Same Facilitator Different Tools
Joy Wilson
Instructional Designer with significant experience of needs analysis, scoping, storyboarding, designing and developing impactful blended learning programmes to develop, skills knowledge and performance improvement.
A little reflective time using my Journal for Clear Thinking served its purpose today, it got me thinking about creativity, and in particular what's the motivation behind my creativity right now.
I've always had that "this could be so much better" attitude. It occasionally does me no good. It manifests itself in a variety of ways, such as failing to accept the limitations of software, and more recently failing to appreciate the predictability of virtual events with the inevitable procession of repetitive activities where we go from breakout to whiteboard to poll and back.
It's all getting a bit procedural.
I realised I had fallen into the trap of following that procedure, working with what's there rather than improving the learner experience by creating the unexpected.
I'm grieving for the workshop environment which has provided a setting for creating memorable learning experiences through a blend of synchronous and asynchronous activity. Yet, I'm limited by Zoom and its offering which only really provides for asynchronous activity through pre recorded content. MS Teams at least enables me to expand and personalise my connection with individual learners through the provision of assignments, collaborative Word documents and PowerPoint Presentations.
So, I invested time in creating fresh experiences, new ways to approach topics through interactive games, out of the ordinary activities, novelty makes things interesting!
Setting time aside for clear thinking has helped me to realise that I'm the same facilitator I always was, the need to create a blend of activities that enable collaboration in pairs or teams is strong, I simply need to use a different set of tools to address the learning needs of individuals.
Partner to leaders & teams who think for themselves ? Encourager of bold, curious, thoughtful humans to show off their brilliance ? Co-creator of a Card Deck ? Time To Think Coach | Facilitator | Teacher |
4 年Joy, I love that you put your Journal to good use in exactly the way it's intended...to unlock some fresh thinking. Reflection isn't a passive act, it generates insight and action. I was facilitating an Ideas Lab in the Zoomiverse today and I was so excited when one of the participants said how much he liked thinking and how much benefit was to be had from proper thinking time. And people were nodding in agreement. I thought I was going to burst! Like you, I'm on a quest to breathe a bit of unpredictability into the online facilitation space; I've been experimenting with tiny tweaks and some massive ones, and the novelty has been really stimulating for people. I'm trying to hang out with folks who are doing it differently so I can learn from them, and with them and we can all get better together. Thank you for sharing your thinking Joy.