Every new year brings us opportunities to explore new tools, technologies, and strategies. This year the eLearning Guild has compiled a collections thoughts and predictions into a free ebook. “2019 Predictions for eLearning”
I’ve included my contribution here below, but be sure to hop over and check out what everyone else has to say about their hopes and beliefs about how our industry can make 2019 the best year yet.
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” —Sir Isaac Newton
It is human nature to get excited about the latest hot new things. We all do it. I’m excited about things like chatbots, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, and a whole host of other exciting new developments.
As we investigate new innovations, we should always remember to balance our eagerness with a healthy dose of respect for the time-proven principles from the past. While scanning for new tools and technologies that can help us, the “help” part is much more important than the “new” part.
We all know of at least one instance of some new fancy technology that failed miserably because it was too much “new” without enough help. Like many things, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This is where some important ideas from the past can guide us into the future.
For example, looking back in time, we will find two simple yet super valuable resources to guide us toward the most effective and efficient solutions for our future learning and development work.
For starters, Thomas Gilbert has given us a simple and efficient method of troubleshooting performance issues and recognizing potential solutions. By combining individual and environmental factors to provide a holistic view of performance, Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model is a valuable guide for future efforts aimed at helping the people in our organizations get better results.
Next, Robert Mager and Peter Pipe gave us a valuable set of questions to answer before starting any training project that helps point us toward the best, most efficient solutions. Their Performance Analysis Flow Diagram is an easy-to-use reference to help you determine the causes of performance problems and identify realistic solutions.
Both of these have been tremendously helpful for me and are the most succinct, understandable guides to what we do as L&D professionals that I’ve ever found. After all, it doesn’t matter what amazingly cool, futuristic stuff you’re doing if you aren’t solving problems and aligned with the goals of your organization. So yes, by all means, look to the future for ways to do things better. Just make sure you’ve gleaned the important lessons from the past to use as your guide.
Grab your free copy of the 2019 Predictions for eLearning from the eLearning Guild.
Mike Taylor 