River of New Learning
The attached resources are from two separate workshops.
The first was let by the WebJunction team in August 2012, with a group of Partner team leads and CE coordinators at the CE Forum. The exercise helped the group to explore new learning trends and ideas and to brainstorm ways to integrate these ideas into online learning. Because so much training is online and because self-paced online learning has become the cost-effective norm for continuing education, the objective was to build a bridge of ideas to connect the reality of online training with the emergence of new approaches to learning.
The second session was hosted by LearnRT, WALT and WebJunction at ALA Midwinter 2013, Taking a New Look at Training and Learning. Nearly 70 attendees used the River to collect ideas focused on motivation and new learning strategies.
[Photo: a 12-foot long graphic of a river is covered with a flow of post-it ideas about motivation and learning strategies. The ideas were generated at Taking a New Look at Training and Learning, a highly interactive session of discovery at ALA Midwinter 2013.]
Workshop steps:
- Participants divided into groups of 6-10. Each person is given 5 minutes to read a 2-page document about a new discovery, strategy, tool, etc., related to how people train and learn. (see New Learning Docs-1, a set of 12 2-page documents or Motivation Discovery Docs, for 6 documents focused on motivation in learning.)
After 5 minutes of silent reading, the group discusses what they’ve read, using post-its to write down key takeaways and implications for library staff training and continuing education.
All post-its were placed on the left side of the "River of New Learning" and the ideas were discussed by in plenary. (For a collection of the brainstorms, see River of Learn or River of Learning Midwinter, attached)
- In 2012, the focus shifted to looking at the advantages of online learning in its various forms---synchronous and asynchronous, facilitated and self-paced. Participants identified specific advantages, which were written on post-its and placed in the middle section of the "River." And at 2013 Midwinter, the focus was on how to motivate learners using some of the approaches shared in the readings.
- Participants were asked to come up with ideas for integrating new learning strategies. Ideas were posted on the right side of the "River."
We hope others find this workshop model helpful!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License