Written by 
I forget what the other terms were so until I remember I’m going to take off and discuss a related topic … so there! If you won’t suggest topics you get to put up with my eccentricities. 
One of the ways that learning content (or more correctly the tactics of delivery) can be classified is by the direction and nature of the communications.
For example, an event’s communications can be either:
- one way (facilitator to student)
- both ways (facilitator to student to facilitator)
- Exploratory (facilitator starts discussion and keeps discussion going)
- Practice (facilitator starts, students discuss in small teams, students report to all, discussion with all)
One typical terminology for this is:
A lecture is what we traditionally think of when we think of teaching. One person stands at the front of a group and spouts their knowledge.
A seminar is closer to the Socratic ideal of mutual exploration. It is characterized by feedback and development of the information by the “student”. However, it is still very much a case of the facilitator dispensing information out to the student. In fact, there is a saying that until someone asks a question, a seminar is just a lecture.
A tutorial on the other hand is the Socratic method. By this point the information should have already been disseminated. Although the facilitator may spark discussion by repeating the information the focus is on the group expanding and questioning the information.
A workshop is a practice session. The facilitator may start the process but the process occurs primarily inside the student. Break out sessions are a great example of this tactic. In this tactic, students break apart for the practice then return to discuss and explore the results. The individual versions of this may include homework or software practice which may be discussed, may be self-evident or may be self-evaluated.
Now I have no idea why all this is important … but it seems to be and I’m short of something to talk about. So Friday, I’ll continue the discussion by looking at training media and it’s relationship to these tactics.
