LET’S GIVE IT UP FOR THE BRAIN!

Worried about your ability to embrace new technology to maintain your status as an e-learning pro? Trevor Garrett encourages us to trust our own brains in the age of AI.

Your brain is composed of trillions of cells called neurons.

Neurones, like building blocks, are picked out of the box and connected to each other to make a beautiful combination. Unlike building blocks, these combinations of neurones enable us to play out specific actions. We have an abundance of unemployed neurones, ready and waiting to be made use of.

As you learn new things, previously unused neurones become part of the great network of employed. We know this to be true because their action is described as memory.

When you learn, you are building new memories, and when you are at work you employ those memories. Everything you do can be attributed to a specific network of neurones, and as you grow older those networks combine, enabling the practice of more complex actions.

Look at Alzheimer’s, a common form of dementia that sees the destruction of neurons, where sufferers not only find it difficult to learn new things, but worse, involuntarily, they unlearn things. Over time the destruction of neurones becomes so bad, they don’t even recognise their family. It is an extraordinarily painful experience for sufferers, and for those that are closest.

Although dementia is a very difficult battle for the brain, there are many other battles that it is capable of winning.

Consider an injury. If you break a leg and find yourself in a cast, your ability to walk properly reduces. Not only does your leg need to fix, but your brain also needs to adapt to the new conditions. You must relearn how to get around, or you will quickly find that you are unable to do the things you want to do (1).

With effort and practice on your part, the brain gets to work and starts employing neurones to build a network that when combined in a certain way, and then sparked into action, enables you to work around your new situation. This might mean the use of crutches, or walking in a certain way that minimises pain, or using a wheelchair. All new skills that must be learned and remembered, through practice, and played out via newly networked pathways inside your brain.

There is a correlation between the level of determination to relearn and the rate of recovery. That correlation is influenced by the spectrum of pain experienced. Rebuilding takes time and starts with small steps, the more of which you repeat reinforces the strength and memory of the neuronal network, which in turn, transforms those small steps into great strides. Until finally, voila, you can walk properly again.

This process of neuronal combination is exactly the process you use when you learn how to cook a new recipe or drive a new type of car. Once the neuronal network is set up and employed, you can get out into the wide world and put your new learning into action.

You have the tools to learn, so why don’t you? Quite often to learn something new, you must go through a process of voluntary unlearning. This means that you need to replace what you already know, with something you don’t. As we all know, this can be a painful process. The more embedded your current understanding of something is, the more difficult it is to walk away, but walk away you must.

46% of the UK work force learned a new world skill in 2022. Suggesting that approximately 54% ofthe workforce did not. Over the coming years, approximately 26% of working roles will disappear due to the ever-growing digital economy (2) .

This means that the use of robots and wondrous new software applications is growing so fast, that if you don’t learn to adapt, you are leaving yourself prone to redundancy.

It is no longer enough to be an expert in your process; you also need to be an expert in your field. This means you must not ignore the latest technology that is brought to you. You must embrace it and learn how to use it.

The message is simple – learn to adapt to your changing environment or find it harder to keep your job. It no longer takes years for a new thing to happen, it takes days.

So, if you can accept this to be true, what about that pain barrier? Some people like pain, so we don’t need to worry about them. Most of us, however, do not. So, let us consider some tangible causes for learning pain.

1. We think ourselves not capable of learning, so why bother?

2. Learning something new makes us very anxious and nervous.

3. We expose our ignorance to others when learning something new; this is not nice.

4. We do not have the time needed to learn something new.

5. What we have is working well enough, so why learn something new?

6. We all learn in diverse ways, and the way for me to learn does not exist.

7. I need to do things in a certain way, or I cannot function.

8. I anticipate pain, and so try to avoid.

Your brain has taken billions of years to evolve, and it has all of these issues covered. Trust it, let go of your fears, and rely on yourself.

You can do it, and here is why:

1. Why bother? If you do not, you may become irrelevant in the workplace.

2. Scared? Yes, new things can be scary, so let others help you through.

3. Show your ignorance, the people around you will gladly help.

4. Time. If your company does not allow you time to learn, well, are you in the right place?

5. Current processes work. Yes, the horse and cart works well too. Why don’t you use the cart to transport your shopping?

6. Diverse learning – good point – you need the right tools to help get you through. Talk about what you need, then the resources can be sought and provided.

7. You have a certain way of thinking – again, good point – let’s be honest, your way of thinking is needed, but you can build on this to give you even greater powers to reason through problems.

What about pain avoidance? How can we learn something new, with as little pain as possible?

An authority of learning in the workplace, The Learning Guild (3), says the best way to engage most people is through video training.

For many of us this is true, but you need to take heed of the lessons your brain can teach you. Small relevant steps, repeat and flesh out those neuronal networks.

You also need convenience, information should be delivered in a way you can engage with, provoking as little stress and anxiety as possible. Ideally, learning should happen without you noticing. If you don’t notice you’re learning, it can’t hurt, right?

If you’re still a bit skeptical, consider this: learning to use a new digital application is far easier than learning to walk again. Believe it or not, your brain is capable of mastering both.

1 Kathy Davidson - Now you see it, how technology and brain science will transform schools and business for the 21st century.

2 Simon Brown - Chief Learning Officer, Novartis. Learning Technologies, London 2022.

3 David Kelly - CEO, The Learning Guild. Learning Technologies, London 2022

Trevor Garrett PhD, Knowledge Architect, is a skilled knowledge manager with a strong focus on developing and optimizing learning approaches, documentation, and community analytics, leveraging a scientific research background to drive collaboration and operational efficiency.