Learning in verse

I did the first four minutes of my BETT speech in verse. Here it is. With Thanks to Nick Welch and to Babs for filming.

BETT 2013 from nick welch & barbara thompson on Vimeo.


And here's the text as well:

Learning - what a curious game. Twenty years now and it's looking the same:

 classrooms, teachers, something to read. Hotels, long flights, faculty lead.

We learn at work like we learned at school, right?

Wrong! No stress, no working 'till midnight.

Gone! Exams and cramming in low light

Now we discern that parents concern

is integral to how we learn

so that's why it matters more than a bit,

whether line mangers give a damn

No parents flak, no fear of failing,

no DT, career derailing

Now PowerPoint slides by while we keep one eye on the texts, text, i, phone, home, break, stop work, network, not work

How dumb are we, not to see, that study challenge-free

Is just an event. Like a movie. Or tea.

That Learning was event plus anxiety.

We've been working in learning while learning ain't working.

Filling a role, intellectually shirking

We're protoscientific you and me - alchemy before chemistry,

The talking cure for business ills - no pills, instead

We 'network', run up bills, fill those powerpoints until

They break. For coffee. We know the drill.

They say we need professionalisation

The hell we do - like that will fix the situation

Effect affects respect,  results not certificates

Learning profession is a contradiction

Our impact just a work of fiction

iD degree - NLP - you don't fool me

we're right down there with homeopathy

Psychotherapy showed you could trade on confusion,

Between things we like to do and the impact illusion

Not being dramatic - i just want to stop and ask

'Bout the basic suppositions that underlie our task

'cause when I look back

I don't want to have to say

I did 'Edifying stuff in some non-specific way'

Teaching isn't learning is what they say.

You still want to say that when you're old and grey?

no I don't want to see an industry where part of me longs to be free of KP 123, doing things differently, not selling obscurity, or IT. Guilt free.

Maybe it's just me.

But if you want to complain, that's fine, stand in line, One at a time!

So let me break it down, give it to you straight

We're coming at the problem too little too late

And now my friends it seems to me we face a choice of destiny

The top down thing is history, now we learn for free, p2p

So here it is, option number one

You make a living out of curation

Honeybee to you and me

Gather stories, lessons learned

Share best practice, stuff hard earned

Your every deed to feed the need of folk who must be up to speed like 'that'

Outcomes guaranteed.

Collate resources - if they don't use 'em

It's your fault. Have no illusions

So then, option number two

From curator to creator is what you do

Not content, content to gather

You turn producer, make stuff that matters

Adverts, viral vide-o

3D, infographics, o-

And don't forget that they will let

You know if your nice short form video

Is good or no and they have tablets, apps like whoh! and multimedia on the go

They trust stuff from folks they know - and you do stuff and they're like so?

So here's the thing I want to know - are you ready? Good to go?

Ace design skills head to toe? Or is your content just 'so so'

Oh.

Decide to set ID aside, don't hide

Instead learn quick

To Make sticky stuff or make stuff stick

The key to options one and two?

Know your audience through and through

Know what they like and what they don't

What they use, what they won't

The things they really care about

The challenges within, without

And the no1 thing we need to learn?

Is how to analyse concern

I know this won't make sense to you

Believe me when I say it's true

The one thing that all learnings share

Is the element of care.

I'll leave it there.