What is Learning?

 

We all perceive and then process our experiences, along with the information gained from the experiences. The differences in thewe approach these two activities define our learning style. 

Perceiving: how  we take in information-through experiences, reading, listening, visualizing or other sensory modes

Processing: how we determine the meaning, store and retrieve information-reflecting, watching, jumping in and doing, sitting back and observing

 These differences define our learning style.  Type One learners are feelers and watchers. Type Two learners are watchers and thinkers. Type Three learners are thinkers and doers. Type Four learners are doers and feelers. Your learning style influences your communication, coaching, leading and training style.

Learning is so much more than classroom instruction. Reading an email,  meeting, coaching, communicating are all learning processes. Our preferences impact how we engage and disengage in every situation that involves taking in and processing information.

What Would Google Do… with learning design?

 

I just finished reading Jeff Jarvis’ book, What Would Google Do? Jarvis does a great job of moving the learner from passive reader into engaged learner by asking questions.  What Would Google Do? has us ponder what we might learn from history’s fastest growing business. Jarvis suggests that involving your audience in the creative process is a key element of the success of Google.

Communities exist within your company and within your customer base. They exist to facilitate their mutual interest(s). The question isn’t how to create (learning) communities, the question is how to help them do what they are doing better. What forum can you provide that makes connecting and learning more accessible. 1

Questions to ponder:

How can we enable stakeholders to talk, share what they know, support each other, create together?

How do we synthesize all the content “out there”? How do we make it easily findable?

How do we create the ability to “mash-up” content and customize it, as needed?

How do we involve our audience in helping us create content?

 

 

How are you involving the learner in the creative process? What tools are you providing for the learner community to connect, share and create with? Would love to hear from you.

 

1Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Google Do? New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2009.

Great Questions for Facilitating Training

 Crafting powerful questions is an art. Powerful questions provoke. They provoke emotion, they provoke controversy and they provoke learning. Webster tells us that the root of “provoke” helps us understand the word’s essential meaning as “to call forth”. What are you calling forth with the questions you are crafting?

Powerful questions are

Open-ended-they leave space for the learner to fill in the blanks

Ambiguous-there is no right answer, no leading of the learner to some preconceived idea

Personal-linking the learner to their mental maps around the content

Tension-creating-causing the learner to recognize some gap, some opportunity that needs exploring, pushing the learner into discovery.

A less-than-powerful question skips reflection and moves into action:  “How do we improve results?”

A powerful question leads the learner to reflect and dig deeper: “What is an “unspoken” truth, that if explored might lead us to improving results?”

Think about where the learner must go in each part of the learning process. Craft questions to lead the learner there.

Here we go…

Co-author, Hold On, You Lost Me! Use Learning Styles to Create Training that Sticks

Greetings!

I frequently have the opportunity to connect with learning professionals in our 4MAT live and web workshops and the consulting work we do.  The conversation begins with the application of 4MAT, a model for understanding different learning styles.  Inevitably, the dialogue  centers around  questions on how best to apply brain-based design to real-world leadership and learning issues. As learning gurus, the questions that we collectively seem to be most interested in:

How do we engage learners in the content we are sharing?

What are the best practices in training design and delivery that we can learn from?

What’s the best examples of elearning that truly addresses the way the brain learns?

Where can I find examples of powerful activities that engage different learning styles?

Any new, interesting technologies out there that can make design simpler and delivery more engaging?

The intent of this blog is to ponder these questions and create a forum to share the answers we are discovering.  I hope you join the dialogue.

Cheers,

Jeanine