What's your plan, man?

Ohler (2008) suggests that sometimes it is best to begin creating a story at the end - and working back to the beginning (pg.102, para.1). Although this approach is 180 degrees out from the way real-life stories progress, I agree with the author's contention that this approach might be very useful in the design of educational DST. And the reason? Because in education and training we already know what the end, looks like.

Technically speaking, and as Ohler points out through out his book, the telling of a story can begin anywhere - the beginning, at it's middle, or even at the end. For educational design purposes however, I believe it is usually most practical to begin with the end in mind. What do we have to learn? And then, how can we create stories that take us there?

A pedagogical approach might be to identify the knowledge checks and other learning requirements, then construct instructional units, or story segments, that thread a compelling story back to a logical beginning. As Ohler suggests at several junctures, there is no hard and fast rule - and if they do exist - BREAK THEM !! (Ohler, 2008, pg.105, para.3).