Posts Tagged ‘breathing’

SLQOTD Blog Project: Learning is like Breathing

May 29, 2009 slqotd

Here is my SLQOTD Blog Project response: SL happens all around us at all times – like breathing. How do we take adv. of it?

This question first came up when Dave Wilkins and I were doing our last podcast.  We were talking about how we learn all the time, but those in the learning profession ignore that piece and focus on creating elearning, for example.  So the original question was: SL happens all the time – now what?

FIRST, we have to recognize that it happens.  Too often we ignore that it exists.  Or maybe, even worse, that we feel that we can’t do anything about it, so it isn’t even on our radar.

It is time.  Our job is to enable learning, enable performance improvement.  Yet if we ignore the most fundemental, basic ways that we learn, we are doing a disservice to those very people we claim to support.

During #lrnchat on Twitter last night, there was some discussion on learning and training: @marciamarcia: We still seem to be neglecting any mention of helping people learn how to learn or liberate their self-direction. #lrnchat.  Are we helping others to learn what they need/want to learn, or are we forcing learning that they don’t want?  Sure, they may need some of the latter, but what about all that they REALLY want to know?

But, truely, it happens ALL THE TIME.  Learning is ALL AROUND US.  How do we help others with that?  It isn’t by creating a course on it.

I think of homeschooling my own kids.  There are things they NEED to learn. But what about those things they are really interested in?  We point them to the resources.  We make learning available.  We hook them up with the books, sites, people and other resources.  We don’t try to give it to them in nice, neat little packages.  That is like saying, “Oh, you are running and need to breathe heavily?  Here let me give you this breath.  And this one.  And this one.”  Instead it is, “Here is all the oxygen you need.  Oh, and here is some more I found.  Breath away.”

(Another favorite tweeet of mine was from @ hjarche: if I had to develop a lot of learning “stuff” last people I would hire would ID’s (sorry) – artists, writers would come 1st #lrnchat.)

Tags: , , ,

Learning is Like Breathing – What are You Breathing?

Feb 18, 2009 Social Learning SIG

Beach Ultimate at WildwoodImage via Wikipedia

I was just reading Brent Schlenker’s latest blog post. He hit it dead on.

  • You can’t force learning
  • It isn’t about content
  • It IS about the individual learning
  • Learning Happens

Maybe that is my new mantra: LEARNING HAPPENS.  Just like breathing.  Sometimes we think about breathing (playing Ultimate will get you thinking about breathing, right, B.J.?)  But most of the time we just breath.  It happens.  It is the same with learning – it just happens.

We don’t usually think about it nor do we call it learning, but we ARE ALWAYS LEARNING. Hmmmm.  Maybe we should start caring a bit more about what we are learning (breathing).  Since we are doing it all the time, shouldn’t we care about what we are taking in?  What we take in is directly related to the environment we put ourselves in.

Which is why there are training departments in companies.  “Get them in this environment and they will learn!” THIS IS TRUE!  But WHAT are they learning? That is the real question. Are they learning that they HATE poorly done eLearning or ILT? Maybe that is their biggest take-away (I have lived through that before – haven’t you?).

ATTENTION TRAINING DEPARTMENTS: Spend less time creating a class for the employee to learn.  Instead, create a learning ecosystem around them.  Give them the tools and resources which will allow them to learn for themselves and (heaven forbid) allow them to set their own learning direction.  Sure, give them some guidance as they will not be used to you giving them the learning reins.  There will always be ILT and eLeaning, to be sure.

I retract.  There is already a learning ecosystem around you.  It is time you evaluated yours.  What does it look like?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , ,