Another That Strokes the Ego

It’s been a while since I posted one of these… And I’ve gotten a few others but this one really hit me. It always makes an author feel good to have a reader not only say great things about their book but want to go out and find more.

This is for my second book and I think I’m getting close to 100 reviews on it. Usually I think you can count on about 10 PM percent of people who read your book actually leaving a review. So it’s nice to know I’m getting this much volume… Not to mention the fact that they’re overwhelmingly good reviews not bad ones  

New DUNE

 I got a chance to watch the new DUNE movie today. Loved it.

I'm a huge DUNE fan. I read it when I was in middle school. Then again in high school. I think I read it again in college or the military.  Each time I read it I got more out of it. There's a messiah figure, good vs evil, colonization vs native people, drug lords and victims, there are so many stories wrapped into that one book and it's fun to read it and see different aspects and perspecgtives each time.

 This movie is a great telling of it. I would have loved to see Jodorowsky's DUNE but barring that, this one was quite good and I think I'll go try and read DUNE again once this class comes to an end. It's a fun look at another world, much like any Vernor Vinge (see HERE).

New DUNE

 I got a chance to watch the new DUNE movie today. Loved it.

I'm a huge DUNE fan. I read it when I was in middle school. Then again in high school. I think I read it again in college or the military.  Each time I read it I got more out of it. There's a messiah figure, good vs evil, colonization vs native people, drug lords and victims, there are so many stories wrapped into that one book and it's fun to read it and see different aspects and perspecgtives each time.

 This movie is a great telling of it. I would have loved to see Jodorowsky's DUNE but barring that, this one was quite good and I think I'll go try and read DUNE again once this class comes to an end. It's a fun look at another world, much like any Vernor Vinge (see HERE).

Speaking

I had another abstract accepted for a speech for a conference. Whenever I submit for a presentaton, they ask for a video of me providing a similar speech. I have none. 

I mean it. None. 

And the conferences from the last couple of years have been online, so that hardly qualifies. 

Am I a good speaker? I'm told that I am. 

What do I send? This . . . HERE . . . is really all I can send. It doesn't do much for my speaking resume, but it's all I got. 

Next speech, I'm grabbing someone from the office and throwing my video camera phone in their hands and telling them to record me.

Twitter for Spaced Practice

Yesterday I wrote about an article I reviewed on spaced practice. This next article review is about using a social media tool like Twitter for delivering and for developing spaced practice content. 

The journal article "Utilizing Twitter for Concept Learning " offers a clear and concise overview of a study of whether or not Twitter can be used as a spaced learning reinforcement tool for college-level classes.

Buzzelli et al. (2016) describe the rationale for the experiment as a "focus on training of a particular conceptual entity within one training session using repeated training stimuli" (p. 1417). Concept understanding via spaced practice rather than blocked learning is a common study, as shown by studies like McDaniel et al. (2013). The authors state that their focus is to determine if sending tweets with examples and non-examples related to predetermined major concepts would assist students in effectively learning concepts through distributed practice" (p. 65). The research design and description are easy to follow and understand by the layperson. The Buzzelli et al. (2016) study shows that Twitter practice is not superior to more traditional methods.

A few of the features that Buzzelli et al. (2016) identify within their study that make Twitter ideal for spaced practice include Twitter's ubiquitousness among the students in the study, the fact that there is the ability for the user "to create a succinct, 140-character or word string" (p. 66), a closed environment for testing and the ability to use hashtags for categorizing content. In addition, learners and teachers were able to create content. Teachers distributed their content "three times per day per concept" (Buzzelli et al., 2016, p. 67). Buzzelli et al. (2016) tested Twitter subjects versus traditional subjects, then switched groups to test again.

The study results show that using Twitter for spaced practice was equal to traditional review methods used as a comparison; a review worksheet. In addition, means on tests provided to both the control group who used traditional study methods and the experimental group, who used spaced practice via Twitter, were close to equal. The less than favorable results for Twitter practice Buzzelli et al. (2016) admit could be because so few students were involved in the study and the fact that when asked how often The study subjects used Twitter, the results showed that the majority of the study subjects Tweeted via Twitter only once monthly or never. 

Using spaced practice to help learners understand concepts, especially via user-initiated spaced practice sessions, is novel, but utilizing technology that is easy for learners to use and access has historical antecedents in several studies in adult education, including Brown's (1932) work where he discusses the need for adult learning content to be taken during off-hours and "be somewhat continuous and consecutive" (p. 465). Utilizing Twitter allows learners to create their own spaced practice tests at times of their convenience and access the content via hashtags that meet the standards of Brown's principles. Additionally, allowing students to create class test questions and interact with other classmates enables them to establish and forward their learning and develop and forward their zone of proximal development (ZPD). This ZPD, according to Boettcher and Conrad (2016), is "the space between what students can do independently and what they can do successful with the help or guides of a person who might be an expert or simple a more capable peer" (p. 36). 

The study followed a mixed-methods paradigm using both qualitative and qualitative data to yield results. In terms of the qualitative data, ensuring that the data is trustworthy and credible are two of the characteristics that Freeman et al. (2007) provide as a critical part of the validity of qualitative inquiry. In the Discussion section, Buzzelli et al. (2016) provide this validity by admitting that the sample size for both groups was not large enough to provide more relevant results. This admission offers a level of validity and honesty to the study and provides a framework for further studies. 

References

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R.-M. (2016). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Brown, F. J. (1932). Basic principles underlying adult education. The Journal of Educational Sociology, 5(8), 463–470.

Buzzelli, A., Holdan, E. G., Rota, D., & McCarthy, J. (2016). Utilizing Twitter for concept learning. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education: An Official Publication of the Information Resources Management Association, 12(1), 64–76. 

Freeman, M., deMarrais, K., Preissle, J., Roulston, K., & St. Pierre, E. A. (2007). Standards of evidence in qualitative research: An incitement to discourse. Educational Researcher, 36(1), 25-32.  

McDaniel, M. A., Fadler, C. L., & Pashler, H. (2013). Effects of spaced versus massed training in function learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(5), 1417–1432. 

Always Collecting More

 I'm always out there trying to find new quotes, phrasings and lines that help me make sense of things. I put them here in my Evershade series (see HERE). It's my one sop to poetry. 

This first is from missing piece. 

Spaced Practice for Conceptual Understanding

I've attacked and studied spaced practice throughout my work and my classes. I've blogged about it many times (see here). I was asked to review a journal article on the effects of spaced practice on understanding concepts and functions. I was not impressed, and it was mostly with the writing capabilities of the authors.

The journal article "Effects of Spaced Versus Massed Training in Function Learning" offers a confusing and difficult to understand look into whether or not spaced learning is as effective in learning concepts as it is with non-linked information. 

McDaniel et al. (2013) describe the rationale for the experiment as a "focus on training of a particular conceptual entity within one training session using repeated training stimuli" (p. 1417). The authors state that their focus is on concept understanding and function learning rather than memorization of verbal paradigms, as has often been studied (McDaniel et al., 2013). Although the authors provide compelling reasons when expressing the need for this study, and they do an excellent job of citing other relevant studies and works and discussing the differences between spaced practice, massed learning, and interleaving and how these will be used in their research, they fail to communicate clearly the experiment design or results in a manner that makes sense for the reader.   

McDaniel et al. (2013) begin their article by describing the principles behind long-term memory development compared to working memory and even include discussions of functional relationships, which they intend to study. McDaniel et al. (2013) provide examples of these functional relationships as predictions of one thing based on the relationship to another, such as "predictions of harvest yields based on the amount of rainfall" (p. 1418) or stock market yields and P/E ratio. The author's discussion of understanding abstractions and concepts are understandable and builds the reader's frame of reference for their research design. The purpose of the experiment is quite valid in that being able to determine if a more effective learning delivery systems like spaced learning can provide the same benefits to function and conceptual understanding would be a worthwhile undertaking. However, McDaniel et al. (2013) become far too ambiguous and quickly lose the reader when discussing the methods and results of their experiments. The description of the experiments could have been more fully understood by providing some examples of test questions and actual results from individual test subjects. Instead, McDaniel et al. (2013) lose the reader in their data and results analysis to the point that their intentions to measure concept understanding are cluttered and confusing. The difficulty of measuring both spaced and massed learning against extrapolation, interpolation, against random verse strategic delivery comprises a multitude of components to analyze that never tend to come together for the reader nor become clear. The authors would have benefitted from showing a table of their overall results to help the reader track the variables and research design. 

Other studies have been completed that focus on similar aspects of spaced practice and do so in an easier to understand manner. For example, articles such as Karpicke's (2016) wherein the author found that "on the concept map assessments, practicing retrieval during learning produced the best performance, even better than studying the material by making concept maps" (p. 5).  Another example is in the work by Vlach and Sandhofer (2013) and their description of experiments with spaced practice for generalization in children. Their results were positive, and they surmised in their General Discussion section that in spaced practice, "perceptual features are likely to be forgotten, whereas the underlying abstract structure is likely to be remembered to a greater degree" (Vlach and Sandhofer, 2013, p. 7). These studies focused on the same research, measuring concept understanding through spaced practice delivery, yet their methods, design, and results are far easier to digest and comprehend for readers.

In terms of their experiment results, McDaniel et al. (2013) continue to be confusing and say in the Practical Applications section that repeated massed learning of random sequences "does not support good learning" (p. 1431), then state "function learning is effective with massed experiences that are strategically (rather than randomly) selected," (p. 1431), but then continue and write that cued presentation of input-output pairs yielded better results for spaced learning.  The reader is left wondering what the experiments were designed to prove and the results.  Compared to both Karpicke (2016) and Vlach and Sandhofer (2013), the ability to relate this information in an easy-to-understand and well-laid-out manner is sorely missing in this journal article. 

References

Karpicke, J. (2016). A powerful way to improve learning and memory; Practicing retrieval enhances long-term, meaningful learning. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2016/06/learning-memory

McDaniel, M. A., Fadler, C. L., & Pashler, H. (2013). Effects of spaced versus massed training in function learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(5), 1417–1432. 

Vlach, H. A., & Sandhofer, C. M. (2012). Distributing learning over time: the spacing effect in children’s acquisition and generalization of science concepts: Spacing and generalization. Child Development, 83(4), 1137–1144. 

Labor vs Capital

My professor challenged a statement I made in last week's class about how capital and labor are at odds and that is shown even in my own organization. Although he raises a valid discussion point, that by joining organizations we are submitting to their rules and culture, I was reminded of a discussion I had with a fellow student about how when he signed on as a trainer he immediately started to toe the line in an effort to blend in. 

This would seem to go along with what you wrote about how we agree to submit to the organizations dominating rules. But as you write, this isn't a bad thing. This conforming to organization's cultural norms helps to bring others into the fold, and helps them understand the cultural norms that they will be working in. In my own organization this process helps new-comers accept and understand the organization's mission of helping contractors stay safe.

The positive aspect of all of this is that each individual's own specific cultural characteristics and features can come into play and gently change, and shape the cultural norms of the organization. I was brought into my organization not to keep things as they are, but to shift the capabilities of the organization. My boss, also a contractor, and I have brought a far more aggressive approach to business than the organization was historical used to. We demand change happen quicker, we force improvements, we have shaken things up. So there's a blend of conforming to norms and applying our own standards. So the culture is always shifting based on the characteristics of the individuals who make up the organization. 

Farazmand (2002) discusses the irreconcilable battle between capital and the labor. Instead of a battle, I think the same shifting and blending that I've described above continues with labor and capital. Although each may be "seeking to further its own interests" they are also applying forces and changes on one another much like I've described above. As Farazmand (2002) states "(a)s new changes replace the old system, they generate their own negations and contradictions." These changes are the same type of conforming and evolving I try to detail above. So instead of an irreconcilable battle, there is a merging and evolution. 

Farazmand, A. (2002).  Modern organizations:  Theory and practice.  London:  Praeger.

Funding Craft Training

My colleague in class works for a foundation that uses an endowment to continue to operate. She was comparing that to my last post on contracting and funding of projects. 

In regards to my own contracting story, I will say that in my case, I mentioned that I would present the idea as if budget was not an issue, then I would have to convince my bosses of the need for funds to make it a reality. 

In most cases, it was that discussion of funding where I would have to prove that it was either cost neutral, or had a positive impact on the overall health of the organization. 

One example I remember dealt with training and a craft skills training program (I've inserted a pic of that training above). To get that funded I had to track retention of our workers based on the fact/hope that by providing more training they would be less likely to leave. Employees staying around had a very positive impact on our recruiting and HR budgets. 

Regardless, having this open ended arrangement was nice especially when I think about having a limited budget that came from an endowment. Ours was a constantly moving target that was based on how well the organization did each quarter and the forecast for work in the coming quarter. 

Now, however I work in a less dynamic organization and is much closer to the one you describe in your post. I have to consider budgetary constraints in each of my projects and it would be less responsible to not keep them foremost in mind. 

Contractor Bureaucracy

One of my colleagues asked me after reading my last post, if I felt that the budget-driven operations of my work as a contractor created a bureaucracy? Rather than rules or mechanized controls through a hierarchy the budget required the consistent machine-like response?

I would say that the method that the contracting group created through these processes they enforced was not bureaucratic at all. In fact I think it made the organization incredibly dynamic and nimble. It also made the projects and programs we led incredibly potent and powerful compared to our competitors equivalents. 

The world we were living in was incredibly cut-throat and usually budgets were a primary constraint, and truthfully, in the operations departments, they may have been far more limited in terms of their creativity and resources than I was. But I know that my bosses, and their bosses enjoyed the opportunity to think beyond budgets and look at what would be ideal rather than what would be cost effective.

So I suppose to circle back to your question, instead of more red-tape or bureaucracy this type of project development and future casting without being limited by budget, helped us become more powerful, dynamic and nimble in the long run. 

Miss Wheeler Dealer

Yesterday was an anniversary . . . not a great one. the 22nd of October is a day I always remember, unlike the 12th, which I'm still trying to figure out (see HERE). My old friend Josh Wheeler died on October 22nd 2015 (see HERE and HERE). He was a great guy, and the way he was wounded and died is exactly appropriate for the type of personality Wheeler was. 

I posted some pics I recently found of Wheeler (see below). I think what's sad is that well before he was killed, I wrote him into my novel, Toe the Line (see HERE).

I made the Wheeler character a bit of an anti-hero. He wasn't the most honest or trustworthy friend. This is really a disservice to Wheeler. He was impeccably honest and upfront. I also had him die before the story even started. Knowing he would die in 2015 I wouldn't have done that. 

I talked to Wheeler when he was mountain training back in 2013. He wrote me to tell me he was on top of a mountain. He couldn't tell me where. I suspected Montana or Wyoming. I told him about his being in my novel. He said he would try and read it. I don't know if he ever did. 

What I find funny is that Wheeler took the route in his career I had been planning. We were team leaders together in the Rangers. In that final pic, below, he is way off in the back ground squaring some private away I'm sure. We were rigging for a jump out of a helicopter. I'm in the mid ground looking pissed about something next to Hickerson. Our privates are in front acting like idiots. I was a squad leader in this pic, the pinnacle of my military career.

Hick went on to SF and I believe he's still in. Wheeler spent about 10 more years in the Regiment after I left, making it all the way to Weapons Platoon Sgt. Something like a dozen deployments. Then he went off to Delta Force. My plan had been to go to Delta a bit earlier than that, but I came to my senses before applying for selection. 

Miss that man!

Professorship

This week I was asked by the professors of the Adult Learning and Leadership PhD program that I'm a part of to develop and deliver a semester long class on innovative and cutting edge training techniques and trends. My wife was very impressed, and truthfully, I'm kinda pleased with myself too! Only 4 PhD candidates were chosen for this among the class of several dozen. 

What I think is funny, is that my wife constantly talks about how great it would be for me to go into teaching as a professor at a college or university. I don't know what she's talking about. I dig working at HASC and can't imagine a better place to work. 

First, I betcha I make more than most of my professors. I would probably have to take a pay cut to follow my wife's dreams for me. 

Secondly, who wants all that administrative red tape that comes with being a part of a university system. BLECH. Here I'm in a non-profit that is nimble, aggressive and cutting edge. What do I need with a college or univeristy and their plodding attitudes. 

Finally, I don't have to teach. I've taught. I've trained. Alot. I'm tired of training and teaching. Why would I want to go back to do that again? I have ten trainers that report to my manager/director. I don't have to deal with the day-to-day nonsense, nor have to try and motivate students. 

All of this tells me my wife is crazy. Why would I ever leave where I'm at? At least this next semester, where I develop the course, and the following semester, where I deliver the course, will help me verify all of the above. 

More Budgets

I wrote alot last year about budgets (see here). Lately, we as a class were challenged about budgeting programs and projects. When I read the challenge question then read my colleagues responses, I thought to myself that "of course budgets need to be considered." The actual question was: Would you or would you not consider budget issues when conducting a needs assessment? Please explain.

That's the way I've been conditioned though. 

For years, as a contractor, we lived and died by our financial status of the company and operations divisions, and our budgets for each department. We would have weekly meetings to discuss over all budgets and finances and allow the data from those meetings to drive almost every decision we made. Needs assessments too were first and foremost considered in terms of budgetary demands and budget considerations.

Then some of my colleagues comments about seeing the entire landscape without limitations like budgetary demands resonated with me. 

One thing I've been taught over the years when thinking about training projects or programs is "what would you do, how would you design this if money was no object?" In general the answer you land on is the right answer, at least according to my contracting organization's ethos. After you've determined what the right course to take is, the next step is to find the budget for it, or to convince someone in charge of budgets to fund it. 

More on that Learning Curve

We read two excepts from a text book regarding qualitative research this week. I wish I could post them here, but they're copy-righted so that's a no-go. Bu, I got alot of out of the two KB excerpts that we read this week, and also like my colleagues, I found that these helped me understand one of our other texts, this one by Michael Crotty.

Crotty feels very much like the deep end of the pool. These two excerpts helped me wade into that deep end, from the shallow end rather than just being thrust into the deep end. I feel like those two excerpts were helping me to swim and showing me the basics behind swimming, rather than just expecting the swimming to happen at full strength right away. 

The other aspect of this week's lessons that I appreciated was the "What's Hot and What's Not" video. In it Dr. Holloway-Libell discussed taking the time to understand qualitative research, understanding the basics, and getting a good foundation. I remember when I first started down this journey toward my PhD I remember in my first class that the professor said the same thing. They wanted us to read and get used to the terms and be comfortable discussing them, using the terms, and understanding the terms. This makes for much richer communication and more effective communication. It was nice to be given that opportunity and that advice to "slow down and start to understand" the information. 

Feeling Like I May Flip While Taking this Learning Curve

Qualitative research is far harder to wrap my head around than I expected. I feel like I did during my first classes two years ago. Imposter syndrome? Maybe. Mostly though it's just a steep learning curve I'm having trouble climbing. 

I've really been struggling with the reading. It's quite ambiguous and nebulous to me, and I'm very used to a clear cut, procedural style of writing. So I'm right there with the rest of my class, struggling to understand.

Secondly, I see my other colleagues are posting videos and infographics to help decrease the learning curve.  I found this and really thought it did a good job with some definitions.

 

Another Interview with a Researcher

We were asked to review a video of an interview between a qualitative researcher and Dr. Holloway-Libell, another qualitative researcher. There have been several of these lately, and they're all interesting in their own way.

I appreciated that Dr. Holloway-Libell discussed the global approach and understanding that is currently working its way through qualitative studies and research designs. To take this a step further, I think it would be interesting to see what results from these global approaches lead us to a better understanding of the cultures from which they spring. How can the end results that we read about help us understand other facets about the culture, country, or society that thought them up. 

A second thing I appreciated about this discussion was Dr. Holloway-Libell's discussion of needing a firm foundation in the philosophical underpinnings of the field. I have been struggling quite a bit with some of our reading and determining how I can apply what I'm reading. I think based on what Dr. Holloway-Libell mentions, I should stop trying to look for application and just absorb the philosophical basis and grounding first. It's frustration to not have a how-to guide, but as she mentions, there isn't one. There needs to be study first. As Tony mentions above, there is no ABC's of what to do, there is study that leads to ideas of how to apply what you've learned. Frustrating for someone who is procedurally oriented as I am, but necessary. 

I really appreciate Dr. Holloway-Libell's "advice for newcomers" portion. Being patient and reading alot seems to fit nicely with my second point above. 

Imagine More Money

My learning organization, a non-profit that supports contractor safety and skills training, uses a variety of funding options in our mix to include: 1) user fees (each CBT costs a certain amount for each contractor), 2) donations (we have a large, hands-on training skills bay with dozens of items, mockups, and tools that have all been donated by our contracting members),  and 3) sponsorships (we provide discounts to those members who become sponsors). These are the three main categories that conform what Schmidt and Yelich Binienki describe in Chapter 5. 

Up until this past year we had not worked to receive a grant for our work. In fact when I broached the subject to my executive leadership team they told me that until 2020 the answer would have been no. Our executives enjoyed being able to tell contracting members and owner members who support our organization that we had never taken any government or other grant money to support our mission. 2019 and 2020 and the organizations use of the PPP to overcome challenges to Covid changed that. 

Thanks to that opening my team and I applied for a grant through Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support innovation in safety and training in 2020. We were not successful. Our organization is allowing us to develop virtual reality training to augment our standard computer based training offering. As there are no contracting members who are asking for this type of training yet, this is purely an R&D project and being funded internally by our organization. 

The concept is to determine if VR and other innovating training strategies significantly improve the contractors ability to work safely in the field environment. Our preliminary studies suggest that they are an improvement, but the cost is prohibitive. If we had won even a portion of the AWS grant we would have been able to develop a third Virtual Reality course to go along with the two we funded ourselves previously. This aligns with the mix that Schmidt and Yelich Binienki (2016) discuss in Chapter 5 in that "organizations applying for grants must provide specific information about the project and it costs" (p. 91).

When considering why we were not awarded the grant, I think that our work did not work in tandem with AWS applications as well as other grant applicants. Part of organizations mindset is to produce our software and applications ourselves. Fitting AWS into that schema is not easy for just one project. I would imagine that other applicants leaned on AWS to a greater degree. We are still looking for other options and grant funding opportunities, and also trying to sell our VR development services to our contracting members as more effective means of transferring the learning objectives to their learners and giving them a competitive advantage over other contractor training products.

References:

Schmidt, S. W., and Yelich Biniecki, S. M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs: A guide for practitioners. Information Age Publishing, Inc.

More Writing Ideas

 I like to post my novel ideas here, in a bank, so I can come back and withdrawal them when I need them, in recent days that means when I don’t have any classes to occupy my time. 

I hope I can come back and use this in December when my classes and exams are over. 

Working Memory Resource Depletion and Spaced Learning

The journal article "Extending Cognitive Load Theory to Incorporate Working Memory Resource Depletion: Evidence from the Spacing Effect" provides an intriguing look into long-term memory development and effective learning principles via spaced practice and cognitive load theory. Chen et al. (2017) describe their experiments as an attempt to explain how "cognitive load theory can be substantially extended by including working memory resource depletion" (p. 484) and how that can affect massed learning and spaced learning successes. Chen et al. (2017) express many times throughout the paper the superiority of spaced learning over massed learning, but admit that there is minimal theoretical basis or research into why the spacing effect is superior. This article and the experiments the authors describe are designed to help fill that gap regarding why the spacing effect is superior to massed learning.   

Chen et al. (2017) begin their article by describing the principles behind long-term memory development compared to working memory. The foundation they build through discussion on cognitive load theory and memory is well written and helps the reader understand their experiments. However, the information becomes muddled regarding intrinsic cognitive load and extraneous cognitive load, and the authors do not tie those two concepts into either the spacing effect or memory capacity (Chen et al., 2017).

 During the description of experiments 1 and 2, Chen et al. (2017) provide a clearly written breakdown of the principles they hope to prove through a detailed account of their investigation. Figure 3 illustrates their design for experiment 1 that gives the reader an easy-to-understand overview of the experimental design they followed. Their description of experiment 2 is also clear and detailed with easy to process illustrations that highlight the nature of how and why conditions were changed between the two experiments and how the authors hoped those changes would add greater validity and clarity to their expected results. 

Chen et al. (2017) provide examples of where their experimental design failed both in terms of delivery and in results. In both cases, the authors are able to impart to the reader a greater degree of honesty to their reporting and experiment design by describing these errors and how they corrected for those errors. First, when describing the first experiment, the authors admit that several test subjects wrote notes that would not have allowed for the correct test of their working memory. Secondly, the authors acknowledge that their experiment does not explain if "working memory depletion is the sole cause of resource depletion or whether there are other possible causes" (Chen et al., 2017, p. 498). In effect, the experiments determine if working memory resource depletion makes massed learning inferior to spaced learning rather than focusing on how or why spaced practice is more effective. 

A weakness of the article that is not addressed is whether or not the testing effect could affect the results of the experiments. Other research has "showed that after 24 h, the average test performance in the study-test condition was better than in the repeated-study condition. This finding suggests that a relatively long retention interval is required before the memory benefit of intermediate testing over restudying emerges" (Delaney et al., 2010, p. 116). The description of the design of the experiments does not exclude the testing effect as having an impact on the results. 

 Chen et al. (2017) state that their results show the benefits of the spacing effect over massed learning, but rather the design provides a "causal explanation of the spacing effect" (p. 497). Additionally, the authors iterate that their experiments help to show that cognitive resource depletion is better classified as working memory depletion in some circumstances. However, again, the experiment regarding working memory resource depletion does not necessarily prove the effectiveness of spacing so much that it shows how memory resource depletion negatively affects massed learning. Although the authors provide a compelling article that demonstrates a case built of incrementally more complex experiments, instead of showing that working memory resource depletion "provides a strong candidate explanation for at least some versions of the spacing effect" (Chen et al., 2017, p. 488), their experiments prove the ineffectiveness of massed learning over spaced learning.

 

References

Chen, O., Castro-Alonso, J. C., Paas, F., & Sweller, J. (2018). Extending cognitive load theory to incorporate working memory resource depletion: Evidence from the spacing effect. Educational Psychology Review, 30(2), 483–501. 

Delaney, P. F., Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L., & Spirgel, A. (2010). Spacing and testing effects. Psychology of Learning and Motivation (Vol. 53, pp. 63–147). Elsevier.

Actions Speak

 

New Leaders and Taking Command

One of my colleagues was discussing his being hired into a new organization. When he started he tried to model his work to those of the culture. Our professor asked about why we want to fit in an accomodate others when we start a new job.

I think it's like all new members to groups, there is a desire to fit in and please the group. In the military when there was a new leader for a squad, platoon, or company the first rule of thumb was to make no immediate changes. The leader was supposed to observe first before making any changes, especially major ones. 

Having taken on new positions in the past, I know there is a desire to mold the group in ways that you might have always wanted, to change things the way you might feel are necessary, to implement your vision. In my organization we provide leadership training for supervisors and field crew leaders and we discuss "transitioning to a leadership position," and the first thing we discuss is to do nothing but observe. New changes need to be sold, they need to be massaged to meet the needs of the organization, there may even need to be internal buy-in from the rest of the group for the changes to be successful. 

I think what my colleague described about his new role shows leadership maturity. Prior to making changes he is assessing and gauging the environment to be sure that his ideas are implemented successfully. It's the poor leader who comes in and immediately starts making changes without knowing the landscape. We had a new First Sergeant take over our Company when I was in the Military and he immediately started making changes. His changes took twice as long as otherwise and their was never any internal buy-in for them. His tenure was a failure for the most part. When I think about new leadership positions, it is this first sergeant I think about and his example reminds me to wait to make any changes. 

Plato and Reality

One of the chapters in Morgan's Images of Organization that I am reminded of when marketing is discussed is the chapter on Organizations as Psychic Prisons where Morgan discusses Plato's cave and what people see and believe is reality (the shadows on the wall of the cave) vs what is the true reality outside the cave. 

I think part of successful marketing includes helping consumers see that true reality and helping them break away from the faux reality of the shadows they may see. 

On page 208 Morgan (2006) writes, "if one of the inhabitants were allowed to leave the cave, he would realize that the shadows are just reflection of a more complex reality and that the knowledge and perceptions of his fellow cave dwellers are distorted and flawed."

Our professor brought up the petrochemical and oil industry and auto companies during our discussion and that always invigorates me. At the moment we can all see the incredible transition going on within our society regarding the oil industry and what powers our vehicles. It is the role of the marketing professional in the petrochemical industry to help consumers realize that there is more to the oil industry than moving cars and trucks. 

The petrochemical industry produces plastics that make so many goods lighter and more durable than previous versions, and medical equipment and safe coatings that would not be around with the byproducts of the oil industry. Lubricants, asphalts and textiles are also byproducts of the oil industry. So often the oil industry gets a bad reputation because all the consumer sees are the shadows on the wall, rather than the more complex reality of all the good things that come from petrochemical refining that make our modern world easier to live in. 

Reference

Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization (Updated Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Self-Regulating Organizations

When I think about "self-regulating organizations" I think of my own organization and those like it and the umbrella organization/system that we all adhere to. 

In the late 1980's there were several severe and devastating accidents in our industry that necessitated and showed that our industry needed better safety systems and training, especially the Phillips explosion in Pasadena. These accidents led to the creation of our organization, a non-profit, contractor training group whose mission is providing training for contractors. 

About the same time ARSC (Association of Reciprocal Safety Councils) was created to allow for standards of contractor training for all safety councils. This allows the refinery owners to propose standards that ARSC tries to fulfill through the safety councils. As new dangers are identified, the system adjusts and regulates the training standards to ensure the the contract workers are trained appropriately and workers are kept safe. 

One thing we see is that the bureaucracy that makes up ARSC is too slow to innovate and adopt to the changing nature, and effective and engaging training capabilities that are coming into the market. Instead of finding new ways to innovate and create effect training, ARSC has become an anchor that stops innovation. In some ways this is good in that they are ensuring standardization. In others they are slowing progress and making it harder to provide quality training. It reminds me of last weeks discussion on red-tape in bureaucracy. 

Regardless, ARSC, the non-profit safety councils, and the refineries have creating a self-regulating system that tries to stay in front of government regulation and ensure that safety training is provided and workers are kept as safe as possible. Although accidents still happen, and their is still more work to do to keep contractors, workers, and communities safe, this system of self-regulating organizations has taken safety training a long way toward a safer environment than what we see in many other industries, and since the late 1980's.

What we also see are other non-profit association with tangential connections to these safety councils that will spring up to enforce standards. One that is nascent in our industry and trying to create standards is the Water Jet Technology Association. They are creating standards of safety that refineries can enforce, and that contractors must train up to, to help ensure safety training standards are met for dangerous water blasting work within refineries and petrochemical plants. Just a few years into their mission they've already started to make inroads into what before was a hodge-podge mix of different standards within contracting groups. 

Minimum Design

I marked a passage in Images of Organizations by Gareth Morgan (2006) on page 111 that stated: "The principle of minimum design suggests that managers should define no more than necessary to launch a particular initiative or activity on its way. They have to avoid the role of "grand designer." 

The idea of Grand Designer is interesting, but then there there is more to organizations than just having a leader with a vision and design. Organizations need variety. Another passage I marked in Morgan (2006) on page 108 discusses "internal diversity" and "requisite variety" and the fact that these must match the diversity and variety of the systems and cultures the organization services. 

Finally, on page 111 again Morgan (2006) states "the challenge is to avoid the anarchy and the completely free flow that arises when there are no parameters or guidelines, on the one hand, and over-centralization, on the other." 

I have dealt with this in organizations in the past. In my last position we had two departments, one that was highly standardized and managed, one that was looser and less regulated. These two departments were usually at odds and their leadership too is at odds. Together the two had to inhabit the same organization and work toward common goals, and thankfully everyone was professional enough to do so. 

However there was tension between the two groups. Many found this tension hard to work with, but I find that the tension and the conflict helped find new ways to find paths through the challenges we faced. There was no one way to overcome and navigate challenges and by having a variety of options and types of management we were able to find the most effective path for success. 

It's great to have a vision and a design, but leaders must also be open and flexible enough to allow new things to bubble up and react to them appropriate. A hard and fast "grand design" doesn't allow for this creativity and it's a good leader is one who can allow for that, promote it, and use it to positive outcomes.

References

Morgan, G. (2006). Images of organizations (updated edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Wonderful Compliment

 This week someone gave me such a wonderful compliment. They said I had a great attitude. 

I agree, btw. I think I do. 

You know what? I have a way to go. Based solely on Maggie on Great British Baking Show, I have a LONG way to go. 

I wrote a lot about this the other day on my other blog (see here), but it’s worthwhile to discuss here too. I went on quite a bit on that blog about attitudes and how they are formed and how it’s up to us to set our attitudes, and not up to someone else to dictate. 

Maggie is the very queen of this. I’ve never seen anyone smile so much. I’ve been watching the show for the last few weeks and I’ve been using her as a guide-on for my own attitude and happiness. We have to make our own happiness and I think it should be infectious. Maggie’s has never not smiled in the show. 

I would like that one day someone will say that about me, that I always smile and it’s infectious and positive. I’m almost there!

VR Qualitative Study Design

I find what Dr. Karen Myers-Bowman said about the difference between qualitative research and quantitative research is interesting. 

During the interview she mentions that in some ways qualitative research can be more honest than quantitative research results. The past few experiments that my organization has completed on the effectiveness of VR course delivery vs traditional CBT course delivery has relied heavily on quantitative research results. We are about to release a new version where our study will depend much more on a qualitative research design. 

For the past year this has bothered me and made me think that this study will be weaker than the one that used a quantitative design.  Now, based on what Dr. Karen Myers-Bowman has said, I'm interested in determining how our qualitative research design for this next iteration of VR delivery could be stronger, more honest, more transparent that our previous studies. This has made me realize that there is more power than weakness that can be built into qualitative research and I look forward to discovering more about this.

Researchers are still discovering the virtues of qualitative research. We will need to undertake a study that will need to rely far more on qualitative research than we have been used to. We will need to embrace a mixed methods study design, but I think that having that will (or can) make the study far stronger than one that relies just on one strictly focused study design. I think if anything having the variety can make things far more rich and rigorous. This should lead to less discussion of virtues and defending qualitative to looking for ways to include it as much as possible. 

A Couple More Evershades that Caught My Eye

I ran into these and felt certain that I would need to share them as a part of my Evershade series (see HERE). 

This first is from Sensual Words and goes quite well with the image above. And like the others in this post is a bit tweaked. 

Marketing and Too Many Products

Marketing was an interesting chapter for me, but I wish it had offered more in terms of how to correct marketing problems. 

I know that in my own organization many departments are frustrated by our marketing department due to the fact that in almost every new client meeting we hear "I didn't know you did that?" about many of our products. 

In defense of the marketing department, our organization has had the tendency to innovate quickly for specific clients and roll out products for small subsets of our overall client base. So we have dozens and dozens of products that our created for specific clients that could potentially help other clients, but are not a part of our core business. This would make it very hard to market in that it's an ever changing landscape and with so many products it's hard to find focus points. 

I am reminded of an organization I worked with ten years ago that specialized in dash-mounted video cameras for police departments. They too had a plethora of products; dash-mounted video cams, interview recording, file transfer for courtrooms, automatic video upload, license plate reading technology, and more. The marketing department there operated on a very simple, foot in the door focus. They wouldn't market all of their products and dilute the offering, but put all of their focus on creating the best dash-mounted camera capabilities in the market, then once their foot was in the door the account management team would work with the account to expand their product offering to that client. 

It's tough to be in marketing but it's better to have one or two solid products rather than a multitude of products that no one knows aoubt and are hard to market. 

Reference

Schmidt, S. W., and Yelich Biniecki, S. M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs: A guide for practitioners. Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Dynamic Organizations

My colleague Daryn was discussing his training, and the way he had to work to become the type of trainer that his organization wanted him to be. He was worreid that he wasn't doing enough. 

Based on what he said, it seemed to me that he is doing exactly what Morgan (2006) suggests when he quotes Kenneth Boulding that evolution is more than just survival of the fittest but "survival of the fitting" (p. 63). 

You wrote yourself that you wish to fit in and I think like you, organizations do the same. In my organization, a non-profit contractor, safety training community, we bend and mold and change as an organization based on the needs of the contractor learners we service. If refinery owners want to include more engaging safety training we provide it or they do somewhere else. If they want virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), or even augmented reality (AR) training then we will find a way to provide it. Since we don't want to lose them, we change and mold based on the needs they are expressing. 

Morgan (2006) writes on page 63 "it suggests that organisms do not evolve by adapting to environmental changes or as a result of these changes selecting the organisms that are to survive. Rather, it suggests that evolution is always evolution of a pattern of relations embracing organisms and their environment." That quote about the environment made me think of the environment that I describe regarding contractor safety training. I think part of the power within organizations, especially those that find a way to function as an organism, is the ability to adapt, adjust, and overcome. Those that don't fade away or close down. Those that do find a way to continue on.

Reference

Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization (Updated Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Several Short Evershades

I ran into a few more Evershade lines (see HERE), some of them just short one liners. One shaders so to speak. 

The first is from blue monk. A simple one liner. Simple and so true. When you’ve met that person with the perfect eyes, perfect scent, perfect everything,  . . . Then they smile,  . . . We all know that feeling. It burns into you and you never forget it. 

Follow Up - One Off

So, it looks like I may have been off by one game (see here). I will NOT be getting a jeep from this year's ridiculous bet. But, I was close. 

I thought the first game would be the one that could go either way. It went the way of the Texans. I'm a tad surprised by Urban Meyer. I thought he would be a better coach. Looks like he had lots of people snowed. 

Organizations as Brains and Lisa Moments

Chapter for in Images of Organizations by Morgan focuses on oranizations as brains, learning organizations. There were several things in this chapter that I really enjoyed. For the sake of brevity I'll just focus on two.

First of which was the idea expressed on page 108 of requisite variety meaning "the internal diversity of any self-regulating system must match the variety and complexity of its environment." This seems to suggest that extremely complex environments and organizations will have more internal diversity and variety. 

An idea which is counter to the reliance of bureaucracy and red-tape for mechanistic organizations, where the workers had firm rules and guidelines to follow to help maintain order and interchangeability. 

Secondly there was the idea of error elimination on page 82. I like the idea that we don't pick things up, rather we fail to not pick them up and by failing to not pick it up actually pick the object up. This was not something I had considered as fully as I had once I read it. Both of these tend to, it seems to me, provide opportunities for organizations that behave like brains to find ways to self-organize or to learn how to learn. 

By having ever-growing diversity of opinion and variety of working and leadership styles, an organization led by self-organization and learning can help to find the best possible route to success. By failing, new procedures and policies can be created that help others not to fail, and by not failing succeed. I regularly cite to my teams how although Steve Jobs has been well known for his successes with Apple, in many ways his success came by way of his failures. "Lisa stands forgotten in the shadow of the Macintosh, but its abject failure (the first model only sold 10,000 units) taught great lessons–especially to Lisa’s original project lead, Steve Jobs, who was kicked off and put on another project: the Macintosh," (Lumb, 2015). It's through failures that we, even as organizations, can figure out what best not to do again.

I think back on my life and the major "Lisa" moment for me was when I wanted to create an app called "PopQuiz Password" (see here). I know, horrible name, but it was a working title. Basically, it was designed for parents to ensure that their kiddos got some learning in while they gamed. It was a project I developed when getting my MBA back in 2004. Before a kiddo could play a computer game they had to complete a grade appropriate quiz. They were rewarded time to play based on how they scored. 100%? 30 minutes of play time. 50%? Then just 5 or 10 minutes of game time. Also we created modules like Texas History, or Boy Scouts and Bible History, to try and make it appealing to parents and more relevant for kids. Additionally we came up with the idea of creating teacher interactions, whereby teachers could upload their own class specific questions and have them load onto the kiddos quizzes.

We started a proof of concept, but then the project died off. There were a multitude of reasons for it dying off, but I've always wondered if that was my Lisa moment. What if I had created PopQuiz Password and it had been a rousing failure like Lisa? What would I have learned? How might I have developed other microlearning opportunities before microlearning took off? 

I am far to safety oriented to have a Lisa moment. Any whiff of failure and I'll look for another option instead of face the failure. Maybe Lisa moments are what entrepreneurs need to be successful ultimately?

References

Lumb, D. (2015, January 22). Remember Apple’s Lisa, the computer that cost Steve Jobs A gig? Kevin Costner does! Fastcompany.Com; Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/3041272/remember-apples-lisa-the-computer-that-cost-steve-jobs-a-gig-kevin-costner-d (Links to an external site.)

Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization (Updated Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Another Race Novel Idea

As you know I used this space for cataloging and filing away ideas for future novels. I ran into one of those ideas this morning while reading the WSJ (see HERE). 

This one was about an ultra-marathon race in China that went horribly, horribly wrong. 21 of the over 170 runners died. It's an amazing story to read, with some incredible pictures. What surprised me was that it wasn't a blizzard, or white out, or snow storm per se, so much as it was just plunging temperatures. 

Yet More Shade

 I've been on a tear lately, throwing out more of these Evershade lines (see HERE). They just really help me in some sort of way. So, here are some more!

The first is from Will Rogers via Cafe Camille. (why do so many of these people have such wonderfully witty profile names? Maybe there's a string I can do on that!)

Being Open About Bias

We had to watch a video of an interview of Dr. Karen Myers-Bowman, a family scientist specializing in family life education at SDSU. The interview really resonated with me for several reasons. 

Dr. Karen Myers-Bowman mentions as her focus is on communication between students and parents who may go on foreign exchange trips.

Both the student's communication to the host parents but also to their biological parents they leave behind. I spent a year as a foreign exchange student living in Brussels Belgium with a host family. It was a life altering experience in many ways, not least of which is what Dr. Myers-Bowman discusses as the communications between the student and the various adults. I remember well how my communication with my natural parents changed, especially as it was reliant only on air-mailed letters and the occasional phone call. Also I remember how my connection with my host mother (there was no host father) developed over the year. 

Auto-ethnology was an interesting concept. The idea that the researchers own views and thoughts and interests are a part of the study is an interesting thought line. How do my own biases and perspectives change how I look at the research that I am undertaking. I think it's obvious that all of our biases are a part of whatever research we might undertake, but the idea that Dr. Myers-Bowman promotes, of using that story, and using our perspectives to help inform the reader and user of our research is intriguing. 

Finally, I like that Dr. Myers-Bowman felt that she could be more non-biased and objective in a qualitative study than in a quantitative study because it allows the researcher the opportunity to communicate with the reader and be reflective about the topics. She says that that is more "honest" which is interesting. This brings into mind the reading by Tracy where on page 842 she states about transparency, "In addition to being honest and vulnerable through self-reflexivity, another mean practice of sincerity is transparency." This I think is what Dr. Myers-Bowman is trying to highlight in her thoughts on how qualitative research can be more honest. 

References

Tracy, S. J. (2010). Qualitative quality: Eight “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry: QI, 16(10), 837–851.

Evershading More

Yet another entry for the ole Evershade file. These are pretty decent if you ask me. Just like all of them (see HERE).

Evershad-ed Even More

As I continue to add to this ever growing list of great, romantic, lines I catalog them here in my Evershade label (see HERE) and I think they're always worth reading again. 

That being said, I've got some new ones . . . and I'm looking forward to reading them again too soon!

This first is from "Just Kate" which is a terrific profile name. And it's a terrific line.

In my heart we were a lifetime

In yours we were simply a moment

Ah, man! That hits me! Does it you? It shows the disparity between expectations.

Tiger-Tom via Top Shelf Bourbon Elf wrote this next one, and I can't agree with the sentiment more.

If you have to beg someone to be in your life,

They don't deserve to be there.

Damn skippy! 

And finally, since these things tend to come in threes, I have this one from CoffeeCurves.

Just once

Show me

What a tender touch feels like

Just once

Show me

What it's like to keep your word

Just once

Show me

What it feels like to hold and be held

Just once

Show me

What it feels like when someone stays

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades , ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

A Bit More Evershade

HA! Although this isn't typical for the Evershade series I like (see HERE), this did make me laugh. I've always loved Helen Mirren. She always looks like she's having a good time in life, and I would love to think that others look at me and think the same thing. Maybe I need to channel my inner Helen Mirren spirit more often.

There are couple more I've found that do fit the series a bit better.