Mar 252009  This entry is part 1 of 21 in the series Ten Steps
to Complex Learning (the book).  I’ve been (slowly) reading Ten
Steps to Complex Learning, by Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer and
Paul A. Kirschner.  The subtitle explains why: A Systematic
Approach to Four-Component Instructional Design.  I read a lot
about the death of instructional design, the end of training,
and the New Jerusalem of learning that’s due any day.  Certainly
a lot of superstition and nonsense gets daubed with the label
“instructional design,” like a kind of cognitive Clearasil. 
Still, I can’t help think that few people are going to learn to
manage power-generation stations, conduct clinical trials, sell
aircraft engines, or produce FEMA-acceptable flood elevation
certificates solely through self-guided learning.  So I decided
to plow through this book, which I’ve described with a bit of
humor as being written in a language very much like English: the
prose is dense, and very academic.  So far it’s worth the
effort, and I’m going t