All the best for 2012 to all of you!
-> picture credits: nerdigurumi.com
One of my New Year’s resolutions (besides advancing my Angry Birds skills 
…) is to learn how to crochet Amugurumi patterns. I got myself an Amigurumi book for Christmas and I am now in the phase of chosing my first pattern.
I learned how to knit and crochet a couple of years ago by watching videos which were recorded and shared on Youtube by experienced knitters and crocheters. (Check out Stricken & Häkeln mit elizzza, she is great!) Based on this great and very successful learning experience, now that I want to learn something new in this field, I am again turning to blogs and videos, this time of Amigurumi pros.
I have just come across a very well-done, yet simple video of how to crochet Amigurumi the right way and I think we can learn a lot more than just stitches from it: There is a lot of discussion going on in the KM and Learning/Education community about whether or how videos can be helpful tools for knowledge sharing and learning. Without going deeper into the theoretical discussion, I would like to share this video with you as an example of a simple, yet great learning video and then explain why it is so insightful and helpful.
0. Keep it Short: The video is short and simple, and it comes straight to the point.
1. Tell a Story: The presenter tells a story about her own experience, her frustrations and how she came to learn about crocheting the right way. She starts from where the learner is and illustrates her own struggles. So, the learners will not have to go through this struggle and make the same mistakes themselves.
2. Use Illustrative Material: The presenter prepared three different examples of crocheted balls to use them as illustrative material. With these, she is able to demonstrate the difference between the three approaches she is discussing in the video. Thanks to these visual aids, the learners can easily understand what she is referring to.
3. Create a Vision: By showing the correct example, i.e. the perfect ball, she creates a vision for the learners of what they will achieve with the right approach. They get an idea of the outcome of their actions and are most likely to follow the promising procedure.
