By Victoria Hekking |
Consider how many great things in life often evolve to be “great,” but do not start perfectly. Things change to better suit their times, and if they don’t, they either cease to exist or are replaced by something superior.
This pattern of evolution is present in our everyday surroundings, not to be defined strictly as “the scientific theory explaining the appearance of new species and varieties through the action of various biological mechanisms” but instead as:
“A process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state.”(,1)
Take, for example, the evolution of human life. We begin as a baby, the simple. At this stage, our capabilities are limited—we can eat, drink, sleep, cry, etc. As we grow, we become more complex and more capable of performing higher levels of physical exertion or deep, sophisticated degrees of thinking and internal processing.
This example serves to demonstrate that simple is not always worse, nor vice-versa. It more precisely means that we evolve to suit our environments, which is why I suggest that the term “better state” actually be altered to say “better-suited state.”
This concept stands true for the world of education as well. We have witnessed how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has required a quick change from in-person teaching to remote, online instruction. As we have all now come to face these unexpected and unplanned situations, we have also witnessed a quick view of what some new possible normals of education could be.
We have ultimately gone from the stage of needing a baseline of learning to suit the “new normal”—the simple—to now needing and having the space to create engaging and “complex” learning design.
We need to consider what makes learning “great” and acknowledge that it may not always be the same. We need not let perfect be the enemy of great either, but instead recognize that practice means progress, and progress in our world means being able to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of our surroundings.
As learning and teaching evolve to serve new and different needs, it is crucial for us to continually consider what guiding concepts for education will be essential and most effective for this stage in time. For this reason, we, at Construct, are committed to recognizing this “new normal” in learning while holding to time-tested and research-backed standards of producing accessible, active, authentic, memorable, motivating, and social learning experiences. Experiences designed to “best-suit” our era of education because they are the evolutionary building blocks of our time. By nurturing these experiences through the support of our new Quality Dimensions Framework, learning design can reach the “better-suited state” needed for our learners today.
Keep an eye out for our next blog post where we will outline our Quality Dimensions Framework and how we are utilizing it as a tool to guide our values and the work that we do.
(1) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evolution
AUTHOR
,Victoria Hekking – Marketing Manager, Construct
