As an educator who has bought in to e-learning, and modern teaching practice, I feel somewhat vindicated in self-assessing my own teaching practice to date. Much of what has been reported in Thomas’ (2010) writing has been an affirmation of what I am already doing in my classroom. That said, I have in various stages of my career been faced with great opposition for applying some of these strategies. No one likes change, yet it is the only constant of life. When I started teaching I employed traditional instructional/behaviourist teaching methods as this is what I knew as a student, and the university I completed my undergrad in was only just beginning to look at these alternative teaching methods. I majored in social studies, a profession (in Alberta and New Zealand at least) that is dominated by “more experienced” teachers, generally male, in the twilight of their careers and not always the most responsive to change. (possibly the only faculty more regressive to the new way of teaching is mathematics). Still, there I was young (‘er than I am now now, but especially young) new teacher with bright shiny ideas ready to re-invent the system and “make a real difference”. The cynicism I faced from the more established teachers nearly crushed my enthusiasm as I was met with comments like “Oh yeah, I remember that idea when it was called _____, and ten years it will be re-packaged and called something new. Me, I am going to stick to what I have been doing for forty years. I get results” But as I walked past classrooms of such teachers, I couldn’t help but notice the number of semi-conscious students idly siting in their desks zoned out on their phone or asleep completely, and I thought: there has to be a better way? But I feel I am digressing. Continue reading Instructional Design in the 21st Century: Where do we go from here?