Preface

It’s a noble endeavor to be a learning professional. When people allow you to influence their thinking, it’s a privilege beyond words. We as a community of professionals should never take this for granted. A hundred years ago, this privilege lived mostly in classrooms. In the 1930s, radio gave our profession a new venue. Soon after that, television. Now, the 21st century offers many more spaces for learners to build knowledge and skills. We face new modalities, new platforms, new calls for personalization.

Our influence truly extends beyond the classroom. And just as we need skills to deliver meaningful learning in the classroom, learning professionals need solid skills and disciplined methods if we are to influence learners in these new spaces. The skills of classroom facilitation take time to learn, as well as a lifetime of successes and failures to perfect; it is no different with media production. It is just as unconscionable to leave it to chance when developing media as it is when preparing for the classroom. You might be able to get by once or twice, but there’s a real discipline to consistently producing quality media. Above all, winging it mocks the privilege learners have given us to influence them.

We need to be disciplined and skillful with media content. This can seem daunting for many learning professionals with limited experience recording a podcast, shooting a video, designing a graphic, or writing screen text. So when Justin Brusino, who talked me into writing my first book, suggested grabbing a beer to talk about another, I threw out the idea of drawing together these modalities into one book. There are some great books that focus on individual modalities such as video, audio, graphics, and screen text. But learning professionals are more and more being asked to work with all of them, and so I have written this book for readers who want to become masters at creating learning media.

In a way this book reflects some of the workshops I have done over the past decade and a half in London, Singapore, and Washington, D.C., on concepts relating to 360-degree storytelling and transmedia. After all, in the future we’ll need to use different modalities and platforms interchangeably, blended with other learning methodologies. Thankfully, Justin bought the idea and the beer, and has once again patiently guided me through the proposal process. Thanks, Justin.

I’ve sought to do two things in this book. First, to distill what I’ve learned over the past 25 years into a foundational framework that offers a mindset for thinking about constructing content that will cause learning. Second, to share practical methods, drawn from the professional media world and applied to consumer-level equipment, that will help you consistently make high-quality media content.

This book attempts to provide breadth rather than depth. It’s tough to squeeze 25 years of experience and learning into a couple hundred pages. So I have aimed to provide this framework as a tool you can use to deepen your skills and knowledge with practice and experience. It’s been tough to write because, like any subject matter expert, I’ve been tempted every step of the way to cram in more details, rather than remain focused on providing a foundation. It’s the subject matter expert’s curse. But Jack Harlow, my development editor, has helped me stay disciplined and keep this book foundational. Thanks, Jack.

Thanks also to Associate Editor Caroline Coppel, who oversaw the copy edits and shepherded me through the production of the book and subsequent reviews. She has been patient and understanding, which I have especially appreciated because she has worked around my relentless schedule of seminars and travel.

I know a lot about learning psychology and its relation to audio, video, and writing. I’ve been studying and teaching it for years. But I’m a “layman with an opinion” when it comes to graphics, not an expert. And yet it’s one of the modalities we all use, whether it be for presentation slides, in handouts, or part of a e-learning program. So I faced the challenge of whether to research and write as a journalist or consult a recognized expert. After a conversation with Justin and Jack, I thought, why not ask Connie Malamed to write a chapter? Connie comes to graphics with a healthy balance of being both a graphics expert and instructional design guru. And she’s a great writer. Her book Visual Language for Designers is both an instructive and visually beautiful book, informed by cognitive principles. As with her other books, it belongs on your shelf if you’re serious about media. I am so pleased that she agreed, and I am hugely grateful for her writing chapter 14.

I am very conscious that what I write is as much about what I have learned from others as it is about my own thinking. So it’s fair to say that this book reflects the wisdom and skills of many people who have taken me under their wing. During my earliest days of broadcasting, the late Alex Vale and Bruce McNeily were both hugely influential. Later, my days at BBC Production Training were incredible. While I had the honor to be a steward of this prestigious organization, the wisdom, expertise, wit, and good nature of its faculty shaped my thinking. This especially includes former colleagues at the Elstree and New Media training units in London: Paul Myers, Phil Ross, Simon Fox, Ian Hider, Paul Roberts, Simon Kidd, Mike Wright, Gareth Watkins, Ian Wyatt, Nigel Maslin, and others who were all my teachers. This book is as much yours as mine.

I also want to thank the participants of my workshops around the world with whom I have worked. Literally thousands of people in more than 25 countries have shaped my thinking with tough questions and thoughtful challenges. And their ensuing content production has been truly inspiring.

Writing can be a lonely pursuit. You withdraw from people to think, plan, write, and then rewrite. And then rewrite again. You stop answering emails and find yourself distracted when hanging out with friends as your mind continues to wander back to elements of the book you are struggling with. But it’s not all that lonely when you have the support of someone special. My wife, Sharon, is that special person, always an enormous support. She stayed up late on our vacation helping me scour the manuscript for typos and providing comments. And she put up with my absentmindedness and blank stares for weeks at a time during the writing period. This book is as much her success as it is mine.

Again, it’s a noble endeavor to be a learning professional. The fact that people open their minds and allow us to influence them, whether it be in a classroom or through a podcast they enjoy on their phone, is an incredible privilege. It’s the same with books. I’m privileged that you picked up this one and genuinely hope its influence provides a foundation for you to become a master at creating rapid media content for learning.

Jonathan Halls

Washington, D.C.

December 2016