8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning

Tell a story. Make a plan. Think and do. Draw it. Take it outside. Try a new way. Watch first, then do. Share it with others

Humans have a fantastic lack of perspective. We keep trying to solve our own problems, ourselves, without stepping back and looking for help from further afield. Sometimes this comes out as a “not invented here” syndrome. Other-times in niche specialisms that lose sight of the broader cross-discipline knowledge.

This morning I got (yet another) reminder of the huge value of stepping back, and looking further afield. The diagram, below, is part of a pedagogical framework that attempts to model Aboriginal learning processes in Australia. Have a look at the 8ways wiki – it is ripe with ideas that can help enliven teaching even in the most western / urban classroom!

If you DO end up using these ideas, please respect their ethos and give something back to the 8ways wiki … or post a response to my blog and I will collate them!

Making sense of corporate e-learning with Action Mapping

How much information it TOO much when you are creating corporate e-learning?

In the past few months I have ended up in the same conversation often enough with prospective clients, that I felt it may be worth a blog post!

Typical scenario: We meet an enthusiastic member of a large company (often in the HR team) who would like to use digital learning as a tool to help share corporate learning. This is clearly a good idea. But as soon as we start looking at the details, it becomes clear that there is an awfully large amount of information to put across.

This is where the unsuspecting learning designer may foolishly start to design a MEGA course. Or the more experienced veteran may suggest a smaller, more focussed course with supplementary reference material (possibly in a wiki-style for easy updates).

My preference at this point is to use what Cathy Moore calls “Action Mapping”, focussing rather on particular behaviours you wish to change in staff, rather than all the information that needs to be imparted.

As always, her pictures are worth a thousand words – see what you think?

Is this something that may have resonance with your organisation? Talk to us!