Apart from the Eumetcal Workshops (!), I think my best social learning experience was when I first started as a forecaster. Looking back I think this may be due to the following:
- We were a group of six people, all of us fresh out of school with our degrees and ready to start our career as weather forecasters: motivated and happy to have a job!
- A separate room and computers were set-up just for us, but with most of the authentic tools used operationally. No technical problems.
- The same teacher throughout the basic training period, who was a forecaster as well = recognized our needs.
- A bit of competition: after a while we started to issue forecasts, and compared them with the operational forecasts and observations. (Fun)
Indeed the social part was important because we could relate to each other and share impressions and problems.
Erik