You’re a US Army sergeant in Afghanistan. Can you help a young lieutenant overcome cultural differences and make a good impression on a Pashtun leader?

That’s the challenge behind “Connect with Haji Kamal,” a decision-making scenario that my cool client Kinection and I developed for the US Army. The online scenario is the homework part of a lesson plan that includes in-class discussion about how to build rapport across cultures. It’s part of a much larger effort in the Army to strengthen soldiers’ cross-cultural and peacekeeping skills.

Turn on your speakers and give it a spin, and then come back here if you’re interested in the design decisions behind the activity.

The goals

The activity is designed to be completed as homework before a culture class, and it includes a facilitator guide with debrief questions. Our goals were to model specific rapport-building behaviors and inspire class discussion.

To follow the “good” paths, you need to see things from Haji Kamal’s point of view, show respect and patience, and otherwise apply cross-cultural skills that will be discussed in class. You end up on less successful branches by making more ethnocentric choices. (more…)

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On January 27-29, VizThink 08 will bring visual thinkers to San Francisco to discuss “the power of visualization for learning and communication.” The planners say that most of the conference will focus on “small group discussion, practical experience, and, wherever possible, hands-on practice.”

You can see the full list of facilitators here, but for me the star attraction is Scott McCloud. He’s the author of Making Comics, which is an indispensable guide to graphic storytelling and a must-buy for any elearning developer who uses stories with pictures.

An early registration discount ends Sept. 28.

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Tools: Comic Life (Mac); stock photos
Notes: Completely unscientific pie chart based on information in Do Learning Professionals Make the Worst Learners? by Tony Karrer.