The Biggest Secret in Education

BIG BIG BIG NONLINEAR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN SECRET

Photo of David Morris at Syracuse University

Linear Instructional Design
is For Training

Six Plus of Minus Three

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN HAS FOCUSED ON THE EFFICIENT CONSTRUCTION AND DELIVERY OF TRAINING TO LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE. MILITARY TRAINING SINCE WWII HAS BEEN CONSTRUCTED AROUND MEMORIZATION, SPEED, AND SPECIFIC RETENTION. THE MILITARY TRAINS LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE OFTEN HAD MARGINAL PUBLIC SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY LEARNING EXPERIENCES.

A GREAT AMOUNT OF MONEY HAS BEEN PUT INTO INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN BY THE MILITARY SINCE WORLD WAR II. THE MILITARY HAS CREATED, TESTED, AND UPDATED COUNTLESS TRAINING PROGRAMS WITH GREAT SUCCESS.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN NOW PROMISES TO REPLACE SO-CALLED DYSFUNCTIONAL TEACHERS IN PUBLIC EDUCATION AND UNIVERSITIES. THE BELIEF IS THAT THE SAME MILITARY SUCCESS CAN BE TRANSFERRED TO THE MASSES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

THE BIG TEXTBOOK CONGLOMERATE PUBLISHERS ARE PROMISING THAT THEY WILL FILL THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY NEEDS FOR CURRENT MATERIALS AND TESTING. UNFORTUNATELY THEY ARE NOT STRUCTURED OR CAPABLE OF DOING AN EFFECTIVE JOB. THE CONGLOMERATES' SOLUTION WILL BE TO TAKE THEIR EXISTING INEFFECTIVE MATERIALS AND CLAIM SUCCESS. THEIR PROFITS WILL BE EVEN MORE ASTRONOMICAL. THE BIG FOUR TEXTBOOK CONGLOMERATES WILL CONTINUE THEIR QUESTIONABLE PRACTICE OF INCLUDING ADMINISTRATIONS FROM SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES, AND INTEREST GROUPS IN THEIR GOLD RUSH. THE ONLY LOSERS WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE STUDENTS, THE NATION, AND THE WORLD.

THE POLITICAL, MILITARY, AND ECONOMIC INCENTIVE IS TO REPLACE EVIL TEACHER AND MAKE THEM REDUNDANT. THIS CHANGE IS BEING SOLD TO AMERICANS PROMISING THAT ALL STUDENTS WILL NOW HAVE THE SAME CHANCE FOR SUCCESS. A TRUE DEMOCRACY.

EDUCATION AND INSTRUCTION FOLLOWS THE DOMINANT STORY IN A SOCIETY. THE RULING GROUP OR STORY ELITE RETAINS POWER OVER MASS OF STORY HOLDERS THROUGH STATE SPONSORED EDUCATION. CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS, AND ETHNIC STORY HOLDERS THAT ARE LEFT BEHIND BY THE STORY ELITE MUST ASSURE THEIR OWN EDUCATION. WITHOUT THIS EDUCATION COMPETITING STORY HOLDERS WILL BE EXPLOITED AND DESTROYED BECAUSE EDUCATION IS IMBEDDED IN OUR STORY.

INSTRUCTIONAL ACCESS TO GAIN WISDOM WILL STILL BE DIFFERENTIATED FOR ELITE STORY HOLDERS AND THEIR CHILDREN. THIS WILL OCCUR OUTSIDE OF THE TRAINING MODEL RESERVED FOR THE MASSES. THE FUTURE STORY ELITE WILL CONTINUE TO BE ASSEMBLED FROM AROUND THE WORLD AND RECEIVE A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION. YALE UNIVERSITY IS AN EXAMPLE OF SUCH AN INSTITUTION. MY GUESS IT THAT THEIR WILL BE A WORLD WIDE EXPANSION THE IVY LEAGUE. THE BRITISH EMPIRE BROUGHT THE CHILDREN OF THE ELITE TO ENGLAND TO BE TAUGHT ENGLAND'S STORY. THEY WOULD THEN RETURN TO DO ENGLAND'S BIDDING.

WHEN INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN IS TOTALLY TAKEN FROM TEACHERS AND PROFESSORS THE CHANCE OF STUDENT ATTAINING ANY FORM OF WISDOM BECOMES JUST RANDOM. WHEN WE GIVE UP THE DESIGN OF OUR INSTRUCTION WE ARE UNNECESSARY AND WILL BE REPLACED BY A FEW CORPORATIONS.

DAVID MORRIS HAS CREATED AN INSTRUCTION DESIGN MODEL THAT ALLOWS THE TEACHER AND PROFESSOR TO BREAK TEXTBOOK TRAINING BY REAPPLYING THE MILITARY MODEL OF ADDIE. ADDIE IS TRANSFORMED BY DR. MORRIS FROM A LINEAR MILITARY TRAINING MODEL TO A NONLINEAR MODEL TO ENHANCE INTERCONNECTIONS AND IN-DEPTH UNDERSTANDING. DM. 4/14/07

My pain in school seemed to be endless. It has taken me a life time to figure out why? It has also taken me a lifetime to figure out how to overcome this for current and future students.

Early Pain

I struggled as a learner in school all my life. I never understood what I was supposed to learn and what I was expected to know to do well. In retrospect my education in public school and the university was counterbalanced by religious education, a family driven education, boarding school, and self teaching. I mistakenly thought that as a learner that it was my role to find new and creative ways of interpretation and understanding. I never thought it was just unquestioned memorization.

I cannot tell you how much pain I had in school from the early grades through my undergraduate to doctor's degree. With almost no educational reinforcement I still always believed that I was, creative, intelligent, and could learn. I never thought that I was able to understand and learn the way I was taught. I did poorly in all math, the sciences, languages, writing, multiple choice questions, spelling, memorizing, research, reading, and standardized tests. From the fourth grade on I was paralyzed to read out loud. Today I realize it is the textbooks and their testing.
Even until this day I am embarrassed to write on the board or send e-mails to my students because of my poor spelling. I cannot tell you how much personal strength it takes for me when students start to laugh at my spelling in class. In some rare cases they even attack me verbally for my spelling and say terrible things to me in class and written evaluations. An amazing example is on my marketingandstorytelling.com website under fear of a student.

I Never Understood
I also found that I could never read a book, take a test, or read instructions and respond as expected. I found that when I asked most teachers and fellow students a question they would not answer but instead laugh at me. I also could not understand why there was no connection of one event or action to another outside of specific course content. When I made connections teachers were extremely perplexed and really did not know what to say or do with me. I always believed that the teacher and the textbook publishers once identified would move to a broader understanding and I would receive higher grades. I can remember in Greek Mythology course at Syracuse University I wrote a paper comparing John F. Kennedy to Hector of Troy. The professor kept my paper and told me he showed it to his colleagues. Then he gave me the grade of C. I could give thousands of examples in my life. Each time it happened I believed that if I could just make it clearer what I was asking then they would help me see the concept.

The answer I believed was Instructional Design. If I could figure out how to improve the delivery of the message then I could help people like myself I could deliver this boon to others. My life would mean something in helping others overcome their educational pain. Instructional Design to me was perfect. What I was taught was learning had a great deal to do with a process or method that applies content.

My Educational Calling

I have rarely read a scholarly article where I thought that I had learned anything. This had been impossible to achieve because of the linear structure that forced scholars into such obscure and small areas of thought. I have never read any books that I could figure out what others thought, said , or meant until I created and applied my own nonlinear model.

I Figured This Out Today 12/3/07
I go over what I have written when I get a chance. I redid this page today. All of a sudden it hit me. I always had difficulty on mass tests. I usually came out below average. Recently I learned that the SAT Exam is directly taken from the military assessment examination created in World War I and II. The military required a means of quickly assessing, training, and placing masses of people.

So what attributes are military testing searching to find in individual soldiers? I believe the military prefers intelligent individuals that show an infinity to respond to orders, direction, and single solutions. To attain our current and future military force we strive to identify those individuals that find security in mathematics, science, engineering, and single solution answers. Those that tend to be more questioning and identify multiple solutions are not their optimal choice.

Tested individuals from childhood that possess the desired military attributes out perform others in mass tests. They then receive positive reinforcement, access to a better education, and economic support. The rest, like myself run into early difficulty and sustained life long rejection. Each of us never knowing why or what we could have done with this information.

Another difficulty is that particular ethnic and religious groups that reinforce nonlinear storytelling in learning are excluded. For example the Irish. I ask why do mass linear educators institute the bell shaped curve that forces educators to actually find ways of giving half of their students lower grades? What attributes in people are they attempting to exclude? You will know in an instant if what I am suggesting has happened to you. What will come to pass for our children when our current linear education is now rewarding more extremes of linearity. Can you figure out why this is happening?

If you would like to contribute your own DID materials, ideas, understanding, and experiences you may have your own page. Come back soon. I am working on my sites almost everyday. So many are coming to the sites I cannot keep up. You can help me. I know that it is not easy to learn new things. But you already know this. You just have to be reminded.

Professor of Marketing
University of New Haven
Ph.D. in Instructional, Design. Development, & Evaluation, Syracuse University

emaildavidmorris@gmail.com

Instructional Quotes

"The worst teacher is better at testing students than the best corporate derived tests" David Morris