Without forewarning, they let us know that we would be interviewed for Colombian TV. Well, for a special program, not mainstream news or anything. Lance Dublin, who spoke today, was in a suit. Eric Parks managed to pull out a tie from his stuff (“never without one”). I was in a leather vest and a shirt. Dario Montoya, the Director General of SENA (the national body sponsoring the conference) was generous enough to take off his coat when he talked with me.
We were primed with some questions, but Dr. Montoya took the initiative to ask a couple of other questions (he’s very knowledgeable, as you might imagine). He started off asking about trends in games and simulations, and I replied that they were hitting the mainstream, but managed to sneak in my point about how they don’t need to cost millions of dollars.
He followed up asking about whether we needed to consider a supportive environment for learning, and I opined about considering the emotional side of elearning, and moved to the notion of not expecting self-learning capability, but nurturing it.
He proceeded to challenge me about the importance of cognitive science for organizations, and I talked about how we need to design how people really perform, and really learn, not how engineers or designers believe we should. He changed topic, saying several years ago he’d have thought it would be crazy to put courses on a phone. I replied that it is crazy (though Merrill Lynch found higher success with executives for compliance on a Blackberry, but it was likely more about lack of interruptions), that mobile learning is about extending the learning experience, not replacing it, and that performance support was the real area.
It was an interesting experience. I don’t mind extemporizing, though it’s a wee bit anxiety-inducing. It’ll be on TV on Sunday morning in Colombia (translated to Spanish). Wonder how many will see it? Well, at least you can read it.
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