Local ASTD & Visual Communication

I was invited to speak at the local ASTD chapter here in Lansing Michigan.  They asked me to introduce SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, and mention Jing.  (Please remember I in no way represent TechSmith or their products on this blog, but am a happy employee – who gets the great opportunity to work with these awesome products everyday. These comments and insights are mine and mine alone, whether you think a little or a lot of them.)

While I did talk about those 3 in some detail (as much detail as one can get in about an hour and 15 minutes), I was really pleased with the first part of my presentation on visual communication, an am excited to expand it and refine it more. If I get the chance I will have to see if I can take it to a session or two (hmmm…. DevLearn, ASTD, ??????, any good instructional design conferences besides these that I should be aware of?)

I think one of the big things that has been and will continue to shift in e-learning is the amount and the necessity to becom ever more visual. One of the things that I see is the wide spread distribution of tools like the iPod touch or iPhone – and other similar technologies.  These are inherently visual, and even if the specific device doesn’t take off and become the cool e-learning tool of the future – or make mobile learning kick some series butt, its coming and it will be very visual.

In the past one of the big obstacles in e-learning was bandwidth, storage, etc… but now I’m sitting in my kitchen, pulling a signal through a wireless aircard, and able to move quickly along on the internet.  Now granted I’m not able to play network intense games, and it takes a little time to stream movies – but it’s faster than dial-up, and most of the time faster than my parent’s satellite internet connection.  And it will get faster the next few years, especially as technologies like WiMax and others become more prevalent.

Rather than worrying about content being downloadable to computers – we need to focus more and more on information – the content, the presentation, the messaging, the scaffolding, chunking and many other factors – being able to handle the information that is presented.  In other words will the learners have enough personal bandwidth (mentally and emotionally) to handle what is being presented? There are a lot of considerations that need to go into the decision making process – but actual file size will be less of an issue.

What happens to our natural desire to learn?

I get all pumped up about the blog, and then life sticks its head in the way. I love life, and I love all the things I have the opportunity to do.

I had a great experience this morning, Elijah (7) says “Dad, I want to learn Spanish.” So I said, cool, let’s do this together. I download some podcasts from iTunes and figure we’ll give it a go.

In a previous post, I mentioned motivation. I love motivation that children have for natural learning. When they are curious or have a desire, learning doesn’t see so bad or tough, or boring.

So, this makes me think- what happened to my motivation and desire to be a natural learner (although I have been blessed to be someone who is interested in always learning). As I watch Elijah go through school (1st grade) I can totally see what happens. Now don’t get me wrong, we love his school and the teachers, they are doing a terrific job. I think as a whole though the system just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t help students embrace the natural tendency to learn. The funny thing is the process smashes the desire out the learner. And then when we get them at the Corporate level, we either have to figure out a way to put the pieces back together (which orgs. don’t want to spend time on or pay for), or we have to instruct in a manner that fits into the smashed system. Not very conducive for creating prime learning opportunities.

So my question for now readers, what have you done to create an atmosphere that encourages natural learning? What methods work well, what instructional design theories or tactics do you apply to make it all work?

What tools are you using?

What are the biggest impediments?

I’ve got some ideas, but I’d like to hear a bit before I mix it up a bit.

-m