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The Wisdom of Experience: Simplifying Complex Learning Targets

Andrea — March 30, 2011 — Leave a comment

In recent months, I’ve been working on a project to redesign a national training program for bulk plant employees in the propane industry. The material is being written at an 8th grade reading level and, for the most part, the training content is pretty straightforward. It covers topics like filling and emptying propane containers, and federal codes and regulations as they relate to the training tasks. And, of course, safety considerations are paramount when training folks to work with a flammable gas that can give you instant freeze burns in its liquid state. (Before I go any further, please note that propane is an extremely safe product when handled appropriately!)

So, no big deal, right? I mean, how hard can it be to explain how to safely fill or empty a propane container? As it turns out, not that hard in terms of procedural steps, but much harder than I expected in terms of how environmental conditions can impact the nuances of a procedure. Even better, it’s the feeling of my group of subject matter experts (a great group of guys with many years of experience in the industry) that you can’t really teach someone how to recognize the impact of environmental conditions that can create dangerous situations. Rather, it has to be learned through experience.

Now, experiential learning is great. It’s often the fastest way to cement something in memory, particularly if the experience was either very good or very bad. I think it is safe to say that anyone who has touched a hot stove (no matter how many times your Mom said not to) learned after only one experience not to do it again. The cause and effect is easy to understand.

Going back to the propane industry, there is a phenomenon called auto-refrigeration. In a nutshell, auto-refigeration happens when the demand on a system for propane vapor is higher than what can be replaced by the propane liquid boiling to create more vapor (propane boils at 44 degrees below zero). The result of the phenomenon is liquid propane becoming trapped in hoses or supply lines, waiting to splash and freeze burn some poor worker when they break the connection too soon. If you make this mistake and are lucky, the propane splashes on your work boots. If you are unlucky, it could splash your face resulting in serious injury or blindness. That would NOT be a good day at work.

The difference between the hot stove and auto-refrigeration is that with the stove, the danger is obvious (at least after you experience it once). You can see the flame at the burner or the electric element glowing red. With auto-refrigeration, the danger is not so obvious. In fact, it is downright elusive without an advanced degree in physics. The when, why and how of auto-refrigeration is a complex problem with a huge number of variables. It can arise, or not, in variety of situations with potentially serious consequences for inexperienced workers.

On the other hand, experienced workers develop a sort of sixth sense about when auto-refrigeration is likely to happen. They can’t really explain how they know, they just do. It is wisdom they have based on years of experience, and many near misses and minor injuries.

So, I am sure you see the problem here. How can we simplify a complex learning target like auto-refrigeration enough to give workers what they need to avoid injury until they have a chance to gain the wisdom of experience? We’ve come up with a couple of methods that I’d like to share.

First, instead of focusing on what happens inside the hose when auto-refrigeration occurs (which can’t be seen), we have chosen to focus on two ways that a new worker could be alerted that auto-refrigeration is taking place or is likely to happen.

Frost forming on the outside of a hose or container is a fairly sure sign that auto-refrigerationis taking place, but you have to watch for this. With that in mind, we have incorporated steps in a variety of procedures to check for that frost.
Auto-refrigeration is most likely to occur when temperatures outside are low, say below 40 degrees. This effects workers in northern states more often than in the south so we have made that point abundantly clear throughout the program.

Second, again instead of focusing primarily on the phenomenon itself, we have chosen to focus on what a worker can do to protect themselves every time they break a connection, whether auto-refrigeration is a factor or not. And what they can do is simple:

Always break connections away from the face and body to avoid getting splashed should auto-refigeration happen.
Always wear your personal protective equipment, including safety glasses, gloves and work boots.

While the workers may come to understand and anticipate auto-refrigeration through their experiences over many years in the field, we have simplified the learning target enough to keep them safe in the meantime. And that’s what it is really all about, isn’t it?

In Classroom Learning, Instructional Design, performance support, subject matter experts, Training Development Classroom Learning, classroom training, instructional design, instructor-led training, Training Development

The Return of the (Digital) Native

Jim — March 25, 2011 — 3 Comments

In recent years, we’ve all heard a lot about digital natives. These precocious youths, born after or during the general advent of digital technology, have an inherent understanding of its concepts in a way that their forebears cannot hope to achieve. What’s more, they are beginning to use it at an increasingly young age – a recent study from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop (producers of Sesame Street) found that 80% of children age 5 and under use the Internet at least once a week.

As this is well under the age at which language learning is easiest, and as one could argue that mastering the concepts of technology (as opposed to rote memorization) is somewhat similar to learning language, it’s not really a surprise that many of these children are becoming wired to learn in a way that is much more technology-oriented than their predecessors.

The problem, though, is that many primary schools are still geared to teach in ways that would be more or less recognizable to students from thirty years ago. Textbooks, blackboards, and overhead projectors remain the tools of choice for many teachers, at a time when their students are geared to learn from iPads, PowerPoint, and instant messaging. The result is a lost message, and a lost opportunity. An excellent article from Cross Pollination Media, titled “Are ‘Digital Natives’ Better Suited for Mobile Learning?” does an excellent job of illustrating the dilemma with some eyepopping statistics, showing plainly that “because of their interaction with media, Digital Natives process information and think differently than prior generations.”

While the increasing difficulty of engaging Digital Natives in a way that is meaningful to them is still mainly an issue for the school system, it will soon be an issue for corporate training professionals, as well. Already, the first classes of DNs have entered the workforce. Providing training to them in a way that reflects their preferred way of learning is a challenge that no company can afford to ignore.

In mobile learning Classroom Learning, elearning, Informal Learning, interactive learning, social learning, social learning theory, Training Development, web-based training

Online Academy Helps to Keep Lectures Where They Belong: Out of the Classroom

Jon — March 21, 2011 — 1 Comment

Where do the most innovate ideas in learning come from? Until recently, the debate over this question had two primary camps: academia and corporate America.

Now, there’s a third possible answer: Khan Academy. This YouTube-based learning environment was founded in 2004 by former Boston hedge-fund manager Salman Khan, and today contains more than 2,200 lectures on more than 100 topics (mostly math related).

From a recent article at Knowledge@Wharton called Technology and Teaching: Flipping the Model:

Khan stumbled upon the idea for his free web-based academy while trying to teach math to cousins in New Orleans. In an effort to bridge the time and distance gap, he started making 10-minute videos of math lessons and posting them on YouTube. Much to his surprise, Khan found his cousins preferred learning from him via YouTube to learning from him in person.

Quickly, the videos gained an online following, grew like wildfire, and today Khan Academy has delivered more than 42 million lessons.

While the Khan Academy is interesting for many reasons – one unintended outcome is especially fascinating. Also from the Knowledge@Wharton article:

According to Khan, several teachers have written to him, saying, “You’ve already given the lectures, so we assign watching the lectures for homework. And what used to be homework [solving problems] is now done in the classroom.” This shift has had a non-intuitive outcome, according to Khan, because “when teachers do that, they remove the one-size-fits-all lecture from the classroom and let students watch self-paced lectures at home.” What happens in class is interactive problem solving – which means, in effect, that the “teachers have used technology to humanize the classroom,” he says.

Khan discusses this whole phenomenon in this 20-minute TED talk.

The idea of flipping the age-old model of lecturing in class and assigning problems for homework is brilliant, of course. Encouragingly, I am seeing some evidence that corporate learning departments understand this model, and many of them have actually been practicing it for years.

The now-common blended learning practice of assigning one or more eLearning modules prior to attending classroom training is similar to the Khan/schoolteacher model. The eLearning modules act as the “lecture”, which learners do on their own time. Then, the classroom becomes an interactive environment where precious face-to-face time is reserved for learning the most complex aspects of the subject matter – aspects that would certainly have been glossed over had all the content been delivered in a classroom lecture.

The next step in this evolution still needs to take place – in which the lecture itself becomes more bearable – whether online or in the classroom. In this case, the corporate learning world can learn a lot from Khan Academy, about how to keep lessons informal, quickly-paced, and ultimately, a lot more engaging.

In blended learning, Classroom Learning, Video blended learning, Classroom Learning, homework, khan academy, lectures, online learning, youtube

Moving from Teacher to Facilitator

Michael — January 25, 2011 — 6 Comments

As a leader and teacher in the classroom and online for over 15 years, I still face the challenge of making content “real” for learners. Even with the help of the newest technology tools to communicate and educate including social media, wikis, and Google, we still need to transform our ILT classrooms and training sessions into integrated blended learning environments. So how do you keep it real? Move from being a teacher to facilitator.

It’s in your mind

One of the pioneers of adult learning theory, Malcom Knowles, explored the role of adult education and facilitation (andragogy) versus the traditional style of teaching children (pedagogy). Whereas the traditional teaching approach emphasizes the role of the teacher as the holder of the wisdom, facilitation puts the onus on the participants to become involved in their own learning process. The facilitator’s role is to introduce subjects of discussion, encourage a blend of perspectives, and integrate students’ shared experiences. This collaborative approach reinforces more of the 70% in the 70/20/10 formula — 70% of what we learn is on the job and through our experiences. To our learners, this is their reality. A good facilitator is one who is a connector to this reality – the glue that brings the collective “real world” experiences of the classroom together in a shared learning experience.

To make the transition to facilitator I had to change my mindset. I realized it wasn’t all about me and my understanding of the information, it was about leading my learners to a new understanding within themselves. My job was not to tell; my job was stimulate thinking, encourage exploration, make associations, and help guide my learners.

An example

I taught college Philosophy for eight years, and each time we discussed inductive and deductive reasoning I found many of my students responding like deer in the headlights. What did all of this logic mean? Why is it useful? How could I make the topic of Philosophy more interesting, engaging, and meaningful?

One night in the classroom I decided to use a relevant example from their reality: Coke or Pepsi. “In 15 minutes we are going to take a break. When you visit the vending machine you can buy Coke or Pepsi. Think about which beverage you’d choose and why.” Upon returning from the break students would explain their preferences and choices. I would align their process of choosing to an argument using deductive reasoning, and show them how their thoughts perfectly fit the formula. They would often say, “Oh, now I get it!” and the light bulb moment would occur. Something they had been doing unconsciously for years was now explained in a three-line syllogism. Huzzah!

I discovered the teachable moment occurs in the minds of my learners, not mine. Moving from being a teacher to a facilitator changes the playing field. Now the learner is responsible for helping create and shape the learning experience, and now they share the accountability as well.

Tips for facilitating

Here are a few tips you can use in a physical classroom, during synchronous online sessions, and even (with a little adaptation) with asynchronous applications:

Begin by asking questions. At the very beginning of any class or training session find out who your learners are — what is their background and level of knowledge and experience with the topic? Why are they in this training session? Explain to them what they need to understand and why. This opening answers the ever-present question WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?), encourages participation, and creates the initial connection between you and your learners.
Introduce your information slowly. Try using a flow chart or visual mind map of the content to introduce creativity and make associations — perhaps even let the students select the order in which you discuss the information. As you speak, solicit experiences from the room, and add your own facts and stories as you move through the content.
Make the content applicable. Spend time asking your learners for ways in which they can apply the content to their current environment. This helps encourage direct application and prevents learners from leaving the session without an idea for how they’re going to apply their new knowledge.
Learners as Teachers. Allow your learners to actively share their experiences and effectively leverage the knowledge and experience of your learners to help them teach each other. Experience, truly, is the best teacher!