Almost bi-weekly I see traffic and posts on the "uselessness of training." Especially in regards to implementation training for IT projects.
In an ideal world:
- The tool would be easy to use and so user-friendly that it would require little to no guidance for getting started.
- All stakeholders would have had a say in the decision so no need for training as sales pitch.
- And the tool would solve an actual problem at both the organizational level AND at the individual level.
In 5+ years of implementation training, I've seen that happen.....once.
And in that one holy grail instance, we just provided FAQs and help desk support.
I fear I have seen a once-in-a-career convergence of events, never to be seen again.
---------------------------------------------
Since many of us are still expected to do implementation training (because that is a step in a project), this is the model I find useless:
- Drag people into a classroom 2+ weeks before go live.
- Give them a training on how to push the buttons and all of the cool features you are supposed to be able to do with the program.
- Give them an exercise that models the ideal world that they don't live in.
- Send them on their way.
- Pray go-live isn't a complete cluster****
I know this because I've designed and delivered this type of training before.
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What I have been doing for this project is not necessarily "training" using this classic model. And though it has some flaws, the general consensus is that it helped.
Yes, there is an objective. The objective for the Vignette classes is for them to be able to get the work done that they need to get done. For the immediate future - that work is to get their content loaded for the new web site.
And like a good graduate-degreed instructional design-type person, I tried to design backwards from that.
To achieve the objective, we are spending quality time
- Logging people into the live system and fixing their permissions. None of this "training system" business. Yes, there IS a risk training in live, but the removal of having to get back to the desk and finding nothing working because they can't log in.
- Making them nose around in the areas they need to be nosing around in. Again, to make sure they have the correct permissions.
- Asking LOTS of questions about what they are trying to accomplish before AND during the session.
- Focusing only on their immediate concerns in the classroom. Give them other resources they can access later when they need it.
I designed this particular course to give them a few hours to get some of their actual content in the live system. This is their practice. NOT the phony "Here's how WE think you should do it examples."
As with any training, a baseline walk-through helps them visualize what is supposed to happen (especially when the system doesn't crash). I try to grab an actual item they need to turn into a web page. Provides context. I then try to let them loose on the system as quickly as possible.
Having them in the classroom and providing a couple of hours after the actual "training" for them to do real work has been where the true value of the implementation training has been. We can see if there are technical hiccups, access problems, disconnects between the content they need to load and the templates they have to work with.
The time also allows the team to answer questions about why things are the way they are. Or determine better ways to configure the system. Or at least address the thing they are scared of.
The best implementation training, I am finding, is a conversation. To do this, you need to plan for enough flexibility to make at least some changes (both from the IT end and from the end-user process end) so that whatever beast you are trying to implement works for the people who need to use it.
Yes, I hate it when someone feels the need to "redesign the application" 3 weeks before launch. Especially when that someone has absolutely no clue how to turn on a computer, much less what it takes to design, program and configure a major application. And most especially when that person has been involved in all of the decision-making meetings, but suddenly found they had an opinion right NOW (after being repeatedly asked for 6 months prior).
But underneath the whining is good information about usability and potential sticking points for when things go live. All stuff that can be addressed when you start designing tools and resources for those who come after.
----------------------------------------
We are now moving to the Open Work Session portion of the training. People will be walking in to ask questions and do some work with help available.
I think this is where the REAL education, for all of us, begins.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Day 4: Things that Work
Today was the most successful day training yet. First day that I could walk out of the room knowing that the folks I taught today had at least a fighting chance of being able to work with Vignette when they returned to their desk.
A few elements that seemed to make a difference:
- Introducing certain concepts early. Most importantly
+ Content / Project / Where you store your stuff (like the My Documents folder on your PC)
+ Site / Channel / Where you see your stuff on the website.
I didn't realize the whole concept of "channeling your content" was so foreign. Introducing this concept early AND repeating it often made a HUGE difference.
- Being more careful about context.
+ WHY you would start using the Preview site. (The preview site is best for editing or changing pre-existing material)
+ WHY you would start your content using your newly created Project folder. (Fantastic for creating material, even if you don't know where it goes yet. A situation sadly faced by many of our content contributors.).
+ WHY you would assign a channel. (Mostly for the situation when you have content, but didn't know where to put it).
Repeat early AND often. Now that I have a better understanding of how Vignette works within the framework of content development, I am finding it easier to explain why you would use one workflow over another. Remember, I am only a few steps ahead of my students in learning this application. If I hadn't done web development work before, I would have been in really deep doo doo in the first few days.
- Oh yeah, and did I say repetition of key concepts.....Today was a fantastic illustration of the power of repetition. It's like I couldn't talk about certain things ENOUGH.
It also helped that this was the fastest and most reliable that the system has been since I started the training. At this point, the technical issues I am encountering are more the result of hardware issues in our classroom rather than the application. We are replacing all of the PCs in our classrooms over the next month - so I can live with hardware hiccups. Especially if I have a few more computers than I need.
On the student side, the OTHER reason why today worked is that the students were able to actually take advantage of the workshop time we gave them.
Saw some of the same comments from the main content contributor in the first class. And he had more technical issues to struggle through.
It was good to have a day that validated my work. I was beginning to fear that the training portion was going to be a complete bust.
A few elements that seemed to make a difference:
- Introducing certain concepts early. Most importantly
+ Content / Project / Where you store your stuff (like the My Documents folder on your PC)
+ Site / Channel / Where you see your stuff on the website.
I didn't realize the whole concept of "channeling your content" was so foreign. Introducing this concept early AND repeating it often made a HUGE difference.
- Being more careful about context.
+ WHY you would start using the Preview site. (The preview site is best for editing or changing pre-existing material)
+ WHY you would start your content using your newly created Project folder. (Fantastic for creating material, even if you don't know where it goes yet. A situation sadly faced by many of our content contributors.).
+ WHY you would assign a channel. (Mostly for the situation when you have content, but didn't know where to put it).
Repeat early AND often. Now that I have a better understanding of how Vignette works within the framework of content development, I am finding it easier to explain why you would use one workflow over another. Remember, I am only a few steps ahead of my students in learning this application. If I hadn't done web development work before, I would have been in really deep doo doo in the first few days.
- Oh yeah, and did I say repetition of key concepts.....Today was a fantastic illustration of the power of repetition. It's like I couldn't talk about certain things ENOUGH.
It also helped that this was the fastest and most reliable that the system has been since I started the training. At this point, the technical issues I am encountering are more the result of hardware issues in our classroom rather than the application. We are replacing all of the PCs in our classrooms over the next month - so I can live with hardware hiccups. Especially if I have a few more computers than I need.
On the student side, the OTHER reason why today worked is that the students were able to actually take advantage of the workshop time we gave them.
Wow! I feel SOOO much better. I actually see PROGRESS!! I think we have a fighting chance of getting everything done!
Saw some of the same comments from the main content contributor in the first class. And he had more technical issues to struggle through.
It was good to have a day that validated my work. I was beginning to fear that the training portion was going to be a complete bust.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Day 3: Eliminating One Variable
The development team had a productive weekend. The system was up, running and twice as fast as before. Hooray for the Development Team! Hooray for getting rid of the crash variable!
Still had to fight through permissions (expected) and some technical issues (a result of my room being filled with Frankencomputers, not the application).
I am still finishing classes with the unmistakable feeling that I am not making any sense.
Maybe I tried to do too much at once in the instructional design. I tried to make the design applicable to both the implementation (where a tremendous amount of bulk entry needs to occur and which requires 1 process) and future editing (another process that is admittedly much easier when looked at by itself). Judging from the increasing confusion at the 1 hour mark, this may be too much.
I am still struggling with ways to communicate how to direct content into the site. Not just the notion of "channels" but with how to choose the appropriate content type for your page. It's much easier when they do everything from Preview - but I've run into too many instances where the pages they expect to load don't exist, or the wireframes aren't right, or there is misunderstanding / miscommunication regarding how things work.
I've also run into too many people who have been told they need to come to training, but don't know why. I had practically an entire class of that this morning. Thankfully, the manager who dragged that team in there told them, and me, that this was purely informational. Good thing, because I don't think anyone in that class got anything out of the 90 minutes other than time away from their desk.
The two people who are doing the actual work for this phase (the manager and his most tech-savvy subordinate), thankfully, DID get something out of the session and got even more out of the post-session work time. Why I am happy that we made sure this was a workshop with real work rather than a churn and burn training.
I dunno.... something still isn't sitting right with me and the way I feel this training is going. And I can't quite put my finger on it.
Maybe I'll find a solution tomorrow.....
Still had to fight through permissions (expected) and some technical issues (a result of my room being filled with Frankencomputers, not the application).
I am still finishing classes with the unmistakable feeling that I am not making any sense.
Maybe I tried to do too much at once in the instructional design. I tried to make the design applicable to both the implementation (where a tremendous amount of bulk entry needs to occur and which requires 1 process) and future editing (another process that is admittedly much easier when looked at by itself). Judging from the increasing confusion at the 1 hour mark, this may be too much.
I am still struggling with ways to communicate how to direct content into the site. Not just the notion of "channels" but with how to choose the appropriate content type for your page. It's much easier when they do everything from Preview - but I've run into too many instances where the pages they expect to load don't exist, or the wireframes aren't right, or there is misunderstanding / miscommunication regarding how things work.
I've also run into too many people who have been told they need to come to training, but don't know why. I had practically an entire class of that this morning. Thankfully, the manager who dragged that team in there told them, and me, that this was purely informational. Good thing, because I don't think anyone in that class got anything out of the 90 minutes other than time away from their desk.
The two people who are doing the actual work for this phase (the manager and his most tech-savvy subordinate), thankfully, DID get something out of the session and got even more out of the post-session work time. Why I am happy that we made sure this was a workshop with real work rather than a churn and burn training.
I dunno.... something still isn't sitting right with me and the way I feel this training is going. And I can't quite put my finger on it.
Maybe I'll find a solution tomorrow.....
Day 2: How to Punt
My sacrifices to the technology gods were for nought on Friday.
System up.
System down.
Lockups.
Crashes.
UserID and permission issues.
Thankfully, I was prepared for anything life threw at me.
I probably could have trained without electricity.
Good thing, because it had practically gotten to that level of badness.
In a fit of necessary optimism, I decided to use the day as an opportunity to practice my punting skills.
Here are the tools I had at my disposal:
- Quick References. Also known as "teaching from the book."
- PowerPoint. I had a baseline PowerPoint presentation. Thankfully, as hidden slides for my reference, I also had multiple screenshots of the processes I planned to demonstrate. So glad I stopped myself from deleting these slides.
- A secondary / test site. Though this was up / down / suffering from some of the same problems as the site I was training on.
- Enough presence of mind to remember the above resources. This is a result of experience. Sadly.
- A sense of humor. Maybe the most important punting resource of all.
It was a long day. I will hear the results of my efforts towards the end of this week as to whether I even came close to my objectives as a result of these obstacles.
System up.
System down.
Lockups.
Crashes.
UserID and permission issues.
Thankfully, I was prepared for anything life threw at me.
I probably could have trained without electricity.
Good thing, because it had practically gotten to that level of badness.
In a fit of necessary optimism, I decided to use the day as an opportunity to practice my punting skills.
Here are the tools I had at my disposal:
- Quick References. Also known as "teaching from the book."
- PowerPoint. I had a baseline PowerPoint presentation. Thankfully, as hidden slides for my reference, I also had multiple screenshots of the processes I planned to demonstrate. So glad I stopped myself from deleting these slides.
- A secondary / test site. Though this was up / down / suffering from some of the same problems as the site I was training on.
- Enough presence of mind to remember the above resources. This is a result of experience. Sadly.
- A sense of humor. Maybe the most important punting resource of all.
It was a long day. I will hear the results of my efforts towards the end of this week as to whether I even came close to my objectives as a result of these obstacles.
The Importance of Exact Terminology
One of my first, full-time "professional" (as in, I had "trainer" somewhere in my job title) corporate training jobs was at Johns Hopkins implementing an Electronic Medical Record.
Occasionally, when I would forget the name of the element I was pointing out, I would say "Click this thingie."
Poor JO (my boss at the time) spent a year removing the term "thingie" from my vocabulary.
My first lesson in the importance of terminology when training computer applications.
BTW JO - if you happen to run into this post through Facebook, thanks for everything! I haven't forgotten :')
-----------------------------------------------------
The importance of terminology has hit home again with the Vignette implementation.
Case #1 - Template
Template, in Vignette, is the structure of the particular web page between the navigation and the footer that displays the content items created by the Content Creators.
Template, the way I chose to use it, is a generic content instance that serves as a partially filled in form. The Content Creator can use this partially filled in form to create multiple pieces of content without having to fill out the same items every time.
Is it any wonder why the students were confused.
One of the students told me a better term for my context is "Partially filled form."
I'm using "Baseline form" from now on....
---------------------------------------------------
Case #2 - Highlight
Highlight, in Vignette, a particular type of item within many content types that allows content creators to bring up a summary version of an article or story to another page. Usually consisting of a short title, 20 words of text and a 220x110 picture.
Highlight, as used when the content creators attempted to write materials for their web pages.
"Make sure you include 4 highlights for your content."
The problem occurred when we then tried to show them where they were supposed to put these for "highlights." Really, the material they wrote is content for 4 sidebars that would then be used to create a rotating sidebar. Completely different content type (with a completely different workflow) from a highlight.
Confused? They are too. Though now that they have finally seen the tool they are using to add all of this material, it is making a little more sense. Still - it took 30 minutes of class time to sift through the terminology.
-----------------------------------------
Since this is still implementation, we are still trying to create a consistent terminology that bridges the gap between what the developers and technical folk understand and what the end-users understand. Trickier work than I had anticipated.
Occasionally, when I would forget the name of the element I was pointing out, I would say "Click this thingie."
Poor JO (my boss at the time) spent a year removing the term "thingie" from my vocabulary.
My first lesson in the importance of terminology when training computer applications.
BTW JO - if you happen to run into this post through Facebook, thanks for everything! I haven't forgotten :')
-----------------------------------------------------
The importance of terminology has hit home again with the Vignette implementation.
Case #1 - Template
Template, in Vignette, is the structure of the particular web page between the navigation and the footer that displays the content items created by the Content Creators.
Template, the way I chose to use it, is a generic content instance that serves as a partially filled in form. The Content Creator can use this partially filled in form to create multiple pieces of content without having to fill out the same items every time.
Is it any wonder why the students were confused.
One of the students told me a better term for my context is "Partially filled form."
I'm using "Baseline form" from now on....
---------------------------------------------------
Case #2 - Highlight
Highlight, in Vignette, a particular type of item within many content types that allows content creators to bring up a summary version of an article or story to another page. Usually consisting of a short title, 20 words of text and a 220x110 picture.
Highlight, as used when the content creators attempted to write materials for their web pages.
"Make sure you include 4 highlights for your content."
The problem occurred when we then tried to show them where they were supposed to put these for "highlights." Really, the material they wrote is content for 4 sidebars that would then be used to create a rotating sidebar. Completely different content type (with a completely different workflow) from a highlight.
Confused? They are too. Though now that they have finally seen the tool they are using to add all of this material, it is making a little more sense. Still - it took 30 minutes of class time to sift through the terminology.
-----------------------------------------
Since this is still implementation, we are still trying to create a consistent terminology that bridges the gap between what the developers and technical folk understand and what the end-users understand. Trickier work than I had anticipated.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Day 1: A Tolerance for Chaos is a Good Thing
As somewhat anticipated when doing training on an evolving system, things did not quite work out as hoped. They did work out as expected.
Some of the challenges:
- Users who were not completely set up. They have been trying to implement permissions and it has complicated the user setup process in unanticipated ways. Thankfully - Developer is a saint.
- Stakeholders who don't quite understand what they signed up for. Sometimes, the reality of a project doesn't sink in until they have to do the work.
- Stakeholder groups who realize that there are more decisions that need to be made NOW. This is a corellary to the above. One of today's groups spent much more time discussing consistency issues than I would have liked. Cut into the workshop time and, I suspect, may have helped confuse some of the audience.
- A trainer still trying to figure out ways to communicate the nuances of a very complicated system. Figuring out how best to explain getting their content from hanging out in the Content Manager to display on the site itself ("channeling the content" for those in the WebDev field) is a greater challenge than I had anticipated.
- A system that is still suffering from configuration changes and the occasional "crash". A known hazard of training in parallel with development. I've dealt with worse. But it's still very difficult and confusing for the student. All I can do is make my best attempts to mitigate the issue as much as possible. We are definitely going to do a follow-up with a couple of people affected by the technical issues.
Also found that my attempt to demonstrate Quick Action creation should have been done in the opposite order. Show the specific example, THEN show them how to create a generic to copy over. Lesson learned.
One of the team members insistence on having open sessions turned out to be a good call. We are going to need them. And I suspect they will be all hands on deck.
Overall, despite the preparation, the sessions felt disorganized and I fear that my goal of the end-user being able to work at their desk with a higher level of comfort was not achieved. I talked it over with the team. No one seemed bothered by it - and I got a thank-you from a couple of people. But it bothers me.
I'm gonna sleep on it and see if I can figure out a better approach....
Some of the challenges:
- Users who were not completely set up. They have been trying to implement permissions and it has complicated the user setup process in unanticipated ways. Thankfully - Developer is a saint.
- Stakeholders who don't quite understand what they signed up for. Sometimes, the reality of a project doesn't sink in until they have to do the work.
- Stakeholder groups who realize that there are more decisions that need to be made NOW. This is a corellary to the above. One of today's groups spent much more time discussing consistency issues than I would have liked. Cut into the workshop time and, I suspect, may have helped confuse some of the audience.
- A trainer still trying to figure out ways to communicate the nuances of a very complicated system. Figuring out how best to explain getting their content from hanging out in the Content Manager to display on the site itself ("channeling the content" for those in the WebDev field) is a greater challenge than I had anticipated.
- A system that is still suffering from configuration changes and the occasional "crash". A known hazard of training in parallel with development. I've dealt with worse. But it's still very difficult and confusing for the student. All I can do is make my best attempts to mitigate the issue as much as possible. We are definitely going to do a follow-up with a couple of people affected by the technical issues.
Also found that my attempt to demonstrate Quick Action creation should have been done in the opposite order. Show the specific example, THEN show them how to create a generic to copy over. Lesson learned.
One of the team members insistence on having open sessions turned out to be a good call. We are going to need them. And I suspect they will be all hands on deck.
Overall, despite the preparation, the sessions felt disorganized and I fear that my goal of the end-user being able to work at their desk with a higher level of comfort was not achieved. I talked it over with the team. No one seemed bothered by it - and I got a thank-you from a couple of people. But it bothers me.
I'm gonna sleep on it and see if I can figure out a better approach....
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Last minute prep
One of the most exciting things about preparing for a class on a tool still in the throes of configuration is the excitement of not knowing what you will find when you go into training.
I spent the final afternoon before the training sessions start making sure I could do what I needed to do the next morning.
They had just finished installing a major build. Like, this morning.
As anticipated, things didn't quite work the way they were supposed to.
Actually, they didn't work at all.
So Developer (an alias, not his real name) and I spent an hour on the phone picking through the various issues.
I was thrilled he was willing to spend the time with me to get everything resolved.
His response:
I forgot how much people like it when their teammates try to anticipate issues BEFORE they happen.
From bitter experience, we both know that just because we are doing all of this preliminary work does NOT mean that we aren't going to run into major hiccups first thing tomorrow morning. But at least we can later look at each other square in the eye later on, knowing that the other did what they could. Besides, the blame game when you are standing in front of a full class with no working machines is not a particularly productive way to go.
To complicate matters for tomorrow morning - I am walking into a classroom where the computers have all just been replaced. First user. No IDEA whether any of them work. And I need ALL of the computers in the room to work (full house - both classes). Oh, and those computers won't be ready until.....tomorrow morning.
Fear and pessimism - powerful motivators for preparation....
Say a prayer to the technology gods for me, will ya?
Thanks.
I spent the final afternoon before the training sessions start making sure I could do what I needed to do the next morning.
They had just finished installing a major build. Like, this morning.
As anticipated, things didn't quite work the way they were supposed to.
Actually, they didn't work at all.
So Developer (an alias, not his real name) and I spent an hour on the phone picking through the various issues.
I was thrilled he was willing to spend the time with me to get everything resolved.
His response:
I'm happy you are doing this NOW so we can make sure things are working well ahead of time.
I forgot how much people like it when their teammates try to anticipate issues BEFORE they happen.
From bitter experience, we both know that just because we are doing all of this preliminary work does NOT mean that we aren't going to run into major hiccups first thing tomorrow morning. But at least we can later look at each other square in the eye later on, knowing that the other did what they could. Besides, the blame game when you are standing in front of a full class with no working machines is not a particularly productive way to go.
To complicate matters for tomorrow morning - I am walking into a classroom where the computers have all just been replaced. First user. No IDEA whether any of them work. And I need ALL of the computers in the room to work (full house - both classes). Oh, and those computers won't be ready until.....tomorrow morning.
Fear and pessimism - powerful motivators for preparation....
Say a prayer to the technology gods for me, will ya?
Thanks.
Initial Training Plan for Vignette
A little background on Vignette as it applies to my institution.
For this project, I am training folks on two editing tools.
The first is a tool I am calling "VCM". This is the "back-end" editor and allows bulk content loading and publishing along with the ability to work with files not ready for assignment to a particular location on the web site.
The second is a tool I am fondly calling "Preview." This is a copy of the actual site with focused access to VCM for editing. They click a pencil, make the changes in the content, save the content.
Preview allows the content contributors to see what the content will look like on the site and how it will behave before it is actually published to the site. Preview has the added advantage of minimizing the amount of time the content managers have to spend looking for the correct file to edit.
The challenge, from an instructional design perspective, is determining the correct balance of information between the two tools for the different audiences. Since we are in implementation phase, there is significant bulk content management activity. Going forward, however, most of their time will be in the Preview area fine-tuning material.
The entire team is aware that the first two days of classes may result in some changes as we figure out the optimum balance between the two tools.
------------------------------------------------
We gave each class 3.5 hours.
- 60-90 minutes of "training"
- 2+ hours of "work time"
All of the training will be in the live Vignette server. Risky, but necessary since the development team is still implementing builds in the test server that I would normally use for training.
Not a big deal - they would need to be in the live server anyway to get their work done.
Besides, this allows me to show them how to do some user account configuration. Shortcuts = Happy people.
------------------------------------------------
We will also be working with the document management tool the teams are using to organize their content. Flying a bit blind as to how familiar the content contributors are with the document management tool. Hopefully, I won't have to spend too much time on this application.
------------------------------------------------
The final objective to all this - by the time the student is kicked out of my classroom, they have gotten some content in the live system and they are reasonably comfortable with the tools at their disposal.
----------------------------------------------
I will be writing at the end of each day.
For this project, I am training folks on two editing tools.
The first is a tool I am calling "VCM". This is the "back-end" editor and allows bulk content loading and publishing along with the ability to work with files not ready for assignment to a particular location on the web site.
The second is a tool I am fondly calling "Preview." This is a copy of the actual site with focused access to VCM for editing. They click a pencil, make the changes in the content, save the content.
Preview allows the content contributors to see what the content will look like on the site and how it will behave before it is actually published to the site. Preview has the added advantage of minimizing the amount of time the content managers have to spend looking for the correct file to edit.
The challenge, from an instructional design perspective, is determining the correct balance of information between the two tools for the different audiences. Since we are in implementation phase, there is significant bulk content management activity. Going forward, however, most of their time will be in the Preview area fine-tuning material.
The entire team is aware that the first two days of classes may result in some changes as we figure out the optimum balance between the two tools.
------------------------------------------------
We gave each class 3.5 hours.
- 60-90 minutes of "training"
- 2+ hours of "work time"
All of the training will be in the live Vignette server. Risky, but necessary since the development team is still implementing builds in the test server that I would normally use for training.
Not a big deal - they would need to be in the live server anyway to get their work done.
Besides, this allows me to show them how to do some user account configuration. Shortcuts = Happy people.
------------------------------------------------
We will also be working with the document management tool the teams are using to organize their content. Flying a bit blind as to how familiar the content contributors are with the document management tool. Hopefully, I won't have to spend too much time on this application.
------------------------------------------------
The final objective to all this - by the time the student is kicked out of my classroom, they have gotten some content in the live system and they are reasonably comfortable with the tools at their disposal.
----------------------------------------------
I will be writing at the end of each day.
Debating with Myself - and a result
I've been debating whether to take a long-term hiatus from the blog. For various reasons:
- Time - I've got some big projects, both personal and professional on deck from now until April 2010
- The feeling I don't really have anything new to add to the space that I haven't already said before. Maybe I'm afraid that I am doing the same thing over and over and haven't found the energy to get out of the rut.
- General social media burnout. Which may be related to the concern stated above.
- Work issues that are not appropriately discussed here. Don't worry - I still like my job most of the time and my employers still seem to like me. Just a hiccup that doesn't illustrate anything productive and has not resolved itself into a tidy lesson yet. So far, the only lesson I've gleaned from the experience is that I'm glad I'm not management.....
I seem to go through this funk after conferences. This time seemed worse than usual. Not entirely sure why.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
After fitfully sleeping on it, I realized that I haven't really documented a project since the Electronic Medical Record project.
Since the ASTD / Innovations in eLearning marathon, I've been involved in a major revamp of our web-site.
Maybe the web project didn't seem so interesting because communications across groups (content, developers, training, management, SMEs) have gone fairly smoothly. Despite some concerns by some of the stakeholders - the project has been well planned. Most importantly, the product itself is fairly user-friendly.
Training, for this project, really serves 3 purposes:
- To communicate information on the project (particularly governance and formatting) and discuss ways to work with the tool more effectively.
- To give people a safe and focused area to work with resources at hand for questions.
- To make the really nervous content providers more confident about their ability to finish the admittedly large task they have at hand.
The pilot went very well. I received some productive feedback on the material and clarification on the tool - both from a technical "best practice" perspective and from a functional "this is what they are up against" perspective.
The team is racing through some last minute configuration changes and builds. If all goes well - I will be spending this afternoon finalizing documentation and doing one final walk-through of both designed classes. a) to make sure I have an idea of what I am talking about and b) to make sure the system works. If all doesn't go well....I've got enough PowerPoint slides with screenshots to punt. ;')
I've always got the technology unga-bunga dance in my arsenal if it gets really ugly....
So over the next 2-3 weeks, I will be journaling the training for Vignette.
Should be fun....
- Time - I've got some big projects, both personal and professional on deck from now until April 2010
- The feeling I don't really have anything new to add to the space that I haven't already said before. Maybe I'm afraid that I am doing the same thing over and over and haven't found the energy to get out of the rut.
- General social media burnout. Which may be related to the concern stated above.
- Work issues that are not appropriately discussed here. Don't worry - I still like my job most of the time and my employers still seem to like me. Just a hiccup that doesn't illustrate anything productive and has not resolved itself into a tidy lesson yet. So far, the only lesson I've gleaned from the experience is that I'm glad I'm not management.....
I seem to go through this funk after conferences. This time seemed worse than usual. Not entirely sure why.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
After fitfully sleeping on it, I realized that I haven't really documented a project since the Electronic Medical Record project.
Since the ASTD / Innovations in eLearning marathon, I've been involved in a major revamp of our web-site.
Maybe the web project didn't seem so interesting because communications across groups (content, developers, training, management, SMEs) have gone fairly smoothly. Despite some concerns by some of the stakeholders - the project has been well planned. Most importantly, the product itself is fairly user-friendly.
Training, for this project, really serves 3 purposes:
- To communicate information on the project (particularly governance and formatting) and discuss ways to work with the tool more effectively.
- To give people a safe and focused area to work with resources at hand for questions.
- To make the really nervous content providers more confident about their ability to finish the admittedly large task they have at hand.
The pilot went very well. I received some productive feedback on the material and clarification on the tool - both from a technical "best practice" perspective and from a functional "this is what they are up against" perspective.
The team is racing through some last minute configuration changes and builds. If all goes well - I will be spending this afternoon finalizing documentation and doing one final walk-through of both designed classes. a) to make sure I have an idea of what I am talking about and b) to make sure the system works. If all doesn't go well....I've got enough PowerPoint slides with screenshots to punt. ;')
I've always got the technology unga-bunga dance in my arsenal if it gets really ugly....
So over the next 2-3 weeks, I will be journaling the training for Vignette.
Should be fun....
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Pilots for feedback
Yup - as has been the habit I have dropped off the face of the blogging earth after the round of conferences. Being in the weeds on a major project had a lot to do with it.
The university is in the middle of completely revamping their web site. The primary goals are to provide consistent navigation across ALL pages across the site (which may prove to be a minor miracle in and of itself) and to provide tools to the content owners that allow them to edit their site with a minimum amount of coding.
We are using Vignette as the back end for our site. For this first round, the web team has worked with each of the content owners to create customized templates and content types. Once these are established, my job is to show them how to use them in the least painful way possible.
As in most implementation projects, critical process decisions are still being made. How much control do they want the content owners to have? Do they want them to be able to create their own templates? Will there be separate creation and publication teams? Who will serve as first, second and third line help?
Since most of us are reasonably new with this tool (of course, I am the newest person), we are also slowly figuring out tips and tricks to share with the content owners. And, of course, there have been regular build upgrades that add new features and functions to be accounted for. So one of my tasks is to help figure out ways to communicate these changes even after the new site goes "live".
What has made this project such a pleasure to work on is that the SMEs have been incredibly forthcoming with both information and with time. You have no IDEA how rare that is. Their thought, as so eloquently put by one of the technical leads:
And though the training design will be very fluid for the next few months, we all figure that if we can manage to get the shell right for the upcoming groups, everybody ultimately does less work in the long-run.
I am piloting 2 classes this afternoon. With a large audience that includes the web team (employees AND contractors) and the help desk. A number of these folks have not had a chance to touch the system at all. One of them (the Help Desk manager) has never even seen it before.
From the pilot, I hope to glean the following information:
- Does the order of the training make sense?
- Did I provide the right model? Can the end user encounter another template or content type and still be able to function?
- Am I giving them too much information or too little?
The team knows that I am trying to keep each training between 60 and 90 minutes long. We have decided to allow for 4 hours per session during training delivery so that the content owners can begin entering content directly after the training session with in-person help at hand. Again, 2 birds, 1 stone. They get training and practice + they get real work done in a "safe" environment.
Wish me luck!
The university is in the middle of completely revamping their web site. The primary goals are to provide consistent navigation across ALL pages across the site (which may prove to be a minor miracle in and of itself) and to provide tools to the content owners that allow them to edit their site with a minimum amount of coding.
We are using Vignette as the back end for our site. For this first round, the web team has worked with each of the content owners to create customized templates and content types. Once these are established, my job is to show them how to use them in the least painful way possible.
As in most implementation projects, critical process decisions are still being made. How much control do they want the content owners to have? Do they want them to be able to create their own templates? Will there be separate creation and publication teams? Who will serve as first, second and third line help?
Since most of us are reasonably new with this tool (of course, I am the newest person), we are also slowly figuring out tips and tricks to share with the content owners. And, of course, there have been regular build upgrades that add new features and functions to be accounted for. So one of my tasks is to help figure out ways to communicate these changes even after the new site goes "live".
What has made this project such a pleasure to work on is that the SMEs have been incredibly forthcoming with both information and with time. You have no IDEA how rare that is. Their thought, as so eloquently put by one of the technical leads:
I spend time with you now, I won't have to spend time with you later.
And though the training design will be very fluid for the next few months, we all figure that if we can manage to get the shell right for the upcoming groups, everybody ultimately does less work in the long-run.
I am piloting 2 classes this afternoon. With a large audience that includes the web team (employees AND contractors) and the help desk. A number of these folks have not had a chance to touch the system at all. One of them (the Help Desk manager) has never even seen it before.
From the pilot, I hope to glean the following information:
- Does the order of the training make sense?
- Did I provide the right model? Can the end user encounter another template or content type and still be able to function?
- Am I giving them too much information or too little?
The team knows that I am trying to keep each training between 60 and 90 minutes long. We have decided to allow for 4 hours per session during training delivery so that the content owners can begin entering content directly after the training session with in-person help at hand. Again, 2 birds, 1 stone. They get training and practice + they get real work done in a "safe" environment.
Wish me luck!
Friday, June 05, 2009
#IeL09 The End of a Long Week
This is not Scoble.
(it's Peter from ADL - who happened to find Scoble's nametag lying on the floor)
------------------------------------------
This conference was incredibly validating.
I love walking away from a week knowing that yes, despite seeming a bit "out there" in the eyes of my co-workers and clients and other members of the broader professional community, I am on the right track.
And that there are people who feel the same way I do, fighting the same battles.
I loved being able to bounce ideas off of people of like mind with different experiences and perspectives. This networking time was as valuable as the sessions themselves. In a couple of cases, even more-so.
------------------------------------------
Something that struck me looking at the GameJam boards yesterday:
We spend so much time talking about designing games.
Maybe we ought to consider ways to incorporate some off-the-shelf games and put them in an educational context.
This might be a way to ease into incorporating richer, more interactive media into a class. Begin getting our more traditional colleagues thinking. If they don't have to go through the design process for the game (much less the class), maybe it would be an easier way to bring them over to our side...
Kicking this around.......
----------------------------------------------
I love that the DAU is actually building the thing that I want to ultimately build.
I think they are going to provide the model for what a fully integrated learning program actually looks like - including "pull" functionality that will help eliminate some of the digging around students have to do now.
I can...not...wait to see how this evolves.
---------------------------------------------
I also loved that the DAU has a leader who is a big fan of rapid prototyping.
- Get it
- play with it
- figure it out
- then sell it to the uppers.
These guys aren't asking permission to experiment. And they have a leader who encourages it.
I heard a couple of other iterations of the same thing at Innovations in eLearning.
----------------------------------------------
Big takeaway from the 3D Virtual Worlds session - we are not quite there yet in terms of easy to use tools to build this type of environment.
And we are CERTAINLY not there yet in terms of design.
Technology rich - practice poor
-------------------------------------------
It's been fun! Thanks to the Mark Oehlert and Chris StJohn for inviting me.
Thanks to everyone I talked to for stretching my brain.
#IeL09 Game Jam WINNER
Will Wright's choice for Game Jam!
Project: Permanent Campaign
Team: Stephen Martin, Maria Anderson, Dan Petrak, Richard Sebastian
Concept: You are an ambitious candidate. Goal: Presidency of the US. Collection of Mini- Games. Wii based
- Work the Room. Shake hands and meet people
- Teleprompter Kareoke - Deliver the speech. Use Rock Star-type voice recognition
- Choose advisors
- Dodge the Question.
- Office serves as central command and information post. Watch the poll numbers
---------------------------------------------
I had a chance to talk to the team members as they disassembled the project board - Dan slowly peeling off the Excellence sticker and their picture of the box cover to bring back with him and Maria to Des Moines Area Community College.
They won because:
- They did a nice job of dealing with both short-term and long-term effects of decisions. Particularly how a decision that is positive in the short term could prove to be negative in the long term
- "It just looked like fun and I want to play it."
Congrats!
And if we ever see this on the market, we now know where the idea came from and who should get the royalties (please see the list above).....
Project: Permanent Campaign
Team: Stephen Martin, Maria Anderson, Dan Petrak, Richard Sebastian
Concept: You are an ambitious candidate. Goal: Presidency of the US. Collection of Mini- Games. Wii based
- Work the Room. Shake hands and meet people
- Teleprompter Kareoke - Deliver the speech. Use Rock Star-type voice recognition
- Choose advisors
- Dodge the Question.
- Office serves as central command and information post. Watch the poll numbers
---------------------------------------------
I had a chance to talk to the team members as they disassembled the project board - Dan slowly peeling off the Excellence sticker and their picture of the box cover to bring back with him and Maria to Des Moines Area Community College.
They won because:
- They did a nice job of dealing with both short-term and long-term effects of decisions. Particularly how a decision that is positive in the short term could prove to be negative in the long term
- "It just looked like fun and I want to play it."
Congrats!
And if we ever see this on the market, we now know where the idea came from and who should get the royalties (please see the list above).....
#IeL09 Web 3D and eLearning
Presentation: Web 3D and eLearning
Presenters: Dan Bilton, Cary Hart Booz Allen Hamilton
ATLAS Pro (Gov't LMS) - DAU
Used multi-verse engine. MMOPG - physics ed. LunarQuest
- Play as cadet on colony - sci fi
- Flash mini-games embedded inside
REal-time 3D - interactive 3D rendered on the fly
Non-real time 3D - 3D animated sequences rendered previously (Pixar Movies)
Web 3D - real time 3D run on the web
Persistent world - virtual worlds that exist even when the user logs out (2nd life)
Non-persistent world - virtual world that does not change when you log out. (simulators)
What is needed
- easy to use tool that enable designers and developers to produce a 3D virtual world activities - that run in a web browser without the need for additional applications or plugins (e.g. Flash)
- We may be a year from the above happening.
US Nexus -- does not run directly in browser. Do have to run something on machine.
- need holy grail of easy to produce, run on everyone machine.
BopIt extreme [[we didn't get very far]
What types of things good in a 3D world - which activity good and solid
- Interacting and touring. If not doing it in 3D outside of the world - why are you getting into 3D world.
- If you are just doing a meeting - why go through the effort of 3D?
- Lately going to meetings in 2nd life - powerpoint. Why are we not using webex, Adobe Connect?
- Ad Hoc discussions - if there is a room set aside - can do ad hoc if folks hang out in the area
Remember - there is a technology hurdle to implement this.
Why is this relevant to you?
- if want to get a closer look - can look at a different angle.
- Unity is just in a browser. Uses small plugin - similar to flash. Might be smaller. (about $400). Similar learning curve to Flash. Flash developers learn quickly.
+ One of first viable Web 3D technologies
+ Came up quickly
+ Still looking for thing that doesn't require ANY plugin
+ Video card dependent. Laptops that can't run second life - can run this
+ If keep complexity of scene down - easier.
+ Rooms contained, limited colors.
+ This particular instant - non-persistent, reset. Can be used for non-persistent worlds.
+ Can make them a multi-player world. Can be make persistent world.
Again - focus on what you want to achieve with the instruction.....
Flash is still a 2 dimentional engine.
- Someone must be a very hardcore programmer
- JUST became possible to do 3D in Flash
- Unity renders better.
3d allows different perspectives
- Web allows centralized location, link out to other assets, etc
How far away - 3D tools for assessment?
- the big question - do you NEED to ask the question in 3D.
- Designed to have people DO something
Gotta have quite a few different skillsets on your team to currently build a 3D world.
- Can build a nice world over a weekend. But it took 3 or 4 people.
Benefits - 3D world
- immerse learner
- allow learner to explore impacts
- replay scenarios - several times and limitless angles (look at Madden Football)
- No need expensive equipment or travel - bring the environment to you
- Many also have VoIP (still a bit clunky)
Benefits - Web-based 3D world
- Centralized nature of content allow for single point of change
- Ability to link to supporting content
- Integration with other media
- Trackable via LMS
+ Client-based VW also trackable, but more difficult)
ITIC - training simulation conference 1 example of use.
- Soldier in booth - running through world
- Coach watching remotely
- Can replay the simulation and analyze
2nd life - download client. When change code - download client again
- Can now launch HTML files
- Hard to embed 2nd life into HTML doc
Examples
- VIsible Body (Unity)
- Forgefx.com
Concept to operator - what actually happens.
- Give you multiple perspectives
- Multiple person does make it trickier for team events.....
[Demonstrated FAA prototype Booz Allen is using. Demonstrating first person 3D integrated into Flash and HTML]
They have used other media engines
- Shockwave - problem, lost out on fidelity. Never improved it.
+ no good lighting and shadowing
+ didn't tweak the physics.
March - came out with a platform that runs on Windows. Was MAC
Unreal and Torque 3D -
- Torque 3D Web Accessable, but whenever upload, creates new plugin for each game.
- Web.ALive - 19 meg download, then have to download the world.
Non-persistent - simulators
Persistent - dialogs and role plays
As features increase, the worlds become closer.
Of course what we really want is easy to use and no or pre-existing plugin.
1st thing to do - get exposure for yourself
- Play the games
- Second life! (lots of good simulators and things to manipulate etc)
+ They are developing second life through firewalls
Remember - do you really need 3d for this objective?
3D VWs - good when interacting in 3D.
- go to predefined area.
Think about what games do - explore, cooperation if multiple people
- You Had To DO Something
We do powerpoint because its easy.....
The spatial is important
- you can also do 3D audio. (this is newer)
[ note to self - may be time to go back into Second Life...been a long time ]
People can spend time on avatars, have anomations, Can see representations.
- We still don't have enough animation on the face
- Plus really need the audio.
Actually USE the 3D world.
- Don't show the flowchart - do it!!!!
Web 3D has actually been around since 1995 (VRML 1.0)
- 1998 - Java3D Rel 1
- Became really more sophisticated in 2004 (X3D, Java3D Rel 2)
Can make Web3D SCORM conformant
- Through API calls from JavaScript
- Web 3D does not have sandbox issues (permissions with communication) because running through the web. Issue with standalone 3D.
- As long as you can tap into API - you are good
Able to integrate with other technologies
- Can run video through Web3D.
+ Make "texture"
- Link to other resources
- Other instructional materials can be located within same or new browser window.
New features being added constantly.
[remember: will need to do re-evaluation of technologies as they mature]
Cost and metrics to develop.WMATA systems integration 3D Demo totally from scratch.
- Built in a weekend, 3 people
- 1 - oversight and a bit of programming
- 1 real-time 3d modeler
+ Can make high quality, low polygon count
- 1 javascript
- 24 hours each.
Does not include design time.
Presenters: Dan Bilton, Cary Hart Booz Allen Hamilton
ATLAS Pro (Gov't LMS) - DAU
Used multi-verse engine. MMOPG - physics ed. LunarQuest
- Play as cadet on colony - sci fi
- Flash mini-games embedded inside
REal-time 3D - interactive 3D rendered on the fly
Non-real time 3D - 3D animated sequences rendered previously (Pixar Movies)
Web 3D - real time 3D run on the web
Persistent world - virtual worlds that exist even when the user logs out (2nd life)
Non-persistent world - virtual world that does not change when you log out. (simulators)
What is needed
- easy to use tool that enable designers and developers to produce a 3D virtual world activities - that run in a web browser without the need for additional applications or plugins (e.g. Flash)
- We may be a year from the above happening.
US Nexus -- does not run directly in browser. Do have to run something on machine.
- need holy grail of easy to produce, run on everyone machine.
BopIt extreme [[we didn't get very far]
What types of things good in a 3D world - which activity good and solid
- Interacting and touring. If not doing it in 3D outside of the world - why are you getting into 3D world.
- If you are just doing a meeting - why go through the effort of 3D?
- Lately going to meetings in 2nd life - powerpoint. Why are we not using webex, Adobe Connect?
- Ad Hoc discussions - if there is a room set aside - can do ad hoc if folks hang out in the area
Remember - there is a technology hurdle to implement this.
Why is this relevant to you?
- if want to get a closer look - can look at a different angle.
- Unity is just in a browser. Uses small plugin - similar to flash. Might be smaller. (about $400). Similar learning curve to Flash. Flash developers learn quickly.
+ One of first viable Web 3D technologies
+ Came up quickly
+ Still looking for thing that doesn't require ANY plugin
+ Video card dependent. Laptops that can't run second life - can run this
+ If keep complexity of scene down - easier.
+ Rooms contained, limited colors.
+ This particular instant - non-persistent, reset. Can be used for non-persistent worlds.
+ Can make them a multi-player world. Can be make persistent world.
Again - focus on what you want to achieve with the instruction.....
Flash is still a 2 dimentional engine.
- Someone must be a very hardcore programmer
- JUST became possible to do 3D in Flash
- Unity renders better.
3d allows different perspectives
- Web allows centralized location, link out to other assets, etc
How far away - 3D tools for assessment?
- the big question - do you NEED to ask the question in 3D.
- Designed to have people DO something
Gotta have quite a few different skillsets on your team to currently build a 3D world.
- Can build a nice world over a weekend. But it took 3 or 4 people.
Benefits - 3D world
- immerse learner
- allow learner to explore impacts
- replay scenarios - several times and limitless angles (look at Madden Football)
- No need expensive equipment or travel - bring the environment to you
- Many also have VoIP (still a bit clunky)
Benefits - Web-based 3D world
- Centralized nature of content allow for single point of change
- Ability to link to supporting content
- Integration with other media
- Trackable via LMS
+ Client-based VW also trackable, but more difficult)
ITIC - training simulation conference 1 example of use.
- Soldier in booth - running through world
- Coach watching remotely
- Can replay the simulation and analyze
2nd life - download client. When change code - download client again
- Can now launch HTML files
- Hard to embed 2nd life into HTML doc
Examples
- VIsible Body (Unity)
- Forgefx.com
Concept to operator - what actually happens.
- Give you multiple perspectives
- Multiple person does make it trickier for team events.....
[Demonstrated FAA prototype Booz Allen is using. Demonstrating first person 3D integrated into Flash and HTML]
They have used other media engines
- Shockwave - problem, lost out on fidelity. Never improved it.
+ no good lighting and shadowing
+ didn't tweak the physics.
March - came out with a platform that runs on Windows. Was MAC
Unreal and Torque 3D -
- Torque 3D Web Accessable, but whenever upload, creates new plugin for each game.
- Web.ALive - 19 meg download, then have to download the world.
Non-persistent - simulators
Persistent - dialogs and role plays
As features increase, the worlds become closer.
Of course what we really want is easy to use and no or pre-existing plugin.
1st thing to do - get exposure for yourself
- Play the games
- Second life! (lots of good simulators and things to manipulate etc)
+ They are developing second life through firewalls
Remember - do you really need 3d for this objective?
3D VWs - good when interacting in 3D.
- go to predefined area.
Think about what games do - explore, cooperation if multiple people
- You Had To DO Something
We do powerpoint because its easy.....
The spatial is important
- you can also do 3D audio. (this is newer)
[ note to self - may be time to go back into Second Life...been a long time ]
People can spend time on avatars, have anomations, Can see representations.
- We still don't have enough animation on the face
- Plus really need the audio.
Actually USE the 3D world.
- Don't show the flowchart - do it!!!!
Web 3D has actually been around since 1995 (VRML 1.0)
- 1998 - Java3D Rel 1
- Became really more sophisticated in 2004 (X3D, Java3D Rel 2)
Can make Web3D SCORM conformant
- Through API calls from JavaScript
- Web 3D does not have sandbox issues (permissions with communication) because running through the web. Issue with standalone 3D.
- As long as you can tap into API - you are good
Able to integrate with other technologies
- Can run video through Web3D.
+ Make "texture"
- Link to other resources
- Other instructional materials can be located within same or new browser window.
New features being added constantly.
[remember: will need to do re-evaluation of technologies as they mature]
Cost and metrics to develop.WMATA systems integration 3D Demo totally from scratch.
- Built in a weekend, 3 people
- 1 - oversight and a bit of programming
- 1 real-time 3d modeler
+ Can make high quality, low polygon count
- 1 javascript
- 24 hours each.
Does not include design time.
#IeL09 Technology and the Next Gen Learner
Presentation: In School Suspension - Technology and the Next Gen Learner
Presenter: Dr. Adrian Sannier, CTO Arizona State
Thought experiment
- If you agree - "now what do I do"
- Don't agree - "I can catch my flight"
We are for the first time in our history
- Technology rich
- Practice poor
Reason why we are practice poor - because we were technology poor
The further up the food chain you go with educators - "it's a fad."
Imagine a genetic mutation arises in people
- the mutation causes young people have the capacity for telepathy
- the kids stare into space. "I'm talking to people."
- Kids also have power - have infinite memory.
+ We've taken photographs.
Never in human history has is been so easy to photograph and movie and tag and create and catalog experience and recall so quickly.
They take this for granted.
So how do you really teach these people?
IN Dumbledore's universe - a culture on using powers.
- Long tradition of how to do it.
We aren't in this position because we don't know what to do with these powers.
Maybe we need Prof. Xavier - new powers on new people
- He can kinda figure it out.
- Problem - no Prf. Xavier
SO what do we do....put em in class like we normally do.
Of course, the kids use the powers to game the system.
- so what do we do - we BAN the power.
Now if you are a kid with these powers, and the only place you are not allow to use them - in school.
- What relavance does this have to your life?
THe professor is in an arms race.
- Realized the kids use a DEVICE.
- I just need a way to zap the device
Problem - the kids we are boring, are paying our old age.
Problem - we are maligning these powers.
- Where do you get off tellling them that?!?
We don't understand them.
Xbox Live - most advanced simulation in a world. Can play games with people everywhere
- THe games deep and complicated
- Kids don't read the instruction manual.
- Spending entire life formulating complicated strategies.
Leeroy Jenkins. [ this dude is acting it out ]
We are missing an entire CULTURE.
- What's good, what's bad, how it works, how used......
Culture comes from education.
- Problem - instead of figuring out, we push downward
THe whole desire to ban what we don't understand [happened throughout history with new technologies]
We are not keeping up.
We all know what a search looks like. It looks like a box!
ASU Library example - go look at the page
- How many clicks does it take to get to the damn article!!!!!!
TL DNR - too long do not read. [yup - like my blog post]
- survival skill on internet - not to get sucked into unneccesary reading
Boolean searches - not so critical anymore
- computers do this well, why do we need to know.
We teach handwriting
Kids learn on their own how to type, use internet, search, adding
- We are overcomplicating our search design.
How its supposed to be
- There's your portal
- There's your search
- There's your article
His challenge - they are the only research university in a city of 3.5 million
- hundreds of thousands of people need education
- Problem: no new schools
- We need to figure out how to provide a first class education for twice as many students!
ASU - from 50k to up to 100k + 100k distance learners.
Lots of us will have to be involved - keep going back
Technology is the only goose that keeps getting better / cheaper...
- Allows them to tap into more....
A decade before - university had highest level of tech spending
- Company - lose internet, email, technology
Now - universities not highest level of tech
- Amazon knows mom better than I do.....
- We get better flat. A litte at a time. Google and Amazon on the curve
Video - Google Data Center
IT industrialized in 20 years
- Alvin Toeffler had it right.
- Standard industry - 150-200 years. You could adjust!
When ASU decided to switch to GMail - converted in 2 weeks.
- Gave the students a choice. 300 students switch in an hour.
- [They had same experience that we did did.]
The transition to GMail is the golden use.
- NOW - everyone has lots of quota, a calendar, other tools
Communicate for free in infrastructure provided by school.
THe CTO gave up! Joined the aliens
[note to my bosses - talk to this guy about GMail implementation]
THey dismantled their rich media installation and now use iTunes U.
- Anything you create - becomes internationally known.
- How do you distribute rich media now?
Whatever curve you are on - when the disruptive curve crosses you, you should be out of business.
- SHoot the person if they want you to use their products on your servers.
Run to the cloud as fast as you can.
ASU is dumping stuff like mad.
- Used to connect campuses by microwaves. Problem: in summer bandwidth go down during day because the water towers would swell
- switched to Quest - now ...erm really high tech
Data Center - outsourced
These are substitution technologies. Not even where the benefit comes from
REAL benefit - modifying what learning is.
Gotta harness the new powers.
5 schools using Kindle to distribute textbooks.
- Finally got the eBook.
Technology rich - practice poor. Classic example with textbooks
- Publishers have a good racket
Essentially need to change the model.
Access to Google = access (ultimately) to every book ever made
- right now 270k titles available for kindle
Amazon - 30% of sales now electronic.
- made a device specifically for textbooks.
- the kindle ultimately cheaper. Everyone makes money (maybe not the SAME money)
- kindle still a replacement tech
We need publishers to start creating simulations
- resources
Boiler - Elements....
Also reduces reliance on the textbook. New version - can also read PDFs, other media
Beginning to take their social networks and importing into facebook.
- Increasing engagement
We are NOWHERE NEAR modification
Clayton Christensen - Disrupting Class
- Innovators Dilema- how technologies disrupt existing markets (example film to digital photography)
- Kodak was at really high level on the performance curve. Made sustaining innovation.
+ Big changes disrupt system and customers.
+ Kodak in 1960s had huge research lab. Started investing in digital in 1960s. But could never introduce it, because they make film....
+ Big industry for them to disrupt.
- Finally needed a 4 billion dollar disruption.
- Very tough to switch businesses when high functioning.
Higher ed running into same issue.
Christensen - innovation will come down market.
- In places not so prestigeous.
- Military is going as much innovation as anybody.
+ Can't just leave and go to harvard.
THinking books won't be the web.
When you see an MIT professor explain momentum and have free access, don't have to go to the school etc.....
We are also going to have to reckon with the half-life in education
- We've been dealing with this in technology for a long time.
+ think about how different what you know is in 2 years if you are in the tech industry
This way that we teach, where there is an "expert" and "lectures"
- gotta end. Because you find yourself retreating.
If we don't switch to a way where the teacher's job is to guide learning for yourself....
Redefining literacy 2.0
- math
+ WolframAlpha
+ Tip of the iceburg. Can now use math!!!!
+ Open Learning Initiative (Carnegie Mellon)
+ Need to see math as SKILL. Learn using tools. Like Excel.
+ Lockhart's lament.
- reading and reading critically
- writing, may need to be different.
+ One of the powers they have - can produce essays quickly.
+ At work, producing document that describes stuff - what do you do? Pull stuff down and SYNTHESIZE
+ Writing - now teaching VALUE-ADD
+ Also - multi-media constriction
Teach how to find, synthesize and rework so value added.
Use the tools that are REAL.
- Ones actually use.
Get them to use the technologies to keep us learning.
Innovations going to come from people like us - the downmarket folks.
Folks doing work for the military
Kaplan, University of Phoenix....
If you have the idea that something fundamental has to change......he did his job.
Issue of Cloud and software as service
- "we can't do that" Really everywhere.....
- Bank vs matress. Gradually clear that the bank could ultimately give more security.
- WHo cares about your email more - the 3 guys running it or the dudes at Google where the mail can't even be found.
+ Plus, you have a contractual protection with them.
+ Your internal folk...um...trust?
Universities beginning to really analyze what they have - starting to be no-brainer.
If you are cut off from this innovation - you cannot keep up.......even close.....
Conditioning - like baby birds are fed. Conditioned to consume rather than participate.
- Guess what - not SAFE for you is to do what you've been doing.
- If you lose the job you have, you may not get another.
Key Skill - gotta be able to climb the value chain.
We do people a disservice by catering to folks desire to not think.
1-to-1 Make sure every student comes to school with laptop at ASU.
- University distributes, gets a bit of coin
- What they get as coin - they can give the laptop to the 4% who cannot afford a laptop.
- What they complain about the most - they don't use the tools in school! They expect professors to respond to email... Want materials online.
Presenter: Dr. Adrian Sannier, CTO Arizona State
Thought experiment
- If you agree - "now what do I do"
- Don't agree - "I can catch my flight"
We are for the first time in our history
- Technology rich
- Practice poor
Reason why we are practice poor - because we were technology poor
The further up the food chain you go with educators - "it's a fad."
Imagine a genetic mutation arises in people
- the mutation causes young people have the capacity for telepathy
- the kids stare into space. "I'm talking to people."
- Kids also have power - have infinite memory.
+ We've taken photographs.
Never in human history has is been so easy to photograph and movie and tag and create and catalog experience and recall so quickly.
They take this for granted.
So how do you really teach these people?
IN Dumbledore's universe - a culture on using powers.
- Long tradition of how to do it.
We aren't in this position because we don't know what to do with these powers.
Maybe we need Prof. Xavier - new powers on new people
- He can kinda figure it out.
- Problem - no Prf. Xavier
SO what do we do....put em in class like we normally do.
Of course, the kids use the powers to game the system.
- so what do we do - we BAN the power.
Now if you are a kid with these powers, and the only place you are not allow to use them - in school.
- What relavance does this have to your life?
THe professor is in an arms race.
- Realized the kids use a DEVICE.
- I just need a way to zap the device
Problem - the kids we are boring, are paying our old age.
Problem - we are maligning these powers.
- Where do you get off tellling them that?!?
We don't understand them.
Xbox Live - most advanced simulation in a world. Can play games with people everywhere
- THe games deep and complicated
- Kids don't read the instruction manual.
- Spending entire life formulating complicated strategies.
Leeroy Jenkins. [ this dude is acting it out ]
We are missing an entire CULTURE.
- What's good, what's bad, how it works, how used......
Culture comes from education.
- Problem - instead of figuring out, we push downward
THe whole desire to ban what we don't understand [happened throughout history with new technologies]
We are not keeping up.
We all know what a search looks like. It looks like a box!
ASU Library example - go look at the page
- How many clicks does it take to get to the damn article!!!!!!
TL DNR - too long do not read. [yup - like my blog post]
- survival skill on internet - not to get sucked into unneccesary reading
Boolean searches - not so critical anymore
- computers do this well, why do we need to know.
We teach handwriting
Kids learn on their own how to type, use internet, search, adding
- We are overcomplicating our search design.
How its supposed to be
- There's your portal
- There's your search
- There's your article
His challenge - they are the only research university in a city of 3.5 million
- hundreds of thousands of people need education
- Problem: no new schools
- We need to figure out how to provide a first class education for twice as many students!
ASU - from 50k to up to 100k + 100k distance learners.
Lots of us will have to be involved - keep going back
Technology is the only goose that keeps getting better / cheaper...
- Allows them to tap into more....
A decade before - university had highest level of tech spending
- Company - lose internet, email, technology
Now - universities not highest level of tech
- Amazon knows mom better than I do.....
- We get better flat. A litte at a time. Google and Amazon on the curve
Video - Google Data Center
IT industrialized in 20 years
- Alvin Toeffler had it right.
- Standard industry - 150-200 years. You could adjust!
When ASU decided to switch to GMail - converted in 2 weeks.
- Gave the students a choice. 300 students switch in an hour.
- [They had same experience that we did did.]
The transition to GMail is the golden use.
- NOW - everyone has lots of quota, a calendar, other tools
Communicate for free in infrastructure provided by school.
THe CTO gave up! Joined the aliens
[note to my bosses - talk to this guy about GMail implementation]
THey dismantled their rich media installation and now use iTunes U.
- Anything you create - becomes internationally known.
- How do you distribute rich media now?
Whatever curve you are on - when the disruptive curve crosses you, you should be out of business.
- SHoot the person if they want you to use their products on your servers.
Run to the cloud as fast as you can.
ASU is dumping stuff like mad.
- Used to connect campuses by microwaves. Problem: in summer bandwidth go down during day because the water towers would swell
- switched to Quest - now ...erm really high tech
Data Center - outsourced
These are substitution technologies. Not even where the benefit comes from
REAL benefit - modifying what learning is.
Gotta harness the new powers.
5 schools using Kindle to distribute textbooks.
- Finally got the eBook.
Technology rich - practice poor. Classic example with textbooks
- Publishers have a good racket
Essentially need to change the model.
Access to Google = access (ultimately) to every book ever made
- right now 270k titles available for kindle
Amazon - 30% of sales now electronic.
- made a device specifically for textbooks.
- the kindle ultimately cheaper. Everyone makes money (maybe not the SAME money)
- kindle still a replacement tech
We need publishers to start creating simulations
- resources
Boiler - Elements....
Also reduces reliance on the textbook. New version - can also read PDFs, other media
Beginning to take their social networks and importing into facebook.
- Increasing engagement
We are NOWHERE NEAR modification
Clayton Christensen - Disrupting Class
- Innovators Dilema- how technologies disrupt existing markets (example film to digital photography)
- Kodak was at really high level on the performance curve. Made sustaining innovation.
+ Big changes disrupt system and customers.
+ Kodak in 1960s had huge research lab. Started investing in digital in 1960s. But could never introduce it, because they make film....
+ Big industry for them to disrupt.
- Finally needed a 4 billion dollar disruption.
- Very tough to switch businesses when high functioning.
Higher ed running into same issue.
Christensen - innovation will come down market.
- In places not so prestigeous.
- Military is going as much innovation as anybody.
+ Can't just leave and go to harvard.
THinking books won't be the web.
When you see an MIT professor explain momentum and have free access, don't have to go to the school etc.....
We are also going to have to reckon with the half-life in education
- We've been dealing with this in technology for a long time.
+ think about how different what you know is in 2 years if you are in the tech industry
This way that we teach, where there is an "expert" and "lectures"
- gotta end. Because you find yourself retreating.
If we don't switch to a way where the teacher's job is to guide learning for yourself....
Redefining literacy 2.0
- math
+ WolframAlpha
+ Tip of the iceburg. Can now use math!!!!
+ Open Learning Initiative (Carnegie Mellon)
+ Need to see math as SKILL. Learn using tools. Like Excel.
+ Lockhart's lament.
- reading and reading critically
- writing, may need to be different.
+ One of the powers they have - can produce essays quickly.
+ At work, producing document that describes stuff - what do you do? Pull stuff down and SYNTHESIZE
+ Writing - now teaching VALUE-ADD
+ Also - multi-media constriction
Teach how to find, synthesize and rework so value added.
Use the tools that are REAL.
- Ones actually use.
Get them to use the technologies to keep us learning.
Innovations going to come from people like us - the downmarket folks.
Folks doing work for the military
Kaplan, University of Phoenix....
If you have the idea that something fundamental has to change......he did his job.
Issue of Cloud and software as service
- "we can't do that" Really everywhere.....
- Bank vs matress. Gradually clear that the bank could ultimately give more security.
- WHo cares about your email more - the 3 guys running it or the dudes at Google where the mail can't even be found.
+ Plus, you have a contractual protection with them.
+ Your internal folk...um...trust?
Universities beginning to really analyze what they have - starting to be no-brainer.
If you are cut off from this innovation - you cannot keep up.......even close.....
Conditioning - like baby birds are fed. Conditioned to consume rather than participate.
- Guess what - not SAFE for you is to do what you've been doing.
- If you lose the job you have, you may not get another.
Key Skill - gotta be able to climb the value chain.
We do people a disservice by catering to folks desire to not think.
1-to-1 Make sure every student comes to school with laptop at ASU.
- University distributes, gets a bit of coin
- What they get as coin - they can give the laptop to the 4% who cannot afford a laptop.
- What they complain about the most - they don't use the tools in school! They expect professors to respond to email... Want materials online.
#IeL09 Successful Implementation of Online Collaboration
Presentation: A Look at Successful Implementation of Online Collaboration
Presenters: Pat Daron, Bob Loser, Cindy Miller, Kim Monti, Rebecca Wright (NVCC - Extended Learning Institute)
Goal: To make anatomy and physiology courses more interactive
ELI organizational development needs
- increase student interaction
- Engage students in deeper learning
- Virginia Tech - ALHRD (Adult Learning / Human Resource Development) program outreach
Va Tech created course - facilitating learning in an adult online environment
- Students from NVCC faculty and staff and Va Tech
- Graduate level
- Everyone wins.
Facilitating Online Collaboration for Adult Learners - fully online course
- Objectives modeled through facilitators
- Online discussion with facilitators guiding interaction
- Group projects
+ Investigating online collaborative tool
+ Discipline related project
[ um, I took a course exactly like this at Towson during my degree. So how is this encouraging online collaboration? It's pretty much an explanation of the course. ]
Why collaborate?
- Reduce potential for learner isolation
- Increase retention of students in course
- Extend and deepen student experience
Andragogy
- Adults enter an educational context when they are ready to learn
- In control of learning
- Meaning making is transformed during learning process
- Critical reflection important
- Learning to learn (metacognition) essential for adult development
Constructivism
- Active learning and knowledge construction based on prior knowledge
- Real world problem solving
- Interacting with other learners and teacher/facilitators
Learner-centered vs. teacher-directed
- Developing on line learning communities
- Developed collaboration guidelines
+ Set the stage
+ Expectations for interaction
+ Create the environment
+ Model the process
+ Facilitation KEY
Anatomy and Physiology instructors
- Low success rates
- Poor self-pacing
How the anatomy and physiology instructors reacted to the course
Case study - NAS 150. Most critical course
- content-heavy
Two considerations about adding collaboration
- No significant addition of information
+ Had reservations because it was so content-heavy. Time-issue
+ Also limited - not a proctored event. Made it low-points.
+ Concerned about non-registered students participating.
- Goals
+ Improve student performance
+ Assist students in making connections
-- Knew they would meet in future courses when they came on campus
Feeling of connection / community seems important for learning - according to the literature
- [the professor didn't seem ENTIRELY sold on this]
Created three collaborative activities
1) Self-reflection papers on studying for exams
+ Students grouped according to results of Learning Styles Assessment
+ Wanted them to critically evaluate material studied for each exam
-- Instructional Goal: Extend knowledge beyond course materials
+ Identify strategies used to learn difficult concepts
-- Were there study aids that helped?
-- Previous knowledge or experience that assisted?
+ Wanted to get students expert in their own learning (quite a challenge....)
-- Many students are not used to or comfortable in the classroom environment
3 fold transition
- connect
- think and think more deeply
- creativity emerges
Reflection takes practice.
- 1 student trying to learn about muscles. To get through chapter 2 - she got her body-builder buddy to help. Was really happy that she managed to get through chapter 1 (the small victory)
- PRovided rubric, group students based on results, provided specific tips to study based on results
+ [student beginning to shape the course]
2) Had students share chosen medical problem
- Adult learners motivated if they can relate knowledge to their lives
+ Retention, deepens knowledge
- One student had responses from every other student because she made it very personal to her life
+ Other students begin to relate situation to their own life
3) Reflection of a memorable medical experience while working in a health field
- Wound up being the most exciting collaborative activity and happiest with student collaboration here.
- Getting response from both student.
- [More interesting: the professor engages on a peer level / sharing OWN experience, not as "professor"]
Made it a point to show them how to post and use the technology
Grading rubric showed them how they were graded. Very important.
Given the "internet etiquette" guide. If get hostile post - can fall back on the guide and processes.
2nd anatomy and physiology course example NAS161
- Found the sucess rate is an issue because of the construction of the course itself.
- 2 semesters long. TREMENDOUS Workload
- Used current events articles.
+ Familiar material to facilitate collaborative, constructivist and active learning.
+ Use available technology to lighten load
+ Blackboard limits to discussion boards that are very statis.
- Professor subscribed to OWN RSS feed. Students see shared articles
+ Is the first editor.
+ Reduces busy-work for student.
- Laymans sources give base for students.
+ Extend knowledge, deepen knowledge, make students be critical, have students synthesize info and evaluation knowledge
Exercise had students - summarize article, put in course level, personalize the information.
- Could see the student's "held notions" - what incorrect assumptions / knowledge the students are coming in with. Didn't have this before. [again, students beginning to impact the course itself]
- Students will take the ideas and run with it....the professors finding just adding a little bit of reflection as an exercise improved student results.
[at this point, I had to leave......]
[ hungry....left....]
Presenters: Pat Daron, Bob Loser, Cindy Miller, Kim Monti, Rebecca Wright (NVCC - Extended Learning Institute)
Goal: To make anatomy and physiology courses more interactive
ELI organizational development needs
- increase student interaction
- Engage students in deeper learning
- Virginia Tech - ALHRD (Adult Learning / Human Resource Development) program outreach
Va Tech created course - facilitating learning in an adult online environment
- Students from NVCC faculty and staff and Va Tech
- Graduate level
- Everyone wins.
Facilitating Online Collaboration for Adult Learners - fully online course
- Objectives modeled through facilitators
- Online discussion with facilitators guiding interaction
- Group projects
+ Investigating online collaborative tool
+ Discipline related project
[ um, I took a course exactly like this at Towson during my degree. So how is this encouraging online collaboration? It's pretty much an explanation of the course. ]
Why collaborate?
- Reduce potential for learner isolation
- Increase retention of students in course
- Extend and deepen student experience
Andragogy
- Adults enter an educational context when they are ready to learn
- In control of learning
- Meaning making is transformed during learning process
- Critical reflection important
- Learning to learn (metacognition) essential for adult development
Constructivism
- Active learning and knowledge construction based on prior knowledge
- Real world problem solving
- Interacting with other learners and teacher/facilitators
Learner-centered vs. teacher-directed
- Developing on line learning communities
- Developed collaboration guidelines
+ Set the stage
+ Expectations for interaction
+ Create the environment
+ Model the process
+ Facilitation KEY
Anatomy and Physiology instructors
- Low success rates
- Poor self-pacing
How the anatomy and physiology instructors reacted to the course
Case study - NAS 150. Most critical course
- content-heavy
Two considerations about adding collaboration
- No significant addition of information
+ Had reservations because it was so content-heavy. Time-issue
+ Also limited - not a proctored event. Made it low-points.
+ Concerned about non-registered students participating.
- Goals
+ Improve student performance
+ Assist students in making connections
-- Knew they would meet in future courses when they came on campus
Feeling of connection / community seems important for learning - according to the literature
- [the professor didn't seem ENTIRELY sold on this]
Created three collaborative activities
1) Self-reflection papers on studying for exams
+ Students grouped according to results of Learning Styles Assessment
+ Wanted them to critically evaluate material studied for each exam
-- Instructional Goal: Extend knowledge beyond course materials
+ Identify strategies used to learn difficult concepts
-- Were there study aids that helped?
-- Previous knowledge or experience that assisted?
+ Wanted to get students expert in their own learning (quite a challenge....)
-- Many students are not used to or comfortable in the classroom environment
3 fold transition
- connect
- think and think more deeply
- creativity emerges
Reflection takes practice.
- 1 student trying to learn about muscles. To get through chapter 2 - she got her body-builder buddy to help. Was really happy that she managed to get through chapter 1 (the small victory)
- PRovided rubric, group students based on results, provided specific tips to study based on results
+ [student beginning to shape the course]
2) Had students share chosen medical problem
- Adult learners motivated if they can relate knowledge to their lives
+ Retention, deepens knowledge
- One student had responses from every other student because she made it very personal to her life
+ Other students begin to relate situation to their own life
3) Reflection of a memorable medical experience while working in a health field
- Wound up being the most exciting collaborative activity and happiest with student collaboration here.
- Getting response from both student.
- [More interesting: the professor engages on a peer level / sharing OWN experience, not as "professor"]
Made it a point to show them how to post and use the technology
Grading rubric showed them how they were graded. Very important.
Given the "internet etiquette" guide. If get hostile post - can fall back on the guide and processes.
2nd anatomy and physiology course example NAS161
- Found the sucess rate is an issue because of the construction of the course itself.
- 2 semesters long. TREMENDOUS Workload
- Used current events articles.
+ Familiar material to facilitate collaborative, constructivist and active learning.
+ Use available technology to lighten load
+ Blackboard limits to discussion boards that are very statis.
- Professor subscribed to OWN RSS feed. Students see shared articles
+ Is the first editor.
+ Reduces busy-work for student.
- Laymans sources give base for students.
+ Extend knowledge, deepen knowledge, make students be critical, have students synthesize info and evaluation knowledge
Exercise had students - summarize article, put in course level, personalize the information.
- Could see the student's "held notions" - what incorrect assumptions / knowledge the students are coming in with. Didn't have this before. [again, students beginning to impact the course itself]
- Students will take the ideas and run with it....the professors finding just adding a little bit of reflection as an exercise improved student results.
[at this point, I had to leave......]
[ hungry....left....]
#IeL09 The Social Web and Learning
Presentation: The Social Web and Learning - A Case Study
Presenter: Robert Jordan, Penn State U
ASTD State of the Industry - learner control
Learner controlling own learning key
Social Web - how people socialize, interact with each other through the Web
- Shared interest
2 types of social web
- People focus (Facebook, myspace)
- Hobby focus (Flikr, photobucket for photography)
How do I harness this to promote learning?
Social Web aps (social networks, blogs, wikis, rss feeds, social bookmarking, multimedia and file sharing, podcasts, mashup networks... the ususal suspects....)
Why?
Learning Environment Affordances
- Constructivist knowledge building - learning by creating
- Collaboration
- Learning communities
- Virtual "practice space"
- Ongoing learning
- Many applications available at no cost
(the practical rationale)
+ The ones I used to build my learning environment free
Case study: Online Course
- Course on Web 2.0
- Entirely online learning environment
- 3 week duration
- Developed using social web applications
- Asynchronous
Study setting and participants
- Organization of 5,000 in Washington DC
- 41 total participants (40 consented) - surprised by the number
- All levels of organization represented - also surprised, esp since didn't find out until later
- Cross-generational participation
Learning environment
- Used Ning - Courseware management system
- Blog: Blogger, SharePoint, Wordpress
- Wiki: Wetpaint and SharePoint (Wetpaint good wiki for educational setting)
- RSS: Google Reader
- Bookmarks: del.licio.us
- SlideShare
- Podcasts: .mp3 files. Not fancy
If you covered the information, used that technology
(Can't do link because of proprietary information)
[note to self - build a Web 2.0 course]
Some developed profile
- Found they were communicating with each other in the comment wall.
- Knowledge being built within the comment walls.
- Saw evidence of community-building
Used the Ning discussion boards
- With trigger questions
- Did NOT want to be a course "here's a tool, go create account" No debate about value, pros, cons, problems for implementation.
Web 2.0 largely unstructured. Works well this way.
The Wiki - tried to use the wiki for discussion in the course
- Didn't leave a lot of structure.
- Wanted them to play.
- Kinda disappointed in what produced.
- Interesting, the organization actually USED wikis for their technical information
+ They had them look that the organization's "wikipedia"
+ Made them create an account on their own organizations' wikipedia.
+ Most people read, not edit or add.
[lesson - start with more structure]
Conceptual framework
- Knowledge Building (primary). Where social web shines
+ Not just putting knowledge out, but also having learner build on the knowledge
- Practice space. [Key word here is SAFE place to practice.]
- Legacy - instructional theory
+ Looking at online legacy for future learners on the same material
+ Creating the reference
+ Looking at whether people coming back to course afterwards
- Collaboration / Community
Knowledge Building - Melanie Scardamalia (2002)
- Computer supported environment - mostly with kids in her study
- Knowledge building discourse
- Constructive use of authoritative resources
- Rise Above - where someone takes an idea from someone else and transforms it into a higher conceptual idea
- Real ideas, authentic problems - where people express ideas that come out of their experiences. Sharing and getting responses
- Improvable ideas - like rise above. Take ideas, others improve
It's not just about "putting out knowledge" Help them build.
Case Study Method
- Unit of Analysis: The case itself
- Unit of Participation: Participant interaction and course artifacts
- Codes assigned based on the conceptual framework
- "Unpacking" and analysis of themes
- Didn't quantify. Interpretive look in the specific course. Didn't generalize to broader application.
The non-consentual student
- didn't participate. Just created an account.
- If he did contribute, couldn't use his contribution. Would have to scrub all material.
- He got lucky - only 1 didn't consent. Many have 1/2 not concent
What saw most often:
Knowledge Building Discourse -
- triggered by question
- people grappling with issues and disagreements
Constructive use of authoritative resources. Providing links.
- This was totally unprompted
Also saw evidence of improvable ideas and real ideas, authentic problems.
Saw evidence of community/collaboration. Desire for "legacy" - several people wanted to come back to the course. Have seen some people come back - not many.
Can you have a course that never ends?
Can you have a course open worldwide?
Lots of people use blogging in course
- as reflective learning
- There is engagement too. Successful blogs have a point of view.
Thought about "if I did this course again" maybe just use same things and have people build onto them rather than starting completely anew.
Found 20 people really engaged. Found others had to scaffold.
- Didn't enforce going out and creating accounts
Study Findings - Themes
- Social Web promotes collaborative knowledge building
+ Lots of evidence of this
- Design should be simple and not overwhelm learners
+ Some people wanted more structure
+ Had some trainers - they really wanted structure.
+ Site couldn't be wide-open. The user name / password barrier. When you make people establish more accounts - seemed to be barrier.
+ Keep in one application overall if you can.
- Appeal may not be universal or cross-generational
+ Some of the people who liked it most were the older ones.
+ Think about the average age of bloggers - older.
[Hey Clark - some research evidence that the social web / millenial learner thing may be a myth]
- Adoption and diffusion may take time
+ Got some pushback from the policy people on some of these technologies.
+ IT folks didn't really care.
+ As much as you can make it bottom-up with the users better.
Did some monitoring to make sure nothing really sensitive.
- Many of these social web aps have monitoring tools of some sort.
Social Web - May be best used more informally
- You can create a course out of it. The people invested were happy with the course.
- Instructor felt a little straightjacketed
- Strong for building learning communities.
- Performance support - esp. RSS. Help gather and share resources.
- Implications for ISD
+ Liked the idea for informal learning
+ Are incorporated successfully in formal instruction
+ Many using blogs and wikis
Wikipedia - error rates similar to other online encyclopedia
- Makes people more active readers.
- "maybe I can edit that." May not be a bad thing to make them question.
- Some doing wikipedia articles as class projects.
This will grow.
Presenter: Robert Jordan, Penn State U
ASTD State of the Industry - learner control
Learner controlling own learning key
Social Web - how people socialize, interact with each other through the Web
- Shared interest
2 types of social web
- People focus (Facebook, myspace)
- Hobby focus (Flikr, photobucket for photography)
How do I harness this to promote learning?
Social Web aps (social networks, blogs, wikis, rss feeds, social bookmarking, multimedia and file sharing, podcasts, mashup networks... the ususal suspects....)
Why?
Learning Environment Affordances
- Constructivist knowledge building - learning by creating
- Collaboration
- Learning communities
- Virtual "practice space"
- Ongoing learning
- Many applications available at no cost
(the practical rationale)
+ The ones I used to build my learning environment free
Case study: Online Course
- Course on Web 2.0
- Entirely online learning environment
- 3 week duration
- Developed using social web applications
- Asynchronous
Study setting and participants
- Organization of 5,000 in Washington DC
- 41 total participants (40 consented) - surprised by the number
- All levels of organization represented - also surprised, esp since didn't find out until later
- Cross-generational participation
Learning environment
- Used Ning - Courseware management system
- Blog: Blogger, SharePoint, Wordpress
- Wiki: Wetpaint and SharePoint (Wetpaint good wiki for educational setting)
- RSS: Google Reader
- Bookmarks: del.licio.us
- SlideShare
- Podcasts: .mp3 files. Not fancy
If you covered the information, used that technology
(Can't do link because of proprietary information)
[note to self - build a Web 2.0 course]
Some developed profile
- Found they were communicating with each other in the comment wall.
- Knowledge being built within the comment walls.
- Saw evidence of community-building
Used the Ning discussion boards
- With trigger questions
- Did NOT want to be a course "here's a tool, go create account" No debate about value, pros, cons, problems for implementation.
Web 2.0 largely unstructured. Works well this way.
The Wiki - tried to use the wiki for discussion in the course
- Didn't leave a lot of structure.
- Wanted them to play.
- Kinda disappointed in what produced.
- Interesting, the organization actually USED wikis for their technical information
+ They had them look that the organization's "wikipedia"
+ Made them create an account on their own organizations' wikipedia.
+ Most people read, not edit or add.
[lesson - start with more structure]
Conceptual framework
- Knowledge Building (primary). Where social web shines
+ Not just putting knowledge out, but also having learner build on the knowledge
- Practice space. [Key word here is SAFE place to practice.]
- Legacy - instructional theory
+ Looking at online legacy for future learners on the same material
+ Creating the reference
+ Looking at whether people coming back to course afterwards
- Collaboration / Community
Knowledge Building - Melanie Scardamalia (2002)
- Computer supported environment - mostly with kids in her study
- Knowledge building discourse
- Constructive use of authoritative resources
- Rise Above - where someone takes an idea from someone else and transforms it into a higher conceptual idea
- Real ideas, authentic problems - where people express ideas that come out of their experiences. Sharing and getting responses
- Improvable ideas - like rise above. Take ideas, others improve
It's not just about "putting out knowledge" Help them build.
Case Study Method
- Unit of Analysis: The case itself
- Unit of Participation: Participant interaction and course artifacts
- Codes assigned based on the conceptual framework
- "Unpacking" and analysis of themes
- Didn't quantify. Interpretive look in the specific course. Didn't generalize to broader application.
The non-consentual student
- didn't participate. Just created an account.
- If he did contribute, couldn't use his contribution. Would have to scrub all material.
- He got lucky - only 1 didn't consent. Many have 1/2 not concent
What saw most often:
Knowledge Building Discourse -
- triggered by question
- people grappling with issues and disagreements
Constructive use of authoritative resources. Providing links.
- This was totally unprompted
Also saw evidence of improvable ideas and real ideas, authentic problems.
Saw evidence of community/collaboration. Desire for "legacy" - several people wanted to come back to the course. Have seen some people come back - not many.
Can you have a course that never ends?
Can you have a course open worldwide?
Lots of people use blogging in course
- as reflective learning
- There is engagement too. Successful blogs have a point of view.
Thought about "if I did this course again" maybe just use same things and have people build onto them rather than starting completely anew.
Found 20 people really engaged. Found others had to scaffold.
- Didn't enforce going out and creating accounts
Study Findings - Themes
- Social Web promotes collaborative knowledge building
+ Lots of evidence of this
- Design should be simple and not overwhelm learners
+ Some people wanted more structure
+ Had some trainers - they really wanted structure.
+ Site couldn't be wide-open. The user name / password barrier. When you make people establish more accounts - seemed to be barrier.
+ Keep in one application overall if you can.
- Appeal may not be universal or cross-generational
+ Some of the people who liked it most were the older ones.
+ Think about the average age of bloggers - older.
[Hey Clark - some research evidence that the social web / millenial learner thing may be a myth]
- Adoption and diffusion may take time
+ Got some pushback from the policy people on some of these technologies.
+ IT folks didn't really care.
+ As much as you can make it bottom-up with the users better.
Did some monitoring to make sure nothing really sensitive.
- Many of these social web aps have monitoring tools of some sort.
Social Web - May be best used more informally
- You can create a course out of it. The people invested were happy with the course.
- Instructor felt a little straightjacketed
- Strong for building learning communities.
- Performance support - esp. RSS. Help gather and share resources.
- Implications for ISD
+ Liked the idea for informal learning
+ Are incorporated successfully in formal instruction
+ Many using blogs and wikis
Wikipedia - error rates similar to other online encyclopedia
- Makes people more active readers.
- "maybe I can edit that." May not be a bad thing to make them question.
- Some doing wikipedia articles as class projects.
This will grow.
#IeL09 Friday Morning Keynote
Presentation: The Second Transformation
Presenter: Frank Anderson
Asked why are we investing time and resources in doing this conference?
- To create a learning environment for DoD - we need to create an environment internally.
Helps having people excited about new ideas.
- DAU has created one of largest e-Environments in the world.
First transformation
- Trying how to create a better environment for the workforce
- How to improve reach and products and credibility
Second transformation
- Move to a true learning environment where empower EVERY employee to be an everyday learner.
Moving from learning as "benefit" to learning as "required competency"
- Shelf life of knowledge much shorter
- What you know today will depreciate
- What employees know today has a short shelf life! Organizations intellectual capital also depreciates!
Has one of the largest acquisition libraries in the world.
- little value if trapped in four walls
- Creating avenues to make this library available to the workforce as needed
Trying to create 24/7 enviroment for learning
- Give employees control of when
Have a learning asset design division, a learning asset delivery division, and the admin
- Working on the largest funded growth of acquisition workflow. (15% between now and 2015.
- Driving a lot of partnerships w/ academia (internships, recruiting out of college, etc)
- Greatest concern - takes too long to hire and get person on board.
24/7 learning assets for the classroom and workplace
- We can no longer be trapped by a classroom learning paradigm.
- We can no longer be trapped by location.
Accelerated growth and sustained expertise
- When do resident training course - highest point of retention, last day of class.
+ If not using it on job - only thing remember about the class is the jokes. Other material disappear rapidly.
- Must shape learning environment in way there is "reach-back" capability
+ Delivery at learning point of need.
This is a competative advantage.
- Need it, emotional attachment, gonna use it
- Get all those points together - high retention
77% of students now touched by e-learning
- No New funding in pulling this off. Reallocation and thinking through new delivery.
- Deal up front - we never bought into paradigm that you do eLearning to cust costs.
+ NEVER get into that deal with the leadership team
+ Can save cost by just not doing training
- Their partnership with leadership
+ We can expand reach, deliver just in time.
+ Any savings need to be reapplied to university - we need to reallocate. Improve the learning investment
- 9,000 1st time students each month
- 2008 largest delivery year. 36,000 classroom, 118,391 elearning. 25% increase in graduates
- This year predicting 185k grads across all resources.
New learning assets
- Now have 248 CLC Modules and 33,332 total graduates
- Modules turned off as made obsolete
- These are Self-paced resources!!!!
- People choose resources they want when they want them.
We have 75k people who would have NEVER been touched who are using these modules.
We no longer expect them to remember everything.
- The resources are there to refresh when they have a need to renew their expertise.
Performance Support
- Taking faculty members who go into field
- Work on issues the field workers are actually working on!!!!
- Helping in the actual environment! Solve everyday real problems.
Realigned brick and mortar infrastructure so closest to DAU population centers
Now have world-wide reach with eInfrastructure.
- Now true 24/7 capability
- Time / space / distance
DO NOT GET TRAPPED INTO SAYING E-INITIATIVE IS FOR COST SAVING
- About expanding reach!!!!!!
80k employees who sign up for courses every month
10k are folks doing this for the first time
We touch over a million students annually with assets
- this is reach
Is e better than classroom?
- Some things we do better in classroom. Some in e environment
Only through e
- As people deploying to New Orleans
- Rules of engagement being built on the fly
- People from multiple agencies
- Needed a place to centralize the rules of engagement where EVERYONE can go
- Created community of practice and given to all federal agencies
- "Go to this web site - get the latest"
- Can't DO this in the classroom.
Won a lot of awards - corporate university
People are more productive when they enjoy what they do.
First Transformation - looking at reach and improving the quality of assets
Second Transformation - Learning at the Point of Need
An employee, no matter where they are
- 3 clicks or less the goal
- When person shows up at 8am - they know everything.
+ NOT because they memorized it. They can get to it.
Organizations who are not transitioning from classroom-centric to employee-centric are in trouble
- Understand, they are doing more classroom training
- But NOT classroom centric
Create an environment for collaborating, innovating, and critical thinking by deploying technology for:
- Intact Team Training
- Story-based scenarios
- Immersion in Defense RElevant Business games and simulations
- New virtual worlds and web 2.0
- Enhance classroom technology
- True 24/7 access
- End to end knowledge sharing
Still have to demonstrate value.
-= Gotta have beneficial return for the enterprise.
Rapid pilot of program while they are figuring out
- community
- reach
- how it works
- full costs
- benefits
- why important for the enterprise
Informal acquisition Knowledge Management System (AKMS)
- AKSS - knowledge repository
- ACC - collaborative arm
- BPCh - validated practivces and lessons learned
- Multimedia video and audio library
Formal learning management systems
- Atlas
- Blackboard
Integrated environment
- Asset in one location
- Consumable by ALL locations
[Note to self - get this presentation. Model the system to mirror DAU]
This is still primary push.
- Want to develop a pull aspect
- Get information from the students. Know what employees need and deliver to them at their desk automatically.
+ We think you need this at your job. Employee doesn't have to go digging around for it.
Teaching and Learning Lab
- Where advance learning technology demos occur
- Where trying to create environment where ALL faculty members know everything in their specialty area in the morning
- Faculty needs to grow also
- Classroom
+ Best practices
+ Assess new technologies
- Faculty training
- Virtual worlds
- Telepresence - high def life-size video teleconference. Almost "in person". 2 currently. Getting more. Again - way to reach more people.
- TriZenter - 3 screen presentation system. Increasing interest, retention and recall.
Can do souce selection - get the right experts in right discussion in right point in time.
This is all about process and mindset!!!!!!
Games and simulations
- Putting them in ALL training courses
- Games and simulations require them to internalize and apply
- Also allows employee have fun.
- Learn that fun is good.
+ If a person is having fun, better focused, retain better.
+ Better engagement
+ [pretty funny coming from a formal military guy - esp when he said "I learned this today." Actually - Mr Anderson is drolly funny]
All page turners coming down.
- No one can put a new learning asset up as a page turner in DAU.
DAU first corporate training organization on iTunes U
- Received VERY positive feedback on their iTunes U
- Allows us to contact the future workforce in places that they use.
- Provides a HUGE engine for mobile learning. Didn't have to invent, develop, pay for.
- We had to convince them we are good enough to be there.
Partnering - GMU/DAU
- George Mason U brings things to table that makes DAU better
Intact Team Training
- Right now - improve ability of learning assets to help achieve mission outcome
- Take team with a mission. Work directly with them
- Develop assets and training resources directed at THAT INTACT TEAM
- We are dealing with the direct issues and challenges of the individual team to deliver an outcome
- This is a game-changer.
- How we improve the value of the investment made in training
- This is very very important for any corporate missionary
2003 - Future of training
- Said need to move to point that we have created virtual training spaces
- Avatars in the workplace
- Virtual workrooms where people can show up without travel
Now - team with Air National Guard to create virtual environment Nexus
- Nexus supports DL Training and Live AVATAR-DELIVERED instruction
- Major work underway, including creation of DAU campus.
- Working with DAU faculty on appropriate courses for pilot scheduled Dec 09
- This helps solve the issue with rapidly creating appropriate staging environments.
- Allow students to attend classes without leaving home.
- Expect people to occupy offices in this environment
- Can interact before the formal synchronous course
- Will contain links to courseware and resources
- Will support on-demand face-to-face discussion in ways not currently possible.
- Has PPT, whiteboard, Blackboard, IM, message board etc.
- Can now bring teams together BEFORE deployment
- Reduce travel and related cost.
[Essentially they are seeing this tool to help organize and provide access to EVERYTHING. Synchronous, asynchronous, classroom]
What has helped in developing this
- Instead of taking a bite-size
- When get an idea - just rapidly prototype. Get small success. Not worry about big implementation.
+ Get better understanding
+ Small success
- Willing to go do something, 60-70% success. Improve Then take to leadership.
+ Able to go to leadership with much better understanding of how it works, benefits, how to implement on a larger scale.
How do we take all resources they have to reducce the bad stuff
- Part of ongoing maintenance and curriculum review process
- Right now - taking down all page turners.
- If you are starting a new resource - given specific criteria for acceptance and posting.
- If high use - keeping up while making new product.
- Some areas need low-tech. Still working through that.
Nexus - does the engine and bandwidth create problems? Download? Security?
- If you can't use them at point of need.
- DiaCat - the process. Authority to operate across networks.
- Right now, trying to achieve authority across the 4 processes
- Using Gambrio as an engine
Don't believe that you have to have all of the expertise
- Team and share
Presenter: Frank Anderson
Asked why are we investing time and resources in doing this conference?
- To create a learning environment for DoD - we need to create an environment internally.
Helps having people excited about new ideas.
- DAU has created one of largest e-Environments in the world.
First transformation
- Trying how to create a better environment for the workforce
- How to improve reach and products and credibility
Second transformation
- Move to a true learning environment where empower EVERY employee to be an everyday learner.
Moving from learning as "benefit" to learning as "required competency"
- Shelf life of knowledge much shorter
- What you know today will depreciate
- What employees know today has a short shelf life! Organizations intellectual capital also depreciates!
Has one of the largest acquisition libraries in the world.
- little value if trapped in four walls
- Creating avenues to make this library available to the workforce as needed
Trying to create 24/7 enviroment for learning
- Give employees control of when
Have a learning asset design division, a learning asset delivery division, and the admin
- Working on the largest funded growth of acquisition workflow. (15% between now and 2015.
- Driving a lot of partnerships w/ academia (internships, recruiting out of college, etc)
- Greatest concern - takes too long to hire and get person on board.
24/7 learning assets for the classroom and workplace
- We can no longer be trapped by a classroom learning paradigm.
- We can no longer be trapped by location.
Accelerated growth and sustained expertise
- When do resident training course - highest point of retention, last day of class.
+ If not using it on job - only thing remember about the class is the jokes. Other material disappear rapidly.
- Must shape learning environment in way there is "reach-back" capability
+ Delivery at learning point of need.
This is a competative advantage.
- Need it, emotional attachment, gonna use it
- Get all those points together - high retention
77% of students now touched by e-learning
- No New funding in pulling this off. Reallocation and thinking through new delivery.
- Deal up front - we never bought into paradigm that you do eLearning to cust costs.
+ NEVER get into that deal with the leadership team
+ Can save cost by just not doing training
- Their partnership with leadership
+ We can expand reach, deliver just in time.
+ Any savings need to be reapplied to university - we need to reallocate. Improve the learning investment
- 9,000 1st time students each month
- 2008 largest delivery year. 36,000 classroom, 118,391 elearning. 25% increase in graduates
- This year predicting 185k grads across all resources.
New learning assets
- Now have 248 CLC Modules and 33,332 total graduates
- Modules turned off as made obsolete
- These are Self-paced resources!!!!
- People choose resources they want when they want them.
We have 75k people who would have NEVER been touched who are using these modules.
We no longer expect them to remember everything.
- The resources are there to refresh when they have a need to renew their expertise.
Performance Support
- Taking faculty members who go into field
- Work on issues the field workers are actually working on!!!!
- Helping in the actual environment! Solve everyday real problems.
Realigned brick and mortar infrastructure so closest to DAU population centers
Now have world-wide reach with eInfrastructure.
- Now true 24/7 capability
- Time / space / distance
DO NOT GET TRAPPED INTO SAYING E-INITIATIVE IS FOR COST SAVING
- About expanding reach!!!!!!
80k employees who sign up for courses every month
10k are folks doing this for the first time
We touch over a million students annually with assets
- this is reach
Is e better than classroom?
- Some things we do better in classroom. Some in e environment
Only through e
- As people deploying to New Orleans
- Rules of engagement being built on the fly
- People from multiple agencies
- Needed a place to centralize the rules of engagement where EVERYONE can go
- Created community of practice and given to all federal agencies
- "Go to this web site - get the latest"
- Can't DO this in the classroom.
Won a lot of awards - corporate university
People are more productive when they enjoy what they do.
First Transformation - looking at reach and improving the quality of assets
Second Transformation - Learning at the Point of Need
An employee, no matter where they are
- 3 clicks or less the goal
- When person shows up at 8am - they know everything.
+ NOT because they memorized it. They can get to it.
Organizations who are not transitioning from classroom-centric to employee-centric are in trouble
- Understand, they are doing more classroom training
- But NOT classroom centric
Create an environment for collaborating, innovating, and critical thinking by deploying technology for:
- Intact Team Training
- Story-based scenarios
- Immersion in Defense RElevant Business games and simulations
- New virtual worlds and web 2.0
- Enhance classroom technology
- True 24/7 access
- End to end knowledge sharing
Still have to demonstrate value.
-= Gotta have beneficial return for the enterprise.
Rapid pilot of program while they are figuring out
- community
- reach
- how it works
- full costs
- benefits
- why important for the enterprise
Informal acquisition Knowledge Management System (AKMS)
- AKSS - knowledge repository
- ACC - collaborative arm
- BPCh - validated practivces and lessons learned
- Multimedia video and audio library
Formal learning management systems
- Atlas
- Blackboard
Integrated environment
- Asset in one location
- Consumable by ALL locations
[Note to self - get this presentation. Model the system to mirror DAU]
This is still primary push.
- Want to develop a pull aspect
- Get information from the students. Know what employees need and deliver to them at their desk automatically.
+ We think you need this at your job. Employee doesn't have to go digging around for it.
Teaching and Learning Lab
- Where advance learning technology demos occur
- Where trying to create environment where ALL faculty members know everything in their specialty area in the morning
- Faculty needs to grow also
- Classroom
+ Best practices
+ Assess new technologies
- Faculty training
- Virtual worlds
- Telepresence - high def life-size video teleconference. Almost "in person". 2 currently. Getting more. Again - way to reach more people.
- TriZenter - 3 screen presentation system. Increasing interest, retention and recall.
Can do souce selection - get the right experts in right discussion in right point in time.
This is all about process and mindset!!!!!!
Games and simulations
- Putting them in ALL training courses
- Games and simulations require them to internalize and apply
- Also allows employee have fun.
- Learn that fun is good.
+ If a person is having fun, better focused, retain better.
+ Better engagement
+ [pretty funny coming from a formal military guy - esp when he said "I learned this today." Actually - Mr Anderson is drolly funny]
All page turners coming down.
- No one can put a new learning asset up as a page turner in DAU.
DAU first corporate training organization on iTunes U
- Received VERY positive feedback on their iTunes U
- Allows us to contact the future workforce in places that they use.
- Provides a HUGE engine for mobile learning. Didn't have to invent, develop, pay for.
- We had to convince them we are good enough to be there.
Partnering - GMU/DAU
- George Mason U brings things to table that makes DAU better
Intact Team Training
- Right now - improve ability of learning assets to help achieve mission outcome
- Take team with a mission. Work directly with them
- Develop assets and training resources directed at THAT INTACT TEAM
- We are dealing with the direct issues and challenges of the individual team to deliver an outcome
- This is a game-changer.
- How we improve the value of the investment made in training
- This is very very important for any corporate missionary
2003 - Future of training
- Said need to move to point that we have created virtual training spaces
- Avatars in the workplace
- Virtual workrooms where people can show up without travel
Now - team with Air National Guard to create virtual environment Nexus
- Nexus supports DL Training and Live AVATAR-DELIVERED instruction
- Major work underway, including creation of DAU campus.
- Working with DAU faculty on appropriate courses for pilot scheduled Dec 09
- This helps solve the issue with rapidly creating appropriate staging environments.
- Allow students to attend classes without leaving home.
- Expect people to occupy offices in this environment
- Can interact before the formal synchronous course
- Will contain links to courseware and resources
- Will support on-demand face-to-face discussion in ways not currently possible.
- Has PPT, whiteboard, Blackboard, IM, message board etc.
- Can now bring teams together BEFORE deployment
- Reduce travel and related cost.
[Essentially they are seeing this tool to help organize and provide access to EVERYTHING. Synchronous, asynchronous, classroom]
What has helped in developing this
- Instead of taking a bite-size
- When get an idea - just rapidly prototype. Get small success. Not worry about big implementation.
+ Get better understanding
+ Small success
- Willing to go do something, 60-70% success. Improve Then take to leadership.
+ Able to go to leadership with much better understanding of how it works, benefits, how to implement on a larger scale.
How do we take all resources they have to reducce the bad stuff
- Part of ongoing maintenance and curriculum review process
- Right now - taking down all page turners.
- If you are starting a new resource - given specific criteria for acceptance and posting.
- If high use - keeping up while making new product.
- Some areas need low-tech. Still working through that.
Nexus - does the engine and bandwidth create problems? Download? Security?
- If you can't use them at point of need.
- DiaCat - the process. Authority to operate across networks.
- Right now, trying to achieve authority across the 4 processes
- Using Gambrio as an engine
Don't believe that you have to have all of the expertise
- Team and share
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