Most Important Questions about Learning

I found this via e-Clippings.  It’s the kind of stuff that makes me wonder why I even got into this business of Instructional Design, eLearning, or simply Learning.   I think the questions posed are awesome, but more importantly they expose the simplistic nature by which the ISD community approaches training and learning development.  We currently give lots of lip service to Objectives, but who as a learner really cares about anyone else’s contrived objectives?  I have my own objectives, my boss has his own objectives and additional expectations of what MY objectives SHOULD be (in his eyes).  We are arrogant to think that just because a project is given to us and the content owner states what the user should know that we, the almighty ISDer, can craft the perfect objectives, and layout the perfect pages, and the perfectly shaped pill-shaped NEXT button that will induce learning.

I am becoming more and more convinced that at our best we are KNOWLEDGE BROKERS.  Our job is to get just the right amount of information from just the right person who has it to just the right person who needs it.  We do that by supporting platforms that enable the connectivity of people, and collaboration between people.  We can craft simulations that simulate the REAL work learners need to accomplish.  We compress time with these sims and offer many more “experiences” (quests) in a shorter amount of time: more hypothetical problems to solve.  We can encourage, and support users in creating their own “stories” delivered via media such as audio (podcasts) or video(Vodcasts).