Instructional Design in Business & Industry and How It Applies to K-12 Education

The use of technology in training in the business world takes place to save time. This is being done by “(1) using technology to reduce training time and costs; and (2) using more sophisticated evaluation techniques to ensure training effectiveness, thereby avoiding the need for followup instruction." (Richey, 2007) I see this being used in the K-12 setting to do the same things. High schools are increasingly offering online or virtual courses. This allows for a greater number of students to enroll and create another revenue stream for a district. Homeschoolers or students from parochial schools who need broader course options can take online classes offered by public schools. The technology gives them the flexibility in their schedule or allows them to work from home if they so choose. The school receives some of the their foundation allowance and increases dollars coming into their district.

Another way in which technology use in training can be applied to education is the use of student response systems to ramp up the evaluation process. Teachers who are fortunate enough to have such a piece of technology in their rooms can immediately see if their instruction has been effective. They can target specific students with specific pieces of instruction to help move those students towards greater achievement/performance.

The globalization of training concept is one that the staff at Sylvester Elementary must apply daily. There are students from a number of different countries attending our school. English Language Learners are in nearly every single classroom and teachers, “…must address the issue of how to prepare and/or adapt instructional materials for different cultures.” (Richey, 2007) And I would like to add different languages, too. We have to continually make adjustments and accommodations in our instruction and materials to help students understand what we are trying to communicate to them. Gestures, props, electronic translators, and online resources must be utilized to communicate basic instruction to the non-native speaker. This is also another example of  how technology is used to help in the instruction process.

Map Mash-ups In Social Studies

In fifth grade social studies, we teach a chapter that deals with the early European explorers and the routes they took to come to the New World. An activity students could do with My Maps in Google is to create routes that each Explorer took.

Students would be responsible for knowing from which country each explorer traveled from, the year they made their voyage, and where in North America they arrived/traveled before heading home across the Atlantic again.


Explorer Map



View Routes of Early European Explorers to North America in a larger map