Which Professional Setting Fits Me?

Review the content and settings in chapters 18-23 of our book. What setting or settings are you interested in working in when you receive your respective degree in Instructional Technology? Explain how you will fit in this particular setting. What questions (if any) do you have about working in this particular work setting?

Good question for a person who comes from the business world who was mostly assigned to military software development and training contracts who made the change to the educational world of teaching who now aspires to teach at the post-secondary level in some capacity. I know it sounds confusing.

Chapter 22 of Reiser & Dempsey (Higher Education) is the chapter that I was most interested. The symposiums of Byron Havard (assistant professor), Brenda Litchfield (faculty development), and Jack Dempsey (professor) were very intriguing. After 20 years of software development and training in corporate America, I wanted to do something else. Well, it was either buy a Harley and go across the country as Peter Fonda’s sidekick or change my career and do something else. It just so happen that a computer teacher was needed at the local high school and so I thought I would give it a try. It fit me like a glove. I love the autonomy of the profession as well as the challenge of creativity. For example, preparing a lesson plan based on DPI’s SCOS that will be informative, challenging, meeting objectives, fun and entertaining (and shhhhh, students don’t realize it, but actual help them learn something). Once I finish my MS, I would like to work in the post-secondary level in some way. I do know that I want to stay in the field of instructing, whether I am instructing students in a classroom (face-to-face or virtual) or instructing teachers to help them improve their instruction. I believe that I would fit in this type of setting because of my extensive professional background, and my newly acquired (actually still acquiring) educational background.

My second choice is the business and industry. I know…I left the field after my mid-life crisis and now I want to return? Well this time as an instructional designer and not as a software developer/trainer. My wife is an instructional designer and can attest to the fact that all of the concepts (design documents, storyboards, learning theories, design processes, etc.) that I have been learning so far in my graduate studies are integral concepts of the business environment of instructional designers. She wants me to hurry up, finish my degree, and start helping her with her company. On page 178, the author states, “many organizations have downsized their instructional design group…in response to budget pressures, and outsource work to design consultants on an as-needed basis”. I could not agree more. After being the victim of countless corporate downsizing, my wife was so fed up that she started her own instructional design company. She has work coming in all the time to the point that she has to turn away jobs. She has made more money now than as an employee and does all of her work from home. I thought, gee…I want to be her.