At Monash University colleagues and I have been investigating ID research methods from a narrative inquiry perspective. This work has focused on holistic approaches to human centered design and issues of complexity in the relationship between technology environments and human learning. Our interest in Aviation illustrate these associations.
Briefly, there has been increasing concern in the aviation industry about the number of accidents attributed to automation ( the transfer of many critical task from human control to computer control). In the last five years a number of accidents have highlighted the impact of high levels of computer automation of tasks. Amongst the human symptoms are pilots loss of situational and mode awareness ( a state of being unsure in which mode the automatics are in at a given time). This can be a matter of life and death in aircraft operation!
In the interests of air safety more attention is being required to support those working in aviation environments. Concerns being raised include opaqueness (when automation gets in the way), brittleness (when the automation is too complicated) to literalism (when automation does "too exactly" what is asked for) (Aviation Week and Space Technology, November 4). Other issues raised by increased computerization include redundancy (recovering from a failure of automatics) and multiple inputs. All of these are human factors issues and require new competencies for pilots using such automated systems (and consequent learning environment design). It is not a comforting thought for regular air travelers to contemplate what they might experience when an aircraft has to reboot--at any stage of a flight!
Even though there is an impressive safety record in aviation, it is believed that if current trends continue there will be an unacceptable rise in accident/incident rates. The requirement is for more human centered design and the tools to accomplish it.. This is an area of responsible research for ID and relates closely to Reigeluth's discussion.
Our current work is developing the investigation of the application of narrative inquiry to ID research of such issues as human factors in aviation. This has given us some promising perspectives on the human centered design process and perhaps a tool to use in understanding a little more, the issues of complexity in the gap between man and machine. Perhaps narrative's key contributions to ID resides in the way it frames the study of human experience. The concept of narrative can be refined into a view that educational research is the construction and reconstruction of personal and social stories (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). We would suggest that it is this focus on human experience, the fact that it has a holistic quality and characterizes phenomena of human experience that make it appropriate to many disciplines, including ID.
Narrative inquiry has a long tradition in educational inquiry. However we believe its application to ID theory and research is just being revealed along with its application in other disciplines (as an example, in Environmental Science dealing with such issues as the Eco-crisis in the Himalayas that required holistic approaches to adequately identify the complexities and ultimately critical issues -Gould, 1991).
This message attempts only to provide one snapshot of the potential of exploring the value of alternate approaches and perspectives in better equipping ID to contribute to learning of the future.