Less is more - no tragedy

What links the Bee Gees with e-learning? Instructional Designer John Webb tells us why less is more when it comes to words and how we employ them.

Was it not those great philosophers the Brothers Gibb who once sang 'It's only words - and words are all I have to steal your heart away...' But are they really all we have? And are there more effective means of winning over hearts and minds with twenty-first century technologies?

We are living in an age of abbreviation, where txt-speak is becoming a new form of acceptable language and iphone menus use images, rarely words, to guide their users. And let’s not forget social media and the role it can play in education. Is Twitter - the very embodiment of brevity - useful or disruptive? Do blogs really help us “learn through our own experiences and the experiences of those around us” as Clive Shepherd, consultant and chairman of the e-learning network, stated recently?

This whole debate raised its head during September’s World of Learning Conference, where Nick Shackleton-Jones, Online and Informal Learning Manager at the BBC, told delegates that “Twitter is my number one learning tool.” Meanwhile, the aforementioned Mr Shepherd defended the use of social networks for training purposes, saying: “Even by sharing ideas in forums, staff are contributing to a social networking tool – others can learn from what they do.” On the other side of the fence Infinity Learning’s Robin Hoyle doesn’t believe staff learn by using social networks. “They are simply looking up information,” he said. “They are only learning to research.”

This discussion is no bad thing as it gets us all thinking about harnessing the latest technology to promote readily accessible, easily digestible learning.  Brothers and sisters: innovate - don't stagnate!

Now, imagine a code of conduct course or one on financial risk written using no more than 100 words. A business course that educated using imagery first and text second.  Could it be done? Would it be well received?

Last year Amanita Design, an independent Czech video developing company created Machinarium, a puzzle point and click adventure game. It contained no dialogue, neither spoken nor written. It was a massive critical and commercial success.

This type of design wouldn’t be desired by most clients. And yet, it provides an inspiring trampoline on which to bounce fresh ideas...

...because clients do regularly tell us that they don’t want screens overloaded with text. It puts the learner off, they say. Hooray, we reply. Ultimately however, clients are understandably protective of their content and are reluctant to lose it. But wouldn’t it be great if we could use our expertise to recommend a more pictorial approach?

I am an instructional designer and I clearly don’t want to see the death of writing or words hunted to extinction. But an instructional designer is part-writer/part-designer and can therefore play a significant part in shaping and creating a new approach to e-learning course design.

So, we are undoubtedly experts but we need to be more humble. We can still be visionary and humble at the same time, perhaps even more so. It’s one thing to stand on the shoulders of giants but it’s worth recalling the words of G. K. Chesterton who quipped: “Humility is the mother of giants: one sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”

Back to the drawing board need not always be a tragedy. Just ask the Bee Gees.

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