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<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\nThe 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission to the Moon is upon us. As a science lover, I’ve been soaking up all of the ceremonies<\/a> First, a little history. <\/b><\/p>\n The Coincidentally, Next lesson: It’s all about teamwork.<\/b><\/p>\n This one is the biggest lesson for me. There were two types of people directly involved in the Moon Missions:<\/span><\/p>\n First, Ground Control.<\/b> I Second, Test Pilots<\/b>. If I may insert an analogy here, we had our Spock on the ground and sent our Jim Kirk to space. We need both.<\/b><\/span> <\/p>\n Instructional Instructional designers should have a test pilot streak; the ability to say “I wonder what this will do” and be willing to try.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As I’ve written about before, most of the bad rap that online education has comes from badly done <\/i>online education. We have to experiment to do better. Strap on a parachute and get up there and try something new.<\/span><\/p>\n Next lesson: It’s worth it to “shoot for the moon.” <\/b><\/p>\n There Final lesson: After 50 years, we’ve only just started.<\/b><\/p>\n NASA Our Moon shot is still ahead, instructional designers. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Come along for the launch. I’ll save you a seat. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n as well as the updates of future space missions ahead including
\nArtemis. Space science has been inside of science learning standards for
\n years. Several themes have emerged that intersect with instructional
\ndesign and I want to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Mission to the
\nMoon by noting these lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n urgency within modern STEM education within the U.S. traces it’s
\nhistory directly back to geopolitical sources. With both Sputnik in
\nlow-space orbit and a man in “space” already, the Russians were ahead
\nduring the Cold War and fears were rampant that enemies could be
\nanywhere on the planet because they could look down or drop down from
\nabove. Since the dawn of the Space Age, there has been a call to
\nincrease the number of working scientists in the United States in order
\nto achieve and maintain supremacy of near-Earth space. Interestingly,
\nthis call for more mathematicians and scientists goes on today, even
\nthough the U.S. is undeniably one of the top three countries in the
\nworld with viable dominance in space. Therefore, lesson one is: Never
\nunderestimate the power of geopolitical influence in guiding overall
\nlearning and education. If you thought science and space could float
\noff together un-tethered to any human notions of greed, you are very
\nwrong. (Reference: the entire movie Interstellar.)<\/span><\/p>\n
\n the field of Instructional Design tends to trace its history to nearly
\nthe same time period, starting in the 1950s Post-World War II America,
\nwith ID edging out the space race by less than 10 years. ID was born to
\nthe idea of planning and putting edges and method to the art and science of learning<\/a>. How nice that ID was considered both an art and a science! That’s a theme coming up.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Notice the name. Ground Control. Not Ground
\nWe-Think-We-Have-A-Good-Idea, Can-We-Run-It-Past-You. Not
\nI-Have-10,000-Twitter-Followers-So- Obviously-I’m-Thinking-Clearly.
\nGround Control. They called the shots. The people on the ground had
\naccess to: <\/span><\/p>\n\n
\n look at the footage of the control rooms, practice areas, and hear from
\n the astronauts themselves and I see one theme over and over: Checklists<\/b>.
\n Controls. Contingency plans. And training until it is automatic. And
\nthis is a great lesson for instructional design. When designing
\nlearning, make sure every step is documented. Make checklists. Keep
\nchecklists. Update them. You will need to know about every fuse, knob,
\nswitch, and procedure that your learners will need to engage. In Space
\ntravel, there is no “hand waving” approach. That means that there are no
\n shortcuts or middle parts that are so ubiquitous that they are not
\ndocumented. You can’t skip launch to get to orbit. You can’t skip orbit
\nto get to the Moon. Checklists make me happy. Every step is important.
\nThis is learning science. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nAs we reflect on history, we’ll have to just weigh the balance as to why
\n the test pilots were only white males. Grr. But alas, the specific
\npersonality characteristics of test pilots is the point here. Test
\npilots need to know as much as they can. They need to be trained to the
\n point of automatic responses (just the same as police, fire, and
\nmedical personnel on Earth). And then the most important point: they need to be able to improvise and take the leap from the known to the unknown. <\/b> Another name for this characteristic is bravery. This is the art.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n designers need to have a little of both within them. They should know
\neverything about everything within the instruction they are working on.
\n (I’m not saying that they should be SME’s on the content. We have
\nSMEs, it’s the SME’s job to be the Subject Matter Expert.) But
\ninstructional designers should know the learning inside and out. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n is a quaint phrase out there that says “Shoot for the moon. If you
\nmiss, you’ll land in the stars.” Beside the annoyance you give
\nscientists over the concept of accuracy, the point is to try because
\nother things besides your main goal are achievable; to reach out. It is
\n good when the instruction you designed reaches its goal. It is an
\nabsolute delight<\/i> when the instruction you designed reaches another <\/i>unplanned
\n but desired for goal. But you don’t get that second goal until you try
\n for the first. It is this degree of bravery that helped us get where we
\n are. To this day, we have advanced in many areas of Earth habitation,
\nnot just space exploration, with the Moon Missions. We need more bravery
\n in instruction to go forward. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n has plans and I entirely support their explorations both in space and
\non Earth. (Indeed, without Earth, where are we going to keep our stuff?)
\n The blue marble in space idea reminds us that we are all in this
\ntogether. Within instructional design, brain-based learning is getting
\nsome great traction and I support this as it erases differences of
\ngender and race to look at the neurological underpinnings of learning.
\nAs I’ve noted<\/a>
\n before, I’m researching the future of transmedia, cross-reality, and
\nvirtual reality as it relates to instructional design and we are only
\njust beginning to know what it can do. <\/span><\/p>\n