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HOW PEOPLE LEARN Email:

What's important
Learning is the pathway to doing. If an Entries by category...
instructor teaches something and nothing
changes, no learning took place. Blogging
Books
Learning is learnable. You can get better at Collaboration
it. We set up the Meta-Learning Lab to help Customer care
people learn better, faster, deeper. Design
Emergent Learning
"Knowledge is constructed, not
handbook
transferred. It's built out of known
Jokes
chunks. It's always linked to the
Just Jay
situation, thus 'situated.' Skills and
Learning
knowledge do not exist outside of
Meta
context. Everything is connected, in
Networking
mental, physical, or social space."
Outbound
Peter Senge, Schools That Learn
Recycled from Blogger
Theory Ref
store
This book is the best summary of what it's The Industry
all about. Time
Visual
How People Learn: Brain, Workflow-based eLearning
Mind, Experience, and School,
John D. Bransford, Ann L.
Brown, and Rodney R. Blogroll
Cocking, editors. "This
volume synthesizes the Internet Time Knowledge
scientific basis of learning. Learning Circuits Blog
The scientific achievements include a fuller Workflow Institute
understanding of: (1) memory and the Emergent Learning Forum
structure of knowledge; (2) problem jaycross.com
solving and reasoning; (3) the early
foundations of learning; (4) regulatory Meta-Learning Lab
processes that govern learning, including Technorati
metacognition; and (5) how symbolic How to Save the World
Jay's Furl Archive
thinking emerges from the culture and
community of the learner." Internet Time Wiki

Seb's Open Research

Robo-teacher has left the building
Chris Pirillo
Joi Ito
eLearning was born during the dot-com frenzy.
Jon Udell
Like many start-up ideas, the first
Social Software Blog
descriptions of eLearning were oversimplified,
extreme, and wildly optimistic. Otherwise Steve Johnson
rational people defined eLearning as putting Philip Greenspun
all learning on computers, as if it had to be Focused Performance
all or nothing. Participo
Zeldman

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Imagine the savings in plane fare, instructor eClippings

salaries, and keeping people on the job Jerry Michalski
instead of at the class! Employees could learn Dave Sifry
anywhere they could plug into the net, Gizmodo
whenever you wanted. Learners would save Ross Dawson
time by studying only what they needed. They
would learn at an optimal pace, neither held Boing Boing
back nor bypassed by the rest of the class.
Cool. Powered by
BlogRolling
The only problem was that this sort of
eLearning rarely worked. Learning is social. Internet Time Group
Even in the classroom, lots of learning takes
informally, between students. Workers learn
more at the water cooler or coffee room than MOVABLE TYPE 2.65
during classes.

Learning requires much more than exposure to

content. Most people drop out of 100% MT Blog Search
computer-led instructional events. These same
people learn well when computer-mediated © 2004 Internet Time Group
lessons are combined with virtual classes,
study groups, team exercises, mentors & help Updated 08/02/2004 11:49:55
desks, off-line events, and on-line coaches.

As the hype cools down, we

find that learning hasn't
Berkeley, California
changed; it still requires a
variety of activities.
Computers can make aspects Recent entries
of learning more convenient
but they don't eliminate the New Blog
need for human intervention. Blogger Experience, Housekeeping, Something New
The presumption that Loosely Coupled
eLearning would automate every aspect of Above all
learning today seems irresponsible. That dog Demographics is destiny
won't hunt. Are you setting the bar high enough?
Virtual Apps
For great overviews, see Learnativity and
Aerobic Learning
Marcia Conner's Learning & Training FAQ,
Work as Video Game
especially How adults learn.
Oracle and Macromedia, Sitting in a Tree
The Blogosphere
The old way of looking at learning: ASTD Silicon Valley
Performance Support
Kingsbridge Conference Center
First Post by Email
Transition
Inactive Blog
RSS Feed for New Site
Comment Spam
Testing ... testing ... 1...2..3
IT Doesn't Matter - Learning Does.

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All blogging is political

Mutlimedia Learning
Damn, damn, double damn
Nonverbal impact?
The New Religion
Shhhhh.....
Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!
Teach = Fill their empty heads. Assess = See Business Process Management (2)
what's inside. Really Big
Business Process Management Conference
From the Institute for Research on Learning
WorkFLOW
Don't Lose a Common Sense: LISTEN
Constructivism and other theories
It's only natural
Gmail!
Today we realize that learning isn't pouring
Go with the flow
content into heads. Rather, the real deal is an
Time Out for the Fair
interaction between what's incoming and
Informal get-together in SF this Wednesday
what's already there. Learning is rewiring the
Repetition, reverb, and echoes
brain by sculpting new pigeonholes and
Who Knows?
adding connections.
Ur-blogging
Theories of Learning, from Funderstanding, Cognitive Mapping
explains constructivism, behaviorism, and so Push vs pull
forth simply. The Big Picture on ROI
Art Break
Greg Kearsley's Explorations in Learning & TDF Finale
Instruction: The Theory Into Practice Database New Community of Practice Forming
is an awesome resource. Dropouts
More TDF04
Marc Prensky's Digital Game-Based Learning
Training Directors Forum 2004
has a great list of theories of how people
A Rare One-Liner
learn:
PlaNetwork LIVE 2
PlaNetwork LIVE
Learning happens when one is
engaged in hard and ASTD 2004 Leftovers
challenging activities. Googlism
Worker Effectiveness Improvement, not KM
Learning comes from observing Upcoming Events
eLearning Effectiveness?
people we respect.
Jay's Talk at ASTD
Learning comes from doing. Mintzberg & Cooperider
Lest ye forget
Learning is imitation, which is ASTD International Conference & Exposition 2004
Knowledge Tips
unique to man and a few
animals. What is Workflow Learning?
ASTD msg 1 of n
Look out, it's Outlook
Learning is a developmental
process. Collaboration at ASTD Next Week
Tell me a story
You can't learn unless you fail. User indifference
Interdependence
The shortest presentation on metrics you will ever hear
Learning is primarily a social
activity. Back to Blogger
Windows fixes

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You need multiple senses The Alchemy of Growth

involved. Grab bag
Very loosely coupled
Learning takes practice, says E-Learning from Practice to Profit
one. No says another, that's Robin Good kicks off Competitive Edge
"Drill and kill? China Bloggers
Sonoma Dreaming
People learn in context. People Upcoming Events
learn when elements are Emergent Learning Forum: Simulations
abstracted from 'Lanta
context. The Best Things in Life Are Free
Metrics and Web Services
We learn by principles, says OpEd: ROI vs. Metrics
one. By procedures, says the e-Merging e-Learning
Loosely Coupled
other.
Search me
Exercise?
They can'tt think says the one.
They can't add, says the other.
Everyone has a different
Learning style."
We learn X percent of what we
hear, Y percent of what we
hear, Z percent of what we do.
Situated learning, says one.
Case-based reasoning, says
another. Goal-based learning
says a third.
All ofthe above, says a fourth.
Learning should be fun, peeps
the girl in the corner. Learning
is hard work, answers another.
We learn automatically, from
the company we keep, says
another.
People learn in "chunks."
No, "chunking" removes
context.

People learn just in time, only

when they need to.

People learn aurally, visually,

and kinesthetically.

Learner-Centered Psychological Principles: A

Framework for School Redesign and Reform,
American Psychological Association, Board of
Educational Affairs (BEA) 11/97.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Cognitive learning is demonstrated by

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knowledge recall and the intellectual skills:

comprehending information, organizing ideas,
analyzing and synthesizing data, applying
knowledge, choosing among alternatives in
problem-solving, and evaluating ideas or
actions.

Affective learning is demonstrated by

behaviors indicating attitudes of awareness,
interest, attention, concern, and
responsibility, ability to listen and respond in
interactions with others, and ability to
demonstrate those attitudinal characteristics
or values which are appropriate to the test
situation and the field of study.

Psychomotor learning is demonstrated by

physical skills; coordination, dexterity,
manipulation, grace, strength, speed; actions
which demonstrate the fine motor skills such
as use of precision instruments or tools, or
actions which evidence gross motor skills such
as the use of the body in dance or athletic
performance.

I think of these as training the head, the

heart, and the hand.

Practice

Best Practices

Implementing The Seven Principles of Good

Practice

Internet Time Group has found that people

learn best when they...

Know what's in it for them and deem it

relevant
Have mastered the prerequisites
Understand what's expected
Connect with other people
Are challenged to make choices
Feel safe about showing what they do
and do not know
Control the pace, navigation, and
delivery
Use a process that matches their
preferred learning style
Receive information in small packets
Receive frequent progress reports
Learn things close to the time they need
them

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Receive encouragement from coaches or

mentors
Learn from a variety of styles (say,
discussion followed by a simulation)
Confront maybes instead of certainties
Teach others
Receive positive reinforcement for small
victories
Screw up
Try, try, and try again
Just do it

Excerpts from the LiNE (Learning in the New

Economy) Zine Manifesto, Brook Manville and
Marcia Conner (6/2000).

Metrics of success for the new learning

will be traditional financial and
performance measures, not fancy,
academic concepts.
Speed and performance demands in the
New Economy will shift starting
assumptions from just in case generic to
just in time personalized learning?and
that?s just fine.
eLearning will grow in importance, but
will be only one part of the rich mix of
choice and mass personalized approaches
to learning required by knowledge
workers.
The distinction between formal and
informal learning will and should
evaporate.

Learning requires engagement

Methods of engagement include:

1. Presenting information as
tentative, which asks the learner
to engage in assessing its veracity.

2. Offering opportunities to
compare one's views to those of
others. "18% of Americans feel
public money should not be
'wasted' on art."

3. Feeding back information from a

group of peers. "In a poll, 32% of
you professed to never have seen
porn on the web."

4. Providing challenges that call on

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one's exformation. "Exegesis means

(a) pulling a tooth, (b) tracking
feedback, (c) assembling
unrepresentative cases to support
one's argument -- what Nietsche
often did, or (d) disinterring a body
from the grave." Go ahead, take a
guess. The answer is here.

5. Making connections to other

contexts, e.g. You want to learn to
fly. Let's compare flying to driving
a car. Your mind begins mapping
the differences and similarites.

Methods of Delivery

Live face-to-face (formal)

• Instructor-led classroom
• Workshops
• Coaching/mentoring
• On-the-job (OTJ) training

Virtual collaboration/synchronous
• Live e-learning classes
• E-mentoring

Self-paced learning
• Web learning modules
• Online resource links
• Simulations
• Scenarios
• Video and audio CD/DVDs
• Online self-assessments
• Workbooks

Live face-to-face (informal)

• Collegial connections
• Work teams
• Role modeling

Virtual collaboration/asynchronous
• Email
• Online bulletin boards
• Listservs
• Online communities

Performance support
• Help systems
• Print job aids
• Knowledge databases
• Documentation
• Performance/decision support tools

from Allison Rossett

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Internet Time's Method Matrix

Distance learning is no less effective than

traditional means, the "No Significant
Difference Phenomenon".

Changing the Interface of Education with

Revolutionary Learning Technologies by
Nishikant Sonwalkar

Learning Styles for Online Asynchronous

Instruction

Apprenticeship
A building block approach for presenting
concepts in a step-by-step procedural learning
style.

Incidental
Based on events that trigger the learning
experience. Learners
begin with an event that introduces a concept
and provokes questions.

Inductive
Learners are first introduced to a concept or a
target principle using specific
examples that pertain to a broader topic area.

Deductive
Based on stimulating the discernment of
trends through the presentation of
simulations, graphs, charts, or other data.

Discovery
An inquiry method of learning in which
students learn by doing, testing the
boundaries of their own knowledge.

Making Training In The Enterprise Pay Off,

Datamation

Why schools suck

A narrow view of how the American public

school system got so screwed up. (The
Germans did it.)

Schools may be the starkest

example in modern society of an
entire institution modeled after the

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assembly line. This has dramatically

increased educational capability in
our time, but it has also created
many of the most intractable
problems with which students,
teachers, and parents struggle to
this day. If we want to change
schools, it is unlikely to happen until
we understand more deeply the core
assumptions on which the
industrial-age school is based.
? Peter Senge

Mechanics

The Neurobiology of Memory & Learning from

Hughes

Motivation

Employee Motivation in the Workplace

The answer is "C". Both Nietsche and I are

guilty of using exegesis to make our cases.
BACK

"I hear and I

forget. I see and I
remember. I do
and I understand."
-Confucius

"If I hear and see

and do and teach
and practice, I
understand even
better." -Jay

Information is not
instruction.

Yeah, so? Doing is

what counts.

Real learning is
not what most of
us grew up
thinking it was.
--Charles Handy

Meta-Learning Lab

The Distance
Learner's Guide

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Posted by Jay Cross at June 21, 2001

10:54 AM

COMMENTS

I'm 68 years old, considering enrolling on an

online Masters in E-learning at Portsmouth
University(UK) and while searching the web on
the subject found your site. I'm impressed and
encouraged to take the plunge!
Thankyou.
Peter Smith

Posted by: peter smith at August 15,

2003 12:00 PM

"We teachers - perhaps all human beings - are

in the grip of an astonishing delusion. We
think that we can take a picture, a structure,
a working model of something, constructed in
our minds out of long experience and
familiarity, and by turning that model into a
string of words, transplant it whole into the
mind of someone else.

Perhaps once in a thousand times, when the

explanation is extraordinary good, and the
listener extraordinary experienced and skillful
at turning word strings into non-verbal reality,
and when the explainer and listener share in
common many of the experiences being talked
about, the process may work, and some real
meaning may be communicated.
Most of the time, explaining does not increase
understanding, and may even lessen it."

John Holt, How Children Learn

Posted by: Jay at August 28, 2003 08:45

PM

Unlearning:

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not

ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge."

Daniel Boorstin

It is impossible for a man to begin to learn

what he thinks he knows. ~~ Epictetus

Posted by: Jay at August 28, 2003 09:00

PM

The Encyclopedia of Psychology

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http://www.psychology.org

Posted by: jay at October 19, 2003 08:18

PM

A great piece on How People Learn from

Stephen Downes. A couple of years old, but
classics don't age.

What do we know about learning? Helen Knibb

outlined some features:

* Learning starts from what you already know

* Learning provides usable knowledge
* Learning involves learning to learn
* Learning is community centered
* Learning is addresses a "discipline base" of
knowledge

David Merrill's five principles could form the

basis of the Commonplace Book of Learning:

* Good learning is problem centered

* It activates previous experience and
knowledge
* It relies more on demonstration than on
telling
* Learners should be required to use their new
knowledge of skill to solve problems
* And it should integrate new knowledge or
skills into everyday life

Posted by: Jay Cross at March 8, 2004

09:26 PM

Hmm, was that an ad for free web hosting,

Steven?

Posted by: Ken at April 6, 2004 03:55 PM

Dialogue

The Gurteen Knowledge Website

Posted by: Jay Cross at May 2, 2004

09:02 AM

i like it

Posted by: paris hilton movie at June 29,

2004 03:13 AM

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