In a delicious headline appearing in the “The New York Times” this week we read, “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS POWERPOINT!” This particular article by Elisabeth Bumiller was focused on the opinions of many of our military leaders. Let’s look at some of their direct quotes:

General James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month . . .

“PowerPoint makes us stupid,”

General McMaster (Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster) said . . .

“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,”

Commanders say that behind all the PowerPoint jokes are serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making.

“ . . . death by PowerPoint,”

the phrase used to describe the numbing sensation that accompanies a 30-slide briefing, seems here to stay.

. . . PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Hammes (Thomas X. Hammes, a retired Marine colonel) said, are known as

“hypnotizing chickens.”

While I cannot speak for the military, I can certainly echo their criticism of PowerPoint when it comes to education, training and, above all, — LEARNING!

Like a deadly virus, adapted PowerPoint presentations continue to surface, disguised as e-Learning — and, consequently damaging the reputation of our most potentially powerful learning tool.

Why do supposedly responsible individuals continue to create PowerPoint presentations and then ascribe the word “learning” to their creations? Why do e-Learning courseware vendors continue to produce and sell adapted PowerPoint presentations? Why do vendors of LMS’s continue to tout the capability of their associated authoring systems to convert PowerPoint presentations into an e-Learning environment?

One of two reasons — of which “ignorance” is the more easily forgiven.

PowerPoint is slick, attractive and easy to both learn and manipulate. For many well-meaning individuals, it appeals to one’s creative instincts. It can be rewarding to make. Unfortunately, the excitement of building a PowerPoint presentation can blind one to the ultimate aim of all learning:

Learning is not merely memorization of information. Learning is the mental response to informational stimulation, which turns into reflection and new awareness. Meaningful learning initiates action and change, which results in heightened values and skills.

The other, more unfortunate reason, is a combination of ignorance and greed. Vendors of e-Learning who pass off adapted PowerPoint presentations as valid are both ignorant and only interested in making money. They feel no ethical commitment to the students and trainees, forced to cope with such abominations. Vendors of an LMS that tout the capability of its associated authoring system to convert PowerPoint presentations into e-Learning are almost as bad since they, in their avarice, are guilty of promulgating junk throughout their client base. (In several ways, these vendors are uncannily similar to the Goldman Sachs individuals we saw being questioned by Congress this week. They may have done nothing illegal but, my oh my, ethics and commitment to their customers, through open transparency, sure takes a bath.)

And, while I’m on the subject, we should also sharply criticize the faculty in many Graduate Schools of Instructional Design who actually include lectures on adapted PowerPoint presentations as legitimate e-Learning choices. (A PhD is not necessarily a kin to knowledge.) Heaven help their poor students!

Why do I write so much about PowerPoint? That’s an easy answer for me.

I’ve witnessed a long evolution in media training. I’ve watched the greedy and the uninformed get in on the ground level of every new media advancement. And, I also know that until we can stamp out “the phony,” the power of any new medium cannot advance.

So, please help me stamp out adapted PowerPoint presentations, posing as legitimate e-Learning. Only then will we begin to deliver e-Learning-that-works to the millions of students and trainees who are counting on us to enrich their lives.

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

So, why do you invest time in training your company’s workforce? And, for that matter, why does your organization commit dollars to training initiatives?

Those answers seem obvious, don’t they? “Our people will acquire the skills necessary for improved performance and that will result in a better bottom line for our company?’

In a perfect world, those answers are completely valid. ‘nuff said.

But, it’s not a perfect world and those answers both depend on a single qualifier: “IF.”

All training is not equal. All courseware titles are not equal in scope or production design. All trainees do not come to you from a single learning culture.

Many studies have proven that traditional “lecture/reading/testing” training programs no longer give the payback in skills acquisition and ROI that they once did. For individuals born after 1960, their learning culture has become a TV-learning culture. That is why, beginning with interactive laser videodisc and CD-ROM, multi-sensory learning became the surest way to a training payback.

Today, we are evolving into an e-Learning training environment. But, hold on a moment!

Far too many of the e-Learning programs available have taken us backwards into the “reading/testing” world. In their zest to make a quick buck, far too many producers have taken the route of PowerPoint adaptation and written procedure adaptation to the e-Learning environment. The much more effective multi-sensory approach has disappeared from these cheap e-Learning offerings.

The consequences are great. Skills are no longer being acquired as readily. The bottom line contribution of training has shrunk. And all because we have forgotten to insist on a continuum in the multi-sensory approach to learning. An approach that first triumphed in the days of interactive laser videodisc and continued to reap great rewards as we transitioned into CD-ROM

We should all stand up and insist that those training initiatives that actually contribute are the ones that incorporate multi-sensory production — and we must summarily reject those adapted PowerPoint and written procedures that never belonged in an e-Learning environment in the first place.

And if we don’t, but continue to buy converted PowerPoint and written procedures, we are wasting our organization’s money; depriving our workers seeking opportunity; and, cheating our company from acquiring those additional skills that they need to become more efficient and more profitable. If that type of pseudo training is incorporated into your e-Learning initiatives — then why bother!!!

So, “yes,” effective training can significantly increase skills and contribute mightily to the bottom line — but only “IF” we demand a multi-sensory approach to our e-Learning initiatives and purchases.

And that, my friends, is a very big “IF!”

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

So, you’re looking to buy e-Learning courses that actually work? A good objective! However, not easily accomplished!

Why?

Today, the e-Learning marketplace is full of junk. Adapted PowerPoint presentations; adapted written procedures; “slide” shows without audio; words, words, words on almost every screen. Very few individuals will learn anything from those e-Learning courses. They’re junk! They confuse the buyers because they offer little return. They are titles without substance. They are worthless exercises in boredom for the trainees.

So, what does work?

We know that the latent benefits of knowledgeably designed e-Learning offer learning advantages unknown before in the training world. Unlike other training choices, we know that e-Learning is available 24×7 to everyone, from everywhere with access to a high speed connection. We know that e-Learning can be the most cost effective learning tool available. And, we know that knowledgeably designed e-Learning can speak in the language of today’s learners.

So, what should you be looking for when challenged with developing a new training initiative for your organization?

Easy answer. Look for the following components in any e-Learning courseware you are examining:

-Optional Full Word-for-Word Audio Capability for the less-fluent readers
-User-Designed Interface for Navigation-Ease on a single home screen
-Meaningful and Interactive for your learners (speaks in their language)
-Short Modular Lessons to eliminate the risk of boredom
-Efficient Sentence Use per Screen (the absence of paragraph-writing)
-Content Accuracy and Completeness
-Subject Appropriate Instructional Design communicating in multi-sensory choices.
-Keeps the Academicians & Off-Shores OUT (avoid cookie cutter courseware)
-Doubles as “Help Desk” so that you can enable “just-in-time” training

If you find all these features, you will have found a winner!

More tomorrow - - - - -

— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

What force separates the winners from the losers in today’s marketplace?

The same force that has shaped survivors throughout history — change!

Since the beginning of time, it has been those who have learned to control change that have prospered.

How does an organization acquire the skills and knowledge to meet the challenge of change?

Through TRAINING !

A successful company needs managers and planners who can see the potential of the changes taking place around and within the organization. Only then can they utilize that potential toward meeting company goals.

And a successful company needs skilled employees at many levels to implement changes, operate new technologies and, keep systems operating.

There is no longer a question of whether to train. Today, the question is how to provide training that is both effective and efficient. And today the answer to that question is clear — E-LEARNING !

e-Learning is efficient! It is available 24×7 by anyone from anywhere with a high speed internet connection.

e-Learning can be effective, as long as the programs have been designed by knowledgeable instructional designers. In addition to accurate and complete subject matter content, the e-Learning that works uses a multi-sensory media design that speaks to the learning culture of most Americans born after 1960. Above all, the design is built around optional word-for-word audio that allows both the fluent readers to read and the less-fluent readers to listen.

Winning companies are embedding e-Learning into their “change for success” strategies. And, that’s what will continue to separate the winners from the losers.

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

Learning is not merely memorization of information. Learning is the mental response to informational stimulation, which turns into reflection and new awareness. Meaningful learning initiates action and change, which results in heightened values and skills.

Very few individuals will possess the gifts necessary to create meaningful instructional design. And that fact, coupled with high production costs, is why the “do-it-yourself” purveyors will fail.

Today, learner-controlled e-Learning is the best answer for effective media training and education. Thousands of effective learning programs exist in multiple learning disciplines and are available at a reasonable cost.

Tomorrow, more effective e-Learning programs will be available as corporate infrastructures evolve, allowing compressed video to be transferred seamlessly throughout the system.

However, the real answer is that none of the current e-Learning solutions, by themselves, will provide any lasting solutions to the real needs of training and education. Platform technology, alone, will never be able to match the results obtained from a one-on-one master mentor-apprentice relationship. Platform technology, alone, will never be able to match the results obtained from a master teacher facilitating in a classroom of motivated students.

Take your choice. Teaching is either an art or a highly developed skill. Few people can teach well. And, since it follows that few people can create effective instruction, few e-Learning programs will ever teach well. The presumption that just anyone can teach or that anyone can design an effective e-Learning training or education program is not only flawed — it is dangerous.

But! —– since the number of master mentors and master teachers is disappointingly small, multi-sensory designed e-Learning remains the best choice for most trainees and students striving to learn and to acquire skills — provided those programs have been designed by the few who understand the immense power of media learning.

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

In a month (May 16-19), Chicago will host the “ASTD 2010 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION,” http://www.astdconference.org/ The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) is the largest training society in the world. Individuals from more than seventy countries will attend.

While the actual conference sessions may be useful to some of you, even better conference choices, for those who want to understand both the current and future trends in learning, are the SALT (Society for Applied Learning Technology) Conferences. Two are held each year — one in Orlando (February) and one in DC (August).

However, my interest in writing about this subject today is specifically because of the EXPO held in conjunction with the ASTD Conference. It is, easily, the largest collection of training vendors and suppliers gathered under one roof — and, it only happens once in 2010.

Those of you contemplating training initiatives have a single chance each year to see (and, kick the tires) of almost all training products and services currently available. Vendors know that this is the one tradeshow they cannot afford to miss — so, almost all of them will be there.

And best of all, if the tradeshow is of prime interest to you, it is not necessary to pay the conference fee. Just request any vendor to supply you with a free tradeshow floor pass and you can wander the large hall all day. In fact, it’s possible to make it a day trip, with your only significant cost involving transportation. Actually, a free tradeshow pass will give you the best value of the year — assuming that you are tasked with either making current training initiatives work or developing new training initiatives.

And, if you do come, please stop by and say “hello.” I’ll be in Booth 211.

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

The importance of aesthetics in e-Learning design and development is often ignored. For some unknown reasons, the creative artistry that more often distinguishes the great learning experience lies unexplored. And yet, every program or production that we remember is most often the one that appealed to our senses that, in turn, stimulated our mind to learn, absorb and retain.

While we all know the importance of the SME, the computer programmer, and the instructional designer — far too often, we select those individuals solely for their skill set, ignoring the importance of their “artist’s eye.” And yet, it is often the aesthetic distinguishers that lift our programs into the higher planes of learning.

We all have the deepest respect for the advances that have been made in Science and Technology. But, we must be careful. The primal importance of Art must never be lost. Whether that Art is in Music, Writing, Painting, Architecture or Design, it has an equally important place in almost everything. Education and Training forget that from time to time — and, the result is “lost opportunity.” E-Learning needs to combine Art and Technology in order to reap the great results in learning so desired by all of us who strive to expand the worlds-of-opportunity that our society requires.

John Rosenthal, one of America’s premier art photographers and a long-time contributor to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” has written about the necessity for this combination — in every aspect of life — most beautifully:

“No matter how brilliantly Science has understood the mechanics of the material world, it is a remarkably ineffective tool for deciphering the mysteries of human misery. Even with thousands of “experts” telling us what’s wrong, and measuring it, self-knowledge is on the decline. In America, the most technologically advanced country on earth, one has to be oblivious not to hear a din of sorrow and private disappointment just below the gabble of our TV’s and the hum of our personal computers. Where is the expertise that can explain us to ourselves? The scientific method is inadequate for such revelations. No matter how many developmental models we formulate to explain why and when we do things, no matter how extensive the revealed neurochemical connections, psycho-biology must always collaborate with human freedom - the curse of dealing with a creature for whom visual symbols, art and language, are a defining characteristic. Such a collaboration entails nothing less than a deeper respect for the singularity of our lives, a recognition of those immensely specific contingencies that belong only to our own individual experience. In other words, the business of art - the inner gaze, and those strategies for sharpening its clarity. Who else but the artist, insisting upon the primacy of individual experience, can reclaim the private territory ceded to experts - to those well-meaning and well-socialized professionals who created the idea of normal people just when the corporations needed a work force?”

If you need examples, just take a look at the iPhone or the iPad. Sure, the technology is breathtaking. But, so is the artistic design and the aesthetics surrounding the users’ experience. We recognize the importance of line, mass, form, and color when we use those products.

And, so it should be with the e-Learning programs that you produce or purchase. Information, by itself, is never enough. It’s the aesthetics that will make your choices memorable; enhance learning most completely; and, increase the length of the retention.

We engineer many products and the result, with the best of them, becomes a well-baked cake. But, the cake will taste much better after you apply the icing. And, that is where the aesthetic choices you make will turn your courseware “cake” into either something special or something bland. Both useful, perhaps, but one will be to savor.

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

“Usability,” as it relates to e-Learning, is a very important concept. In simple terms, we define it as how user-friendly or appealing a program is to its users. In practice, usability goes deeper than this, and is closely related to how much users actually learn from using the e-Learning courseware.

Many of the usability concepts that need to be considered from the end-user’s perspective are closely linked to the instructional design and learning objectives of the program. These include whether learners are kept engaged and active when they work through the e-Learning courseware; how much control is given to the learner; and, if the program gives positive feedback to motivate learners. Another consideration is an e-Learning program’s color, sound, and consistency — which, if lacking, could compromise the effectiveness of the learning. Specifically, optional word-for-word audio is mandatory — for without that feature, 40% of your workforce will be left in the dark.

Possibly the most valuable area to consider is the effectiveness of the instructional design, which ensures that instructional materials are presented to facilitate the transfer of information into knowledge. As we have remarked upon in previous BLOGs, this latter consideration is essential if the students/trainees are going to add to their capability inventory. The transfer of information into knowledge is the key to learning — and, learning is the key to better job performance, understanding — and, ultimately, to a richer life for the student and her family.

The potential of Web-delivered training to adults rests heavily on these instructional design components. Simply publishing a Web page with links to other pages does not constitute learning. Ditto for converting written procedures and PowerPoint presentations into an e-Learning environment.

One of your major training-selection responsibilities should always be an honest usability assessment of any e-Learning program you are considering.

More tomorrow - - - - -

— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

PowerPoint is the major enemy of e-Learning. It has distorted the learning values of this new education/training tool. It has turned off millions of individuals who would otherwise be motivated by the potential of the e-Learning medium. In short, PowerPoint has done much more harm to e-Learning most of us can possibly imagine.

Why!?!

Too few, charged with making training initiative decisions for their organization, have very little real understanding of the learning process. They concentrate on the technology capabilities of digital media. And, then, they lump everything together and decide that “if it plays, it works.”

How foolish! Information conveyance has both a purpose and means for achieving results. So do training and education! And guess what? Their purposes and means are vastly different.

Information is there for the taking. Either you choose to acquire it — or, you don’t. Effective training and education, on the other hand, relies on such factors as stimulation, simulation and self-interest. We acquire short-term knowledge because it’s there. Yet, we forget newspaper articles quickly and retain little of a PowerPoint outline days after it has been presented.

But, e-Learning (in its intended sense) links us to the content being presented. It has relevance to our own lives and the skills that we want to acquire. It speaks to us in our own learning culture (and, today, that culture is television-based). It comes to us in short chunks in order to allow us to ponder, chew and swallow discreet objectives. It presents us with simulations, so that we can try it out with our own hands. In short, it lives and it breathes in a world that touches us directly.

PowerPoint, on the other hand, is cold, sterile and passive. We think that just because we can network a PowerPoint presentation or a written procedure, we’re doing something important. And, in a way, we are.

We’re putting our reading audience to sleep. We’re bombarding them with words they’ll never remember and concept presentations that are foreign to their own lives. Worst of all, we’re turning them against the potential of the most promising learning tool that exists today — e-Learning.

If you know someone who believes that PowerPoint is e-Learning, ask them to leave the professions of education and training (they should find another job).

I know that statement may seem strong to you but, if you have witnessed the many lives that have been positively changed by brilliant teachers, educators and mentors, you will understand. And, I have also seen what knowledgeably designed multi-sensory media courses have done for many thousands of people. Those courses have changed lives, allowing those trainees/students to achieve promotions, find career paths and make better futures for their families. The uninformed, who pass off PowerPoint presentations as e-Learning, are betraying the ambitions and dreams of those students/trainees they are tasked to serve.

The best in e-Learning empowers its students and trainees. It opens their eyes to possibility; it increases their capabilities; and it frees them to make better choices. Isn’t that what this is all about?

“Bless the few who understand — and, curse the many who don’t!”

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”

An opinion piece in “THE WASHINGTON POST” last week summed up, very well, the ideas advocated in several of these previous BLOGs. The piece was entitled, “A New Agenda for School Reform,” by Diane Ravitch. I’m going to quote a couple of her more salient observations.

“I used to be a strong supporter of school accountability and choice. But in recent years, it became clear to me that these strategies were not working. The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program enacted in 2002 did not produce large gains in reading and math. The gains in math were larger before the law was implemented, and the most recent national tests showed that eighth-grade students have made no improvement in reading since 1998. By mandating a utopian goal of 100 percent proficiency, the law encouraged states to lower their standards and make false claims of progress. Worse, the law stigmatized schools that could not meet its unrealistic expectation.”

“. . . It is time to change course. To begin with, let’s agree that a good education encompasses far more than just basic skills. A good education involves learning history, geography, civics, the arts, science, literature and foreign language. Schools should be expected to teach these subjects even if students are not tested on them.”

I can almost hear Robert Maynard Hutchins cheering loudly. Hutchins, America’s greatest educator and President of the University of Chicago (1929-1945) always advocated a liberal education approach, primarily through a familiarity with THE GREAT BOOKS. He believed that students should become exposed to conflicting ideas in order to weigh and balance those ideas in their own minds. Through contact with great ideas, Hutchins believed that schools could concentrate on the stimulation of thinking, rather than exclusively on the memorization of the practical. He railed against the continuing practice of converting once-fine universities to, in effect, glorified trade schools.

As we’ve stated many times, memorization and testing do not measure learning and thinking. They merely measure short-term retention. And in this country those rote activities are rapidly eroding whatever future contributions to the advancement of society our youth could achieve!

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— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”