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A little bedtime story

December 23, 2008 By

What happens when graphic designers try really really hard to be boring and to put the viewer to sleep? Check out Before&After’s Bedtime Book Cover challenge for a bit of light diversion before the holidays.

156 designers responded to the challenge to be boring. And many of them did not succeed.

I wonder what the contest results would look like if online instructional designers were given the same challenge. How high do you think the percentage would be of successfully sleep-inducing course modules?

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

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The all-new networked teacher (librarian?)

December 19, 2008 By

Networked TeacherThere is a lot of talk about the new wired and networked student, but where does that leave teachers and trainers?

Alec Couros considers what it means to be a networked teacher and his ideas informed the last minute of this video on The Networked Student.

Networked Teacher roles Far from being rendered obsolete, the networked teacher has a powerful set of functions in the realm of social learning. Relieved of the sage-on-the-stage burden, teachers can explore new territory.

  • Learning architect: helps students to build learning networks
  • Modeler: provides guidance when students get stuck
  • Learning concierge: helps students with communication etiquette and how and where to ask for information
  • Connected learning incubator: provides guidance on how to vet resources and identify quality information
  • Network sherpa: organizes the mountains of information
  • Synthesizer: helps students navigate beyond the  course and develop real knowledge for their futures
  • Change agent: helps students to “creatively solve the world’s problems”

These are good roles to consider in terms of “training” (outmoded term) library staff, but don’t you think all of these roles could apply to librarians and their patrons of all ages?

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

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Filed Under: Social Learning Tagged With: , ,

Webinar: Learning for Learning Profesionals: Competencies, Strategies and Resources”

December 1, 2008 By

CLENE and Webjunction are co-sponsoring a great Webinar on Thursday, December 11, 11 a.m. PST, (1;00 CST, 2 p.m. EST): Learning for Learning Professionals: Competencies, Strategies and Resources.

REGISTRATION: http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1546

PRESENTERS: Mary Ross, CLENERT Board member and former manager of staff development at the Seattle Public Library, will lead the discussion. She will be joined by Betha Gutsche, curriculum designer for e-learning initiatives at WebJunction, and Jennifer Homer, vice president of external relations for the American Society of Training and Development.

DESCRIPTION:

As trainers, continuing education coordinators and staff development managers, we believe in lifelong learning. We are committed to helping library employees improve their skills and build successful careers. As cheerleaders for organizational and individual learning, do we sometimes lose sight of our own learning? What are we doing to invest in ourselves? What are the competencies that we will need as we lead our libraries in future skill development and employee learning?

To celebrate Employee Learning Week, join us for an exploration of current and future competencies for learning professionals working in libraries. We will look at strategies for our own development and the resources available to help us pursue them.

ASTD’s Employee Learning Week, December 8-12, features champions, who successfully connect staff learning with achieving results. For more information, go to: http://www.employeelearningweek.org/.

Mary Ross, CLENERT Board member and former manager of staff development at the Seattle Public Library, will lead the discussion. She will be joined by Betha Gutsche, curriculum designer for e-learning initiatives at WebJunction, and Jennifer Homer, vice president of external relations for the American Society of Training and Development.

This hour-long webinar is co-sponsored by WebJunction and  ALA’s Continuing Library Education Network and Round Table (CLENERT).

Register here: http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1546

Peter Bromberg

Filed Under: E-Learning, Free Stuff Tagged With: ,

Out of Maslow’s Basement

November 14, 2008 By

Or How to Get Stuck on Lifelong Learning.

Duct tape always gets my attention (must be the craftsperson in me). So a blog post featuring a giant roll of duct tape and titled Sticking it to Instruction was successful in diverting my attention from my over-crowded schedule.

This is a librarian’s review of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The book is about successful marketing, but reviewer Ellie Collier found enough library- and learning-related stickiness to write over 2500 words about it. (Maybe I won’t have to read the book now.)

The book identifies 6 major qualities of sticky ideas:

  • Simplicity
  • Unexpectedness
  • Concreteness
  • Credibility
  • Emotions
  • Stories

The one quality that really resonated with me and my thinking about internalized lifelong learning for library staff is emotions. The emotional component in successful learning is huge. I’m a natural learner, and I suspect most of my fellow trainers are –that’s what attracted us to this arena. I have a large appetite for new information. I get excited and I’m sure my heart rate increases when I’m learning something new. But not everyone shares this impulse. The big challenge for trainers is to stimulate that level of emotional engagement in their learners.

[The authors] discuss Maslow’s Pyramid and comment that most self interest appeals invoke the physical, security, and esteem layers. We need to come out of Maslow’s basement.

We often try to communicate the “what’s in it for me?” to learners in order to motivate them. This quotation makes me realize that maybe I have always set the WIIFM? bar too low. Now I really do want to read the book to gather ideas about appealing to the transcendant levels of Maslow’s hierarchy.

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

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Filed Under: LearnRT News Tagged With: ,

Me Present Pretty One Day

October 30, 2008 By

Over at Walking Paper, Aaron Schmidt has started a great conversation on how to give a good presentation.  Pete Bromberg (aka moi) has added his perspective over at the Library Garden blog.  Brenda Hough also weighs in on her blog, Librarians with Class (great blog name!)

So CLENIACS, what are your tips, best practices, double-secret tricks, etc. that you rely on to give kick-ass presentations?

Peter Bromberg

Filed Under: Presentation Tips Tagged With:

T is for Training — A New Podcast about — Training!

September 23, 2008 By

by Maurice Coleman, Technical Trainer at Harford County (MD) Public Library and blogger at The Chronicles of the (almost) Bald Technology Trainer

I am pleased to announce to the all in the ALA CE Buzz/CLENE community a new podcast called T is for Training.  UPDATE: Here is the link to the Episode 2: How I Stumbled Into Training mp3.

The podcast was started because I did not find a podcast that spoke to me or my colleagues about training issues with a library slant.  In fact, it found almost nothing out in the podcasting world there that talked about training at all.

So, with the encouragement of some library cohorts, I started the podcast T is for Training.

Episode 2 is coming up on Friday September 26th at 2 pm Eastern and we would love to have you listen live or subscribe to our feed. For those into social networking, we have a delicious tag (tisfortraining,) a FriendFeed page, a Facebook Page and a LinkedIn Group.  Network with your fellow trainers at any of these sites.

Here is what we talked about on the first episode:

Dealing with Information Overload (Article by Sarah Houghton-Jan) ;
What is a/your personal learning environment? (Article) and Dealing with your staff personal training needs;
What tools do you use to transfer your small burst/Just in Time Trainings?
What kinds of skills do we need to teach in library school to encourage quality training?

The second episode’s talking points like this:

Undercover Training: How do you handle those “outside of your system” training opportunities;
Do you want to go to ALA? Or CIL or LITA?
Qualify and Certify: Trainer Certifications, Qualifications and Organizations.

We also will begin each show with introductions and close the show, as time permits, with From the Back Room a space to find support and ask for help.  The posts after each episode will be annotated with links to resources discussed in the podcast.  I want this podcast to be dedicated but not obsessed with training in libraries.

So please join us live, on our feed or on the blog!  See you there!

Special thanks to Peter Bromberg, at South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative (SJRLC), for extending the invitation to talk with all of you about T is for Training.

Maurice Coleman

Maurice Coleman, has been Technical Trainer at Harford County (MD) Public Library in North Eastern Maryland for the last 7 years. He has 20 years of experience training all ages how to sensibly use technology, computer hardware and software. He has also trained on effective technology planning and deployment, social media skills, nonprofit organizational development and fundraising, community organizing and presentation skills. He has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as digital personal branding, technology implementation, presentation and training skills, community development and effectively using social media. He hosts the library training podcast T is for Training and writes for the American Library Association’s LearnRT blog ALALearning. For his work he was named a 2010 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and received the Citizens for Maryland Libraries Davis McCarn Technology Award. You can find him on twitter @baldgeekinmd

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Online training: not as easy as it looks

September 4, 2008 By

(Here I go again—blogging about another WebJunction event. Can I help it if there’s some cool stuff shakin’ at WJ?)

If you’ve presented, facilitated, or produced a live, online training session or webinar, you have a sense of how many variables are involved. It’s a juggling act with virtual balls. The really successful trainers make it look easy and seamless.

WebJunction has partnered with InSync Training to offer the Synchronous Learning Expert certificate series to help you master seamless and smooth online facilitation, as well as design of online training and the opportunity to create your own capstone e-design project. The great advantage of taking this course through WebJunction is being in a cohort with other library staff with similar interests AND having the new WJ collaborative learning space to maximize your online learning experience.

As a prerequisite to the SLE courses, WJ is offering a FREE one hour introductory course, Learn How to Learn Online. There are two offerings of this course currently scheduled:

  • Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 10:00 AM Pacific/1:00 PM Eastern
  • Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 2:00 PM Pacific/5:00 PM Eastern

To enroll in either offering, visit http://tinyurl.com/5896z8.

Questions? Email courses@webjunction.org

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

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Filed Under: E-Learning, Free Stuff, Presentation Tips, Synchronous Learning Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

DIY Petting Zoo

August 7, 2008 By

The next Learning Webinar at WebJunction is about Creating a Technology Petting Zoo at your library. Join Maurice Coleman and Annette Gaskins as they show you how to create a learning-by-play environment for effective technology training.

When: Thursday, August 14, 1:00 PM Central Time

Please register for this webinar here: http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1501

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

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Back by popular demand

July 29, 2008 By

Lori Reed‘s June Learning Webinar presentation was so well-received that WebJunction asked her back for a repeat performance.

Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library
When: Tuesday, August 5, 2008, 1:00 PM Central Time

How much time does your library spend on “training?” Statistics show that most learning takes place on the job or with a coworker, yet, as trainers, we spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for and delivering classroom training. In this webinar you will learn why you need to get your staff out of the classroom and instead focus on creating a culture of learning in your library.

Lori will explore:

  • The differences between training and learning
  • The benefits to libraries for creating a culture of learning
  • The key elements of a learning organization
  • Tips for creating a culture of learning in any size library

Please register for this webinar here: http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1502

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

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Mesmerized by Thiagi

July 23, 2008 By

If you are a regular reader of the CLENExchange, you may remember the book review of Card Games by Thiagi, written by then CLENE President, Pat Taviss for the September 2007 issue. Pat described Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan as “an international game master with a reputation for creating engaging games that enhance and support learning.” As the CLENExchange editor, I added an editor’s note to her review about my memories both of seeing Thiagi at an American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) conference in 1988 and attending his 2-day workshop in 1990.

As I frequently tell trainers I meet about the impact Thiagi’s training made on me, I was delighted to receive an email today with a link to a wonderful YouTube video titled Rapid Instructional Design with Thiagi. The April 2008 program was sponsored by the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Training Forum. The email came from Gail Griffith, Deputy Director of the Carroll County (MD) Public Library, responsible for public services and staff development and a CLENE member. I wrote about connecting with Gail as a part of my research for a December 2005 CLENExchange article on Elliot Masie’s Learning 2005 global conference; there is also a profile of Gail in that issue.

Back to the video …the description reads, “Learn how Thiagi and his team undertake complex instructional design projects without the use of time-consuming, low value added traditional ISD models. Thiagi has created, tested and successfully applied his own model that produces rapid prototypes tomorrow.” I urge you not to miss this opportunity to learn and be mesmerized by a master. For more information, tips and tricks from Thiagi, visit his website too.

 

Come play with Thiagi

Come play with Thiagi

Gail McGovern

Filed Under: E-Learning, Presentation Tips Tagged With: , ,
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