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.