Agents of Change--Identifying and Mentoring Learners Who Will Change the World

Following up from the last post, there are some very sobering questions that we need to ask which are:

"How many learners who could become effective and much needed agents of change in our societies are falling between the cracks of our present education systems? How many are becoming discouraged and disconnected with their education because the education system requires that they fit a centuries old norm that does not nurture innovation, creativity, or higher end critical thinking skills?

Our responses to such learners has been any of the following:

• Isolate them and put them together with their own kind in a special class or even a special school.
• Just keep giving them what we are giving the rest of the class but give them alot more of it to keep them busy.
• We really don't have to spend alot of time on them because we know that they will always do well at school. We need to spend more time with those students who are struggling and those who are average. Teaching to the lowest common denominator with respect to achievement will give us something to boast about when we undergo school performance reviews and our superiors see how much our test scores have gone up.
• Send him or her to the principal's office because he or she is always interrupting the class with crazy ideas. He or she have become a real discipline problem because he or she is always bothering other students around him or her and even tries to correct me on what I am teaching. Personally, I think that he or she has "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" and should be on "meds".

Do any of the above responses sound familiar to you? We need to look at education in a new light. We need to recognize that we need to be able to identify those learners who could make a credible difference in solving the many complex real world problems that we face as societies and encourage the development of their skillsets.

So, if it is important that we not lose such learners, what is stopping us from doing something about it?

Problems That We Have Inherited

1. Assembly Line Model of Education: This mindset basically treats learners as a "tabula rasa" or blank slates on an assembly line which move from grade to grade with each educator along the assembly line insisting on conformity to the rules and inculcating these learning objects with the required content and skillsets prescribed by a government document, crafted by those in power within a given society. From an economic standpoint there are only two goals that must be met which is the production of efficient, conforming workers and life long consumers. This is for the masses and any learning object that does not conform to the standard comes under the oversight of the quality control department for remediation. It is a good system if all we want to do is create learners who all think alike without a creative or innovative thought among them.
2. The Egalitarian Myth: Egalitarianism is a principle that says that people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. The concept, in itself, is worthwhile but the problem arises when certain education activists within societies try to apply that to the level of achievement that learners merit. Within a society that has self-entitlement as a mindset, the idea that all learners merit being at a high level with those in the upper achievement spectrum and if they are not, then the reason is poor teaching, poor education policies. poor access to education support systems..etc. The reality that is rejected is the possibility that perhaps the learner himself or herself have not personally acquired the skills necessary to merit being at the higher level. This aberration of this principle clearly rejects the idea of personal responsibility for one's own educational achievement. Out of this myth, we have such debates about whether failing marks should even be assigned to learners despite the fact that this is what they merit, debates about changing what is taught by softening the requirements so that more and more can make their way into the upper achievement levels. (Author's note--I detest both of these ideas and see them as compromises in which we will all pay for in the end).
3. The Marks Only Syndrome: In our societies the overemphasis on marks alone really brings into question of what we want learners to value in life. Do we want them to work solely for the purpose of acquiring higher marks to gain entrance into higher education or do we want them to learn how to think and learn to love learning itself?
4. Emotional Reasoning vs. Critical Reasoning: In an age of social media, one of the unfortunate by-products is that we ask the question:" How do you feel about one issue or another?" before we ask the question: "What do you think about one issue or another?", if we ask that question at all. The problem that arises is that we ask young learners in particular to take a stand on an issue such as "bullying" without equipping them with the critical thinking skills needed in order to examine verifiable evidence on both sides of the issue. What you receive then is a stream of emotional language making up opinions without critically examining the root of it. If pushed, many young learners can get beyond phrases such as:"Its not fair". This leaves young learners open to manipulation by others hoping to have them adopt an their point of view uncritically.

How Can We Overcome These Barriers

In order for a transformation to take place a change in mindset is required and a recognition that the present educational mindset is counter-productive to turning out effective agents of change.

Credit: www.lbb5pie.blogspot.com

 Another requirement is that we stop segregating learners who demonstrate the qualities that would make them potential agents of change and instead mentor them in how to learn in an online world within the social context they find themselves in. Although some would say that we should do this for every learner, the fact is that the skillsets are not present in every learner. One of the most difficult barriers to overcome is the attitude of self-entitlement which is absolutely necessary to overcome in order for the future change agents to consider the needs of all people over their own.

Next--Taking these ideas a step further---helping learners make useful connections with networks

Transforming the Mentoring Relationship Paradigm for the 21st Century

In order for E-Learners to be in sync with the exponential increase in knowledge and information across the disciplines that impact our lives, both professionally and personally, we need to revisit the concept of the mentor relationship which has been in place since the Industrial Revolution. From that point forward the needs of industry dictated the nature and purpose for mentoring. The focus was on teaching workers new skills to produce products that could compete in the market place. For the industrial economy, it had many benefits such as:

• The same work force that was mentored to fulfill their job related tasks would also be the consumers for these products which meant that capital that was invested in training could in part be recovered through the spending of workers on the products produced. To encourage this part of the market, employee incentives such as product discounts, profit sharing...etc were put in place to ensure employee loyalty to their company brand.
• With mass production came specialization in which the concept of the division of labour came into play. This was advantageous for the business since mentoring could be even more finely focused and if a particular employee's performance did not meet company standards, then an intern could be quickly mentored to fill the position, limiting disruption to the production line.

The rise of the Internet and the sharing of the growing reservoirs of knowledge and information changed the dynamics of competition in that company competition went from local to global very quickly. Protecting your share of the market that you had recently been able to establish and maintain became more difficult with competitors from across the world able to make inroads into your domain and even establish satellite office and production facilities where there had been none previously.

 

Another phenomena that arrived as a result to this global reach through the Internet was the need to put less emphasis on the acquiring of information alone but also to mentor employees in the skillsets of learning to learn in this new frontier. This included not only how to do effective data searches but also the skill to be able to evaluate information, authenticate information, and draw together or synthesize information best suited to inspire solutions to complex real world problems. The use and evaluation of the growing technology tools also required that mentoring would allow employees to develop competencies in using such tools. Clearly, the original mentoring paradigm was too narrowly focused to meet the needs of a 21st century globally connected economy.

With the advent of the 21st century, another term that came into the spotlight is the concept of "Coaching". For some businesses this was a step forward away from the original paradigm but for others it was just a new term with the same narrow focus as the industrial economy concept of mentoring.

Transforming to a New Mentoring Relationship for Agents of Change

Paradoxically, the guidance that we need to transform mentoring relationships from their present status, we can take from the Middle Ages and their concepts of textile guilds, apprenticeship and the journeyman. One of the costs that we paid with the age of mass production was that although we now had the ability to create large quantities of a single product for the market, we sacrificed the personal attention and pride in the quality of the product that was produced. Although industry would object and state that there were departments of quality control put in place but the criteria stressed less on the quality of workmanship and more on functionality. To compound the problem, the concept of product "planned obsolescence" was introduced to maintain the customer's dependence on the business and ensure brand loyalty. This in itself spoke to the company's confidence in a cynical manner, in the workmanship of its product line.

 

 The 21st century also introduced the idea that in order for a company to effectively compete in a globally connected collaborative economy, innovation either in an incremental form or in a disruptive whole change form needed to become part of a company's modus operandi. In order for this to be accomplished the concept of encouraging employees to become "agents of change" and "innovative thinkers" was necessary but the problem was that the type of training or mentoring relationships that were in existence all were tied to the industrial economy model.

 

Coming back to the Middle Ages model of the mentoring relationship between the master and his or her apprentice, the very human qualities of pride for the quality of what is being produced, attention to detail, concern for developing the skillsets of the apprentice, collaboration with others having complementary skillsets needed for the task at hand and assurance of a line of continuity for high standards in the final example of the journeyman(journey-person in modern sensitivities) are all qualities that a machine can not replicate to the degree a human being can. Presently, such products are available only to a few when the reality should be that this should be the norm for all people.

The Mentoring Relationship in the 21st Century and Beyond

With the advances in robotics and other artificially intelligent machines, we need to re-configure the tasks that we will expect machines to do and the tasks that we will want the new "agents of change" in our societies to do. In this age of vast increases in cross disciplinary knowledge and information, fostering the creativity and higher level thinking skills for the powerful purposes of solving complex real world problems in agents of change are paramount. This should be the priority of the types of mentoring relationships we develop for those who make use of the great potential of E-Learning. The role of technology is that they allow us to extend our thinking but they are still just tools, a means to a human defined end.

 

The obstacles to achieving this first rests with the formal education sector because from this sector comes employees who are prepared for the new roles of the 21st century or they are prepared for a world that no longer exists. Transformation of high education from its dated assembly line industrial mindset must be breached or we will see a continual stream of both students and future teachers stuck in neutral to the detriment of us all. 

The learning culture of business organizations need to escape organizational inertia and truly think about the point that in order to truly engage employees in this new age of learning, that their personal learning within the organization needs to be valued, nurtured and above all, mentored effectively.

This leaves us with this provocative question. It is a question that you need to ask as the decision makers in your business organization or in the halls of academia in the formal higher education sector:

"Does your learning culture reflect 21stcentury realities with the new emphasis on the importance of mentoring and learning or does the following picture portray your present status?"

Next...The identification and mentoring of agents of change

Transforming Learning Cultures Through Dynamic E-Learning--Part III-Transforming Roles

In making a transformation in the learning culture in a business organization, the question that inevitably comes up is:

"What happens to the roles that already exist within the business organization that already have responsibilities for the oversight of employee learning?" 

That question is a reasonable question to ask on many levels. In order to answer such a question, it is important to identify the roles that already exist, the responsibilities attributed to those roles, the changing needs of the organization and the degree of fit that the changing needs have with the greater global economy and its needs.

The Chief Learning Officer (CLO)

In most business organizations, the leader who plans and directs the learning of employees is the CLO. In many ways, the responsibilities of the CLO parallel those of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the business organization To truly understand the extent of the responsibilities, it is worth noting that many of the Fortune 50 companies employ CLO's. Examples of such companies would be Citigroup, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, HP, Goldman Sachs, G.E. and Hess. This is certainly not an all inclusive list and with the growth of the importance of learning in an information and knowledge age, the importance of investing in the learning culture of a business organization is becoming a high priority for companies seeking to grow in a globally connected networked economy.

Credit: www.elearningmind.com

 Some notable CLO's would include such people as:

• Tom Evans (PWC) who was in charge of development for 39,000 employees and was CLO of the year in 2014.
• Amy Hayes (Facebook) who was the Global Head of Learning and Development for 9,500 employees.
• Tamar Elkeles (Qualcomm 2010) who was in charge of learning and development for 23,000 employees.

The responsibilities of the CLO might be described as follows:

Credit: www.elearningmind.com

 So, the question that needs to be asked is:

"How and to what degree would the role of the CLO change given the exponential changes in knowledge, technology and pedagogy?"

Although, upon looking at his or her present responsibilities you might simply say "stay the course", it is not that simple because the needs of society that are being shaped by the exponential changes in knowledge, technology and pedagogy also shape the need for new skillsets. Performing these responsibilities now require a higher level of collaboration with such people as:

• Instructional Designer
• Learning Principles Expert ( a new position)
• Trainer/ Mentor 

Unlike the present status of the CLO, with the enormity of the changes that can impact the learning culture of a business organization, the leadership at this level becomes a shared leadership. Rather than the organizational structure at this level being hierarchical, it is horizontal in its design. This is similar to the organizational structure once practiced by Japanese companies such as Toyota.

The Instructional Designer needs to take direction from the Learning Principles Expert who is a person who keeps up to date with the drive to teach people how to learn in an online environment. This person is the leader in the latest Neuro-Cognitive research that describes how people learn in an online world. With this input, the Instructional Designer, employing design system thinking, creates irresistibly engaging learning experiences for employees.


The Trainer/ Mentor is no longer "the sage on the stage" but is now the "guide on the side". Although, in regards to the use of "blended E-Learning", the trainer acts as the guide on the side, this is a starting point for the transformation of the learning experiences and not the endpoint. In a world that places a high emphasis on the importance of collaboration and networking beyond the walls of the business organization, part of the responsibilities of the trainer/mentor should be to seek useful global networks and create networks that can be used to help employees engage in complex real world problem solving for the benefit of the organization. The mentor relationship with employees is important but needs to be structured and streamlined so that the experience for the employee is not impersonal. More about Mentorship in the next post.

What About the SME?

With respect to the Subject Matter Expert (SME) who is a lifeline to the business organization in keeping employees up to date on content, one realization that comes about as a result of the exponential changes in knowledge, information and pedagogy, is that there is more content out there, both valid and invalid, than can be reliably communicated, especially in an "on-time" framework. Adding into this the drive for personalized education and SME's are faced with an important question:

"Which is more important, communicate content that is constantly changing on an ongoing basis or teach people how to learn in an online environment so that they can analyze, evaluate and authenticate the content found in specific areas of knowledge pertaining to the business function?"

This would also mean connecting employees with mentors in different content areas of interest.

If part of the role of the SME changes to include teaching people how to think in an online environment, then employees take charge of their own learning and are empowered to keep up to date on their own time. This makes the job of the SME easier. They might think of also changing their title for the simple reason that the exponential increase of knowledge in the areas of interest makes it difficult for someone to call themselves an expert. Network connections on a global scale becomes a very useful responsibility for the SME because he or she no longer has to be the ultimate expert with respect to content but instead becomes the expert in connecting the CLO to these networks that will enrich the understanding and growth of learning for employees in the business organization.

Next.. Mentoring relationships as a vital past of the learning culture.

Transforming Learning Cultures Through Dynamic E-Learning--Part II--Putting the Pieces in Place for Business

For business organizations to foster all that is required to transform their learning cultures, creating an environment of engagement for employees that appeals to them on the levels of personal relevance, the need to be successful and the drive to make a real and appreciated difference, there is a number of elements that need to be examined. Leadership, roles and areas of opportunity for immediate feedback to employees for their initiatives, collaboratively and individually, are important.

Credit: www.elearningtech.blogspot.com

 Ultimately, it comes down to the question:

"How do we harness the most effective technologies to bring about the greatest benefits of both formal learning and informal learning in pursuing a transformation of our learning culture?"

Learning Culture and Leadership

One of the most important elements to consider in creating change is to question how the leadership sees change and what plan they envision for change management within the business organization. The response to this will dictate the shape that the learning culture will take.

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 In a learning culture, there needs to be the desire on the part of the leadership to lead by example which means that they consider their own learning a high priority and convey that priority to employees by their own example. This means that they use all of the tools that enhances their learning that the web has to offer through professional organizations, networks and opportunities presented by conferences that involve hands on experiences.

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Evolving Roles in Learning Cultures

One of the great fears concerning change is that the role a person has fulfilled for many years within an organization may all of a sudden evaporate causing the loss of employment, transfer to another satellite location that is at a different stage or being thrust into a role that is completely unfamiliar to the person in question.

When you introduce the idea of using E-Learning as a concept for the inspiration, creation and the dissemination of new knowledge and skillsets, roles are transformed so that the work becomes more focused on "knowledge work". Every employee by virtue of a changed focus becomes a knowledge worker and the key goal is learning how to learn and think in an online environment whether it be through a blended E-Learning approach, interactive video collaborative approach or investigative networking in which teams collaborate with other external networks for the purpose of coming up with innovative solutions to complex real world problems that impact the business organization. Change management must be done carefully so as to avoid increased resistance as a result of the fears expressed above.

Credit: Stephen Schillerwein

The obvious question in regards to this extensive level of learning that is required is:

"Who will be able to guide us through this process in a way that won't be disruptive to the flow of our business?"

What is required here is the creation of a new role that I will term as: "The Learning Principles Expert (or Guru)". In a rapidly changing age of information, knowledge and technology, the focus is not on how much content we can force feed employees to help them master their working role within the organization but instead the focus should be on engaging and empowering employees to learn, think and create using all the resources that E-Learning opens up. It is a fact that learners internalize knowledge and skillsets faster when they are intimately engaged in learning that is interactive, dynamic, challenging and empowers them to innovate in a manner that is faithful to the core values of the business organization.

Skillsets of The Learning Principles Expert (or Guru)

The question that should be asked concerning this type of leader is what skillsets and traits should such a person have. The following are only suggestions based upon my own professional experience and background. The LPE should have the following traits and skillsets:

• He or she should be a person who puts people first before dogma. What that means is simply it is important to consider learners as thinking, feeling and creative individuals who need consideration of their personal situations and forget the idea that they are simply empty vessels to be used as a means to an end.
• He or she should have considerable academic and practical experience dealing with how adult learners are engaged to sustainable learning in an online environment.
• He or she should be someone who keeps abreast of important ongoing research on the relationship between pedagogy, technology and change management. These are the three forces that are shaping learning in 21st century societies not only in regards to formal learning but also with regards to the business culture.
• He or she should be capable of detailing how existing networks would be useful to business organizations and how to create mutually beneficial partnerships in learning and innovation.

• This leader should be someone who can relate to the learning needs of all levels of the business organization and able to create and track learning profiles and advise on individualized future learning goals that enrich learners' roles within the business organization.

 One piece of advice to offer to recruiters is that in an information, knowledge economy, competition for talent is peaking. It is no longer just enough to post a job posting, wait for the resumes, do the multi-level interviews and hope that you have the right person. You do need to go out and aggressively recruit talent before the competition does. Although a person's "branding" is important, his or her level of expertise and contributions to the greater networks of knowledge should be key guides in making aggressive moves to get to know talent and acquire it. The skillset of knowing how to think effectively in an online environment is a key requirement if we hope to nurture innovative thinking within business organizations from the ground up.

So, what about the roles of people that already exist within the learning culture of the business organization? How will they be transformed and why?

More about these specific roles in the next post! However, the last word on leadership belongs to Dilbert:

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[If you think that this is a worthwhile discussion/conversation to have, promote the discussions here through social media so that the conversations can stimulate more thinking on this topic so that we can all grow and acquire an enriched understanding of the usefulness of learning cultures and E-Learning]

Transforming Learning Cultures Through Dynamic E-Learning---Part I--21st Century Business Organizations

In the last post, the final topic to follow was "Habits of the Mind for E-Learners" but there is a need to recognize that such a topic can not be examined without looking at the present status of learning cultures within business organizations and in formal education itself.

For business organizations, when the suggestion is made that the learning culture needs to be transformed from what it is now to where it should be so that it is in sync with developing changes occurring as a result of the exponential growth of technology, information and new skillset requirements, many decision makers pose very insightful questions such as:

1. Okay, if our learning culture is not where it should be, what steps do we need to take and who will advise us on the steps to take in order for this needed transformation to happen?
2. Our employees are already well versed in what their jobs require, will needed changes affect the job security of people who have been instrumental in the success of this organization? How do we prevent a fear of change with the people that we depend upon every day?
3. How do we manage change so that our present relationships with our customers and suppliers are not disrupted to the point where we lose clientele and future opportunities to expand our market share?

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Before even attempting to answer these questions, we need to assess whether or not the present learning culture within a business organization is ready to employ E-Learning as a means of engaging everyone from the leadership to the different employee groups within an organization in a mission of collaborative, globally connected learning that benefits the organizations growth within the changing global economy.

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The success of such a paradigm shift from the traditional learning culture to one that employs E-Learning hinges on fostering engagement of those directly affected by this change, that being those who labour in a variety of roles within the organization.

Some Key Observations of Engagement Within Present Business Organizations

The degree of engagement that E-Learning can deliver will transform the learning culture of an organization to be more in sync with the realities of a 21st century connected global economy. The more traditional learning cultures that business organizations have been using for decades are following short because the world of information, knowledge and technology is changing rapidly but business organizations are not adapting. The statistics of the importance of employee engagement show this decline.

Credit: Stephen Schillerwein(2014)

 

 In a globally connected economy, this level of employee disengagement is not just a North American problem or just a European or Pan Asiatic problem. It is a systemic problem that exists that has a cascading effect for all business organizations that need to be globally connected in order to prosper and deliver healthy ROI to those who are bona fide stakeholders in the health of the organization.

Credit: Stephen Schillerwein(2014)

The reason for the evident erosion in the engagement of employees within the business organization is the failure to realize that the learning culture within the organization is more and more at odds with the type of digital lifestyle that employees live in outside the business organization. This lifestyle in fact defines their life and the business culture which places very little emphasis on personalized learning creates a growing disconnect between the employee and the organization.

Transforming the learning culture in this type of digital world is not a frill but is an essential if the drive to create innovation within a business has any hope of taking on life. Business organizations that have already undertaken such a reasoned transformation are seeing results.

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Learning Culture Involves Knowledge Work

Within a business organization in the 21st century, we need to understand that in this age of knowledge, information collaboration and innovation, the spotlight is on  what we would term "knowledge work". We would be very naive to believe that knowledge work only refers to business that deal with the creation and dissemination of knowledge. 

"Knowledge and information is the new currency that is a shared requirement in all businesses that are globally connected. It is also the premier source of influence and power in the 21st 

century."

Working with knowledge and information involves going beyond the company Intranet to a global Intranet and when employees are engaged in this change in the way of performing their roles, engagement grows.

Credit: Stephen Schillerwein (2014)

 

 

So, how does a business organization make the transformation to a learning culture that creates the needed engagement which will result in benefits for the organization on multiple levels?

Next post deals with the pieces to this puzzle and the steps needed to make it happen.

E-Learning's New Mindset --Thoughtful and Sustainable Engagement

With the new technologies that are being brought into the mainstream to be incorporated into the service of E-Learning, we need to be very discerning as to what kind of mindset such technologies will foster within the learner. Not every technology, which on the surface looks promising, will necessarily be beneficial and supportive of the goals that we have for E-Learning. There is such a position as being "paralyzingly cautious" but there is also a position that could be termed "rock star awe" where we recklessly adapt and incorporate a technology because its concept dazzles us.
In order to be discerning we need to be clear on what type of mindset that we want to foster in the learner as they pursue their learning in ways that benefit the societies that they live and work in.

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In order to transform E-Learning to a form that promotes thoughtful engagement, we need to see what qualities should make up serious E-Learning that is applicable to not only the formal education sector but very applicable to the learning cultures of business. The most important revelation that should impact those entrusted with ID and training in the business culture is that today's 21st century learners are not taking part in the training for the cute badges or the check marks on their task completion lists.

Credit: www.blogs.edweek.org

If we look at what serious E-Learning should entail that will foster thoughtful engagement of the learner in his or her learning so that deeper, sustainable learning takes place, we have to ask ourselves as ID's , Learning Principle Experts and trainers:

"Are our deliverables creating the type of learning culture that leads to innovative and creative problem solving and solutions?"

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So, the obvious question to ask is:

"What does this have to do with the selection of technology as a tool for serious E-Learning?"

To answer this question, lets consider a couple of technologies geared to social media. One that everyone is familiar with is Twitter.

Credit: www.Diane Benner

"Does the Twitter technology foster the type of mindset that promotes the depth of thoughtful engagement required to achieve the level of learning that we will need for learners in E-Learning?"

If you remember from the last post, the level of thinking skills required for learners to become effective agents of change and able to solve complex real world problems collaboratively, were at the upper end of the Revised Bloom Taxonomy. The very nature of being able to demonstrate the ability to effectively search, evaluate, authenticate, synthesize and then task information from multiple online databases and professional learning communities to a given real world problem, requires a level of thoughtful engagement that is rarely seen in Twitter technology. How the technology is routinely used is a revelation in itself.

Credit: www.blog.jakpat.net

Another new technology is what is called "Bite Sized  Learning". Again just as Twitter involves learning within 140 characters, this type of learning suggests a "buffet style learning " where you really draw on information at the surface. It is questionable whether this type of technology fosters the type of mindset that promotes thoughtful engagement required in serious E-Learning.

Credit: www.blog.openassembly.com

The skillsets required for modern learners in an E-Learning, collaborative world can be achieved only if we are careful and discerning about the new technologies that we come across. As ID's ,Learning Principle Experts, educators, and trainers, we have a responsibility to make our pedagogy as an active, dynamic and adaptive paradigm to be the driver for change in E-Learning both in the business culture and in the formal education sector. Technology is only useful if it helps our pedagogical practices expand to capitalize on what the changing world wide web has to offer.


Next.....Habits of the E-Learner's Mind

The Challenge of Adapting New Technologies to E-Learning--Part III

Technologies that serve the need of making experiential learning appeal to a majority of the human senses means that our online learning experiences will create a greater degree of deeper learning that will last longer than any methods employed in the past.
Human beings' ability to interpret and act within their environment depends upon the data streams coming into our brains through our senses. In cases of where one particular sense has been reduced or completely eliminated, the remarkable human brain adapts by extending the range of sensitivity to the other data streams from the other senses. This is why when an individual loses their sight that their hearing, sense of smell and tactile senses become more acute and the focus switches to these data streams. This enables the brain of the individual to make sense of and navigate their environment.. Actions taken using the information results in feedback to the brain which then interprets and adjust further actions. So, the question becomes:

Why is this concept important to understand in relation to E-Learning and pedagogy?

This means that the more a pedagogical approach is able to appeal to a majority of the senses of a learner the more likely that the learner is going to be totally engaged and intrinsically motivated to follow the learning experience through. It is for this very reason that scenario learning experiences, serious games and simulation learning are so effective. Game designers understand the importance of this concept. Take a count of the number of senses that the new more advanced online games appeal to and notice that in some cases, such as X-Box 360 & X-Box One, that technology accessories (ie: "the Wii") are designed to incorporate the use of the tactile senses. Movie theaters understand the growing importance of this concept of multi-sensory stimulation with adaptations to appeal not just to motion sense but even the olfactory human sense.

The Promise of Augmented Technology in E-Learning

 

Augmented technology could be useful in helping to reach further and transform pedagogy more and more within an online environment.

This is especially true when it comes to a new skillset that is rising in importance and in fact is already touted in some science fiction movies as the skillset of the future. The skillset I am referring to is the ability to access, draw from and contribute to multiple databases at the same time.
To understand this, consider a simple analogy.

When a student was given a student project by a classroom teacher, one of the approaches the student might take when working at this at home, would be to gather a variety of books from a library, sit at a table and open the books in a semi-circle, each to an important section that the student might want to draw pertinent information from. An important distinction to make here is this is NOT multitasking because these various sources of information are being drawn on for the purpose of excelling in one task and not a multitude of tasks.
Putting this analogy in an augmented technology digital form we have happening something similar to what the infamous Tony Stark was doing in the Iron Man movies series.

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The skills required involving actively searching for, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing information from a variety of databases that can be brought to focus on the complex real world problem that the learner or learners are tasked with. The use of augmented technology in E-learning becomes a "natural fit" since all that needs to be accessed is found through learning networks and professional online organizations on the web.

Another example of this merging of man with machine are the modern HUD(Heads Up Display) that are coming more and more into use for pilots of aircraft of many different types from the military to future commercial space flights. Within these displays, a pilot can access data from meteorological, topographical, radar sat, aircraft status databases which are necessary in order for him or her to make informed and effective decisions.

This leaves us with an intriguing question:

"If these skillsets are going to become the norm, how do we develop digital pedagogies that will enhance these skillsets and enable learners to develop the discipline to maintain a focus and ignore the overwhelming "white noise" also present in the web environment?"

To answer the above question, we need to re-consider a concept that was mentioned in an earlier post. The concept was "thoughtful and irresistible engagement".

Next...Re-visiting thoughtful and irresistible engagement in an E-Learning environment