I just spent an hour and forty minutes watching Thiagi on a YouTube video. That's a lot of time, but it was worth it.
Thiagi (whose last name is too long to spell, and like Prince or Madonna it's not really necessary) is not only one of our fields' foremost personalities and presenters, but he is also a brilliantly creative instructional designer. I may not agree with each and every one of his assertions, but every time I hear him speak I am compelled to listen for wisdom that I myself don't yet own. I am challenged to new ways of thinking. I am humbled by his encyclopedic knowledge of learning-design methods and his ability to pair learning needs with that encyclopedia.
If I was a learning executive with a tough learning-design problem, he would be one of the people I'd call to get useful original ideas on the issue.
As you watch the video, you might want to skip forward to 0:05:40 to get through the introductory comments about the program at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
I was at this presentation at UMBC and it was indeed inspirational -- it changed my thinking about how to approach several projects I was working on. Well worth watching!
Posted by: Cindy | Saturday, 31 May 2008 at 12:45 PM
Brilliant. Thanks for this link.
Posted by: Mark Frank | Monday, 02 June 2008 at 01:34 AM
I had the good fortune of seeing Thiagi at htis year's ASTD conference. I had heard of him before but never had the opportunity of seeing him. Thank you for this link so I can get a "Thiagi fix" whenever I need one.
Posted by: Katie | Monday, 30 June 2008 at 05:13 PM