Human system interaction: Communication solutions for education & training

Abstract

Perpetually improving technology brings new equipment, systems, solutions and semantics. It also brings new dramatic challenges. For example, high-tech project requirements become greater and the level of complexity, cost, and documentation requirements tend to increase. An urgent topic of today is high-tech education and training, activities based on communication. Today's communication results not only from tens of thousands of years of human interactions, but also latest unprecedented explosion of information and specialized knowledge. The latter phenomena fuel confusion, distrust, deepened societal division following a Pareto principle, and also prevalence of humbug and 'dictatorship of mediocrity'. All those factors add new requirements to educational and training processes. This paper addresses those key challenges and offers several communication solutions based on the use of certain developmental learning models. Those models are simplified presentations of complex, elaborate, or vague concepts, designed to accelerate the learning process, accelerate experience, and extend retention of the acquired knowledge and skills. Their concept and dynamic learning aspects are introduced, and some examples presented. A brief review of high-tech application aspects follows including their impact on project engineering, management, and execution. The use and abuse of new communication challenges brought in with those technologies are discussed. Some traps and urban myths are unveiled. Teaching non-technical aspects and a concept of the "old fashion engineering plus" are also formulated as the solutions. The author believes that today's effective education and training must stimulate curiosity, clarify perception and motivate learners. It can be achieved by effecting simple communication solutions outlined in this paper.