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!"