9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, some fresh air and fresh ideas!, February 2, 2005
This review is from: Renaissance eLearning: Creating Dramatic and Unconventional Learning Experiences (Hardcover)
Most elearning books, training books for that matter, seem to reiterate the same stale advice. The guidance is very useful the first few times you hear it. Once its repeated with slight modification the 15th time it just makes me wonder why anyone pays to hear it.
Not so with this refreshing book. Where else do you hear authors who encourage you to question them and their advice? This is the strongest point in the book, noted especially in the chapter on Reflective Thinking.
The writers urge readers to adopt a new paradigm, one in which learning can really happen, reflective inquiry. They tell us to view every solution, every piece of advice, every institution through the questioning eyes.
Do not, they say, simply take it as a given that something has to be a certain way because it has always been that way. Dare to question it, dare to re-evaluate if it still works. In other words, dare to "find your own path" instead of adopting anothers.
Far from being some namby-pamby self-help guide, this theme is communicated through very tangible advice that is rarely seen in the elearning world. Everything from a chapter on the need to understand we are in a new economy ("The Creative Economy") to the basics of using drama to capture attention and drive long lasting learning to doing down n' dirty realistic research to get the job done fast.
This is a refreshing new spin on problem solving, which is what elearning is really doing. In contrast to other authors who say "Think outside the box to find new solutions to established problems" they say, find new problems! A great example is cited as the man who created post it notes, as we all know. The glue for post-it notes was created at least 10 years before its use. The problem at that point was how to create a strong glue. It was only when another man came up with an entirely different problem, how to have glue so non-sticky it was removable, that post it notes came to be.
I could talk for longer about the rest of the high quality and novel content but I think I have covered one of the biggest assets of this book and the reason why everyone, yes everyone should own it.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Book on Training for ALL readers, February 6, 2005
This review is from: Renaissance eLearning: Creating Dramatic and Unconventional Learning Experiences (Hardcover)
I'm a sales manager who needs to do some training not an HR guy. If I had a dime for every book I have ordered, read or borrowed and then thrown out, I'd be rich!
Most of them are either too boring or too philisophical or too academic and they all seem to be written for the training professional in the same unrealistic way.
This book cuts right to the chase and just gives me the practical tangible stuff I need right now. There's no lecturing or tons of background theory. My people appreciate it too. After reading a few chapters I passed it along to the busiest guy who never has time for training and always makes a reason not to go--or grumbles terribly when he finally is forced to attend.
His response: "If a trainer actually made something to fit what they tell him to do I would love it! I'd even promise to go willingly!"
I passed it along to our training manager and can't wait to see the results.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is an excellent reference, July 7, 2010
This review is from: Renaissance eLearning: Creating Dramatic and Unconventional Learning Experiences (Hardcover)
The first thing I loved about this book was the non-linear table of contents. The second thing was the topics themselves. So many eLearning books cover the basics and this moves beyond while remaining accessible and understandable to newbies. I've been designing eLearning courses for 10 years now but just bought this book as a reference for my office.
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