"Instructional Designer wanted: No experience necessary"

That's the title of Alan Reid's 2012 article which was published in Inside Higher Ed, Both the article itself and the responses it evoked were very honest, passionate and thought-provoking. I quote: "Interactive, customized and adaptive text should be the next educational technological milestone but not like this........we continue to build an increasingly accessible virtual world where we can act as professional instructional designers, physicians and stock traders; with no experience necessary.....Technology doesn't make us experts (Reid, 2012). He makes a good point about technology being so ubiquitous and how anyone can acquire information on pretty much any topic which, therefore, makes them an expert...not really. In the article Reid expresses concern over Apple's iBooks Author which invites every Tom, Dick and Harry to publish textbooks on any subject of their choosing. While he received some responses expressing sympathetic support, the majority of respondents basically communicated a sentiment that went something like: Get out of the way, buddy, or the Mack Truck of Technology will roll right over you and crush you. Reid believes education should be utilizing newer technologies to enhance and benefit faculty and students alike and I think we all pretty much agree on that in this class. If I were to undergo any kind of surgery or treatment, I would want the best surgeon using the latest technology available. The point is that the latest and greatest advancements of our time are only as good as the abilities and skills of the person utilizing them. The wide-spread availability of new tech tools and toys will, no doubt, result in some unfortunate casualties. It will also encourage us to more carefully investigate what and how we eventually choose. However, it will also allow for innovative, "non-expert" ideas and approaches to be easily introduced which, in turn, can be streamlined or redesigned by others with more formal training in the field to the benefit of all concerned. As Reid himself notes, current technology is encouraging everyone to become experts on everything but that does not actually make us experts. It just makes us more knowledgeable on any subject we choose to research. So despite the "pantheon of tools available out there", I believe trained experts will always be necessary to ensure that a quality product or service is delivered. http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/02/13/essay-do-apples-design-tools-make-it-too-easy-create-textbooks-and-courses#.TzmQB3r2zRM.mailto