Tech and On-Demand

There have been a couple of things that have happened over the last few months that have gotten me thinking more about the structure of learning activities and the how we’ll eventually end up using learning technologies to our best advantage.  The first is a concerted effort on my part to become more familiar with the tools and applications of technology to learning. That really doesn’t mean reading more about it, although I have, but actually embedding some of the tools and techniques into programs I work with to see the results first hand.

One of the items I dealt more with was Podcasts.  I was working on an instructor development program that has sporadic throughput as we tend to hire an instructor here and there, never in groups. There are a number of key messages we wanted every instructor to hear, thus the podcasts. I reviewed the Podcasting for Dummies book and recorded several using available free tools – in this case, Audacity. The result was about a dozen 3 – 5 minute messages about things I think new instructors need to know.  The plan is for the new instructor to listen to the podcast and then discuss the topic with their “big buddy” or mentor instructor. Seems to be working well.

Another item was using SharePoint in multi-week new-hire job skill classes. Early this year we set up a SharePoint Webpart page for each class. It consisted of several webparts including Announcements, Document Libraries, Calendars and Discussion Boards, among others. This allowed instructors to list the daily class agenda, make announcements, link to related company resources and the like.  The discussion board was our early attempt at the social side of learning.  Both instructors and students could make comments or ask questions for others to respond. The instructors developed a wide assortment of class-related questions to solicit responses from the students. This allowed for more meaningful activities for folks who got ahead or perhaps used break time to respond or just read what their classmates were saying. By engaging in a dialog with the discussion board, students could respond using a different medium and at a time of their choosing on both narrow and wide-open questions.

The other item was more personal.  I chose to attend the virtual version of the ASTD Techknowledge conference for 2010.  This was set up as moderated playbacks of the live sessions at specific times in addition to open access.  The chat window was open during the specified replay times with one of the presenters available online, as I recall. I missed many of those, but did catch the recorded sessions that were available anytime during the window specified in the registration. There were dozens of topics available and I found I bailed out of only a couple that weren’t what I was expecting.  Unlike attending live, I could simply exit and click on another presentation and start from the beginning rather than enter another live session after it had started or find myself locked out until the next round of concurrent sessions.

You may have noticed that each of these items has a common thread that I think will become more and more important going forward. That is the POD part of podcasting – programming on demand.

While distance learning on the learners’ schedules has become commonplace in online education, my discussions with peers in corporate skill-based training arenas makes me believe in our area of practice, that is not the case. We tend to hire in groups, keep people in a lockstep program and move through a distinct series of steps. Having been part of some excursions into more individualized solutions, I well understand the drawbacks and costs of individual paths through the training but I wonder whether if the drawbacks are inherent in on-demand training or just fallout from trying to make on-demand learning work with the old group paradigm underpinning the curricula.

Sir Kenneth Robinson has both a TED talk and a YouTube video (different but related topics) on education that have me thinking.  His comments are mostly directed at K-12 education but some of the concepts are transferable to the workforce, I think.  Here are links to the videos I’m referring to. http://bit.ly/bxn4uf  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U  Start a conversation with yourself or a colleague. Where can we go “on-demand?”  I'm still noodling.

I'm Offended

I love the Christmas holiday season.  I like Christmas trees, menorahs, even the folks who simply celebrate the winter solstice. Basically, if you're happy in celebrating something I'm for it and hope you have a grand time doing it.  If you wish me Merry Christmas, I thank you.  Same for Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. If it is meaningful to you and you wish me a share of that good will I'm grateful, even if I don't normally celebrate that particular holiday in my own holiday tradition.

Since Christmas is almost upon us it is time for the stories of the various business and municipal leaders who are cowering in corners afraid that someone will claim some offense at a holiday display and demand it be taken down.  So far a Chase Bank has succumbed to the pressure as have a variety of schools.

Well, I'm offended too.  I'm offended that people of good will and understanding allow themselves to be bullied by the chronically unhappy and perpetually petulant members of our society who are only happy when no one else is. When I was an undergrad, my political science professor would explain that the great danger in a democracy is what he called the tyranny of the majority.  That is, when the majority rule infringes on the basic rights of some minority in the community. It seems to me we've no need to worry about that any longer for now it is the tyranny of the minority.  Any loudmouth can claim some offense and demand huge majorities of his or her fellow citizens set aside their rights to assemble or worship or simply celebrate.

We seem to have taken being offended to a national art form.  It is time for those who think this version of national curmudgeonliness has simply gone to far to stand up and say baloney. I simply don't care if you choose to make your life miserable and take offense at one thing or another.  If you choose to be offended you can just as easily choose to NOT be offended.  Offended, not offended, I simply don't care. You are only one of several hundred million people in the land and the country doesn't revolve around you and your perceived offense. 

So to all my friends, with no wish to offend, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

Thinking About Innovation

For several years my favorite quote regarding innovation is one attributed to Nicholas Negroponte the founder of the MIT Media Lab.  I had the opportunity to hear him speak a decade ago when is book Being Digital was relatively new.  That quote is, "Incrementalism is innovation's worst enemy." Over the years I've seen that to be true as creative people and their sometimes off-beat ideas were dismissed as being "out of scope,"  "too outlandish" or "good, but, too hard to sell."  Instead a tweak here or a modification there often was thought to be good enough.  The often used example is of what users would have suggested when asked for a better way to make copies of documents rather than the radical idea of a photocopier applies here.

I recently attended a webinar where the author of the new book Courage Goes to Work, Bill Treasurer made a comment that moves to challenge Negroponte's quote at the top of my list.  Treasurer said something to the effect that innovators have to be heretics. Very cool. 

Heretics are usually associated with religion.  Galileo and Copernicus are often thought of a people of science who steered away from the "truths" of the church and were attacked for their beliefs even though Galileo's sins were more about insulting the Pope than his beliefs. The point that Treasurer makes is that often at the beginning of some innovation was someone who dared to disbelieve the prevailing truth and launch off in a different direction.  This person or organization was willing to place reputation on the line and to courageously face those who maintained their orthodox beliefs and to push forward to the next great thing.

Some business innovations revolve around some decidedly "unsexy" concepts.  Wal-Mart became a giant by employing innovative thinking to its supply chain.  Dell computer innovated in providing a customized computer by mail with just-in-time inventories to limit the negative impact of inventories in a rapidly changing technology market and I already mentioned the photocopier.  In the high tech world innovation seems to be just part of the day-to-day definition. Advances in new materials for integrated circuits and advancements in manufacturing techniques are too numerous to list. Sexy or not, things identified as innovations clearly change the world.

I once heard Edward de Bono, the author of  The Six Thinking Hats discuss how easy it is to track decision trees backward from the outcome to the starting point.  The reverse, however, is not the same.  Moving forward, the forks and decision points don't offer that same clarity.  It is hard to know when you are dealing with a heretic with the next great idea or just a lunatic.

Following From In Front

Several months ago we had to put down our cocker spaniel Max.  He was nearly 16 years old and it was a hard call to make.  After several months I was talking with my wife and discovered we had both been thinking about getting another dog.  As it turned out, a cocker rescue organization was visiting at a nearby pet store and we went to look. Well, you know how that turned out.  We ended up taking home a little black and tan cocker we named Sadie.

Cockers are loving dogs and like to be around you.  Read that as underfoot. Sadie reminded me almost immediately of Max and his habit of following from in front. When starting down the hall, for example, she'll get in front of me and then stop every few steps to turn around to see if I am still going her way. This, of course, results in my tripping on the dog or having to stop short avoid doing so.  Just like with Max.

I got to thinking about folks at work who demonstrate this same tendency.  I'm sure you've seen them, too.  They are the ones who worked to get out in front without really knowing what the plan is.  They speak too much at meetings, send confusing emails and sometimes get others involved who have neither the need nor interest to be part of the project or task.

Folks who follow from in front like my little cocker spaniel, tend to trip people up and slow things down.  Team members often have to stop to avoid tripping on them in a figurative sense. Simple things turn into an obstacle course as one has to stop, side step or otherwise alter course to avoid the follower who is now in front.

Mobile

Mobile is one of the really interesting technologies that have a potential in education and training. This message from my Blackberry. How about textback Q & A?

The title and this addition were edited in.  Text limits mean mulitple texts or twitter-like conciseness.

Getting Started

I've decided it is time to add to my hobby blog at rcplaneviews.com to include some comments and posts regarding what is taking up a greater portion of my "daytime life" -- that being my views on training and the training technologies.

While blogging about it is new, my interest in it goes back to the mid 90s when I had responsibilies in monitoring developments and encouraging creative uses of emerging technologies for use in US Air Force pilot training. While having well over a thousand hours "flying" simulators in addition to military jets, I got an up close and personal look at some pretty remarkable training technologies. Those are well beyond my interests now, but integrating the variety of business and software tools into effective training programs still holds considerable interest.

My purpose here is to posit some ideas, musings and links to interesting discoveries.  Comments are welcome.