Staving off managers with their pre-determined curriculum objectives and lock-step, universal learning programs is a constant part of my adult literacy work. You say, “Creating learning experiences shouldn’t be about ‘us’ vs ‘them’.” I wish it weren’t. But it’s not me calling them into meetings to impose goals and objectives.

Interesting that you should refer to this as becoming “corporatised”. In my world, these “business methodologies” are being applied by long-time civil servants. I think they’re simply “boss methodologies”.

“Know your destination before you elect a mode of transport.” Love it.

Or as a fellow instructional designer told me: “Most of my clients ask me to build them a boat. But what they really want is a way to cross the river …”

This isn’t unique to Web 2.0 technologies, though. It’s been going on as long as I’ve been in the business…which is a long time. Whatever technology is hot, is the technology folks are sure they need to be using.

It is the learning designer’s job to help the client marry up the right solution and the right building tools. When I entered the learning industry, video was the hot rage. Suddenly, everything that was done as instructor-led could be done better on video. We simply keep swapping out technologies – but the behavior never really changes.

I look at it this way – part of what I bring to the table in expertise in tools and solutions. Customers trust that we’ll help them figure out both.