Learning Landscapes

One of the more interesting developments within society today has been the constant push of technology. From fridges that can communicate to the internet to TV’s that can record hours of programs to watch at your leisure. The integration of technology has become less of a conscious decision and more of a way of life.

However despite all of these technological, dare I say the word “innovations”, there is still what could been seen as a militant resistance to its integration into education beyond the simplified use of a computer or data projector. There seems to be a misunderstanding relating to the purpose of technology’s place in learning. It will be next to impossible to go into a school now and not see a single computer, projector or mobile phone. Though technology has been accepted into education as a necessity, you will still see stalwarts forcing reams of paper into students hands with the belief that they should not have to use technology.

However regardless of how technically “savvy” an educator is. You will with a majority of them still hit a proverbial brick wall getting them to integrate their learning with the internet. What many educators see as the domain of teenagers with the likes of MySpace Facebook and YouTube they instantly baulk at the idea of integrating it with their teaching. However that is where the line must be drawn for learning of any kind to occur there must be a clear definition as to where supplementary material begins and teaching starts.

What has become exponentially clear during my time at Mtraining is that no good educator will ever be replaced by the internet. All courses that I have had experience with will fail if there is not someone dedicated and committed to increasing the value of the learners education and driving the information in the direction that they believe has value to the students.

As society dives forward with the leaps and bounds of technology so to must the educators of the people that use it. Communication has never been as easy as it is today worldwide conferences are common place people can run companies from countries that they don’t live in. The internet is available to millions of people with dozens or resources about a single topic. Would it not make sense to have someone that knows enough about their area to deem which subjects are suitable and which ones are not?

What one thing would you show the world?

There are so many things we do by instinct. Actions we have learned and refined over years of practice to a point that we do not even think about the actions. They are simply a part of us something ingrained to the muscles and mind. They can be little inconsequential things that seem almost arbitrary at times, but are important to the success of a task.

We have a training facility that delivers Transport and Logistics training. One small but important task that students have to practice is how to correctly secure a load. There are a number of different methods of performing this task from “dog and chain” to using a ratchet strap or a simple rope and truckie’s hitch. Each has their own quirks and things to be aware of. It is interesting to watch someone who has preformed any of these tasks for years try to break their flow of action enough to stop and explain each step they are performing. The natural place to stand when doing a tie-down is directly in front of the rope/strap/chain, yet the trainer is forced to skew their body to the side to allow the audience to see what they are doing. Even then the little things like a quick test of tension can look awkward. And a student may still miss the subtle slip of a hand around the loop in the rope and the twist he puts on the end of the action, because his own hands/arms or body is in the way.

The challenge is in capturing these moments in such a way that student can then observe the flow of action over at a later time, but not force a trainer to grapple with a new technology that increases their workload or makes the task more difficult to perform. And this is where the world of Point of View (POV) comes into its own.

Think instead of this scenario: The trainer puts on a set of glasses and hits record. They don’t have to worry about lights, body position, if their hair is out of position or if their skin is all shiny; no make up, no extra people needed, just the two hands they were born with. The trainer walks up to the flat bed and starts speaking about how they are going to do the tie-down and why they might select this particular method of action. The trainer quickly ties a clove hitch and explains as they perform the task each step along the way. The trainer doesn’t have to worry about twisting his body about to allow people to see what they are doing, all they have to remember is, “What I see, so does everybody else.” They walk around the other side of the truck and demonstrate a truckie’s hitch and how to tie off the rope. The trainer tests the tension with their hands and can show the give or lack there of in the rope. Then with the words, “That’s all folks”, the trainer presses stop and walks away. The video resource has now been created and is ready to download to the computer for dissemination on the web, and will soon available for all their students to view whenever they might need. The total time spent by the trainer is less than 10 minutes for a 2 minute video that will be used hundreds or thousands of times.

This is just one example of some of the gems we will be recording. We have hundreds of these little moments waiting to be captured. POV offers us the opportunity to simply and easily seize these treasures of learning. Over the coming months, Mtraining will be releasing a whole range of short POV videos covering skills relating to the warehouse and road transport environment. I’m personally excited and enthused over what we plan to achieve.

Just think about the things you do everyday with your hands. What skills would you record and pass on to others? Where would you start, and what would you show? The possibilities really are exciting…