George Veletsianos, PhD

Category: sharing Page 14 of 41

AI is coming for your instructional and learning design jobs, apparently

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On September 22, 2018

In E-learning, instructional design, online learning, sharing

For the most part, the early morning is my favorite time of the day. I like having a cup of coffee or tea, running, reading, writing, and just pretty much doing anything at 6am, than at 10am. This is not a productivity tip. You do what works for you.

What would have worked better for my productivity this morning was to have waited until later in the day to read Donald Clark’s predictions of AI radically transforming instructional design* jobs and replacing instructional designers (“adapt or die” he says). I don’t disagree with everything that he writes. We agree that in a largely interdisciplinary and complex endeavor as online learning designers need to make sense of AI/machine learning/etc, and developers need to make sense of how learning works. We also agree that most of online learning offerings could be amazing, but are often unexciting. And I really like some of his writing, such as his critique of the hole in the wall experiments.

 

That’s not where the problem lies. The problem is within this snippet:

 

AI is here. Few argue that is will change the very nature of employment and therefore it will change what you learn, how you learn and even why you learn. We are, at last, emerging from a 30 year paradigm of media production and multiple choice questions, in largely flat and unintelligent learning experiences, towards smart, intelligent online learning, that behaves more like a good teacher, where you are taught as an individual with a personalised experience, challenged and, rather than endlessly choosing from lists, engage in effortful learning, using dialogue, even voice. As a Learning designer, Interactive designer, project Manager, Producer, whatever, this is the most exciting thing to have happened in the last 30 years of learning. Make the leap!

The talk about AI “behav[ing] more like a good teacher” offering “typical cost reductions of 85-90%” is incompatible with the claims that AI isn’t aiming to replace teachers or designers (a claim that Clark also makes in 2016 here, even though he later notes that the time may not be 2018, but soon). If you develop software to do the job that a designer does, you are, to a degree, working toward substituting people with software. There may very well be good reasons to do that, but don’t call upon designers to “adapt or die.” The message sounds more like this: We have developed software to change the functions of your job and we want you to develop a different skill set. If you don’t, we’ll replace you.

We haven’t yet reached the point where an independent AI decided to take on the job of the instructional designer.

I work with instructional designers, and train them. Are there parts of their job that would be better automated? Yes. But here’s the issue: That sort of work is not really instructional design work. That sort of work rarely involves the conceptualization and design of empowering, equitable, engaging, and rich learning environments. If Clark’s notion of the work that the instructional designer does envisions a person who enters text into pre-determined templates, and does similar work, then we aren’t talking about the same professional

Finally, I agree with Clark that it’s prime time for instructional design to undergo a process of transformation. Not for the reason Clark sees (AI), but because instructional designers are now, more than ever, necessary to support the design and development of rich and equitable learning environments. To do so, they need to be empowered more, not relayed to conduct the work that machines could do more efficiently. The preparation of instructional designers needs re-envisioning to support this goal, and that requires not only an understanding of technical phenomena (similar to what Clark calls for), but also a truly critical engagement with what ID is and what it should do. To that end, I am increasingly turning to feminist practices, which is a topic that probably deserves it’s own post.

Now, I’m going to go back to enjoying my coffee.

* Clark calls it learning design, I call it instructional design. The nomenclature varies between the UK (where he is) and North America (where I am), even if there are more similarities than differences between what learning and instructional designers to. For the purposes of this post, the differences are insignificant.

Video, tapes, histories of educational technology, and growing up in Cyprus

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On August 21, 2018

In courses, E-learning, sharing

One of the courses I teach examines the foundations and histories of the field. Writings about the histories of educational/instructional technology/design predominantly identify and examine particular technologies that were in vogue at particular periods of time.  For instance, Martin Weller discusses the use of streaming video in his 25 years of edtech series. One might do the same with radio, overhead projectors, mySpace, and so on. Here, I want to share with you a personal story, a story about a particular VHS cassette.

VHS tape – By Evan-Amos – Own work, Public Domain

My Twitter bio identifies my location as Canada and Cyprus. Cyprus is where I grew up, and where I tell people I am from when they ask me the seemingly innocuous but loaded question “Where are you from?,” as if people can be from just one place. Growing up in a divided country like Cyprus, I was constantly reminded of conflict, war, occupation, fleeing, and loss. I grew up with textbooks emblazoned with the slogan Δέν Ξεχνώ, a nod to a national policy aiming to convince GreekCypriot children to “never forget” the occupied areas of Cyprus. It wasn’t just the not-so-hidden national curriculum. I know of many people who were and are refugees and people who were directly or indirectly impacted. Friends. Friends’ parents. Uncles and aunts. My parents. My maternal grandparents.

In the 1980’s my grandparents were given a tape. Someone – an acquaintance of an acquaintance of a family member – visited the occupied areas and drove for hours, recording what they could from their car. I don’t remember the details. I do remember that the video was grainy and mostly uninteresting to a pre-teen. But, it brought us together to discuss issues more important than the roads, farmlands, and abandoned villages depicted in the tape: war, coup d’état, peace, borders, the “other.”

My aunt and uncle owned a video store in the 80’s. I spent many days in the summers there and watched my fair share of tapes. But that tape, that grainy tape, is forged in my memory. The impact of video on education reveals a worthwhile pedagogical story because it often culminates in how video replaces other media and rarely causes pedagogical change. Particular artifacts though, in particular situations, at particular times, with particular participants, do. That may not be the norm in formal educational environments, but I can at least point to one instance where a tape had impact.

Do you have any similar stories?

My neighborhood

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On August 16, 2018

In sharing

I live in a blue-collar, rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.

That’s not completely accurate.

The neighborhood I live in defies my penchant for classifications. It’s the home of a “west coast fusion” taco truck and a new pizza place that serves curry coconut pizza. It’s also the home of a graffiti-adorned high school, a vibrant skate park, a few community gardens, and countless little libraries. It hosts decrepit houses surrounded by chain-link fences and many newly-built townhomes. Three of my neighbors have lived here, in the same houses, for twenty-plus years. Same houses, somewhat-same neighborhood.

A friend who lives in Austin, Texas called the townhomes “progress.” It’s what happened to Austin, too, he said. He scoffed at the taco truck though.

The neighborhood I live in is a reflection of the paradoxes, binaries, tensions, and contradictions of the city.

I walked toward downtown last night. I walked past condos that still being build a few weeks ago. They’re fully occupied now. I walked past people who are homeless and congregate close to downtown. Past Magic – the most gentle and loving dog I met. “She’s friendly” her owner said. That was an understatement. Past a soup kitchen. Past the bike lanes. Past two paramedics on bikes – a frequent sight given the city’s overdose crisis.

I walked past, until I stopped.

The bowtie-wearing bartender chiseled away at a block of ice. I skimmed the menu: Southwest-spiced grilled shrimp cocktail, marinated in chipotle peppers and fresh lime juice with fresh mango salsa fresca… flash fried Humboldt squid, creole dusted with fried banana peppers and remoulade sauce.

I order a craft beer made by one of the many local breweries, and reflect on progress. And contradictions.

 

Our (mostly) changing social media practices

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On August 8, 2018

In scholarship, sharing

I was tagged in doing the black-and-white photo-a-day-for-a-week Internet meme this week. I don’t usually participate in these things (I know, I know… life of the party right here), but this one was interesting because of the current research that we are doing on understanding how and why faculty social media practices change or don’t change over time. Back in 2009, 2010, 2012 even, a few colleagues used to take a photo a day, and share those photos online, usually in flickr groups. Some still do that, but a lot has changed since then. Over the last week of taking and sharing these photos on Twitter, some of my thoughts included the following:

  • Nowadays, my Twitter feed is scrubbed biweekly. These photos will eventually get deleted (to the extent that photos posted online do, I supposed)
  • I paused each and every time I thought about tagging someone. I am more and more cognizant of what we’re asking each other to do online these days.
  • I don’t have a flickr account any more.
  • The online conversations I used to have circa 2008 are much different than the conversations I am having in 2018. The volume is much less and the topics are more constricted. The tone has changed too, and not for the better. Perhaps that’s a reflection of my social media circles. Perhaps it’s a reflection of broader shifts.

A comment on “tips and resources for instructional designers entering the field”

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On May 16, 2018

In sharing

What advice and resources would you offer to early-career instructional designers? That’s the question Inside Digital Learning asked practicing instructional designers. There’s many worthwhile insights for aspiring designers in the piece. I enjoyed reading it, and you might like it, too.

I’d like to add three points:

– The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is the flagship organization for instructional designers in North America. The organization’s annual convention is usually in October. Members participate in one or more divisions of interest (e.g., Distance Learning, School Media & Technology, etc), and divisions often offer free webinars. For example, here’s Dr. Patrick Lowenthal discussing the use of live meetings in asynchronous online courses. [Disclosure: I have been a member of AECT since 2005, and at one point I was the president of the Research & Theory division. In other words, I’m biased]. Other organizations that may be of interest to IDs, but don’t necessarily focus on ID as much as Educause, OLC, and ALT (UK).

– Instructional design is about problem-solving. Are you interested in helping others solve instructional and learning problems? You’re in the right field. You might be asked to collaborate with others in order to improve learning outcomes, reduce dropout rates, improve course participation rates, convert face-to-face courses to online courses, and so on. Be warned though: Some problems may be more interesting than others, and even though instructional designers should be working collaboratively with faculty members and others(e.g., media developers, data scientists, etc), that doesn’t always happen (unfortunately).

– Problem-solving is not just about technology. The best way to illustrate this is to use a problem from the list above, so let’s pick the wicked problem of “improving learning outcomes.” Novice instructional designers might gravitate towards exploring what technologies might help them address the problem, in what Tanya Joosten describes as the act of throwing spaghetti on the wall hoping that it will stick. Instructional design involves analysis: Why are learning outcomes poor? Might it be that they are not well-defined? Are objectives, instruction, and assessment well-aligned? Perhaps enrolled learners don’t have the pre-requisite knowledge coming into the course? Could it be that learners are facing significant challenges that have nothing to do with the content of the course, but which nonetheless conflict with the design of the course? Solutions to these (and a slew of other problems) can be found in redesigning courses, policies, and practices without necessarily adding/removing technology to/from the mix. In our Master’s program, we highlight design – sometimes coupled with technology, often without – as central to innovation.

What other advice do you have for aspiring instructional designers?

What audiences do academics imagine finding online?

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On March 5, 2018

In my research, networked scholars, scholarship, sharing

When online, people draw on the limited cues they have available to create for themselves an imagined audience. This audiences shapes our social media practices and the expression of our identity. While institutions encourage scholars to go online, and many scholars perceive value in online networks themselves, limited research has explored the ways that scholars conceptualize online audiences.

Audiences by NordForsk/Stefan Tell

 

In a recent paper, we were interested to understand how scholars conceptualize their audiences when participating on social media, and does that conceptualization impacts their self-expression online. Below is a short summary of the results. The full study is here: Veletsianos, G., & Shaw, A. (2018). Scholars in an Increasingly Open and Digital World: Imagined Audiences and their Impact on Scholars’ Online Participation. Learning, Media, & Technology, 43(1), 17-30.

We used a qualitative approach to this study, interviewing 16 individuals who represented a range of academic disciplines and roles. Data were generated from two sources: semi-structured interviews with each participant, and examination of the social media spaces they used (e.g. blogs, Facebook, Twitter).

Participants identified four specific groups as composing their social media audiences: (1) academics, (2) family and friends, (3) groups related to one’s profession, and (4) individuals who shared commonalities with them. Interviewees felt fairly confident that they had a good understanding of the people and groups that made up their audiences on social media, but distinguished their audiences as known and unknown. The known audience included those groups and individuals known to interviewees personally. The unknown audience consisted of members whom participants felt they understood much about but did not know personally. Interviewees reported using their understanding of their audience to guide their decisions around what, how or where to share information on social media. All participants reported filtering their social media posts. This action was primarily motivated by participants’ concerns about how postings would reflect on themselves or others.

The audiences imagined by the scholars we interviewed appear to be well defined rather than the nebulous constructions often described in previous studies. While scholars indicated that some audiences were unknown, none noted that their audience was unfamiliar. This study also shows that a misalignment exists between the audiences that scholars imagine encountering online and the audiences that higher education institutions imagine their faculty encountering online. The former appear to imagine finding community and peers and the latter imagine scholars finding research consumers (e.g., journalists).

Recommended books of 2017

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On December 10, 2017

In sharing

Though there’s still a few weeks to go in 2017, I thought it’s the right time to highlight a few books I read this year that I found powerful, incisive, and significant in one way or another.  This is not a definitive list, but as I’m increasingly finding the bulk of the literature examining instructional design, educational technology, and learning sciences to be insular, I am drawn to other places for inspiration, compassion, and action.

  • Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy, by Tressie McMillan Cottom
  • Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, by Sara Goldrick-Rab
  • Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right, by Angela Nagle
  • Living a Feminist Life, by Sara Ahmed
  • Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, by Roxane Gay

What have you read this year that tops your list?

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