Earlier this year, Guy Wallace and Mirjam supported the L&D Conference organised by Matt Richter and Will Thalheimer by producing 9 short video interviews with L&D Giants. We asked the following 3 key questions:
Today we are posting the first of those 9 video interviews, with the remaining videos to be posted over the next 8 weeks, on Tuesdays.
Today we present:
JANE BOZARTH
Jane Bozarth, the director of research for The eLearning Guild, is a veteran classroom trainer who transitioned to eLearning in the late 1990s and never looked back. In her previous job as leader of the State of North Carolina’s award-winning eLearning program, Jane specialized in finding low-cost ways of providing online training solutions. She is the author of several books, including eLearning Solutions on a Shoestring, Social Media for Trainers, and Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-To’s of Working Out Loud. A popular conference presenter, Jane holds a doctorate in training and development and is the recipient of many awards, including the Guild Master Award in 2013 for her accomplishments and contributions to the eLearning community.
3-Star learning experiences 
I like your use of the Old English rhyme, “Something Olde, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue” as an interview format. Clever. The answers provided by Dr. Bozarth were nothing new, however. I deeply admire you, this blog, and Dr. Bozarth – but would like true thought-provoking answers from the experts – as well as more thoughtful follow-up questions from the interviewer. Dig for more gems! There are likely there. I am not saying this discussion has no value – just that you can push these experts harder than you did – and that they would likely appreciate it.
What do you think of the current state of the L&D profession?
The current state of the L&D profession is in flux while the field tries to balance-out the role of traditional instruction with digital approaches. This is common knowledge.
What past research hasn’t been put into practice well enough? What recent research should be put into practice as soon as possible?
We don’t define generations very well in a global sense when we define these generations according to important events in American history, which may be irrelevant to more global audiences found in Europe, China, and Japan. There are so many ways to answer this question. This is one way. But again this isn’t an unusual insight. You could just as well said “technology”.
What continuing myths in the field of L&D are most damaging and why?
The notion that there is a connection between some definition of learning style and teaching to that style and outcomes is incorrect. This is also common knowledge.
I have interview techniques I can share that do this. It is more work but yields an interview where the expert tells personal stories and shares hard-won insights. See my interview with Peter Senge published by MIT Press – https://www.solonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sol_reflections_8.4.pdf.
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Thanks for your feedback. Our goal, however, was to produce a series of short videos, 9-10 minutes in length, using the same questions with each interviewee so we might compare and contrast their answers. What one will see across all 9, are common themes that would seem to indicate, that from the perspectives of our interviewees, that common knowledge doesn’t seem to be common practice. Stay safe. Cheers!
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