Sweet ADDIE line

The subject of class today was the systems approach of Instructional Design and what on earth is an ADDIE. I can tell you what an ADDIE stands for, but I think it is going to take me the whole semester to explain this concept of systems approach.

As you might deduce, a systems approach refers to a systematic approach. This term made sense and seemed straightforward and logical to me. However, we have an entire textbook devoted to the phrase and this simple idea became involved and multi-faceted (I wouldn't call it complex).

Some thoughts from class are this:

• The application of technological solutions to one problem may create other problems which may be more serious than the original problems (straight from our notes and so true).

• Expertise - An expert can't tell you how to do something that comes totally natural to them. They can say some common things, but they don't know how non-experts think.
  

This idea of expertise brings a memory to mind of a 7th grade Algebra student I had. She was a conscientious and ambitious student and her parents expected and supported her hard work. She came to me almost in tears one day asking for help with her Algebra homework. She said she asked here father, an Engineer, for help the night before and he started scribbling formulas on her paper and then wondered what her problem was that she couldn't understand something so "straightforward". He said, "You just do this, this, and then this! What don't you get about that?" This describes one difference between an engineer and a math teacher. It's sort of and example of why experts really can't explain the way their minds grasp their subject of expertise.

Incedentally - ADDIE stands for
A - Analyze
D - Design
D- Develop
I - Implement
E - Evaluate