Is this the new SME? "Guardians of training/learning decency" may not like this - but it is real life

An Invocation for Beginnings

Is this the new SME (Subject Matter Expert)? Maybe so. But not in the closets of corporate training or learning and academic settings. This person is an SME in the real world, the underworld, the out-of-this-world. The world of real-life learning.

I suggest you view the video and go beyond the layer of the obvious culture it represents.

Look for the context that you can relate to. Listen intently to the message.

I admit that while initially viewing this video, I feared that the "guardians of training/learning decency" would throw this out and label it as bad, inappropriate and misplaced. We are so used to "sanitizing" our training and eLearning programs -- they are no longer real or engaging. They have no LIFE.

Listening to the video once,twice or thrice, made me appreciate the deeper context, story and the message. It is a rebellious shout - a revolt over the anomalies in our lives. A disdain towards hypocrisy. And a call for space just to be oneself.

Insights:
In learning, I must exert the effort to allow what is outside of my comfort zone to penetrate my inner mind and find its own place.

In eLearning design, we have lost the ability to be REAL and therefore bore our learners to death. We must bring back the ability to share and present what makes us real people.

SMEs (those who are experts) are no longer those who claim to have knowledge. The new SME is the person who contributes "how I did it" and "what it means to me" - real stuff that we all care about.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
VignettesLearning
See more eLearning stories: Story Impacts eLearning System