Thoughts on Moral Dimensions of Instructional Design
In their article [1], Osguthorpe, et al. discuss what they consider to be the moral dimensions of instructional design. Their foundational principle is the development of conscience in designing instruction. They cite Tom Green's argument that teachers who do not focus on conscience will "never reach the highest goals of education" (p. 20).
It is not explicitly stated, but I assume from the context that Osguthorpe et al. view "transformative learning" (p. 20) as the highest goal of education. Implicit in their argument is the idea that without a well-developed sense of the five areas of personal conscience (conscience of craft, conscience of membership, conscience of sacrifice, conscience of memory, and conscience of imagination), an instructional designer's product will likely not lead to transformative learning. The idea of transformative learning resonates with me, but I have no clear definition for or description of it. (Perhaps in the literature there is more development of this concept. I think saw a hint of it in a book chapter by Wenger on learning as identity development -- food for another post.) But, really it is currently an indistinct concept for me.
But, assuming that transformative learning is a valuable and reachable goal, we still need to discuss the consciences a little. In class, Dr. Graham made reference to the moral scale of a vocation being directly related to how much impact the vocation had on other human beings. I see this as being a key point of the whole discussion.
For instance, the idea of a conscience of craft becomes more meaningful when we refer to the craft as having value only insomuch as it has value to other human beings. This is contrasted with the idea of the craft being the end in itself.
For example, when I worked for The Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, as a designer and editor, we had very little luxury in the time we had to craft a news page. We generally had to get all editing, layout, headline writing, and other design done in much less than an hour per page -- eight hours every day. Sometimes we had late copy we had to fit onto two or three pages within 20-30 minutes. We relied on templates and pre-designed formats that were not ideal for the message, but which worked and got the paper out on time so that the paper carriers and deliverers could get their routes done and people could get their paper in the morning before they headed out to work.
Designers and editors who were overly fastidious or punctilious about the minutiae of a page, trying to make tweaks and get everything "just right" caused immeasurable frustration and discord within the organization. This is especially true when these oh-so-conscientious workers were really focused on portfolio stuffing, rather than on the reader they were serving. Even though we had to cut short some desires for our creation, we still had standards we adhered to -- removing typos, keeping messages sensitive to reader expectations, accuracy and as little bias as we could muster -- but we all wished daily we had a little more time to make things a little better.
I guess my little anecdote is meant to suggest that attention to craft should really be attention to what will benefit the user, rather than on what benefits the designer. Sometimes what we think will benefit the user and takes more time or more money is not worth the exchange -- especially if someone who could be helped now doesn't get the help they need in a timely manner. To me, templates can be useful for beginners, especially, and can ease the work load of certain aspects of the craft so that more concentration can be given to more important matters. If templates are created with attention to craft, that can sometimes eliminate any disturbance of conscience by later users who have to design with them.
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Incidentally, one student in class gave the etymology of "sincere" as being "without wax" and attributed it to ancient sculptors' habit of filling in sculptural blemishes with wax. It is a popular folk etymology, but, according to "An etymological dictionary of the English language" By Walter William Skeat and the Old Oxford English Dictionary, that etymology is not probable.
[1] Osguthorpe, R. T., Osguthorpe, R. D., Jacobs, W. J., & Davies, R. (2003). The moral dimensions of instructional design. Educational technology, 43(2), 19-23.
It is not explicitly stated, but I assume from the context that Osguthorpe et al. view "transformative learning" (p. 20) as the highest goal of education. Implicit in their argument is the idea that without a well-developed sense of the five areas of personal conscience (conscience of craft, conscience of membership, conscience of sacrifice, conscience of memory, and conscience of imagination), an instructional designer's product will likely not lead to transformative learning. The idea of transformative learning resonates with me, but I have no clear definition for or description of it. (Perhaps in the literature there is more development of this concept. I think saw a hint of it in a book chapter by Wenger on learning as identity development -- food for another post.) But, really it is currently an indistinct concept for me.
But, assuming that transformative learning is a valuable and reachable goal, we still need to discuss the consciences a little. In class, Dr. Graham made reference to the moral scale of a vocation being directly related to how much impact the vocation had on other human beings. I see this as being a key point of the whole discussion.
For instance, the idea of a conscience of craft becomes more meaningful when we refer to the craft as having value only insomuch as it has value to other human beings. This is contrasted with the idea of the craft being the end in itself.
For example, when I worked for The Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, as a designer and editor, we had very little luxury in the time we had to craft a news page. We generally had to get all editing, layout, headline writing, and other design done in much less than an hour per page -- eight hours every day. Sometimes we had late copy we had to fit onto two or three pages within 20-30 minutes. We relied on templates and pre-designed formats that were not ideal for the message, but which worked and got the paper out on time so that the paper carriers and deliverers could get their routes done and people could get their paper in the morning before they headed out to work.
Designers and editors who were overly fastidious or punctilious about the minutiae of a page, trying to make tweaks and get everything "just right" caused immeasurable frustration and discord within the organization. This is especially true when these oh-so-conscientious workers were really focused on portfolio stuffing, rather than on the reader they were serving. Even though we had to cut short some desires for our creation, we still had standards we adhered to -- removing typos, keeping messages sensitive to reader expectations, accuracy and as little bias as we could muster -- but we all wished daily we had a little more time to make things a little better.
I guess my little anecdote is meant to suggest that attention to craft should really be attention to what will benefit the user, rather than on what benefits the designer. Sometimes what we think will benefit the user and takes more time or more money is not worth the exchange -- especially if someone who could be helped now doesn't get the help they need in a timely manner. To me, templates can be useful for beginners, especially, and can ease the work load of certain aspects of the craft so that more concentration can be given to more important matters. If templates are created with attention to craft, that can sometimes eliminate any disturbance of conscience by later users who have to design with them.
***
Incidentally, one student in class gave the etymology of "sincere" as being "without wax" and attributed it to ancient sculptors' habit of filling in sculptural blemishes with wax. It is a popular folk etymology, but, according to "An etymological dictionary of the English language" By Walter William Skeat and the Old Oxford English Dictionary, that etymology is not probable.
[1] Osguthorpe, R. T., Osguthorpe, R. D., Jacobs, W. J., & Davies, R. (2003). The moral dimensions of instructional design. Educational technology, 43(2), 19-23.
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