Tom’s Thoughts

Tom shares his thoughts on the use of video drama to improve learning and development

This is an important cue for learning and development professionals to further the discussion of how a diversity and inclusion agenda can be properly served in the workplace. The problem is that, as a great deal of research has repeatedly shown, diversity training doesn’t work.

February 1, 2023

We’ve just produced an advert for TV and social media designed to boost recruitment for Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus. I’m pleased to say that job applications have already significantly increased. 

February 1, 2023

In most large organisations there is a problem that seem impervious to everything you throw at it. Training and mandating, workshops and awareness campaigns don’t make a dent. These problems usually boil down to one thing – behaviour.

February 1, 2023

I make video for learning and I specialise in drama. When people think of training films, it’s not what they think of when we say “Netflix”. After a lifetime in the sector, during the lockdown, I took a hard look at video drama in learning to work out how we can improve things.

February 1, 2023

I had the rare opportunity to direct a short promotional film for Fairlight School in Brighton – where my two children attend. It was an unpaid piece of work which was a treat because it took off the usual pressure of corporate deadlines. Also, we aim to do at least one project for a local community organisation in Brighton, where Nice is based, each year.

February 1, 2023

Drama doesn’t tell people what to do, but it can stimulate them to think deeply about a problem.  If you can create a safe space around that experience, discussion and sometimes solutions can arise.

September 2, 2022

Man and woman look at papers, another woman sits on the table
Pitching for major L&D contracts that are centred around video drama is highly competitive, so there’s always a temptation to include some kind of gimmick in the basic design.  I like a gimmick as much as the next person, but sometimes a gimmick can work against the functionality of the project. 

July 5, 2022

Close-up of a young woman in a drama video
I’ve been reflecting upon how drama is the most adult of learning materials.  No, not “adult” in that sense, but a medium that only succeeds when we treat our learners as adults and address them as equals. 

June 27, 2022

Characters from a Learning Drama
There are two main ways that video drama works in learning.  The first is to do with learning theory and the second is to do with anthropology, and they work best when combined. 

May 10, 2022

Tom Hickmore in a podcast interview
Since publishing Watch & Learn I’ve been interviewed several times about its content on a variety of podcasts. Here is a list with the links.

May 9, 2022

In the summer of 2021 Nice Media produced a series of learning videos about dementia awareness for South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS).   

April 21, 2022

Most learning video is subject to Ebbinghaus’ famous forgetting curve. We forget 50% of anything we learn within an hour, and it keeps fading away.

April 21, 2022

One of the most rewarding jobs we worked on in 2019 was the development and production of video drama content for a MOOC about Safeguarding Adults for Health Education England. 

April 21, 2022

I make drama for learning, so I’ve made a video series taking popular TV drama and looking at it with an analytical eye

April 21, 2022