ImagiLearning

John Jamison, CEO of ImagiLearning, Inc, has announced that his company has labeled the year 2012 as “A Year of Imagination!” Jamison stated that in February of 2012, ImagiLearning, Inc. will be unveiling a significant new application of their TranceFormational Learning ® approach, based upon the blending of two existing learning and training technologies. “We have joined with two exciting technology partners to create something we’ve imagined for a long time, but haven’t figured out how to make it happen. We’ve now figured it out.”

ImagiLearning, Inc. is an e-learning company in transition, as are many organizations today. As Jamison describes it, “I made the decision to go full time chasing the dream two years ago. At that point, the dream focused on defining a new approach to learning and training using traditional methods coupled with the still emerging virtual environments, using our TranceFormational Learning® approach to designing learning activities.” TranceFormational Learning® is a process developed by Jamison following his dissertation research using virtual environments for learning, and is a blend of traditional learning design, elements of “game”, NLP, and emerging brain research. “Through our work with educational and corporate clients, including organizations like Element K, I became even more convinced that there was something yet to come; something that would take things to the next step.”

“I applaud any attempt to enhance learning and training. Anyone who can make it less painful to sit through another half-day session on ‘360 Degree Evaluations’ is a hero in my book. But as I look around at the use of online learning, and of virtual environments for learning, training, or for events, I think most are still approaching it like it’s another new ‘tool’ to be used to do what we already do. Much of what I see is either replication or delivery…or both. We use virtual environments to replicate what is in the ‘real’ world, and then we use that space to ‘deliver’ videos and presentations. Again, I applaud the effort to do ‘something’, but I think it misses a key point. Virtual environments, like distance learning, are more than just another tool to help us do what we’ve done before. These are opportunities for us to start thinking differently about what our goals are, and explore how these new resources might enable us to do things in ways that were simply not possible before.”

Jamison explains that as ImagiLearning designs activities for learning and training, their goal is to create an experience for the learner, something with cognitive and emotional engagement for each participant. “We want to do more than deliver material, and more than build interesting virtual spaces. We want our learners to be fully engulfed in the experience, to make critical decisions based on the learning and experience the authentic results of those decisions.”

“When we focus on ‘tools’, we get caught-up in tool-related issues”, Jamison says. We spend time debating about the need for photo-realism, for ‘realistic’ animations, and we fret over things looking too ‘cartoon-like’. But Jamison says, “If we focus on learning goals rather than tools, we realize that when the overall experience engages us, our brains are happy to fill-in any of those details it feels necessary. As Walt Disney demonstrated many years ago, photo-realism is not a requirement for engagement and learning.” Jamison says he believes that time is better spent focusing on the world of the learner as they experience the learning activities, understanding that if they are engaged, each learner will fill in the pieces necessary for their individual meaning.

ImagiLearning has been applying their TranceFormational Learning® approach for five years, both in developing for clients and in their own courses and training activities. Jamison sees the coming year as a ‘next step’ in the life of TranceFormational Learning®.

“We have demonstrated the TranceFormational Learning® approach works, and many of our colleagues are using TranceFormational Learning® to create some amazingly creative and meaningful learning and training activities. So for 2012, we’re challenging everyone at ImagiLearning to turn the imagination up to eleven, and asking each of our clients to do the same. If the goal is to create highly effective learning and training, or to create engaging meetings and events, why be satisfied with ‘delivery’ and ‘replication’ when so much more is available? In February we’ll take one major step to change the game, and that leaves about 10 months to push things even further. This year, we’re going to have some fun!”