SKILLS TRAINING & IMAGINATION

July 15, 2013

“The Possible’s slow fuse is lit
By the Imagination.”
~Emily Dickinson

Imagination is the single catalyst that drives creativity. One of America’s leading scenic artists of the twentieth century, Robert Edmond Jones, defined that process most appropriately when he wrote, “Imagination is the faculty for realization.”

No one can create anything meaningful unless their imagination can foresee that created object or concept already realized in their own mind. And so it is with the Troubleshooting activities in your facility.

Imagination is not fantasy. Fantasy is inner-directed, while imagination lets us envision worlds outside ourselves. And, if we are going to fully grasp today’s learning culture transition, we will only do so if we can exercise a genuine imagination, which can empower us to see into the future of learning. A future, incidentally, which will be essential to economic advancement around the globe.

So, where is the fit? Next to a brilliant trainer, visual-based media can go a long way in stimulating your trainees’ imaginations. Yes, e-Learning that is built around moving video/audio plus the animations in creative gaming and simulation programs are your best answers — if effective — and, efficient — troubleshooting is your goal.

Quoting from the article, “Factors Affecting Technological Trouble Shooting Skills” by Dr. Robert T. Howell that appeared in the Summer 1998 issue of JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL TEACHER EDUCATION: “The identification and subsequent reinforcement of characteristics associated with successful technological problem-solving are particularly important to the industrial teacher educator. Studies have concluded technological problem-solving is a key tenet of higher order thinking (Lavoie, 1991; Waetjen, 1989) and that technological problem- solving is, by definition, rooted in real-life or authentic domains (Custer, 1995). Technological problem-solving encourages creativity, ingenuity, and inventive thought processes. Inventiveness, creativity and the ability to ‘think on one’s feet’ are hallmark employee traits desired by employers and entrepreneurs.”

Training that is based on “real” industrial scenarios showing real plant equipment and real plant personnel in a real troubleshooting environment can do just that as long as full motion video and/or creative animations are the basis for that learning.

Imagination will fill in the rest!

More on Wednesday – – –

— Bill Walton, Founder
ITC Learning

www.itclearning.com/blog/ (Mondays & Wednesdays)
e-Mail: bwalton@itclearning.com

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