The Best & Worst Training Tools
Does it matter whether the trainer you choose prefers to use:
- Overhead or PowerPoint Slides?
- Flip-Charts or Whiteboards?
- Mind Maps or Flow Diagrams?
- Charts or Graphs?
- Video or Music Clips?
- Role Plays or Games?
- Quizzes or Puzzles?
- Flash Cards?
The types of training tools that your trainer selects is unimportant What matters is how skillfully they use the tools they choose.
If you come out of your training program feeling invigorated and eager to apply what you’ve leaned, chances are you’ve been treated to a savvy trainer. One who knew how to use training tools to educe learning.
Educe is one of my favourite words, but as it isn’t used in general conversation, people often ask me what it means. Educe is the root of the word educate. Educe means, “to draw forth or bring out, as something potential or latent; elicit; develop.” (If you like this word as much as I do and want to start using it, it’s pronounced “i-dyoos.”)
In this series of articles on training tools, we’re going to look at how each tool is commonly used, then contrast that with how each tool can be used most effectively. When training tools are used well, they enable the trainer to enter the mind of the trainee and ensure that the desired learning takes place.
We’ll begin by looking at flipcharts, whiteboards, overhead and PowerPoint slides. These training tools are the devices trainers use to create the mnemonics that support specific learning. Now THERE’S a funky word, mnemonics. (It’s pronounced “ni-mon-iks.”) Mnemonics is “the process or technique of improving or developing the memory.” While mnemonics are often verbal, they can also be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Verbal mnemonics can be short poems, special words or phrases that help a person remember something. here are some examples that you will recognize instantly.
Young children learn the alphabet with the use of the “ABC” song - it’s a mnemonics device. Older children learn grammar with the help of this mnemonics phrase, “I before E except after C.” And the following mnemonics aids in remembering the order in which you will find the planets in our solar system, when you start at the Sun and work your way out. “My Very Easy Method Just Set Up Nine Planets” (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.)
Short stories and corny jokes can also act as memory aids. Rather than offer you a corny joke example that you’d rather NOT have lodged in your memory. Here’s a short story example instead.
Because people often have trouble pronouncing my company name, I tell them what MIBOSO means in order to help them remember how to say and spell it. Quite simply, it’s the first two letters of “mind.” body” and “soul” fused together to form an acronym that represents our holistic approach to personal branding. It’s important for our clients to remember our name, because the website that they need to log into is www.miboso.com. It’s also important for us, because when it is easy for our clients to remember our name, it’s easier for them to refer other people to us.
Read Flip, Write or Slide? to learn the best and worst applications of Flipcharts, Whiteboards and Overhead or PowerPoint Slides. PowerPoint Do’s & Don’ts covers the best and wost uses of that popular training tool. Go on to Map, Flow, Chart or Graph to find out about the do’s and don’ts of using mind maps, flow diagrams, charts and graphs in a training. These articles will be followed with others that focus on the use and misuse of Video or Music Clips, Role Plays or Games, Quizzes or Puzzles and Flash Cards
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[...] relies on one thing linking to another, such as mnemonics, which we discuss in greater depth in The Best & Worst Training Tools. Story telling also supports memory, as do visual and tactile links. For example, sharing [...]
[...] and visual cues are powerful mnemonics [...]