Learning Design & Technology Projects
Instructional design, or instructional systems design, is the practice of creating "instructional experiences which make the acquisition of knowledge and skill more efficient, effective, and appealing
Learning Design & Technology is the branch of education concerned with the scientific study of instructional design and development. Instructional designers specialize in creating engaging and effective learning experiences that are grounded in theories and follow design principles.
When I was teaching Physics, Math and Environmental Science in a school and when teaching Business Organization in a university in India, little did I know about instructional design. I taught because I loved to teach and intuitively applied scientific principles of instructional design. My passion for teaching was evident in the methodologies I employed and was recognized for my teaching both by my students and the managements of the institutions I served. My teaching career lasted during the time when the technology available was limited to using over-head projectors which used transparencies and LCD displays (to teach computer programming and coding). In most of my classes I’ve used only chalk and blackboard. However, I was exposed to the leaps and bounds that technology was making in the electronics and telecommunication field when I was a technical writer and content provider for technology and business-related magazines and websites.
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As an instructional design and educational technology specialist I am able to apply my creative side to creating engaging and effective learning experiences for diverse audiences starting from elementary school students to adult learners. I try to keep adding new tools to my ID Tool Kit, especially new technologies that can make face-to-face and online classes more engaging and fun.
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At the University of Hawai'i I am implementing service-learning in my classroom where my students and I collaborate to create learning materials for informal learning environments. My recent project involves the creation of interactive E-books to teach about the flora and fauna in Lyon Arboretum.
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Click on the link to access the E-book - https://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/janakiraman/
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Other ID Projects​​​​​​
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Click on the image or hyperlink to access a digital escape room - https://sites.google.com/view/escape-shami/home
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Digital Story - My first LDT Project
In March 2015, creating a digital story was a huge challenge, as I had no idea about it. The only related interest I had was photography and writing stories. As my story developed, I explored options and clicked as many pictures as possible and made numerous PowerPoint slides. Thanks to the Audacity and Windows Moviemaker tutorials, I learned to make a digital story with music, and narration in my own voice. Also learned to upload the DS to OneDrive for submission and to YouTube. I have told my story as a school student who hated Math and who later started liking Math after discovering the beauty of Fibonacci Numbers. Unknowingly I have applied the Guided Discovery Learning principle in my own learning. Overall it has been a huge learning experience.
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Multimedia Principles Used:
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Modality Principle - Learning occurs by the Split-Attention effect.
Redundancy Principle - Care has been taken to not repeat the same information in more than one mode.
Guided Discovery Learning Principle - Learning occurs by the Generation Effect.
Segmentation Principle - The DS is divided into different parts like 'my hatred for Math', Fibonacci Numbers, Golden Ratio, 'my success' and conclusion 'that Math is Fun'.
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