Who’s the Learning Designer Here?

Abstract

The term instructional designer is being replaced with learning designer. What matters most in classrooms, proponents aver, is what students learn. Achieving desired learning outcomes must drive the whats and hows of instruction. Three key bureaucratic (i.e., non-classroom originating) influences are curricula, standards, and tests. A popular misconception is thinking of the tablet computer (or any computer) as a tool, like a ball-point pen or a calculator. It would be more accurate to think of a tablet device as a whole toolbox, filled with interested and potentially useful tools. In the tablet computer environment, apps are like individual tools. To use tablet technology for teaching and learning, the learning designer must be innovative, open to change, and able to respond sensitively to the fluid teacher-student collaboration that is central to learning.