EduTech gEEks…We’re a new brEEd

It has been a while….this, I know.

Work and school are keeping my schedule pretty saturated. Tons of instructional design work being completed in the process, therefore it is all worth it, right?

So, I must rant and rave for this posting.

Oh, I was so annoyed this week!

There is a reason why instructional design professionals recommend the designing of assessments before developing instructional materials (e.g. student and instructor guides, powerpoints, multimedia objects, etc.). Such practice keeps your instructional content in alignment with the course/lesson objectives.

This has been the case with my professional and academic experience.

Within this current project, our development schedule is as follows: content first, then revision of the practice activities and written assessment tests. Some of these items have been created before the writers arrived, but we are still there for a reason. It is hard to work in an environment where people are not trusting your experience as an ID. So, I am finding myself constantly going back into the primary instructional document and adding content based on new info from the assessments….Whew! A time consumer to say the least.

I know, I know. As IDs we have to adapt to constant change.

With every client there will be criteria outside the realm of our traditional ID or educational practices. This, I understand. Actually, I am all good with it. Conventions will not always have an appropriate place for every part of a project.

For all my IDs, trainers, educators, I recommend the design of instruction in this order:

1. Conduct an analysis
2. Establish your objectives based upon the analysis
3. Design assessments based on the objectives
4. Develop instructional materials based on the assessments

….simple, quite simple.

Need we send a mass e-mail to all those trying to be trainers?

Writing technologies, writing for technology, writing about and with technology…all of these have become such a huge part of my work. What happened to eLearning? Am I in transition?

Transitioning…you know that moment in your career where your professional interests are changing and the type of designer you once thought you’d be is so far from the type of designer you are becoming?

There…that place right there…I find myself.

For educational technology, I always seen myself more into eLearning and multimedia. Although I am still “here” officially, my interest in professional writing and document design is taking off. Just look at the last several posts on my blog…

Anywho, perhaps this is something all people go through. To be or not to be an eLearning professional? To choose writing technologies and doc design over hardcore eLearning? Blasphemous!!!

Truthfully, I am uncertain.

I guess writing is a huge part of eLearning and so is document design. So I am not straying too far. Maybe it is my expanding knowledge of eduTech…naturally, the boundaries on my instructional design perspective are beginning to stretch into other areas. Perhaps :-/

~EduTech gEEk…I am a new brEEd of gEEkdom.

Are my blogs wordy or worthy?

Maria Schneider, in her Writer’s Digest blog, The Writer’s Perspective by Maria Schneider, talks about keeping blog word count to a limit of 300 words or less.

GEEZ, Maria! That seems so short!

It (wordiness, that is) was actually listed as the #10 tip in her previous blog titled, 20 Tips for Good Blogging (I blogged on this article too under the same title…for easy referencing).

This time, after receiving many complaints from her readers, she goes more in depth about why a word limit is necessary. Her recommendation has logical significance behind it: avoiding fluff and keeping your readers from hitting the snooze on your blog.

Anywho…I like details, not too many details, but enough to explain and define my subject matter. My blog discusses eLearning/Instructional Design specific content, so defining and detailing is necessary for clarification and differentiation of terms.

I recommend taking into account Ms. Schneider’s professional advice. She is one of the more informative and knowledgeable writers/bloggers out here in our cyber world.

Yes, good sentence structure is necessary knowledge for IDs. The project manager for my current ID project has three writing rules:

1. First Person (It’s really second person if you’re referring to the learner as “you”.)
2. Active Voice (no passive language)
3. Present Tense for Verbs

I did not notice how many times I made these mistakes, until now. Writing passively seems to be my numero uno guilty pleasure. The good thing is MS Word allows you to set these parameters. Thus, correcting your mistakes as you work. Pretty convenient.

Today, I came across a Writer’s Digest article titled, The Four Commandments of Writing Good Sentences. According to this article, the four rules are:

1. You shall not write passively.
2. You shall not overuse weak verbs like “to be” and “to have.”
3. You shall not fluff.
4. You shall make every word necessary.

Pretty good stuff, right? I’d say…oops…I say so…or I believe so. Trying to avoid that passive voice.

Discussions of such techniques occur in business writing courses and websites. So, if you want to learn more, google these writing techniques:

1. Business Writing
2. Technical Writing
3. Professional Writing

My New Goal: To make the above mentioned rules a part of my natural writing style.

Not much activity from me this week, huh?

The latest opportunity is a ~ 4 month contract content development position with Information Mapping, Inc. The Information Mapping method of organizing and presenting content is definitely one of the better forms of standardized writing. As far as my experience goes…

Most of my responsibilities will be technical writing and document design oriented. Of course….these two areas of designing instruction seem to follow me everywhere.

The funniest aspect of this job is the transformation of training documents from Word Perfect to MS Word!

Yes…I said “Word Perfect.”

I thought the industry was moving more toward Adobe FrameMaker for template-based document design needs. So to be working with Word Perfect is a true shocker. Nonetheless interesting. I guess these are the types of jobs that help grow you into a true instructional design/technical writing professional.

I think I even said in a previous post about how all my FrameMaker training wouldn’t even be considered for the next job. Boy, did I hit the nail on the head.

My SME—working with my Subject Matter Expert has also been pretty interesting. It has only been a week, but I already realize the benefits to developing a supportive relationship with good communication.

The project has had a rough start due to many external factors that pre-date the arrival of my team and I. But, you know that’s the nature of the game. Either way I am sooooo on board and ready to work.

My Primary Goal: to develop the best instructional documents with my SME that the new batch of students will find useful during their entire program.

All my years as a student should definitely have prepared me for this position.