The purpose of this web site is to provide a central source of information about two educational myths: 1) The Retention Data numbers, and 2) The Corrupted Cone of Experience. In the numbered sections, a timeline of events is provided for:
1) The Retention Data (eg. we remember 20% of what we hear....90% of what we do)
2) Dale's Cone of Experience (the authentic cone, produced by Edgar Dale himself)
3) Versions of the Corrupted Cone of Learning (retention data overlaid onto Dale's Cone, starting somewhere around 1970)
4) Debunking attempts
In the final section, some possible misconceptions about the Cone of Experience from Edgar Dale himself are outlined.
The major contributors to this project are:
Dr. Deepak Subramony (Grand Valley State)
Dr. Michael Molenda (Indiana University)
Dr. Anthony Betrus (SUNY Potsdam)
Dr. Will Thalheimer (Will at Work Learning)
The November/December issue of Educational Technology (Vol 54, Issue 6) (available, for now, in print format here) presented a comprehensive treatment of the retention data, the corrupted cone, and the major players in the story (in terms of citations, sources, and authors). The authors are the four people listed above. This website serves, in part, as a companion site to those articles, allowing for a living, breathing space to continually address the issues covered in the articles. Will Thalheimer also posted a summary of these articles in a blog post here.
Note: Did you notice that in the URL it says "thecorruptedconeoflearning" and in the title of the web page it says "The Corruption of Dale's Cone of Experience"? That was done purposefully, in an attempt to pull in both search terms.
Update 5-19-16: Ed Tech Special Issue is available here:
This site was created by Dr. Anthony Betrus, State University of New York at Potsdam, May 19, 2016.