EDUC 682 Update! In the Home Stretch - Entry 5

Over the past several weeks we discussed reviewing and background editing (July 17th), including the use of Photoshop. Seems like a handy little trick to have up your sleeve!

I especially enjoyed class on July 24th. It had serious shades of 689 (Campos) - Social Media and Learning. One of our classmates presented, and several of us shared information on twitter, facebook, and many tools, including the 10 tools I learned about at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy meeting.

For the past two weeks we've been hard at work on building out the projects we inherited from another group. It's been an interesting exercise in group dynamics (ok, enough said about THAT!). We finally finished our project and I think it turned out well. I was especially excited to see what the group did that inherited our design plan. Who doesn't love a Betty White Medicare Fairy? Rock on Group A!

The end is in sight!!

Interview with David Kelly (I'm sorry ADDIE!)

We had an opportunity to speak with David Kelly this week, program director for the eLearning guild. I was struck by two things in this interview. First, I asked how he personally achieves professional development. He asked "have you heard of a personal learning network." Oh, have we heard of a PLN! Clearly his soul is nurtured by informal and social learning (twitter is his drug of choice). Mr. Kelly stated that he enjoys reaching out to colleagues, and uses their recommendations to build his personal library.

The second thing that struck me was his discussion of how the ADDIE model of instructional design has evaluation at the END of the process, and that's too late. But wait - I can hear Chuck Hodell in my head saying "even though E is at the end of the pneumonic, evaluation takes place THROUGHOUT the process!" Mr. Kelly mentioned a recent move away from ADDIE, toward SAM. He recommended the book "Leaving Addie for SAM: An Agile Model for Developing the Best Learning Experiences" by Michael W. Allen. The SAM model refers to "Successive Approximation Model" and the Savvy Start. I'm with one of the reviewers who wrote on Amazon "When I first read "leaving ADDIE" in the title, I had a mild panic - I consider myself an ISD disciple, so ADDIE is coded into my designer's DNA." I can sympathize with this sentiment. Oh well, at the beginning of this journey I shared that my goal was to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I've ordered the book, and I'll blog again when I've read it. Maybe there's room in my life for both ADDIE and SAM!

Social Media for Trainers by Jane Bozarth!

Check out our very cool book report on Dr. Jane Bozarth's book titled "Social Media for Trainers: Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning." It was a great read, and a lot of fun coordinating with the group!

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/takinje-1897532-educ689-book-report-social-media/

What ARE the experts saying and learning in the workplace?

Being a rabid bibliophile, not only do I read regular old books with veracity, but my Kindle is surgically attached to my hand, and the back of cereal boxes hold great appeal as well! Imagine my delight when I boarded a Southwest plane on August 2, to find the NEW issue of Spirit magazine was in the seat pocket (I love their magazine). Further stretching your potential incredulity, imagine my reaction to read the title of the cover story - "NEW SCHOOL: How the digital revolution is turning learning upside down!"

The "experts" are saying that learners prefer smaller bites of information, and "just in time" learning. They predict social media and digital devices are the way of the future. Apparently traditional educators agree as well. While discussing the flipped classroom, the author (Jennifer Miller) discussed how middle and high school teachers are taking advantage of students' love of texting and using other electronic devices. One educator successfully campaigned to get the school system's ban on cellphones overturned, and every student in the school district (starting with kindergarten) has a Google account in which to store their work. Students take photos of their work (such as drawing the molecular structure of a chemical ON their lab table) and file in their Google account. Students also tweet about their work ("it has to be tweet worthy" says one science teacher). I especially liked the conclusion of this article. The author questioned "If a vast universe of information is readily available in cyberspace, what use is today's teacher to students." Science teacher Seigel wasted no time in replying - "To teach them to think." Whew, my job is safe for now!

As if this weren't exciting enough, yesterday I received my Family Circle magazine - yes, I know, a seriously "Mom" mag. It gets worse - being the September issue it was chock-full of "back to school" articles. I laughed out loud when I saw one prominent article titled "Yes, there's an app for that!" The article started right out acknowledging the need to purchase notebooks, printer paper and erasable pens, but went on to say "only ingenious moms know which apps can turn a tablet or smartphone into a bona fide educational tool." Quoting the fact that in May of this year, iTunes notched its 50 billionth app download, the article described 21 apps that would assist learners. Of course, I was gratified to see Evernote featured as an organizational tool!

So, from experts in training and development, down to Moms getting the kiddies ready to go back to school, technology is playing a huge role in education (and entertainment - let's not forget Candy Crush - can ANYONE help me with level 65?). I'll see you on the internet.

My Way or the Highway? The Future of Workplace Tools

I think many people in training and development in large corporations don't "trust" employees to "get it" through informal learning. Many educators at academic institutions think the same way! "If I don't teach it to them, they won't get it! I know what's best for them!" I have always been a rebel (and damned proud of it!) and I'm pushing HARD for a flipped classroom! Students don't need me to yap at them and they read as well as I do. Let them gain the knowledge transfer on their own time - read a book, listen to a podcast, watch a recorded mini-lecture. Then let's use class time for applied and informal learning. I'm all excited about the potential of wiki's now thanks to my book report. Maybe it’s time to send the teachers back to school and have them score a little informal learning! Maybe it would be easier to point out that all adults learn so much informally, and they don’t even realize they are doing it! The next time someone in my office watches me work on the computer and exclaims “Hey, how’d you do that?” before I answer them I’m going to tell they – “Hey – that’s informal learning! And it will be on the quiz!”

Say What? A Wordle? No - it's a McWordle!

Interview with Ms. Abigail Wheeler!

I was very excited to coordinate the "expert interview" with Ms. Wheeler this week. Our class certainly put her through her paces! I was most impressed with her common-sense, practical approach to instructional design. She is responsible for developing and delivering educational content for over 300 sales professionals, and she and her team use a blended approach. They minimize up-front training away from the employee's homes, and maximize the use of technology to continue orientation, and on-going development. She kindly provided insight into her own professional development (industry blogs, webinars, elearning guild, ASTD, learning solutions, Kathy Moore scenario-based learning, UK newsletter) and how she and her team developed bite-sized modules of instruction. I've already gone to several of the websites she recommended and downloaded a significant amount of material, and purchased on app! Thank you Ms. Wheeler!