RSSChicken and the Egg: Skill or Quality
Dec 03
Featured, Opinion, instructional design character trait, effective learning, instructional design, instructional designer, skill 4 Comments
Connie Malamed has a really great post on the 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer. What I like best about her list is that I can see most of those qualities in myself.
*puffs her chest out*
Then I realized that qualities are not skills.
*deflates a bit*
If I have skill to hammer nails effectively it does not mean that is an inherent quality. The quality would be to have a “pride of work” to make sure the nails are straight and not bent outside the wood.
Anyway, my point is that Connie’s fabulous post relates to Cammy Bean’s post about accidental instructional designers.
Hold on. I’m getting to the connection.
If an accidental designer uses the skills to develop effective learning does he or she already have the qualities inherent in Connie’s list?
It’s like the chicken and the egg conundrum. Which comes first: skill or quality?
This is only my opinion, but I think that quality must come first. A designer, even an accidental one, must first have the undeveloped characteristics Connie lists. Then, when thrown into the role of instructional designer, he or she would find that some aspects of the job come easier because they already have those qualities. The skills learned can then hone the qualities that he or she already has.
If I play devil’s advocate, though, I could say that when an accidental instructional designer is thrown into the frying pan (hey, that sounds like a good idea. Why don’t you spearhead that?), he or she must quickly acquire the skills to design and develop learning. The qualities then come as a natural by-product of those skills, particularly over time.
So, in your opinion, which comes first: skill or quality?
Dec 03, 2009 @ 21:02:15
How have I never been to your blog??? Great stuff. I really like the icons you have to share at the bottom of your post, very cool….I need something like that.
Anyway, my 2 cents – quality, then skill…but having both is important. You can not use skill only to be a successful instructional designer. You may be able to make stuff for people, but that doesnt mean it’s good, useful, engaging, etc.
I like Connie’s list…and her blog is really good. I think her list of qualities is really what makes IDs GOOD IDs…you can have skill and still be bad….and you can be a great instructional developer and not have the skill to produce a definitive end result of what is needed. Sooooo, IMHO, quality first, skill second, but both makes you awesome and stand out from the rest of the crowd.
jil
Dec 04, 2009 @ 17:17:34
Hi Jil! The icons are part of a plugin for Wordress.org install called “Sexybookmarks”. Great tool, embarrasing name. : )
Quality and skill go hand in hand. Without quality, particularly those mentioned on Connie’s blog, then all the skill in the world won’t help a designer create effective learning. But the skills are important too. Without the hands-on ability to create a course from start to finish, then those inherent qualities don’t do an ID much good. The debate between Cammy Bean and Karl Kapp is an interesting one that relates to the skill vs. quality debate too. If you get a chance check out both of their blogs.
Now all we need to do is come up with a decent list of skills for IDs to parallel Connie’s list…..
~April