Learning Modalities

The conventional wisdom is that as learners we fall into one of three categories: 1) Visual; 2) Auditory and; 3) Kinestetic. So you often hear someone say I am a "visual person", and in fact you hear this probably to the exclusion of I am an "auditory person" or I am a "kinestetic person". Why? Because processing complex visual patterns is something that human beings do quite well. Consider the number of images you are processing when driving 70 mph through Atlanta, LA, Chicago etc. But the truth of the matter is we learn through all our faculties, we are learning machines--and to the extent that the same topic can be covered using multiple modalities our learning is improved.

The Net is evolving into a medium where publishing in multiple modalities is becoming easier and easier. As we awake to the use of voice and video, and the power contained therein, we should not forget that it is the combination of the modalities that really make an impact. Context sensitive rich communications streams, and the companies (think Apple and Macromedia) and individuals (think Dyson and Searls) that leverage them, dramatically improve their communications effectiveness and the ability to convey messages, to touch their audience, and to sell their "products."

But because of the democratization of computing, no one has a pure monopoly on this capability, and I can assure you that the communications revolution is so nascent that we have yet to catch but a glimpse of where we are headed.

Tags: Searls, Dyson, Learning, Apple, Macromedia