Archive | April, 2011
Kirkpatrick Revisited

Kirkpatrick Revisited

by on April 18, 2011 in Evaluation, Instructional Design

After I finished my post a few weeks ago on Reevaluating Evaluation, I found out that Donald Kirkpatrick, the granddaddy of the Four Levels of Evaluation, was taking a farewell tour before his retirement and would be presenting a workshop at the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) in Minneapolis.

It was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.  I have included Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation in every proposal I have ever written, and I wanted to hear from Kirkpatrick himself regarding his take on the current state of evaluation and whether his four levels are still viable.

So I went to the workshop.  I wanted to get a more in-depth knowledge of the four levels and where the next generation, Kirkpatrick’s son James, was taking them.

I said in my last post that Kirkpatrick’s four levels were all about the training itself rather than how the training …

Read full story • Comments { 2 }
Brain Rules for Learning: Who Knew? We All Did.

Brain Rules for Learning: Who Knew? We All Did.

by on April 15, 2011 in blended learning, Classroom Learning, eLearning, Informal Learning, social learning, Training Development

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend a keynote speech by Dr. John Medina on his book Brain Rules at the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions 2011 conference.  When I think of Dr. Medina’s address, especially among the many I attended that week, some words that immediately spring to mind are enlightening, engaging, exciting and energizing….pass the alliteration please!

First of all, you should know that Dr. Medina is a developmental molecular biologist, research consultant, and Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine. You might wonder why Dr. Medina was speaking at a conference for eLearning professionals until you see this last credit…He is also the director for the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University. And when you hear him speak, you can tell immediately that the man is fascinated with and passionate about how the brain takes in and organizes information; the essence of learning.…

Read full story • Comments { 0 }
Surfing the Net: Waste of Time or Personal Directed Learning?

Surfing the Net: Waste of Time or Personal Directed Learning?

by on April 13, 2011 in Informal Learning, social learning

Last week my girlfriend and I ate dinner at Darbar Indian Grill in Uptown Minneapolis with another couple (good food, but overpriced), and we got on the topic of surfing the net on the job.  By the way, “Surfing the Net” is a great phrase that fell by the wayside far too early.  It conjures memories of terrible 90s thriller movies featuring Sandra Bullock in the prime of her career.  I’m sorry, but somebody explain to me why she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Blind Side, honestly.

Our conversation centered on whether or not companies should limit their employees’ use of the internet and social media while at work.  One friend mentioned that her company doesn’t allow her to use the internet, period, because they expect her full attention to be on patients for the entire day.  And she felt this to be acceptable.  Another friend stated …

Read full story • Comments { 0 }
Do Instructional Designers in the Social Digital Age need an Engineering Background?

Do Instructional Designers in the Social Digital Age need an Engineering Background?

by on April 11, 2011 in Development Tools, eLearning, Informal Learning, Instructional Design, performance support, social learning

In his blog post, Inkling: An Ipad Interactive Text Book, Rob Strulowitz, Principal and Founder of Worldview Learning, states:

If you love technology and learning, and you don’t yet own an Apple iPad, this video may make you run to your nearest Best Buy and purchase the iPad2.

Inkling, an ePublishing start-up based in San Francisco, is about to blow your mind through its reimagination of the textbook for the Social Age.

I’ve helped design and build many electronic performance support systems (or mega-instructional job aids as expertly described by Cathy Moore), and have recently started exploring ways to incorporate social learning tools … but nothing like this.

What blows my mind when I see Inkling?
1. How critical technology is in helping us put the human at the center of the learning process. In his blog post The Death of Textbooks, the Dawn of Learning…

Read full story • Comments { 0 }
The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Silence

by on April 7, 2011 in eLearning

At what point does narration really add anything to an eLearning module, and at what point is it simply being added because “it’s what’s expected?”  These are serious questions that deserve serious consideration, but unfortunately they don’t always get it. 

The usual rationale given for why eLearning needs both text and audio is that it accommodates multiple learning styles.  Some people synthesize material when it is presented in written form, and some just do better when they are free to listen without reading.  That’s all fair, and we should seek to accommodate as many people as possible in our pursuit of effective training.

Oddly enough, however, it’s a rare day when you hear people say “I learn so much better when my brain is trying to do two things at once.” Why don’t we hear that?  Because it’s not true.  And yet that’s effectively what is happening when we …

Read full story • Comments { 0 }
← Older posts
Newer posts →