Future of ISD in a World of Read/Write Web

Interesting post by Brent - ISDers: The Master Filters that parallels some of my recent posts talking about instructional design transition as delivery models have changed. Brent's main point is that in a world of user-generated content (or even SME) generated content then the role of ISDers is different. I tend to agree with most of his assessment, but disagree with his statement:

If we are good/lucky we meet in the middle and the compromise is the
mediocrity of elearning click2death courses that we have today.

Instead, I see ISDers continuing to act as filters (that's almost the job description) and probably looking a lot like aggregators. In other words, we'll be creating a lot of pages that point to all the best resources out there and putting a bit of context on those resources. Embedded within those resources will be links to interactive exercises, tests, etc. This is something that I call a reference hybrid.

One difference will be the source of information and content. Today, we often are interviewing SMEs and searching for source materials. Tomorrow, we will be finding much of the source information already posted.

Ideally, we will figure out ways to have continued contribution from SMEs and Users that adds value. But, the need of filtering and adding context will remain.

Keywords: eLearning Trends