Show and Tell 101

Among the first things trainers recognize is that, however useful showing training content may be, showing and telling works best of all. For example, visually demonstrating how to perform a process - rather than simply explaining the steps - increases comprehension, and more importantly, increases the likelihood of successful performance by the trainee. Interaction, engaging trainer and trainee to the maximum, proves to be the ideal.

Moreover, as the number of people in the workplace using English as a second language increases worldwide, the need for showing and telling synchronically becomes imperative, especially when both trainer and trainee must use Business English, the most commonly-used second language worldwide, by default.

The use of graphics, in conjunction with text or speech, creates its own problems, often realized only after errors occur. For example, intuitive assumptions by speakers of European languages, English among them, in using graphics displayed left to right, ignore the fact that most literate people in the world persist in reading and perceiving "counter-intuitively," right to left or top to bottom.

The tragic experience of the powdered infant-formula manufacturer in Africa endures as an example of the aesthetic priority of context over expression. The multinational firm, usually aware of its communications, offered an apparent boon to its new customers: nutritious, easily prepared food for babies. The firm diligently illustrated the steps for preparing the formula in a series of graphics arrayed left to right. Following directions properly was critically, and clinically, important as the water used for the baby food formula must be boiled as one of the first steps. Unwittingly, the manufacturer reversed -- from the perspective of the customer -- the sanitary procedure for preparing the infant formula safely. As read by a mother speaking and reading Arabic, the graphic sequence on the baby formula package progressed left to right -- the opposite of what the box manufacturers intended. Many children died before the error was discovered and corrected.

One picture may well be worth a thousand words, but as few as two graphics side by side could produce the opposite of the intended meaning you believe is self-evident. Moreover, many technical topics do not allow for meaningful graphical representation.

While our visible linguistic continuum is obviously not universal on this issue, our faculty for hearing is. Beginnings, middles and endings are universal, at least on the sentence level. Voice-only telephone communications, voice mail and teleconferencing not only yield benefits and generate meaning but also have limitations. You will be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or ignored. Adding visual input, e.g., through whiteboard technology such as Lotus Notes, increases comprehension and allows for archiving – you can save notes or transparencies used in a training session for review.

However, representing technical processes and demonstrating procedures clearly and distinctly is an under-appreciated art. By now, most of us have been victims of the blunt end of a Powerpoint demonstration, our senses clipped by an overabundance of public-domain graphics, our eyesight strained by too many words or fonts pasted indiscriminately in our multimedia productions.

Now, video is becoming the next element routinely added to training presentations, either as downloaded files or, most commonly, dithered, talking heads featuring lips out of synch with the picture. This will change as chips become faster, etc. Video input on your computer monitor at speeds approximating television, streaming video, looks great. Many monitors can now reproduce HDTV-quality displays with excellent resolution, but who wants to watch a 14-inch screen for hours on end, without being paid for it.

Real time video-streaming back and forth between trainer and trainee is rarely redundant. At any point, trainees not synchronizing what they hear with what they see can immediately ask for clarification or for more illustrations of the point being made, however technical or obscure. Humor, spontaneous responses, subtleties and nuance are all more likely in such interactions

Redundancy in digital communication technology is an inherent virtue. Static that obscures the standard analog phonograph recording, telephone or radio communication is irrelevant for digital signal processors that sample and represent content numerous times per second compared with analog technology. You can replay video clips from digital video disc (DVDs) innumerable times, yet no matter how high the quality of video tape and analog recording technology, you lose information every time you play video tape – drop-outs.

The two major approaches in serving video for training are downloading and streaming. Downloading a file and displaying content on the PC characterizes most asynchronous distant learning platforms. The delays in downloading large video files (e.g., Quicktime or ActiveMovie, readily identified sometimes as *.avi or *.mov files) as well as transmitting over the internet attenuate learning and discourage useful interactive training.

While downloaded video training content is desirable because storage for later review is easy on most PCs, until recently the gargantuan size of video files made it difficult to store video content on anything except analog video tape. Recent advances in archiving, transmitting, compressing and decompressing video information, increasingly make streaming video an affordable and simple alternative to ISDN or satellite linked videoconferencing and training.

Several new products, all easy-to-learn and use video broadcasting systems under $1000, are closing the gap on the more elaborate teleconferencing systems long available on virtual private networks or on corporate LANs and WANs.

Granted, the frames viewed per second over the Internet is slower, 16 frames of video information per second (fps), as opposed to the higher speeds, quality and price of PictureTel’s Swiftsite or Sony Trinicom. Our look at three of the many systems available focuses on the resources available for the trainer as well as current limitations to be accounted for in designing your training program using streaming video. Considerations include storage/archiving requirements, control of content by trainer and trainee, and flexibility for varied training requirements.

Three systems readily available on the net and through VARs (where installation or customer support is required) 3Com US Robotics Bigpicture (http://www.3com/client/pcd/ products/bigpicture/index.html), Winnov Conference Pro (http://winnov.com/products.html ), and Odyssey Technologies Remote Eyes (http://www.remoteeyes.com) all combine streaming audio and video input with useful, user-friendly features. The selection of low-cost, high-quality video cameras available is astounding, expect to pay more if you want zooming, tilting or panning or if high definition video input is required.

All three feature plug-in circuit boards for one of your PC slots (or PCMCIA cards/USB for lap-tops) and can input through ethernet ports from your WAN/LAN or over the internet using copper-wire, plain old telephone service (POTS). Be prepared for less than maximum fps streaming, depending on the modem or bandwidth (POTS, ISDN, etc.) available to you. Even at 56K speeds, these systems will put you face to face with your trainees anywhere in the world, allowing everyone to show and tell clearly, distinctly, and economically.

Other training-oriented considerations prevail. For many training programs, archiving of training content or storage of the training session is desirable and often required. Due diligence often demands keeping a record that the trainee was informed and acknowledged an understanding of a technical issue or fact. Reviewing a training session on demand will help trainer and trainee improve retention and performance.

Some caveats: Audio/video files are HUGE and that multi-gigabit hard drive or RAID device (think of a really HUGE hard drive) will only hold so many minutes of a session. The Odyssey board costs a bit more than the other two but features built-in MPEG compression and decompression of files. Some compression scheme is desirable; software algorithms to compress and decompress video files vary widely in speed, quality, fidelity, and accessibility.

All three systems allow for file creation, access and storage by trainer and trainee. Besides the usefulness for distance learning, you also have a video e-mail system available on your desktop or laptop, as well as frame capture to produce frames recorded as a still picture. Paste that in your Powerpoint demonstration, instead of the boring standard-issue clip art.

All three feature remote control of the cameras, provided the cameras have this capability, not all do, especially the lower costing models. This is useful if the trainer wants to zoom on the face of the trainee or the trainee wants to zoom on some tool or technique the trainer is demonstrating. Body language and expression let you know if you are getting your point across.

The Odyssey system features an add-on option of as many as 8 relay outputs per unit for on/off switching of lights or other mechanical devices. You can control sensitive, delicate, or expensive equipment used for training; you can shut it down remotely in case a trainee pulls a Homer Simpson, e.g., flips the wrong switch on the reactor control panel.

Finally, all three systems allow you to catalogue, access, and administer training records and video sessions on your PC. You will not be throwing away those VHS cassettes just yet, but you will rely more on digital storage, increasingly available as a commodity-service over the internet, and those multi gigabit hard drives will only be replaced with multi tera-bit hard drives, the next prefix describing an order of magnitude you will see.

Performance evaluations, presentations of technical information, cost/benefit needs analyses, all have the potential for becoming more interesting and demonstrative using streaming video clips you archived. The camera allegedly tells the truth 24 fps; you will find tremendous value with these systems – even at 16 fps.