[Air-l] Technology Transforming Education

[Charles Balch Ph.D.]

Mary-Helen,
I have to disagree a little but, before I do, ID is huge and has been very
much a part of my life. As a little background, I wrote a complete
courseware system before courseware systems were cool because I wasn't happy
with the offerings some ten years ago. I've kept up with the literature.
I've been on teams and worked with teams. I hope my respect for you and all
the folks on the front line of ID is loud and clear.

ID is hard work that requires much balance.

I don't think you can remove yourself from the creation of content though.
ID is not just a (Clark/Kozma) grocery truck delivery system. Even Clark
eventually agreed that the methods changed the message. All instructional
designers should have huge control over the design process.

The fact that you are chatting on this list proves to me that you take your
responsibilities seriously.

Charles Balch

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Mary-Helen Ward
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 2:07 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-l] Technology Transforming Education

I work as an educational designer and I'd like to point out that educational
designers don't *create* content. We take content created by academics and
make suggestions about its presentation (online, in my case). In the past
year I've worked on automated assessment with feedback in undergraduate
engineering, structuring of graduate bioethics and a strategic project in
graduate medicine. I'd have to have a fairly big brain if I could create
content for all these disciplines!

Our job is to support faculty in their teaching practices. For our unit this
might mean helping people think their way through taking parts of their
teaching online, creating specialised online summative assessments, creating
tools for formative assessment, presenting support material such as
'remedial' learning support online, or maybe researching and writing a
report for an upcoming strategic faculty decision. I understand that there
is anxiety among academic staff that they are being 'phased out' of
teaching, but in truth their minds, their insights an their presences,
whether it is in person or online, are still crucial to the learning
experience of students.

Most of us in educational design also spent/are spending years getting our
degrees - we have two PhDs in our unit, two PhD candidates (including
myself) and everyone else has at least one Masters. We have the highest
respect for our teaching colleagues,

M-H

On 23/05/2007, at 5:27 AM, Charles Balch Ph.D. wrote:

> Oddly enough, from an altruistic point of view, I like the idea of 
> inexpensive mass produced education for the masses. I particularly 
> like the idea of getting the basics covered mechanically if I might be 
> able to move into more of a role of moderator or facilitator for 
> higher level courses.
>
>> From a not so altruistic point of view, I spent many years getting my
>>
> various degrees and would hate to become obsolete. How many rocks 
> stars does education need?
>
> I think we are getting very close to instructional design that removes 
> the need for faculty. For many learners and some content, good 
> instructional designers are already creating content that outweighs 
> the value added of the instructor. Yes, such content costs a lot more 
> than each delivery of "chalk and talk" but, once created, the physical 
> cost of delivery is marginal. Such marginal cost would be an 
> administrators dream unless they thought things all the way through.

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