What Does Learning of the Future Look Like?

When we think learning of the future, we think microlearning and not much else. Why not much else? Because, A) Our shortening attention spans put us on par with goldfish so we frankly are incapable of thinking about much else, and B) Microlearning is a modern forward-thinking approach to learning with proven effectiveness. Sit back, relax, and let us take you on a journey.

It’s 2039 and you have just landed your new job as a Hover Car Driver. After all, becoming an Extinct Species Revivalist or an Organ Creator or perhaps a Memory Surgeon was so 2029. Your compliance and safety training has never been more important because there would be nothing worse than one of your passengers falling out of your flying, sky-high vehicle on your first day.

With jobs becoming more and more advanced in technology and machinery, it is essential to progress through adequate training for the mastery of required skills to correctly perform tasks. The career market will soon become monopolised and we will have no other choice than to move with the times, or they will move without us.

Hop on board our hover car as we take you through what may be trending in the future learning world.

Microlearning isn’t going anywhere but our attention spans are

And you wonder where they might be. Let us tell you, we’ve been told they’re leaving never to be seen again. How do we know this is true? Because since 2000, our attention spans have shrunk to a whopping eight seconds from twelve and is only getting shorter. Our shortening human attention spans draw some resemblance between us and a goldfish. Yep, you know that tiny orange thing swimming around in circles in a bowl. Have we lost you yet?

Microlearning, on the other hand, is here to stay. There’s no question why she’s been our go-to solution for our employee training woes. Our future will only become even more filled to the brim with information for us all to absorb. Considering the amount we already have access to, it is important to develop a strategy for how to handle even more. Microlearning breaks down information into digestible, bite-sized chunks for maximum information absorption and retention. Microlearning is not selective with the information it is used for, making it a universal, flexible way of learning, guaranteed to have a positive effect on the functionality and dynamism of your enterprise.

The irony between technology and knowledge

Isn’t ironic that due to technological advancements, more information about everything is being produced, forcing us to further technologically develop to keep up? Whether that is keep up with ways to learn all of this new information and forget the old stuff, or if it is ways to store mounds of information. That’s a bit like what we are trying to do with our brains today. Stacking as much as possible in there is not the best idea and often results in cognitive overload. Cognitive overload will only become all the more prevalent when you all become Organ Creators and Memory Surgeons, meaning we have to think of ways to avoid it as much as we can now. You can say we have all done a pretty good job because we already have found a way that actually works! Microlearning uses an element called spaced repetition, which works to release information in short bursts, giving the brain enough time to recognise, absorb and retain knowledge. Pretty cool, right? Given that the average human brain can only hold up to 5 pieces of new information at any given time (come on guys, seriously, FIVE?), spaced repetition works to steadily pack information into our brain and store it in our long-term memory, giving us the ability to retrieve information on demand.

Our future will only become more packed with new findings and information ready for us to absorb. To get ahead of the rest, implement microlearning into your enterprise!

If you would like to learn more about how EdApp can help you prepare for the future of learning.

If you’d like to know more about how EdApp’s mobile learning platform can help your internal training practices, get in touch at enquiries@edapp.com. You can also try EdApp’s Mobile LMS and authoring tool for free by signing up here.