Instructional Designer's Perspective

A couple of weeks ago, I reconnected with a former colleague. She is one of those lucky people who can officially call herself and "Instructional Designer." Very cool.

Nima Salehi, works at Metro State University where she trains faculty in online course design and pedagogy and assists with online course development. She just finished co-teaching an online graduate course for ESL educators at Hamline called "Technology Enhanced Language Learning." This fall she'll be co-teaching a Business English class at the U of M.

Our e-mail "interview" covered a range of topics but one point really stood out to me.

Authenticity

Reading through Nima's responses reminded me how committed she is to using meaningful and authentic materials with her students. She builds lessons around news websites and other lifeskills oriented materials that help students learn about bus routes, rental information, or local support services.

This is something that I need to keep coming back to as I expand my work with both pronunciation and technology integration. It is so easy, especially when focusing on a skill like pronunciation, to get caught up in the details of designing the perfect assignment or lesson that you lose sight of bigger picture of communication.

Nima says:

"Practically, many technologies provide language practice for activities language learners may need to do in real life. For example structured phone call practice can be done with real phones, or through the Internet using tools which mimic phone calls (Skype or Audacity) and can role play activities such as calling English speaking friends, or setting up medical appointments. Language lessons on writing email to professors, or clients (Business English) can be done using real email messages written in student pairs either through message boards or through email, with feedback provided by peers and the instructor on appropriate register, content and other language skills. In these circumstances, the language practice is embedded within technology skills practice for authentic purposes."

It's great to connect with someone who's not only putting the principles of instructional design into practice...but also making a living at it!