Friday, August 19

San Francisco and Los Angeles as different (but complementary) models for Formal Learning

There continues to be a movement in corporate formal learning programs to uber-empower the learner and focus the role of content designers to a more infrastructure role. Google and Instant Messenger are the perfect model for many. And I mostly agree with this "Bay Area" position.

But I also believe that "Passionate learners come from Passionate designers." Call it the "Los Angeles" take. The best movies, television shows, books, and computer games come from people passionate about the content, (although they rely on and assume the infrastructure). This passion was often true during the mom and pop instruction era, and it has to be more true in the era of scalable instructional content as well.

Being involved in, and watching, this passion around content is one reason why the educational simulation/ serious games movement is very interesting to me.

3 comments:

jay said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
jay said...

Clark, your San Francisco learning is momentary. It takes less time than to smoke a cigarette. (Anybody remember those?)

The Los Angeles version is a lengthy affair, providing ample time to grab our imaginations and vicariously identify with the characters. (Enough time to eat an ungodly amount of popcorn and go back for more.)

Your LA appeals to the emotions and leaves SF a cognitive flash in the pan. Any San Franciscan can tell you that in reality it's the other way around.

Clark Aldrich said...

...maybe there should be a Berkley model...