Go Bryan!

Fuck this shit! EVERYTHING is in a mess!

 

Day 1

 

I cooked. I cut vegetables. I cut my left ring finger tip and it is nearly off! I bled a lot. I felt dizzy. I called 911. I lied down and wait. 5 minutes later, a police car and a fire engine came with sharp siren on. Neighbors must be thinking that I died. Five muscular men stormed into my apartment and asked me if I need an ambulance. I asked how much that would cost, they said it’s 1,500 dollars. I refused. I asked them to give me a ride to the hospital, they asked me to call a friend to give me a ride to the hospital. They went away. THANK YOU OFFICERS!!!!!

 

Day2

 

I received a phone call. I hate GRE. I went to class. I could not concentrate on those stuffs. My thought was drawn away by annoying things. I went to a bar with a friend. We were discussing if American could throw up after too much drinking because we had never seen one. An American came. He bought us alcohols. We chatted, we drank. He threw up. He might just have a quarrel with his fat wife, we predicted.  

 

Day3

I came to my office at 10:00am. I saw my boss and apologized: “I’m sorry, I’m late. I was busy coding until 2:30am last night”. In tired and harsh voice, she replied me that she didn’t sleep last night. “I want your help on the data collection day”. She must be mad at me. I could not get the second assistantship after the current one expires.  

I went to collect data. It was successful. I got back to the office. I worked with my colleague happily. At 4:45pm he left for home. I check my email. “Please come to the payroll office TODAY to resolve this issue.  It is imperative you respond to this email.  No response could jeopardize your work eligibility”. What the hell are they talking about?? They sent the email at 2:50pm and the time when I received it was 4:45pm. I called them immediately. No one answered. 15minutes might be enough for me to ride there if I ride at my full speed. I scurried out and found it rained cats and dogs. GREAT!!! I rode on sidewalk. I’m wet. A car passed by without slowing down. Water on the ground wad splashed on my pants. I showed my right mid finger to the driver but he didn’t care. I arrived at the payroll office, Light was out and doors were locked. I’M FEELING LUCKY! “TODAY” has gone! I may lose my assistantship even sooner! In this semester! No more money for my study!

 

 

I’m back now. I’m wet to skin with mud on my cloths. I’m furious. I could kill someone. What the hell is going on? What did I do to result in such misfortune?

My heart beats fast and heavily even when I am lying in bed. I feel tired. I feel sick. I feel nausea. My fingertip turned purple.

I’d better go back to work. I do not want to disappoint my boss and those I love. Can you imagine in spite of tons of work to do, I am blogging now??

Viewing Instructional Design as an Ill-Structured Complex Problem-Solving Process

---Response to Reading Assignment of Week One

Sep.8^th 2008

 

With the development and evolution of learning theory and instructional design during the last several decades, Instructional Design has become increasingly inclined to focus on real-world problems based on cognitive learning theory rather than its precedent which mainly focused on simple stimuli-response problems based on behaviorism. While, from my perspective, Instructional Design(ID), or Instructional System Design (ISD) itself is a typical example of an ill-structured problem-solving process in the real world.

 

Ill-structured problems have their own features. For instance, one or more problem elements are unknown; the solution can be divergent (multiple), rather than convergent (single).  There are multiple criteria for evaluating solutions and it’s very domain-specific (context-dependent).

 

 

All those features apply perfectly for Instructional design:

The variables of a specific instructional design task may include, but are not constrained to, the characteristic of students or trainees, the nature of the instructional content as well as the learning context. They are unknown, or partially unknown, to the designers at the beginning stage of the design. Therefore, analysis works should be carried out to clarify those elements.

 

Interestingly, there seems to be a controversy in terms of “goals”.  Referring to the definition of problem space - i.e. the initial state through the goal state of a problem - of ill-structured complex problem, the goals of such problems seem to be rather vague. That is, there is not a clear goal. While all the authors of the textbooks emphasize that defining a clear goal and maintaining congruity between the goal and all other elements throughout the designing process is important, I would argue that these two goals are at different levels. The goal of a specific instructional design practice, i.e. the solution to an instructional design task, is vague: not necessarily in a certain way to be justified “correct” or “wrong”, while the learning goal of students or trainees, which should be achieved through the utilization of the instructional product, must be clearly defined at the beginning of the design process.

 

Additionally, there are a variety of ways to achieve the designing goal. Two people teaching the same subject or topic and targeting the same outcome goals might very well design different plans. This process encourages creativity, even to the extent of providing for open-ended, unanticipated learning experiences (Morrison, 2007).

According to Jonassen’s typology of problem solving, Instructional design should be categorized into “design” problems. They are usually among the most complex and ill-structured kinds of problems that are encountered in practice (Jonassen, 2000).

 

Another important feature of ill-structured problem solving is that it raises questions like “what”, “how”, “why”, which may help problem solvers to identify criteria elements to the problem and finally solve the problem. This is also true of instructional design.

As Morrison mentioned, four fundamental elements can be presented by answers to four questions:

1.      For whom is the program developed? (characteristics)

2.      What do you want the learners or trainees to learn or demonstrate? (objectives)

3.      How is the subject content or skill best learned? (instructional strategies)

4.      How do you determine the extent to which learning is achieved? (evaluation) (Morrison, 2007)

Therefore, I conclude that the conduction of instructional design is an ill-structured problem solving process. The application of ill-structured problem-solving model and systematic designing procedures could efficiently enhance the quality of ID. And the solutions of each individual design goal are divergent. Because of the diversity, we are presented with challenges.

 

2007年的圣诞节前夜，居然还要去面授！看完Ratatouille已经六点十分了，晚饭也只能在昌膳用一碗牛肉面打发了，热汤面稍稍缓解了孤身一人还要工作的不平衡心理，不过心里还是需要用极地特快的主题曲安慰自己 “with all the Christmas cheer, it’s hard to be alone” 平安大道上堵得厉害，大概是大家都出来过圣诞吧，从总参出来左转排在路中间三四辆车才并入直行的车流，一步一步地挪到了德内大街。德内很通畅，唯一让人吃惊的就是在刘海胡同第一次看到了交警，过了德胜门也没像上次一样开到掉头道里，直接转上了冰窖口胡同。如此优化的线路使我提前半个小时就到了网校的院子里，于是坐在车里悠然自得地听交通广播。主持人贫了十分钟，我觉得差不多该上去了，因为还想在课前下几首歌给学生们听，于是敏捷切从容地关了收音机，转身下车随手甩了车门。怦！坏了！车钥匙还安稳地在钥匙孔里插着呢！绕车一圈，发现右前玻璃开着0.5厘米左右的一条小缝，突然想起原来大舅用过的方法，用铁丝挝成个钩子，从缝里伸进去把门上的锁钮钩住再拽开，可是这地方上哪找铁丝啊？就算找到了铁丝，哪找钳子啊？

根本没报希望的问了保安，得到的答案如我所料，又问了网校直播间，像我一样悲惨不能过圣诞的一个女老师，答案当然也是否定的。还有十分钟就要上课了，我去了趟卫生间，回来的路上看到大厅里有个男的在抱着笔记本看电影，我就凑上前去，同样没抱希望的问了他一句，这哥们还真热心，四处帮我找，可还是一无所获。于是他就问他的一个同事，这人让我先上课，他帮我找。一会工夫，他拿着一个铁丝圈的晾衣架过来了，哈哈，这是个好材料！等下课我拆了它做个钩子！

 

待续……

 

人真的是很奇怪，许多东西总在改变，小时候喜欢吃硬桃，现在必须得是软的我才肯张口，从前喜欢唱慢歌，比如《且行且珍惜》，《忘忧草》，shell we talk之类的，觉得通过凄婉的旋律才能表达出感情，但现在每去KTV都必唱歇斯底里的One Night In Beijing，《离歌》，《死了都要爱》等等这些信乐团的歌，可能是因为这些歌唱着痛快吧，把感情在瞬间爆发出来，比起从前也算是“带宽”提高了。“不唱到沙哑不痛快！”。也许心中有太多想宣泄的东西又没有渠道吧，所以也不管我的嗓子了，唱吧！“地球毁灭才痛快...” 

你认识她是谁么？