I just came in from Midhurst, West Sussex (old country), London. The place reminded me that humans have not changed through generations. People want to control things and their environment. While in flight, I finished reading Psychologist and Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert’s book, “Stumbling on Happiness.” To paraphrase, he says: we want to control because it makes us feel safe and the process satisfies us. I thought this was a very interesting view and explains the preponderance of people wanting to create their own content, share videos and photos, join discussions, and interact in social networking sites. The challenge we have as thinkers and practitioners in learning, is how do we nurture this behavior and direct some of the energy into areas or aspects of learning that directly impacts performance. Now, perhaps, this might be a wrong question to even ask. But as corporate citizens, shouldn’t we at least attempt to ask? What do you think? Years back, I developed this slideshow on “e-Learning Behaviors.”
I discovered that most e-Learning and the search for Rapid e-Learning failed because trainers inhibit learners from learning the way they want to. Learners really want control because they derive pleasure learning this way. In social networking, users and learners do spend countless hours to participate, which in essence is a very natural behavior, and it is pleasurable.
Wacky video, really wacky video on “Application Points.” (From 3-Minute e-Learning, amazon.com)
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Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
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