Is it a Fact?

 So I ran into this meme the other day, and I have my doubts about it's validity.

Why? 

Well, I highly doubt that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is sitting around all day wondering what it would be like to live with me. But you never know!

Locked Doors

Another for this new series I'm starting up (see HERE). Again, it's not the best yet, but since I've closed the EE series, it has to go somewhere, and I think it's only a matter of time before it takes shape. Regardless, these resonate with me, so why not keep em.

More Coffee

Since the end of my Evershade series, I've been struggling to find a spot to put those mote juste that come across my life path. Those quick lines, those memorable memes, those terrific one liners that when I see them I realize my fancy has been struck. 

Last week I wrote one that was on coffee (see HERE). So, I'll follow up with this one I suppose, and maybe we'll have a series dedicated to the Columbian bean juice. 

Politics for Just a Moment

I try to steer clear of politics for the most part. I posted about a slight political moment with my classmates and professor the other day when I sent an opinion article to my class that discussed experiment design. 

I'm going to take a moment to discuss unions. It was inspired by an article I read this morning in the WSJ (see HERE). 

One of my earlier experiences with unions was in a class on American History and Unions in college. I know I was raised in an area where unions are not prolific. I see the historical value of unions, and the usefulness of unions, but I think that unions are essentially a bit out of place in today's society. If you don't like your working conditions, there are too many social freedoms that would allow you to find a better job. I know that's an oversimplification, but that's my thoughts. I think unions slow innovation and are an unecessary burdern. I'd rather the free market keep businesses in line rather than a union leader. 

Apparently the NYT has similar thoughts. They feel that unionizations of their technology workers would stifle their ability to react and cost too much. A funny view from a source that I'm betting advocates for unions in other areas of life. 

I remember there was a press for unionization of our craft workers in California when I showed up to train one week years ago. Wow, must have been 12 years ago now. For some reason the young kid who was advocating for unions during breaks asked me what I thought. I remember telling him that as a young guy he should not be advocating for unions. Unions, in my experience, do not help young workers but rather are a help to older, already established workers. In terms of safety, the safety systems we had in place were more than sufficient to keep him safe provided he used them appropriately. In terms of money, a union would not help him advance, but rather would take from his paycheck. 

Unions are a part of the past and a nice lever to be able to pull if the free market loses it's potency. But what galls me is the hypocrisy of the New York Times who will advocate for unions in other organizations but when it comes to their own, they eschew it. I'll take unions over hypocrites any day. 

VR in the ER

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I do a lot of work with virtual reality tools and equipment (see HERE). It's fun to see how VR can play a bigger part of our world and in the industry I support. 

I read an article this morning on VR and how it can lead to injuries (see HERE). 

It's interesting this disconnect between the real world and the human mind and how it can lead to the trainee hurting themselves. We've seen this in our own work. Our learners sit at a desk to take training. In the middle of training they are asked to put on a headset and take a VR exercise. Even though we have designed our training so that they won't have to move around much, we still have people who hit the desk or sides of the desk. 

It's as if they lose sense of their surroundings to such a degree that they forget where they are. This is a good thing in terms of development. It's not a good thing in terms of our safety record. Still, I see what some of our partners have done and I'm more and more glad that we decided to take the route we did. 

Opinions in Class

Invariably I am the most conservative person in my PhD classes. Most of my colleagues in class are academics. They are all trying to become professors or administrators and they tend to live in the Northeast or Midwest. I've yet to have a class with anyone else who lives as far south as I do, or who is in an industrial field, much less in oil and gas.

With that being said, I like to poke at my colleagues and professors just a bit. I never know how much is too much, and there is an argument that I went too far this last time, but it was just too good an article and too timely to pass up.

We were talking about strong and weak experiment designs in our class lecture the other day. What makes an experiment design strong? What factors automatically make a design weak? 

One of the samples that the professor brought up was having an over-subscribed class. Meaning, that too many people wanted to be in the class. This allows the experimenter to accept some and take from the excess to create a control group. I read an opinion article (see HERE) that brought up that very design so I sent it to the professor. The problem? The opinion aspect of the article is heavy-handed and counter to the prevailing politics and paradigms I've seen from my colleagues and classmates traditionally.

The good news . . . the professor agreed with my comments on the article. She didn't share it with the class as is common, but she loved the example!

2022 Goals

One of the goals I've been given for this next year is to further establish myself as a training subject matter expert in my field and in our industry. 

Sounds a tad ambiguous doesn't it. How does one go about that?

Well, one thing I'm doing is speaking . . . a lot. 

The picture above is of a community college in Pasadena where last week I was a "featured speaker." That's not a bad start is it?

It was a speech to about twenty to twenty-five students at their technical college. I thought it went well. It was supposed to be a bigger crowd, but having a smaller group allowed for me to "work the room" a bit. To walk around, to call on people, to be a game show type presenter. I think it was a success. Question and answer time lasted about half an hour. Then when it was over the organizer asked me to come back next month and do it all again. Being called back for a second act is a good sign, right?

It was really just a warm up act. 

I have to give two major speeches this week. One is to an organization filled with safety professionals. It's on our virtual reality work and the studies we've done. Some of what I spoke about at the technical college will come into play, but there will be a lot more depth to this one. 

The other day I wrote about the book I'm reading about the P-38 Lightning and Race of Aces (see HERE). The authors contention is that the P-38 changed the air battle landscape and added to the winning of the war. I'm going to reference that in the introduction of my speech. 

Another thing I'm going to discuss . . . the primacy recency effect (see HERE). This adult learning theory about attention was a huge hit with the students. I think I'll use it again with the safety folks. 

I also have ANOTHER speech later that same evening, this time with a bunch of painting, coatings, and insulating organization representatives. What am I discussing? Innovations again. Gonna use just about the same presentation as I used for the safety folks. 

Lots and lots of speeches . . . that's a pretty good start at establishing my credentials, no? Feel free to join! I'm always happy to have more smiling friendly faces in the audience!

Team vs Squad Leader

One of the best jobs I've ever had was as a Ranger Squad Team Leader. It was fun, full of bravado and challenges, and far too short. I was promoted to Squad Leader and it was far less fun. Instead of being the tip of the spear, which is what the Team Leader is, the Squad Leader has to pull up the rear. Sure the Squad Leader is in the middle of things but mostly they are reinforcements incase the teams get in trouble, he's a communications node as well, relaying messages back and forth to command, and the person pushing the stack forward. But as the primary shooter? Nope. Primary radio and map guy, maybe. 

Why is this coming up now?  Just as I hit that stage in the Army where I went from a vital part of the machine, the most fun, and most active part of the organization, to becoming just a communicator and passive leader, . . . I've hit that phase of my current work as well.

This past month our organization released two major courses that came out of my departments. One was a new leadership course which based on the reviews so far is absolutely phenomenal. A true transformative learning experience. The second is a revolutionary new and innovative computer based safety training that we hope will be a world rocker in our community. So far, it's looking very good. 

How much did I have to do with them? 

Not as much as I'd like. I feel so out of the loop. Both of my managers are so competent that really they don't need me except to say, "Hey, what do you think of this . . ." or "Can you approve this expense?" That's what I do. I approve expenses and communicate. There are my managers being the hard-charging Ranger Team Leaders and out there doing great things. Here I am following along behind with the stupid map and radio, trying to keep up, trying to keep control, falling behind constantly. Ugh. 

C'est la vie right? That's the nature of business. The fun jobs are taken over and performed by those below ya and you move up to the non-fun jobs. Still, good to see those two leaders being such extraordinary tips of the spears for our group!

Analogical Scaffolding

When I was in Ranger School I learned about several words I never knew existed. Cellulitis? Rubber Neck? (see HERE). Never knew these were words until Rangers School. And I guess for the most part, my life would have been fine had I never known about em.

Not so with the words I learned lately. 

First there is Connectivism. I've written about this one before (see HERE). I love connectivism. The idea of blending networks into something more useful. It was a task I was a part of at my old organization, before I embraced the non-profit world. What I find interesting is that we were doing it, but we didn't call it "connectivism." We were on the path of calling it "connected worker" but it's a forward looking concept I hope I can touch on more. 

But Analogical Scaffolding is a new one for me. I had the opporutnity to look into this over the past few months. We are building a course that uses analogies to help people understand more the complexities of work refineries by linking it to something they already understand. This is called  . . . apparently . . . analogical scaffolding. 

Makes sense. Scaffolding understanding through analogy. 

What good are analogies?

First this from Celik et al "Treagust, Harrison, and Venville (1998) summarized the importance of analogies, which are powerful learning techniques, in science teaching:

• Provides a clear understanding of the concepts from different perspectives.

• Enables learners to gain real-world experience.

• Helps to teach the concepts clearly from a different perspective.

• Summarizes topics in an easily-understandable form.

• Motivates learners by attracting their interests.

• Provides difficult information for learners and teachers to see their mistakes easily.

• Facilitates access to information, concept development, and problem solving.

• Makes unknowns compatible with logic by improving creativity."

Then this from Keri and Elbararny, "More than 70% of the students indicated that these analogies were useful in understanding the anatomical structures and physiological functions. Over 60% of students applied these analogies while studying. Eighty-eight percent of students found that analogies were engaging and made the lecture more enjoyable. We conclude that well-structured and purposeful analogies have positive impact on students’ learning of science courses during undergraduate nursing studies."

So, now that we will have our own training that includes a ton of analogies, I'm looking for ways to study it. How can we determine if analogical scaffolding is any good? What is the comparison? Is it just qualitative? 

I would hate not to take advantage of this opportunity. 

 

Çeli̇k, H., Kirindi, T., & Ayçi̇çek Kotaman, Y. (2020). The effect of the computer-based analogy used in science teaching on learning outcomes. Journal of Turkish Science Education, 17(1), 73–93. https://doi.org/10.36681/tused.2020.14

Keri, Z., & Elbatarny, H. (2021). The power of analogy-based learning in science. HAPS Educator, 25(1), 13–20. https://doi.org/10.21692/haps.2021.003

Coffee

My god!

I fucking want you.

The thought of waking up,

making you hot,

then tasting you on my lips.

Totally consuming you

only to do it again and again and again . . .

because one cup of coffee is never enough.