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Good philosopy, Steve! I like it! But since it appears that
we have some novice training developers in our midst, I'd
like to elaborate just a bit. (I guess it's just my day to
chime in!)
I started my career in the software industry as a trainer --
(We're talking 1983-87 -- ancient history!) <g>
I agree that adult learning, as well as kid's learning,
should be interesting and interactive, but I'd like to point
out that training adults isn't as easy as training/educating
children.
It's a child's job to learn. From birth, children act like
sponges, absorbing knowledge at an astounding rate. During
school years, children are taught in formal classroom
situations and they quickly develop sitting still and
listening skills or they fail.
As adults, when we reach the end of whatever formal
classroom training we sign up for, we breath a sigh of
relief and promptly forget how to sit still and listen.
These skills are not in our job description any more, so we
don't do what's necessary to maintain them.
So, what happens when an adult attends a job-related class-
room training event? STRESS!
Most likely, if the company has mandated the training, we
adults feel threatened, thinking "is my job at stake if
I don't do well here?" The sitting still and listening
skills that we honed as children are rusty at best.
Between the pressure to succeed and the concentration
needed to sit still and shut up, there's not much room
left for paying attention.
It is thought in many training circles that
edutainment (education + entertainment) is the best way
to facilitate adult learning -- not only should
the training be interesting, but it should
also be entertaining, because by entertaining the adult
learner, we more completely capture their attention and
relieve some of the stress that the training situation
brings about.
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