I Now Pronounce You: Development & Technology

On your mark: Did you analyze and create your instructional goals?

Get set: Did you get all the necessary materials to complete your instructional design?

DON'T GO: At least not yet. It is time for you to enter the development phase. Now you edit, test, and, if possible, weave technology into your nearly completed instructional design plans. Hopefully, you get the approval to implement.

     If you are wondering why the two people above are smiling, they are part of the Pear Deck family. What's so special about that? The collaborative learning possibilities are endless with Pear Deck. Instructional designers understand the need for collaborative authoring tools utilized in digital formats because "social learning is playing an increasingly important role in online learning" (Rithzaupt et al., 2017, Development, Authoring Tools, Social Learning Tools, para. 1). I have not used Pear Deck for my lessons yet, but I have been playing with the application for a few days. This application stands out to me as being a game-changer for instructional designers in the future. Take a look at this informative video concerning Pear Deck below.

     One look at the possibilities of Pear Deck had me wondering about combining the Google Slide presentations I have already created.  Can I use my Google Slides with Pear Deck? Yes, I can!  With a little bit of editing, the existing drab presentations can become epic, collaborative, and engaging instructional design. Right, I seem a bit too excited, but that is because you don't know the tons of Google Slides presentations I have in my Google drive. The world is going to be changing in my instructional design now and in the future. This type of application allows me to combine materials from my prior design phase and creatively edit the instructional materials during development in preparation for the implementation phase. Since I use Google Slides for presentations, the individual slides become a digital form of storyboards to be manipulated in placement, adding instructional videos where applicable, or using Pear Deck to check for understanding during training collaboratively. "Testing and editing plays a crucial part of the development phase of instructional design" (Rithzaupt et al., 2017, Development, Testing and Editing, para. 1). Incorporating all the materials together into a well-formed instructional unit is emblematical of the development phase in instructional design. Still, for designers willing to integrate technology in the development phase of their instructional designs, the future is bright. 

      The main idea of the development phase of instructional design is to test and edit instructional materials before implementation thoroughly. The goal is to have an instructional design development process using "guidelines that encourage instructors to create a flexible, equitable learning curriculum that meets the needs of a diverse body of learners without the need for customization or retrofitting" (El Mhouti et al., 2017, p. 207). This instructional design study also points out that online educational experiences are increasing. Instructional designs will need to transfer from a more traditional face-to-face format to the digital arena in the future. This movement to an online digital form can be limiting for those designers opposed to technology integration. Still, for those designers willing to integrate technology into their instructional designs, "there has been an increased emphasis on hiring faculty/instructors that are comfortable teaching online and teaching with technology" (El Mhouti et al., 2017, p. 222). My goal is to incorporate technology as much as possible into my instructional designs, and further my knowledge of educational technology applications when possible. Pear Deck is an excellent addition to my educational apps' repertoire, and I hope you take advantage of it as well in creating your instructional designs. Remember, when you are done in the development of your instructional design, get confirmation from others in your team or administration that all goals are met and you are ready for implementation. Then, on to implementation!

References

El Mhouti, A., Nasseh, A., Erradi, M., & Vasquèz, J. M. (2017). Enhancing Collaborative Learning in Web 2.0-Based E-Learning Systems: A Design Framework for Building Collaborative E-Learning Contents. Education and Information Technologies, 22(5), 2351–2364.

Gardner, J.C. (2011, September 25). The ADDIE Development Phase [Video File]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzYDNWhQWYA

"Interactivizing presentations was my goal. Mad tips from the brilliant Nick Park, Mr. Pear Deck KC." by LauraGilchristEdu is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Pear Deck. (2015, February 9). How does Pear Deck Work? [Video File]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/evoJy4WcReM 

Rithzaupt, A., Lee, B., Eichler., Calhoun, C., Salama, C., Nichols, J., Wilson, M., Hafizah, N., Davis, A., Beatty, O., Yaylaci, S., Sahau, S. & Wildberger, W. (2017, December 12). Development. ADDIE Explained [text]. Retrieved from http://www.aritzhaupt.com/addie_explained/# CC BY license 4.0.