Transcending Content

In my comment last week I was trying to suss out what the 'stakes' of instructional design were, if the argument is that design is a need and not a privilege, and also that design is a need. In this weeks reading I appreciated that it more clearly focused on what those stakes could be through the lens of what instructional design could bring to the table in terms of educational design.

 
Wilson introduces the term 'principled resistance' as a response to "certain ideas that are seen as negatively impacting the profession" (p 27). And while I think the way he qualifies heavily by using the 'certain' and the 'seem' padding in his statement (illustrating what he later cops being what he terms a 'limited radical') I appreciated his use of the term for the way it makes space and acknowledges that radicalism is not synonymous with a lack of intention or that it is simply an act of unstructured rebellion.

I also appreciated Martin's caution, but not outright shut down, that in opening that door it is worthwhile to still proceed with a measure of humility. It reminded me that there are many who have traversed being guerilla agents, and building a world with others that centers what is rebellious and radical, and if our profession is to engage in the kinds of critical thinking it requires to do rebellion well, that is important to respect. I think Martin leans a bit overly hard on attitude adjustments and conservative fears around change, but I also appreciated the way, when viewed as a necessary part of the process of guerilla design, they advocate for mindful change and implementation.

 
In chapter 4 I was intrigured to see the work psychologist Daniel Kahneman cited because I recalled reading the his cited book Thinking, Fast and Slow and how it allowed a paradigm shift to solidify in me in terms of unlearning what the chapter succinctly summarizes - placing the learning focus on skills and traits of the learner and not on the content. Which I think can easily slip into the mistake of assuming that the focus is then skills and traits as content, but this is where Martin's caution is deeply needed. It is focusing on what is human in the learner, the skills and traits they are coming in with, that design then is able to magnify, utilize to a potential the learner can feel ownership in. Though it seems obvious that we learn best when we have vested emotions, it is true that many educational experiences seem pre-occupied with considering emotions something to be successfully pushed aside so that content can be delivered, but this flies directly in the face of design, which "focuses not on content but rather on the process, the end results, how everything works [solution creation and understanding], and the thinking and innovative nature of the work." (Hokanson, p. 33). Being able to define the stakes of instructional design as that of refocusing education or instruction back toward a valuation of information as being a process of journey and discovery rather than attainment and growth ties some ends I was struggling to reconcile.

Hokanson, B. (2017). Chapter 4: Design beyond content. In Issues in Technology, Learning, and Instructional Design  (pp. 32–38). chapter, Routledge. 

Wilson, B. (2017). Chapter 3: Guerrilla design. In Issues in Technology, Learning, and Instructional Design  (pp. 26–31). chapter, Routledge.