Blogs

Learning and Doing?

Learning and Doing?

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Microsoft, 2014)

This is a story from my husband, Dennis, that perfectly illustrates the learning-doing gap.  My husband was working as a janitor in the 1980s for medium sized printing press which is no longer in business.  Press operators would feed massive rolls of paper into the machines.  There were sharp blades coming down under high pressure to slice & dice massive quantities of paper that were whizzing through the press.  A lot of people would disable the safety devices, allowing them to put their hand on the plating allowing the machine an opportunity to sever off digits.  This was done in a false “Spirit of Efficiency.”

One day, Dennis was thrown on a printing press because he was another warm body and they needed to keep the printing press running while the trained press operator was rushed to the hospital to reattach his thumb.  The first thing that Dennis did was enable all the safety devices.  When a supervisor asked him why, Dennis held up his hand and wiggled his fingers and said, “Because I like these a lot.” He still has all four fingers and his thumbs because he respected the power of slicing and dicing machines.

With no other information, logic would suggest that Dennis would end up in the hospital while the trained press operator wouldn’t.  Yet, the trained operator was the one who cut his thumb off while my husband with no formal training, just by enabling the safety devices, kept his fingers.  Now, my husband did have informal training with slicers and other dangerous machinery during his earlier apprenticeship as a restauranteur.  However, both Dennis and his injured co-worker saw numerous other industrial accidents during their tenure at the same company (his co-worker was actually there longer than Dennis).

Why the learning-doing gap then?  Exposure from an early age about the dangers of slicing and dicing machines?  A larger quantity of exposure? An unhealthy absence of fear? An ego that that says “This couldn’t happen to me?!?”

REFERENCES

Microsoft. (2014). Bryce Canyon in Utah in winter [Digital Image]. Used with permission from Microsoft. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=canyon&ex=1#ai:MP900442251|

 

Motivating "Mistakes"

Motivating “Mistakes”

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Microsoft, 2014)

Have you ever learned from a mistake?  I sure have.  Now your learners can, too.

I was at the March PADLA meeting (http://www.padla.org//) this past week and saw an amazing product, ApprenNet (http://info.apprennet.com/).  The general method is Try It, Share It, Learn It.  In the Try It phase, the learner is presented with a challenge.  They record a video response.  In the Share It phase, they see responses from other learners and have an opportunity to comment.  Learners have an opportunity to “vote” on which cohort response was the best from a small pool of responses.  Finally, they Learn It, by watching a short tutorial or seeing an expert response.  A dashboard shows learners which responses the teacher thought were innovative in addition to those that got the most votes from learning peers.

The gating is excellent, the learner CANNOT skip around, they MUST Try It before they can Share It before they can deepen their learning.  This approach beats the heck out of didactic teaching and then having learners answer multiple guess…I mean… multiple choice questions.

Adults are motivated to devote energy to learn something to the extent that they perceive that it will help them perform tasks or deal with problems that they confront in their life situations.  Furthermore, they learn new knowledge understandings, skills, values, and attitudes most effectively when they are presented in the context of application to real-life situations (Knowles, 1984, p. 59)

If a teacher designs their exercises to reflect real-life situations, the illusive solution to learner motivation (which I feel can be more problematic even more in online environments) can be more than solved through the use of ApprenNet.

ApprenNet also helps set the learning climate.  When speaking of how to set the climate for learners, Knowles (1975) talks of how the teacher “respect[s] the experience and creativity you [the learner] bring to this inquiry” (p. 9).  The climate should also allow learners to “participate actively in this inquiry … raising questions about what I say and supplying your own answers” (Knowles, 1975, p. 10).   This is built into the DNA of ApprenNet in the Try It and Share It phases.

Learning theories other than Andragogy from the academy definitely support this approach.  A full discussion of this topic may be in an upcoming post.

If you can spare another 90 seconds, check out a customer testimonial.  Click http://info.apprennet.com/, scroll down until you see What People Are Saying.  Then click on the smiling woman in the center of the page.  Pay special attention to the end of the video where a grateful client verbalizes in her own words what distance, experiential learning is all about.  Motivating “Mistakes”, indeed!

REFERENCES

Knowles, M. (1975). Self-directed learning. New York, NY: Cambridge.

Knowles, M. (1984). The adult learner: A neglected species. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company.

Microsoft. (2014). Smiling young girl pointing to bandage on elbow [Digital Image]. Used with permission from Microsoft. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=bandage&ex=1#ai:MP900426458|mt:2|

Is business partner a question?

Is business partner a question?

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Microsoft, 2014)

Too many times in my experience working as part of a Learning and Development organization, we tend to focus on being order takers.  The business wants something and we don’t necessarily agree.  Do we push back?  Do we say “You know what? This isn’t really training, this is a culture adjustment that can’t be solved through a single training initiative.”

Generally, I didn’t push back and you know why?  Because when you are in Learning and Development, you want to be accommodating, it’s in our nature.  You are there to support the business and that is an understood part of the paradigm.  They are paying your paycheck because you are supporting their initiatives.

But did that make me a true business partner?

So I started with Merriam-Webster’s (2014) online dictionary and my eye was drawn to one particular part of the definition “one associated with another especially in an action” (para. 5).

I have taken a lot of action in my time but was it the right action?  Wick, Pollock, and Jefferson (2010) write that “Business leaders want learning professionals…who understand their specific business, who can clearly and succinctly explain the business model of their company or division and its more important business drivers and challenges” (p. 31).

This is a challenge for me (and, I hope, for the reader) to open our horizons further than the next learning project to a wider world where we understand the challenges the business faces and work to “discover the highest value needs or opportunities that training and development could help fulfill” (Wick et al., p. 35).  This first step helps us to turn partnership from an item in question by the business towards making partnership a statement of fact.

REFERENCES

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. (2104). Partner [Web Page] Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/partner

Microsoft. (2014). Group of businessmen huddled on a football field [Digital Image]. Used with permission from Microsoft. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=strategy&ex=1#ai:MP900422756|

Wick, C., Pollock, R., Jefferson, A. (2010). The six disciplines of breakthrough learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer

Win-Win for Blended Webinar Audiences

Win-Win for Blended Webinar Audiences

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Microsoft, 2014)

As L&D professionals, we would love nothing better than to keep our audiences separate.  In-room participants in one session.  Virtual participants in a different session.

In the real, busy world, we need to make the best use of our time and our participant’s time.  So blended audiences in webinars are a reality.  How do we make blended webinars a win for both in-room and virtual participants?

Be Inclusive

Welcome both your in-room and virtual participants.  It sets the stage that both sets of participants are part of the learning experience.  When asking questions, be sure to include both audiences in turn.  Be consistent – always address in-room participants first or second.  It just makes it easier for the participants to know what’s happening next.

Encourage Chat

Your virtual participants need to have a voice.  Having them actually speak can be at the least disrupting.  With large audiences, this can be impossible.  We talked about having two people involved with webinars.  One person can monitor chat and bring to the attention of the presenter relevant questions.  You won’t be able to address every chat in a large group, it is more important to address the most topical or most repeated chats.

Call Virtual Participants by Name

With in-room participants, we can simply look at someone to acknowledge them.  We have been discouraged from calling in-room participants by name so as not to put them on the spot.  With virtual participants, you need to take the opposite approach and call on them by name.  Because they can’t see you and can be distracted by things (like email ;)) in their physical environment, you need to call them by name to re-engage them in the learning.

What other ways have you been able to make webinar learning events a win-win for both in-room and virtual participants?

REFERENCES

Microsoft. (2014). Blender [Digital Image]. Used with permission from Microsoft. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=blender&ex=1#ai:MP900385483|mt:2|

Three Unexpected Webinar Costs

Three Unexpected Webinar Costs

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Microsoft, 2014)

Webinars can be cost effective and, if done correctly, can be as effective as face-to-face training events for corporate learning and development organizations.

When we think of the costs related to webinars, we tend to think of cost savings.  We’re not paying for class rooms, whiteboards, projectors, tables, and travel.  We’re saving money there!  The webinar software?  This could be seen as a zero sum game – we are reusing our virtual meeting software!

IS THE PLATFORM REALLY A ZERO SUM GAME?

I facilitated training events using a webinar tool which did not allow me to pre-load polling questions.  There were only five questions throughout a 90 minute webinar.  However, even using cut and paste to enter the polls on the fly, 2 minutes was wasted and lessened the effectiveness of using polling.  2 minutes doesn’t sound like much until you realize this represents 2% of the total training time.  It felt like forever.  Participants were waiting – something you never want to have happen during a webinar.

We moved to another platform that allowed the polling questions to be pre-loaded, meaning no wasted time and polling questions being an effective part of the learning event.  So if the virtual, collaborative, webinar platform truly supports learning, this truly is a zero sum game.  Otherwise, it really isn’t.

YOU ONLY NEED THE PRESENTER, RIGHT?

Only someone who has not been in the webinar crucible would think that the presenter can do this on their own.  While the presenter is talking, the participants are chatting: “I couldn’t register for this session, how can I get credit?” “I can’t hear the presenter” “I have a question about the point the presenter just made…”

During the 90 minute webinar, I moderated the session, handled registration/technical questions, verbalized the content questions to the presenters during the final Q&A portion of the session, and closed the session.  I also had a weather eye on my email during the beginning of the session to see if there were any last minute registration questions.

My preference is to have three people helping at each session, one presenting, one moderating, one helping with technical problems.  Two is the bare minimum.  One is a recipe for disaster.

HEADSETS ANYONE?

Voice Over IP Headsets are recommended by webinar software providers.  If you have an organization of 20 people, this cost is negligible.  However, if your enterprise is over 10,000 people, this could be a small cost that just adds up.

Are there any other unexpected costs you have encountered in your journey of using webinars for live training sessions?

REFERENCES

Microsoft. (2014). Figures carrying away dollar bills [Digital Image]. Used with permission from Microsoft. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=dollar&ex=1#ai:MC900448680|

3 Benefits of Articulating Educational Approach

3 Benefits of Articulating Educational Approach

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Microsoft, 2014)

Corporate learning and development organizations can realize three benefits by articulating their educational approach:

Measure Learning Effectiveness

As discussed in the last blog post, the first benefit of being able to articulate our educational approach/theory/pedagogy is for the purposes of measurement.  “Success is defined by the sponsors (the persons who control the budget), and only by the sponsors” (Pollock, 2010, p. 62).  However, there are times when the sponsor may be unwilling or unable to define what success looks like.  In these cases, L&D professionals should be able to stand in the gap to provide the measures for learning success from an educational standpoint.  This is impossible without first being able to articulate for each learning solution/project what underpinning theory/pedagogy will be used for development.

Establish Professional Credibility

Our clients, our subject matter experts are educated professionals; as are we.  While we do not want to alienate our clients by drowning them in “edu-speak,” we should be able to intelligently answer their questions if they desire to explore the underlying educational approach we are applying to learning projects in more detail.  This happened to a colleague of mine a few months ago.  The fact that she could not articulate her approach clearly caused strain on the learning partnership and did nothing to enhance our organization’s credibility.

Provide Clear Guidance

As learning professionals, we should be able to articulate our educational approach be it andragogy or pedagogy to each other.  Every profession or practice has its unique vocabulary.  This vocabulary allows for complex concepts and frameworks to be concisely communicated and understood.  This is true in education as well.  The entire learning development team should have a clear vision of what educational approach will be taken.  Theory and pedagogy/andragogy can provide that guidance.

Corporate learning and development organizations can realize these benefits by taking advantage of existing theory and pedagogy.   Finding more hours in the day to learn/develop or even just articulate this is hard to find, I know.  But the benefits are worth it.

REFERENCES

Microsoft. (2014). Road being covered with a tunnel of trees [Digital Image].  Used with permission from Microsoft. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=road&ex=1#ai:MP900427595|

Pollock, R.V.H. (2010).  What drug development can teach us about measuring learning.  SPBT Focus (Winter) 61-64.  Retrieved from http://www.the6ds.com/resources-1/MeasuringLearningFocusMagazine2010.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

Should Corporate Learning and Development Organizations have to Articulate their Pedagogy?

Should Corporate Learning and Development Organizations have to Articulate their Pedagogy?

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Business Quest, 2012)

Should learning organizations have to articulate the epistemology, theory and pedagogy they use to develop learning solutions?  In my humble opinion, I feel we should.

Part of my educational approach encompasses andragogy.  I have used this approach in my own practice and have seen the positive results that can result for learners.  However, I do see where pedagogy can also have a place in the development of learning solutions for adult learners.

Kanuka (2008) brings me to the first point of how this ability can be beneficial to corporate learning and development organizations.  Kanuka (2008) urges us to articulate pedagogy in order to be able to effectively measure the success of e-learning projects or programs.  I humbly submit that this articulation could also help us measure the success of instructor lead solutions as well.

There are other benefits we’ll explore in future posts.  Do you see any value in evaluating the success of your learning solutions against the yard stick of pedagogy?  I look forward to hearing from you!

REFERENCE

Business Quest. (2012). Articles [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~bquest/2001/pedagogy1.htm

Kanuka, H. (2008). Understanding e-learning technologies in practice through philosophies in practice. In T. Anderson (Ed.), The theory and practice of online learning (2nd Ed.) pp. 91-120. Athabasca, CA:Athabasca University Press. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/99Z_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

e-Learning Always Needs a Partner

e-Learning Always Needs a Partner

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

(Microsoft, 2014)

One of the things that drives learning professionals, including myself, crazy is understanding what is meant by the term e-Learning.   I have found over time that the term e-Learning, just as with ballroom dancers, is no good on its own.  This term always needs a partner.

In order to truly capture all things that eLearning encompasses, the definition must be broad:   

“e-learning is the delivery of education (all activities relevant to instructing, teaching, and learning) through various electronic media” (Koohang & Harman, 2005, p. 78).

“e-Learning … refers to education that uses the Internet” (Moore & Kearsley, 2012, p. 2).

“E-learning (or eLearning) refers to the use of electronic media and information and communication technologies (ICT) in education” (Wikipedia, 2014, para. 1).

I was talking with a colleague a few weeks ago.  She was telling me about a live (i.e., synchronous) learning event that was held and recorded using a virtual learning environment.  My practice has primarily been with creating asynchronous courses that are delivered via a Learning Management System.  A few minutes into the conversation, we were both confused. 

Why?  It was due to the fact that we were both using the term e-Learning to describe two different types of learning events.  Yes, we were both using the correct term.  But we were confused because it was two different types of e-Learning events under discussion.

I am guilty as the next person of saying e-Learning when I actually mean e-Learning course. Consider taking the challenge, along with me, to ensure that the term e-Learning is always used with at least one partner, if not more. 

REFERENCES

Koohang, A., & Harman, K. (2005). Open source: A metaphor for e-learning. Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, 8, 75-86. Retrieved from http://inform.nu/Articles/Vol8/v8p075-086Kooh.pdf

Microsoft. (2014). Couple ballroom dancing [Digital Image]. Used with permission from Microsoft. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=computer&ex=1&AxInstalled=copy&Download=MP900422409&ext=JPG&c=0#ai:MP900422409|mt:2|

Moore, M.G., & Kearsley, G. (2012). The distance education student. In Distance education: A systems view of online learning (3rd ed., pp. 150-174). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth CengageLearning.

Wikipedia. (2014). E-Learning [Web Pag. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-learning

 

Reflections on the OMDE603 Blog

Reflections on the OMDE603 Blog

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

Courtesy of www.replicatedtypo.com

BLOG OVERVIEW

I work on eCourse development and moderate virtual learning events in my day job so much of the learning in this course is more of a confirmation of what I already experience every day.  I find the program has helped my vocabulary about Web 2.0 tools to become more precise and exact.

MY LEARNING THROUGH THIS BLOG

As I reflect back on the blog assignment, I took a close look at the posts I created.  All blog posts were from module 1 and 3 readings.  As I was writing them, I was so embroiled with Module 2 conference discussions I think I had a hard time separating out “content” for a blog post.

The majority of the posts were in the category that I call musings while the Society, Conflict and Learning and From Wisconsin to the World: Thank You Charles Wedemeyer! posts were in the book report category.  Using the practical inquiry model described in Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000), the musings posts were opportunities to explore more about the topic while the book report variety did provide resolution on the topic.  I found the book reports gave me the freedom to delve more deeply into the work of the authors who were referenced in the course readings that I would not have done otherwise.

I feel that I got off to a slow start but once I determined a schedule, I was able to generally meet the timelines of posting on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Now that I have reached the end of the Blog activity, I will miss it!  I have three other blog posts I was contemplating but did not pursue because I ran out of time 🙁

LEARNING OBJECTIVES MODULES 1 – 3

In this section, I briefly explore my understanding of how select learning objectives for modules 1-3 where achieved in course assignments (conferences are the only assignments not included) or in the Google doc I created to summarize my understanding of how web 2.0 tools can be used in DE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aWVKBXbiG2V6RXzAlOCPj8ij9XWI5Dmhd7M6ALvGPXY):

 Module Objective Related Artifact
1 Describe   the history of media and technology in distance education Will the OU Generation Date Moore & Kearsley’s 5   Generations? Blog
1 Demonstrate   knowledge of the range of terminology and values applied to technology in   distance education The   blog assignment
2 Evaluate   selected asynchronous and synchronous applications Essay   1, Digital Footprints post, and One more Barrier to Mobile Learning   post
3 Specify   the main characteristics of Web 2.0 technologies How   Web 2.0 Tools can be used in DE Google Doc
3 Estimate   the educational possibilities of Web 2.0 application How   Web 2.0 Tools can be used in DE Google Doc
3 Experience   hands-on Web 2.0 technologies The   blog assignment and the wiki exercise

REFERENCES

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000).  Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education,2 pp. 87-105. doi:10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6

 

Digital Footprints

Digital Footprints

Posted on by Joanne Deitsch

Courtesy of http://www.123rf.com/

Proud mothers get footprints of their babies’ immortalized using plaster.  When we walk along the beach our footprints can be washed away with the incoming tide.

What of the digital footprints students leave behind in the form of blogs?  In reality these digital footprints are more of the plaster type of footprint casts while their authors might see them as more of footprints in the sand, created once and never used again.

What is to prevent a future employer or worse, an identify thief, to find out about you through the blogs you leave behind?  There is no security or password protection on these sites.  Your name and personal details, if you share them, are all parts of a puzzle that identify thieves may use against you (Goodridge, 2009).  Yet, we put them on our blogs for the entire world to see.

Pang (2009) gave examples of student blogs in his article.  They were all still available even though some of the posts were from 2006.  Perusing these blogs showed typical college students.  However, photos of one lifting a glass of alcohol, which was shown on one these blog sites, might not give a future employer the most favorable impression of a candidate seeking a job.

Pang (2009) discusses how blogs allow students to become capable of taking charge of their own learning and to develop into independent lifelong learners.  Personally, I did not find evidence in his article to support these claims.  Especially the last claim, a claim that is certainly not provable given the short length of the study which was a single college semester.

Will these digital footprints yield the results that Pang so optimistically describes?  Or will they be like footprints in the sand – forgotten by the people who created them in their quest of moving forward and never to be used again?  Or will they be footprints in plaster, where others can harvest information maybe even for malicious purposes?  Only time will tell.

REFERENCES

Goodridge, E. (2009). Steps to prevent identity theft, and what to do if it happens [Article]. Retrieved July 4, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/your-money/identity-theft/02idtheftprimer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Pang, L. (2009). Application of blogs to support reflective learning journals. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from http://deoracle.org/online-pedagogy/teaching-strategies/application-of-blogs.html