Yesterday I attended Hall Davidson’s pre-conference session about Adobe Premiere Elements.  While it may not be as "Apple Easy" as iMovie, it’s certainly way more powerful.  Heck, just being able to multiple layers of video is a compelling reason to choose Premiere Elements. 

I’ve seen Hall present on many an occasion, but this is the first time I’ve seen him do a hands on session.  Gotta admit, I was impressed.  He focused on a small number of achievable tasks, kept the mood light and friendly and made sure that everyone had a fun, positive experience learning the program.  However what really stuck out to me was the difference between learning styles of the attendees.

Nobody had ever played with Elements before.  In fact, most had no video making experience at all prior to the session.   However, most people were able to dive in and figure things out with just a minimal amount of guidance.  Hall would talk about a technique, maybe show an example, but then just allow people time to experiment.  He provided them with clips and audio to play with and people would make their own connections at their own rate.  It was a fine example of how to teach without the teaching getting in the way of the learner.  Obviously one major difference between this and a true classroom environment is that in a school, the object wouldn’t be to simply learn the software.  It would be to convey information in an effective manner.

However, there were a few notable examples of people who relaly needed somebody to show them every step from point A to  point B.  I’m not trying to pass any judgement on those people, because that’s been the focus of our educational system for decades.  Teachers identify the goal that students are trying to learn and then provide them with the 5 easy steps they need to achieve it.  The difference between those learners and the rest of the class was definitely discernible.  For the record, I’m not talking about people who just had questions, or who missed a part and asked Hall to repeat it, I’m talking about people who when they missed a part they essentially shut down, completely derailed.  Rather than trying to identify what steps they could take to get back up to speed in any independent way, they sat there with their hands in the air and waited until someone would walk them through things step by step until they were caught up to the same place that the rest of the class was at.

It reminded me of all those middle school students I used to see at my old school who when faced with a challenge, sat there with their hands in the air for upwards of 20 minutes to ask a question.  Rather than trying to figure out the answer for themselves, or asking a friend, they chose to let that one issue become a stop sign that they could not drive through without assistance.  They may have been bright kids, they may have had incredibly high test scores.  But given the skills that people are going to need in today’s economy to be successful, they may also wind up in a job where they spend most of their day asking, "Do you want fries with that?"

Believe me when I say I don’t mean to criticize anyone who attended the class.  I was actually very impressed with how many people ‘got it’ before the end of the three hour hands on session.  But the difference between people who are able to apply logical process and problem solve in completely foreign situations and those who could not was incredibly profound.

• The art of Learning to Learn
• S.M.A.R.T.: Learning Styles
• What’s the point of Second Life?
• It’s not about teaching, it’s about learning.
• Connecting and Learning in Holland

David Warlick
3/13/2006

Sorry I missed you at the conference.  I guess that I was arriving at the hotel (2:30 AM) about the time that you were getting ready to go catch your 5:00 AM flight back to Chicago.  You’re name came up more than once at the conference on Saturday.  You leave a wake behind you, my man – dave –

Maureen Magee
3/15/2006

Steve,

Once again you have crystalized so well an experience we have all seen in others or done ourselves. Kepp up the musing, it is inspirational for everyone.

Nadine Norris
3/17/2006

Steve,
You did a really good job describing the scene with adult learners. I’ve been in workshops where teachers become completely paralyzed when they miss a step or button to click. I often wondered if there is a coorelation between the learning environment of those teachers who hold their hands in the air until someone comes over and gives them one-on-one instruction. Is it different from the classroom of those teachers who keep clicking around or checking their neighbor?

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