I wasn’t able to attend the live WebEx session, but I’d like to address the 3 questions that Vanessa suggested to contribute to the session this afternoon:

1. What role do you think Web 2.0 should play in the career of instructional designers?
2. What role should instructional designers play in the Web 2.0 world?
3. What are your current thoughts/questions about Web 2.0? (share experiences thus far)

I think Instructional Designers are or will soon be confronted with a shift in their work environment. In order for the Instructional Designer to maintain and excel in their career they must keep their models and practices up to date to suit the new learning style. Web 2.0 tools can assist the Instructional Designer in the design process. The incorporation of these tools will allow the Instructional Designer to create a motivating and collaborative model that can be utilized and tweaked to meet the learners need. However, Instructional Designer, Reuben Tozman said that the value of the Instructional Designer should not waver because, “The skill that an instructional designer possesses, that writers, teachers, programmers, technical writers, and so on don’t, is the ability to systematically break down content so that it is applicable to learners and their learning styles.” I think Web 2.0 tools are a great way for the Instructional Designer to efficiently transfer knowledge to instruction that can be comprehended by their target audience.


Instructional Designers play an essential role in the merging of informal and formal learning. Breaking down the restrictions of a classroom, and offering learners a way to gain knowledge through collaboration and Web 2.0 tools. The Instructional Designer can establish and facilitate these learning communities. The Instructional Designer can design flexible objectives to guide and motivate their audience.

I have been exploring all of the tools suggested and so far so good. I’m having alot of fun exploring these Web 2.0 tools that I have never played with in the past. I underestimated how much collaboration is required to fully benefit from Web 2.0 tools, but I think I am already starting to gain a little more insight this week with my heightened Blogging and decreased lurking. It’s kind of liberating to just put your thoughts down to open discussion :)
The Next Generation of Instructional Designers


Also I wanted to share this Blog. I found some cool ID articles linked at this Blog:
Top 4 Things That You Can Do to Get Started with Instructional Design

And finally, Is there a widely accepted short hand for Instructional Designer? ID’er?