learning technologies summer forum
the fi lm had shots of him actually performing the work he did while he spoke about his experience. The effect of the cutaways was to strengthen the impression on those watching. Davies, who runs See Learning Films, also spoke about how to choose a video production company, although he said as he ran such a company he was a little reluctant to do so for fear it sounded like self-promotion. His philosophy was that 10% of the choice revolved around their technical knowledge of how to use the kit while the other 90% was about
…10% of the choice revolved around their technical knowledge of how to use the kit while the other 90% was about the people, “looking for their soul”…
the people, “looking for their soul” as he described it: how do they make you feel, do they engage with you, do they care about what you are trying to achieve or are they just pitching up? “If you have a wet blanket
behind the camera then that is too late. Whether it is a production launch or an internal communication video should be a celebration of what people are and what they do.”
The power of play
The opening keynote event of Learning Technologies Summer Forum (LTSF) ended up with a mass and very noisy game of rock, paper, scissors (RPS). Well what else would you expect a roomful of serious learning and development (L&D) professionals to be doing? The point for Deborah Frances-White – author, coach, stand-up comedian, and the LTSF keynote speaker – is that wouldn’t we all do better if we played? Wouldn’t that produce more creativity and more ideas? The rule in her mass game of RPS was that if you lost to someone then you immediately became their cheerleader. Why not play RPS every Monday morning in your offi ce? (Assuming you have something that resembles a traditional offi ce). We may come into work feeling like a bunch of losers but if you create a winning atmosphere where you are cheering for the winner then you are teaching people to get on the winning team simply because it is more fun. With techniques you can change and control the energy of a team.
Frances-White also demonstrated how working together in certain ways produced better, creative results. When in pairs one person was instructed to draw a picture and entitle it – after discussion with their partner – the room of hundreds, virtually without exception, produced pictures of houses, boats and cats (yes you can imagine how most of them looked). When the same partners without consulting shared a piece of paper drawing alternatively one line or shape the results were very different. When told to come up with ideas Frances-White
…wouldn’t we all do better if we played? Wouldn’t that produce more creativity and more ideas?
says that our brains freeze. The idea of being able to think of everything freaks us out. It’s like putting nothing in the Google search box but if we narrow it down in any way then ideas will come. And we can overcome fear of participation – the embarrassment and failure – through games. So LTSF produced a plot for a thriller by shouting out words in alphabetical order. (Adam, Butcher, Chicken and so on) and ideas for a fi lm by thinking of a fi lm and then reworking it in a different genre. And how does that relate to work exactly? OK well think of planning the company conference: rather than saying “What does good look like?” ask “What would we do if we had unlimited budget?” or no budget, or had to do it today or use ideas that would guarantee to get us fi red? In the Western world, says Frances-White, if we want a good result then work is our friend. We have the idea that play is just fun and time wasting. And as Don Taylor, the chair of the TTSF, noted at the end: “Weren’t the slides good?”
e.learning age june 2015
9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46