E-Learning for Beginners: Back to the Basics

(Second in a periodic series)

When I was in grade school, I read a science fiction story about a kid’s education experience. It was set in the future. In this story, he did his homework electronically and sent it to a “virtual” teacher on a screen who then talked back to him in an automated voice as they began lessons for the day.

I remember thinking as a young grade school kid that this was completely thrilling – this technological, virtual world that seemed only to exist in science fiction. The potential of technology was only a thing of the imagination at the time.

Then I grew up. And methods of learning continued to mature, and this incredible world of technology came into full form.

Along with this came a whole new idea of learning that was radically different from the idea I used to hold.

A Tangent:  How Change Happens

Let me wander a bit.

I HATE change.  Okay, that might be a bit strong, but I don’t usually like it.  I tend to fight it.  When it happens, I want it to happen slowly.  I want it to happen in bite-size pieces.

At the same time, I LOVE some changes.  I am in awe of guys like Steve Jobs (for example), who come along and seem to radically revolutionize a process or an entire industry.  That’s inspiring.

But that doesn’t make much sense does it?  How do I hate change and love it at the same time?

While I struggle with that, I don’t think I’m that much different from most of us.  Most of us usually hate change.  But we still rush out and buy a billion copies of Steve Jobs’ biography.  What does that say?

And I think it’s because of our feelings about change that change TENDS to occur in bite-size steps.  Usually, someone comes along and makes a small, incremental change to something and then another small step and then another.  It’s rare that someone comes along and remakes something from scratch.

What’s Changed With Learning?  Learning v. Training.

For so long, people seemed to use the words “learning” and “training” to mean the same thing.  But that has changed and continues to change.  “Learning” and “training” are not the same thing.

As we outline in the last post, “learning” is acquiring new skills and knowledge through experience, practice, study, or teaching. This transforms a person’s behavior, beliefs, or thoughts as a whole.

“Training,” on the other hand, teaches a specific skill to accomplish a specific end. This illustrates one form of learning, but there are other ways as well to do learning as well.

So let’s begin with this: How do we do learning?

Considering the factor that measures the success of learning – the OUTCOMES – is a great place to start.

Learning has MEASUREABLE RESULTS. It has outcomes that can be assessed and improved.

This phrase highlights the shift in learning from training to performance. In the old way of thinking, acquiring new skills resulted in being “trained.” Training only goes so far. It can be part of the process of learning, but to see it as learning itself or the outcome of learning falls short. It can be equated with teaching a dog to do new tricks. A skill is taught, but no vision is casted, no goal is set, and there is no room or motivation for innovation.

Learning needs to be performance-minded. Learning RESULTS in performance, and it can be measured and evaluated.

Learning with a performance-focus includes setting goals, instilling personal motivation, internalizing knowledge, and receiving feedback from others. Goals create motivation to perform better and more efficiently. This encourages innovation to think of new solutions and ideas to reach the goal. Acquiring new skills is the practical way to get to where the learner wants to be, and feedback ultimately refines the effort and improves the quality of performance.

What’s Changed With Learning?  Where and When We Learn.

Here’s another change.  For so long, learning was always equated to the “classroom.”  When people talked about “learning,” they had in their heads an image of a traditional classroom, with a teacher, desks and chairs, and chalkboards.  And when they talked about advancements in “learning,” they were almost always talking about ways in which that image – the old classroom –  could be improved or perfected.

That thinking shouldn’t surprise us.  It’s the way things traditionally change (see above).

But what we’re also starting to see is radical change.  Learning is changing in a much more drastic way and we will have to stop viewing these changes as the bite-size pieces we might want.  Instead of asking how we can make a traditional “classroom” better, we need to focus on how to make LEARNING better! We need to step away from any preconceived notions we might still have that “learning equals classroom” and start over with a blank sheet of paper and design it from scratch.  More specifically, we need to step away from defining “learning” with an image of a place and a time (the classroom) and define it instead as the process it is, and thus free ourselves from the constraints of the place and time.

Our next post will talk about the cultural and economic changes that are driving this change and how it’s impacting learning.

Do you see this change? Let us know.