“LOOK TO ‘THE FEW’”

Learning is not merely memorization of information. Learning is the mental response to informational stimulation, which turns into reflection and new awareness. Meaningful learning initiates action and change, which results in heightened values and skills.

Very few individuals will possess the gifts necessary to create meaningful instructional design. And that fact, coupled with high production costs, is why the “do-it-yourself” purveyors will fail.

Today, learner-controlled E-Learning is the best answer for effective media training and education. Thousands of effective learning programs exist in multiple learning disciplines and are available at a reasonable cost.

Tomorrow, more effective E-Learning programs will be available as developers incorporate full motion video, simulation, and gaming techniques into their courseware. As E-Learning embraces this new learning culture, the payoff in retention will increase significantly.

However, the real answer is that none of the current E-Learning solutions, by themselves, will provide any lasting solutions to the real needs of training and education. Platform technology, alone, will never be able to match the results obtained from a one-on-one master mentor-apprentice relationship. Nor will platform technology, alone, ever be able to match the results obtained from a master teacher facilitating in a classroom of motivated students.

Take your choice. Teaching is either an art or a highly developed skill. Few people can teach well. And, since it follows that few people can create effective instruction, few E-Learning programs will ever teach well. The presumption that just anyone can teach or that anyone can design an effective E-Learning program is not only flawed — it is dangerous.

But! —– since the number of master mentors and master teachers is disproportionally small, multi-sensory designed E-Learning remains the best choice for most trainees and students who are striving to learn and to acquire skills. However, those programs, in order to be effective, must have been designed by the few who understand the immense power of media learning. E-Learning is no place for the “do-it-yourselfers.”

Enjoy your holiday weekend. More on Tuesday – – –

— Bill Walton, Founder, ITC Learning
www.itclearning.com/blog/ (Tuesdays & Thursdays)
e-Mail: bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”