The Family History Guide and “Just in Time Learning”
Being a California girl, I love the redwood trees along our coastline. I love how small they make me feel as we walk next to them. There is something so awesome and reverent about them. I’ve noticed people often whisper in places like Muir Woods, if they talk at all.
Sometimes I feel exactly like that when I realize how much I do not know about Family History and Genealogy. Sometimes I feel that same way when I am surrounded by brilliant people that are like those tall redwoods. It seems that no matter how hard I try, there is often something that stops me in my tracks and I have to go searching for that missing piece to the current puzzle. There is often that big void in my knowledge that stops me from going forward. If you have read my posts before, you know I call it My Swiss Cheese brain.
Today I learned something exciting about this from one of the training videos by, Bob Taylor, called Introduction to the Family History Guide 2. It is found in the Training Link on the home page. I had watched that video before but this time it clicked when he mentioned “Just In Time Learning.” Just in time learning is accomplished but placing something into the teaching plan strategically, right where the student will need it. Just In Time Teaching, often referred to as (JiTT) was developed in the 1990 for universities teaching physics. You can read about it in Wikipedia if you are interested.
This is exactly how The Family History Guide teaches us. Keeping a person engaged in learning is disrupted if they have to stop, leave the site and go research something before they can proceed. With The Family History Guide this is not an issue. Step-by-step sequential teaching has what we need when we need it. It is so convenient as compared to hopping all over the Internet for what we need. I’m seeing lots of applications for this in all kinds of teaching. I totally love those “aha” moments, don’t you?
