While reading the Learning Circuits Blog at http://learningcircuits.blospots.com/ , I became excited by the question of the month- what will workplace learning technology look like in 2015?- this question is strong enough to provoke our thoughts and imaginations to attempt to predict how work and learning will be in 5 years from now and even beyond. The issue is whether it is the changing workplace that will determine the learning technology or it is the learning technology that will alter the workplace. I think both will go on simultaneously resulting in a mutual transformation. But while I reflect on this question and attempt to let loose my own predictions, I will also try to focus on its implications for instructional design and designers. The effective application of the learning technology that would emerge from such transformation will determine how instruction will be designed. It will also determine the role instructional designers will play in integrating new technology into learning in organizations and schools.

Work places as organizations are becoming increasingly complex and under intense pressure to change due to globalization, changing structures of the workforce and changes in the way work is being done. These changes are not only going to continue beyond the next five years, but the speed, complexity and intensity will increase tremendously. One noticeable change will be the emergence of a digital generation of the X and Y generations which together will become the majority of the workforce. This is a generation that will be technologically restless with the following characteristics:

· High technological literacy
· Continually connected to and reliant on digital media
· The need for flexibility in work
· Prefers to learn just in time as needed.

This generation will significantly change the workplace and the learning technology that will drive work. E learning is surely going to be the next great training method that would take the centre stage and workers will look forward to learning technologies that would enable them learn on the go and faster than before. Therefore technology will need to change to provide faster and easier means of learning. It must also develop to meet the need of all categories of organizations and learners from the highly literate to the not so literate worker. The following are likely to emerge:

· By 2015, learning even in elementary schools will be highly digitized and e-learning will be the preferred medium. This means that a culture of technology based learning would begin to be an established trend that would extend into the workplace.
· Learning technologies will be targeted at individual learners to meet individual needs.
· New learning technologies will develop at very fast rates. The question is how soon will new designs become obsolete? I think faster that we can imagine.
· Learning will be more mobile. This will mean the development of technologies that would make learning fun and adaptable to every situation.
· Learning technologies will shrink conventional classrooms and training rooms.

What are the implications of all these for instructional design?
Although the question focuses on workplace learning technology, instructional design will to a very large extent determine how modern technology can be successfully applied and integrated into learning in order to yield the desired outcomes. According to Morrison, Ross and Kemp (2007), “the goal of instructional design is to make learning more efficient and effective and to make learning less difficult”. Since most of learning will take place in the workplace and with constantly changing technology, the instructional designer has to keep abreast with technological advancement in order to design learning experiences that would meet specific requirements while exploiting technology of the time. The following will be some of the implications of a changing workplace learning technology for instructional design from 2015 and beyond:

· Instructional designers will be operating in seamless and ill defined environments.

· There will be stronger collaboration between Instructional Designers, Programmers, Media Designers and Subject Matter Experts.

· The growth of e-learning will mean developing new instructional strategies that will effectively integrate modern technology to make learning much easier and even faster.

· The design of learning objects must be technology based for interoperability.



Morrison, G.R., Ross, S.M. and Kemp, J.E. (2007). Designing Effective Instruction.
John Wiley &Sons Inc.