Read Online at:
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/ezine/guru3_3.htm

Roger Schank: Tilting at Windmills or Slaying Dragons?
Every Curriculum Tells a Story

"Once upon a time there was a kingdom that was overrun with dragons. The people were terrorized by the dragons so they decided to build a new curriculum in their finest university to train young warriors in the art of dragon slaying..."

Thus begins Dr. Roger Schank's white paper, "Every Curriculum Tells a Story." Using the dragon-slaying analogy, he blasts holes in conventional educational and training curriculums and offers a solution that is much more learner and performance-focused.

Nobody stirs up a training crowd like Schank. I first saw him when he keynoted one of the big training conferences in the late 90's, and more recently at a smaller Columbia University conference. He's a contrarian, he's harshly critical of traditional education and training, and he doesn't mince his words or try to be nice about it. You can see people literally squirm in their chairs as they listen to him. They logically nod in agreement with his damnations, but emotionally they can't make the leap. You can almost hear their thoughts, "The change would be to big... It would cost too much... How can everything I've ever learned about education be wrong... He's too arrogant and sure of himself..."

I actually find Schank's ideas more relevant now than ever before. It might just be that after six years of disappointing e-learning results, the industry (and the buyers) are finally realizing that he's been right all along. After all, how much do you remember from your high school classes? How much do your students retain and apply from their corporate training?

• "The idea behind the story-centered curriculum (SCC) is that a good curriculum should tell a story."
• "The SCC is inherently goal-based."
• "The SCC is also activity-based."

Read Roger Schank's fun, funny, and insightful white paper at:
http://www.e-learningGuru.com/wpapers/scc.pdf

Learn more about Schank's company: Socratic Arts

Will these predictions never end?

OK, at risk of beating a dead prognosticator, I encourage you to visit eLearn Magazine, and read the the predictions for '04 from my friends Elliott Masie, Stephen Downes, Jennifer Hofmann, Jon Levy, Allison Rossett, Karl Kapp, Clark Aldrich, Sanjay Dholakia, and 20 other gurus. Worth a read at: http://www.elearnmag.org/

New Events Calendar -- Post and Read...

I added a new Events Calendar to e-LearningGuru.com website. If you have an upcoming conference, tradeshow or webinar you'd like to promote please submit it (free of charge, or course).

To SUBMIT your event, click here.

To VIEW events currently listed, click here.

New Issue of Learning Technology (IEEE Computer Society)

Articles include:

* Adopting and Adapting Enterprise Technologies for Use in Education
* If Content is King, Context is God!
* Constructing Context-Based E-Learning
* Learning Teams in Online Courses
* Developing an On-Line Learning Community: Four Essential Guidelines

Click here to get this free issue (PDF).

Will you help me build the Guru community? If you forward this to just one friend, and they forward to just one friend, and so on, and so on...

Here's to living, learning and dragon slaying,
-- Kevin

Kevin Kruse is the e-learning columnist for CLO, Chief Learning Officer magazine, author of Technology-based Training (Jossey-Bass), and President of AXIOM Professional Health Learning. He can be reached at kkruse@e-learningguru.com.