Reflection on Training Is Not a One-Time Event

This blog is a reflection on: Training Is Not a One-Time Event by Kelly Meeker

While this blog is in reference to a corporate training environment, it has tremendous relevance to traditional schooling. Meeker argues, and rightly so, that computer technologies facilitate and encourage perpetual learning. Students often take, "Computers" as a course, just like a Math or Geography class. Technology advocates, however, believe technology ought to be integrated--interwoven--into all courses and classrooms. We don't have a course on, "Pencils and Paper." We simply use the tools as a means to an end and not a "credit" unto itself. More to the blog. Meeker's point is more about a journey than a destination. The challenge to educators is to use the medium AND the message beyond a timed event, to make the tools and the content meaningful beyond a finite learning event. Hear, hear! 

When she says, " Training needs to be a comprehensive approach to personal development that includes mentorship, connection to training content, opportunities to share and discuss the material with colleagues, and resources for self-directed learning," Meeker gives us an intriguing list.

Mentorship

Mentoring is, bar-none, the best way to acquire skills (driving a car, heart surgery, plumbing , etc.). Technology can be used in countless ways as an integral part of mentoring.  When I needed to change a water heater in my basement--something I've never done before--I turned to YouTube for ideas. The world was my mentor, instantly accessible, exceptionally brief and perfectly pragmatic. When I ran into a plumbing problem in my bathroom, I took pictures with my phone and sent them, via e-mail, to my Dad for help, who then called me on the same device to talk me through what I needed to do. When I want to know how to use a software program, I often find insight in grassroots online communities and Twitter feeds. Everyone can mentor and be mentored thanks to technology.  But teachers, generally, are ineffective in "teaching" technology. Instead, we are experiencing a paradigm shift. Teachers are no longer experts, pouring knowledge into empty vessels. Instead, they now often act as logistical facilitators, coordinating the tools and conversations that facilitate micro and macro collaboration, where there is an ever-shifting flow of communication and where all participants are constantly switching between the roles of mentor and student.

Connection to Training Content

Online collaboration is the new norm. Text books are now collaborative and dynamic wikis, tweets, e-mails, phone calls, texts, videos, pictures, etc. I used to think the only place for static content was a novel. But even that is changing as authors now encourage readers to write their own endings. Britannica gave up on a printed version of their encyclopedia years ago. University students have shifted from buying textbooks to renting them online. Content is no longer found in a single, static source.

Opportunities to Share

Educators today recognize that teachers can learn from their students and students  can learn from each other. They also recognize that their classrooms are no longer bound by walls. Tools such as Twitter, Skype, Flickr and YouTube encourage communication and collaboration.

Resources for Learning

Woven throughout the above comments we see the implied suggestion that resources  now go far beyond books and teachers. The challenge now is to learn how to effectively glean from and contribute to the plethora of resources available to students and teachers. Education used to be an island called school or a classroom. Now, it is field, extending beyond the horizons of space or time. But it is also a constantly shifting field of sand. The scope of knowledge and the dizzying pace of change can be overwhelming. "Resource" is an antiquated noun in a new world of verbs. 

There is a growing disparity between school and the world for which students are being prepared. Employers are increasingly skeptical of the static symbol of knowledge: the transcript/report card. Instead, they turn to Facebook to evaluate character and Linkedin to assess accomplishments. The validity of the traditional institution of learning is being questioned. Schools have the challenge of focusing on the need to build character and life-long skills such as problem solving and adaptability. Knowledge can be, "looked up" in an instant. The world is looking for passionate, creative innovators who are driven to succeed. Employers are now skeptical and want to see direct proof in the form of accomplishments instead of symbolic proof in the form of a transcript. But even the concept of, "employer" is becoming antiquated. We now see an unprecedented pace in the rise of self-employment and career-shifting. We live in a wireless world that has disintegrated a world of walls. The institutions of schools and work that were once walls, structure and sequential paths are now fluid, dynamic and, seemingly anarchistic chaos. Teaching and learning are becoming processes instead of events. Schools are becoming experiences instead of places. Teachers and students are becoming  peers. Technology is becoming a driver of cooperation and collaboration. Educators have always known that seeing is better than telling and that doing is better than seeing; technology is becoming a facilitator of all three faster and more effectively than ever.

Ron Jewer