Challenging Traditional ID

 The Maturing of Constructivist Instructional Design: Some Basic Principals that Can Guide Practice by Jerry Willis, really got me thinking about linear vs non-linear and how many things in society and in my own world are completed in a linear fashion and the article made me start to question why that was? Linear is structured, has an order and is generally the best way to start new task: go from point A to point B, but what about the case for making point C being your starting point?  I think linear makes tasks easier, I have a very linear sort of personality, I always want to know what came before the starting point in any story. I drive friends nuts with this quirk because if  a friend starts a story with, "I was leaving the parking lot and..." I'm always like, what parking lot. " Costco..so, I was leaving the parking lot and..." Me, "What were you doing at Costco? "Buying toilet paper, it doesn't matter what I was doing, it's not part of the story. So, I was in the parking lot and..." " How much toilet paper did you end up getting?" And so it goes until I feel as though I have a sufficient amount of back story to continue with the current story. It helps me get the whole idea of the story, a feel for what was going on, I say it makes me more engaged. My friends say its annoying. The point is, it's very linear. I need to know what happened first before I can proceed, but I also have another quirk. I hate walking before running. I want to sprint right out the gate which is why I think linear in ID is a good thing. When I skip a head, read the back of the book first or take calculus 2 before pre-algebra I tend to do fairly well, but, I always feel as though I've missed out on the experience and like I took the really hard way. I don't ever feel bad, but half way through I'm always lamenting, "there's got to be an easier way." And there is, it's called chapter one. I think other theories could work in ID, chaos theory and non-linear post modernism, but as we discuss the status quo, I have to wonder if the status quo is in place because it works? I'm sure there is probably a better way to educate in ID, but why do we always have to shake the status quo just to shake it up?