What would it take for instructional design to qualify as a bona fide applied discipline? First and foremost, a fundamental requirement is a testable and tested theoretical base. Untested rationales until verified remain in limbo. Secondly, the discipline's applied prescriptions must be demonstrably traceable to the theoretical base once it is…

Profitable creative ideas can emerge from within virtually any phase of the instructional design and development process. However, the design of user interactions is perhaps where learners can most directly experience the benefits of such ideas. In this article, the authors discuss principles of learner interaction as found in the instructional…

Personalized learning (PL) is spotlighted as a way to transform K-12 educational systems. PL customizes learning pace, instructional methods, and learning content to individual students. As much as PL sounds promising and complex, little guidance is available to educators and policymakers about how to effectively design PL. Five essential features…

The author proposes that today's existing, world-wide curriculum--based on offering roughly the same math, language arts, science, and social studies to all--is not what is required for the future, and is hurting rather than helping the world's students. Math, language arts, science, and social studies, he argues, are really "proxies"…

Through ongoing rapid-fire changes in the nature of communications, the social, professional, and political landscapes of our time are rapidly transforming. But the prevailing paradigm in most schools and school systems is a relic of the industrial revolution. Schools and school systems must adopt a new paradigm for learning if they are to remain…

Formal design studies are increasing our insight into design processes, including those of instructional design. Lessons are being learned from other design fields, and new techniques and concepts can be imported as they are demonstrated effective. The purpose of this article is to introduce a design concept--the "operational principle"--for…

Web 2.0 technologies have created a trend of user-generated content by supporting media production, collaboration, communication, and dissemination. User-generated content is translated into student-generated content (SGC) in education. SGC engages learners in an authentic project that fosters students' autonomy, creativity, and real-world…

A great number of technologies and tools have been developed to support science learning and teaching. However, science teachers and researchers point out numerous challenges to implementing such tools in science classrooms. For instance, guidelines, lesson plans, Web links, and tools teachers can easily find through Web-based search engines often…

Research has shown that when Merrill's First Principles of Instruction are used as part of an instructional strategy, student learning increases. Several articles describe these principles of instruction, including specific methods for implementing this theory. However, because teachers and designers often have little time to design instruction,…

The author argues that Instructional Design (ID) is a problem-solving process, not a procedure, made up of a thinking process common to designers in many fields, and a set of well-accepted, underlying ID principles. This article presents a model of those principles. Further, it argues that teaching ID as a well-structured procedure is not helpful…

Explores knowledge management concepts, with a special emphasis on its use as an educational technology. Discusses the need for knowledge management technology in education. Provides a framework that defines an overall approach and process to knowledge management. Offers recommendations for effectively leveraging knowledge management in education.…

Highly mobile devices are not just little computers or calculators. They have unique affordances and constraints that matter in teaching and learning. In addition, kids not only like portable digital technologies but use them as integral parts of their lives. If schools do not reconsider what they teach and how and where they teach it, students…

Instructional design scholars have emphasized the development of theories and models more than the study of professional practice. Although both theoretical and practical knowledge are essential in a professional discipline, the field has not yet articulated the relationship between the two types of knowledge and how understanding this…

Examines the role of social systems design and what values design can add to education. Topics include design as a decision-oriented disciplined inquiry, change and new realities, models and model building, and an image example of the present educational system and what the future system should be. (LRW)

Relates differences between education and training to the difference between hunting and fishing. Discusses instructional methods and design, principles, objectives, and theories. (AEF)