Teaching is more than "talking knowledge" at someone

The learning environment has changed. There was a time when employees were taught around a table, listening to the monotonous voice of an instructor, watching a PowerPoint presentation for hours…

Today, in modern learning environments, the information and skill-acquisition paradigm has evolved to incorporate a human-centered process, usage of technology, and agile learning inducive spaces.

We only spend 1% of our time on our own training and development of our competencies. That is to say, 4.2 minutes a day This very poor percentage reflects our busy schedules and the way we operate at work.

Today, as information and technology have evolved, countless sources of knowledge mean the availability of information is no longer a problem. However, the selection and choice of multiple information sources leave us overwhelmed. As such, we need to take this new reality into account by optimizing the learning process.

That is why we have applied a human-centered learning approach to our virtual and online courses: It fits perfectly with this new reality of overloaded learners.

Courses that failed you

Learning is often associated with hard work, effort, memorizing countless frameworks, traditional teaching methods, and a standard classroom setting. For many people, these associations create images of rigid structures and negative feelings towards learning rather than positive ones.

You may remember being stuck in a classroom with a very intelligent teacher or lecturer who was so boring you wished you were outside, even in the rain. You probably could not focus on being ‘talked at’ for hours on end, and the most complicated ideas made no sense at all until you sat with your peers and discussed them.

In your professional life, you may have attended a training course recommended as part of your professional development but ‘hid’ in the back to pass time, avoid being asked a question, or so you could do something more meaningful like – answer your emails, complete a report or catch up with social media.

Or perhaps you asked to go on a course where you could ‘participate’ on paper, but actually, it was a great way to get out of the office and sleep, relax, zone out – do anything but learn. Or worse still, you signed up for a course because you wanted to learn something new and were actually excited to attend the course. But you were then left disappointed because the instructor ‘explained’ concepts in such a way that you had no idea what s/he was talking about.

We have all been there. For most people, their education, training, or opportunities to learn have not been interactive or interesting enough; or the courses they attended were poorly designed and delivered. Not all experts can impart their knowledge in a user-friendly manner! Being an expert doesn't mean one can know how to pass that knowledge onto others.

As adults, we rarely have the opportunity to enjoy our learning process. Neither are we presented with training that changes the way we view learning.

That is why we have created a course that makes you do things differently.

There are three pillars to our courses:

• Simulation of real-life scenarios
• Shift from traditional teacher-student to all-to-one learning experience
• An environment that enhances knowledge acquisition and retention

Through our carefully designed course, we offer close to reality simulation of everyday decisions any professional must face at work. During our courses you practice the theory, you partake in multiple group and individual exercises, you are exposed to time pressure, presented with unclear real-time data, and challenged by the ambiguity of each and every task. Exactly like in real-life professional situations.

At the same time, we believe that the instructor does not know everything, and the overall sum of all participants’ experience exceeds the knowledge of any instructor. We draw from the knowledge of all people in the room and we facilitate an engaging learning experience for you to be part of. We know how to facilitate this process and we will encourage you to shape the direction of the course with us.

Finally, this experience can be induced only in optimal surroundings. Providing the user-friendly space that shortens the instructor – students’ distance (physical and psychological) and drives the knowledge sharing and discussion allows you to fully submerge in the learning process. Once you stop thinking that you are participating in a professional course your brain will relax and unlock, allowing for higher knowledge retention and idea creation. You will simply learn faster and for longer.

Here at GeoModes we aim to disrupt traditional education and obsolete training approach with our virtual and online courses. Our human-centric style of teaching will invite you to engage fully from day one. You will be challenged, you will be encouraged to challenge, you will be an active participant, in discussions, teamwork and the exercises. Most importantly your involvement with the course will ensure, you will learn and retain the concepts which you will be able to apply at your workplace right after the course.

We promise to provide you with first-class training that is so interactive and engaging that you will not want it to end!

Are you ready for our challenge?

Check our course calendar and sign up for a course near you!

In summary:

• People want to learn by using different sources of information

E.g. via visuals, exercises, group discussion, self-work, lecturers, or a chat by the coffee machine and not just sitting in the classroom listening to the instructor for hours.

• People don’t learn any more in a static environment by taking notes and then memorizing the content

That is why we like interactive smartphones and tablets and we like touch-clicking which is more intuitive for humans.

• People need simple information but quality information

Concrete, fast, and an exact answer to the questions and not reading through jargon and buzz words that no one really understands

• People are learning at the point of need, that is to say, right when they need specific information or help.

That means you can learn in anticipation of using the knowledge at the later stage, but it will be a twice longer process and the knowledge will be unlikely retained

• GeoModes has designed online and virtual courses using a human-centered learning process

These are the first such courses in the world. Now you can be part of it too.

Remember that teaching is more than "talking knowledge" at someone and learning is more than "listening with understanding."