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Instructional design of interactive multimedia: A cultural critique

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Abstract

Instructional design is socially and culturally constructed. The article explores the proposition that the selective traditions of instructional design consist of values, ideologies and images which act in the interests of particular cultural (class and gendered) groups. It examines this premise and argues for multiple cultural, rather than multicultural, contextualization of instructional design. It situates the multiple cultural model in an eclectic paradigm that appropriately combines elements from (a) behaviorist, constructivist, and critical theory paradigms and (b) weak and strong culturally contextualized design strategies. Cultural context is the very stuff, the scaffolding, of instructional design if users are to be positioned as active participants who are given and take responsibility in the learning-teaching paradigm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia

    Lyn Henderson (Senior Lecturer)

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  1. Lyn Henderson
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Her fields of teaching and research interest concern the cultural contextualization of instructional design of interactive multimedia (IMM) and the World Wide Web (WWW). Other research interests focus on the mental models, thinking processes, and teaching-learning strategies used by teachers and learners when interacting with electronic databases, IMM, and the WWW.

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Henderson, L. Instructional design of interactive multimedia: A cultural critique. ETR&D 44, 85–104 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02299823

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