Helton, Design Journal 2
I attended a webinar on EdApp, and it raised some interesting points. From my initial playing around with the site, I could see how it could be used to gamify learning, but there was a lot of corporate-esque lorem ipsem in there, from the verbiage to the stock images used. After attending the webinar, it's clear this platform is designed with corporate on-the-job-training front of mind. One of the things they highlighted was the way you could integrate checklist-style performance evaluations into your courses, so after a certain number of modules, you would meet up with an employee to review their ability to complete a certain task or workflow.
Just as Christensen begins by saying she starts with the problem, then finds the theory to fit it, I think you should take into account the affordances of any tech tool you're planning on using to deliver instruction / create a learning environment. EdApp seems better suited to the "training" side of the spectrum, particularly because there is no real way to engage participants in conversation with each other or offer more open-ended answers to problems, and it's making me reconsider my final project. I still want to use EdApp, and I have a solution (Google Classroom) that works fairly well for my Ready OER Not course. I'm thinking of pivoting to creating some content around the kits my work trains educators on and loans out.
Our Loan and Learn program consists of about 30 different kits of equipment that teachers (and other educators) can borrow at no cost. These vary from robotics platforms (lots of LEGO robots) to an inflatable planetarium to GPS to 3D printers. Most programs borrow a specific kit once a year, for a particular unit or a STEM event. I think it would be beneficial to create a series of intro / refresher type lessons in EdApp, with the dual purposes of A) publicizing our kits and B) building teachers' confidence with using kits if there's been a long time elapse between when they were trained and when they are going to use the kit. Just an idea I'm kicking around!
Christensen, T. K. (2008). The role of theory in instructional design: Some views of an ID practitioner. _Performance Improvement_, _47_(4), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.199
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