More on MicroLearning with Bernard

I had an interesting chat with a colleague from class, Bernard, the other day. He mentioned how little time there is in his life for class work and reflection. I know I've written about Microlearning before (see here) and reflective practice (see here) but it's worth bringing up again. 

One of the things I've learned through my classes is the importance of what you brought up, reflective practice. Taking the time for reflection and reflective practice is something that I believe is critical to long term memory development. I've tried to boil down what I've learned to my organization is something that we call the R4 Learning Retention process; Rigor, Relevance, Reinforcement and Reflection. Reflection is the hardest I believe to instill. We can ensure that the courses we create are Rigorous, or challenging enough to engage the learner. We can also provide Relevance through real life scenarios and analysis. Reinforcement is easy to provide through knowledge checks, quizzes and exams, but Reflection is tough. How can we ensure that our learners are thinking about training after they get back to their jobs and families. 

I know that when I am done with courses taking time to write about things, reading from others and applying what I know to their own discussion posts, and just generally taking the time to think about the courses, offers a terrific opportunity for reflection. However we usually only have our learners for a few hours to a day. Rarely do we have a chance to interact with our learners for more than a day. 

Last week I had the opportunity to be a part of a panel discussion on microlearning/spaced learning and chatbots. I think more than any other tool the opportunity that these microlearning/spaced learning or chatbots provide offer us the best chance to engage learners after the fact and perhaps activate that reflective moment for them. I've been stunned by how critical reflection is in learning and long-term memory development and how little it is focus on as a part of my organization's overall learning paradigm. 

More For The Evershade File

So, anyone who reads this knows just how much I love these Evershade posts (see HERE). I go about my day looking for those things that speak to me . . . Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, books I read, Reddit. They're out there and they all speak to me. I love em. And I contribute my own to the universe and to this blog. 

Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock, who has an amazing profile name, wrote about the best feeling in the world. We've all felt that haven't we? And when we do, it's like nothing else. 

The best feeling in the world is to be with someone who chooses you every day, not just when they are in a mood. 

You Might Be Getting Tired . . .

 Although you might be getting tired of these little dittys and poems, I never do. They show up on my twitter string and Boom! They just grab me. What better place to catalog them then here (and HERE). 

This first is fun. Makes me think of what Julie Roberts' character says to the Huge Grant character in Notting Hill. "I'm just a girl, standing infront of a boy, asking him to love her." Great stuff there. This too from Leaf.

I'm just a guy . . . waiting for a girl . . . to miss me too

Art in Learning Design

The other day I posted about an interview with Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim. During that inteview Brooke, my colleague, noticed a focus on art and design as a part of the learning process. 

I really like that Brooke picked up on that aspect of art-based research. I posted about art in my organization last year when I wrote this (here and here). 

As I mentioned in those posts, I was hired to improve the quality of our training course at my organization. When analyzing our product, I see that art and design has not been a focus point for our training. Not only has this been limiting our own design processes, but we might have actually been underserving our learners. 

Since writing that post, we have changed things in our department. Where before we simply reprocessed information we were given by our clients and applied some best practice adult learning methodologies and some expertise on drilling out redundancy and incorrect information. Based on what Sousa states, "In recent years, neuroscientists have been developing theories about ways in which art develops cognition. One common element of the current theories is that each art form involves different brain networks" (p. 247).

We have since brought on a design team whose sole focus is to push these artistic boundaries. Already, with very little investment in our training platform, they are doing things and creating courses that are vastly different, more rich, and more engaging than what we had before. Are they doing things that I couldn't have done? Nope. Are they doing things that Julie hasn't thought about and dreamed up herself? Nope. But these folks have the capabilities and the background to think of things as artists and that's what they are developing. Are they good products by themselves? Nope. By themselves they would be shallow and hollow, but when they are applied with Julie's team's help, when the artistic creativity is combined with the expertise, and adult learning theory that the rest of the team provides, then you have a product that is far more rich, vibrant, engaging and effective. By focusing on art and design we have vastly improved our product. 

References

Sousa, D.A. (2016). How the brain learns, (5th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Qualitative Research as Storytelling

For one class I was asked to discuss and interview with a researcher who focuses on qualitative research and qualitative research design. Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim is Professor and Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech.  

The first thing that really hit me was that Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim began her discussion by saying she fell in love with the subject because she loves stories and story telling. 
This is very intriguing to me. One of my past times is writing novels, so weaving stories together to create a book. It's very tough, not to come up with the idea, but to go through the process of story telling. How to say this verse that, how to and when to expose this fact or character. I find its hard to make things up completely out of whole cloth, rather than to start with a kernel of truth. I wonder having listened to Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim if finding those narratives and discovering those kernels of truth are what she enjoys about qualitative research. I look forward to hearing more about how qualitative research, and story telling can help me with my own qualitative studies. 

I also really enjoyed her discussion on software and specifically the moment she spoke about "finding those things that software didn't catch." It's interesting to me in that I work with many financially driven departments and colleagues. These people use software and numbers to drive so many of their decisions. Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim provided a wonderfully cautionary statement first when she said you must know all of the ins and outs of the software that you might use, but also you should know what the software won't capture so that you can find those things the software might not catch. It's a nice reminder to those people who rely too much on software for decision making moments. 

Check-The-Box Training

When I read Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki they write say on page 15 "typically, an organization (as structure) should match (or be related to) the way that it's programs are organized. The phrase "form follows function" is a principle used in architecture to mean that the design of something (like a building, in the case of architecture) should be based on the intended purpose or use for that thing." 

In my organization we provide compliance training for contractors entering and working in refineries. In the past this has been seen as "check-the-box" training; meaning that it was being done just to get it over with. The training our organization provided over the years to check this box training was rote, un-engaging, one dimensional and uninspired. People came to take it to get it over with, they didn't expect much, and we didn't deliver much. 

Now, we have started to focus on quality over quantity. the idea that if we are going to spend time checking a box, we should use that time to provide effective and engaging training. With this change has come the use of new software platforms for development and delivery, as well as investment in creative design teams and more animation and video resources. The form of our development teams has changed as the function of what we are delivery and why we are delivering it has changed. 

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.

P-90X Redux

So I had some folks ask questions about my workouts lately. You'll recall that I have at several times talked about my workouts (see here). I like to try and include them in my writing and in my novels, so why not discuss them here in my blog on writing.

My last couple of workout challenges (see here and here) were doozeys. My last was around my new running group (see here), Fort Bend Fit and our running to get ready for a marathon. Now, I'm not running a marathon. I've done enough of them to realize I don't like them. But I'm still running with them just to have a group, and to take some longer than normal runs. 

Lately, however I've gone beyond just running with the running group. I've created my own group for workouts and it's a doozey. It's composed of some Facebook friends, a couple of ladies from the running group (see the pic), a lady from my old SEAL PT group (see here), even a guy from my old Ranger Batt days, and an old friend. Together we've created an ersatz support group for workouts to help keep us going.

What's the workout? What's the challenge?

Well, ten years or so ago I completed P-90X (see here) and I really enjoyed it. It's tough, but it's a great workout. I believe I completed it three times before I decided to move on. I think I tested P-90X 2 when it came out, but I was not impressed. I'm not 6 weeks into my first 90 day workout. As a group we are going to finish this round. 

I add on a (minimum) 2 mile run with each workout, time depending. Usually I have time. I think I've missed a run twice in the last 6 weeks. Not a bad. 

I don't know about the rest of the crew, but I plan on taking a week or two off (just running) then doing P-90X 2. I don't care how much I hate it, I'm going to complete it. Then another week or so of relaxing running, and I'm going to move on to P-90X 3! After that, I should just about be done with a year, then I may try Insanity, or Beast Workout, or any of the other dozens and dozens of workouts that the group now has posted online. 

Last time it was DVD's this time it's all online, and with the little support group I've got going, I think I can do it! I'm about 25% done as it stands!

Fear vs Trust

Stephanie discussed Frederick the Great and fear. She quoted a line in our book that said; "on page 16, Morgan discusses Frederick the Great's principle that "that the men must be taught to fear their officers more than the enemy." 

Couldn't disagree more.

Stephanie, I was intrigued by your quote regarding people in the military being motivated by fearing their officers more than the enemy. Having spent some time in the military, I feel confident in saying that Frederick the Great's principle is outdated in today's modern military. 

One thing I noted when moving from high-school and college athletics to the military was that drill sergeants were out in the midsts of the soldiers far more noticeably than coaches ever were. While in general coaches would sit on the sidelines with a whistle encouraging the players to run faster or perform better, drill sergeants and team leaders were on the range shooting and in the formation running with the troops.

Rather than instilling a sense of fear this style of leadership instills trust. As a soldier I knew my team leaders would be leading the way and fighting by my side. As a team leader I knew my squad leader was going through the door with the squad. And as squad leader I knew my platoon sergeant and platoon leader were able to keep up and lift as much weight and do as much as any other soldier in the platoon because they had done it with us everyday. I think trust in leadership plays a far more important role than fear in today's military. 

A lot More for the Evershade Label

One of my favorite posts (and most likely the most therapeutic) are these that I label Evershade (see HERE). Why? I don't know. They express for me what I feel so well. Hope you like these!

This first is from AwayfromDevine, a great name, and a great sentiment. Eyes are certainly the windows to the souls. I have another where I mention eyes (HERE) this one is right up there too.

The first thing I do when I look into your eyes is, that I admit that I am lost

And Even More on Red Tape

I had a discussion with two of my classmates about red-tape which I've been writing about these last few days. Like Daryn, I believe that red-tape in bureaucracies are necessary evils, but also they are routes designed to help users through processes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be unbreakable. Some of the best members of our organizations are those who understand the red-tape, know why it is in place, but who can both navigate through it or have the authority to break it when needed to keep business going in the right direction and uninterrupted. 

Daryn wrote about about fixed processes vs fluid processes. When thinking about mechanization in organizations, I also like to think about the evolution of Iron Man through the different Marvel movies that have come out. In the first he is all gears and parts, but by the end his suit of armor is made of nano materials and flows around him like liquid. This I think is the ideal outcome of mechanization. Where you can have an organization or bureaucracy that is tough, strong and process driven like a machine, but also nimble, fluid and variable enough to deal with the ever changing demands of business and society. 

Lori wrote that processes with red tape have "structure has a high degree of specialization which utilizes work standardization to achieve efficiencies." I really like how she discusses efficiencies. Red-tape doesn't always have to be bad, but processes that are defined by red-tape can actually make organizations run more efficiently and effectively, especially for younger workers.