Are You Riding the Waves or the Ripples? Tracking Learning Trends

Synthesis:
The Thought/Action Wave and the Brain/Technology Wave are two particular learning principles that enable faster, cheaper and easier learning. The speed at which innovations propel these learning concepts are discussed here. __________________________________________________________________________

I am not a surfer. The closest I can get to do a balancing act is riding a bike.

A surfer possesses the skills to ride the waves and swim through the ripples with right timing - not too soon and not too late.

As an observer and a consistent student of learning trends, I am constantly challenged to surf the waves and ripples of changes. There are instances when I miscalculate, overestimate or misread trends. At certain times, I feel off-balance, fail to ride the waves and end up swimming through the ripples instead. Yet surely, I determine to always stay afloat and survive. At particular opportune times, I find myself on  the crest of the waves, not just drifting with the ripples.


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Strong Waves

There are two strong waves that I pay attention to: the Thought/Action Wave and the Brain/Technology Wave.

Thought/Action Wave

In the 18th century, education, learning and training have focused on thought or knowledge retention. Thinkers of that era believed that when learners retain abundant knowledge, they perform on the job when needed: “Thought First - Action Later” (Johnson, 2002). In decades past, however, evidence showed that “Thought First - Action Later” was inadequate. The alternative approach: “Thought and Action are One” (learn and apply, learning by doing) gained popularity.

Yet, the momentum gained by the “Thought First-Action Later” principles and practices  in large institutions and infrastructures – schools, book publishers, teachers/educators, government, corporate training, business processes, others – still exists. The wave is powerful. It persists. The current is strong.

Understanding and deciphering the Thought/Action Wave is critical to decision making with regard to the focus of our energies and resources. Oftentimes, we find ourselves  solving a problem with palliatives and failing at it rather than directly addressing the
true issues.

As an example, designers and developers are frustrated that subject matter experts throw PowerPoint files and linear and page turning lessons unto their laps (remnant of the “thought first – action later” practice). Without presenting an alternative way of writing content, SMEs will cling to these traditonal methods.

Instead of banging our heads on the wall (swimming through the ripples), we need to ask, “What exactly is the problem (wave) and how do we find a solution (riding the wave)?”.

Brain/Technology Wave
 
Scientists and pioneering entrepreneurs are confident that a "thinking machine" will be perfected in the next few years, comparable to how the human brain works. The Singularity movement spearheads the conversations and forum for exchanges about the Brain/Technology Wave.

Unlike the approaches of earlier decades, where primary focus was on computing power, today’s scientists use the discoveries on how the brain works in their design of the "thinking machines."

There is a convergence of technology and brain sciences brought about by multidisciplinary research. IBM's Watson and robotics will change how we learn and work. The “thinking machines” will perform mundane and heavy data lifting and processing so we can spend more time on higher-thinking tasks or decisions. In profound ways, this will impact learning principles and practices. More and more we will find ourselves subordinating our knowledge to “thinking machines”. Such reality is now evident in ubiquitous tools like smart phones, GPSs, sequencing the human genomes and in many fields.

The Brain/Technology Wave is a dominant driver and accelerates this change in all facets of government and industries. Ray Kurzweil calls this the “Law of Accelerating Returns.”  Apparently, faster–paced changes are poised to happen in the next few years compared to progress in the past.

My Vantage Point and Balancing Acts – Riding or Falling

I don’t have a crystal ball to foretell what solutions will succeed or fail. However, patterns (ripples) emerge from big (trends) waves. They reveal the drivers of the solutions.

My intent is to share with you my interest areas and studies with the hope of providing you with a different vantage point.

See the diagram “Tracking Learning Trends: Are you Riding the Waves or the Ripples?”.
 
 Click to view larger image

Contextual Learning

People learn the natural way - through the interdependencies of things. Thoughts, ideas and knowledge have to be experienced. People need to discover meaning. This is the "Thought and Action as One" philosophy. John Dewey tells us, paraphrasing: “when we see a wagon, we just don’t see the parts, but the way people use the wagon.” Contextual Learning and Teaching are adapted methods in many universities and the adoption is growing.

Leaving ADDIE for SAM

Michael Allen in his book “Learning ADDIE for SAM” confirms what I have suspected all along – we need to develop courses reiteratively - small review cycles - and select what works in our environment (I stressed this in my book “3-Minute eLearning ”). Allen boosts our confidence that there are different ways to design and implement eLearning courses. SAM (the successive approximation model) describes what many of us do under the radar.

Microlearning

The Microlearning practitioners espouse the use of micro-content to make knowledge flexible, searchable and contextually relevant in work environments. The goal is to redesign work conditions to permit the instant occurrence of Microlearning. We see the effort in the direction of the 'Thought and Action are one" concept. See Microlearning Conference and Marcia Conner’s article. I made a study in 2007 on the Impacts of Microlearning.

Story and Experience Based Learning Design

I follow and continue to apply key principles and practices that Roger Schank pioneered. “Stories index memories and it is by stories that we recall and learn new things.” Through stories, learners find the meaning and context of the content that help them apply ideas in real-life work situations. See Roger Schank's "Tell Me a Story", “Teaching Minds and my workshop on Story-Based eLearning Design.

Social Media and Learning

In "Informal Learning", Jay Cross relates that 90% of knowledge and skills are acquired by learners informally. Furthermore, Jane Bozarth (Social Media for Trainers) shows us how to use social media to optimize informal learning opportunities.

Social Learning encourages learners to share and contribute their learning and experiences. This aids them to connect ideas with real-life work situations. By now, you recognize how the trend and the above developments support the promotion of the "Thought and Action as One" principle.

Gamification

Mario Herger, at the Caltech Entrepreneurs’ Forum last Jan. 12, 2013, spoke of how they have made training on software at SAP more engaging for workers with the use of gamification. When workers were asked, “How’s your training going?”, the response was, “Don’t you see I am working hard. I need to win this exercise!” Gamification accelerates “Thought and Action is One“ learning.

ZebraZapps

ZebraZapps is an authoring tool created for the next generation of learners and developers. It is a sophisticated and advance technology for developing highly interactive content. It signals the growing maturity of software development for the learning industry. It supports the embedding of interactive design in programs. One would be embarrassed to producing page-turning programs in ZebraZapps.

Storyline

Articulate has succeeded in providing developers and designers a new milestone in authoring tools. Storyline adds the power of Flash in authoring without a single scripting line. It enables many “do-it-yourselfers” in eLearning, to develop faster, cheaper and smarter interactive programs. See my workshop on Storyline Authoring.

Experience API

Experience API is a new simple learning utility that allows companies to track and encourage informal learning and sharing of experiences. I emphasize “ encourage” because it is my hope that this will turn out to be a recognition of how learners learn from real-life situations which lead to faster and cheaper ways of providing learning opportunities. The risk, to my mind, is that Experience API becomes another “big brother” and SCORM-type of tracking for “cover your __ (CYA) type of learning.”

Whole Brain

I had the distinct privilege of working with Perla Tayko at the Assumption University, Bangkok, to help students use software I developed for “thinking through” learning content. Tayko says, “to take advantage of the explosion in digital technology, we need to employ the whole brain thinking for improved learning and decision making.” 

Recursive Design

I have been following the work of Jürgen Schmidhuber on self-learning machines. His works on neural networks and building robots endowed me with curiosity and creative feed for my study on the learner’s ability to learn from small events, incrementally and rapidly. I am fascinated with his applications of the self-supervised learning in robots.

Mobile

Mlearning is the new eLearning. Mobile tools enable the learners to learn on need, wherever and wherever. Mobile learning is where “Brain/Technology Wave” and “Thought/Action Wave” juxtapose. We are enamored by the freedom and impact on productivity and our quality of life. We often forget that Mlearning is the tip of the wave that liberates and accelerates the learner’s capability  to “Think/Act” at the same time. The ubiquitous Mlearning tools will forever bury the delay and hindrances caused by the “thought, action later” thinking. Now, we think-act-educate-use simultaneously.

Drones

Chris Anderson left Wired Magazine to launch the “do-it-yourself” venture into the mass production of drones. What is fascinating to me is the amazing speed of technology transfer from military use to civilian use. Furthermore, Anderson worked with a young kid to evolve the concept from the inception of the project - an application of crowd sourcing. This suggests that innovation comes from all around us.

Cloud Computing

The “cloud” will enable us to afford cheaper, faster and easier ways to design and deliver learning. Check out Jane Hart’s website for the newest and greatest of learning software. One can see the abundance of tools and enablers to help us implement learning environments.

Robotics and Learning

Steve Wheeler discloses how we will never be able to separate our learning and work away from some form of robotics. Today, this happens in the high-fidelity-simulation type of training.

Watson

We are all familiar with IBM’s Watson. In the healthcare industry, Watson works with mobile devices to help doctors and staff. In Fortune’s January 14, 2013 issue, an article illustrates how our lives are now so intertwined and dependent on drones, medical devices, surgical robots and supercomputers. “Thinking machines” will most likely help us to act faster and better by outsourcing the data mining drudgery, while allowing us to think through and make decisions on more important things. 

Fascinating future, here and now.
 



Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

What matters is the question not the content: “One Idea + One Learning” = “Contexsual Learning”

Synthesis:
Contexsual Learning involves experts’, learning facilitators’ and learners’ participation to address technical learning issues. It allows the asking of questions by leaders and the sharing of stories by learners all of which contribute to a comprehensive learning experience.

I have been experimenting on ONE IDEA, ONE LEARNING MODEL for a few months now.

“Contexsual Learning” allows learners, experts and learning facilitators to accelerate learning specifically for highly technical learning issues.

The system allows leaders to ask questions (Context Questions) (See below).
Meanwhile, the learners can share stories and experiences (Passing Stories and Experiences) (See below).

Therefore, everyone can see the visual relationships of stories and experiences (Visualizing Stories) (See below)

The background of the Contexsual Learning Experiment
Many years ago, I used to represent a company from Australia - Talbot Smith and Associates (TSA), a training company based in Adelaide. Mr. Ansted was my Guru. He was about 25 years older than I was. He has traveled around the world and had so much wisdom. I was always looking forward to our one-on-one meetings. Each meeting was filled with excitement and awe – as if I was going to a temple in Bhutan, the happiest place on earth (contrary to the claims of Disneyland.)

Each time I asked Mr. Ansted a question, he always started with: 

“That is true all over the world.”

I did not know what he meant until sometime later. But it always sounded mysterious and philosophical and “monastic” in tone.

Specifically, I asked him about one of the program methods he used. He presented a lesson which may present ten good ideas. He would present the ideas and have group discussions around the ten ideas. He would go back to the same client company and run the same workshop to the same group twice or thrice a year. So I wondered and asked.

“Don’t people get bored talking about the same ideas over and over again?”

His answer was very insightful and is still clear in my mind today.

“Learners only learn those that are meaningful to them at that one point in their lives.”

“They don’t remember all the nine other ideas. This is because we only learn what we can use and remember at one point in time.”

“Furthermore, it is the process of talking and sharing ideas and experiences about this one idea that allows them to learn. Without the discussion, there is no learning.”

“Each learner oftentimes picked different ideas.”

“The discussion is where passing of experiences happen.”

What I gathered was core to what I espouse today: “one idea and one learning”.

In one presentation by John Maeda, author of my Laws of Simplicity, he shared his experience about talking and asking a colleague “Why do you run the same basic workshop on design for 20 years and not deviating from the course topic and outline.” Maeda was amazed by the answer:

“The basics work and I shall keep on repeating the same workshop because students continue to learn over and over again the value of the basics. People learn only what they need and use.”

Mr. Ansted and John Maeda’s colleague believed in the same principle “one Idea, one Learning”

Passing of experiences

In trying to understand what happens in “passing of experiences” with one idea, one learning, I came across the paper of Walter Swap, Dorothy Leonard, Mimi Shields and Lisa Abrams titled “Using Mentoring and Storytelling to Transfer Knowledge in the Workplace” published in the Journal of Management Information Systems. The paper presents very good insights and a few ideas worth mentioning.

“Even when there is no focused intent to teach or learn, the process of transferring knowledge in the workplace is still possible through implicit means such as knowledge gathered while staff chats in the pantry or observing the actions of supervisors or colleagues. These intangible moments make the management of knowledge a challenge because these subtle processes are difficult to structure within a formal training program yet they are effective means to transfer skills and knowledge in the workplace.”

This explanation parallels to the concepts and observations of thought leaders like Jay Cross, Jane Bozarth, George Siemens and others.

What caught my attention is this section of the paper:

"… how to perform specific aspects of your job" primarily by asking others—mostly supervisors. This kind of information was more often sought through direct inquiry than through what Morrison (1993) calls monitoring (observation). Morrison speculates that "because technical information is highly valuable, yet difficult to obtain through monitoring, newcomers may be willing to ask for it directly."

This made me ponder that although we have the facility of rapid communications and faster social learning environments (Twitter.com, Youtube.com, iPad and iPhone, SharePoint, Yammer.com and other similar tools), might the lack of good learner-driven questions hinder immediacy of answers from mentors / coaches or experts?

I am questioning the focus of providing content and expertise or encouraging content contributions from members as the key focus of passing experiences.

I observed it is in the lack of the right questions or the ability to ask the right questions that either hinders or facilitates learning.

#LRNCAHT

#lrnchat is hosted by @marciamarcia, @quinnovator, @moehlert @koreenolbrish and @janebozarth.

See http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/

The right questions leads to the right answers

I have been a keen observer of  the work of Jane Bozarth, Clark Quinn, Marcia Conner, Mark Oehlert, and Koreen Olbrish. The one thing I appreciate are the intelligent questions that guide the flow of discussions. The team succeeds very well in optimizing the interactions by posing the questions instead of suggesting content. Furthermore, because of the intelligent questions, the participants are able to raise follow-up questions. These conversations and “passing of experiences” do happen effectively and efficiently because of  such questions.

My observation is that #LRNChat has shown us a very good application of the
“one-question, one learning” model.

#LRNChat has helped me connect what Mr. Ansted has been saying all along.

“Contexsual Learning” Experiment

Yes, this is an experiment. One of the benefits of having a good technical team supporting my R&D is that it allows me flexibility to explore and experiment with ideas. See our other tech projects.

The goal of the experiment is to develop a specific and narrow platform that encourages immediate “one question, one learning” and in turn facilitates the passing of stories and experiences.

• “Contextual Learning” allows learners, experts and learning facilitators to accelerate learning for very technical learning issues. 

• The system allows leaders and learners to ask context specific questions (Context Questions)

• The learners can share stories and experiences (Passing Stories and Experiences)

• Everyone can see visual relationships of stories and experiences (Visualizing Stories)

My clients have been pleased with the results. Whether it will add value as we intended it to, still remains to be determined through research and findings.

One overriding feedback we are receiving is that the contextual visualization of stories connections add certain specific outcomes to the otherwise very loose- ended social learning practices and systems. According to a client, its biggest value is that “our learners can focus on harnessing the experiences of others in more specific and targeted ways.”

My curiosity as a learning specialist, similar to a child who can’t help but play with toys and gadgets, is that I want to extend the passing of experiences and stories to a more software-supported method. We can hopefully do more by adding value.

In conclusion, let me share a story. Francesca, our 19 year old, just started college at Scripps, one of the institutions of the Claremont educational consortium.


During the parent orientation I was struck and truly inspired by the President’s message to the incoming class:

“You now belong to the leaders of this country, where asking the
right questions is more important than finding the answers.”

Summary:

Contexsual Learning offers a laser-focused approach with the use of a single question that triggers learning that’s essential and relevant to a learner. It promotes the sharing of experiences among learners and provides leaders the avenue to ask specific questions directly related to a learner’s context. This method works naturally with the mind’s fundamental tendency to absorb only significant knowledge related to a learner’s current life situation.

An Exuberant discovery for Lonely and Stressed-out eLearners

Synthesis:
Loneliness is inherent in traditional eLearning. The use of the story-based approach allows learners the opportunity to have a stress-free and comfortable learning environment that promotes independent discovery. __________________________________________________________________________

There is a certain degree of “Learner Loneliness” inherent in eLearning, in spite of our efforts to engage learners with multimedia, games, social learning interactions and mobile learn-as-you-need tools.

Is it possible that we have become overly dependent on technologies and so have deprived our learners and even ourselves of meaningful interaction?

Sherry Turkle reminds us in her book “Alone Together” about this issue.

“We turn to other people in order to feel less anxious or in order to feel alive. If we’re not able to be alone, we’re going to be more lonely. We expect more from technology and less from each other. We’re lonely but we’re afraid of intimacy.”

Sherry Turkle (2012)

Exuberant discovery

I found an interesting research that helped me further connect the very ideas on why Story-Based eLearning Design helps make elearning more meaningful.

Judy Willis writes in Psychology Today and "The Neuroscience of Joyful Education:"

[W]hen we scrub joy and comfort from the classroom, we distance our students from effective information processing and long-term memory storage. Instead of taking pleasure from learning, students become bored, anxious, and anything but engaged...

My own experience as a neurologist and classroom teacher has shown me the benefits of joy in the classroom. Neuroimaging studies and measurement of brain chemical transmitters reveal that students' comfort level can influence information transmission and storage in the brain (Thanos et al., 1999). When students are engaged and motivated and feel minimal stress, information flows freely through the affective filter in the amygdala and they achieve higher levels of cognition, make connections, and experience "aha" moments. Such learning comes not from quiet classrooms and directed lectures, but from classrooms with an atmosphere of exuberant discovery (Kohn, 2004).

The idea of having an “atmosphere of exuberant discovery” reminded me about my blog posts on “instant learning.” Willis suggests, among other ideas, that making educational experience relevant helps create comfortable learning environments which are free of stress and anxiety. Willis provides interesting examples which have very practical values  in eLearning design:

“… when students know the metric to standard measurement conversions, they can “translate” a recipe from a cookbook that uses metric measures into the quantities they need in U.S. standard measurements to prepare cookie dough in class.”

“Similarly, problems about interest rates can relate to purchasing something the students would want to buy, such as an iPod or new sneakers. Students can learn about decimal place values by calculating batting averages to the thousandth place.”

These examples brought me back to the core ideas I proposed in making technical learning more relevant.

Please see Making Technical & Compliance Learning Engaging & Fun.

Instead of just presenting technical facts, we need to design eLearning that creates the context and meaning of the facts with the real-life situation of the learners.
RAD

I suggest you read Judy Willis full article on RAD The acronym RAD should remind educators of three important neuroscience concepts to consider when preparing lessons:

• Novelty promotes information transmission through the Reticular activating system.
• Stress-free classrooms propel data through the Amygdala's affective filter.
• Pleasurable associations linked with learning are more likely to release more Dopamine.

Discovery

Another idea that July Willis suggests is to allow independent discovery:

“Thanks to dopamine release and the consolidation of relational memories, students are more likely to remember and understand what they learn if they find it compelling or have a part in figuring it out for themselves. In addition, when students have some choices in the way they will study or report on something, their motivation will increase and stress will diminish. They will be more accepting of their errors, motivated to try again, and less self-conscious about asking questions.”

My insight

As I continue to clarify in my mind how to create better eLearning with Story-Based Design approaches, the more I  am convinced that the role of context and discovery continue to reinforce the fact that stories  possess the greatest potential in making our elearning programs less cold, distant and lonelier for the learner; providing them with more warm, stress-free, pleasurable and comfortable learning environments that cultivates deeper learning.

Summary:

Learner loneliness comes unbidden in traditional eLearning.  However, the implementation of the unique story-based approach provides a rich backdrop where learners are allowed to roam free, discover answers to their own questions and make choices on how they accept information. The journey keeps them motivated enough to experience authentic learning relevant to their context and situation. Stories almost always guarantee the exuberant discovery of embedded content those results to a most stimulating learning experience.

Informal Learning Hits Brick Walls

Informal Learning Hits Brick Walls

There is more than one way to implement informal learning. The approach differs depending on the nature of the organization.

Organizations have plenty of formal structures - brick walls or command and control environments.

It is better to deal with the "formal" requirements of the organization on informal learning. This is a reality for many types of enterprise programs that impacts learning, work and performance.

I agree with Jay Cross and Harold Jarche that we should not box-in or put constraints on informal learning otherwise it does not flourish. At the core of informal learning are freedom, independence and flexibility. Perhaps another way to look at “formalizing” informal learning is
“deepening informal learning."

However, there are considerations we need to incorporate and reconcile in our decisions on informal learning:

1. Do we need some form of structure and formal approach to strategize the implementation of informal learning or do we not?
   
   
2. How do we launch and initiate informal learning? Will everyone suddenly spend time in water coolers to share news? Who sets-up the water coolers to begin with?
   
   
3. Will organizational structure disappear? Hierarchies will persist as predictable as the sun will rise tomorrow. Hence, how do we make the informal learning work, live within these structures and move around, play around, approach problems and deal with issues pertaining to reporting responsibilities?
   
   
4. Will companies continue to pay for the time of employees, informal learning software purchases, and the time of people who lead informal learning? If companies pay for informal learning someone has to justify the costs and organize it.
   
   
5. What do we do with critical corporate assets like legal, marketing, security and confidentiality concerns? They follow rigid rules and policies. Who is accountable for these assets as impacted by informal learning?

Informal learning have great contributions. But it has to be reconciled with formal structures; otherwise, it will hit break walls.

I am concerned that in our earnest desire to promote informal learning as a "dogma", we make informal learning as another form of a "brick wall”; which is a pity.

There are many ways to implement informal learning and each way has to deal with organizational brick walls as opportunities, not constraints.

Ray Jimenez, PhD

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