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This directly ties in with a recent link I posted, False advertising statistics effective, in that our preference or judgement is often influcenced more by specifications or numbers, that what we actually perceive through our other senses.
"Credibility in this position has nothing to do with my ability to be an expert referee. I believe that in my heart," says Johnson, "Throughout my Army career, I've been promoted and moved around a lot, and never had time to master one thing," says Johnson. "I've really focused on leading and managing on a strategic level. So I guess you can say I feel comfortable with a broad range of ignorance. But I'm a quick study."
But in this case, it wasn't an old journalism hack lamenting his industry. It was Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.
By contrast, deliberate practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be improved, and then work intently on them. Tiger Woods - intensely applying this principle, which is no secret among pro golfers - has been seen to drop golf balls into a sand trap and step on them, then practice shots from that near-impossible lie.
What e-learning is least suited for is soft skills training, specifically anger diffusion, conflict resolution, communication and listening, rapport building, as examples. Anything that deals with the 'human.' Why? Because impactful training of soft skills is live, highly interactive, experiential, and in real time.
Companies may not have much choice but to open up, says Mr Mulholland. Employees will increasingly resist constraints on their use of technology, and they will have a growing need to reach beyond the corporate firewall. Twenty years ago, he argues, 80% of the knowledge that workers required to do their jobs resided within their company. Now it is only 20% because the world is changing ever faster. "We need to be open to new and unknown connections with people and content," he says.
Also, see Catherine's Learning Environment Design
Let's look at a recent case: Daniel Bouton, CEO and Chairman of Societe Generale. Back in January, Daniel Bouton learned one weekend that a rogue trader in his shop had generated almost 50 billion euros in losing bets - a great deal more than the firm was worth.
The research indicates that the current demand in the enterprise has a negative growth rate of -5.5%. In contrast, the demand in small companies doubled from 4.20% in the 2007-2012 forecast period to 8.51% in the 2008-2013 period. The demand in the large and medium-sized companies is relatively robust at 16.3% and 26.7% respectively.
America has one of the highest childhood poverty rates among industrial nations. Berliner, the Regent's Professor of Education at Arizona State University, dug into the data of high-stakes testing (No Child Left Behind) and poverty. He discovered that if you take the scores of the poverty stricken areas out of our national school averages, we rate among the best in the world (to include math and science). Leave them in and we plainly suck — we are near the bottom of the heap as compared to other industrialized nations. See: Our Impoverished View of Educational Reform – David C. Berliner
Elizabeth Gould discovered that when the brain is put under stressful conditions, it starves itself by failing to create new cells. There are severe social implications with this. Environments that are boring, have stressful noises, poverty, etc., have playing fields that are no longer level when compared to enriched environments. The brains that live in impoverished environments never have a chance as poverty and stress are no longer just concepts but are actual parts of a person's anatomy. See: The Reinvention of the Self – Jonah Lehrer in the Feb/Mar 2006 issue of Seed
Our answer to poverty is high stake testing in education. We believe that if we educate children living in poverty, they will become productive members of society. Yet, this is backwards — we are trying to test a disfigured brain, hoping that it will somehow work. What we should be doing is eliminating poverty in order to relive stress, so that the brains will once again become interested in producing cells for the future. Yet all too often . . .
Wanna tote guns and shoot dice.
Woman hold her head and cry
In the end, poverty becomes both nature and nurture, which helps to ensure that it stays a visious circle.
However, they suggested that newcomers to the web had not quite grasped the strategies needed to successfully carry out a web search.
Professor Smith said: "A simple, everyday task like searching the web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older."
Instead of finding more ways for us to all yap at each other, in this more sober economy we may want to emphasize other priorities. What new products and services will make for better, healthier lives and relationships? How can companies improve their performance? How can teenagers improve their math and science skills, instead of their texting skills?
Kaltura
SearchCube
Oamos
She doesn't have time to negotiate the terms right now, but wants to know if you're going to accept. Since you really want the job, you should say yes now and hammer out the details tomorrow.
In their work, Gustafson and Bennett identified eleven variables that affected the cadets' lack of reflective behavior.
Also, watch the video, it has Facebook Connect Dave Morin, his Google girlfriend Brittany Bohnet, Facebook product design lead/former Macster developer Aaron Sittig, Apple producer/designer Jessica Bigarel, WSJ tech reporter Jessica Vascellaro, Drop.io founder Sam Lessin, Blip.tv cofounder Mike Hudack and they are all lip-synching to Journey's Don't Stop Believin.
October 30, 2008
Web 2.0 Learning - eLearning Technology
Software is being used to allow JetBlue faculty to share around broader topics that just improvements in learning & development such as sharing photos from family vacations, weddings and birthdays. This allows faculty to get to know each other socially in order to be more effective sharing and working together later. They also use the technique of posting provocative topics in order to engage people in discussions.
Dangerous Models - The Frontal Cortex
People love models, especially when they're big, complex and quantitative. Models make us feel safe. They take the uncertainty of the future and break it down into neat, bite-sized equations. But here's the problem with models, which is really a problem with the human mind. We become so focused on the predictions of the model -- be it the cod population, or the risk of mortgage derivatives -- that we stop questioning the basic assumptions of the model.
Designing for the ISD Life-Cycle - as Measured by Return on Investment and Economic Value Add - The Pursuing Performance Blog
"Having it your way," for each ISD'er with their unique approach to ISD, keeps the barn door open and the horses running free. The engineering community addressed this decades ago and "closed the barn door" with CAD/CAM systems (computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing). Additionally, standard parts inventories, design rules, and other tools and templates helped them speed design and ensure greater quality of those designs.
20 Education Technology Trends to Watch - Educational Technology by IQity
Can an Army General Whip NBA Refs into Shape? - Time
Interesting story on hiring "outside the Box:"
LinkedIn Applications: Your Resume Just Got More Dynamic - New York Times
Up to this point, LinkedIn has remained focused but - apart from those invitations to connect - not especially social or dynamic. No matter what the economic conditions, people will always be looking for new jobs. If LinkedIn continues to add features and applications that facilitate that inevitable searching and hiring, they're sure to succeed. And this new application platform appears to be right in line with that focus.
Mourning Old Media's Decline - NY Times
At the recent American Magazine Conference, one of the speakers worried that if the great brands of journalism - the trusted news sources readers have relied on - were to vanish, then the Web itself would quickly become a "cesspool" of useless information. That kind of hand-wringing is a staple of industry gatherings.
October 28, 2008
Typewriter stays relevant in technology-saturated world Boing Boing & LA Times
But the typewriter part of Flores' business never went away. In some ways, it's even made a small resurgence. The simplicity of the typewriter is alluring to writers who may be overwhelmed (or underwhelmed) by increasingly elaborate technology. A typewriter is also appealing in its transparency -- whack a key, and watch the typebar smack a letter onto a piece of paper. Try figuring that out with a laser printer. Many people also find typewriters charming ambassadors of a bygone era. One recent customer asked Flores to fix her mother's college typewriter so she could type letters home when she went off to college.
Why talent is overrated - Fortune
A number of researchers now argue that talent means nothing like what we think it means, if indeed it means anything at all. A few contend that the very existence of talent is not, as they carefully put it, supported by evidence. In studies of accomplished individuals, researchers have found few signs of precocious achievement before the individuals started intensive training.
Benefits and Challenges of E-Learning in the Call Center - CIO Today
e-Learning is effective and efficient for learning systems, hardware, software, phone, Internet, anything technical, rules, regulations, protocol, principles, anything rote and repetitive-it can be referred to again and again, as a reference, a resource, and/or a refresher. They are self-directed. People can learn at their own pace.
Is Stupid Making Us Google? - The New Atlantis
The "F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content" is the technique of reading horizontally across the first few lines of text, then halfway across for a few more, and finally vertically the rest of the way down the page; e.g., go to Google, type keywords, download three relevant sites, cut and paste passages into a new document, add transitions of your own, print it up, and turn it in. This is information retrieval, not knowledge formation.
Multitasking Can Make You Lose ... Um ... Focus - N.Y. Times
When it comes to Multitasking, it depends what you're doing. For some people, listening to music while working actually makes them more creative because they are using different cognitive functions.
But despite what many of us think, you cannot simultaneously e-mail and talk on the phone. I think we're all familiar with what Dr. Hallowell calls "e-mail voice," when someone you're talking to on the phone suddenly sounds, well, disengaged.
October 26, 2008
Instructional Design in a Connected World - Brainstorm in Progress
Much of what has been said characterizes instructional design as mechanistic, linear, and formulaic. To an extent, there is some truth to this because instructional design has many problems to solve - one of them, for instance, might be that factory workers may need to know how to operate a specific piece of equipment or billing coders in hospitals may need to know some legal procedures.
Business leaders urge firms not to slash training - People Management
Now is precisely the time to keep investing in the skills and talents of our people. "It is the people we employ who get us through. When markets are shrinking and order books falling, it is their commitment, productivity and ability to add value that will keep us competitive. Investing now in building new skills will put us in the strongest position as the economy recovers."
Connecting the instructional design dots - Virtual Learning Worlds
From an instructional design standpoint, we talk a lot about "Just in time" learning, or JIT. The design field has struggled with this for many years. How do you get that critical information to your employees or students exactly when they need it the most?
False advertising statistics effective, say 9 out of 10 cats Mind Hacks
Even when consumers can directly experience the relevant products and the specifications carry little or no new information, their preference is still influenced by specifications, including specifications that are self-generated and by definition spurious and specifications that the respondents themselves deem uninformative.
The long nimbus - The Economist
Firms have at last begun to embrace Web 2.0 technologies in earnest, a trend predictably called Enterprise 2.0. By 2013 companies around the globe will spend $4.6 billion on such tools, according to Forrester Research.
The Seven Things That Surprise New CEOs - Harvard Business School
The CEO must learn to manage organizational context rather than focus on daily operations. Providing leadership in this way - and not diving into the details - can be a jarring transition. One CEO said that he initially felt like the company's "most useless executive," despite the power inherent in the job.
October 19, 2008
Where is Training Going?
1. Iterative & Collaborative - Catherine Lombardozzi
As we continue to morph and flex the ADDIE model, we need to think about iterative design and development and creating teams of people to complete projects (rather than creating teams of people responsible for one function). It isn't just about creatively implementing a design and development model to generate different kinds of solutions. It's about a different kind of working relationship between and among designers, developers, artists, programmers, media specialists and - yes! - even clients - to pool creative energies and decision making.
2. Personalization and Contextualization - Harold Jarche
Good trainers know how to personalize and contextualize their sessions, but social media can reinforce this continuously, not constrained by time or space. Successful organisations will move from a training focus, and even beyond a performance improvement focus, to a connecting and facilitating one.
3. Informed Learning Support - Dave Ferguson
Most people don't want to stumble around in the basics. If they don't know anything, they'd like to get quickly to where they do know something, so they can try to do something. The factory learning model doesn't fit every situation, but neither does everyone want to build his own auto engine, let alone smelt the steel to make it with.
4. Blended - Clive Shepherd
Only the most motivated and independent learners can sustain prolonged periods of self-study, however good the materials; and only a minority of topics can be handled by self-study alone. All of which brings us back, of course, to blended learning, which is where I'd recommend any organisation to start their journey of transformation.
5. Txtng rcks (mLearning) - Donald Clark (Plan B)
Its strengths are that it's cheap, immediate, direct, personal, not in real time and unobtrusive. I think every company and organization that has staff using mobile phones should be forced to do a course on texting, then forced to text more often than talk on the phone. Texting cuts to the quick. It would save them all an absolute fortune.
6. Learnscapes - Jay Cross
Convergence of work and learning -- tell people what you expect them to do; then make it easy for them to learn how to do it. It's not rocket science, but it does turn the usual way of looking at corporate learning on its head.
How to Unleash Your Creativity - Scientific American
There are four different skill sets, or competencies:
Is Corporate Transparency Always a Good Thing? - Harvard Business Review
The modern example that has long been held as the standard is Johnson & Johnson's response to the Tylenol murders of 1982. By all accounts, the company handled the crisis brilliantly. By contrast, the corporate graveyards are marked with the headstones of many companies that were less forthcoming, or even deceptive, in their dealings with the public: WorldCom and Enron, to go back a few years, and Lehman Brothers and AIG to pick from recent headlines.
Home Sweet Office: Telecommute Good for Business, Employees, and Planet - Wired
Time and again, studies have shown that telecommuters are every bit as engaged as their cubicle-bound brethren - and happier and more productive to boot. Last year, researchers from Penn State analyzed 46 studies of telecommuting conducted over two decades and covering almost 13,000 employees. Their sweeping inquiry concluded that working from home has "favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress." The only demonstrable drawback is a slight fraying of the relationships between telecommuters and their colleagues back at headquarters - largely because of jealousy on the part of the latter group. That's the first problem you solve when you kill your office.
The Internet is no 21st-century boob tube - cnet
It turns out the Internet isn't exactly following the model of the boob tube in co-opting family discourse, according to a new national survey of 2,252 adults from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "We were surprised to see that lots of families treat the Internet as a place for shared experiences," Tracy Kennedy, author of a new report about the survey called "Networked Families."
October 19, 2008
US Corporate eLearning Market Reached $5.2 Billion in 2007 - Ambient Insight
The US corporate market for Self-paced eLearning reached $5.2 billion in 2007. Although overall growth is slowing due to the recession, the recession is also acting as a growth catalyst for certain types of products and services.
mLearning Pilot (Learning on a Blackberry) - Learn-Learn-Learn
A critical key to our success is that we decided that we had to be successful with our very first project ... and that we needed to eat this elephant one bite at a time. There are so many ideas and possibilities - which folks have been more than happy to raise and ask - yet we're just starting out and don't want to set ourselves up for an "oops" moment. So, our first project has been developing a Performance Support Tool for a group who are always on the road and who are now being asked to be more consultative in their client contacts and interactions. In a nutshell we created this tool in HTML and controlled the layout through style sheets.
Tech Terms to Avoid - New York Times
David Pogue's list of pretentious pet-peeve words to avoid, "I used to consider plain-English writing a competitive advantage, so I've never leaked this list to potential rivals. But at this point, forget it; any tips that might contribute to clearer writing deserve to be free."
Googling and intelligence - Nicholas Carr
The average young person spends more than eight hours each day using technology (computers, PDAs, TV, videos), and much less time engaging in direct social contact. Our UCLA brain-scanning studies are showing that such repeated exposure to technology alters brain circuitry, and young developing brains (which usually have the greatest exposure) are the most vulnerable ... More than 300,000 years ago, our Neanderthal ancestors discovered handheld tools, which led to the co-evolution of language, goal-directed behavior, social networking, and accelerated development of the frontal lobe, which controls these functions. Today, video-game brain, Internet addiction, and other technology side effects appear to be suppressing frontal-lobe executive skills and our ability to communicate face-to-face. Instead, our brains are developing circuitry for online social networking and are adapting to a new multitasking technology culture. - Gary Small, M.D.
Director, UCLA Memory & Aging Research Center
iPods for Learning
Semour Papert once said something to the effect that anything is easy if you can assimilate it to your collection of models. Thus for designers to see podcasts as a learning tool, then they must expand their set of models. Design guru John Thackara wrote that new technology normally works best when helping people to interact across time, rather than space. For example, it is helpful that I can listen to podcast from experts from any place. But what truly makes them invaluable is the ability to shift them to a time that suits me, thus I get an instant knowledge network principally on my own making.
October 15, 2008
Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty
“The USA likes to be #1 in everything, and when it comes to the percent of children in poverty among the richest nations in the world, we continue to hold our remarkable status.” – David Berliner
“When a brain is worried, it's just thinking about survival. It isn't interested in investing in new cells for the future.” – Christian Mirescu
Woman hold her head and cry
Cause her son had been shot down in the street and died
all mah life i've been considered as the worst. lyin' to mah mother even stealin' out her purse
crime after crime
from drugs to extortion
i know my mother wish she got a abortion
Cause her son had been shot down in the street and died
– Hold Ya Head by the Notorious B.I.G. (featuring Bob Marley)
Internet use 'good for the brain' – BBC
The researchers said that, compared to simple reading, the internet's wealth of choices required people to make decisions about what to click on in order to get the relevant information.
Getting to far transfer – Dave's Whiteboard
If you want people to handle customer complaints or improve work flow or advise high school students, then the training requires increasing approximations of realistic situations. The design element involves identifying high-value or high-importance cases – even though the universe of cases is vast – so as to strengthen a person's ability to transfer what he's learned to a new situation.
Why light text on dark background is a bad idea – Enter the Tatrix
If you want to be really good, use an offset grey on a light background like #222 on #fff as it's a bit nicer on the eyes.
Is Web 2.0 Living on Thin Air? – Tom Davenport
British think-tanker Charles Leadbeater published the book Living on Thin Air. It was both an appealing notion and a scary one: that we no longer have to produce anything but ideas. And that was even before Web 2.0 — a platform for everyone to share their ideas, opinions, favorite tunes, and relationship statuses with each other.
October 14, 2008
It's Not About The Content - Tony's Brain
When developing a course of instruction for delivery online, content is the last thing to be collected and assembled; the Learning Activities are always the first. Once the learning activities have been designed and "mapped" to a Learning Outcome, only then can the process of content collection begin. Use of the word "collection" is deliberate. One doesn't develop content, one collects it in such a manner that it ultimately provides the reference and instruction necessary to complete a Learning Activity.
IBM invests in business partners' training - C/NET
IBM, which expects to unveil better-than-expected quarterly figures, has announced it will spend some of its cash on incentives to encourage some of its largest partners to invest more in training and other areas.
Productivity 2.0: How the New Rules of Work Are Changing the Game - Zenhabits
For years, books and articles and blogs on productivity have been showing us how to be more productive: crank out the tasks, multi-task, work faster, be organized. In short, they've taught us to be a good part of a corporation that wants more out of us. But that's old-school productivity, or Productivity 1.0.
What's new?
280 Slides
There is a new online presentation creator in town -- 280 Slides (Beta). Create presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world. With 280 Slides, there's no software to download and nothing to pay for -- and when you're done building your presentation you can share it any way you like.
Add interactive video capabilities to your blog!
Search results are presented in a 3-D cube that you can spin and tilt by using your Arrow-Keys. It is not really all that useful, however it does demonstrate that there are more than one way to preset information and data.
This has been around for a while, but in case you missed it, Oamos presents search results in a compleatly different manner.
October 11, 2008
preparing to be wrong - Reflective Design
Why is this instructional design insight - big concept teaching and learning - important for interaction design? For one, every interaction, every interface, must be learned. A design will be easier to learn if it is consistent (shares critical properties) with other designs. For example, we can learn to operate a new Mac application if we know how to operate other Mac applications. Certain menus are positioned in the same way making it easier for us to learn the fundamental controls. The designed consistency creates a big concept design for the user-learners.
Are you a good negotiator? - Fortune
1. After a job interview, HR calls to offer you the job. The staffer names a salary 15% higher than you're making and says the benefits are generous.
Critical Reflection
It is often difficult to encourage reflection among learners. Gustafson and Bennett (1999) found that promoting reflection among military cadets by means of written responses in "diaries" was difficult. Cadets across three different years generally did not produce responses indicating any deep reflection. Although the results were disappointing, they are consistent with the research literature on promoting reflection that generally indicates it is difficult to accomplish (Stamper, 1996).
The End of Web 2.0, Beginning of Web Infinity - Web Monkey
Business Week's Rob Hof, on the other hand, takes a more modest approach. He argues the ideas and momentum of Web 2.0 continues and pundits' words should be supplemented with a dose of skepticism. Just because a social network or video site may not make it through a recession doesn't mean the end to Ajax, APIs, widgets and the continuing design theories of big buttons, graphs, tabbed menus and large text.
An Ignoble But Much Needed End To Web 2.0, Marked By A Party In Cyprus - TechCrunch
Goodbye, Web 2.0. I hope I never have to type those words again. Now can we please get back to work? There's still a ton left to do before we get to Matrix-style virtual reality, the Singularity, and mobile phones with batteries that last a whole day.
October 9, 2008
Speaking of Memory: Q&A with Neuroscientist Eric Kandel - Scientific American
Human memory reinvents itself all the time. Every time you remember something, you modify it a little bit, in part dependent on the context in which you recall it. That is because the brain's storage is not as exact as written text. It is always a mixture of many facades of the past event: images, pictures, feelings, words, facts and fiction -- a "re-collection" in the true sense.The Web 2.0 Wave - HR Online
Technology is only an enabler -- that it allows functions to happen faster, easier and over longer distances. "The business issues of engagement, setting goals and alignment are still big gaping holes in most companies." "Because of technology, it's easier to solve these problems." For example, networking is generally considered to be a good thing.How to get everyone to write like Ernest Hemingway - Making Change
Probably everyone on your team agrees that elearning should be concise and lively. But does everyone agree on what "concise and lively" looks like? Here's one way to get everyone on the same stylistic page.Is the case study method of instruction due for an overhaul? - Jay Cross
Case studies can serve as a touchstone for discussions of real-world situations in organizations.Information Architecture for Audio: Doing It Right - Boxes and Arrows
Content today is increasingly delivered by audio both online and in the real world. We have radio shows and newscasts, and in recent years, podcasts, audio books and navigation/car assistance systems have been added to the field. Audio is more emotional, as sound effects and acoustic atmosphere enhance content to help deliver its messages. It also affords users the opportunity to interact with content while their hands and eyes are busy (i.e. when doing physical work, driving, walking, etc). However, the inclusion of audio often results in usability issues that make it difficult for users to access and understand content. That is why we need new tools to organize linear content like audio.The growing productivity divide - Seth Godin
Can you imagine someone who works in a factory that processes metal not knowing how to use a blowtorch? How can you imagine yourself as a highly-paid knowledge worker and not know how to do these things...Let's Get Persian - Change This
Herodotus, the Greek historian, reported that the ancient Persians always made important decisions twice -- first when they were drunk, and then again when they were sober. Only if the Persians reached the same decision, drunk and sober, would they act on that decision. The approach apparently worked -- the Persians dominated the much of the Middle East and Central Asia for three centuries.October 1, 2008
Twitter and Texting
The New York Times reports that cellphone subscribers are now sending more text messages than phone calls: 357 text messages verses 204 cellphone calls.And we can be sure that Twitter accounts for some, if not many of those text messages. But how valuable is Twitter to learning professionals?
Jane Hart recently posted 100+ (E-)Learning Professionals to follow on Twitter and Tony Hirst immediately followd it with a Yahoo pipe that aggregates the tweets from Jane's list.
Tony Karrer tested the pipe, but left with the thought that there was no real need to follow it and wonders if he is missing something?
And I do not think he is alone. Businessweek's article, Twitter Distracts and Annoys, notes that, "Twitter is the ultimate in self-centeredness. To imagine that anyone would want a running commentary of every moment of your life puts you - as a businessperson - at the center of your world when in fact that's where your customer should be.
Yet not everyone sees it that way. Jay Cross writes that, Twitter is like pointillism. Up close it can be meaningless. Back away and a pattern emerges.
And yes I'm on Twitter: IOpt. And I'm scratching my head also. Is Twitter a worthy learning tool or just a means to "comment on every moment of our lives"?
While texting is not Twitter, it is related. David Crystal released his book, txtng: the gr8 db8. Hw writes that we could not be good at texting if we had not already developed considerable literacy awarness as in order to write abbreviated forms effectively and play with them you need to have a sense of how the sounds of language relate to letters. For a review, see Donald Clark's (of Plan B), txtng (the gr8 db8).
Effectiveness Of Traditional And Blended Learning Environments Science Daily
Strickland compared the course delivery methods in two respiratory therapy courses taught by the same teacher. One group of students completed the course in a traditional environment, while the other group completed the course in a blended environment. The method of course delivery, the final examination grade and the course grade were recorded for each student. Strickland studied the students' satisfaction with the course through the information provided by each student on a standardized student evaluation of the course.September 22, 2008
I drew this map after reading Tim Brown's Design Thinking and Clark Quinn's four-part series on design: one, two, three, & four.
Think "Learning Process" Not "Learning Event" - Karl Kapp in Training Day
The next time you are developing a learning event, stop and think how you can leverage technology to transform learning into a process. Your organization will be stronger for it.Can we re-invent e-learning? - The E-Learning Curve Blog
Treating learning like a project leads to "training outcomes" equivalent to project deliverables. Via Janet Clarey.Tale of Two Tunnels: Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 - Personal InfoCloud
Web 2.0 does not work well in enterprise, but the approaches and understandings of Web 2.0 modified for enterprise work really well. The open consumer web has different scale and needs than inside organizations and through their firewalls. A small percentage of people using the web can get an account on a tool have have appear to be wildly successful correctly claiming 70 million or 100 million people are or have used their tool. But, even 100 million people is a small percentage of people using the web. Most darlings of the Web 2.0 phase have fewer than 10 million users, which is about 5% of the open consumer web users in the United States.These percentages of adoption and use inside organizations can make executives nervous that their money is not reaching as many employees as they wish. The percentages that can be similar to the web's percentages of high single digit adoption rates to the teens is seen as something that really needs more thinking and consideration.
Performance vs. Learning vs. Performance - Guy Wallace - The Pursuing Performance Blog
If you labeled all Web 2.0 tools as Learning tools then you should be coming at this from an Educational level of our clunky system and not the Enterprise level of the clunky system. For in the Enterprise context it is Performance that really counts and not Learning per se. So labeling all that you are trying to sell the Enterprise Executives to invest in as Learning may be less effective than if your focus was and is always on terminal Performance, in the workflow/processes, for the good of the Enterprise. Not for the good of just Learning.September 12, 2008
Presenting to Small Audiences - Change This
If you are designing a presentation to deliver to a small audience - one, three, perhaps five or six people, then even the best presentation advice available will steer you wrong, because it is designed for presenting to large audiences. This is a problem, because the majority of presentations made today are to small groups or single individuals.The Numerati by Stephen Baker - Business Week
By building mathematical models of its own employees, IBM aims to improve productivity and automate management. The story includes both a book excerpt and a video interview. Via Cognitive Edge.Users Don't Search Google Effectively, Costing 40+ Hours of Productivity Each Year - BusinessWire
Boost eLearning discovered that 39 percent of all Google searches fail, leading to more than 40 hours - or one week - of lost productivity per user per year. The online survey found that respondents perform about 12 searches per day and, statistically, 4.7 of those searches do not obtain the desired results. Respondents also report that they spend an average of 30.8 minutes per day searching online.Planning with Post-it Notes and Spreadsheets
Move over T9, here comes Swype - cnet
Swype works with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, but instead of tapping letters out, you press your finger or stylus on the first letter, then, without lifting it, move it to the remaining letters in the word. When the word is done, you lift.September 9, 2008
U.S. Army increasingly using custom iPods as field translators
Instead of carrying around a relatively bulky PDA or notebook, the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division has for a year been using 260 iPods and iPod nanos modified to run a special app from Vcom 3D known as Vcommunicator Mobile.Training Method Trends - eLearning Technology
Learning delivery methods being used in organizations and if they are now trending up or down (modality changes).The chart shows that the most significant decline was in mobile learning; however, as the above news story on the Army's use of the iPod shows, maybe the majority of organizations have not found the right niche for mobile tools, such as the iPod..
Learning and Training Statistics and Myths
Statistics and myths for the learning and training professional.Wikipedia, don't offend the master(s) of the universe - Cognitive Edge
Recently an editor has also been tackling pseudo-science pages such as that on NLP. He is also passionate about removing free propaganda for pederasts.August 27, 2008: eLearning 2.0 -> Informal Learning -> learning 2.0 -> web 2.0
Brent Schlenker writes, "... that 80% to 90% of learning occurs informally outside of the classroom. This should be shocking enough to force some sort of change in e-Learning design, but it hasn't ... at least not yet in any significant way."
Schlenker goes on to tie elearning 2.0 to informal learning to learning 2.0 to web 2.0, which is based on consuming content, creating content, and collaborating with others. This leads to the catchy phase of "rip, mix, and feed" (consume, create, and share).
So now we are left with the impression that we are spending all of our resources on the puny 10% to 20% percent of formal learning while we should be spending it on the 80% to 90% of elearning 2.0/informal learning/learning 2.0.
Yet as in the case of most hypes and fads, the proponents play fast and loose with the numbers. First, the proponents pick the numbers that best fit the hype. More conservative estimates put the ratio at 30% formal to 70% informal (I have even seen 40% formal to 60% informal). So lets meet in the middle and put formal learning at 25% and informal learning at 75%.
So now we have 75% of the learning in organizations being accomplished by learners walking around the building or getting on the internet choosing what they want to learn by ripping, mixing, and sharing. Right? Wrong! Because the proponents also fail to mention that the 75% informal learning ratio also includes a large percentage of what I like to call "nonformal" learning -- they are being directed by their managers, supervisors, and more experienced peers, rather than the training department, as to what they need to learn through the use of such techniques as OJT.
Thus we now have the learning being accomplished in organizations as: 25% formal, 35% informal, and 40% nonformal. Of course this will vary greatly among not only organizations but also the individual learners. Indeed, these percentages are also infused with each other because almost no type of learning situation will rely solely on one or the other, but rather various combinations of the three.
Now can the use of "learning 2.0" benefit all three forms of learning (formal, informal, and nonformal)? Yes. But as Will Thalheimer warns us, "Because e-Learning 2.0 is already on the fad upswing, we ought to be especially careful about assuming its benefits. In other words, we ought to measure it early and often, at least at first until our implementations prove to be beneficial investments."
From McKinsey Global Survey Results:
"Companies are coming to understand the difficulty of realizing some of Web 2.0's benefits. Only 21 percent of the respondents say they are satisfied overall with Web 2.0 tools, while 22 percent voice clear dissatisfaction. Further, some disappointed companies have stopped using certain technologies altogether"
"A higher level of usage is found at companies that encourage it by using tactics such as integrating the tools into existing workflows, launching Web 2.0 in conjunction with other strategic initiatives, and getting senior managers to act as role models for adoption."
Web 2.0 is now dropping from Gartner's "Peak of Inflated Expectations" to the "Trough of Disillusionment." However, it is supposed to "reach mainstream status within two years, with an impact rated "transformational."
So what does this mean to the training/learning/knowledge profession? First, we cannot mix one hype (informal learning) with another hype (web 2.0/learning 2.0), and expect to achieve a positive impact on the organization. This is particularly true when one of the hypes is built on bad research (mostly bad numbers in this case).
If informal learning was really all that dominant, then the adaptation and satisfaction rates of web 2.0 would be much higher as the learners would have been absolutely primed for this type of technology, no matter what flaws were in the implementation. It is quite interesting on why companies cited three reasons as the primary reasons for their satisfaction:
- Integrating the Tools into Existing Workflows: Rather than seeing this tool as only an informal method where users are the primary content fillers, use it more as a nonformal/formal performance support method. Also see Tony Karrer's response and Clark Quinn's response.
- Launching in Conjunction with Other Strategic Initiatives: Now this could be seen more as an informal learning method that would compliment other initiatives. Think "crowdsourcing."
- Getting Senior Managers to Act as Role Models for Adoption: More of a nonformal learning method where managers, supervisors, and experienced performers set the stage for the tool's usage. "Is the institution an enabler or is the institution an obstacle?"
August 22, 2008
Leadership Styles
I want both of you to. . .
Delegative
You two take care of the problem while I go. . .
Participative
Let's work together to solve this. . .
Click pictures for Flickr view (Creative Commons - attribution)
A Fresh Look at Brain-Based Education - PDK
It has been more than 20 years since it was first suggested that there could be connections between brain function and educational practice. In the face of all the evidence that has now accumulated to support this notion, Mr. Jensen advocates that educators take full advantage of the relevant knowledge from a variety of scientific disciplines.Tuning the backchannel - Dave's Whiteboard
Barry Dahl analyzed the comments from a discussion and determined that only 31% of the posts were on-topic. In the specific instance, he says "the audience treated [the backchannel] like an experiment because we [presenters] treated it like an experiment."Ken Burns: going inside the photograph - Presentation Zen
When you think about it, often the photo really is more powerful than video at telling the story. The photo captures a moment in time allowing the viewer to slow down and think and wonder and reflect. Photos allow for greater emphasis and may have less distracting elements. They can be livened up with technigues such as the "Ken Burns effect," a technique for adding motion to still photography.Welcome, Freshmen. Have an iPod. - New York Times
"We had assumed that the biggest focus of these devices would be consuming the content," said Tracy Futhey, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Duke. But that is not all that the students did. They began using the iPods to create their own "content," making audio recordings of themselves and presenting them. The students turned what could have been a passive interaction into an active one, Ms. Futhey said.Study: Serious Gaming Boosts Cognitive Skills - FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES
Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile, PhD, and William Stone, BS, described several studies involving high school and college students and laparoscopic surgeons that looked at their video game usage and its effects.Findings from the student studies confirmed previous research on effects of playing violent games: Those playing violent games were more hostile, less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared to those who played nonviolent games. Players of "prosocial" games got into fewer fights in school and were more helpful to other students.
Other studies involving students showed that those who played more entertainment games did poorer in school and were at greater risk for obesity.
A study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors compared to those who did not play video games.
August 19, 2008
Bottom-up learning - e.learning age
Bottom-up learning occurs because employees want to be able to perform effectively in their jobs. The exact motivation may vary, from achieving job security to earning more money, gaining recognition or obtaining personal fulfilment, but the route to all these is performing well on the job, and employees know as well as their employers that this depends - to some extent at least - on their acquiring the appropriate knowledge and skills.Is Google Making Our E-Learning Stupid? - The Rapid eLearning Blog
Instructional designers need to consider web surfing habits. Whether it's right or wrong, people who are online have been developing habits that they bring to the elearning course. Design courses to accommodate these power browsing habits. If you don't, chances are you'll lose a connection with the learner which will make the course ineffectual.The Voice of the Learner: How Employees Learn in 2008 - The MASIE Cente
Employees today are learning how to do their jobs very differently! e-Learning, on-line Video, Social Networks and other Informal methods are now options for learning, in addition to more traditional Classes and On-The-Job Training (OJT). A recent survey by The MASIE Center of 6,100 employees in companies around the world provides a profile of how employees currently learn at work and how their learning preferences are changing. Via Workplace Learning Today.Working Memory Training Raises IQ of Adults - Improve Your Learning and Memory
A new paper, Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory, describes that while there is a long history of research into cognitive training showing that, although performance on trained tasks can increase dramatically, transfer of this learning to other tasks remains poor. Here, the authors present evidence for transfer from training on a demanding working memory task to measures of Fluid intelligence. Also, see: Help Your Working-memory Capacity and Tests Produce Learning.August 11, 2008
The Thinking Behind Critical Thinking Courses - Washington Post
Critical thinking is not a skill like riding a bike or diagramming a sentence that, once learned, can be applied in many situations. Instead, as your most-hated high school teacher often told you, you have to buckle down and learn the content of a subject--facts, concepts and trends--before the maxims of critical thinking taught in these feverishly-marketed courses will do you much good. The processes of thinking are intertwined with the content of thought (that is, domain knowledge).Here's Why Unlocking Your Course Navigation Will Create Better Learning - The Rapid eLearning Blog
No one likes wasting time and in the process being treated like a child. However, the organization commits a lot of its resources to the training and they want to make sure that people take the time to learn the information. They definitely don't want the employees skipping through information that might be critical to the organization's success.Design for Emotion and Flow - Boxes and Arrows
Note: While this article is direced towards web design, most of the concepts can also be used for learning design.Information architects and designers play a critical role in ensuring the products they design provide users' with a return on their investment of attention. Also see Completing the Zen in Performance Management. Consumers typically need not worry much about the programming plumbing beneath their online applications. But suppose you're the person on the hook for your company's online expense reporting tool or a start-up planning to build an online music mixer for anyone on the Internet. You'll have to place a bet on which technology is best and which programmers to hire or train.
"Even if I were starting from scratch today, I still think I'd bet on JavaScript and Ajax...It's going to be hard to stop the massive momentum we have," Henrikson said. "Flash is seeing a pretty aggressive growth cycle now, (but) I still think JavaScript is going to be (used in) 10 times the number of Flash apps that launch."
August 5, 2008
How magicians control your mind - Boston Globe
A new model has arisen over the past decade, in which visual cognition is understood not as a camera but something more like a flashlight beam sweeping a twilit landscape. At any particular instant, we can only see detail and color in the small patch we are concentrating on. The rest we fill in through a combination of memory, prediction and a crude peripheral sight. We don't take in our surroundings so much as actively and constantly construct them.Seeing is Hearing: New Type of Synesthesia Discovered - Scientific American
On the visual trials, nonsynesthetes judgments fell to nearly chance levels, a result that corroborates other research showing that most people are better at judging auditory patterns than assessing visual patterns.The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn - Scientific American
As researchers continue to investigate storytelling's power and pervasiveness, they are also looking for ways to harness that power. Some such as Green are studying how stories can have applications in promoting positive health messages. "A lot of problems are behaviorally based," Green says, pointing to research documenting the influence of Hollywood films on smoking habits among teens. And Mar and Oatley want to further examine how stories can enhance social skills by acting as simulators for the brain, which may turn the idea of the socially crippled bookworm on its head.What Stinks About Webinars?
An elegant, focused PowerPoint deck is good, but hardly sufficient, webinars would benefit from some instructional design principles. Webinar disasters can be prevented by applying basic instructional design: selecting content by taking into account the purpose of the presentation, attending to time/space constraints and audience, matching content with delivery strategies, applying document design, storytelling, characterization, worked examples and so on and so forth. It boils down to "telling a story and not lecturing or reading."Why Organizational Strategy Matters - LeaderValues
Top performing companies successfully leverage their organization more effectively than rivals and derive over 64% more profit per employee than next-tier performers.Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon - Washington Post
For the purposes of their experiment, two people were considered to be acquaintances if they had sent one another a text message. The researchers looked at the minimum chain lengths it would take to connect 180 billion different pairs of users in the database. They found that the average length was 6.6 steps and that 78 percent of the pairs could be connected in seven hops or less. Some pairs, however, were separated by as many as 29 hops.August 1, 2008
Cognitive restructuring and the fist bump terrorists - Mind Hacks
Thoughts on implicit association test (IAT), reductio ad absurdum argument, and cognitive restructuring using the recent satirical New Yorker cover depicting Obama and his wife as fist-bumping Islamic terroristsThe Right Way to Disagree with Direct Reports - Harvard Business
Try not to prove that your direct reports are wrong. Chances are that your direct reports are generally bright and interested in what they are doing - especially the ones that take the initiative to make suggestions. The fact that your ideas differ from their ideas does not always mean that they are wrong. As difficult as it may be to believe, sometimes you are wrong.Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? - New York Times
As teenagers' scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading - diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.
The Myth of the Math Gender Gap - Time
According to new data, the researchers say, that gender gap has become a myth - a finding they hope will help shift the very real gender gap in math, science and technology professions, which are currently dominated by men.WikiGate: A Wakeup Call For Wikipedia - The Kent Lewis Experience
How are companies that are listed on Wikipedia supposed to clarify or correct inaccuracies, or add new content? Not only is writing about ones self a violation of the rules, but paying someone to do so is as well.July 22, 2008
Tough Choices: How Making Decisions Tires Your Brain - Scientific American
These findings have important real world implications. If making choices depletes executive resources, then "downstream" decisions might be affected adversely when we are forced to choose with a fatigued brain. Indeed, University of Maryland psychologist Anastasiya Pocheptsova and colleagues found exactly this effect: individuals who had to regulate their attention - which requires executive control - made significantly different choices than people who did not.Everything is fragmented - Building CoPs for knowledge flow - Dave Snowden
The name brings to mind Etienne Wenger's pioneering work in observing naturally occurring use of virtual environments by engineers. The problem was that when people went from a researcher's description of what had grown naturally in the past to a prescriptive recipe, things went wrong.Students Who Use 'Clickers' Score Better On Physics Tests - Science Daily
Ohio State University students who used the devices to answer multiple-choice questions during physics lectures earned final examination scores that were around 10 percent higher - the equivalent of a full-letter grade -- than students who didn't.Crisis, what crisis? The future of elearning - Training Zone
95% of respondents believe elearning works best as part of a blend. This has always been the belief of those of us with a more enlightened view of the uses and limitations of 'e' as a learning medium.The Competitive Imperative of Learning - Stephen's Web
There is not a lot of critical or analytical writing on learning in the business press, so this article by Amy Ednondson is an important one. She makes the distinction between Execution-as-Efficiency and Execution-as-Learning.Bar graphs vs. Pie charts - Seth Godin
I stepped on the toes of many data presentation purists yesterday, so let me reiterate my point to make it crystal clear: In a presentation to non-scientists (or to bored scientists), the purpose of a chart or graph is to make one point, vividly.July 10, 2008
A Customer-Driven Approach to Molding Tomorrow's Leaders - CLO
According to conventional wisdom, 70 percent of employee development happens on the job, 20 percent through formal and informal relationships with bosses and mentors and 10 percent in the classroom. However, we are seeing a new dynamic emerge, one that suggests that 50 percent of employee development takes place through challenging job assignments, 30 percent in the classroom and 20 percent through community involvement. This theory suggests that powerful learning experiences are available everywhere and that experiential classroom instruction can be tied more closely to the job than ever before.As Baby Boomers Retire, Companies Fail to Transfer Knowledge - i4cp
If experience is the best teacher, most companies are apparently cutting class when it comes to knowledge transfer (KT). According to a recent study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), just 29% of responding organizations report that they incorporate retirement forecasts into their knowledge transfer practices, and only a third add "skills gap analysis" into those forecasts. Most companies also admit they do not formally measure the effectiveness of their knowledge transfer practices.The three laws of great graphs - Seth Godin
The problem with bar charts is that they should either be line/area charts (when graphing a change over time, like unemployment rates) or they should be a simple pie chart (when comparing two or three items at the same scale).New Design for My Smile Sheet - Will at Work Learning
Instead of asking learners to respond globally (which they are not very good at), it asks learners to respond to specific learning points covered in the learning intervention. This not only enables the learners to better calibrate their responses, it also gives the learners a spaced repetition (improving later memory retrieval on key learning points).Older workforce requires variety of recruitment strategies - PennState Live
"Today's employers will need to be innovative in hiring and motivating their workforce employees who can vary widely in age from Generation X and Y to Baby Boomers," said researchers Diane Spokus, a recent Ph.D. recipient in workforce education, and William Rothwell, professor of workforce education and training and development. "Few institutions have retention efforts under way to retain their mature workforce. But managers will need a smorgasbord approach to fully use the untapped assets of an aging workforce."July 8, 2008
The Mirror Neuron Revolution: Explaining What Makes Humans Social - Scientific American
Mirror Neurons collapse the distinction between seeing and doing.Virtual training at Fort Benning
While much of a recruit's introduction to the Army is the same as it has always been--firing ranges, long marches, obstacle courses, and the like--the Army is increasingly utilizing new technologies to help soldiers learn their jobs.The crowd within - Economist
This suggests that the brain is constantly creating hypotheses about the world and checking them against reality. Those that pass muster are adopted. Guessing the answers to questions you do not know the correct answer to, but have some idea of what the right answer ought to look like, could tap into such a system. A hive mind buzzing with ideas, as it were, but inside a single skull.$37 billion - US and UK businesses count the cost of employee misunderstanding - Cognisco
UK and US employees are costing businesses $37 billion (£18.7 billion) 2 every year because they do not fully understand their jobs, according to a new IDC white paper commissioned by Cognisco, the world's leading intelligent employee assessment specialist.Approximately two thirds of the total cost of misunderstanding reported by organisations was attributed to loss of business due to unplanned downtime (32 percent), poor procurement practice (17 percent) and settlements for industrial tribunals (16 percent). Other costs incurred include regulatory penalties and tax or revenue penalties.
Long-tail economics favors the blockbuster, Harvard study finds - c/net
Remember the long tail? It was the omnipresent theory that suggested there were oodles of cash to be made by monetizing a market's disparate tastes via the Web.Why sell a million copies of Led Zeppelin's Coda, when you can make a thriving business of selling two to three copies of your neighbor's garage band to Rick, two copies of a Nigerian band's tunes to Susan, and so on? As new research highlighted in Harvard Business Review suggests, the answer may well be that the real money is in the blockbuster, not the long tail, after all.
Your Mashup Is Probably Legal - Slashdot
"We've been conditioned to think that if you pull something off the web and use it, you're committing some sort of copyright infringement. But increasingly, the law is moving in the opposite direction. Provided you are making a truly new use of the content, you are free to make money off those copyrighted images and video and sound.June 20, 2008
Study: Social networks may subvert 'digital divide' - c/net
"What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today," Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher from the school's College of Education and Human Development, said in a release Friday.Water woes, trouble, and training - Dave's Whiteboard
A one-page guide to performance problem analysis, just in case the cause of the problem is not restricted to a lack of skill or knowledge.The Myth of Multitasking - The New Atlantis
When people do their work only in the "interstices of their mind-wandering," with crumbs of attention rationed out among many competing tasks, their culture may gain in information, but it will surely weaken in wisdom.Information Overload Research Group news wrapup - emaildashboard
Wow. We publicly launched the Information Overload Research Group yesterday,June 17, 2008
KnowledgeAdvisors and Bassi Investments' Human Capital Measurement Portfolio Outperforms S&P 500 by 15 Percent - The Earth Times
Organizations that invest heavily in Human Capital were more likely to outperform the market. The Human Capital Measurement portfolio created by Bassi Investments Inc., comprised of a subset of KnowledgeAdvisors clients, clearly shows that when an organization focuses on measuring and improving human capital impact it is more likely to generate above average returns to shareholders.Also see Investing in People who Invest in People (PDF) and The Impact of U.S. Firms Investments in Human Capital on Stock Prices (PDF).
Closing the "ADDIE" Loop - The LeanLearning Blog
Contrary to the belief that the interests of instructional design and learning analytics work at cross purposes, I present the case for analysis-analytics collaboration for the benefit of the learner. Hear me out, ye learned jury of courseware sponsors and learners, before you passeth judgment ...Circling the wagons against Nick Carr - c/net
What is it about Nick Carr, a very bright guy, that inspires the not-so-bright guys to bring out the knives? Criticism of his recent Atlantic piece has ranged from the predictably ungenerous to the downright bitchy.So it goes. The chattering class always gets irritated when convention gets challenged. After Carr published his thoughtful Harvard Business Review article in 2003, "Why IT Doesn't Matter," many technology leaders and trade press opinion makers reacted harshly. They so caricatured Carr's nuanced thesis that they entirely missed his bigger point about IT's declining importance as a competitive asset. In the end, of course, it turned out Carr was quite right.
Alaskan Airlines saves millions by rethinking check-in flow
During my two hours of observation in Seattle, an Alaska agent processed 46 passengers, while her counterpart at United managed just 22.For English Studies, Koreans Say Goodbye to Dad - New York Times
South Koreans now make up the largest group of foreign students in the United States (more than 103,000) and the second largest in New Zealand (6,579). South Korean parents say that the schools are failing to teach not only English but also other skills crucial in an era of globalization, like creative thinking. That resonates among South Koreans, whose economy has slowed after decades of high growth and who believe they are increasingly being squeezed between the larger economies of Japan and China.June 9, 2008
Learning, Training & Development - Defend Thyselves! - Elliott Masie in HR Management
We have an obligation to create an environment where they can learn the skills they need to succeed and we have a critical need to create (and measure) the readiness of this tribe to take on tomorrow's challenges.The context of error - Cognitive Edge
Innovation happens when people use things in unexpected ways, or come up against intractable problems. We learn from tolerated failure, without the world is sterile and dies. Systems that eliminate failure, eliminate innovation.The Learning Landscape Model - Will at Work Learning
It's helpful to have an overall understanding of what we're trying to do in the learning-and-performance profession.
The E-learning Ecosystem in organizations - The E-learning Curve at Edublogs
By adapting the well-known learning curve, I developed a conceptual model that maps Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Objectives to learner requirements as they progress along the curve.Behavioral Interview Techniques - testreadypro.com
STAR is an example that is most often used for behavioral interview responses. It follows the following formula, S: Situation, describe briefly when and where the incident occurred and who was involved. You are setting the scene. T: Task, what were you trying to achieve, what was the problem or issue to be dealt with. A: Action, what action did you take independently or to assist others to get to a positive outcome. R: Result, what was the outcome of your actions, state your success and any positive feedback received or what you learned if the outcome was different to what was anticipated.Inside Outsourcing - Forbes
As the risks of outsourcing loom ever larger, the rewards are growing, too. For visionaries who take advantage of its potential, there is real profit at stake.U.S. Schools: Not That Bad - Business Week
"But things aren't as dire for U.S. students as they might appear in the documentary. As an academic, I have been researching engineering education and have taught many graduates of Indian, Chinese, and American universities. It can take longer for Indians and Chinese to develop crucial real-world skills that come more easily for some Americans. Yes, U.S. teens work part-time, socialize, and party. But the independence and social skills they develop give them a big advantage when they join the workforce. They learn to experiment, challenge norms, and take risks."May 28, 2008
Management in formation - People Management
Inside one of the buildings, you might have found the eminent leadership academic John Alban-Metcalfe. He's giving a lecture to an assemble "some of the worst examples of leadership can come at the top of organisations", and citing such sources as Charles Handy while proceeding to debunk the myth of the charismatic leader.Breaking Down mLearning - mLearning Hub
At the highest level we can separate mLearning into learning applied to mobile devices inside the classroom and those outside the classroom. Please note I realize the simple fact that something that is mobile means it could easily move in or out of the "classroom", however there is an important distinction between the two. Also see, iPods for Learning.Teaching in the digital world, part I: technology is not always your friend - Science Blogs
Teaching an on-line course turned out to be as much a learning experience for me as it was for my students. Now, it's time to step back and reflect on what was learned.Six Dangerous Myths About Pay - Conde Nast
Portfolio Off-price clothing retailer Men's Wearhouse pays higher-than-average wages and invests extensively in training. These unusual moves let it reduce turnover and compete on customer service, superior product knowledge, and sales skills - advantages that rivals can't easily copy.Beyond Blogs - Business Week
Workers can fritter away hours on YouTube. They can use social networks to pillory a colleague or leak secrets. That's the downside, and companies that don't adapt are sure to get lots of it.But there's an upside to the loss of control. Ambitious workers use these tools to land new deals and to assemble global teams for collaborative projects. The potential for both better and worse is huge, and it's growing - and since 2005 the technologies involved extend far beyond blogs. So our first fix is to lose "blogs" from our headline. The revised title: "Social Media Will Change Your Business."
May 26, 2008
Video games can make us creative if spark is right - e! Science News
Video games that energize players and induce a positive mood could also enhance creativity, according to media researchers. However, the study also finds that players who were not highly energized and had a negative mood, registered the highest creativity. "You need defocused attention for being creative," said S. Shyam Sundar, professor of film, video and media studies at Penn State. "When you have low arousal and are negative, you tend to focus on detail and become more analytical."Also see "THE EFFECTS OF EMOTION ON CREATIVITY".
Create Mobile Websites with Wirenode - Mobile Learning
Wirenode incorporates media and interactivity, which may even be uploaded by the user, and there's even an analytics tool for users who like to see how many visitors/students are checking out their mobile site.Design - Human Centered Design vs Activity Centered Design? - eCube
The "listen to your users" produces incoherent designs. The "ignore your users" can produce horror stories, unless the person in charge has a clear vision or Conceptual Model for the product. The person in charge must follow that vision and not be afraid to ignore findings. Yes, listen to customers, but don't always do what they say.Web users 'getting more selfish' - BBC
Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave. Success rates measuring whether people achieve what they set out to do online are now about 75%, said Dr Nielsen. In 1999 this figure stood at 60%. The designs have become better but also users have become accustomed to that interactive environment.Web users were also getting very frustrated with all the extras, such as widgets and applications, being added to sites to make them more friendly.
May 22, 2008
Checking out animoto
Blogging--It's Good for You - Scientific American
Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits.
We're all Einsteins now - New Zealand Herald
The ability to think in abstract terms underpins the scientific, material and, arguably, moral advances of modern society.
Visual Architecture: The Rule of Three - Digital Web
Don't flame me, bro' - New Scientist
People can vastly overestimate their ability to communicate unambiguously by email in that we find it hard to take another person's perspective when communicating electronically. Similarly, a study found that people tend to interpret emails more negatively than other forms of communication, making them even more likely to respond aggressively.
Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain - New York Times
The aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit.May 18, 2008
Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce - IBM (executive summary)
Developing the workforce is the prime ingredient for an organization's success.
"As any firm that has attempted to transform its workforce to meet changing conditions will attest, the journey is difficult and littered with obstacles. Understanding key workforce performance challenges and identifying the leading practices companies are using to overcome them have become central focus areas." - IBM
download the complete paper
Back to Basics - Metropolis
In our rush to build a knowledge economy we forgot that we need a backbone."Manufacturing is still more relevant to long-term economic development than glitzy museums or massive sports stadiums." - Joel Kotkin
Think about paths instead of hierarchies - Signal vs. Noise
While this short post is about web navigation, the same principles apply to all forms of knowledge in the learning and development field."Instead of thinking in terms of hierarchy or up-front structure, I think it's better to work with paths. A path is a line that goes from a starting point A to an accomplishment B." - Ryan
May 17, 2008
Recent Survey shows 36:1 development ratio for ILT - Bryan Chapman
- Front-End Analysis (Data Collection, Working with SMEs) = 13% (4.8 hours)
- Instructional Design (Objectives, Outlining, Content Development) = 13% (4.6 hours)
- Lesson Plan Development = 11% (3.8 hours)
- Creation of handout material = 8% (3 hours)
- Student Guide Development = 20% (7.2 hours)
- PowerPoint Development = 21% (7.6 hours)
- Test and Exam Creation = 8% (2.8 hours)
- Other Tasks = 6% (2.3 hours
Mobile learning is not about courses on a phone. mLearning is where we really bring home the message: 'It's not about learning... it's about doing", because while there are learning implications for mobile devices, it's really about performance support.
Can You Become a Creature of New Habits? - New York Times
Researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively.
What Behavior Do You Want to Change? - Business Week
When we began Nathaniel's exercise, our military friend chose: "When I become less judgmental. . ." as his behavior to change. I was skeptical about his sincerity and thought his participation in the exercise would be interesting to observe. True to my expectations, the first time around he coughed and grunted a sarcastic comment rather than talk about a real benefit.
Research Report on Feedback - Will at Work learning
This seminal research reviews how to give learners feedback, written in a way that puts feedback in perspective, that goes deep into the fundamentals to give readers clear mental models for how feedback works.
May 3, 2008
The Cognitive Age - New York Times
We're moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information's journey is the last few inches - the space between a person's eyes or ears and the various regions of the brain.
The globalization paradigm leads people to see economic development as a form of foreign policy, as a grand competition between nations and civilizations. These abstractions, called "the Chinese" or "the Indians," are doing this or that. But the cognitive age paradigm emphasizes psychology, culture and pedagogy - the specific processes that foster learning.
Is the grass greener on the other side of the pond? - Training Zone
We're fascinated by the American training scene. Is their training - particularly elearning - bigger, brasher, better? Neil Lasher reports that the USA is just as fascinated by what is happening here! So, is the grass greener on the other side of the pond?
Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower - New York Times
Although the control groups also made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, improvement in the trained groups was substantially greater. Moreover, the longer they trained, the higher their scores were. All performers, from the weakest to the strongest, showed significant improvement.
Instructional Technologies in Human Resource Development:
Impact, Models, and Changes - International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning
An introduction to instructional technologies that can be used in human resource development (HRD)
Study Suggests Math Teachers Scrap Balls and Slices - New York Times
The students who learned the math abstractly did well with figuring out the rules of the game. Those who had learned through examples performed little better than might be expected if they were simply guessing. The problem with the real-world examples, Dr. Kaminski said, was that they obscured the underlying math, and students were not able to transfer their knowledge to new problems.
We still believe there is human involvement - Nicholas Carr
"Captcha" is the official term for those wavy strings of numbers and letters that you have to decipher before setting up an online email account or gaining access to other types of web sites. The acronym, coined by someone at Yahoo a few years back, stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.
April 28, 2008
Decision Making: Is It All 'Me, Me, Me'? - Science Daily
People act in their own best interests, according to traditional views of how and why we make the decisions that we do. However, psychologists at the Universities of Leicester and Exeter have recently found evidence that this assumption is not necessarily true. In fact the research shows that most of us will act in the best interest of our team -- often at our own expense.
Down with Innovation - I.D. Magazine
Design is now so important, it seems, that designers can no longer be trusted with it, and to make it absolutely clear that control has moved into someone else's hands, design needs to be given a fancy new name. Call it design thinking. Call it innovation. Everyone loves design but no one wants to call it design.
No Rest for the Wiki - Business Week
The online tools for building collective info banks are making deeper inroads in corporations and rewriting the rules of collaboration. Although Intel's wiki ruffled feathers - some employees don't like being edited by colleagues, especially those further down the org chart - Intelpedia caught on.
Are You an Enduring Organization? - Bersin & Associates
There was the IBM PC Junior, the RT-PC, the 9370 Minicomputer, and many more. These products, often the results of years of R&D, were announced with flourish and fanfare. When they failed, IBM was clearly disappointed. But the leaders of these products were not fired or demoted - rather they were forced to "learn from these mistakes" and go on and make them better.
The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies - Business Week
The World's Most Innovative Companies, a collaboration with the innovation practice of the Boston Consulting Group, is our most global list ever. It's also determined by a broader set of data than in the past.
April 20, 2008
Encyclopedia Britannica Now Free For Bloggers - TechCrunch
You can get access to the online version for free through a new program called Britannica Webshare - provided that you are a "web publisher."The definition of a web publisher is rather squishy: "This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn't qualify."
Elearning: Is it time to party? - training zone
Although the general trend in usage in elearning is up, the composition of what makes up the figures is changing - less protracted periods of self-study; elearning is more real time, more rapid and more collaborative.
Coherence or Interest: Which is most important in online multimedia learning? - Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
Adding approximately 50% extra interesting but irrelevant information to a
multimedia treatment did not result in lower achievement on a post-test as would bepredicted by the coherence principle (cognitive load). In authentic learning settings, interest may mitigate the effects of the coherence principle. Via Stephen Downes.
Research: the differences between media and technology - Rob Wright
Technology is more than just the media appliances used to deliver content. Technology also includes the pedagogy guiding that use of the media; it includes the teaching strategies driven by stated objectives; it drives toward desired outcomes, using a healthy mix of experiences, activities, and tasks. It mingles collaboration with reflection.
Best Methods for Product-Based Training - Chief Learning Officer
Training can be categorized into the following levels:
- Awareness - need to know that an aspect of a product has changed, such as an e-mail or a letter.
- Knowledge - speak about the basic features of a product, such as a blend of an e-mail and Web interaction.
- Understanding - talk about the product and relate it to the needs that they're hearing from a client, such as a classroom.
- Skill - coaching and mentoring in an actual sales situation, as the classroom is still an artificial, simulated environment.
April 14, 2008
Update from ASTD TechKnowledge - Rapid eLearning News
"Surprisingly, everyone wanted to bad-mouth E-Learning, but no one bothered to stop and ask Jennifer to tell us more about why it was working so well for her." Effective management methodology: be sure management drives the process and only do what works!
Informal Learning 2.0 Fieldbook - Jay Cross
Join the Fieldbook project. People do not read un-books; they participate with them. Participants choose how deep they want to explore a topic.
Wikipedia breeds 'unwitting trust' says IT professor - Computer World
Professor Lichtenstein says the reliance by students on Wikipedia for finding information, and acceptance of the practice by teachers and academics, was "crowding out" valuable knowledge and creating a generation unable to source "credible expert" views even if desired. An expert is held accountable if they make a mistake but no one is held accountable for the information available on Wikipedia.
The Wisdom Scorecard, Monika Ardelt
Monika Ardelt, a sociology professor at the University of Florida, developed a questionnaire that attempts to assess how wise people are. The questionnaire contins 39 questions in three dimensions - cognitive, reflective, and affective. Once you have completed the questions, you can see your wisdom score.
The abuse of language - Cognitive Edge
Once upon a time people in Information Management decided that they wanted a cool new name or two. Taxonomy was becoming Taxidermy so they absconded with Ontology and twisted its meaning.
In Pictures: How To Unlock Your Company's Creativity - Forbes
Innovation lurks within myriad nooks and crannies of any company--from the receptionist to the head of information technology. While running a full-fledged democracy is impractical, employees at every level should have a way to share their ideas.
Strategy On The Front Line - Forbes
If you have an organization headed by a man or a woman who has a clear ideology, and everyone else can see that he or she is just not prepared to compromise, it is a lot easier for that organization to decentralize decisions because everyone knows certain rules will not be broken.
April 13, 2008
To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemisphers (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway.
Let Computers Compute. It's the Age of the Right Brain. - New York Times
Although popularized in the 1980s by the artist Betty Edwards in her book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," the right-brain-left-brain dichotomy originated with the research of the American biologist Roger W. Sperry in the 1960s.
HPT Practitioner Podcast contest for ISPI - Guy Wallace
Guy Wallace has created 21 Video Podcasts for an "HPT Practitioner Podcast" contest for ISPI. Hopefully many others will also create some and add them to Google or YouTube and then create a post at ISPI's "HPT Connections"(free to anyone - dues paying members or not) and embed the code to add them to this new Social Network site.
The "group page" for these Podcasts with info about the contest and how anyone can participate is here. The Podcasts are available on Google Video too. Just search under "HPT Practitioner Podcast." Guy also has a couple of posts about the ISPI speakers: Marc Rosenberg and Don Tosti.
Working Memory Has Limited 'Slots' - Science Daily
The evidence shows that working memory acts like a high-resolution camera, retaining three or four features in high detail. Those features allow the brain to link successive images together. However, while most digital cameras allow the user to choose a lower resolution and therefore store more images, the resolution of working memory appears to be constant for a given individual.
OUT OF PRINT - The New Yorker
The rise of the Internet, which has made the daily newspaper look slow and unresponsive; the advent of Craigslist, which is wiping out classified advertising -- have created a palpable sense of doom. Independent, publicly traded American newspapers have lost forty-two per cent of their market value in the past three years. Traditional media just need to realize that the online world isn't the enemy. In fact, it's the thing that will save them, if they fully embrace it.
No Web site spends anything remotely like what the best newspapers do on reporting. Even after the latest round of new cutbacks and buyouts are carried out, the Times will retain a core of more than twelve hundred newsroom employees, or approximately fifty times as many as the Huffington Post. The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times maintain between eight hundred and nine hundred editorial employees each. The Times' Baghdad bureau alone costs around three million dollars a year to maintain. And while the Huffington Post shares the benefit of these investments, it shoulders none of the costs. Thus, bloggers merely "recycle and chew on the news."
And Behind Door No. 1, a Fatal Flaw - New York Times
The economist, M. Keith Chen, has challenged research into cognitive dissonance - the ability of people to rationalize their choices.
April 6, 2008
Taylor, Stoll, the Plasticity of the Brain, and Memes - Donald Clark
Writing, typing, and science are acts that allow us to turn information into memes, which is perhaps our true calling.
Online libraries are not libraries at all - David Weinberger
Online libraries will replace the basic function of libraries, but not the rest of what libraries mean to us. That may simply be lost to us, as was the clip-clop of horses on city streets.
Social Media Will Change Your Business - Business Week
Venture firms financed only $60 million in blog startups last year, according to industry tracker VentureOne. Chump change compared to the $19.9 billion that poured into dot-coms in 1999. The difference is that while dot-coms promised to make loads of money, blogs flex their power mostly by disrupting the status quo
Meditate on This: You Can Learn to Be More Compassionate - Scientific American
The way you are going to understand the emo