Designers for Learning - Webcast

This year Jennifer Maddrell is launching a service-learning initiative linking nonprofits with ID student volunteers; see the Designers for Learning website for more info. 

Here is a webcast I conducted with her, as part of this project:

Conversation with Brent G Wilson (33 minutes)

We talked about some of my perspectives on making instructional design more relevant to practitioner needs.

TrendSetters profile

Fred Baker interviewed me for his first TrendSetters column in TechTrends - see this draft. 
I think it captures my current thinking fairly well; I appreciate the opportunity  to share my thoughts about the field. 
I imagine the APA reference is:

Baker, F. W., III (2013). TrendSetters: Conversations with Innovators in Learning and Technology [interview iwth Brent G. Wilson]. TechTrends, 57 (6), 7-8.

Impact-Driven Inquiry (IDI)

Last week I attended a mini-conference on designed-based research (DBR) in Athena Georgia, sponsored by AERA. The event was very capably hosted by UGA faculty and doctoral students, led by TJ Kopcha. About thirty researchers gathered from all parts to share ways to make our research more relevant and "impactful" to practitioners' concerns. We are each charged now with finishing a paper and supporting efforts to raise the profile of DBR generally, and within educational technology in particular.
I am working on a framework I'm calling "Impact-Driven Inquiry" or IDI for short. I just did a Google search on the term and nothing came up directly - so I'm claiming it in this post!
I see IDI very much related to DBR. I will also draw on Aristotle's constructs of phronesis and techne as alternatives to episteme, the usual way of knowing that academic research relies on. A book by Bent Flyvbjerg presents pronesis as a means of making social science research more successful:

Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making social science matter: Why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again (S. Sampson, Trans.). New York: Cambridge University Press.

I'm excited about this - hence this quick post. I'll put up something more formal soon, when I have developed the construct more fully.

SITE interview - guerrilla video

Fred Baker of the University of South Alabama engaged me in a quick interview at the SITE conference in New Orleans in March. I briefly traced my career:

     Fred Baker and Brent Wilson (5-minute video)

     Conversation at SITE

     New Orlean, 26 March

I outlined my experience in the field and the various emphases I’ve given to different ideas:

• Taught as a doctoral student of Dave Merrill in instructional theory (behaviorism)
• Helped integrate cognitive learning theory
• Moved in the 1980s to performance improvement principles
• 1990s: Constructivism and postmodern thinking
• 2000s: Aesthetics, learning experience
• 2010s: Practice theory and critical stance

The video reflects my current thinking on the practice of instructional design. Thanks Fred for capturing the moment!

Dave Jonassen - a short tribute

David Jonassen, a friend and colleague, passed away in December. Tributes are forthcoming in Educational Technology magazine and Educational Psychology Review. Here is a short piece I submitted to Ed Psych Review honoring him - they will likely cut it down to fit their format needs. Dave as a big influence in my life, and I miss him!

Staying out of trouble - or rocking their worlds?

I gave a presentation yesterday to Boulder faculty titled Staying out of Trouble - or Rocking their Worlds? Using Technology for Transformative Learning. Here is a pdf copy of the slides (6 megs). Len Scrogan helped me assemble some examples, linked from the slides. We enjoyed a good discussion about the topics, with a range of faculty from mostly science and technical fields. Len couldn't be there, but I want to collaborate on a paper to convey these ideas with examples.

Practice theory for ID

I worked for several months on a chapter for an upcoming book in honor of David Jonassen, edited by four former presidents of AECT. Here is a draft of that chapter. The full reference:

 

Wilson, B. G. (2013). A practice-centered approach to instructional design. In M. M. Spector, B. B. Lockee, S. E. Smaldino, & M. Herring (Eds.), Learning, problem solving, and mind tools: Essays in honor of David H. Jonassen (pp. 35-54). New York: Routledge.

In this essay I explore viewing instructional-design work from a practice-theoretic perspective, with a strong dose of craft theory thrown in. Send me email if you have a response - I'd love to engage people in this kind of conversation.