One noteworthy way that instructional design/technology has been used in business and industry is to decrease the cost of training and increase efficiency. These businesses and industries have decreased the cost of training by doing training by using the web and the Internet. This way, they don’t have to pay as much for an actual human being to come in and instruct the workers. And because the workers can essentially “read” instructions etc., it takes them less time to be trained and they can get back to work sooner.
This of course helps with efficiency because the workers are being trained for the least amount of money, in the least amount of time and then putting what they learn into practice sooner. This helps the company to get its products out faster.
Another noteworthy way instructional designed/technology has been used in business and industry is to internationalize and localize its products in order to be globalized. As explained in chapter 18, there can be many different aspects that companies must deal with if they want to go global. There are different customs and different meanings for things; therefore, a company must be careful not to offend or their product (in a particular country- for example) may be short-lived.
The company must internationalize their product by making it generic and then localize it by letting people from that culture that understand subtleties add things to it for the people in that country to understand. This goes beyond just changing the language, and includes things such as color.
I feel that the first element of decreasing the cost of training by using web or Internet versus an actual person is something that can definitely be used in my current position. I am an academic advisor and there are only four of us to service 4,800 students. Therefore, we can never all get away and go for training. It would be a great benefit to us to be able to get training right from our computers so that we can take turns as our schedule permits. That way we won’t have to play rock, paper, scissors because there is not enough money to send all of us and so the Director ends up going :(
I think that we can also use the elements of internationalization and localization. We give a lot of presentations to different groups and in order to reach our specific audiences, we have to be able to tear down our presentations and make them generic. We then have to speak with some of our international students that can help us to localize our presentation for the group that comes from their country. For example, a few years ago, we had an international student working with us to do her internship and I was able to gain lots of insight from her. I did several interviews and asked lots of cultural questions that enabled me to connect with my international students in a way that I never had before; because I was given new information and with it a new perspective.
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5 comments:
Sheena,
That is really cool that you used another student to help you connect to other students. I wish more people were like you.
If there are only four of you, and you have to service 4800 students, maybe some of that advising could be done through an interactive site, or online questionaire. (Or maybe it already is?)
You have really connected these writings to your profession, and I have enjoyed learning it from your perspective. Thanks, Sheena!
Chrissy
When I first studied industrial design we were made aware that we had to be very careful when designing a product so that it would not offend/confuse other cultures. Colors, shapes, sizes, uses, all had to be carefully considered. It is not any different in instructional design. Designers must be always aware of cultural differences when designing for a broad audience. I imagine designing a single set of instructional material does not always work. Not only do instructional designers have to cross cultural and linguistic barriers they must also have to punch through different learning types. I'm sure it is a daunting task at times.
I think it is great that you found a way to reach a student through technology. I think that if more people took the time to learn things like you did and apply them we can reach more students. I can also relate with having to choose each year who is going to go to training conferences due to money. It would be nice to have these conferences streamed through the interent so more can learn.
Jennifer
It is a finanical struggle to get to the trainings you know can be very beneficial to your job. I have found webcasts to be very helpful. There have been ones on things such as photosharing, you obviously don't get the whole picture, but still very useful.
I liked that you responded with saying you weren't sure what was first.. life imitating art or art imitating life. I find that this supports that education and the economy go hand in hand. Educated creative individuals spur on advancements in the economy yet the business world helps define what our students need to know to be contributing members of communities. It reminds me what I discuss with my design students that with out design we can't build, but with out knowing how to build it is difficult to design...
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