Announcing the Working/Learning Blog Carnival May 2008

Hello All,

I invite all my readers and fellow bloggers to participate in the Working/Learning Blog Carnival May 2008.

Dave Fergusen flagged off the  first Working/Learning blog carnival . Manish hosted the Working/Learning Blog Carnival - April 2008.

I am glad it is my turn to host now. Thanks a lot Manish for giving me the chance.

This is the first time ever I am hosting a blog carnival so am very excited about it.

Here is a brief summary of what this blog carnival is all about:

The Working/Learning blog carnival has one broad theme: work at learning; learning at work. We’re interested in posts that relate to how individuals can go about their own learning, and how learning happens in the workplace.As of April 2008, the Working/Learning Carnival appears on the third Monday of the month.

So all you need to do now is:

• Leave a comment here expressing your interest to participate
• Write a post on the topic : Work at Learning/Learning at Work
• Send me the link to your blog post by email before May 19th

Note: If you do not have a blog, send me your post and I will publish it in my blog under your name.

To get the latest news about this event check:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=30992111728

Also check Dave’s article: Participating in Working/Learning

Looking forward to hearing from all of you.

Cheers,

Rupa

I Hit a Century!

Hi All,

With my previous post, I completed writing 100 posts in this blog. These 100 posts include my ideas and thoughts on Instructional Designing, links to useful articles on Instructional Designing and may be a couple of announcements.

When I started off one year back, I was very unsure about how I would manage to write continuously and whether II would have something to write about always.

I am so glad this blogging activity has worked out for me.

Thanks to all my readers and my fellow bloggers. You all have inspired and motivated me to write and I am happy to note that I have learnt a lot after I started blogging.

Please keep reading and I will keep posting useful stuff here.

Cheers,

Rupa

Should You Customize Your Learning Design for the Digital Natives?

I just read Prof Karl Kapp’s wonderful response to the Big Question: Learning design differences for Digital Natives?

I liked his definitions of a Digital Native and Digital Immigrant. As he puts it, a Digital Native is someone who has grown up with technology and a Digital Immigrant is someone who has had to adapt to technology along the way…didn’t have computers until college or late high school.

I am a Digital Immigrant and even I cannot stand when I am forced to attend boring classroom lectures on how to use a Software tool and compelled to switch off my computer, cell phones and other technologies. I feel stifled when I am cut off from technology.

When I jump jobs, my first question to my new hirer is whether I will have complete access to Internet and whether I will be allowed to blog and read blogs during my free hours at work. I make it a point to convey to my prospective hirer that I cannot work and learn without using technology. I just cannot imagine working in a place where I will not have access to technology.

Technology has become a part of my life. I learn and understand everything using technology.

If this is the case with a Digital Immigrant, you can imagine what a Digital Native’s learning expectations are.

I am sure Digital Natives will boycott classrooms if it turns out to be boring and outdated.

As Prof Karl Kapp rightly says They are dependent on it…they learn with it. If we don’t use those techniques, concepts and approaches in our training programs…we are losing huge opportunities to help them learn.

Even when it comes to e-learning, plain digitized text on screen with image, colour and some interactivity will not work with the Digital Natives. The conventional Instructional Strategies to design e-learning might not work with the Digital Natives.

As Prof Karl Kapp says Good instructional strategies are still good instructional strategies but we need to be more creative in how we deploy those strategies and leverage technologies to provide good strategies.

When you design e-learning courses for Digital Natives, you need to keep in mind that the Digital Natives might be already aware of the subject you are going to teach them and they might be expecting much more than they actually know. They might be looking forward to fresh knowledge and a new learning experience.

So before you set out to design a training program or e-learning course for a Digital Native, thoroughly understand them and their expectations. Assume that there is an equal possibility that the Digital Natives have some clue about the subject that you are going to teach them or they might have to be introduced to the subject from scratch. In either case think how the Digital Natives would want to be taught rather than how you would want to teach them.

Find out what new technologies can be used to make learning interesting for the Digital Natives. Introducing Digital Natives to new things is likely to interest them and engage them. Try using existing technologies and creating something new out of them. As Natalie point out, Wikis, Podcasts, Video, Second Life can be used to give Digital Natives a rich learning experience.

If you have have an audience that includes Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, use an approach that would cater to the needs of both.

Keep in mind the differences and similarities between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants.

For example a Digital Immigrant might be interested but not aware of new technologies or be comfortable using them. On the a Digital Native might easily get accommodated to new approaches and new technologies.

In either case the interest level remains the same, the difference is just in how much they know and how they prefer learning the new technology.

So if you are designing an e-learning course to introduce Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants to a new technology, the course must give ample possibilities to explore and learn. The course must also have ample guidance and instructions for someone who will not be comfortable learning on his/her own.

This is just to say that e-learning courses must be customizable. For example a vaccum cleaner is so customized to suit your requirements. The crux of the machine remains the same. You have extra tools and attachments and attach them depending on where you want to clean and what you want to clean.

Probably e-learning courses must also be designed in this fashion. What say ?

10 Sure-Fire Tips to Becoming a Rapid E-learning Pro…Rapidly!

I keep posting Tom Kuhlmann’s articles in this blog even when I have no specific comments to give on his article.

This is because I want all the information he shares to be in my blog so that all my fellow Instructional Designers can read his articles and of course I want to bookmark his articles for my reference.

This time Tom has written yet another great post that gives 10 relevant tips to become a Rapid Elearning Pro

I enjoyed reading his post. Hope you enjoy too

My Second Life Woes

After a lot of postponement and thoughts, I finally managed to get into Second Life. I must not forget to mention the post by Christy Tucker that has some useful links to get started with Second Life. This post really instigated me to go ahead and register and download the client.

So I did create a character for myself called Shalini Mandel. I think I could have christined my Second Life character in a better fashion. But then I could not wait to get into my second world, so I gave myself the first name that I wished my parents could have given me in my real life.

I was too excited to get into the world.  I first worked on my appearance and clothes a little. I did struggle but I managed to change my appearance a little, though I did not fully work on it.

Then I tried flying and roaming around. When I stopped flying, I landed into the water and then  underwater. I actually felt that I had fallen into the water. I struggled to come out of it.

I tried searching for places to visit and tried to teleport myself. I tried searching for communities and joined a few. But I did not know what to do further.

Wherever I went I was alone. I just did not know what to do. To be frank, I felt totally stranded and alone. I had to expect this, because Second Life like Orkut and Facebook is a social networking tool. Unless and until you know some people,  there is no point using the social networking tools.

When I had newly joined Orkut and Facebook I did not feel this lost and alone as I am feeling now in my Second Life. I think this virtual world is really making a strong impact. Even more so I am scared to move around alone in the lonely streets and places as I would have felt in the real world.

The world I was trying to explore in my PC was certainly make believe, but my feeling was very real.

I read a few articles now especially the article on Second Life in Education in Prof Karl Kapp’s blog. I am yet to see the webinar. I also read Natalie’s article on her Second Life.

Second Life really sounds exciting. But I need to network and meet people. I have no clue how I will manage to do it unless and until I know some people in Second Life.

Right now I do not want to check the video tutorials and learn how to use Second Life.

I want to explore and discover. I would use the tutorials in case I am stuck with something or I am not sure what to do.

Thanks Christy for posting the links. I am sure it is going to help me.

I am keeping my fingers crossed. Hope my Second Life is as exciting as my first

 

Creating Custom Images for Your E-learning

I make it a point to use images in my Storyboard though I don’t have to. I say I do not have to create or use images in my Storyboard because, in India, Instructional Designers are not necessarily Graphic Artists.

Instructional Designers in India, do not necessarily digitize the course. Not all Instructional Designers know how to work with graphic tools and create images. There usually is a production team consisting of Graphic Designers and programmers who actually produce the e-learning course with reference to the Storyboard created by the Instructional Designers. So most often Instructional Designers do not feel the need to create images for e-learning courses.

I use images because I feel this is the best way to illustrate my strategy or ideas to the the Graphic Designers or the Production Team. I always hunt for free images on the web and use them. Most images do not actually fit my ideas. But then I feel happy that I have some image to reflect my ideas.

I find creating images for my blog posts, presentations or Storyboard quite challenging. I have done some drawing and painting on canvas and paper. But then I haven’t honed my artistic skills. I have some knowledge of Photoshop but not enough to create professional images. Above all I find the whole job creating images in Photoshop and other Graphic tools time-consuming.

Tom’s post on how to create custom characters for e-learning scenarios has really put an end to my problem of creating images. I somehow missed his earlier post on how to create your own clipart. I am glad I read both these posts today.

Soon after reading these posts I could not resist playing with the clipart in Microsoft Powerpoint.

I imagined a scenario of a teacher teaching in a class and the students getting too bored.

I found three different cliparts in Powerpoint that seemed to reflect the scenario.

I simply right-clicked on each of the images and chose Ungroup from the menu. I, of course, had to do this twice. In no time I quickly removed all unwanted portions in each of the images and put the two images together to look like this:

I know the image above is not perfect and needs to be improved. I am sure to make perfect images soon.

I am just too delighted to have learnt this trick in Powerpoint today. This is really going to help me a lot.

Thanks to Tom for all the useful information he shares in his blog.

I hope you enjoy creating images too!

Also read: What You Need to Know When Working with Grouped Clip Art

How to Build E-learning Scenarios

Learners usually receive scenario based courses very well because these courses are not only engaging but also highly relevant.

Tom Kuhlmann has a really useful post in his blog that teaches you how to sytematically build scenarios for your e-learning courses using Power Point.

Thanks to Tom for sharing such useful information.

 

How Learning Happens at Work

I find the topic Learning at Work extremely interesting. This post is my entry to Working/Learning blog carnival first hosted at Dave’s Whiteboard and then the second one to be hosted by Manish Mohan.

Thanks to Dave for introducing this and of course Manish for hosting this month.

Coming to the topic of discussion, I just finished reading Prof Karl Kapp’s book: Games Gadgets and Gizmos for Learning which has quite a few thoughts on how effective knowledge tranfser can happen at workplaces especially if the knowledge transfer has to happen from the Boomers to the Gamers ( the new generation).

The book talks about what Gamers would expect at work and how Gamers would want to learn at work.

This is just to indicate that it is very personal and subjective as to how an individual will want to learn at work.

For example some of my colleagues at my workplace prefer classroom trainings. They learn better when there is an instructor. There is no other way that they can learn.They need a teacher who can help them do their job.

But there are some others who learn very well on their own. These are the ones who love to explore and learn. They contantly google for information and hunt for videos in YouTube. They prefer online tutorials, wikis, blogs and cheat sheets. They do not mind making mistakes and this is the way they learn.

Most often in workplaces it happens that people are made to sit through classroom trainings when they just do not want to. There are also instances when people look for ample training and assistance at work and they are left to learn on their own.

Let me take an example here.

In a software company,  fresh technical writers are required to get familiar with a number of authoring tools like Dreamweaver, Camtasia or Framemaker.Some technical writers look for trainer led workshops with a systematic introduction to the tool followed by a demo and some exercises.

Some other technical writers would probably prefer learning the tool by themselves using online tutorials. They might love to learn the tool through trail and error.

This reminds me of the Microsoft Fligth Simulator that Prof Karl Kapp had mentioned in his book. In this game, he says you get no instructions to go about playing the game. All that you do is start playing the game and you learn from your mistakes on how to play the game better. Some people prefer learning at work in this fashion.

I guess people at work must be given enough freedom with respect to how they want to go about learning. Ultimately what people learn is more important than how they go about learning.

If people want assistance at work, give them all the assistance they need.

If people want to be left alone and learn on their own, encourage their spirit and willingness to learn and leave them alone.

Training programs or learning sessions at workplaces are mostly conducted as a formality or as part of a process.There is no meaning to learning at work this way.

Workplaces must create the right environment for the employees to learn and do their jobs well.

Employees must be encouraged to research and learn on a daily basis. Classroom trainings are not the only place where employees learn.

Learning at work must become a day to day activity.People must collaborate and learn to gain some value and improve the way they do their jobs.

E-learning, video tutorials, Wikis, blogs, instant messaging for professional purposes, cheat sheets must be encouraged and practised. Web 2.0 technologies are very effective learning tools at workplaces.

I use Web 2.0 technologies on a daily basis.

Being an Information Developer,  I need to constantly learn about new technologies.

I use Google, blogs and online tutorials to learn about new technologies. I hardly depend on anyone to tell me or give me information. I just need to know what to learn and I am on my way towards learning it. Be it a tool or application or some new technology I prefer learning things on my own.

Well, this was my point of view about Learning at Work.

I would love to know what others have to say about this topic

Games Gadgets and Gizmos for Learning - Worth a Read

I have only one blog post to my credit this March. I have been doing umpteen other things.

I have been working on the help manual. I went for a short vacation. I read a nice book of short stories on my way back from vacation. I did quite a bit of shopping and got myself fresh new set of clothes and the list goes on and on.

I virtually dissected a frog today, though I would not have dare do it in real, or may be I would never have got a chance because I have not been a science student. I found the virtual frog dissection really interesting. Thanks to Prof Karl Kapp for posting it.

Well, these obviously are not reasons for not blogging. Somehow it just did not happen.

This does not mean that I have been out of the blogging sphere. I have been closely following my fellow bloggers and carefully reading their blog posts.

Of all the time I spent in March, reading Prof Karl Kapp‘s book called Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos for Learning has been the most delightful experience ever.

When I read the book, the thought that came to my mind was : This is exactly what I want to happen!

This book is certainly worth a read and I strongly recommend this book for all organizations including, schools, colleges, corporate houses and training institutes and for teachers, trainers, people in leadership roles in workplaces and even parents.

I was able to closely relate to everything that was said in the book. Prof Karl Kapp’s book seems to be a strong urge for a workplace revolution because the new generation - the Gamers are entering.

Boomers are going to retire and the workplace is going to be hoarded with the new generation (Gamers). What does this new generation expect? Will the current generation of youngsters accept the Boomer way of doing and looking at things? What would the new generation of youngsters expect from their jobs? How can the Knowledge Transfer happen from the Boomers to the new generation ? How would the new generation prefer learning things? How do you cater to the needs of the new generation and meet their expectations? What would be the best approach to handle the new generation?

You will find some answers or rather thoughts on such questions in this book.

I liked the book very much because it is very realistic. I do not belong to the Gamer generation, yet I exhibit all gamer traits and am a gamer in every sense.

At my workplace

• I want to be challenged and not micromanaged
• I want to discover rather than be taught
• I want excitement when I learn and do my work
• I want to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes
• I want to gain as much as possible
• I want to be as creative as possible and not told that this the only way to do things
• I want a mentor and not a boss
• I cannot wait to grow
• I would not wait till information is given, rather I would hunt for it and get much more than is required
• I need clues or guidance and not lectures
• I need a clear goal and I need to achieve it
• I cannot wait long for feedback and assessment
• I want flexibility

Well, I long for so many more things. Yet there is something or someone at every stage that or who does not allow me to stick to my gamer traits.

Gone are the days when people resorted to text books for information. Wikis, blogs and social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook and Second Life are in vogue. I just hope organizations realize the upcoming trend and revamp the way they have been doing things or the way they have been handling their employees.

Coming to Instructional Designing, probably we instructional designers need to come up with new ideas and concepts to design e-learning courses. Bloom, Gagne, Keller and other theorists certainly provide good foundation. But ADDIE and ARCS models might not suffice.

Your target audience might know much more than what you are giving them or probably expect much more than what you can give them.

We need to innovate and create with existing models and materials. Quite a bit of challenge…. isn’t it?

Thank you Prof Karl Kapp for writing such a wonderful book. Reading the book once is not enough

Do Classroom Trainings Need a Revamp?

I had been to Bangalore for a three day classroom training. This training was meant to teach Information Developers how to work with a documentation management system. Basically the training was about how to create new documents, how to edit, how to apply formatting styles and how to check in and check out the documents in the local repository in the documentation management system.

I usually do not prefer attending workshops on software applications and tools. I think with little effort and with the urge to explore, anyone can can learn to use any tool within a span of time. I prefer taking up e-learning courses to learn to use applications and tools.

However I had to attend this training because it was mandatory.

I was quite surprised that the instructor of this training chose to give a lecture on this documentation management system, rather than making us actually explore the application. Each of us had a PC, yet we kept looking at the screenshots in the PowerPoint slides and witnessed the instructor use the documentation management system. We got very less chance to use the application during the training.

By the time the training got over, none of us remembered anything that the instructor taught us. In fact I saw one or two people totally distracted and completely lost in their own world even when the instructor was talking to all of us.

Such corporate trainings are too expensive and time consuming. Whether employees really benefit from such trainings is a big question mark.

Some corporate trainings are done just as a formality. The instructor picks up a powerpoint presentation prepared by someone else and just reads out the slides before the participants. It is sad that instructors or the training department does not take any initiative to carefully design such training programs. A certain amount of creative thought would spice up these training programs.

In the training that I attended, the majority of the audience were youngsters who were orkutting and watching vidoes in YouTube the earliest chance they got.

I found the training thouroughly outdated and too monotonous for such a young generation.

The young audience would appreciate a training that would allow them to explore and learn by doing.

The crux of the training should have been lots of activities for the particpants and the instructor’s lecture should have been a value add. The instructor should have driven the participants to use the application. After all applications are meant to be used and not just to be learnt about. This training could have been done in two ways-

• The participants learn to perform the tasks in the application with guided instructions from the instructor. Shorts assessment during the course of the training and tips and explainations from the instructor could have been complimentary.

or

• The instructor splits the participants into two groups and simply announces tasks one by one. For each task the particpants from the two groups compete with each other anf figure out how to do the task in the application within set time. Each group gains points for each successfully completed task. At the end of each task the instructor explains related concepts and gives some quick tip.

Most often training formats are repeated. People stop thinking on ways to improve classroom trainings. Some people have fixed ideas on how classroom trainings must be conducted.

Classroom trainings must be designed and planned based on who is going to attend it. So every time a training is planned, it needs a revamp to suit the needs of the audience.

Instructors or people involved in designing such classroom training must get out of the conventional methods and modes of training and think of new and better ways to conduct classroom trainings.

This post is not intended to ridicule or criticize anyone. This is just a strong request or call to all those involved in classroom trainings to revamp classroom trainings so that participants really benefit by the teaching.

If you have designed or attended any classroom training that was simply mind blowing, please do share your experiences