In a recent article from the Learning Solutions magazine Paul Clothier interviews Carmen Taran (author of Better Beginnings) who talks about Edge and Emotion: What e-Learning Programs Are Missing. It's an easy read and interesting article. What struck me was the following quote from Carmen:Too often designers do not have “chemistry” with the content. You have to feel something for what you arrange in pixels. Creating content that has edge and emotion is a bit like falling in love....At least some of the content needs to be part of you.
YES! YES! YES! You have to know & care about what you're trying to help people learn. I am reminded of work we did for a client around selling (back when I had a job, which I just resigned from today, on good terms, resolving a long leave of absence.) During one of the discovery interviews, one of the client's senior people said "you have to have a passion for your client's business, or else how can you excel at your work day after day?"
So yes, when we design learning, we have to have passion for what we are trying get people to understand, or else how do we expect people to learn about it? That means digging into the content, understanding the nuances of how you learn about it.
To play devil's advocate - what about SME's (subject matter experts)? Isn't that their role, to understand and be passionate about the content?
I am reminded of what John Bransford wrote about great teachers -- "effective teachers need pedagogical content knowledge (knowledge about how to teach in particular disciplines) rather than only knowledge of a particular subject matter." Their knowledge of how to teach interacts with their knowledge of the discipline, allowing them to understand what and how their students need to learn in that particular content area. "Expert teachers know the structure of their disciplines." Being an expert teacher in a discipline is not the same as being an expert or SME in that discipline. Yes, you have to know something about what you're teaching about, you have to be knowledgeable about the structure of the discipline, and you have to understand what will help people learn in this subject area.
It's true that corporate learning is not the same as teaching in schools, however, I would argue that the business of our organizations is the discipline. If I'm not passionate about finance and understanding how the world of money works, then what am I doing here? If I am not passionate about adult learning, then why do I write this blog everyday?
Is it possible to create effective learning if you don't care about the content of what you designing?
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11 comments:
We're reading Donald Hall's short book called LIFE WORK which is a memoir/meditation on work. He makes the distinction between "work" and "labor". Work is something we get absorbed in; labor is the tedium that most people associate with the word "work."
I kind of distrust passion as something to continually tap into. It's sort of the difference to me between love and lust. Lust burns out pretty quickly; love doesn't burn as hot but burns longer. I prefer the idea instead of identifying myself with the project -- this is my territory, I own it, I'm responsible for it, I take pride in the job I do.
It's more of an imaginative rather than an emotional attachment, maybe? I don't know.
When I see the word "passion" I also think "bi-polar." If your passion helps you succeed, great -- but what happens to that emotion if the project is killed through politics or budget cuts or &tc.? Does that emotion send you downward just as quickly and just as far?
I think part of any personal calculation I make with a new project is, "What's the worst thing that could happen, and can I handle that?" Maybe that levels the highs and fills in the valleys. I haven't noticed that I've lost any enthusiasm for bits of my projects; I can devote hours to them, no problem. But passion isn't a spigot, is I guess one of the multifarious points I'm trying to make.
BTW -- congratulations on your amicable release from your employer. It's easier to take on a new identity when you've fully shed the last bits of the old one.
Hey -- I entered "unfinished masters" into Google, and your site came up first!
Mike - Passion is perhaps an overused word. Essential point - we should give the instructional design we create our intellectual and emotional attention. I didn't really mean to expand that to "work". I am merely trying to address the dryness of most instructional design I encounter. Got a little carried away with that, eh?
Yo - google is good to me.
cheers, rani
OMG - Rani, it's wonderful to have found you! Marianne Lepre-Nolan here. I was just thinking of you, googled and Voila! Here's your blog. Congratulations on your move to CA! Yes, yes, yes. Hope you are well and happy. I have read a number of your posts, and may be able to help around finance/games. I did a simulator experience when I was at IBM and maybe something we did would inform your work. I am at marianne@mleprenolan.com and now even have a web site (www.mleprenolan.com) which was a goal for 2008. Would love to be in touch, warm regards, marianne
Rani, excellent post. This is such a tricky issue for ID consultants.All this stuff! Your post raises such a big question: How does a professional deliver an excellent solution when the content is less than engaging?
I think the passion has to be for the design process and helping people improve their performance.
In other words, should the feeling of engagement in our work be content-independent?
The actual subject matter can be, well... dismal. Sometimes it's exciting and triggers our own passions and interests. With a long-term client, it's hard to cherry-pick the cool stuff.
Anyway, my take is that it's so important to keep refining one's skills. It keeps the whole thing fresh, and trying new approaches makes duller content easier to work with.
As far as the SMEs go, they are often wonderful (and passionate), sometimes overtaxed, and occasionally protective of their own expertise. Part of the design process is to tease the useful behaviors and knowledge from them.
I guess I'm not one of those supporters of being an expert in the field in which you are working. Being a good teacher, you would delve into what the best way is to meet your students needs.
Personally, I think of myself as a professional learner. I always think, if I can learn it anyone can. I think "passion" is not the word, but rather curiosity. If you are curious as an instructional designer, you are willing to go into places that perhaps you weren't interested in before. Some of the best instructional designers I know are great for that reason alone:they want to know about their content.
Having been a market researcher (another profession that needs that level of curiosity), I have learned about arc welding, bed-wetting alarms, wind-mills, and honey. I carried this same curiosity into training projects for negotiation strategies for non-native English speakers, financial instruments that allow debt equity swaps, and writing more effective e-mails. On the service, none of these sound that exciting, but digging into what they are and how they can be used was actually exciting.
The word "passion" does seem to evoke a passionate response ;) I agree Virgina, that "curious" is perhaps a better word. I also that it's about passion for the design, as Jason points out.
But I can't let this go - I still want passion for my work. Perhaps I am naive in this respect but that's me. I've had it before, I want it again. Perhaps this is the problem of my masters -- I keep looking for passion in the work and that's too much to ask. Need to think about that more.
I am merely trying to address the dryness of most instructional design I encounter. Got a little carried away with that, eh?
Not at all. I feel the same way when I read 10-pg academic journal articles and all the enthusiasm seems drained from the topic. "Passion" is a convenient word and summons up a lot of associations that are positive.
I agree with yr other commenters that curiosity and interest are key components, at least for me, and they can be longer-lasting. It's also true for me that if the topic is dull, then I'll find some other aspect of the project in which to sink my interest and curiosity.
But I can't let this go - I still want passion for my work. Perhaps I am naive in this respect but that's me. I've had it before, I want it again. Perhaps this is the problem of my masters -- I keep looking for passion in the work and that's too much to ask.
Keep going! Find the passion! But I think the sages of the world would say that you first have to find the passion in yourself, and then you find the passion wherever you choose to look for it.
I think looking outside oneself for fulfillment -- whether that's a job, a spouse, kids, a hobby -- may lead to disappointment.
A better barometer may be to ask yourself, "Does this give me pleasure?" A simple question, and you know the answer the second you ask it. Maybe asking "What would give me pleasure?" would lead to some passionate questioning. :)
Sorry if I've totally misunderstood what you wrote and posted something completely beside the point. But I'm famous for that.
Awaiting another post...
I so enjoyed reading the comments and reactions to the word "passion". I connected the word passion with the ID field when I read a while back about what writers need to have in order to become successful: a lot of passion. Writing rests at the foundation of instructional design. Hence the connection between the two. I liked the other word that was suggested here: curiosity. This trait will most likely lead to action (you research, you wonder, you question, you probe some more). But when you embed this well-researched piece in one media form or another, without passion, it will come across as professional but a bit arthritic. The user will feel like they are drinking a light soda. :-)
Wow Carmen - thanks for your comments. Your original article was quite inspiring. I'm preparing another piece on passion and learning based on an article called "Beyond Control and Rationality: Dewey, Aesthetics, Motivation, and Educative
Experiences" by David Wong (U of Michigan).
cheers, rani
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