Once Upon a Time.. in Learning

Who the heck wants to learn about civil rights by reading a textbook? Or experience Rome through a guidebook? These learning experiences merely scratch the surface of education. Unless you were asked to move to the back of the bus or stood under the roof of the Pantheon, can you say you understand?

This week, my team had to read Daniel Pink's section on Stories. I was pretty excited because like most people I love stories and I don't know why they aren't used more in learning, especially at the business level. I guess it has to do with that whole -give me what I need to know- mentality.

However, this "just the facts" mentality Pink argues is not a skill that a modern worker will value as much. With the web, people can find facts using sites like Wikipedia in a matter of seconds, leaving a knowledge worker high and dry. What is harder to find though is a deeper understanding of what those facts mean.

In an example, I put it like this:
Imagine sitting in front of your computer- shouldn't be too hard since you are right now! Now how fast could you find :
the date of when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans?
what size hurricane was it?
how many people died?

Now: how fast could you understand what if felt like to be living in the 9th ward when Katrina hit?

These deeper meaning questions can be somewhat answered through storytelling. Listening to interviews or watching video, pictures all provide a more robust experience to "just the facts".
Storytelling doesn't have to be simply word of mouth. Visual storytelling provides colors, contrast, detail that can be equally descriptive. A picture's worth a thousand words, as they say. Digital storytelling can use words, video, picure, or sound to convey a message.

Stories can invoke emotion and thoughtfulness. They can inspire or horrify. They have been used for good or for ill by humans since the dawn of our existence and are the original educational curriculum. While they have their own limitations, they are still a powerful tool in education.