Instructional Communication

Instructional Communication
Instructional Communication can be best explained as the transfer of information in a teaching environment. There are a lot of aspects that is associated with Instructional Communication. The contexts that are most relevant to my career are teacher to teacher communication, teacher to student communication, comprehension of information, and technology used in the setting. These four aspects make up my career as a public affairs instructor for the Department of Defense. Instructional communication is very important to the field of communication. Instructional communication is implemented everyday all around the world. It is implemented in schools and in job settings. This type of communication is how we relate information to new people on the job or students in a classroom. In order to determine the depth of comprehension we have to analyze formal and summative assessments of the students. During the course that I instruct, we also use technology to convey information as well as have the students to use technology to complete projects that are due during the course. Instructional communication has several different contexts located within it. I feel that the most important context would be teacher to student communication. It is extremely important as a teacher or an instructor to be able to convey the information to your audience and them be able to comprehend what you are talking about. It is also very important that students ask questions or talk about the material that is being covered to show understanding. According to Karaduz, (Karaduz, 2010) “An important part of instructional services involves giving messages to students about how they should learn and become involved in the learning process, giving those stimuli for reinforcement, identifying the gaps in their learning, and amending these gaps. An effective instructional process thus requires strong communication skills along every step. It is through language that a healthy communication is established, student interest is aroused, and ways of comprehending, practicing and retaining information are clarified.” Karaduz said a lot in these few sentences. He talked about how important communication is between student and teachers. What good do teachers do when the students cannot understand the teacher’s message? Teacher and student communication is so important in any instructional setting.
The next most important part of instructional communication is teacher to teacher communication. It is handy to have colleagues that you can ask questions or get advice about certain criteria. I have worked as a public affairs person for the last seven years. Of that seven years 2 ½ of them has been in a combat area. In this intense atmosphere I have learned pretty much everything that I teach my students at the Defense Information School. A lot of times other instructors come to me for information on what should happen in a certain situation in a combat area. I think that teacher to teacher communication is extremely valuable and you should take a advantage of it.
According to Lance (Lance, 2010), “when administrators value collaboration between teacher-librarians and classroom teachers and when teacher-librarians and their classroom colleagues report that it happens more frequently, students are more likely to master ICT standards and more likely to earn advanced scores on state reading and language arts tests.” This study linked collaboration between faculty and students scores. Lance showed that when faculty collaborated on instructional information and objectives the student’s scores went up on formal assessments.
Another context of instructional communication is comprehension assessment. As an instructor I have to assess the students learning to see if they have learned the specific objectives to move on to the next part of the course. If students do not meet those objectives then they fail and are recycled to another program. I use different kinds of assessments to check the depth of their knowledge of the material. The students have written assignments, formal assessments, and a Field Training Exercise (FTX). The students also have time to redo any work that they have failed in order to receive a better grade. I provide feedback within two days of the after the due date of the assignment. I provide feedback and remedial for any student that is deemed in need or feels that they need the extra help. Since we try to communicate very well with the students our fail rate is between 2 to 4% each course.
Technology is the last item that is very important to instructional communication. “Based on the immersive interface that underlies virtual worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, virtual environments allow the enactment of complex situations with tacit clues, simulation of scientific instruments, virtual experimentation, simulated collaboration in a team, and adaptive responses to students’ choice—all captured and recorded in data streams (Clarke-Midura, 2010),” according to Jody Clarke-Midura and Chris Dede. In this century technology has advanced so much. We have social media sites, PowerPoint presentations, email, and other was to communicate in and out of the classroom.
I learned that when you do not have proper communication things tend to follow apart. From my experience students that do not voice their opinion about information that they do not understand shows in their assessments. I also try to recognize any students that do not understand the information that I am giving out. Sometimes it is difficult to pay attention to all 48 students at one time. I stress to my students that they must speak up and ask questions before an exam is given to them. Most students do this and that is why our retention rate is so low.
We try to incorporate technology into our lessons. Some students learn differently so it is for their benefit that we try to make our lessons very diverse. The school and our office has a Facebook page which allows the students to ask instructors as well as new and past students any questions about assignments and content. The school offers morning and afternoon remedial teaching when students are deemed in need of attention. The school has recognized that technology is easy to use and all the students have access to the technology.
Instructional communication is an ongoing process. It does not matter how good you are at it can always be improved on. Proper communication is what holds a company together. Without communication everything is going to be chaos. I recommend all companies, schools, and businesses to have employees and students attend a communications workshop. Instructional communication is how we got to where we are now!

Works Cited

Clarke-Midura, J. a. (2010). Assessment, Technology, and Change. Journal of Research on Technology in Education Volume 42 Number 3 , 309-328.
Karaduz, A. (2010). Linguistic acts teachers use in the classroom: Verbal stimuli. Education Vol. 130 No. 4
, 696-704.
Lance, K. C. (2010). Collaboration Works--When It Happens! . Teacher Librarian, Vol. 37 Issue 5 , 30-36.

Cited: Clarke-Midura, J. a. (2010). Assessment, Technology, and Change. Journal of Research on Technology in Education Volume 42 Number 3 , 309-328. Karaduz, A. (2010). Linguistic acts teachers use in the classroom: Verbal stimuli. Education Vol. 130 No. 4 , 696-704. Lance, K. C. (2010). Collaboration Works--When It Happens! . Teacher Librarian, Vol. 37 Issue 5 , 30-36.