Week 3 - Clearing up the Confusion

After yesterday night's class, I felt better about the content of the Development of Instructional Design. It really helped to hear each group present about different parts of the article and it became clear that I was not alone in my frustration in terms of deciphering the reading.

It seems that instructional systems design and learning theory are still finding the ideal way to connect with one another, but indeed are connecting. I was just speaking with colleagues at work today about a particular curriculum that had been developed using a systems approach. One of our major questions about the curriculum as educators was about how pedagogy was addressed in the design and development (it is not yet apparent at this point from the introductory information we have on the curriculum).

I think it's one thing to take content only and using a system design a means to deliver it and a far different thing to take content and all that has been learned and researched about human development, learning, etc and then design the instruction using a system. I say this because though one may assume the latter, I have seen plenty of curriculum in my life that did not seem to consider learning theory or development much, if at all.
I'm glad that educators are learning more about learning and psychologists are learning more about education - I agree that it will greatly improve the design of instruction in the long run.