Reflection: Instructional Design, Learning Design or Design for Learning? (Task 1.2)

Screen shot 1: My contribution to activity 1.2 demonstrating my initial understanding of the phrases instructional design, design for learning and learning design:


Screenshot 2: Clarification from an explanation provided by Lucila Carvalho (Lecturer):

My Reflection:

The first screenshot shows my lack of understanding of the difference between the design types - especially 'design for learning'. A quick google search to try and inform my understanding proved to be very unsuccessful and further contributed to my misconception about the difference between design for learning and learning design. I found Lucila's week 4 news update to be very helpful and contributed to a light bulb moment for me. 

Goodyear & Dimitriadis's (2013) quote shown in screenshot 2, really resonated with me because it is so true that you cannot determine whether a child will learn from anything that we design for them. We can only attempt to design for their learning with the hope and intention that they will learn but with no guarantee. In hindsight this definitely fits with what I believe as a teacher and is reinforced with a constructivist view - where students construct their own knowledge based on their prior knowledge and experiences (Ertmer & Newby, 2013), and not in the way we as teachers necessarily intend them to. 

A closer look into learning theories and views I have undertaken recently towards my postgraduate in digital education has really helped to inform my knowledge of how I think students learn and what my role as a teacher really encompasses in terms of design for learning. I feel like there is a real mixture of these learning views and theories that I can identify in my own practice, the learning experiences I provide for my students, the digital tools I incorporate in my classroom programme and also how I think students learn. 

As can be seen in screenshot 1, my google search for the different terms around design and learning proved to be not quite an accurate representation of what each of the terms mean. I initially found it difficult to find a definition for 'design for learning' and instead interpreted it as being the same as 'universal design for learning' and clearly they are not. I also thought that because I wasn't using a design model or framework when designing learning tasks, that I can't have been 'designing for learning'. 

Although at this point in time I am still in the beginning stages of my understanding around design for learning, I find it to be very important that I point out I have been 'designing for learning' to occur and I do not take for granted the fact that I cannot force students to learn the exact way I intend. Just because I haven't used a model or framework specific to 'designing for learning', doesn't mean I haven't been doing this and I hope that the more I read, research, collaborate and create that my overall knowledge of this concept will improve and become more purposeful when 'designing for learning'.

Learning Outcome Link:

2. Reflect on the relationship between contemporary learning theories, design methods and the challenges for implementing new designs in educational organisations.

References:

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, (2), 43.
 Goodyear, P. & Dimitriadis, Y. (2013). In medias res: reframing design for learning. Research in Learning Technology, 21. Retrieved from http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/19909

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