Week Eight

I find myself circling around to the same things every week from our reading. There are multiple ways to do things and every theory or practice or method or medium tries to put people and learning into oversimplified boxes. Sure media and methods influence learning. Everything we ‘come to the table with’ influences learning. And since no two people are the same so to think that one solution exists is just silly. Should we ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’? No, of course not! There is much to be gained from seeking an understanding of ourselves as professionals and the people we seek to help through our profession. But at some point, we just have to come to terms with knowing we are putting our best foot forward. That we are making design decisions based on what we know to be the most effective solution. That our designs will never fully be complete because life does not standstill. The methods we used one day will work great for one person and not at all for another. And then another day those successes may flip flop.

“ISD was conceived when processes and procedures were more linear and more predictable. Ironically, the design process has become stuck in the same step-by-step groove” (Zemke, 2002, pg. 31). This quote threw me for a loop—at what point in history did someone declare there was a perfect process if followed perfectly would produce perfect material? That’s not what I’ve gathered from the history and research we have read. The idea that an untrained person can create the same quality of instruction as a seasoned professional is just downright silly. It’s the same with every profession though, especially in a DIY age where you can learn anything you want from YouTube. I am relatively skilled at crocheting. About 10 years ago friends convinced me that I should sell my hats at craft fairs. That was all fine and good until I realized I would never turn much of a profit because people are unwilling to pay a price that adequately compensated me for the materials and time invested in my work. I quickly gave up on selling and I went back to making things as gifts.

We all have to decide where the value lies—is it in having a seasoned professional at the helm or is it going be good enough to have a novice hop in and generate some stuff with an automated template. It is just not possible to remove the knowledge and soft skillset of a seasoned professional and expect to get good results. It seems to me like this is where ISD (IST, ET, etc) is getting a bad rap. We have people jumping in to fill a need that does not have the right skill set to fill the need.

In terms of figuring out where I align myself in the field, I think Kozma’s conclusion from “Will Media Influence Learning?” says it better than I can. “I believe that if we move from ‘Do media influence learning?’ to ‘In what ways can we use the capabilities of media to influence learning for particular students, tasks, and situations?’ we will both advance the development of our field and contribute to the restructuring of our school and the improvement of education and training” (1994, pg. 18).

 

 

 

 

 

Clark, R. E. (1994). Media will never influence learning. ETR&D, 42(2), 21- 29.

Kozma, R.B. (1994). Will media influence learning? Reframing the debate. ETR&D, 42(2), 7-19.

Gordon, J., & Zemke, R. (2000). The attack on ISD. Training, 37(4), 42-53.

Zemke, R., & Rossett, A. (2002). A hard look at ISD. Training, 39(2), 26-34.

Mishra, P., Koehler, M. J., & Kereluik, K. (2009). The song remains the same: Looking back

to the future of educational technology. TechTrends, 53(5), 48-53.

Boling, E., & Smith, K. M. (2018). The changing nature of design. In R. A. Reiser & J. V.

Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th Ed.), (pp. 60-

67). New York, NY: Pearson Education.

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