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Volume 56, Number 3 TechTrends • May/June 2012 3

ow many times have you been asked: “What exactly is it that you do?” Consider spending a

moment thinking about developing your own 60 second “elevator speech” to respond to this frequent inquiry. I guess if we were all accountants, this would be a simpler task, but hey then we would find ourselves accountants and not living in the exciting world of being learning agents for change.

When I was a graduate student, one of the running jokes was that if you could explain your major to your grandmother then you automati-cally received your diploma without the rigor of classes or a dissertation. Even though this was stated in jest, it clearly points out that describing our profession to others can be daunting. An added level of confusion is the di-versity of professions which share the initials “IT.” No I’m not an Industrial Technologist, Information Technolo-gist, Instructor Trainer, Innovation Technologist, or an Indiana Thespian.

Part of our professional challenge seems to be what we call ourselves. Am I an Instructional Designer or

H

President’s Column“What exactly is it that you do?”By Ana Donaldson, AECT President

Instructional Technologist? My cur-rent employer uses the term Educa-tional Technologist. A recent email from ASTD used the moniker: Work-place Learning Professional. I’ve also seen the terms Learning Designer or Learning Technologist. And “ET” for Educational Technologist keeps giv-ing me the urge to phone home. The AECT approach of using the terms Educational Communications and Technology is another possible path as a field descriptor, but “ECT” seems a bit dated since communication and technology should be a given in any educational setting when instruction is meeting the learning objectives. I’m old fashioned enough to prefer the tried and true title of Instructional Designer. Maybe if we could name ourselves more descriptively, it would help could clarify what we do.

For years, I’ve said that our field is about learning and not about the “toys.” Maybe it is time to empha-sis the learning part of the title and state the term “technology” with a softer voice. We are currently in a world were technology is such a part

Ana Donaldson

4 TechTrends • May/June 2012 Volume 56, Number 3

of our lives that its presence is a given in most endeavors. It is a reality that today’s educational opportunities are paired with an abundant choice of re-sources and tools. Instructional strat-egies take advantage of the Web 2.0 tools within our reach as we find our students sitting in classes with Smart Phones three generations later than our own.

The increased emphasis on on-line delivery also reinforces the idea that technology and instruction are joined at the hip. If instruction infers the presence of technology, then do we need to keep stating both terms in our descriptions? Also, this discussion might be propelled forward by using the term designer from the viewpoint of the current definition of the field and not from the limiting isolated concept given it by the traditional ADDIE model.

Marketing our profession is about branding, creating a known pres-ence in the public consciousness. By branding our field we also are aligning with the current AECT strategic plan “Goal 2: Question and articulate who we are, what we value and what we

do, and our service to society. “Dur-ing this year’s convention’s key note address, Dr. Ellen Wagner discussed how we succeed at talking among ourselves but fall short of articulating who we are to others outside of our professional circle. What do you think needs to be incorporated in your 60-second explanation?

Let’s approach this from the per-spective of the second goal of our strategic plan: ...who we are, what we value, what we do, and our service to society. OK, here goes my attempt: We are a diverse group of professional educators who value learning and ef-fective instruction for all citizens in all settings. We are a global presence in all aspects of training and education. And our service to society is to be the agents for change who will ensure the creation of life-long learners and the transformation of existing educa-tional norms. We define our field of as “the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.”

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Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology, Third EditionEDITED BY J. MICHAEL SPECTOR, M. DAVID MERRILL, JEROEN J.G. VAN MERRIËNBOER, AND MARCY P. DRISCOLL

The third edition of this groundbreaking handbookcontinues the mission of its predecessors: to provideup-to-date summaries and syntheses of recentresearch pertinent to the educational uses of information and communication technologies. December 2007 • 8 1⁄2 x 11 • 928 ppHb ISBN • 978-0-8058-5849-5 • $250.00Pb ISBN • 978-0-415-96338-1 • $99.95

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User DesignALISON A. CARR-CHELLMAN

User Design offers a fresh perspective on howfront-line learners can participate in the design oflearning environments. The book presents a newset of methods and strategies that show how thetools of professional designers can be effectivelyshared with broad groups of users and other partic-ipants in the process of creating their own learning.September 2006 • 6 x 9 • 160 ppHb ISBN • 978-0-8058-5504-3 • $62.95Pb ISBN • 978-0-8058-5505-0 • $23.95

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E-Learning and Social Networking Handbook Resources for Higher Education ROBIN MASON AND FRANK RENNIE

Student engagement with digital learningresources and online social networking are strongforces in education today. Through highlighting themost relevant, interesting, and challenging aspectsof e-Learning, this book provides practical advicefor using social networking tools in course design. May 2008 • 6 x 9 • 198 ppHb ISBN • 978-0-415-42606-0 • $135.00Pb ISBN • 978-0-415-42607-7 • $41.95

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“ If instruction infers the presence

of technology, then do we need to keep stating

both terms in our descriptions?”