UNID Reflection

After learning this subject Understanding Instructional Design (UNID), I can’t say that I like this subject very much nor can I also say that this subject is boring either. If I am not mistaken, this subject is teaching us how to be teachers whereby if we do not become teachers, at least instructors or as educators. I think being a teacher is very interesting. You impart your knowledge to the students so that they may benefit from it.

What I like about this subject
The best part about this subject is the game design although I have poor game design skills.
I love to play games a lot especially educational games whereby you learn as you play. Just think of all the possible games. Example (Maths, Science, Programming and so much more). It will be fun and exciting. However, one must wonder are these games already on the market. If the games are on the market, are the students learning form it in terms of the game content. If the games are not on the market, don’t worry. UNID has provided us with the chance to design and create games for educational purposes.

I mean it is very interesting and also challenging to design a game whereby the objective is to teach students. In other words, students must learn as they play. I feel that creating a game for pre schools and primary schools is quite manageable because there are some of these software’s already on the market. However, the most challenging part is being able to create and design a game for tertiary education like (Polytechnic, Universities and so on. I strongly feel that since there are no games suited for tertiary education, which is why students only attend lectures and practical sessions for learning purposes.

Overall, I myself feel that designing a game is still manageable. It is only the programming part that is unmanageable. This is the part that often makes the game work. To be able to play the game, programming codes must be written. My programming skills are very weak. I just wonder why do we need programming for UNID. I just don’t see the link. Being teachers, we get to teach students a lot of things like both inside and outside the classroom. Apart from receiving education inside and outside of the classroom, there are many subjects that a teacher can teach. I feel that being a teacher is very interesting and challenging. Anyway back to UNID.

When I started this subject UNID, I did not know what to except of this subject or what I will be learning. To begin, we started off with research and then moving on to some programming. Very soon we found ourselves applying what we have learnt in programming to designing simple games for our assignment. Time really flies. Now that our UNID lesson is almost over, I must say that this subject is quite enjoyable. I think if we remove the game part for assignment, it would be so much better. Everyday just do research.

I strongly feel that by being a teacher, there is just more than research being involved.