Wednesday, June 4
I realize that traveling at this time of the year is always a risky proposition. These crazy storms can pop-up at anytime, anywhere and that is exactly what happened. I left San Diego at 8 AM (11 AM my time). Everything seemed okay until we got into the Washington area. We ended up circling the airport for about an hour. The pilot finally came on and said there were some strong storms in the area and we weren't allowed to land, but we were running out of fuel. We were diverted to Greensboro, NC. We refueled there and spent about an hour or so just parked on the ground. Finally, when we were done refueling, we took off and landed just between storms. All told, it took me about 11 hours to get back from San Diego yesterday, and yes, I'm at work, exhausted.
Human behavior is a curious thing. When you think what you have to do is so very important, all common-sense goes out the window. There were several people on my flight that were international travels trying to make a connection at Dulles (or Dull-ass, we we like to call the area). They were spitting mad that we couldn't land and they couldn't make their connection. I wondered if they thought it would be okay to land in the middle of a tornado (which is why we were circling - the airport was actually closed) so they can make their flight. Probably. What I thought is that if we weren't landing, their planes probably weren't taking off. This didn't occur to them. They thought nothing of ringing the call button and laying-into the flight attendant. Like the flight attendant would be able to do something about it anyway.
All in all, the conference was a great deal of fun and I enjoyed catching up with some friends in San Diego. Next year the ASTD ICE will be here in Washington. I may take a pass and see if I can attend Elliot Masie's Learning 2009 in Orlando instead.
Thanks for reading!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Day 4 Fin
Sorry it has taken so long to finish this blog. Day 5 was a travel nightmare. More on that later.
The afternoon session on Day 4 were interesting. Allison Rossett presented "Evaporation of Classroom Training". As a university professor, her contention was that classroom instruction was on a decline and online instruction was on the incline. She cited a Pew survey that said 20% of all students were now taking at least one online university course. She also pointed out Oprah's online class that drew over 500,000 students. She said this was a good thing because it 1) helps deliver a standard message; 2) modules are easily updated and delivered; 3) they can be vivid and immersive; 4) students are more engaged and 5) online instruction emulates classroom instruction. It can be bad when 1) technology isn't there yet, 2) the organization isn't there yet, and 3) the people aren't there yet. She said the future of the classroom is uncertain, but she is certain it won't go away for good.
The very last session I attended was "Why Your Brain Loves Video Games and the Implications for E-Learning", which was given by Julie Dirksen of Allen Interactions, one of the more progressive developers of e-learning modules out there. The focus was on interaction and feedback in e-learning. For feedback, she demonstrated some online games and asked us to notice how feedback was given. Often, it was in the form of points, things collected, time and leveling (you advance to the next level). Then she demonstrated a typical e-learning module in which a pop-up box appeared that boringly said, "Yes. That is correct." She encouraged us to think about how we can employ some of the other methods of feedback in our e-learning to engage learners. Next, she talked about interactions and structure, which sort of tied into leveling. The more you advance, the harder it gets, but it also recalls a lot of previous interaction. All this leads to the Boss Fight, or the final battle. She said one of the biggest mistakes is that e-learning just sort of ends. There is nothing memorable about it. She had a quote from a coworker who was a video game junkie, "If it doesn't take me five or six times tries to get to the end of the game, I just don't think it was worth it." How many of us can say that about out e-learning modules?
That evening we went to Sea World for the ASTD Celebration. The park was closed to the public and it was all us...okay, not the whole part. They probably kept a third of it open for us. There were two rides, one was a simulated helicopter ride to the Arctic and another was a roller coaster/water ride. I did the simulated helicopter ride, which wasn't much, but something. It let you out into an exhibit of some tired looking live animals. I thought the polar bear looked particularly unhealthy. Probably all that beer they give him, the park is owned by Annheiser-Bush. I didn't bother with the roller coaster/water ride, although I practically ran to it when I got to the park. I didn't at first know it was a water ride. Seeing how it was 58 degrees outside, I wasn't keen on bringing pneumonia back as a souvenir from San Diego. I did see the Shamu show. I think ol' Shamu died last year. This is his brood, or something. Still, if I can get my dogs to do 1/3 of what those whales can do, I'd be very lucky.
The afternoon session on Day 4 were interesting. Allison Rossett presented "Evaporation of Classroom Training". As a university professor, her contention was that classroom instruction was on a decline and online instruction was on the incline. She cited a Pew survey that said 20% of all students were now taking at least one online university course. She also pointed out Oprah's online class that drew over 500,000 students. She said this was a good thing because it 1) helps deliver a standard message; 2) modules are easily updated and delivered; 3) they can be vivid and immersive; 4) students are more engaged and 5) online instruction emulates classroom instruction. It can be bad when 1) technology isn't there yet, 2) the organization isn't there yet, and 3) the people aren't there yet. She said the future of the classroom is uncertain, but she is certain it won't go away for good.
The very last session I attended was "Why Your Brain Loves Video Games and the Implications for E-Learning", which was given by Julie Dirksen of Allen Interactions, one of the more progressive developers of e-learning modules out there. The focus was on interaction and feedback in e-learning. For feedback, she demonstrated some online games and asked us to notice how feedback was given. Often, it was in the form of points, things collected, time and leveling (you advance to the next level). Then she demonstrated a typical e-learning module in which a pop-up box appeared that boringly said, "Yes. That is correct." She encouraged us to think about how we can employ some of the other methods of feedback in our e-learning to engage learners. Next, she talked about interactions and structure, which sort of tied into leveling. The more you advance, the harder it gets, but it also recalls a lot of previous interaction. All this leads to the Boss Fight, or the final battle. She said one of the biggest mistakes is that e-learning just sort of ends. There is nothing memorable about it. She had a quote from a coworker who was a video game junkie, "If it doesn't take me five or six times tries to get to the end of the game, I just don't think it was worth it." How many of us can say that about out e-learning modules?
That evening we went to Sea World for the ASTD Celebration. The park was closed to the public and it was all us...okay, not the whole part. They probably kept a third of it open for us. There were two rides, one was a simulated helicopter ride to the Arctic and another was a roller coaster/water ride. I did the simulated helicopter ride, which wasn't much, but something. It let you out into an exhibit of some tired looking live animals. I thought the polar bear looked particularly unhealthy. Probably all that beer they give him, the park is owned by Annheiser-Bush. I didn't bother with the roller coaster/water ride, although I practically ran to it when I got to the park. I didn't at first know it was a water ride. Seeing how it was 58 degrees outside, I wasn't keen on bringing pneumonia back as a souvenir from San Diego. I did see the Shamu show. I think ol' Shamu died last year. This is his brood, or something. Still, if I can get my dogs to do 1/3 of what those whales can do, I'd be very lucky.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Day 4
Tuesday, June 3
Slept a little better today. I still woke up at 3:30 AM, that's 6:30 AM my time, but at least I was able to go back to sleep. I skipped the 8 AM keynote session. It just didn't interest me and it was kind of early.
Slept a little better today. I still woke up at 3:30 AM, that's 6:30 AM my time, but at least I was able to go back to sleep. I skipped the 8 AM keynote session. It just didn't interest me and it was kind of early.
Today's first session was another energizing session called Use Your Noggin: Science to Make Your Presentation Brain-Friendly. It was run by Dr Spencer Kagan, a psychologist who specializes in training since 1968. He gave us five tips by which we can use the brain to it's fullest capacity to stimualte learning and retention. It involves using more than one intelligence at the same time such as hearing and kinesthetic, linguistic and hearing, etc. The idea is that by using more than one intelligence you stimulate more than one area of the brain and that facilitates learning and retention. He said we can only keep about 10 things in our short-term memory at one time. We need to move it outta there so more stuff can fit because once you take in number eleven, number one disappears. It's the theory of immediate action or it is lost. Have the trainee do something with the information. Have them share it with someone else in the class. Play a game that requires the trainee to use the information. Good stuff and some good techniques. I'd like to try some of them when I get back.
Two more sessions today and off to Sea World tonight for the celebration. Party hardy with Shamu!
Day 3 Fin
The last session of the day was Creative Storytelling. As usual, they roll out the energizing, fun sessions at the end of the day. I wasn’t inspired at first, but the presenter, who did not use PowerPoint (he’s my new hero), won me over with his techniques. They could probably transfer to the classroom provided the story you're telling has a point related to the training, but it is a good life-skill. I thought my wife, who practices improv, would have really appreciated the session.
In the evening I took a hunted bus tour of San Diego. The guides knew how to tell a story. They must have attended the same session I did. By their own admission, they injected a certain amount of drama into their presentations, but it’s kind of hard not to inject drama into your story when you’re driving around in a purple and neon-green bus in which the interior is done-up to look like the inside of a coffin.
The question on the discussion boards this week concerns when we learn. As adult, do we learn only when we have to? I answered, of course not. We learn all the time. Case in point: Tonight I learned the origins of the word “wake”. We know a wake as a presentation of the body for family and friends before burial. Ghoulish enough. In the old days, doctors really didn’t have good methods for knowing if someone was dead or not. They may have simply slipped into a coma, or unconsciousness. The doctor would press his ear against the victim’s chest, not wanting to get too close to the victim's mouth if he or she died of TB, and if he didn’t detect a heartbeat, he was pronounced dead. As a result, a lot of people were buried, well, shall we say, prematurely. Officials came up a with concept of a “wake” whereby the body was laid out for several days until putrification set in proving the poor victim was indeed dead and finally buried. The bodies were surrounded by flowers to mask the scent of the rotting body. Just to be on the safe side, bodies were sometimes buried with a string tied around their finger. The string was attached to a bell above ground. If they woke up, they can frantically ring the bell, thus being "saved by the bell".
If you doubted we only learn when we have to, you just learned something by reading the last paragraph and you didn’t have to. It just happened.
In the evening I took a hunted bus tour of San Diego. The guides knew how to tell a story. They must have attended the same session I did. By their own admission, they injected a certain amount of drama into their presentations, but it’s kind of hard not to inject drama into your story when you’re driving around in a purple and neon-green bus in which the interior is done-up to look like the inside of a coffin.
The question on the discussion boards this week concerns when we learn. As adult, do we learn only when we have to? I answered, of course not. We learn all the time. Case in point: Tonight I learned the origins of the word “wake”. We know a wake as a presentation of the body for family and friends before burial. Ghoulish enough. In the old days, doctors really didn’t have good methods for knowing if someone was dead or not. They may have simply slipped into a coma, or unconsciousness. The doctor would press his ear against the victim’s chest, not wanting to get too close to the victim's mouth if he or she died of TB, and if he didn’t detect a heartbeat, he was pronounced dead. As a result, a lot of people were buried, well, shall we say, prematurely. Officials came up a with concept of a “wake” whereby the body was laid out for several days until putrification set in proving the poor victim was indeed dead and finally buried. The bodies were surrounded by flowers to mask the scent of the rotting body. Just to be on the safe side, bodies were sometimes buried with a string tied around their finger. The string was attached to a bell above ground. If they woke up, they can frantically ring the bell, thus being "saved by the bell".
If you doubted we only learn when we have to, you just learned something by reading the last paragraph and you didn’t have to. It just happened.
Monday, June 2, 2008
More Day 3
Day 3 continued
What’s your avatar? I just sat through a FANTASTIC session called Learning in the Virtual World of Second Life. For those of you who don’t know, Second Life is an online 3D simulated world in which you create an avatar, a digital representation of yourself. The session leader, Anders Gonstedt, President of Gronstedt Group, demonstrated the virtual environment. He took us to the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Association) site his group created and showed us a virtual tsunami they use for training. It was really cool. Think about the things you can show and do. The things your trainees can experience and learn. And it’s so much cheaper and safer than creating a real tsunami. For my work, I’m thinking of virtual manufacturing facilities where employees learn how to CIP (clean in place) a tank, or track down the source of a virtual contamination. Brilliant! Sign me up!
Need coffee. I think I’m going to medicate myself tonight to sleep. I traveled to the Middle East and had an easier time adjusting. Speaking of the Middle East, I’m off to a session about why e-learning is failing there. Stay tuned…
E-Learning in the Middle East as presented by Mr. Ahmad Al-Failakawi from the Institute for Scientific Research, caused a mass exodus not seen since the Jews left Egypt. I actually felt bad for the guy. He was very difficult to understand, his English was clipped and fast. Garbled. I caught maybe 10-20% of what he was saying. His lack-luster presentation consisted of a lot of arrow with words attached pointing at clip art. He didn’t give any new reasons for the challenges of an e-learning program: politics, environment, education level, gender, etc. Everything we experience here. Oh, well. Maybe I would have like it better if it were presented by his avatar.
What’s your avatar? I just sat through a FANTASTIC session called Learning in the Virtual World of Second Life. For those of you who don’t know, Second Life is an online 3D simulated world in which you create an avatar, a digital representation of yourself. The session leader, Anders Gonstedt, President of Gronstedt Group, demonstrated the virtual environment. He took us to the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Association) site his group created and showed us a virtual tsunami they use for training. It was really cool. Think about the things you can show and do. The things your trainees can experience and learn. And it’s so much cheaper and safer than creating a real tsunami. For my work, I’m thinking of virtual manufacturing facilities where employees learn how to CIP (clean in place) a tank, or track down the source of a virtual contamination. Brilliant! Sign me up!
Need coffee. I think I’m going to medicate myself tonight to sleep. I traveled to the Middle East and had an easier time adjusting. Speaking of the Middle East, I’m off to a session about why e-learning is failing there. Stay tuned…
E-Learning in the Middle East as presented by Mr. Ahmad Al-Failakawi from the Institute for Scientific Research, caused a mass exodus not seen since the Jews left Egypt. I actually felt bad for the guy. He was very difficult to understand, his English was clipped and fast. Garbled. I caught maybe 10-20% of what he was saying. His lack-luster presentation consisted of a lot of arrow with words attached pointing at clip art. He didn’t give any new reasons for the challenges of an e-learning program: politics, environment, education level, gender, etc. Everything we experience here. Oh, well. Maybe I would have like it better if it were presented by his avatar.
Day 3
June 2 - Day 3
Tired today. I keep waking up at 3 AM PT because it is 6 AM ET, and that is the time I usually get up for work. I blew off the keynote speaker today, Malcolm Gladwell. He was going to speak about organizations trying to promote internal institutional change. I just couldn't get myself motivated.
Having trouble with the internet connection in my room. They call it "high speed", but it is really "no speed". I writing this from the wi-fi spot at the convention center.
There are no sessions this morning because the big and all-powerful Expo opened. I generally don't like to go to the Expo unless I'm looking for something in particular, otherwise I just walk quickly through trying not to make eye contact with anyone behind a booth. I may wander around for a little while though. It'll keep me up on the latest and greatest.
More later...
Tired today. I keep waking up at 3 AM PT because it is 6 AM ET, and that is the time I usually get up for work. I blew off the keynote speaker today, Malcolm Gladwell. He was going to speak about organizations trying to promote internal institutional change. I just couldn't get myself motivated.
Having trouble with the internet connection in my room. They call it "high speed", but it is really "no speed". I writing this from the wi-fi spot at the convention center.
There are no sessions this morning because the big and all-powerful Expo opened. I generally don't like to go to the Expo unless I'm looking for something in particular, otherwise I just walk quickly through trying not to make eye contact with anyone behind a booth. I may wander around for a little while though. It'll keep me up on the latest and greatest.
More later...
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Day 1 and 2
Saturday, May 31 - Day 1
Long flight. 5 1/2 hours, but uneventful. I gain 3 hours when I arrive.
I land in San Diego and take the shuttle bus to the hotel, The Doubletree. I'm checking in at noon, which is three full hours before check-in time, but no problem. They give me my key and send me to room 1818. I get up there, put my key in the door and hear a hairdryer going and see a high heel shoe careless thrown on the floor. My first thougth is, "Dear Penthouse Form, I never thought it would happen to me but..." My second thought was, "Oh, there is someone in there." I go back down and get another room. This time I knock on the door first. All is good.
Sunday, June 1 - Day 2
Sessions start at noon. The first one I go to is called Competencies that Count: Using HPI to Create Performance-Based Competency Models. Yes, the subject matter was as heavy as the title. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concepts presented by Mason Holloway. He has a five step program that is very cryptic. Step 1: Develop competency framework; Step 2: Establish and define use scenarios; Step 3: Build a performance model; Step 4: (notes too messed up - he didn't give a copy of slides - grumble, grumble, grumble); Step 5: Identify and map competencies to models. I have a bunch of notes that I'll need to review. He also said the presentation was available on his web site (www.ppg-us.com). He also pitched his three day session.
Session two was much better, although the presenter needed to get a better handle on the crowd. It was called Developing Valid Level 1 Evaluation Forms. Ken Phillips, president of Phillips Associates, presented six techniques to create valid level 1 evaluation forms. For those of you who may not know, level 1 evaluation forms are reaction forms, basically getting the trainee's reaction to the course. The six tips are: 1) When appropriate, match up a qualitative question with a quantitative measure; 2) When collecting quantitative data using a Likert scale, create a response scale with numbers regularly spaced and words only at each end (in other words, don't label each number between 1 and 5, just label 1 and 5); 3) Use only one response scale with an odd number of points (e.g. 5, 7, 9, 11, etc); 4) Use small numbers at the low or left end of the scale and larger numbers at teh right high end of the scale; 5) Write items either as a continuum or as a statement; and 6) Include at least one item asking participants how relevant the learning event/material was to them and their job. If you need me to clarify any of these, let me know. I want to take this back to work and redo our smile sheets using this technique.
The last session of the day was called Neurobics, a bit of fluf that loosely tied brain aerobics to learning. Nothing of substance here except, as this guy from Canada pointed out on the shuttle bus back to the hotel, some of this would make for good icebreakers.
Off to dinner with a friend tonight. More sessions tomorrow, a full day! I made reservations for a haunted tour of San Diego tomorrow night.
Long flight. 5 1/2 hours, but uneventful. I gain 3 hours when I arrive.
I land in San Diego and take the shuttle bus to the hotel, The Doubletree. I'm checking in at noon, which is three full hours before check-in time, but no problem. They give me my key and send me to room 1818. I get up there, put my key in the door and hear a hairdryer going and see a high heel shoe careless thrown on the floor. My first thougth is, "Dear Penthouse Form, I never thought it would happen to me but..." My second thought was, "Oh, there is someone in there." I go back down and get another room. This time I knock on the door first. All is good.
Sunday, June 1 - Day 2
Sessions start at noon. The first one I go to is called Competencies that Count: Using HPI to Create Performance-Based Competency Models. Yes, the subject matter was as heavy as the title. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concepts presented by Mason Holloway. He has a five step program that is very cryptic. Step 1: Develop competency framework; Step 2: Establish and define use scenarios; Step 3: Build a performance model; Step 4: (notes too messed up - he didn't give a copy of slides - grumble, grumble, grumble); Step 5: Identify and map competencies to models. I have a bunch of notes that I'll need to review. He also said the presentation was available on his web site (www.ppg-us.com). He also pitched his three day session.
Session two was much better, although the presenter needed to get a better handle on the crowd. It was called Developing Valid Level 1 Evaluation Forms. Ken Phillips, president of Phillips Associates, presented six techniques to create valid level 1 evaluation forms. For those of you who may not know, level 1 evaluation forms are reaction forms, basically getting the trainee's reaction to the course. The six tips are: 1) When appropriate, match up a qualitative question with a quantitative measure; 2) When collecting quantitative data using a Likert scale, create a response scale with numbers regularly spaced and words only at each end (in other words, don't label each number between 1 and 5, just label 1 and 5); 3) Use only one response scale with an odd number of points (e.g. 5, 7, 9, 11, etc); 4) Use small numbers at the low or left end of the scale and larger numbers at teh right high end of the scale; 5) Write items either as a continuum or as a statement; and 6) Include at least one item asking participants how relevant the learning event/material was to them and their job. If you need me to clarify any of these, let me know. I want to take this back to work and redo our smile sheets using this technique.
The last session of the day was called Neurobics, a bit of fluf that loosely tied brain aerobics to learning. Nothing of substance here except, as this guy from Canada pointed out on the shuttle bus back to the hotel, some of this would make for good icebreakers.
Off to dinner with a friend tonight. More sessions tomorrow, a full day! I made reservations for a haunted tour of San Diego tomorrow night.
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