EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Instead of simply making incremental changes to what has always been done – “perfecting the irrelevant” – universities must extend beyond Plato and embrace the sons of Socrates. The key to creating productive 21st Century knowledge workers lies in a focus on “Hire Education” and state‐of‐the‐ art experiential learning. Millennials and experiential learning may hold the key to a return to the Golden Age.

Performance and productivity are the cornerstones of achieving business results, innovation, and return on investment (ROI). The most effective learning is 'Experiential Learning' (aka, just‐in‐time, on‐the‐job, technology‐assisted apprenticeships).

What is Experiential Learning?

The movie The Matrix provides an exceptional example of experiential learning in action. In this case, it is literally a matter of life or death. In a scene towards the end of the movie, our heroes – Trinity and Neo – find themselves trapped on the roof of the Agents’ headquarters. Their only escape is via a military helicopter.

The problem is neither of them knows how to fly a helicopter … yet. So what does Trinity do? She calls her Learning Management System (LMS), of course. In this case, the LMS is represented by a phone operator named Tank.

Trinity requests a specific learning object – Helicopters for Dummies! – and Tank downloads the skills directly into her brain. You can appreciate the experiential learning significance here. Once Trinity has received the skills, she and Neo fly the Helicopter to safety and continue saving the world!

This is a perfect example of just‐in‐time, context‐sensitive experiential learning delivered exactly when the student needs it … in 30 seconds!

So, where do you get all of this great experiential learning content? The good news is … it is all around us! Each student holds hundreds of experiences inside them that can be used to improve the performance of everyone in the class. We just need to figure out how to tap into those experiences.

Experiential Learning is proving to be the fastest, most effective way to teach students rapidly changing knowledge and skills in technology, healthcare and business. It is considered by many professionals to be ideal for learning practical skills where students need the freedom to experiment, test their current expertise, and gain competencies far beyond theory.

Experiential learning enables students to step through a series of guided actions, work through real‐ world scenarios, and actively control live equipment. Unlike simulations, which limit the ability of students to fail within a closed and facilitated environment, live laboratories enable learning‐by‐doing in a true “trial and error” fashion much like learning to ride a bicycle.

State‐of‐the‐art experiential learning solutions offer a “technology apprenticeship” for students seeking real‐world experience while still in school. As students gain practical skills in an authentic and safe learning environment, organizations can focus on their core competencies and avoid the distractions of complex experiential learning development and delivery. This is definitely an area where outsourcing makes a lot of sense.

Experiential Learning is teaching “action” not information. The place to store vast amounts of information is in libraries, not in heads. In the 21st century, those libraries are increasingly virtual. Toolwire’s mission is to sharply increase student productivity and skills retention by co‐creating innovative learning programs “brought to life” with hands‐on experiential learning in virtual job worlds.

Experiential Learning = Opportunity + Danger

A perfect illustration of experiential learning in the real world is the Chinese symbol for crisis. It is made up of two characters: One for danger and one for opportunity. That is quite a marriage: danger + opportunity. The danger of failure in today’s competitive environment grows dramatically if you stand still. Of course, the opportunities are tremendous if you can find a way to innovate and stay ahead of oncoming technological advancements. Across the board our Clients have come to believe that experiential learning will allow them to turn crisis into opportunity.