have witnessed in my brief teaching career.  Some teachers have come up with good lessons that they use year in and year out.  However, these lessons do not change with the times and though they still may be effective, they may not be as relative and/or effective as they once were.  Being in a relatively new school in our 3^rd years, our teachers, thankfully, haven’t had the time to develop such habits…yet.  This is something we should address before we get to a point where we become too comfortable, so that we constantly push ourselves to improve, grow, and work with each other.

            Another common theme in these three fields is time constraints.  Businesses are always facing a deadline for their product or service, and even the instructional designers who may not have a direct hand in the end product are under time constraints to help employees effectively do their jobs.  P-12 and higher education instructors are also under similar time constraints. P-12 teachers are pushed to accomplish a certain number of standards in each year (often a mile wide and an inch deep) and higher education instructors are also expected to accomplish certain tasks (research, publications, etc.) within a short period of time in order to be considered effective.

            My own experiences in this are very consistent with descriptions in the book.  I feel the pressure of helping my students meet the standards every year, and it seems like there are more standards every year!  With the time restrictions and high expectations, we all need to prioritize well so that our end goals (products, services, standards, research, publications and the like) are effective and useful as opposed to just being “done.”