I\u2019m often challenged to describe what I do and what\u00a0I am,<\/i>\u00a0professionally speaking, and have spent many conversations grasping for a succinct explanation using relatable words:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a\u2026well, I do\u2026umm\u2026learning things?\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not coherent English. Things were much simpler when I was a teacher, a grant writer, a camp counselor.\u00a0Everybody knows what these things are. Everybody is relieved when you can explain so much of your life in one tidy phrase. But my work now lies at the messy intersection of many\u00a0different things and doesn\u2019t fit neatly into any particular category or role. I\u2019ve called myself an educator, facilitator, faculty developer, trainer, designer, storyteller and change agent. While these are all true, they don\u2019t capture the nuance that exists where all these things collide, and they don\u2019t lend themselves to a name that can validate the work they represent to the world.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, I described to a friend the process of searching for a field, a title and a role to call home. I said that my work is about creating effective learning experiences that work for people, in all their complexity. \u201cIt\u2019s like\u00a0user experience design<\/span><\/a>,\u201d I said, but for education and learning instead of products and technology. \u201cLike event planning?\u201d he asked. Well, yes, like event planning. And curriculum development. Developmental psychology. Instructional design. Group dynamics.\u00a0Neuroscience. Learning theory. Leadership. It\u2019s like\u2026learning\u2026experience\u2026design. At that time, these words did not exist in any meaningful combination. A Google search returned results on\u00a0UX<\/span><\/a>\u00a0start-ups and conferences for wedding planners\u2013not quite what I meant. But recently, I\u2019ve seen the phrase emerge in some pretty fun\u00a0ways.<\/p>\n Learning experience design is being used more and more\u00a0to describe the work of those of us in education who create and support good learning, however and wherever it happens. It\u2019s broader, and perhaps less technically-oriented, than instructional design. It\u2019s less content-driven than curriculum design. And to me, it acknowledges the wide array of considerations that go into deliberately designing a learning experience to meet specific objectives\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0take into account the needs (mental, emotional, physical, social, spiritual) of your learners.<\/p>\n I met\u00a0Joyce Seitzinger\u00a0<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and heard the title \u201cLearning Designer\u201d for the first time\u00a0at the\u00a0Messy Session on Messing Learning<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at last spring\u2019s OLC ET4Online. It was at that conference that I also began hearing connections being made more explicitly between design thinking and learning experiences in a session with\u00a0Jessica Knott<\/span><\/a>. Since then, I started a\u00a0MOOC on human-centered design<\/span><\/a>\u00a0offered by\u00a0IDEO<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0+Acumen<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with a group of learning-focused colleagues. The MOOC experience morphed into a project using design thinking to shake things up around teaching and learning on our campus. Most recently, I noticed that Joyce and Jess launched a\u00a0collaboration\u00a0<\/span><\/a>on the topic of learning experience design, and the phrase gained it\u2019s own hash tag that just rolls off the tongue:\u00a0#lxdesign<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s the work that matters, and the work has been happening without a name all along, I think words carry power. They legitimize, familiarize and normalize things that previously existed on the margins. They lend credibility to the people who work simultaneously at the periphery and the core of teaching and learning. They help to move the needle on the transformations taking place in education, where teaching is becoming a distributed, team-based effort, an art and a science, and a field unto itself.<\/p>\n I\u2019m thrilled to know what to call it, how to describe\u00a0my work in ways that are increasingly recognized and valued. More than that, I\u2019m thrilled to know that I\u2019m a part of a wider network, a tribe of learning designers who see what\u00a0education can be, and are ready to steward it into being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m often challenged to describe what I do and what\u00a0I am,\u00a0professionally speaking, and have spent many conversations grasping for a succinct explanation using relatable words:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a\u2026well, I do\u2026umm\u2026learning things?\u201d This is not coherent English. Things were much simpler when I was a teacher, a grant writer, a camp counselor.\u00a0Everybody knows what these things are. Everybody is relieved when you can explain so much of your life in one tidy phrase. But my work now lies at the messy intersection of many\u00a0different things and doesn\u2019t fit neatly into any particular category or role. I\u2019ve called myself an educator, facilitator, faculty developer, trainer, designer, storyteller and change agent. While these are all true, they don\u2019t capture the nuance that exists where all these things collide, and they don\u2019t lend themselves to a name that can validate the work they represent to the world. A few years ago, I described to a friend the process of searching for a field, a title and a role to call home. I said that my work is about creating effective learning experiences that work for people, in all their complexity. \u201cIt\u2019s like\u00a0user experience design,\u201d I said, but for education and learning instead of products and technology. \u201cLike event planning?\u201d he asked. Well, yes, like event planning. And curriculum development. Developmental psychology. Instructional design. Group dynamics.\u00a0Neuroscience. Learning theory. Leadership. It\u2019s like\u2026learning\u2026experience\u2026design. At that time, these words did not exist in any meaningful combination. A Google search returned results on\u00a0UX\u00a0start-ups and conferences for wedding planners\u2013not quite what I meant. But recently, I\u2019ve seen the phrase emerge in some pretty fun\u00a0ways. Learning experience design is being used more and more\u00a0to describe the work of those of us in education who create and support good learning, however and wherever it happens. It\u2019s broader, and perhaps less technically-oriented, than instructional design. It\u2019s less content-driven than curriculum design. And to me, it acknowledges the wide array of considerations that go into deliberately designing a learning experience to meet specific objectives\u00a0and\u00a0take into account the needs (mental, emotional, physical, social, spiritual) of your learners. I met\u00a0Joyce Seitzinger\u00a0\u00a0and heard the title \u201cLearning Designer\u201d for the first time\u00a0at the\u00a0Messy Session on Messing Learning\u00a0at last spring\u2019s OLC ET4Online. It was at that conference that I also began hearing connections being made more explicitly between design thinking and learning experiences in a session with\u00a0Jessica Knott. Since then, I started a\u00a0MOOC on human-centered design\u00a0offered by\u00a0IDEO\u00a0and\u00a0+Acumen\u00a0with a group of learning-focused colleagues. The MOOC experience morphed into a project using design thinking to shake things up around teaching and learning on our campus. Most recently, I noticed that Joyce and Jess launched a\u00a0collaboration\u00a0on the topic of learning experience design, and the phrase gained it\u2019s own hash tag that just rolls off the tongue:\u00a0#lxdesign. While it\u2019s the work that matters, and the work has been happening without a name all along, I think words carry power. They legitimize, familiarize and normalize things that previously existed on the margins. They lend credibility to the people who work simultaneously at the periphery and the core of teaching and learning. They help to move the needle on the transformations taking place in education, where teaching is becoming a distributed, team-based effort, an art and a science, and a field unto itself. I\u2019m thrilled to know what to call it, how to describe\u00a0my work in ways that are increasingly recognized and valued. More than that, I\u2019m thrilled to know that I\u2019m a part of a wider network, a tribe of learning designers who see what\u00a0education can be, and are ready to steward it into being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elligoudzwaard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}