eel-learning

I’m a rebel through and through

Every morning when I put on my locked-down, work-given laptop, I have a little bit of civil disobedience.  I click away the health and safety message that pops up on every bootup saying ‘Do not ignore this message!’.  I ignore it! 

I recently saw a piece of elearning that had an 8-screen ‘how to use this elearning’.  I felt like ignoring that. They need to put ‘Do not ignore these instructions’, then it’ll only be rock ‘n’ roll rebels like me who ignore them.

The US healthcare debate on the back of a napkin

Quite a few napkins, actually.

This is an acclaimed slideshow by Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin, an excellent book about visual thinking and presentation.

Is it e-learning?  It is to me even if it isnt interactive. Simplicity, clarity and a narrative.

Healthcare Napkins All

View more documents from Dan Roam.

The blind leading the blend?

Today I was asked to speak to a group of management trainers about blended learning. Originally I'd been asked only about what elearning templates we could use, but I tried to open it up to a different view of blended learning.

I started by challenging the assumption that blended means online pre-course work (that usually doesn't get done).

I then suggested that given what we know now about the importance of 'little and often' and of repetition, both to get a message over and to build expertise, that the emphasis should shift from blended as means of preparation for the 'big day' to a view that the face to face bit sets the scene for a programme of workplace based activities as well as followup learning.

The role of the trainer is more like a salesperson or at least sales aftercare, promoting, supporting and keeping in touch after the event. I suggested it might be easier to motivate a group of people who have 'stormed, formed and normed' in a face to face event to continue online than to ask individuals to put time in for pre-work which may or may not be necessary. By putting the focus on followup they could be helping to embed the learning in the workplace. Or so the theory goes - I'm not talking from experience.

This opened up much discussion of forums, blogs and wikis (none of which we have in the company yet) and the trainers' experience of them on development courses they'd taken themselves. Most said they liked the idea but they hadn't worked in their experience. A minority said 'I just don't feel comfortable with using technology that way' but alluded to their kids taking it for granted at school.

At the end of my half hour I felt like I'd clarified for myself what I thought blended learning is about, and had a sympathetic hearing which might support my team's efforts to jump start the introduction of forums at least.

Nine non-benign designs

From Sumeet Moghe’s blog.

Learning FL Studio and Cubase Essential

I’ve been spending virtually all my spare time on these two bits of music software. I’ve been using both of them for years, but only a limited part of their capabilities. Now I’ve upgraded both and am setting out to expand what I can do with them. Since I’m supposed to be a ‘learning professional’, I find it interesting to reflect on how I learn (and don’t learn). My conclusions:

I can’t learn from a manual. The FL Studio Bible lists comprehensive details of every feature, every dial, every slider. But I don’t know what I want to know. So it’s only useful when I’ve decided a particular instrument or effect is going to help. Without examples I can’t decide that. Where it has been useful is in answering questions I have with the parts of the system I’ve been using already.

I like a step by step tutorial. I’ve found a few on the web, with titles like ‘How to layer hip hop drums in FL Studio’. They give you instructions, explanations of why you’d want to do this (including what the finished article should sound like), and audio examples of what it should sound like at each step. I prefer it in text / pictures form.  Many more are in video form, and I can watch them but can’t retain the details, so they’re not so helpful to me.

I have the benefit of a local expert in FL Studio, my son Plague.  But watching him is like watching a video speeded up. He absolutely whizzes through it and while he has some patience for my faltering questions, he exhausts it  eventually and can’t see what I find difficult.  He himself has built up his knowledge in two ways: just messing around, surprising himself with what comes out and – conversely – trying to recreate exactly the soundtracks to games he likes. He never reads the manual or any tutorials. Being unemployed he has days (and nights) to spend on these, and so he’s now an expert. I have a couple of hours at most, am too impatient to try to recreate anyone else’s music and too focused on creating the stuff I hear in my head to want to spend long experimenting. But my main problem is retaining the knowledge. What works for me is to get Plague to show me a very simple operation, take notes and try it repeatedly on another night when he’s not around (sometimes using the manual for more explanation). Then next time he is, ask him why it’s not working (this amuses him no end).

So I learn not by free experimentation but by building up something small  following a structure, then applying it to my own songs.

A start on informal learning?

For the last year or two I’ve been banging away to people about supporting informal learning as much as we support formal, but the message that has come back has always been ‘curriculum, curriculum, curriculum’.

However a recent project had me involved in setting up a portal for three top management priorities. I had a hand in the design and usability, but not the direction or selection of content. For each of the three topic areas, there were one or two face to face courses and an area for ‘resources’ – almost all of them PDFs, but some links to external sites. In the design phase we thought it was going to be around ten of these resources for each area, but in the few months since the portal was launched, the trainers and managers behind it have been slinging up PDFs with gay abandon. One section now has nearly 50. I deduce the thinking to have been ‘that was an interesting article, I’ll get permission and share it.”  While it’s rendered the alphabetic drop down list I set up for less than ten articles hopeless, I have to say I’m pleased we seem to have taken a step towards knowledge sharing and away from a formal curriculum.

Does this sound to you like a start on informal learning?  What would make it better?

At the end of this blog post you will be able to …

… or will you?

Good debates about learning objectives in the Learning and Skills Group:

http://learningandskillsgroup.ning.com/forum/topics/learning-outcomes-vsobjectives

and from Charles Jennings:

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/topic/strategy/who-needs-learning-objectives

My view (in a reply to the L&SG discussion):

You can't simply state 'you will be able to ..' - that comes from a mechanistic view that was prevalent in the days of behaviourist psychology. They may be able to ... IF they pay attention, IF they want to learn it, IF nothing interferes or interrupts, IF they get a chance to practise afterwards etc etc.

So what to say? This is harder. I tend to say in elearning 'In this module we'll look at ...' or 'we'll cover how to ...'. In other words I stick to what I'm responsible for, not what they're responsible for.

I'm aware this isn't perfect, and some may look for a more definite statement. Another option, which I haven't used, would be to say 'If the module is successful, you should be able to ...'

That said, 'will be able to ...' objectives are important in the design phase, no doubt in my mind about that.

The Fear Gang

From an excellent article by Merlin Mann on procrastination and blocks to creativity.

 

Think about something you’ve been really excited to make or do.3 Maybe something you’ve been thinking about starting for weeks, months, or even years. Dance lessons? Short story? Web comic? MAME cabinet? Tree house? Doomsday laser? Excel spreadsheet?4 What stops you?

Remember now, we’re not talking about finishing a project or even making something that you know will be the greatest thing ever made. Just starting. What’s the barrier for you?

Well, at least in my experience, if you’re honest enough to push past those sensible, well-worn consolations of generalized procrastination and unrelenting “busy-ness,” you’ll discover how many hang-ups trace back to some dumb, shameful fear. Yeah, I know. Crazy hippie talk, right? Still.

Any of these sound familiar?

• Fear of Apathy. “I can’t start this until I’m positive the work will never become dull or difficult.”5

• Fear of Ambiguity. “I can’t start this until I know exactly how it will turn out (as well as the precise method by which I’ll do it).”

• Fear of Disconnection. “I can’t start this until I’m totally up-to-date and current on everything.”

• Fear of Imperfection. “I can’t start this until I know the end product will be flawless.”

• Fear of Incompletion. “I can’t start this until I’m already done with it.”

• Fear of Isolation. “I can’t start this until I know making it will never be lonely.”

• Fear of Sucking. “I can’t start this until I’m already awesome at it (and know that even horrible people whom I dislike will hail me as a genius).”

• Fear of Fear itself. “I can’t start this until I’m guaranteed that making it will never be scary.”

 

The whole article.

It’s the procedures, stupid!

Here’s something different. If you’ve had bad service from an airline, make a video about it:

I learned of this from Jane Bozarth’s blog, where she adds the ‘training’ issue:

As "Sons of Maxwell" singer Dave Carroll notes in his follow-up statement, United Airlines has stepped up and has offered him some compensation. News reports also state that United wants to use the video in "training".
"Training"? Really?
Sorry, but I don't see a training problem here. I see employees constrained by bad practices and protocols, and others whose knowingly substandard performance would have no consequence. Basically, they were doing exactly what they were expected to do. Even Dave Carroll defended the employee who gave him the final "no" from the airline as, "Acting in the interests of the policies she represented."
No, baggage handlers do not need to attend training so they can "learn" not to throw musical instruments onto the tarmac, for cryin' out loud. People with the title "customer service representative" do not need to be "taught" not to be indifferent. Too often management throws problems into a bucket labeled "training issue" as if that will fix larger matters of culture and leadership. (And maybe hiring.)

I’ve had my own, much less serious, case going on with Easyjet for nearly two months now, where their in-cabin crew sold me a train ticket from Luton to London, confirming that I could use it on any train. Of course I took the first train and found when I got to London it wasn’t valid on E Midlands trains, only on First Trains. On the phone Easyjet told me that the cabin crew ‘must have told you’ (they didn’t) and ‘it says on the ticket’ (it doesn’t), but invited me to scan the ticket and send it to them. I did, and a week later they asked me to send the original. Since then I’ve discovered their unique approach to the resolution of customer complaints –:

> At easyJet, we like to ensure that our customers are totally satisfied with
> our response but we have not heard from you concerning your request for
> assistance in the last 72 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently,
> we have changed the status of your question to solved

This is issued not, as you might expect, after 72 hours, but 24 hours! So you have to keep writing, daily, getting a new ‘incident number’ each time (because the previous one has been ‘solved’!). Each time I get a very formal, polite response like :

> I can really understand the frustration you are going through.
>
> I can confirm that I have re-escalated your case to the concerned
> authorities. I can assure you they will get back to you shortly.

It’s no big deal – I just want £11 or so for the ticket I had to buy to be allowed off the platform! But I hope nobody’s receiving ‘customer service training’ as a result of my complaints. It’s the procedures that are set up to sweep minor complaints under the carpet. For two months!

The Big Question: How do you spend your time?

This is a response to the question at The Learning Circuits Blog:

What is your typical day like? How do you do all you do with elearning learning, elearning technology, techempower, work literacy and all the consulting and still remain profitable while having a LIFE? Ok, so that is more than one question, but hopefully you get the drift. What are your thoughts here?

Most of the respondents are independent consultants. My position, as a corporate employee, is slightly different. But I’m fortunate enough to be a corporate employee who works at home and one whose role includes R&D and promoting innovation.

The main thing I have to manage is balancing this part of the role with BAU (‘business as usual’) which can include consultancy for elearning projects, script work, coding or, a lot of the time, designing and building websites.  I work across three PCs – my ‘home’ one, a development server for working on, and a locked-down corporate standard issue for getting corporate email.

What I tend to do in a typical day is allow the period 8:30 – 9:30 for reading private email, blogs related to my music and blogs related to elearning. It’s during this time that I’ll blog myself, if I do. I subscribe to a lot of blogs in Google Reader, grouped as elearning, music, ideas, friends and fun.  Some days I let the current carry me more to one, other days to others. If I find something I want to spend more time on – usually something from an elearning blog -  I switch to Google Calendar and look for  half hour slot not too far away to check it out.

No later than 9:30 I boot up the two ‘work’ machines and their separate inboxes (we’re expressly forbidden from amalgamating inboxes or forwarding, so I have to maintain three inboxes, one hidden behind no less than three passwords!). Then it’s into the day which tends to be either development or teleconferences. Being a corpo I feel the ‘duty’ to be available to my colleagues in normal office hours.

At lunchtime I often fit in some exercise, reading, guitar practice or domestic duties, but sometimes it’s just a case of getting a break from the computer seat and returning as quickly as possible.

I rarely allow corporate work to intrude on my evening or weekend (I’m unusual in my team for this and and if any senior management read this I’ll probably be marked down as showing insufficient commitment – tough!) although elearning or software  R&D will sometimes take my curiosity. Evenings I’m often back on the same seat in front of the same desk working on music or idly browsing.

As for the rest of the 2.0 world, I visit Facebook and LinkedIn maybe twice a week at most, and Twitter has pretty much disappeared from my radar.