This was a rich conversation and the notes don’t do it justice. The topic was selected by Paul Signorelli based on this quote from Clark Quinn:
it’s not about content, it’s about experience. Are you designing experiences?
In our training sessions, how do we create experience? Do we provide the opportunity and space for people to transform?
If the learning environment isn’t what you want, rearrange the room. Ask learners – before the sessions ends – what needs to change in the environment and try to change it. Quinn, who joined us on the call, noted that most evaluation forms do not really evaluate the impact of the training. Rather people evaluate the experience in terms of hot, cold, food, lighting, etc.
Who does experience correctly? We had multiple mentions of Disney. When we stop paying attention to the man behind the curtain (a reference to The Wizard of Oz), we’re truly involved in the experience.
We need to separate practitioners versus novices, so that the training/experience is appropriate. We need to consider how to scaffold the experience/learning.
Sometimes conferences are a place of reflection for people actively engaged, while in formal learning. And because learning is a continuum, we sometimes reflect on something that we learned years ago. There is a long tail of learning experience. In addition to reflection, we often need to design application/practice opportunities for those learners.
Resources:
- Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Training Evaluation Model, http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/kirkpatrick.htm
- Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer Summit (for info on unconference formats), https://sites.google.com/a/googleapps.com/education-certified-trainer-summit/unconference/unconference-formats
- Handbook of Experiential Learning by Melvin L. Silberman, https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Handbook_of_Experiential_Learning.html?id=gSLkiAgMmTQC
- Motivational Design for Learning and Performance: The ARCS Model Approach By John M. Keller, https://books.google.com/books?id=HRCQlZzMwhsC&dq=arcs+model+keller&source=gbs_navlinks_s
- The Risk and Reward Conference (2012), http://rsquaredconference.org/
On the call were Clark Quinn, Patti Poe, Paul Signorelli, Andrea Syder, Mickey Coalwell, Jill Hurst-Wahl and Maurice Coleman. You can listen to the call here.
T is for Training 
I’ll note that I wasn’t the one who said that the evaluation form evaluates the room etc, that was someone else. What I said was that evaluation forms don’t really evaluate the quality of the learning (novice learners aren’t good evaluators of that). Great experience :) talking with you all!