A new look at teaching

On 14.11.2019 at the Garden Inn hotel there was a conference called MSUES 3.0. The event was organized by the Provincial Labor Office and we must admit...it was well prepared. The entire meeting was divided into four thematic blocks of knowledge transfer. The world is increasingly interconnected, which means that the transmission of information and thus the amount of information is already practically immeasurable at this point. How, then, to undertake the training of employees, so that the process has a measurable and expected effect?

The speakers presented extremely interesting approaches to the issue, tackling the growing challenges in a very creative way. Let's take a look at these solutions.

"Space" technologies

In the latest solutions, we can mention such technologies as AR, VR and AI. To begin with, let's decipher these abbreviations:

AR (Augmented Reality) - You probably remember, the famous "Pokemon GO", right? Using your phone's camera, you see an image of the place you are in, and the app superimposes those funny creatures on the image for the user to catch. Augmented reality is the superimposition of digital images, texts, videos on the existing real world. This is usually done using special glasses that emit these visualizations.

VR (Virtual Reality) - This is a completely modeled, by the program, image of reality interactive reality in which the user will find himself after putting on the glasses. We can move with our own body, however, we see a completely created world.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) - Certainly this technology aroused the most interest among the audience. As much a controversial topic as it is, it has actually been used for a long time and on a large scale, if only in medicine. Artificial intelligence learns on its own the set tasks to eliminate its own mistakes in the future, and in addition, unlike humans, it does not need sleep.

The use of these technologies in training topics, can potentially make them easier to carry out. We do not then need to renting, halls, organizing catering for participants, i.e. providing this type of infrastructure. Ultimately, such training, the participant, could carry out even in the comfort of his own home. You have to admit - adopting such technologies for training sounds insanely interesting.

All our senses

We communicate with each other (like, any other animal) on 2 levels: verbal and non-verbal.

Another speaker highlighted the latter mode of communication. At the subconscious level, and therefore much faster, and mapping more effectively in our brains, our bodies communicate information about each other about 70% of the time. Imagine a cooking show in which the chef makes great looking food. He tries it and gives us information about how great the dish tastes. Now imagine how much better the flavor information would come to us if we could smell the aroma wafting directly to our nose. Sounds great right? Our concept of taste is defined about 80% just by smell. In addition, we would know if we were doing each step of meal preparation correctly. Famous chef Gordon Ramsay has a great rule: "No color no flavor", meaning no color, no flavor. Cooked meat doesn't smell, and therefore doesn't taste as good as that deliciously browned meat, right? This way of conveying information allows our brains to fully form an image of an object.

Meat

The term "meat," as jargon in training circles, is used to describe the specific knowledge we need to assimilate, such as learning software etc. Well, yes, but what to do when there are several programs and time to learn them all is severely limited? With help, of course, come all the above-mentioned technologies and approaches, but also a different way of looking at learning itself, rather than just "hard" knowledge transfer.

Let's elaborate on the case of giving fish and a fishing rod. Let's take the example of a body of water with 10 species of fish swimming in it. In this case, we have 10 different fishing rods, for each fish a different one used for catching. Now let's imagine that there are 1000 different kinds of fish swimming in this body of water. It would take a very long time to transmit and then effectively assimilate the knowledge of all the types of rods used to catch them. The speaker talking about this issue proposed a term: "containers of competence." He outlined a new approach to learning, as (to use this example) imparting information on the construction of the rods themselves. In this approach, the focus is on equipping a person with knowledge in the field, building a tool that will effectively ensure the catch of any species of fish. Containers of competence are a narrow range of knowledge for creative use.

Our seniors

At the moment, we accommodate as many as 4 generations of employees in our labor market. In the near future this number will increase to 6, which means that currently 50+ employees will become 70+ employees. This is due to the fact that simply with the development of medicine, our lifespan is getting longer. This places new demands on employers, who will face the need to create jobs for our seniors. This brings with it a number of challenges, such as workplace infrastructure. The undeniable benefit is that such people have a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with younger colleagues. All the technologies described facilitate the learning process, which is known to slow down with age. In many U.S. companies, such as law firms, the president of a large corporation, upon reaching the statutory age, gives way to a younger person, but he or she gains the role of "honorary president," serving his or her successor with advice and experience - a mentoring role, but no longer a decision-maker.

As you can see, the new, "faster" world is placing increasing demands on every field, including ours - training. Technologies developing so rapidly and approaches to the very issue of science are evolving before our eyes, but we can proudly observe that our country is at the forefront of innovation in this field!