[quoting Foshay's paper] I believe the average instructional quality of TBT has gone down over the last decade. On average, the attractiveness and costs of multimedia have simultaneously contributed to the popular acceptance of TBT, but in a typical project now, the greatest resources are consumed by the multimedia and the software technologies, not the instructional design. ... I think ID practitioners would agree hat the instructional design of these products--particularly the best sellers--is so simple as to be trivial.
I would be curious to know to which of the "best sellers" you are referring. For example, I know that many ISD professionals might place the Broderbund's Living Books series (e.g., Just Grandma & Me) in the category of "trivial design," yet I believe this design to be anything but trivial, based on my own experiences with children who have used it. If you don't want to name names publicly I understand, but I am curious to know more of the details behind your provocative statements above. Any single product would have advocates and opponents, depending on how closely it mirrors their idea about what "good" design should be, right?