Clark Aldrich
Encyclopedia
Clark Bennett Aldrich is an American author and practitioner working on building and popularizing education
al simulation
s for education and professional skills.
His research, which he conducted outside of the influence and prescription of academic and grant-giving institutions, resulted in a series of articles, speeches, and 5 books, beginning in 1999, have noted the failure of formal education to teach leadership, innovation, and other strategic skills, and advocated interactive experiences borrowing techniques from current computer games as media to fill these gaps. He argues that computer games represent new, "post-linear" models for capturing and representing content, but that new computer game genres will have to be created, optimized for learning as well as entertainment.
He was the lead designer for several ground-breaking educational simulations, including SimuLearn's Virtual Leader[1], which won best online training product of the year in 2004 by Training Media Review and the American Society of Training and Development's T+D Magazine.
Aldrich also published Unschooling Rules in 2011. The premise of this book was that current education models have been sub optimized around a series of assumptions (classrooms, books, broad curricula, transcripts) that will resist significant improvement while in place. He advocates that education researchers and change agents look to home schoolers and unschoolers as environments of and for innovation.
Aldrich worked at Xerox, initially as the speech writer for Executive Vice President Wayland Hicks. While at Xerox, Aldrich became the Governor’s appointee to Connecticut’s Joint Committee on Educational Technology (where he served from 1996-2000).
Aldrich then moved to Gartner, where he launched their e-learning coverage, and began his formal writing and analysis about education. He was recognized by Training Magazine as a "Visionary of the Industry" and by Fortune Magazine as an "Industry Guru" in 2000, and by the American Society of Training and Development as a member of "Training's New Guard" in 2001.
He left Gartner to begin hands-on work in designing and building simulations himself, where he also increased his external writing about the industry through books, columns, and articles. To find best practices, Aldrich works with military, academic, corporate, government, and non-profit organizations. His simulations have also earned numerous industry awards. including "Best Product of the Year" in 2004 by Training Media Review. In 2004, CNN profiled him as a "maverick." His 2009 book The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games was awarded one of the best training products of the year by Training Media Review.
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
s for education and professional skills.
His research, which he conducted outside of the influence and prescription of academic and grant-giving institutions, resulted in a series of articles, speeches, and 5 books, beginning in 1999, have noted the failure of formal education to teach leadership, innovation, and other strategic skills, and advocated interactive experiences borrowing techniques from current computer games as media to fill these gaps. He argues that computer games represent new, "post-linear" models for capturing and representing content, but that new computer game genres will have to be created, optimized for learning as well as entertainment.
He was the lead designer for several ground-breaking educational simulations, including SimuLearn's Virtual Leader[1], which won best online training product of the year in 2004 by Training Media Review and the American Society of Training and Development's T+D Magazine.
Aldrich also published Unschooling Rules in 2011. The premise of this book was that current education models have been sub optimized around a series of assumptions (classrooms, books, broad curricula, transcripts) that will resist significant improvement while in place. He advocates that education researchers and change agents look to home schoolers and unschoolers as environments of and for innovation.
Education and Work Experiences
Clark Aldrich grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, and graduated from Fenn School and Lawrence Academy. He spent eight summers at the Chewonki Foundation, including four as a counselor, under the mentorship of Director Tim Ellis. He received his Bachelor Degree in Cognitive Science from Brown University.Aldrich worked at Xerox, initially as the speech writer for Executive Vice President Wayland Hicks. While at Xerox, Aldrich became the Governor’s appointee to Connecticut’s Joint Committee on Educational Technology (where he served from 1996-2000).
Aldrich then moved to Gartner, where he launched their e-learning coverage, and began his formal writing and analysis about education. He was recognized by Training Magazine as a "Visionary of the Industry" and by Fortune Magazine as an "Industry Guru" in 2000, and by the American Society of Training and Development as a member of "Training's New Guard" in 2001.
He left Gartner to begin hands-on work in designing and building simulations himself, where he also increased his external writing about the industry through books, columns, and articles. To find best practices, Aldrich works with military, academic, corporate, government, and non-profit organizations. His simulations have also earned numerous industry awards. including "Best Product of the Year" in 2004 by Training Media Review. In 2004, CNN profiled him as a "maverick." His 2009 book The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games was awarded one of the best training products of the year by Training Media Review.
Quotations
- "If I had six hours to learn anything, I would spend four of it practicing."
- “I made a perfect simulation about growing a company. The only problem is that it takes twenty-five years to play.”
- “I would rather be specific and wrong than vague and right.”
- "An inexperienced learner is thrown by frustration, but a good learner uses it."
- "What is taught is restricted by what can be taught."
- "Breaking down the artificial barriers between what we learn and what we do, between business and academics, and between understanding history and controlling our future, simulation development will be a defining 21st century industry."
- "Rather than using game genres, like first person shooter or real time strategy, there needs to be fifteen or twenty new simulation genres created, presumably open source, each of which focuses on one subject area, such as leadership, innovation, and project management."
- "The simulation interface is part of the content, not just a conduit to the content."
- "We are at a time in the history of education when everything can change. Our minds can be as well developed and nurtured as our bodies… the work of a few people will echo through the ages, changing the very wealth of nations."