ID Historical Wrap-up and Look Ahead
In general, instructional design has seen many paradigm shift over that last few decades, but one overarching theme seems to be that there has always been a need and desire for the learner to be centered in his education and educational model. The film and media training successes of the forties laid the foundation for Gagne’s work in the sixties. Gagne’s work sought to shift the paradigm to and event driven model where the learners behavior was the issue and not just the teaching strategies. This led to seeing another distinct shift in education philosophy with Merrill’s first principles. Merrill modeled that learning is facilitated when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems and that existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge. This has put the learner in the center of the knowledge model and its evaluation. This eventually led to Gardner’s work in learning styles and multiple intelligence theory, where the learner can now be understood by the way he learns and not just by the behavior of what he has learned. It became well understood that learners learn differently and therefore the definition of intelligence was undergoing a shift as well. Cognitive load theory seeks to understand how much a learner can learn and how to help a learner understand highly complicated behaviors and concepts through smaller pieces that are connected together to form larger schema sets. These schemas allow the learner to journey from novice to expert and be largely in control of where they reside on that journey.

Educational technology has thrust our institutions into the e-learning reality that has put the learner in the center of his education in ways that were not even thought possible in the forties. Industries and corporations must continue to understand the development of these educational models and environments to position themselves as industry leaders in professional development and innovation, using new technologies to help foster not only life time learning environments but also to help establish the schools of tomorrow for the next generations of skilled workers, mangers, and executives.

Series References
Erstad, O. (2003). Electracy as empowerment: Student activities in learning environments using technology. Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 11(1), 11-28.
Gagne, R., Briggs, L., & Wager, W. (1992). Principles of instructional design (4th edition ed.). Fort Worth, Texas: HBJ College Publishers.
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1983)
Kolb, D. A., & Fry, R. (1975). Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In C. Cooper (Ed.), Theories of group process London: John Wiley.
Marx, G. (2006). Sixteen trends, their profound inpact on our future: Implications for students, education, communities, countries, and the whole of society. Alexandria, VA: Gary Marx and Educational Research Service.
Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). What is instructional design theory? In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models (Vol. II, pp. 5-29). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Learning, 12, 257-288.