As a trainer, like many others, I travel round the country laden with
posters, props, toys and other paraphernalia, trying to create positive
learning environments from windowless basements, cramped boardrooms that
double as storerooms, corporate bland hotel rooms, or cold, sterile
rooms packed full of technology. It amazes me that so many organisations
have so little awareness of the impact of the environment on learning,
using training venues that in many cases actually inhibit learning.
Setting up our own training venue The Salthouse,
in beautiful rural Somerset, gave me a wonderful opportunity to create a
space which actually helps people to learn, and I love the fact that
learners who come here experience positive emotions and enhanced
learning. Most of the decisions I made when creating a training venue
were intuitively made, based on my experience and instincts, rather than
on scientific evidence or hard facts, but having recently reviewed much
of the research into the impact of environment on learning, I'm
satisfied that we made good decisions and that The Salthouse does indeed
promote good learning.
Not everyone is lucky enough to set up their own training venue, and most organisations or trainers are dependant
on external venues or company meeting rooms, so I've summarised some of
the key facts about what makes a Brain Friendly training venue into a
free factsheet - What to Look for in a Brain Friendly Training Venue
with a handy checklist at the end, which I hope will help to raise
awareness of how using the right venue can significantly improve
learning, and encourage the use of training venues which are brain
friendly. Please feel free to download this from our Free Resources pages and share with your colleagues.
We
may still want to take our toys, images and other materials with us to
create an enriched learning environment, but getting the venue right in
the first place will give us a sold foundation for creating powerful,
successful learning experiences which really make a difference to how
people work. If you have a favourite venue that meets our
criteria, please post the details below and we'll aim to make our next
resource a list of Brain Friendly Training Venues. |