Trainers vs. Business Side Learning Myths

This is a great compilation of Business Manager side training myths collected from Trainers.

http://www.willatworklearning.com/2009/01/myths-the-business-side-has-about-learning-result-of-data-gathering.html

Will Thalheimer's summary follows.

Here are the results:

Everybody Hold Myths

First, it became clear that the Business Side isn't the only group that holds myths. Learners and we as Learning Professionals have our own sets of myths. We can't demonize the Business Side. We have to go out of our way to understand and work with the business side to craft workable effective solutions for our organizations and all the people impacted.

Let me say that sometimes I kind of regret that a distinction has to be made between us as learning professionals and them as the business side. There's something wrong with that distinction (we are IN the business aren't we), yet the dichotomy makes some sense since we support others who do the actual work of the business.

The Most Popular Myths
(that the Business Side Has about Learning, according to Learning Professionals)

These are in order from my card-sorting categorization effort. The most-often cited are listed first.

1. Bad Learning Designs are Thought to be Good Learning Designs (big list below).
2. Training Alone Produces Improvements in On-the-job Performance.
3. Information Presentation is Sufficient as a Training Design.
4. Training & Instructional Design Require No Special Skills or Competencies.
5. Learners Know How to Learn.
6. Managers Think Learning & Development is a Low-Priority Part of their Role.

This is a great pre-election talk given by Robert Reich. What is relevant here is his explanation of the economic policies that brought us where we are today. I highly recommend you follow him on NPR and on his blog.

Murderous Consumerism

Retail Employee Murdered by Rabid Black Friday Consumers

Heed this lurid exemplification of our cannibalistic American middle class (link to NYT article above).

I'm thinking of a new franchise of Cult-of-Consumerism Deprogramming Centers. We need rehabilitation, not a new deal of stimulus crack.

It's time that deserving entrepreneurs step in and get the benefit of this borrowed money rather than it go to those plundering corporates. Is Dr. Drew available?

The futility of discussing the cause of this debacle is obvious.

Span of a Few Days: Extremes in My Weather

On my way to Denver Monday November 17 it was Sunny and in the 60s. On my way back Thursday November 20 there was quite a dramatic difference. Check out the antelope.

Preparing Kids for 21st-Century Success

Author Daniel Pink discusses what it will take for students to succeed in an outsourced and automated world—and how schools should change their approach to education accordingly.

Help Academia Understand How to Prepare Future Workers

This is a good attempt and start at helping educators understand there must be a seismic shift in what is taught as well as how students are to be prepared for their future work.

Social Networks and Understanding Students

Eighty percent of the time teens spend online is to socialize. Danah Boyd, social media scientist, explains why students are online and the way they use the online environment in order to learn how to teach them.