Member Article

What I learned about learning and training from watching an alligator eat a man

Children are incredibly quick learners.

In fact, from a very young age, the majority of their activities are learning-orientated. Successfully getting food into their mouths, potty training, learning to communicate with adults - every day is an immersive learning experience.

It helps that they’re more attuned to proactive learning and there’s no other alternative for them to learn. They probably have more time on their hands than you do, too.

Whatever the reason, it’s effective, and perhaps we ought to learn from them.

Recently, I took part in an exercise with development group Minds of Many when they visited Sheffield College to explore active learning using LEGO.

We were thrown into engaging learning with the teacher acting as a facilitator rather than an instructor, giving them the tools to build and program an electronic lego model. The focus was on exploring the tools already laid out in order to achieve a learning objective.

We had to build a LEGO alligator using on-screen instructions, and then program it to crash its jaws down when a sensor in its mouth picked up movement, make a munching noise and then open its mouth again after a set period of time. This task was aimed at school children, but it was a room full of grown adults that day.

Was it patronising and basic?

Absolutely not.

It was fun, immersive and, above all, successful, as you can see in the video above.

Is this a trend in modern training and education?

I came away from the event thinking harder about the way we learn and how much of the methods we deploy in training stem from education and experience.

As referred to in the blog “How Do Children Learn?”, the Children’s Media Conference recently came to Sheffield and I wanted to investigate the impact that digital media was having on the classroom and how it could be applied to training, both in adult education and businesses.

In a keynote speech by SuperAwesome’s Dylan Collins, the speed at which young people are now learning to create apps and programs was highlighted. He also discussed the prevalence that computer science will have in 21st century education, marketing, advertising and commerce in order to cope with the rate that children learn complex, technical skills.

But the skills that child prodigies like Thomas Suarez and Ethan Duggan have learned have been acquired in their spare time - the time that children would normally consider play. The greatest demonstrable technical skills acquisition was made in spare time - this was something that kids wanted to do.

The point was reinforced by speaker after speaker - children learn when they want to learn. In order to engage them, you have to make them relate to the learning. There are products like Raspberry Pi being released with the sole objective of getting children more involved in practical computer science and more engaged in learning.

What’s difficult about how we learn now?

Today. over 10,000,000 people in the UK work in an office. That’s around a third of the working population and they’re usually based at a desk in front of a computer. So, if you put them in front of a PC with a text-heavy training programme or throw them into a lecture and expect them to engage and concentrate, you’re actually asking a lot of them.

A recent study from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that students were 12% more likely to fail a lecture-oriented class that an active one, though it probably doesn’t come as a great surprise.

Active participation in engaging learning should be the cornerstone of training and is particularly implementable in online training.

So what should we do?

Proactive training which is hands-on or immersive is key to retention of knowledge and you’d be surprised how well adults do it. The theory that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is being gradually picked apart with another recent study showing a greater ability to learn in adults than in children when faced with learning a practical skill like juggling.

Quality elearning with varied, scenario-based learning, quizzes, animation and video, roleplay and feedback is much more likely to get staff engaged than traditional text-heavy learning. As is practical training which tests a physical skill and ability, perhaps in a team environment.

Whatever method you choose, keep it fresh and practical. Your and your employees’ abilities to learn and develop skills may be greater than you believe – and perhaps you just need to watch that LEGO man clasped between an alligator’s jaws to feel the same sense of achievement, intrigue and interest that I did.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chris Barnes .