Instructional Design: Exploring Tensions and Metaphors

Presently instructional design is at a crossroads. Old models can't keep up with the choices young people have for learning and communicating. Our efforts to control and repress these out-of-school tools and practices only make learning more frustrating and irrelevant. CU Denver Professor, Brent G. Wilson talks about design learning experiences - but can you even design someone's experience? Brent explores some metaphors Instructional Design uses instruction - process, product, environment, experience. These metaphors reflect ongoing tensions between straight-ahead objective designs versus more nuance and complex views of learning and workplace practices. Join us for an engaging discussion on changes in the work of Instruction Designs in practice! ATD members and event attendees will be successful as they think critically about their work and its impact on clients, colleagues, and the organization. The presentation invites participants to think, reflect, and learn more about these issues.

During this session, you will:

• See Instructional Session as an emerging field still in development - with a history of change and prospects for the same.
• Appreciate some key tensions we encounter in practice and suggestions for managing these tensions. 
• Reflect on ways that practitioners have knowledge beyond the models and theories taught in Instructional Design programs.

Speaker:

Brent G. Wilson

Professor, Information and Learning Technologies

University of Colorado Denver

Brent is professor of information and learning technologies at CU Denver where he has trained a generation of ed-tech and e-learning professionals. Brent began studying instructional strategies in the 1970s , moving quickly to cognitive learning processes. In the 1980s he learned how instruction fits in the bigger picture of supporting job performance. In the 1990s after leading a move toward constructivism, he began asking questions about ultimate ends and foundations of instructional design. He current advocates a practice-centered approach to learning design, with more attention to the learning experience and social/values impacts of our work.

Refreshments:

Light appetizers and drink ticket.

Location: