Exploring Instructional Architect

Once again, I was amazed at another program and resource available to teachers on the web, Instructional Architect. It seems like only a few years ago that the internet was becoming a popular thing, and now it is becoming more and more a great resource and tool in teaching and researching. The internet can be a wonderful tool, however, we need to also be careful and evaluate sites to make sure they are credible.

As we looked at the Instructional Architect program, I was impressed with many aspects. First, I thought that it was nice how it was completely free for teachers to use and bounce ideas off each other; whereas, with Quest Garden, people have to subscribe. Also, I liked the simplicity of Instructional Architect. It was easy to search a topic and have the site list several links that looked credible and helpful to the topic chosen. With Quest Garden, teachers have to search on their own for credible website and then put the URL's in the lesson. I enjoyed being able to have a folder where I could keep the different sites that I found using their search engine. Another aspect I really enjoyed was how easy it was to put together. Quest Garden has a lot more components when you are putting it together. It can sometimes be confusing.

On the other hand, I do appreciate having many options for backgrounds and I think the finally product may be a little more appealing to students since it has task tabs, introduction, extra pictures, etc. It can difficult in the process of putting it all together versus Instructional Architect, though. Instructional Architect seems more friendly to teachers putting it together, while I think Webquest may be more appealing to students.

However, as a teacher, I may find that I use both because they both have their positives and negatives. I liked Tom Caswell's suggestion though that teachers should be able to rate each others pages, so that others know how useful and helpful different lesson are to teaching different subjects. I know, though with time, that this program and others will be improved and several years down the road, we may find the programs to be simply, amazing, and beneficial for students.