Using New media techniques to enhance Train the trainer courses.

Adopting New Media is a great way to extend traditional learning. Consider the example of a Train-the-trainer (TTT). This is a concept where subject matter experts typically pass on their skills to ‘experts-to-be’.

Typical TTT course content can consist of:

• understanding learning styles,
• structuring courses,
• developing relevant frequently answered question banks and
• enhancing the way to deliver key learning areas.

Using new media and elearning should be considered as complementary tools to ease both the dissemination of the TTT syllabus but also establishing a set of online resources to aid the delivery of learner knowledge.

This can be achived with

• Video and Audio Podcasts
• Wiki’s (private and public),
• A social network established to share learning resource centres
• Incorporating pre-recorded video segments to enhance a typical TTT or face-to-face course.

Interestingly, reading the following report entitled: The John D and Catherine T.Max Arthur Foundation : Living and Learning with New media, Summary of findings from the Digital Youth Project issued in November 2008, it suggested that:

programs are those based on kids’ own passionate interests and allowing plenty of unstructured time for kids to tinker and explore without being dominated by direct instruction. Unlike classroom teachers, these lab teachers and youth-program leaders are not authority figures responsible for assessing kids’ competence, but are rather what Dilan Mahendran has called “co-conspirators;’ much like the adult participants in online interest-driven groups. In this, our research aligns with Chavez and Soepliii who identified a “pedagogy of collegiality” that defines adult-youth collaboration in what they see as successful youth media programs.

Why are these finding relevant and how do they apply to the corporate world?

I really like the term, ‘pedagogy of collegiality’ as it suggests that you only have to look at the rise of Facebook and its impact on peoples lives. If this concept of sharing ideas together can be applied to learning, then the nature of instructors will change to provide new avenues to enrich learning in a supportive rather than direct manner.

One Response to “Using New media techniques to enhance Train the trainer courses.”

1. Marco says:

   01/30 at 10:45 am

   We are about to capture a T3 with video for pure protocol means. An idea was to make individual elements or sessions of this long event available to participants (or those who could not join). Still one might need some post production effort and adequat light and sound on the scene. Decison whether the content is posted on an intranet site, learning management system, knowledge collaboration platform or just kept as plain files is also a relevant point.