ASK THE PROFESSOR A QUESTION

NONLINEAR DIGITAL

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Most Students are Afraid to
Ask Questions Because
Most Teachers Have a
Low Question Tolerance Level

Let Me Share a Few Concepts That I hope You Have Learned From This Site. Have you learned?

The overwhelming application of instructional design is training.

Memorization of the same material is replaced with individualized assignments.

Instructional triads move toward wisdom where single solution answers and assignments are simply limiting.

All instruction should ensure that all definitions of content is clear by creating an assignment dictionary. The briefest glance of a dictionary reveals multiple definitions for terms.

Case stories are an instructional tool that moves beyond cause and effect.

Textbook publishers have corrupted education.

Technology is simply a delivery system. It does not add anything to student learning.

Ask Me a Question

Socratic Method

Many students have questions that they never ask for countless reasons. The vast majority of students will sit their for years and never ask a question in or out of class. My own life experiences with asking questions is that when I asked a question of people they invariably do not want to answer. There is often some attempt at trying to make me feel small. On an escalator in a Russian subway I ask the woman sitting in the booth at the bottom how long is this escalator from top to bottom? She said when she began to work she asked the boss and the boss said that was only for him to know. If the truth is known he had no clue.

In Syracuse, NY I wanted to learn locksmithing and I went to a famous lock smith supply company to talk to the owner. I had a good book on learning locksmithing and I asked if he would sell me the different locks that I could then take apart and put back together. He introduced me to the counterman and I began. The counterman was very condescending to me each time I purchased a new lock to work on. He made it so difficult for me. One day he said that he was also trying to learn about how to take apart and repair locks. This was a shocking moment.

It literally changed my life by having a radio show for 14 years at the University. If I asked a professor to teach me something about their discipline they would laugh in my face and say something like you should have learned that in school. But on the radio I could ask anything and they would happily answer. I expanded this idea into everything in life. I then realized that everyone is my teacher and my skills at asking developed. I now ask a question every place I go and of everyone I meet.

For my classes I had an assignment on the midterm that each student must e-mail me six question that I would answer on my web site. I would send the question and answer back to the student when I finished. I cannot tell you how difficult an assignment this was for more than half of my students. More than 30% simply sent the same six questions that they got from a classmate. Can you imagine how a person would believe that they could send the same six questions as others and somehow I would not guess. I said nothing and then tried to figure out how to avoid this in the future. My website was the answer. If all the previously asked questions are their they would have a list of examples. Plus they may see that if they asked the same questions it would be easily identified.

Who would believe how hard this is and how much fear is involved. I put them into categories. If you would like to ask me a question about digital instructional design I will start a page.

Questions and Answers From Web Site