Developing Smart Digital Tools for Instructional Design

Technology creates new opportunities for designing engaging learning experiences but at the same time makes the process of designing for learning more complex, as different actors interact. In instructional design practice, knowledge of the context of teaching, students’ skills and abilities, teaching environment, including technologies, subject matter and standards, staff competencies, and conceptions of teachers and educational software designers are brought into play in an skilful integration of bounding practices. In this talk, we present ongoing work that aims to explore how instructional design tools are shaped through the interplay between the intentions of instructional designers and tool developers, and the technologies used for learning design. We give an overview of available tools and pedagogical theories underpinning their development, and explore the actors involved in instructional design practice, their entwined relations, and the boundaries that emerge when actors are enacted in instructional design practice. Our analysis can offer insights towards the development of a new conceptual model for the evolution of software for instructional design.