The Institute for the Future recently published a list of 10 skills for the future, which is reviewed nicely here. I list below the few (in my own words) that I find most interesting:
- Gain competency in many disciplines - in the knowledge society, people must see how things connect and work together. I have found that as an instructional designer, I design instruction more efficiently when I am competent in (or at least understand) the subject matter. In addition, being able to see the connection between what I am doing and the rest of the organization increases my value, purpose, and ability to act effectively.
- Be able to process and make sense of information - there is so much information, we must learn how to draw coherent conclusions from the deluge of information. This includes understanding and coping with information from multiple sources and media. As an instructional designer, making sense of a topic or a field is crucial, and those fields grow and change, being able to make sense of and design around that field becomes crucial.
- Be able to communicate effectively - this includes communication across cultures and using many different media. It also includes a sense of social intelligence. Instructional designers communicate endlessly with peers, students, subject-matter-experts, management, and many others. Having social intelligence and the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently is vital, and cultural competence in our global economy is also crucial.
- Be able to design and create - as knowledge workers, we must be able to create knowledge and tools that are useful and help others to succeed and find meaning in the future. Clearly this relates directly to instructional design- we translate information into instruction so that our learners can use that knowledge- and we must learn to do it as efficiently and effectively as possible.
13 comments:
Well said, Joel. Those are important skills for almost any profession. The common thread is adaptability. Acknowledge that the world will change around you, and you're most successful when you can change with it.
I believe that flexibility is a huge asset in the field of ID. Being able to strengthen the weaker skills required is a definite must. If all learning styles are to be reached, all styles must be met in the design process. The design must come from the view point of all learners and the challenge is to step outside of your learning style and design style and incorporate the science of learning.
I think these are the core elements of ID, delivery and understanding. Regardless of the forward thinkers, we need these basics.
I think the ability to multi-task and be multi-dimensional is going to continue to be more important. It is also going to be important to learn to collaborate amongst a broad base of technical experts as technology advances into all areas
I think these skills are more and more important. Access to information is only increasing so being able to navigate the vast amount of information and to be able to in turn communicate that information to others will be vital.
I believe that flexibility is also an important characteristic.
I agree with your discussion of needing to process and make sense of information. There is a need to determine what your learners actually need to know for the instruction and what would be "nice to know."
The first comment with regard to learning many disciplines is very important, particularly if you are working in a large organization. You have to be able to understand the business and its various pieces (like a puzzle) to be able to create effective instruction.
Joel, I agree with you on item #2: Be able to process and make sense of information. I believe that this skill is necessary in all aspects of modern life, not only for an instructional designer. We are bombarded all day long with unending information and we need to be savvy enough to pick out what we need and ignore the rest. Instructional designers will assist others, by eliminating the "noise" that they might encounter when learning.
Your point about communication is key. So much work is done electronically now, instead of face-to-face. Communication cross-culturally AND in differing formats is KEY.
This reminds me of the crucial 4C's - skills needed in the knowledge age - as outline at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
Communication
Collaboration
Critical Thinking
Creativity.
Reading your blog, we can add one more"
Content Knowledge!
In looking at your list of competencies and thinking of my role as an instructional designer I agree with the competencies you chose as important to future designers. Particularly being able to communicate effectively as I feel this is highly important to all aspects of instructional design. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks to all for the comments, greatly appreciated. In my role as instructional designer and now as a program chair, I have realized that being able to process information quickly and make decisions that align with program goals is exceedingly crucial. Doing this effectively in our rapidly-changing world requires all of these competencies.
I have noticed a difference between many instructional designers who were trained 30 years ago and many designers who have been trained recently. Those in the current design context seem to move much faster than those with the "old-school" mentality. The difficulty will be maintaining the quality while still being relevant and in alignment with the design environment.
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