Category: Podcast

Like all of us, Subject Matter Experts come in all personality types. So what is the best way to deal with the subject matter expert that you have been assigned for your instructional design project? While I find subject matter experts may be described along a continuum of “Don’t want to be bothered” to “Don’t…

One of the topics that I haven’t covered yet is to ask what do instructional designers do? Essentially Instructional Designers Design Instruction by: -Analyzing the work environment -Identifying Success Criteria -Determining Pre-training activities – determine prerequisite skills – identify learning objectives -Developing Course Materials -Developing Post Training Support -Evaluating Data -Revising Materials Other areas of…

My mother came by today and we ended up going to “Art in the Park” in South Portland Maine where there were 170 fine artists set up in the park. It reminded me of the importance of both keeping ourselves artistically inspired and energized and the importance of having our own practice. So today’s topic…

The hype cycle’s fifth stage is the plateau of productivity and this is the “boring stage” where the given innovation or technology just is there and is productive and predictable. This is where most of the technologies that we use on a daily basis are and it’s also where many of the technologies that we…

The fourth phase of the hype cycle is the Slope of Enlightenment where expectations and excitement start to match the reality regarding a given technology or innovation. This is when you will start to see “off the shelf” versions of the technology and “best practices” become established. For the majority of organizations and individuals, this…

The hype cycle’s trough of disillusionment is the third stage of the hype cycle. As the name implies this is the stage where people become disillusioned with a new innovation or technology. It can also be seen as a “wakeup call” with respect to the unrealistic expectations that we have regarding new technologies ability to…

The second phase of the hype cycle is where the hype actually comes in and that’s the Peak of Inflated Expectations. This is the phase where excitement and attention and novelty and the fear of missing out all work together to create this disconnect from reality. Skills instructional technologists and instructional designers can see this…

There are five stages to the Hype Cycle, the innovation trigger, the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of disillusionment, the slope of enlightenment, and the plateau of productivity. Today I wanted to continue our talk about the hype cycle with a bit of a discussion about the first stage. The Innovation Trigger. What is…

Today I wanted to share a quick introduction to The Hype Cycle which is an excellent way to explore and describe new innovations and predict their reception (among other traits). It’s also an excellent way to identify if a specific new technology is worth your time and how you should be interacting with it at…

While some of the educational theories and fundamentals of instructional design tend to endure, if not fade in and out of favor depending on your particular circle. The specific technologies tend to change at a faster rate. We’ve moved from Macromedia Flash to immersive VR experiences in a very short time. Heck, we’ve gone from…