Instructional design and educational technologies

Tim & I have been thinking about the importance of focusing on instructional design, rather than just technologies. So often people get really excited about a new technology that they can use in teaching their students. However, the focus needs to be on the teaching and learning, not the tools, if technology is going to to help our students.

The importance of focusing on teaching rather than tools has never been so clearly illustrated as it has been recently in the Los Angeles School District. With the advent of iPads, and all of the cool applications they can have, the LA school district invested a billion dollars (yes, B as in a thousand million), in buying iPads for students. The problem is, the teachers don't know how to teach with them, and the curriculum is not designed for them. It may have been a good idea, but it was implemented too soon.

The focus of the work Tim & I have done for the last decade has been helping educators learn how to use technologies in their teaching. This is an issue we've seen since we began. So we need to get back to the basics of instructional design, and thinking about what we want our students to be able to do.

In looking for resources about instructional design, I came across a great blog called An Ethical Island where there are many terrific teaching resources that have been created using infographics. One of the things I found there is an Instructional design video series that has been created by Epigogy. Each video is just a few minutes long, but it presents concepts in a clear and concise way.

A foundation of instructional design principles can guide us in making choices about

• what we want our students to know and do
• what curriculum we need to teach
• which teaching and learning approaches we will use
• which educational technologies and tools can best facilitate these learning experiences with a focus on what we already have available and what our ed tech resource people can support

After we've done this planning, we can integrate these technologies into the teaching and learning process, hopefully avoiding the type of fiasco that's going on in LA.