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Two Ways to Reclaim Your Feeds from FeedBurner
Get rid of Feedburner’s link pollution–make URLs in your feed show up as your real URLs
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Archive for November, 2009
Daily Bookmarks 11/30/2009
November 30, 2009Daily Bookmarks 11/26/2009
November 26, 2009-
Dave Cormier explains how he “presented” at a webinar using “live slides”: thought-provoking questions on slides with lots of space for participants to use the whiteboard. I’m not sure this is really “presenting” though; it’s more moderating a discussion. But it sounds much more engaging than the usual presentations.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Daily Bookmarks 11/25/2009
November 25, 2009-
Why you want to use scenarios in your elearning » Making Change
A great slideshow showing (not just explaining!) the value of scenarios to change behavior in e-learning
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Learning Visions: Accidental Instructional Designers #dl09
Notes on a DevLearn session on how people got into instructional design and what they feel are the important skills. Out of 25+ IDs, only 2 had advanced degrees in ID.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thankful for a New Opportunity
November 24, 2009
This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the US, which makes this an especially appropriate time to express my thanks for finding a new job. As of next week, I will be working as a contractor for Cisco. It’s a big project with a lot of different pieces to coordinate. I’m excited; this will be an opportunity to do some things that I haven’t done before, including working with technology like telepresence. I’m also looking forward to more global collaboration, as this training involves teams in several continents.
This does, of course, mean a switch from being in the education world to the corporate world. But my career has gone back and forth several times; I went from public school teaching to corporate training, then to online higher education followed by a corporate instructional design contract. I’ve been doing online graduate education for K-12 teachers for three years now. I know sometimes people can have trouble switching between those environments, but I’ve never found it that much of a struggle. The organizational cultures can be different, obviously, but I feel like the fundamental skills apply in both contexts. And I wish there was more cross fertilization of ideas between the corporate world and academia; I think both groups could learn more from each other. So I enjoy the back and forth. Maybe I actually learn more this way, rather than being in a silo of one area or the other.
As I’m enjoying the long weekend before starting my new job, I feel very thankful. I’m grateful for three years at Performance Learning Systems, where I worked with many dedicated people who are passionate about what they do. I was fortunate to work with a terrific manager and two great fellow instructional designers. I learned a lot and I am really proud of the courses I created. I’m also thankful that I was able to find a job in about two months in this less-than-wonderful economy. I’m thankful for the opportunity that is now ending and for the one that is just beginning.
I hope you have many things to be thankful for in your life as well. Happy Thanksgiving!
Image Credit:
Daily Bookmarks 11/24/2009
November 24, 2009-
Bunchberry & Fern: Learning Styles: fable-ous and tragic
Long post on learning styles, the controversies, and why we keep talking about them even when the research isn’t solid
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My conversation with academics
A 2007 post from the Learning Circuits blog about different views of the value of theories, research, and results in academia and corporate environments. Definitely takes the anti-academic POV. I like Mitch Owen’s response in the comments: “Effective work is always blended.. theory and application.. “
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Daily Bookmarks 11/20/2009
November 20, 2009-
Big Dog, Little Dog: Designing for Agile Learning
Part of a series on agile learning design. This post focuses on 4 lenses for design: performance centered, guru, learner-centered, and system. These lenses are then mapped to the complexity of the design environment and sources of information in those different environments. Lots of graphics to reinforce how different approaches fit different environments.
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Learntrends 2009 Sessions Live Blogging « Online Sapiens
Collected links to live blogging posts from LearnTrends (including mine)–nice to have all of them together in one place
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
LearnTrends: Microlearning
November 19, 2009These are my live blogged notes from Janet Clarey’s LearnTrends session on Microlearning. My side comments are in italics.
Official description:
Microlearning: Beyond Learning Objects and Just-in-time Performance Support
The need and pressure to learn continually, coupled with limited time available to learn, make new digital media viable for professional development. Microlearning – the learning that results from “micro” content published in short form and limited by the software and devices used to view it – offers alternatives to traditional development methods for workers who deal with web-based information as part of their job. Let’s discuss how microlearning might address the realities of learning in a digital age.
Missed the beginning due to a phone call, but glad to actually hear Janet’s voice after all this time interacting through blogs, Facebook, etc.
What is microlearning?
- Current context since 2002
- No single definition
- Specifically focusing on OTJ skills & knowledge
Single songs from CDs, Single articles from Magazines, Ringtones from single songs
From a 2008 microlearning conference “There is a need and pressure to learn continually due to rapid change in society and the economy…Knowledge gaps are widening.”
Basic goal: make learning more effective through new media
Why study microlearning? To know if it’s effective
In chat: Moderator (Tony Karrer): In some ways – we are spending more time learning – if we aren’t learning, we should examine if it’s a good use of our Knowledge Work time
Current definitions:
- Microlearning emerges from microcontent. Microcontent is little bits of digital information in a permanent state of flux and circulation.
It is often a single topic, limited in length, consumed quickly,and often imited by software or device. It is the sharing of resurces.
It relies on human-to-human interaction and interaction with Internet media. - “…occurring at the most minute of levels…minutes or seconds of time.” Hug & Friesen, 2009
What microlearning is not
- What’s the difference between this and a “learning object”?
- Learning objects are
- in repositories
- reusable
- portable
- content, not context
- not created by the user
- for learning/instructional purpose
- What is Just-in-Time?
- needs-based, point of need
- need to know
- training when I need it (whoever I am)
- delivered to you
- created by someone in advance
- not always digital
- instructional/educational purpose
Differentiators
Not all of these things are required in every microlearning example–
- No formal teaching structure
- situated
- No repository (unless you view the whole web as a repository)
- Not dependent on time or place
- Doesn’t always help you meet a specific learning objective
- no grades/ratings/certifications
- Relies on peer-to-peer interaction
- folksonomy rather than standardization
- No leader
- Relies on interaction with internet media
Reflects every-increasing fragmentation of info sources & info units
Focused on knowledge workers–people who use digital info in their jobs
Who doesn’t this work for?
- not knowledge workers
- those w/o internet tools
- people on retail floor
- plumbers
- farmers Janet said this, but lots of people disagreed–farmers can be very high tech, have wifi in tractors etc.
Very few companies have strategy for social media–many say it won’t work in their culture
Lots of tools used traditionally
Now, new tools
- conversations getting smaller
- classes get fragmented
- courses get shorter
New terrain
Pathway to community; you have to be embedded in the community to help
Complex communities of practice where individual identity is constructed
Do you think many people at your organization can do this kind of learning without guidance?
We are all in these communities so it’s easier for us–how do you help average knowledge workers?
Architecture & politics: architecture determines what is possible to do
Politics of institutions vs. individuals: LMS vs. PLE
In the LMS, your learner environment is observable & formalized
PLE: Individual surrounded by tools, people
Moderator (Janet Clarey): “…emancipation-through-technology underplays the dependence of these activities on on carriers, providers, division managers, infrastructures, and more. Control of these infrastructures and services presuppose a signifcant level of economic enfranchisement and social integration, and technical and communicative competency.”
Corporate learning serves multiple roles
Metaphor: organic learning vs. $1 value menu at McDonalds OK, somewhere I lost this thread–there was an analogy here but I didn’t get it
Summary
- Research is new, minimal
- no standard definition
- Need to address the realities of learning in the digital age
References will be on her blog shortly
Q&A
If you join several bits of microlearning together, can you make it into “normal” learning?
- No, she doesn’t see it that way
Is this completely separate from formal learning, or is there some relationship with formal learning?
- If you need to semi-structure it, start with a question & let people create
Two different ways of looking at microlearning: on technology side, measure frequency of instruction, ratings, # of contributions; on the social side, lots of qualitative research
Jane Bozarth: Trying to “measure” too much can jeapordize it
Jane Bozarth: Quickest way to destroy a CoP is for management to try and “harness the collective knowledge”
Discussion of Communities of Practice vs. Networks
Jane Bozarth: There is also interesting lit on perception of who “owns” knowlege. Orgs think it is theirs (ie, intellectual property), often those who share view it rather as a public good. = tension
Is there any difference in microlearning in a CoP vs. network?
So what do we do about it? What do we do to help this in organizations?
First step: build a community?
Ronny Lohuis (NL): Isn’t the first step to make people aware and than give them skills to do it themselves?
Jane Bozarth: @Ronny Lohuis Learners don’t necessarily define themselves as “learners” or as being in the act of “learning”.
Daily Bookmarks 11/19/2009
November 19, 2009-
Resources from Harold’s LearnTrends session on sense-making with personal knowledge management
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Daily Bookmarks 11/18/2009
November 18, 2009-
Problem-Based Learning and Scenario-Based Training: Operations & Tactics at Officer.com
Comparison of problem-based learning and scenario-based learning, where problem-based learning is text-based case studies and scenario-based learning is interactive, dynamic, and time-limited.
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e-Learning: What’s Hot and What’s Not? « Performance X Design
Overview of current trends in e-learning. According to this post, what’s hot is social media, informal learning, simulations & scenario-based learning, virtual worlds, rapid learning, mobile learning, open source, and performance support.
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Cognitive Load Theory: Failure? « EdTechDev
Explanation of cognitive load theory and the problems with it, both conceptual and methodological. Lots of sources to dig into deeper if you want more research on this issue.
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Numerous contradictions of cognitive load theory’s predictions have been found, but with germane cognitive load, they can still be explained away. de Jong does not use this term (unfalsifiable) but instead states that germane cognitive load is a post-hoc explanation with no theoretical basis: “there seems to be no grounds for asserting that processes that lead to (correct) schema acquisition will impose a higher cognitive load than learning processes that do not lead to (correct) schemas” (2009).
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2. Poor external validity of lab-based studies. Moreno doesn’t touch on something in the de Jong article – the fact that most cognitive load (and multimedia learning) studies are conducted in labs that “includes participants who have no specific interest in learning the domain involved and who are also given a very short study time” (de Jong, 2009), often only a few minutes. Quite a number of findings from these studies have not held up as strongly when tested in classrooms or real-world scenarios, or have even reversed (such as the modality effect, but see this refutation and this other example of a reverse effect).
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
LearnTrends: Reinventing Organizational Learning
November 18, 2009These are my live blogged notes from Jay Cross & Clark Quinn’s LearnTrends session on Reinventing Organizational Learning. My side comments in italics. Update: The recording of this session (and the rest of LearnTrends) is now available.
Article they wrote for CLO mag: “Become a Chief Meta-Learning Officer”
Need to be more agile & change
If you don’t know the solution & need to network/collaborate to find it, that’s learning
Internet Learning Alliance: They were all working independently, decided to work together and practice what they preach. I don’t really think they were working independently–they were working in parallel. Lots of parallel conversations in all their blogs, with clear interaction & influence between them. Harold says “parallel but not coordinated”
“20 pounds of crap and only a 5 pound bag” Jay makes me smile. He is totally authentic online–he shows who he really is, take it or leave it
Clark: “we’re the people who’ve retained our love of learning despite our education”
View from the balcony–what you can’t see when you’re too close to the ground
We are going through a total shift in worldview–not world as machine, world as biosphere. We can blame this on networks
How networks evolve: hierarchies are crumbling, rate of change much faster–we don’t know what’s coming next
What is the Chief Meta-learning officer to do when we don’t know what’s coming?
- Broaden definition of learning
- increase learner population
- improve learning process
- expand venues
Broaden definition: not just formal. Learning professionals haven’t gotten a seat at the table b/c they haven’t earned it–focus is too narrow
Learner Population: We thought of businesses as walled off. Now that businesses are ecosystems, we should be training customers, vendors, etc. 2/3 of CLOs have no involvement in customer learning, partner/supply chain learning. We focus too much on novices. With high performers, if you improve performance 1%, big impact.
Learning Process: Shift from push to pull, empower learners to find their own stuff. More about setting up conduit for content, not the content itself. Novices need more formal learning; Practitioners need to fill in the gaps mostly with informal; Experts’ main job is informally sharing what they know
Expand Venues: Push –> Pull. Mobile learning–most impt is making sure people have the tech. Most CLOs don’t think CoPs do their jobs at all.
Hallmarks of Future Work
- Curriculum –> competency
- Clockwork, predictable –> Complexity, surprising
- Stocks –> Flows
- Clock time –> Time to accomplishment
- Learning –> Just do it
What makes a really effective learning organization?
- supportive learning environment
- psychological safety: safe to share–org culture
- appreciation of differences
- openness to new ideas
- time for reflection–lets you improve process, therefore outcomes
- These things don’t just happen–you have to take responsibility for creating this kind of culture
- Concrete Learning Processes & Practices
- Information collection & analysis
- Experimentation–have to try things and see what tools work
- Education & Training
- You can’t just assume processes will work; you have to scaffold & support them.
- Leadership that reinforces learning
- Explicitly acknowledge
- Align incentives
- Model learning for others
ADDIE is content centric. Jay says obsolete b/c things aren’t predictable anymore–SMEs don’t know what will be important to know. No fixed alternative to ADDIE b/c depends on ecosystem/learnscape
Clark says ADDIE is a process, there will be a role for it (I think–I may be misrepresenting what he said)
Experimentation should still have a process, shouldn’t just be random–have to have a way to figure out what works & have a systematic process. Problem is that we need a new process; ADDIE has been too much for formal learning
Jay: We need to think about ourselves as business problem solvers
ROI isn’t the only measure–other ways to look at business performance
We can help people get over barriers to working together
Example: Learning group–couldn’t create enough courses to meet all the needs so created a wiki. Realized that this worked better. Need to work around the silos to be more effective. Your customers have knowledge that would be useful for your employees–how will you get access to that info?
In chat: Gillian: As jobs become less ‘for life’, surely the indiviudal is assisting in breaking down the ‘do unto’ mode of course provision and actually fostering self-reliance and curiosity in learning – if only for personal economic survival
It isn’t about creating courses–it’s about being partners in people’s success, having more productive relationships
Jay: annual performance reviews are broken–need intermittent, continuous feedback
Clark: need more mentoring, performance reviews don’t replace that. But perf reviews can provide time for reflection
In the long term, learning facilitation will be distributed to everyone in the organization, but there will still be a role for people who help others learn
Gave example: Get rid of the training department–don’t need the central control. Deploy people as performance consultants & coaches
Our training models don’t work in complex environments; they were designed for complicated environments. If you can’t analyze the system like you used to, that old training won’t work. You can train some processes, but not for what’s going to happen. Example: H1N1. We don’t know what’s going to happen.
ADDIE looks backwards, looks for old best method & replicates that. Doesn’t work in complex environments.
You’ll never figure it out so don’t try. The world is unpredictable and will always be so.
Q: What if people who are high value individuals are spending time on lower value resources? How do you justify that?
A: What if you can take that one top engineer, have them spend time helping all other engineers in the long run, that’s better. Get beyond those short term “what makes money right now”–developing people is work time & effort
On the other side, also need to help high performers get better–you need to take care of them
Sounds like part of the deal here is that we can’t assume learning should be the same for everyone
Get away from the individual worker model–think about the group. About better groups & networks & organizations, not individual skills meeting the standards
“least assistance principle” what’s the smallest thing we can do to make people effective (Clark)
Easy to attack ADDIE. Let’s try to figure out what will work in the future. What we’ve been doing isn’t enough.
We can’t meet all the needs with formal courses–think about how to help groups work together better. But don’t assume that the master tailor is good at teaching the apprentices; facilitate the process for that tailor.
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