Learning Design and Performance Improvement

Class without rooms - by World Mag

2009-10-03T21:56:00.003-04:00

I often read World Magaizine and was particularly glad to see their perspective of online higher education in "Class without rooms".

One good quote that actually came from a Washington Monthly article...

...the day is coming—sooner than many people think—when a great deal of money is going to abruptly melt out of the higher education system, just as it has in scores of other industries that traffic in information that is now far cheaper and more easily accessible than it has ever been before.

tweetGrid

2009-09-20T19:04:00.000-04:00

Nice little website grid for monitoring several twitter topics at once. This is more entertaining than watching all the scrolling lines on CNN or MSNBC.

Government Cloud Computing

2009-09-16T21:05:00.004-04:00

Obama administration is making a push for the Government to utilize cloud computing. They've opened http://www.apps.gov/. In the article, they also talk about Google dedicating a Government cloud. Obviously, this won't be for everyone, but should help cut down costs for the largest IT user.

Cost of eLearning

2009-09-14T19:00:00.002-04:00

Great post by Tony Karrer on eLearning costs. Summarizes several methods and tools for estimating elearning costs.

Maintaining Technology Currency

2009-09-12T23:25:00.000-04:00

At ASTD 2009, I discovered that Elearning! was going to start offering a Government version to their magazine. Given the specific target audience for this magazine, I anticipate several good articles coming out of this publication in the future.

Here is an article on Currency and Learning Technology. The article provides a good exercise to help you evaluate how well your organization does in terms of conceptual adoption. A couple of good quotes...

Creating training environments that reduce time away from the core business activities while increasing speed to competence should be the holy grail of any effective training department.

Conceptual adoption is a fundamental barrier that trumps all other barriers to adopting new technologies, including funding, IT support, and development time.

Rapidly identifying the potential benefit of a new technology certainly is a determining factor of successful corporate learning.

Issues with eLearning

2009-09-08T11:10:00.000-04:00

A SlideShare on eLearning, games, engagement, and flow. No references to back up the stats, but I think we've all seen example eLearning courses like slide #8.

September Big Question

2009-09-07T19:52:00.002-04:00

After a rather lengthy absence dealing with some difficulties with the birth of our second little girl, I'm working on getting back into regularly reading and posting blog entries.

Some low hanging fruit comes in the form of the Learning Circuit's Big Question for September. The question investigates working with SMEs. I once heard the statement that SMEs make the worst trainers. While it's certainly a generalization in order to make a point, the truth is that SMEs may often breeze through critical information that a novice would not understand. On the other side of the coin, it's obvious that ISDers can't work without SMEs (i.e. we all can't have SME level knowledge in the variety of disciplines that we will work on over the years).

I've "worked" with several SMEs who thought they knew everything and would not accept any help in their instructional endeavors. There will be a small percentage that will not change...and I think you need to just wait for them to retire or move on to a different position:-) For the rest, there is a certain level of education that will need to be done on both sides. Coming from the learning standpoint, we must show value added. This could involve very briefly summarizing key learning theories; it should involve outlining potential pitfalls; it should involve asking questions to help formulate the needs.

Most importantly, I've found that it helps out a lot when you emphasize that our emphasis is increasing learning. When SMEs see that we value students/learners/trainees as much (possibly more) than they do, it will help break down barriers.

NEWSeum app

2009-02-03T21:23:00.002-05:00

Here is a nice little Flash application of Web 2.0 technology. This is a nice little tool to browse the news, but it is also extremely valuable if you are an analyst that needs to constantly stay on top of the news in different parts of the world.

Accessible Government

2009-01-08T19:11:00.000-05:00

In a two for one deal...this Sunday's edition of the Washington Post also had an article showcasing Arlington County's new virtual presence. The Arlington County Government has a cyber-office where visitors can read promotional posters, meet with economic development officials, gather market research, and conduct presentations and brainstorming sesssions with the intent of promoting economic development. As the article notes, the hope is to give visitors an idea of where the county is going in the future and let the visitors be a part of it.

Schools Got Game

2009-01-06T19:26:00.000-05:00

This Sunday's edition of the Washington Post had a very good article on the role of serious games in schools. It mostly had a very positive spin on the role games can play in education. I don't think the article will be particularly "enlightening" to anyone that has been tracking the emergence of serious games, but it is good to see the article made the front page (granted it was the front page of the "Metro" section which is the third section...but still, it's progress; two years ago the article probably would've been buried in "Lifestyles" section).

Lessons from Gamers

2009-01-04T20:32:00.000-05:00

I was flipping through a video game magazine that came as a free subscription after getting a Wii for Christmas, and I came across an interesting article on how to do "achievement" right. Achievement in a game is critical to game flow (i.e. that "magical" state where gamers can't put the game down because they need to beat the next level, unlock the next secret, etc.). I was struck by how the learning community can learn a lot about how to build achievement into our simulations and games.

The "Dos"

Use achievements to lure players into checking out a game's entire feature set.
Chart the players progress toward unlocking achievements.
Lead players through your campaign with incremental achievements.
Implement achievements that are unlocked after the completion of the game.
Reward players for challenging themselves.
Weigh achievement points to properly reflect how people play your game.
Make sure the achievements back up the time investment.

The "Don'ts"

Force players to play a game in an unnatural way to get achievements.
Make the majority of your achievements dependent upon higher difficulties.
Have the "achievement unlocked" message appear over text.
Reveal major plots in the achievement text.
Require people to spend a specific amount of time with your game.

Want a free education?

2008-12-30T20:27:00.002-05:00

The University of California at Berkeley has a special section on YouTube where they have uploaded selected courses (the full thing), special events, and lectures. From what I've read, I think they have had streaming video as far back as 2001. Great example of a school leveraging open-source video as a learning tool.

Bad Economy = Boost in Distance Learning?

2008-12-21T22:43:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting article that goes against some of the doom-and-gloom that economists (and some in the learning blogosphere) are complaining about. There have been other articles that state that when the economy goes bad, people should look at going back to school to increase their skill sets.

The only bad thing about this article is that it seems to hint that "education" funds would be a safe place to invest. Seems eerily similar to the claims that investing in .coms was safe, and buying 3 houses was safe, etc. My rule of thumb is that if other people are writing about it, then you probably already missed the significant profit curve. Nevertheless, it is an interesting perspective that not all may be disasterous in the learning field.

Is Technology Rewiring Our Brains?

2008-12-13T22:25:00.002-05:00

I received a very interesting article from the Director at our organization. The article (available from the San Diego Tribune) asks the question of whether or not technology is rewiring our brains.

While violent video games have gotten a lot of public attention, some current concerns go well beyond that. Some scientists think the wired world may be changing the way we read, learn and interact with each other.
There are no firm answers yet. But Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatrist at UCLA, argues that daily exposure to digital technologies such as the Internet and smart phones can alter how the brain works.
When the brain spends more time on technology-related tasks and less time exposed to other people, it drifts away from fundamental social skills like reading facial expressions during conversation, Small asserts.
So brain circuits involved in face-to-face contact can become weaker, he suggests. That may lead to social awkwardness, an inability to interpret nonverbal messages, isolation and less interest in traditional classroom learning.

Our Director encouraged us to walk down the hall and talk to colleagues a little more often and send emails a little less often. The irony of all of this is that he sent the article via email...thankfully, the irony was not lost on him and he joked about it.

Obama continues to leverage technology

2008-12-10T22:08:00.000-05:00

Regardless of one's political stance, it is impossible to ignore the President-elect's use of technology to reach out to the nation (and world). In some instances, this has proved useful for him (i.e. in helping him reach voters), and in some cases he will have to forgo its use (i.e. having a President carrying/using a wireless device has obvious security issues).

On the use of technology, I received an article from a colleague indicating that Obama has appointed two Second Life innovators to his "Innovation Agenda" team. I think it is way to premature for anyone to start celebrating that the white house, congress, DoD, etc. while have an official presence in Second Life as there are issues with putting official U.S. agencies open to the world. However, it is an interesting observation, and one that could boost the popularity of virtual worlds.

Another description of Web 3.0

2008-12-04T21:49:00.002-05:00

Here is an article describing what a CEO from a marketing company envisions Web 3.0 will be. It will be interesting to see how the next phase of the Internet really does take shape and how the learning community can (hopefully) capitalize early on in the evolution. For other insights into what Web 3.0 means, take a look at the Wikipedia entry for Web 3.0 (ahhh...the irony of checking Web 2.0 technology to see what Web 3.0 might be like. I think that is part of the issue, until someone sees Web 3.0 in action, it's difficult to pinpoint for the broader community).

Combating Terrorism the Web 2.0 Way

2008-12-01T22:40:00.002-05:00

Several Web 2.0 entities (YouTube, Facebook, Howcast, Google) plus some academics and the Department of State will be gathering next week to kickoff the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit. The goal is to find ways to use media to counter the messages of violence, extremism, and oppression.

It will be very interesting to track the progress of this movement on the "areas of interest". There is a lot of potential to make some serious changes in the quality of the message being delivered to young people in different countries.

State of the Blogosphere 2008

2008-11-23T18:51:00.001-05:00

A colleague recently returned from a trip to Singapore where he saw a briefing on the state of the blogosphere. The presentation can be found here. It has some great statistics and numbers for anyone who is looking to build a case for blogging.

Technorati

2008-11-19T06:37:00.000-05:00

This is something similar to what Tony Karrer is looking at doing specifically for the e-Learning field. Technorati is a collection of all of the blog postings on a variety of news topics. Sort of like a Blogosphere Gazette.

eLearning Learning

2008-11-12T19:07:00.004-05:00

If you want to stay up to date without going through the hassle of searching multiple web sites, blogging, networking, reading journals/magazines/books, taking classes, attending conferences...basically everything you should be doing, then here is a great web site.

eLearning Learning is "a community that tries to collect and organize the best information on the web that will help you learn and stay current on eLearning." It's particularly great for people who don't have an RSS reader.

Can an ex-NFL player just enjoy the game?

2008-11-03T19:26:00.003-05:00

Can an ex NFL player go to a game and just enjoy the game like an average fan, or do they spend the whole time critiquing every last play?

In my previous post on the "quality" of training that I'm subjected to, there is an interesting revelation to be found. Note that I did not go into an all out bashing of the learning curriculum like I have seen so many other learning folks do. I've seen so many colleagues that could not get past the lack of ________ (objectives, instructional strategies, interaction, feedback, and the list goes on).

It makes me wonder if sometimes we as learning people are so caught up finding the negative things wrong with training, that we actually learn less than the average person does. I wonder how much of our cognitive load is taken up with thinking "how this could be better" rather than thinking "how can I get the most out of it".

This isn't to say that we should not strive to improve the learning. After all, that is the profession we are in and it is a noble goal. However, we have all gone through some type of mandatory training or training sponsored by an external organization where we know that our thoughts and comments will have little (if any) impact. It seems like it is these situations where learning folks may struggle the most. Sort of like an ex-NFL player who knows what needs to change, but can't get on the field to change it...maybe that's why so many of them turn into broadcasters and critics :-)

Going through training...the old fashioned way

2008-10-29T20:38:00.003-04:00

I've been hit with two separate training courses that I need to go through at the same time (while still doing my full-time job).

The first is a DAU course on Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) training. Unfortunately, this is the epitomy of death by PowerPoint (4 days...over 500 slides). Uggh...There are still so many improvements that can be made in the training and education field. I guess I still need to wait for my buddy Mark Oehlert (the self-proclaimed learning technology evangelist) to leave his gaming fingerprint on the COR 222 course.

The second is a little more exciting. It is a PM course offered through ESI International. It is a completly online course and they have done an average job on making the course interactive. They used story to place the student in the middle of a company as a new PM working through different scenarios, but that is where the excitement stops. When you, as the PM, are told to go to your laptop, bookshelf, or noteboard, you still end up reading large chunks of content.

These personal experiences reveal that there is still a lot of work we need to make. Working in the training R&D field, I realize that I have a tendancy to think that we are actually further ahead than we really are. There is still a lot of mediocre training that is being pushed to students.

My New Work Computer

2008-10-25T10:32:00.001-04:00

That's right...we just got a brand new Dell XPS M1730 gaming laptop at work. It's "technically" not mine as I'll have to share it, but we got it in order to test, evaluate, and demo the latest simulation and gaming projects we are working on. Plus you never know when the occasional Rainbow 6, Splinter Cell, etc. game may make it on there for "testing" purposes.

I still haven't had a chance to use Vista that much (other than playing with demo models in electronic stores). Once our IT guys received the laptop, they came to me and said it had Vista on. We both sort of looked at each other and said, "better go with XP." Now that IT is done with it, it is ours for the test drive.

Where I've been...

2008-10-22T20:23:00.005-04:00

I received an email last week from a friend (and mentor) who encouraged me to update the blog. He had recommended me to Training Magazine as "an up-and-coming professional", and thought it would be a good idea if they saw recent posts. Not sure if anything will come out of it, but the email was a good reminder that it's time to get back in the game.

It has been a very busy couple of months. My wife and I have moved into a new house (which in this market, was still not easy), and the house has required a lot of TLC to get it into working condition. I know have a small yard to mow and tend to. After renting for 3+ years, it is taking some time to get use to the challenges of home ownership. I've also been doing a bit of traveling...Seattle, Orlando, Detroit, and a day trip to Gainesville, FL (note to self...17 hour working days are not fun). I also had an article that came out (in Military Training Technology) and a couple of papers that will be presented at I/ITSEC. On top of all that, my wife and I are expecting our second child.

I had some time to reflect on the purpose of blogging. While I found it very useful professionally, I found myself comparing to those who seem to be able to blog as part of their profession. I came to the realization that while at my current job (where blogging is definitely not permitted), I would never be the 30-posts-a-month guy. I'm convinced that someone could honestly spend 24 hours a day reading and reflecting on all of the eLearning, Web 2.0, technology, mLearning, training, education, simulation, gaming, etc. information that is out there. My focus moving forward will be to blog when I am able to and not let the feeling of "having to blog" drive how I spend (or don't spend) my time in the evening with my growing family. All that said, I'm still looking forward to blogging on a more regular basis and reflecting on my professional growth over the coming years.

Behavioral Modeling and Simulation

2008-06-30T21:06:00.009-04:00

The National Research Council recently came out with a rather lengthy book on modeling individual through group level behaviors and cultural variables. This is a very big topic in the Government right now. One of their chapters was on "Games" and how they could contribute as a tool for social and organizational modeling. Specifically, they were looking at MMOGs. While I don't recommend the entire book for the casually-interested (the book is geared primarely for the Department of Defense Modeling and Simulation community), the chapter on games was interesting. The council considered the application of games in three distinct roles:

Games as an Interaction Medium
Games as a Set of Engaging and Immersive Models
Games as an Interactive Laboratory

Overall, there were some good points and there were some sketchy points at best (not to mention a lot of what I would call "subjective claims" that did not have cited references...not a good sign coming from a National Research Council).

One interesting "prediction" was that...

The biggest change coming in the next few years will be in the underlying models of human and organizational behavior, particularly with respect to the modeling, display, and input of human emotion into the interactive game.

They go on to say that games will add communication modalities such as visual display, auditory display, haptic display, and two-way emotional communication and display. Not to burst a portion of that bubble, but there are already several game projects that include these more advanced interfaces. Many are still in university and Government labs, but even back in 2001, there was/is a game called "The Journey to Wild Divine" that incorporates biofeedback.