In an extremely interesting article by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., “A Wealth of Words,” published in the Winter 2013 edition of “CITY Journal,” the following assertions are made: . . . vocabulary size is a convenient proxy for a whole range of educational attainments and abilities—not just skill in reading, writing, listening, and speaking but also general knowledge of science, history, and the arts. If we want to reduce economic inequality in...
In a recent BusinessWeek article, “Why HR Can’t Innovate,” posted by Liz Ryan, she bemoans many of the current business hiring practices: With unemployment still so high, it’s amazing to hear that employers are clamoring for talent. The so-called talent shortage is a major topic at human resources and recruiting conferences, and the balance of messages on my answering machine has shifted over the past year from inquiries by job seekers to...
Today, repurposed PowerPoint programs are populating our e-Learning platforms. Nothing could be less effective for promoting learning and longer term retention! Instead, both CD-ROM (digitally networked) and multi-sensory based e-Learning reap the greatest returns for business, industry and education. Why? More than anything else, the body of multi-sensory training and education brings learning efficiency. There are several obvious reasons. Multi-sensory instruction reduces seat time. Estimates are that learning occurs 38-70% faster than...
Regular readers of this blog will be reminded that 40% of the nation’s workforce does not assimilate anything written above a 4th grade reading level and that one-third of our graduating high school seniors are unable to form opinions from what they read. Obviously, for a very large population, reading is not the best answer for information transferal or for the basis of forming individual opinion. Consequently, our training challenges have grown....
Today we are witnessing the steady adoption of technology training solutions by America’s business community. With the emergence of e-Learning, business and industrial corporations are beginning to make significant investments in the many advantages offered by multi-sensory training. Yes, there are still some “covered wagon” holdouts — organizations that stubbornly hold onto the old lecture/textbook classroom instruction. Fortunately, there are fewer and fewer of them — organizations that remain blind to the...
Championed by Robert Maynard Hutchins (America’s most respected educator), in the early 1950s a selective group of educators, scientists, historians, mathematicians, authors, philosophers, and theologians introduced to public education their plan for better learning. Their answer lay in the publishing of “The Great Books of the Western World” and its companion collection, “The Great Ideas Today” —- designed to stimulate thinking and an attempt to bring the best of education to Americans...
Learning technologies (digitized CD-ROM, e-Learning, games and simulations) have hastened the development of a new business model — and, the results promise more profitability for American business and industry! Instead of formal classroom instruction and formal learning labs, with their prescribed courseware curriculum, many of the new learning technologies have allowed a demand-based approach that has effectively replaced the “everyone takes everything at the same time” regimen. Combined with the cost savings...
2013 is here and, as trainers, it’s the right time to re-think our upcoming e-Learning initiatives — and, to analyze the effectiveness of the current ones we already have underway. As you well know, e-Learning is touted everywhere as “the answer” — just as was videotape in the 1970s and was Interactive Laser Videodisc in the 1980s. That “answer” exists because, in many ways (but, not all!), e-Learning potentially brings more benefits...