When I first started playing around with learning technologies, I was surprised at the development model being employed - most instructors moved their own content online, applying their limited/extensive expertise of teaching/pedagogy/technology. The results were interesting (to put it mildly). Some courses were excellent, others were horrible. The challege then (as it is know) is for an institution to effectively use employee skills and resources to generate the best (defined by efficiency and quality) results. Many tasks (programming, Flash, instructional design) are best handled through specialized teams...whereas the teacher plays the primary role of fostering interaction and guiding learners. When a team development approach is used, issues of content ownership (and ego) quickly arise. The Myth about Online Course Development tackles some of the challenges of "lone wolf" instructors. Some skills (basic HTML, navigating an LMS, blogging, contributing to a wiki) can be described as basic literacy skills for students in a digital age...and all educators should be literate in those areas. Other skills, like programming, are best left to specialized members of a team.
Posted by gsiemens at January 24, 2006 8:58 PM