Hear One, Do One, Teach One

I've been thinking of something since we had our educational podcasting discussion during last week's Learning Design Summer Camp.  I've always been a fan of a three-step approach to learning something where you are first exposed to something new; then you try doing it yourself; and finally, you teach it to someone else.  The initial exposure is useful in defining the objective, setting expectations, and providing a model.  The second step is an opportunity for hands-on experience and feedback.  The third step gets to higher-order thinking: reflection, critique, and synthesis of a student's experience is necessary before you can do a good job of teaching someone else.  In addition, questions can arise while teaching that makes you reexamine your experience.  Finally, this third step propagates what is being taught.

So if we are trying to teach students how to interview (using podcasting as the technology), then the process could be something like this: 

1. Hear one: Students download and listen to some good examples of interviews and identify the qualities that make that recording a "good interview".  You could also have people listen to examples of bad interviews (real or staged) so they can identify common mistakes in the interview process such as asking yes/no questions.  This would be a good time to introduce a rubric or have the students collaborate on building one.
   
2. Do one: One group of students conducts an interview (with topics and subjects that are appropriate to your discipline).  Have them compare their own work to the rubric. Have the rest of the class critique their interview.
   
3. Teach one: The group of students now teaches the rest of the class (or the next group if you are doing a rotation through different topics) how to conduct a good interview.  Hopefully the second group will actually do better than the first, having learned from both the example interviews and the first group's performance.
   

This is kind of obvious, right?  I think so, but too often in the workplace and classroom, we ask people to "do one" without the rest of it.  We don't provide the initial exposure and model expectations.  We don't provide detailed feedback.  We don't provide an opportunity for reflection, synthesis, and sharing what has been learned.

This is one of the reasons that I was saying that educational podcasting should involved multiple recordings instead of a single instance.  It sounds like some instructors have asked their students to "make a podcast" (just an audio recording) without providing a good example, hearing each other's work, or giving students an opportunity to try again after a first attempt.

The good news is that by being an active participant in the learning design community, I am able to continuously participate in the three-step process in my own professional development.  I am able to see what new things other people are doing and talk to them about best practices.  I am able to work with others and try new things (services, teaching activities, processes, etc...).  And at the end of the day, I have as much opportunity to teach as I like, either in formal settings, one-on-one mentoring, or by reflecting/writing in this blog.

It's an ideal situation for me - learning, working, and teaching at the same time.  The community makes this possible.  I hope everyone has the same opportunity.