Imagine your workshops alive with interaction! As a trainer or facilitator, it is up to you to create this environment in your training room or eLearning course.
The key to remember is that lecturing alone will never lead to real learning. Real learning requires the participant’s to use their own thinking process to evaluate what you are presenting.
Remember the saying, "A picture is worth a 1,000 words?" What are you doing to bring visuals into your training program to liven up the learning? Now here’s my challenge to you, don’t rely only on PowerPoint or static images on the screen to provide that visual.
Think about how you can put presentation tools in your participants’ hands to help them see and feel as well as hear what you are saying. Apply a little bit more creative effort to create visuals or graphics to paint the picture in their minds so they can have a better grasp of the information you are presenting.
So what exactly are these tools?
Well, they are anything that your participants can pick up in their hands, turn around, take apart or put together, that will reinforce their understanding of a basic concept. The use of manipulatives enables participants to explore concepts at the first, or concrete, level of understanding. If you're designing eLearning, include activities that require the learner to move away from the computer screen to explore or interact with some other learning materials.
You should try to get inside their heads as they work with concrete materials by asking questions that elicit their thinking and reasoning. In this way, you can get a better sense of what students know and don’t know, along with identifying misconceptions, thereby developing a basis for intervention strategies or add-on learning activities or reinforcers.
When you add 3-dimensional elements and allow your participants to manipulate objects, they are taking the necessary actions toward building understanding and internalizing concepts or processes. Using concrete manipulatives is the first step to using more complex mental images and models, which when transferred and applied in real-world situations, gives you the ROI you are looking for from your training and development programs.
Are you ready to accept the challenge?
For more ideas on Learning in Action, download The Gamification Starter Kit.
Let’s play!
About the Author: Monica Cornetti
Founder and CEO, Sententia
www.SententiaGames.com
www.monicacornetti.com
Monica Cornetti is a former Corporate Executive and an influential speaker, writer, and gamification expert in the Talent Development industry. She is also a consultant, rated as a #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded, and was featured on the cover of Bloomberg's BusinessWeek.
She is the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You, writes The Gamification Report blog, and hosts the weekly Gamification Talk Radio program.
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