Understanding how people learn – the Affective Context Model

Nick Shackleton-Jones, Manager of Online & Informal Learning at the BBC, has created a video explaining the Affective Context Model and what it means for learning. He talks about how emotion plays a part in the way we learn.

This provides me with an opportunity to highlight my presentation at the TCUK conference, “Documentation as an Emotional experience for the user“.

Here is his video:

6 Comments

mick davidson

Great, excellent video, it completely supports how I feel about learning based on my own experience. I’d also say that people have different ways and abilities to learn. So some people can just read books etc and learn, I’ve seen them doing it, so I know it’s true.
I learn by doing, repetition, reading, looking at pictures, playing. If things are too abstract, then I can’t assimilate them. School was a nightmare for me. I did all my best learning by reading about things I liked.
You’re right about having context: I can remember things from infant school that had nothing to do with education, but everything to do with human psychology. And I could take you on a tour of central Lima, Cuzco and may other places I’ve travelled and tell you loads of stuff about the Mayans because this stuff excites me and stimulates my interest, but I’ve never studied it. Whereas I’ve still to discover why twitter is so useful to technical documentation, despite reading loads about why it is. 🙂

Morten Müller

1) I really found Ellis’ presentation on this topic at TCUK10 useful.
2) I really enjoyed Shackleton-Jones’ video too, and what he tells us is very much in sync with my own (learning) experience as well. True stuff!

How technical writers can make themselves heard « ffeathers — a technical writer’s blog

[…] Suggest other ways to engage readers in the documentation, and explain how this is beneficial to our organisation as well as the customers. Also, from our own point of view as technical writers, we should bear in mind that we have internal customers as well as external. I’ve written a presentation about engaging readers in the documentation. Ellis Pratt has excellent material on documentation as an emotional experience. […]

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