Corrie, this is a great metaphor.
Allow me to point out one important element. As I stated in my prior post, we recently had construction done on our house. A general contractor took care of hiring all of the subcontractors to complete the various jobs. Communication between the general contractor and his subs frankly sucked and as I was living in the house at the time I saw this first hand.
I think that communication between the various players on an ID project must be much better than I witnessed on this construction job. I must have good communication with my client, SME, graphic artist, and anyone else involved. I imagine that this is usually the case as ID projects that are promised within six weeks rarely take three months.
Heather
Heather Ross
Posts made by Heather Ross
For one ongoing project I am working as a member of a team. When we started on our current portion of the project the client suggested that one of the administrative assistants might be able to do a significant part of the work. That person actually became our main conact person and was quite taken aback when we presented her with our intial front-end analysis detailing our recommendations and what specifically we would be doing in our role as instructional designers for the rest of that portion of the project. In addition, I also had her sit in as an observer during a focus group on the materials.
When the client asked us to do additional work for this project there was no suggestion about anyone but the ID team do the work.
Maybe we should think about it this way -- I recently had to have some major construction done to my house because of a broken pipe under the foundation. We decided to have new laminate put down instead of replacing the carpet in our family room. Initially we thought we'd install it ourselves to save money. How hard could it be? In the end, we decided against doing it ourselves. We did however watch a great deal of the installation and were thankful that we paid them to do it right the first time or we would have had to hire them to fix it later.
I think that people need to see the process to really get it. How will they know how well we can dance unless we let watch us?
When the client asked us to do additional work for this project there was no suggestion about anyone but the ID team do the work.
Maybe we should think about it this way -- I recently had to have some major construction done to my house because of a broken pipe under the foundation. We decided to have new laminate put down instead of replacing the carpet in our family room. Initially we thought we'd install it ourselves to save money. How hard could it be? In the end, we decided against doing it ourselves. We did however watch a great deal of the installation and were thankful that we paid them to do it right the first time or we would have had to hire them to fix it later.
I think that people need to see the process to really get it. How will they know how well we can dance unless we let watch us?
I'm currently in the final months of the graduate program at the University of Saskatchewan, keeping busy with my major project and research in several areas.
At the recent ID conference sponsored by Campus Saskatchewan I was asked several times if I was an instructional designer. The first few times I said "working on it", but by the second day, after discussions with others I began to answer "Yes I am."
I am still new at this, but have already experienced some of the dance. In addition to doing what I think of as actual instructional design (learner analysis, creating prototypes, usability testing, etc.) I've dealt with subject matter experts who clearly don't know what my role is. I've worked around the internal politics of my clients' organizations. I've also tried to educate my clients on what it is instructional designers can do for them and why they need us. In some cases it seems to have actually worked.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to having discussions about the dance. Thanks for allowing me this opportunity.
At the recent ID conference sponsored by Campus Saskatchewan I was asked several times if I was an instructional designer. The first few times I said "working on it", but by the second day, after discussions with others I began to answer "Yes I am."
I am still new at this, but have already experienced some of the dance. In addition to doing what I think of as actual instructional design (learner analysis, creating prototypes, usability testing, etc.) I've dealt with subject matter experts who clearly don't know what my role is. I've worked around the internal politics of my clients' organizations. I've also tried to educate my clients on what it is instructional designers can do for them and why they need us. In some cases it seems to have actually worked.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to having discussions about the dance. Thanks for allowing me this opportunity.
I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this. I had an interesting experience this week. I've spoken with more than a few of my colleagues about some minor frustrations I've had in dealing with a particular SME. We've all been there. They have their ideas and they would like to hold on to them.
While working on campus this week a professor who I often chat with mentioned that he was on his way to a meeting about setting up one of his classes through WebCT. He was nervous and a little frustrated. He's never taught online, but he knows what elements of his courses are important to him in terms of content. He was worried that the ID people were going to make changes to something he holds dear.
I suddenly found myself seeing things from the other side of the picture. Here was somebody very interested in jumping into the world of distance learning. He doesn't shun the technology and has never shied away from admitting that he doesn't understand how all the tech stuff works or what he can do with it.
He knows teaching and is genuinely concerned about what's going to happen to his content. My advice to him was to "listen to the ID people. They're good at what they do, but tell them what you're worried about."
While working on campus this week a professor who I often chat with mentioned that he was on his way to a meeting about setting up one of his classes through WebCT. He was nervous and a little frustrated. He's never taught online, but he knows what elements of his courses are important to him in terms of content. He was worried that the ID people were going to make changes to something he holds dear.
I suddenly found myself seeing things from the other side of the picture. Here was somebody very interested in jumping into the world of distance learning. He doesn't shun the technology and has never shied away from admitting that he doesn't understand how all the tech stuff works or what he can do with it.
He knows teaching and is genuinely concerned about what's going to happen to his content. My advice to him was to "listen to the ID people. They're good at what they do, but tell them what you're worried about."