CSTD Conference - My Day 1 Summary

CSTD Day 1 Impressions and Thoughts

(Warning:  This is a long post...feel free to grab what you wish from it)

After years of not being able to attend the Annual Conference I finally got the chance to go, but I will admit that I entered Day 1 with a little trepidation.

With a lot of conferences, there;s usually an opening keynote, then participants head off to their various sessions afterward, but CSTD took a different approach; the first day was dedicated to a large audience setting with a number of speakers all focused on helping us understand the various ways in which academic research can eventually find its way into real practice.  As I looked around the room and thought of spending all day in a conference seat there was a little twinge of angst.  However, full kudos go to Saul Carliner for setting the stage for the day and for putting things in perspective.  I also took the opportunity to change seating locations a couple of times and that had some unexpected benefits, but more on those later.

One critical disappointment - shared by others I spoke to - was the lack of WiFi availability for participants.  The organizers were trying to promote and encourage the conference backchannel through Twitter, but for those folks who a) brought laptops in hopes of WiFi, or b) don't know how to use their smartphones to tweet, or c) don't have smartphones or phones with data plans, or d) don't know how to use SMS to Tweet, it left them with no outlet to share observations and comments or to connect easily with other participants (or non-participants).  Some of us managed to "get the word out" but if we were stuck in somewhere like the South Hall or somewhere with lousy cell service, this conference would have been held in a relative vacuum.

To their considerable credit, CSTD acknowledged the issue and promised a better solution for 2011.  So, End rant. ;-)

The speakers for the day were all recognized experts in their field and - as expected - brought stong academic credentials to the table, but they also had their feet pretty squarely planted in - what many of us refer to as - the real world.

I'll take the opportunity here to put my own OpEd spin on the various speakers and the messages that resonated most with me.  The big disclaimer here, of course, is that this is what I observed and grasped from the sessions...your actual experience may vary. ;-)

Saul Carliner - Research Journals

Saul was up first with his initial thoughts about the value of research and who really publishes research results.  it served as a good reminder that research is generally shared only with other researchers through the medium of peer-reviewed journals.  Access barriers to the majority of journals aside, I note that some of this research is easier to digest than others - something not specifically mentioned, but something I know I experienced in the early days of grad school.  The important take-away for me is the concept of research as proof.  In general terms, research published in these journals really serves as evidence, rather than inescapable proof. 

He also points out that researching journals on their own won't necessarily lead to a transfer of knowledge to workplace situations, but...what it can do is to provide some avenues for experimentation in design and also to help you understand what other people already know.  I think that's important because we shouldn't be so completely convinced that what we're doing is "new".  Besides, there's no small value in researching (even informally) the lessons learned from any situation, particularly if it helps you avoid a particular - and previously unforeseen - pitfall.

He also talked about the value of research for its potential to unlock different avenues for evaluation, although he does point out that very few of us in the industry get past the smiley sheet stage (sidebar thought:  what can we do to change that?  Is it just a predisposition to following Kirkpatrick or do we really need a new model that will let evaluations become more organic to the learning throughout the cycle?)

The final big take-away from Saul's comments was that research tends to be looking more in the long-term (e.g. new models, new strategies) and isn't as adept at providing short-term solutions.  I think I can see why.  the submission and review cycles for peer journals can be somewhat lengthy, so a shorter-term solution might wind up being obsolete by the time it hits the presses...if it gets approved at all.  Longer-term solutions are - by definition - more strategic, and thus probably have a longer shelf-life for adoption, assimilation, and discussion.  At least, that;s what my gut is telling me.  I'll be interested to hear what others think.

Graham Lowe - Healthy Workplaces.

Graham started by getting us thinking about the elements of a "truly excellent workplace".  In a quick audience survey there was lots of focus on the human factors in workplace "happiness".  I find it interesting that there are fewer comments about appreciating the benefits of a viable business. That leads me to the question, "Could you still have a workplace that offers trust/respect/ownership that ultimately proves to be unviable as a business?  Is that still considered "healthy"?"

He also offered a really simple yet effective matrix on Low/High decision latitude and Low/High Psychological demands. 

Low Strain           Active

Passive                 High Strain

But I did find it interesting that he acknowledges that "Not all roles can fit in the upper quadrant".  So that kind of begs the question for me about the differences between psyhcological demands and cognitive demans and the links to employee engagement in their tasks.  Can you have a low-cognitive job but still be in a healthy workplace?

 

His High Performance practices aren't necesarily new - at least for me, thanks to my involvement with the Employee Engagement survey work at SSHA - but if there;s no culture of innovation (internally as well as externally), it's tough for most orgs to make these workplaces a reality. T&D is, of course, critical, but I think we need to make the distinction between formal and informal learning, and educate learners about the relative merits.

Culture becomes a strategic advantage (I'd say, imperative) in supporting these initiatives.  He spoke briefly about healthy vs unhealth organizations and I wonder, "What's the ratio of healthy-to-unhealthy?" 

I wonder if this concept is a long-term transformation similar to that of e-health, where it will take the generation of physicians raised with technology to be teaching student physicians for the transformation/adoption to be complete?  Will it take the generation of new workers - raised with an expectation of healthy workplaces - where these workers are now leading organizations - to drive the change and make them the rule rather than the exception.  Are we already on that path?  If so, how far do we still have to go.

He did make a point that I agreed with in principle: he suggests that we can research our organizations, because they should be treasure troves (my word) of information.  This is true.  But as I noted in a surprisingly popular tweet, "sure, you can mine for data, but sometimes you really need a pickaxe."  As my friend Victor is fond of saying, "those that talk about Silos in the workplace deserve to be buried in one."

Carolin Rekar Munro - RRU
Transformational Learning Experiences across Multigenerational Workplaces

(really wish she had used better quality graphics at the beginning of her presentation, but they got better)

Carolin offered us a really good recap of the various generational descriptors and attributes and a good reminder of things like attention spans for GenY for engagement and also employee retention.  She also reminded us to be cautious of stereotyping.  Probably a good practice for educators to understand some of these general guidelines but also to understand what makes each individual tick.

I really liked her excellent reminder of the polarities among learner/participant opinions and how you can often receive conflicting feedback which makes you question your whole plan.  (Sidebar note: I can see how things like "Unconference" can appeal to the right group of learners/participants but you really have to know your audience)

There was an -interesting and inspirational group dicussion about how we prime and prep participants to work and learn together in spite of divergent expectations and polarity of preference.  I don't know that there was consensus among the ad-hoc group I was in, but there were some good points being raised by all.  One gentleman surprised my by offering the observation that (coincidental with some recent readings at my end) that Learning Styles - as absolutes - are really a crock.  More politely put, while they make instinctive sense, a) they don't always apply to different situations, and b) they definitely don't have a lot of rigorous research showing their efficacy in practice.

I love serendipity.

David Livingstone - Relationship between Worker Practical Knowledge and Job Requirements

Tough to have the spot just before lunch when stomach rumbles tend to diminish participant engagement, and it's unfortunate that a lot of really awesome information and research from David's work didn't really make the leap to the audience.  I don't want to appear to be too harsh and I'm certainly not critiquing his data because he gave us some interesting statistics, but I think some of the key messages got lost in the sheer volume of text he opened with and the slew of charts.  Sadly, it didn't help matters that his data labels got bitten by the font monster.  In conversations with some participants at lunch, we seemed to agree that there was some really good stuff in his research findings and anecdotal comments, but they came so late in the presentation.  However, these comments and findings did leave a significant impression with me where we saw workers yearning for more autonomy in their roles and really desiring input into the various processes around them.  He also alluded to some of the challenges faced by Stelco and Dofasco and their lost generation of workers. 

What resonated with me in his presentation was teh fact that a lot of people feel like they have more education/skills than their jobs require.

My lingering questions are:  What does that say about our workplace when some employers complain that higher ed isn't preparing people for the workforce? Also, what do we need to do to harness all the "unused" education so that we're not stuck in "use it or lose it" mode?

Karl Kapp - Games and Learning

Q: what role can game splay in the learning cycle and what does the research say?  (Google "Kapp Notes" for more details)

Powerful statement for me that goes beyond gaming environments, "[an] extended commitment to self is (required for) the long haul."  In his discussion on avatars and immersive simulations, he notes that human social models influence behaviour, beliefs & attitudes (Bandura, 1986)

So, if Bandura knew this 25 years ago, why have we been subjecting people to 'death by [insert name of Presentation Graphics App here]' for years?

I was interested to learn about the research finding of a strong influence from avatars on learners even when their functionality is limited.  So, an avatar doesn't have to be CGI movie quality for it to resonate with the learner in a simulation.  

Even more interesting was this:  more than one avatar can work better than a single avatar.  e.g. multiple channels for providing the same information.  So how could we plan those channels within a simulation.  Are they concurrent?  Dependent on content or outcomes?  Lots of fodder for the research mill, there.

I was struck by my own experiences using Wii Fit:  avatars and their influence on exercise. He showed an example of avatars in a gym/fitness setting.  The research showed that if it looks like you, you're more apt to engage and exercise in the real world.  Might have to get back at it, I think. 

His research also showed, and I'm not really surprised, that there's no requirement for entertainment in a simulation.  Helpful, yes, but not required and certainly not applicable for ann learning situations.  I mean, if you're an airline pilot you don't want a Don Rickles voiceover if you're doing your Emergency Procedures refresher in the A340 simlulator, but you could probably inject some fun and humour into customer service simulations and scenarios because, let's face it, we've all been there.

Another solid point made was that "simulations aren't good just because they are simulations" - e.g. simulations with no interactivity.  Design elements  be(presumably instructional design?) can't leave the simulation and the sims need to be embedded into the instructional content to be truly effective.  We also have to consider how learners can be embedded in the context of the story.  (does this lead back to the concept of "digital storytelling"?)

Simulations have a strong influence on types of knowledge (Declarative 11%, Procedural 14%, Retention 9%)  There wasn't a lot of content on this so I think it's worth exploring more.

He quoted a figure of $100K to develop a game-type simulation.  (my take: only if you use the wrong tools!)

My take-away thought: "If you become the avatar, you can realize some real changes to life perceptions."  Neat!


Thomas Michael Power - Implementing Technology-based Learning


Given that this is more or less what I do on a regular basis (and what I did in grad school), I was tempted to this one a miss, but I'm really glad I didn't because I think this was the hidden gem for the day.


This talk was a lot less about just the basics of implementation but really about a transformative experience getting Educators to understand and leverage the power of technology as a means to support their learning efforts. So, yes, you could say "it's just about implementing it" but the title really undersold the value of the content included and if we get access to the slide decks, you can see why.


He opened by sharing some of his training experiences in some exotic parts of the world and talked about the challenges of trying to front-load a lot of the design process.  What really surprised me was the result of the quick poll on the relative effectiveness of ADDIE as a model for developing technology-based learning.  A shocking majority of people think it is!  Could it be because they haven't been exposed to other models and frameworks?  Personally, I couldn't go back to ADDIE for the work that I do simply because I'm now so spoiled by being able to move from concept to production that much faster.  ADDIE is so ideally suited to ISD and instructor-led settings, but that methodical, gated process just doesn't scale up for e-learning development...unless you really want to wait 4 months to develop 20 minutes of Level 2 e-learning.


What I liked about his presentation was that his research coincided with my own experiences in changing processes, tools, and approaches to dealing with our customers.  Sure, we've still got some learning to do at my place of work, but that's really half the fun when you think about it.  If nothing else, I felt a little validation for what we discovered largely by accident.


The day ended with a panel discussion with all presenters.  I won't get into the details of that because I was busy tweeting and chatting with some clients suffice it to say there were some good, relevant questions raised by the participants and we got to see a little more of the panelist expertise in action.


So...a good day.  One that realized more promise than its superficial description might have warranted.  I'm hopeful for similar inspirations and happy findings on Day 2.

A flood of #backchannel, but in a good way.

I'm a relatively recent presence on Twitter and I admit that I only got onto it for work purposes, but I now cheerfully admit I should have been on it for more selfish educational reasons long ago.

Case in point...

Given the nature of what I do, I gravitated to (and actively follow) the #elearning hashtag on my TweetDeck.  The connected nature of things in the interwebz, I soon found this thing called the #lrnchat - a regular chat among L&D professionals and Educators, where 5 questions get posted for participants to ponder and respond to.

Conference Bound!

Ok, so it's a local conference, but it's a milestone of sorts.

I'm headed to the CSTD Conference and Tradeshow next week.  It's been a shocking 5 yrs since I've been able to attend a big conference like this, my last one being E-LEARN 2005 in Vancouver.  No, it hasn't been 5 years since I've done any kind of professional development...I did have that whole grad school thing in there, too...but at long last the magical trifecta of availability, workload and all-important employer approval managed to present itself and I'm off, as they say, to see the Wizard.

Having watched - with no small envy - the backchannel from DevLearn, I'll be interested to see what kind of Twitter/Blog backchannel will come from CSTD '10  I had a quick (re)glance at the conference sessions to get some basic picks in (because time was running out to get registered) and there seems to be some interesting stuff on the go.  Granted, not as much on the leading edge side of things as DevLearn, but the audience is somewhat different..because it's a bit more of a generalist training & development constituency.  However, given that not all in the world is based on rapid e-learning (sadly), I'll be looking at the sessions that help keep my horizons broad and keep me reminded of all the other things out there in the corporate training & development world.

A small toot of the personal horn

I learned on Friday that a course I designed and developed took first place in the New Employee Orientation category at DevLearn2010.  I think I can honestly say that this is the first education package I put together that ever won an award for anything.

Can't believe I'm gonna say this, but, "W00T!!"

Networking by a non-Networker

I know people who would happy become wall-flowers at a face-to-face Meet & Greet.  Sometimes, I'm one of them.  Sometimes it's like that old phrase, "water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink."


But it's interesting to see how the dynamic changes when we add a technology layer like a blog or some kind of Social Networking tool (like Facebook or Twitter) to the mix.  All of a sudden we have myriad tendrils of communication;  some more tenuous, some more essential, some humourous, and some time-limited.  I know I'm not saying anything new here about the power of Social Media, but I think it's an observation worth repeating. 

After listening to Harold Jarche in today's PLENK session,

A little dusty in here *koff, koff*

Well, after a very enlightening session on Personal Knowledge Management with Harold Jarche, he reminded me that getting all these ideas out of my head and - as someone said - "taking them for a spin" isn't such a bad thing, so I'll blow the dust off this blog and start plunking down some more ideas.

I dunno what I'll talk about first, but if nothing else, I've taken the Defibrilator Paddles to this thing and can hopefully bring it back to life and get some of my various technical/industry/theoretical/educational/knowledge thoughts in order.

The Tao of "isms"

(cross posted in shorter form to my Personal Learning Landscape)

It has been an educational weekend, to say the least.

While I've taken the opportunity to start reading my texts for the upcoming pre-residency, I was doing so without the context of a specific assignment or deliverable. I was okay with that. I ignored my good little educator voice and forged ahead, if for no other reason but to get myself into that academic frame of mind.

Saturday AM: my official reading requirements and initial assignment arrived.

To say that I was, after reading the assignment, well in the throes of cognitive dissonance would be a significant understatement.

The initial assignment is daunting in its simplicity: 1000-1500 words (suitably composed following the APA style guide) on my assumptions about learners and learning, and how those assumptions are reflected in the readings. I will, apparently, receive constructive feedback on the submission and we'll revisit it as the residency progresses.

(Sidebar: Hmmm....academic writing. Pretty much diametrically opposed to the business writing I've been doing for the past 10+ years. Even the practicum for my Adult Training & Development Certificate was pretty business-like. The last real academic piece I submitted was probably the better part of 12-13 yrs ago, and I don't think that my treatise on Bismarck's role in 19th Century European/German history would have much value here.)

As with most things, some of the reading was straightforward enough and some of it was like reading Greek. I found myself barraged by a slew of "-isms", "-ologies" and theories and approaches as I valiantly waded through the first (of two) required chapters in my Perspectives on Research text. I haven't seen this much brain theory this side of a Psychotherapists Convention. Everywhere I looked, there was a new term to research, which led to more research and linking. I mean, there was an "-ism" and an "-ology" for almost everything! I was absolutely surrounded and about to be overwhelmed. I'm certain that if I hadn't left a mental trail of bread crumbs I'd be basting nicely inside someone's oven. Just to make things interesting I still had this paper staring me in the face with no discernable starting point. In fact, I felt more lost than when I started.

However, if I may mix my metahpors, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. No, it was not the oncoming train. We were required to download a study paper which dealt with learning and professional practice. About 4 paragraphs in, I was hooked. I finally saw the connections. Meaning was given to my learning/learner assumptions, and I actually saw a starting point for my assignment paper. Associated reference papers were sought, found, and saved for future reading.

Eureka!*

The afternoon definitely went better than the morning. Yes, I still have to get through the research text, and I still have to re-read the first 2 chapters of Making Sense of Adult Learning but I feel a lot further ahead than I did yesterday morning.

I guess it illustrates one of the assumptions that I do make about learners: we need relevance and meaning in order for 'information' to become 'knowledge', and occasionally we need a push in the right direction.

Technorati Tags: Royal Roads, education theory, cognitive dissonance, learning

Translation: Holy crap, I might just have a chance at making this thing work!

Treasure Hunting

Today's quest is all about collaboration and connections. Okay, maybe not face-to-face collaboration and interactions. But learning from others' experiences and seeing who else is out there.

I guess its my own "best of breed" program.

Tagging my posts with the relevant keywords was something I had left alone in more recent submissions, but I played catch-up and added a few here and there. I figured that Technorati was probably a better way of making those initial connections than just blindly googling my afternoon away. So you may see a few more links here and there on the sidebar from sites I found particularly compelling or relevant to what I'm trying to accomplish.

My hope is that traffic will grow. Comments will appear. Dialog begins. Learning and change can happen.

After all, learning is supposed to be an instrument of change.

Technorati Tag: e-learning, collaboration, dialog, blog, technorati, tags

More e-learning for Northern Ontario

I'm more focused on the corporate learning end of things, but this announcement for Northern Ontario was nice to see. To say nothing of being long overdue (and don't go dredging up your favourite boogeyman, Mike Harris....the blame list is long and distinguished)

"20 new e-learning centres to open"

Technorati Tags: e-learning, Ontario, Distance Learning

Today's challenge

Adding interactivity and dynamic content to a process/best practice learning package.

How do you take a common-sense 'book' and turn it into a self-paced learning package?

In classroom settings there are opportunities for discussion and anecdotes and peer-level synergy. Even practical scenario exercises have a place.

Can this be effectively replicated in a self-paced environment?

Such is my current challenge.

Technorati tags: e-learning, interactivity, e-learning development

Off to the Wild, Wild West

Yes I know its been a while. I have no-one to blame but myself.

I will be starting the MA in Learning and Technology at Royal Roads University starting in early August. Needless to say, I'm excited about the whole thing, despite the sheer blunt force impact it will doubless have upon life, work, family, etc.

A strange feeling is coming over me as I head back to the land of serious academia for the first time in over 15 years. Granted, its not as though I haven't been in classes of any kind over that time, but the full-time, long-term pursuit of something other than a class completion certificate is daunting and exhilarating, all at the same time. OISE is largely to blame credit for my desire to get back into a real 'learning' mode. While I was there, I really got the 'school bug'; which is somewhat surprising considering my somewhat laissez-faire attitude while I was in University the first time around.

On the personal side, I see this program as somewhat making up for my long-incomplete undergrad. On the professional side, its a way for me to advance with a real credential in hand. I'm really just about as high up as I can go with my hard-won 'nuts and bolts' experience and achievements.

I really wanted a different way to manage notes and references and, more importantly, the relationships and links between them, So I'm adding a couple of elements to the process.

• First, I'll be more active on this blog. I'll be recording class and program-specific thoughts and experiences.
• Second, I've established a Learning Wiki. I'll do some experimentation with the Wiki concept with my own readings and writings. I have also set up a little 'Learning Landscape' through Elgg.

I have to say, to the second point, that this PBWiki is a neat little tool so far. ("PB" referring to "Peanut Butter", as in, "it should be as easy to make a Wiki as making a Peanut Butter Sandwich.") Many thanks to Mark Federman - via Google - for the pointer.

Elgg also offers, at first blush, some very interesting possbilities for connections, social networking, and the learning opportunities therein.

So there's the latest. My first two texts have arrived and I'm diving headfirst into the first one. ("Making Sense of Adult Learning" - Dorothy MacKeracher)

Only four and a half weeks until I'm off to Victoria!

Technorati tags: e-learning, Royal Roads, PBWiki, Personal Learning Landscape, Elgg

Hot idea du jour

I'm transcribing this idea not because its new or even revolutionary, but because I simply wanted to do a self-brainstorm.

This idea was inspired from some discussions at the recent E-Learn conference in Vancouver.

Mobile learning.

Hmmm....how can I accomplish that within my workplace? I mean, anything's possible with a little effort and research.

So, here's the challenge for me. Find a way to easily and effectively deploy browser- or Flash-based content to a team of potential JiT learners via their Blackberries. I threw this idea at my boss and he's intrigued. So part of this morning was spent digging for resources on Blackberry development and some of the concepts and constraints.

Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

E-LEARN 2005 thoughts - Thursday PM

Quite a full afternoon of events, starting with the Networking lunch. Each table had a specific "subject/topic" and I probably could have sat at 3 different tables and enjoyed each experience. At my table (Courseware Development & Authoring Tools) were attendees from New South Wales TAFE (Australia), Limerick University (Ireland), Sweden, Carnegie-Mellon University (USA), Foreign Service Institute - US Department of State, the BC Institute of Technology (Canada), and yours truly . It was quite interesting to see the different approaches taken to designing, developing and delivering courses in the online world. Some common choices of tools, to be sure, but the overall thought processes were markedly different. Some were focused on blended learning, some were looking at dedicated self-paced options. We all faced similar challenges with adoption/awareness and buy-in, as well as challenges with just getting content developed and maintained. Common issues with no geographical barriers.

I felt quite badly for the presenter who was stuck with a Mac/PC issue and wasn't able to get her presentation on the Learning Object Life Cycle. Heinz Dreher from one of my morning sessions was in attendance and we had a rather thought-provoking chat on the way up to our respective rooms. We discussed some of the issues from her presentation as well as the panel discussion before lunch. That panel had obviously touched something in him, because he observed that a lot of people are "missing the point" about all this learning development. "We've forgotten why we're doing it and who we're doing it for," he said. He's right, of course. As designers, a lot of us tend to get lost in the tools and the technologies and we really forget about the learner experience. Do we know what they want? Do we care? Should we? Again, more food for thought.

I love the little sidebar discussions like that one. I get a lot more out of those than I do from some longer presentations. Its she sheer rush of those little "eureka!" moments that truly make this job worthwhile.

Finally, I had the opportunity to sit through another award winner, Diane Newton's presentation on the role of the Australian Army instructor in the e-learning process. As a former military person, I had a personal interest in her presentation, but I was really surprised to see both the breadth and depth of content that the Australian Army's Training Command had created and made available to its soldiers. Not surprisingly, there were some cultural challenges with taking this approach and I can see a lot of the growing pains, but I can also see some real advantages to much of what they are trying to accomplish. The depth of her reasearch work was excellent. Almost makes me want to go back to the consulting world and make nice-nice with the folks at DND.

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

E-LEARN thoughts - Thursday AM

To start the day, Curt Bonk from the University of Indiana was the morning Keynote speaker. Touching on his session from Monday he talked a lot about the sharing of knowledge, particularly Open Courseware, Open Source tools and the like.

I was amazed at the sheer volume of academic materials available online. One project of note was the OOPS initiative from Lucifer Chu from Taiwan, where he is translating all of the MIT open courseware into one of the dialects of Chinese as a largely volunteer project.

Heinz Dreher from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, showed some of his efforts with a natural language grading/marking tool. I have to say that, as a veteran of the multiple choice examination world (MCP, ITIL, etc.) I welcome the inclusion of natural language assessment in the e-learning world. While still largely a prototype, I think it holds great promise for the corporate world.

The folks from the University of Saskatchewan talked about their work on Learning Object Content Management systems. Wow. Simple, clean, and lots of interesting features to really glean worthwhile information about learner activity, and to stream learner paths, while working in a LO environment. Their LORNET efforts are part of a national initiative focused on telelearning using learning objects. I can't wait to tinker with their environment.

Next up before lunch was a panel session on Future Trends in Learning, Technology and Standards, and one of my favourite speakers, Wayne Hodgins, was on the panel. Wayne is always a great speaker and entertaining as hell. I had the opportunity to hear his keynote address at the Microsoft Certified Trainer conference in New Orleans in 2000. Awesome stuff. Even though Wayne tends to be looking anywhere from 5-100 years out, its still thought-provoking to see some of the patterns and trends illustrated in some of his forecasts and planning.

What struck me was that Wayne is right-on about the need to remove the "e" from e-Learning. Learning technologies tend to overwhelm the importance of pedagogy (echoing Curt Bonk) and that there needs to be a better focus on "personalized learning" versus "ubiquitous" learning. Sheer volume of information is useless without context, audience, medium, and timeliness. Needless to say I have much to think about when I return to the office. We also need to address, he says, "un-learning"...that is, how to transform previous learned behaviour and enforce new behaviours and new patterns of action for better results. (Shades of what I experienced trying to break the traditional mould of applications training.) His final comments was that the personalization of learning cannot be something that we thrust upon the user. Too much choice is as deadly as not enouch choice. Personalization must be user-centric, rather than what I'll call "negative option marketing"

As usual, a really fantastic panel session, although I admit that the speaker from Simon Fraser really had a hard act to follow and his content was somewhat pale in comparison to Wayne's.

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

E-LEARN thoughts - Wednesday PM

I changed my schedule so I could attend Dr. Vladimir Uskov's session on Technology for Advanced e-Learning. His expertise is evident and he has been able to build a lot of in-house tools to support his own e-learning efforts at Bradley U. It was educational (no pun intended) to see where some of the barriers exist when trying to offer the full virtual classoom experience. (Video compression/bandwidth issues, etc.) He clearly has some success with his work at the University. Looks like something to emulate, in principle if not in specific application. )

Knowledge retention is always an issue and I took in the session entitled "You want me to remember what??" Their tool was the "Profound Learning System" being prototyped through a number of diferent groups learning Outlook. The results of their test series (immediate posttest, 30 days posttest, 60 days posttest) were quite interesting to me. As a classroom veteran its a little alarming to see how retention drops off after a relatively short time.

(Comment from audience member sotto voce: "what a stupid question to ask" after seeing one of the posttest reviews. Odd and vitriolic reaction.)

The charts were a little tough to view, but I'm looking forward to picking the presenter's brain after the session about PLS and what it could mean to us.

(Had the chance to speak with him and he very kindly pointed me in the direction of the vendor who is apparently re-tooling their product as we speak. )

My final session is with the group from Belgium, presenting Tools2Team: a web-based Knowledge Management tool. At first I thought they weren't serious about their features wish list, but they really are trying to add a staggering amount of capacity to a web-based tool. Could it really be all things to all people? So far it looks promising in principle, if a little rough in its initial presentation.

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

E-LEARN thoughts - Wednesday AM

Quite an enjoyable opening session this morning with Allison Rosette where she talked a lot about convergence and knowledge transfer.

I admit that I am somewhat of a traditionalist at heart, so her references to Mary Broad's research on Transfer struck a chord, but I was particularly interested in her statement that the distinctions between 'before, during and after' are starting to disappear. Very interesting food for thought. I can really see some concrete ways to implement some of the 6 strategies for converging work & learning.

Quite disappointed to see that one of my morning presenters hadn't made it to Vancouver. Too bad the staff here didn't pick that one up on their cancellation sheet.

Enjoyed the presentation from the ladies at Penn State about their blended learning efforts. Funny what you can accomplish without a significant capital investment.

The session about incorporating blogs as learning and knowledge management tools was a confirmation of a personal suspicion. Had the chance to sit with Wesley Fryer and take shameless advantage of the wireless signals to blog, share ideas, and demonstrate some of our own JiT transfer. Life imitating art, after a fashion.

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

E-LEARN 2005 Link

Please bear with me while I recover some archived posts on e-learning and some of my own experiences with processes, tools and techniques. I look forward to staying in touch with some of the folks I met at E-LEARN 2005 as well as making new contacts.

Comments and input and idea-shares are always welcome.

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

Live facilitation thoughts

Sitting in the Virtual Classroom demo that S. arranged for us for today, I was thinking back to some of the lessons learned in my own experiences with these kinds of e-learning events.

As someone who was primarily a classroom instructor, it was a very interesting switch to the virtual class environment. As a classroom instructor, you depend on participant feedback, body language, expressions and all that "human" interaction. For example, you have no doubts that the participant in physically "there" for a classroom session. In a virtual session, its like you're teaching where your students are on the other side of a wall from you.

Let's talk about what's "missing":

• Visual cues from the student - all the body language, facial expressions, signs of participation in an activity
• Visual cues from the facilitator - as above, body language, gestures, plus all the "on-scene" help in labs and activities
• General classroom synergy - no experience can adequately capture what happens when you bring a group of people together for some kind of learning activity.

We should also talk about some of the general advantages:

• Location independence - facilitator and students don't have to be co-located
• Private communication - students can communicate directly with the instructor to ask questions or make comments through a chat tool.
• Archived communication - as above, questions can be raised at any time via chat and saved for future reference
• Multiple media/method integration - a richness of presentation can be achieved with very little effort. Much of this work could be done on the fly or on-demand.

Some of the overall disadvantages can be debated ad infinitum, and I'd never say that synchronous facilitation is a panacea, but it is an effective tool at the facilitator's disposal.

What I do want to share here are some of my learning experiences with live sessions and some things that I have found to be important for my own ongoing use.

Language:

I am not necessarily a natural comedian, but I often use carefully-selected pieces of humour in my normal classroom delivery. For some reason, a lot of humour and sarcasm and wry observations are far less effective online. This effect is usually attributed to the lack of visual cues. Misinterpretation of comments becomes a risk factor to consider in delivery and planning.

Delivery:

Off-the-cuff delivery is a bit of a challenge while engaged in an online session, and I found that some of my normal rapid-fire delivery simply didn't 'reach' some of my earlier audiences. There were a lot of contributing factors here, not the least of which was the lack of visual cues, but it had more to do with technology limitations. A lack of bandwidth can really impact what the learner actually receives at their end. For a while I was at a bit of a loss as to what do do, but I looked to a common cousin of e-learning: Radio broadcasting. On-Air broadcasters tend to have a smooth, yet simple, delivery. I took a look at what I was trying to say, and I started to simplify it. I then hit on another idea: scripting. During some of my earlier exposure to e-learning, I was running repeated live sessions. In order to maintain consistency, I started to script my sessions. I built a simple script template where I could include the current step of my presentation, the portion of the script to be delivered at that point, as well as any demos or interactive tasks required. The real advantage of using a system like this was that I could very quickly train new instructors on how to delivery specific modules.

Rehearsal:

A polished, concise delivery really does make a difference. I alluded to some of those issues in the section above, but I figured that 'nailing down' my script would go a long way to a successful delivery. A colleague had a studio-quality 4-track recorder that he brought into our e-learning studio, and I would take the time to run through my presentations and play them back. I can't say enough about what I learned and gained from hearing my own delivery and being able to get closer and closer to "speaking less, but saying more"

Facilities:

One of my previous employers was getting serious about live e-learning delivery in the early days of the trend. Inspired by a US-based training vendor, they actually made dedicated space available, much like a small radio studio, so the sessions could be held in a quiet, controlled environment. Online facilitators have enough to worry about, and it made sense to minimize distractions and outside interference. The 5 computers in the studio were dedicated for delivery, co-facilitation, archiving, practice, and the like.

Integration and Consistency:

One of the major failings of the early efforts in live e-learning was failing to capitalize on that initial push. While our initial efforts were successful, we didn't capitalize on that success and integrate more online sessions with our core classroom offerings. One of my colleagues and I proposed a "talk show" format for a recurring online session (much like a regular radio talk show) in addition to future blended offerings, fiscal pressures at that employer saw them abandon the overall effort in favour of a focus on pre-packaged TBT offerings. Was that the right thing to do? The debate could go on endlessly. The end result was that we lost a valuable way to reach our customer base and keep them connected.

Again, this entry isn't exhaustive or complete...just a small sample. What are your thoughts? What have you experienced in "live" facilitation? What could people do better? What do you dislike about live facilitation as a learning vehicle?

Flat=Bad, Depth=Good

Somewhere up in the Gateway city, there are instructors at a College who are thrilled that I'm getting a chance to use the graphic design diploma I slaved so hard to get 15 years ago.

I spent part of the weekend and all of yesterday re-designing our standard e-learning background and interface because, frankly, I wasn't happy with the one we had whipped up. Now that I think about it, it was a little dull and awfully PowerPoint-like. Strangely enough, I went through this same process of revisions when I was designing the logo and look and feel for my consulting business and its web site. My initial design was flat and "okay" but subsequent revisions and ideas got me to a more 3-D look that almost "leaps" from the screen. That's kinda what I have going now. This might not be a big leap for some, but I'm feeling like what we have now is a bit more polished and 'professional'.

So there's my "lesson learned" for this week: add some depth and some subtle 3-D effects to your interface and you move away from the "slide show" kind of content and towards a more multi-media kind of effect.

Lesson #2: Interactive buttons are a bitch to create (mouseup, mouseover, mousedown, etc.), but well worth the effort at the end.

I had to do a bit of an end-run around the design process and use some of my own software tools to accomplish this end, but I think the result is worth it. We now have a new background, with a bit more "real estate" to work in, and a nice, slick bottom navigation "console" with a new suite of buttons and controls.

I look at it this way: if I can get professional-looking content developed entirely in-house, that has to be a winner somewhere...

Interesting e-learning link

I tripped over this one purely by accident, but it does link to some solid resources and readings.

Epsilon Learning