learnability matters

Seven Truths About Learning and Technology by Geetha Krishnan

By Kern |Jun22, 2010 Main Articles Add comments

Geetha Krishnan is among the most respected learning specialists in the learning and education circles today. In a guest session at Kern, Geetha put forth some interesting and thought-provoking ideas about technology and learning. He questioned myths, challenged popular beliefs, shared interesting examples from everyday life and engaged us with wit and humor.

Digging deep into two of the most talked about topics - informal learning and open source learning – Geetha made us stretch our thinking beyond design! Hope you too enjoy reflecting on these points as much as we did attending the session.

First Truth: Learner’s real world is full of distractions.

While everybody is used to the “no cell phone, no talking, no walking out” rules during a session, Geetha’s rules were wickedly different.

“Go ahead and tweet, take calls, whisper loudly to your neighbor, chat, and send emails.” Yes, he made a very relevant point by setting these rules. This is a true reflection of the learners’ real environment while going through any training or eLearning programs. We really need to think hard about this while setting unrealistic rules and conditions for our learners as well! eLearning practitioners can relate to these expectations such as ‘don’t want any other browser window to be open while learner views an eLearning program’ assuming that the learner opens only one window to view the eLearning program. Absurd, right?

Let’s do a quick rain check. How many windows or browser tabs are open right now for you? If you have at least 4 windows open, why should our learners behave any differently? At times, the reality can be harsh. The learner does several other things alongside viewing the eLearning course that you’ve designed. He or she may get frustrated doing any of these ‘other’ activities and then blames the eLearning.

Yes, simple and worth thinking!

Second Truth: Learners in eLearning are quasi-customers.

When we design eLearning, learners are more or less our quasi-customers. Most of the time the learner is not in front of us and therefore, we create mental models of the learner. Although we talk of learner diversities, when we storyboard we are essentially designing for just one type of learner. On the other hand, in an academic setup, learners are treated very differently. Here, you have a faculty member dealing with 30 learners with 30 different mindsets. To ensure that they learn, the faculty needs to keep everyone in mind while teaching.

Debatable? Certainly! Go ahead and put forth your arguments.

Third Truth: Faculty considers technology to be their enemy.

Geetha has an interesting interpretation about the relationship between a trainer and technology. Using real life examples of a faculty’s interaction with technology, Geetha opines that for the faculty, using technology is like sleeping with the enemy. Most faculty do not consider technology a boon or a friend, they use it because they have to. The faculty is most comfortable with PowerPoint because they have grown up using this during their PH.D. Similarly, most middle and upper management are not comfortable with technology. Most of these people do not know what blogs are and may not have a LinkedIn account. The few people who do own Facebook accounts say that they have an account to keep an eye on what their children are up to! This is not just the case in India but true all over the world and especially in traditional industries.

Fourth Truth: If technology helps people learn, so what do IDs do?

Technological breakthroughs such as Twitter, Google Search, File sharing, Facebook, TedTalks, and so on encourage informal learning. If all these technologies allow you to learn, what is it that IDs (instructional designers) do that these cannot? This sets off an interesting reflection.

Are IDs aggregators of tools?
Are we creator of content?
Do IDs just ensure that content fits in FB and Twitter?

“Technology is just the ‘how’ of teaching. When we sell eLearning, we sell the tool also.” Hold your breath, Geetha Krishnan stirs a hornet’s nest by asking, “How many people are familiar with the term instructional designer? This is a term known only to a few instructional designers!” Instructional design became popular only after eLearning evolved. In reality, faculty is never taught to teach. They are historically experts in their subject, but not necessarily good teachers. ” Lectures are predominantly content-centric because of this reason. Pedagogy is secondary to content. The faculty’s focus is always to ensure that learners have access to all information on a particular subject. Therefore, even in an eLearning program, they insist on making everything available to the learner.” Does eLearning, where dependence on an ID is more, make faculties insecure?

Interesting question, what are your thoughts?

Fifth Truth: Why are marketing and learning the first two industries to explore technologies?

Geetha asks some pertinent questions about the rat race to adopt technology observed mostly among marketing and learning departments. “Why is it that the marketing and learning departments are the first ones to jump the bandwagon of technology?” He provides some interesting examples. Three days after Twitter was launched, we started talking about Twitter for learning. Google wave was launched and in two days, there was a whole guide that was launched to explain how it can be used for learning. Why do we embrace technologies even before we’ve explored their potential? Are we insecure?

Controversial? Possibly yes, why don’t you jump in with your thoughts?

Sixth Truth: Adult learners hate eLearning, why?

Adult learners keep surfing as much as we do. They know whatever is out there and detest being told about things they already know. For example, a compliance training on safety regulations tells the learner, “Don’t walk under the ladder.” Every one knows this but we state this very seriously in an eLearning program and exaggerate by putting four ladders and two cats! At times, the clients don’t understand the pitfalls of this. They insist that you start from the basics and cover all points. The result is that your learner does not like your program because you state the obvious, he already knows this or at least thinks he does. Often content de-motivates learners and not the design!

Geetha voices some valid concerns! We teach learners in a particular context. But learners use this learning it in different contexts. This is the risk with simulations and cases. If we teach in a particular context, we have to be sure that this is true for other contexts as well. Finally, learning is all about processing information. “Not every organization has a fire exit on the north-eastern side of the building!” (Read more on Geetha’s blog Training vs. Education)

Seventh Truth: Training happens at transition points.

Management training (especially) happens when an individual is on the verge of a role change. Training prepares employees for the new role. For examples, if an instructional designer is promoted to manage a team of instructional designers, he or she may need to understand people management, delegation, management of cross functional roles, and so on. “Often, the HR managers are the biggest challenge. If they do not put obstacles in the way, we can design better learning. If I want learners to shape their learning, how do we make the client understand this. How do we allow the learner to shape their own learning?”

Geetha shares some of his best practices to ensure that learning is as close to what learners need.

Gather expectations from learners. We share a crisp questionnaire. We find out what they are looking for before the training program. We ask each learner to list at least one expectation before they enter the program. We tell the learners that unless they give their expectations, they cannot attend the program. This ensures that we don’t assume anything on the learner’s behalf. What they say becomes the input for the faculty to design the program. We have made this part of the process.
Use action learning project. We ask learners to identify one management aspect that they want to improve. We agree on time lines. The learners take up the onus to complete the project.
Ask learners to share experiences. We take their inputs to design. They shape their own learning. It is not done at the cost of learning. Activities are customized based on what the learners say. We make them share their experiences and give them two minutes to share. How does this happen in online learning programs? We need to crack this. When people realize that their challenges are similar, people start accepting solutions.