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Jay Turner
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Posts by Jay Turner
Put on Your Hard Hats!
Aug 24th
Do you have an activity that works well for a customer service class? Have you created a humorous video that learners in your classes always enjoy? Maybe you’ve done a detailed study of webinar platforms and would like to share that information with others who could use it. With the Learning Round Table’s new ALA Learning Wiki , you now have a platform to share your knowledge.
Over the course of the past several months, LearnRT has been constructing a dual-purpose wiki: a destination to serve as a comprehensive clearinghouse of tools and resources for those interested in learning and training in libraries, as well as providing an open forum for free-flowing discussion about training and learning. We’re halfway to the finish line, but we could use the help of those who follow our blog. The backbone of the ALA Learning Wiki is complete – that is, we have a structure in place to host tools and resources for learning and training, but we have very little content available thus far. We invite you to help us build the wiki by adding tools and resources to the site that you believe can be useful to your fellow colleagues. For our heartier readers, we also hope to discover a few wiki champions – people who’ll commit to posting at least five items per month through the end of December 2010.
The wiki is divided into seven broad sections:
Managing Training – Best Practices: Big picture issues of planning and managing a training program, and could include examples of curriculum plans, approaches to evaluating effectiveness, and policies and procedures for training programs.
Training Events – Best Practices: Tips and tricks for putting together effective classes and other training events. This area also will include a wealth of resources on All Staff Days developed as a special project of LearnRT’s Emerging Leaders.
Training Materials and Resources: Materials related to specific class topics, such as outlines, lesson plans, activities, video tutorials, and slideshows.
E-Learning: Links to free and affordable self-paced courses and live webinars.
Trainers’ Tools: Recommended resources, reviews, advice, and comparisons of everything from webinar platforms to flipcharts.
Connections: A directory of colleagues who are involved in staff development, consultants, and professional organizations (e.g., the American Society of Training and Development [ASTD]).
Learn More: Reviews of books and articles, recommended websites, professional journals, and certificate and degree programs all relating to the training function.
It takes a village to raise a wiki, so we’ve made submitting content relatively simple. Just sign up to become a member of the site and then follow the easy contribution guidelines to post. With your help, the Learning Round Tables hopes to reach a critical mass of resources by January 1, 2011 so that we can officially launch the wiki to the rest of library land at ALA Midwinter in San Diego. We feel confident that we can reach this goal, but we need the help of our readers, even if you only have one or two things to add.
Put on your hard hats, hop over to the wiki, and start helping us build! Feel free to contact your wiki administrators Jay Turner (jturner@gwinnettpl.org) or Richard Mott (rmott@coj.net) if you have any questions, need assistance, or have suggestions for improving the site.
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Loading ...Welcome to the Machin(ima)
Jul 13th
Yesterday I posted a video on ALA Connect of my library’s second annual Virtual Staff Day that generated a bit of interest. Our own Peter Bromberg and a few other folks asked that I share how I created it. Providing the play-by-play of how it was developed is a bit too much for one blog post. You’ll need to attend future Learning Round Table events at ALA for more in-depth tricks like that. However, let’s look at the basics of the cinematography technique – machinima — I used for Virtual Staff Day and some resources you can play with to get started in your foray into 3D storytelling.
GCPL Virtual Staff Day 2010 from jay turner on Vimeo.
Machinima is a style of film-making where a narrative is presented using 3D characters and environments culled from video games or virtual worlds. Machinima is recorded directly from a video source (most commonly, your computer or game console) and additional editing is done to include music, sound, and special effects to enrich the story. Getting started with machinima is simple. All you need, aside from a computer with a good video card, is a gaming platform, screen capture software, and music and sound effects software. The great part about it is that most of these items are available for free. Let’s look at what you’ll need.
Platform
Like a real movie, machinima relies on the acting prowess of its thespians – in this case, the avatars. Therefore, you should carefully consider what acting skills your avatars will need and then choose a virtual world/gaming platform where the 3D characters have the appropriate animations. If you play the Sims or War Craft, as you can see in these eclectic videos, you already have a bevy of avatars with myriad poses.
If, however, you have the time to create your own film set, complete with custom avatars, background, lighting effects, and camera angles, you should definitely check out iClone 4. This commercial software will set you back $150, although the free edition provides you ample tools to make your own machinima movie.
Use Exit Reality, a browser plug in that renders the Web in 3D, if you’re looking to create simple machinima with a singular background, a steady camera angle, and avatars with limited movement. Simply launch ER from your browser, choose a webpage, select a 3D backdrop, and have a couple avatars visit a website together. You can record simple footage of, say, the two avatars walking around a building constructed from your library’s website and talking about all the cool services that your organization provides online. Here’s a quick machinima vid I created of a woman strolling into a library to get a new card.
Screen Capture
You’ll need to record your machinima after you’ve scripted your scene. I recommend using the commercially available Camtasia, which has a free trial, for capturing crisp video in a variety of formats. If cost is a concern, go with Hypercam, which also has the ability to capture video directly from your computer’s video card. Video recorded with this free software will be slightly grainy and watermarked, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Music and Sound
Need some ambient music and sound effects to bring your machinima to life? Hop over to ccMixter.org for Creative Commons licensed music or their sister site, FreeSound.org for a wealth of sound effects. The more adventurous amongst us might want to give Myna, a free music maker akin to Fruity Loops, a try. I’ve had this tool in my digital sandbox for a while now, but only recently used it to make a few music loops that I’ll use in an e-learning course and game I’m creating. Beware: it’s addictive!
Trainers are always looking for innovative ways for engaging their audiences. Machinima allows us to craft compelling presentations and stories without needing arrogant actors or blockbuster budgets. I invite you all to try out these resources for creating machinima and then come back and share your masterpieces with the rest of us.
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5 Things That Make You Look Like a Noob
Jun 1st
This month marks my third anniversary as Training Manager for Gwinnett County Public Library and my fifth year working in training and development. As I prepare for my annual performance evaluation, I always like to clean up my cubicle as a symbol of receiving a new beginning. While I was tidying up the old hole in the wall, I found a notebook of handouts from a train the trainer session I attended five years ago. Alarm bells rang in my head. If I’d unearthed the notebook from the black hole that is my desk, then the dreaded video of my first recorded presentation was somewhere nearby. Surely enough the mini-DVD labeled “PB&J” (I was recorded demonstrating how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to my fellow trainees) was underneath a small hill of forgotten conference swag. I couldn’t resist playing the DVD for a good laugh, and boy did I get a belly full of laughter from watching it. My awkwardly stiff performance on that video forced me to reflect on my first year or so as a trainer. Inspired by some of my worst moments, I present to you: 5 Things That Make You Look Like a Noob – in no particular order.
1. Reading from your notes: Part of the training exercise for planning for my presentation was to write down the necessary steps on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so that an alien could do it alone. When it was time for me to present, I was so nervous to speak in front of the group that I actually carried my notes with me and even read from them a couple of times. Nothing says uncomfortable and unprepared like reading from your presenter’s notes. This is true for webinars as well.
Nothing screams noob louder than appearing unprepared or uncomfortable.
2. Apologizing: I was stoked the very first time I taught a training class at my library. I was leading a four hour session that teaches new employees how to use the library’s ILS. I’d spent the previous week preparing, so that class would be perfect at show time. Things didn’t work the way I’d planned. Due to unplanned maintenance, I was forced to use a test version of a records database instead of the real one. I learned during my session that the database would often give cryptic error messages when certain steps were performed. I was not expecting this, so when one of these messages appeared, I would apologize to the class (and that was a lot of mea culpas!) I’ve since learned that you undermine your credibility as a presenter when you apologize repeatedly. If you say you’re sorry for an inconvenience, do it once and move on. Constant apologies draw more attention to problem and give the impression that you are not in control.
3. Dressing like the rest: The dress code at my library is business casual, and it is not uncommon to see me in the office wearing pressed slacks, a polo shirt, and sensible shoes. Early in my training career, I would teach class wearing my typical work attire. I’m no Tim Gunn, but I did find it problematic that new employees at the library thought I was a trainee and not the trainer based on my appearance. That only had to happen twice before I realized that as a presenter, I should always dress one step above the audience.
4. A long introduction: Most people don’t care about the history of your topic or how Merriam Webster defines it. Classroom time is invaluable, and blowing ten minutes on an inane intro is not a good use of it. Lead into your presentation with a solid opener – something that gets people moving, talking, and most importantly, thinking about the upcoming presentation.
5. Doing all the talking: It feels good to be the center of attention, and it’s one of the reasons why I enjoy my job. As a trainer, I can be an entertainer, motivator, and teacher – someone that people want to hear (or have to hear, depending on the circumstances). Early in my training career, I reveled in the spotlight and loved nothing more than receiving class evaluations with additional comments like, “Jay is so funny!”, or “This class was entertaining. Thanks for the good times.” The problem, I later realized, is that I was unintentionally making myself part of the subject matter, instead of the focusing solely on the learners. It took me a while to recognize the value in talking less and allowing my learners to have more meaningful interaction. If you’re doing more than 60% of the talking in your classroom, then it’s probably time to zip it.
This is only five of dozens of faux pas I’m guilty of committing. What are some noob mistakes that you’ve been guilty of? What advice would you give fledging trainers to save them some embarrassment along the way?
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Transfer of Training in a 2.0 World
Mar 10th
If you follow ALA Learning, you’ve probably realized by now that I’m an e-learning addict. In my last post, Fighting for Attention, I shared some insight into how to add digital pizzazz to your e-learning efforts. Today I want to invite you to come and play inside my digital sandbox, and check out three intriguing tools I’ve been tinkering with to help with transferring knowledge from the classroom back to the work environment.
Twitter Gaming
I was a huge fan of Terminator and Terminator II: Judgment Day. Needless to say that was I stoked to learn that Sony would release another Terminator flick after the apocalyptic letdown that was Terminator III. Before the launch of Terminator Salvation, Sony cooked up Resistance 2018, an elaborate game using Twitter, in which members of the human resistance army were using Twitter to decode messages from Skynet. Players earned points by decoding the messages. As players earned points, they rose up the leader boards on the Resistance 2018 website and achieved higher rank in the army.
I’ve been experimenting with the setup of how to make a Terminator-esque Twitter game for my library. A spiel of this sort can be used as a follow up exercise for any class where you need to do a knowledge check. For example, I’ve created a basic reference e-learning module, and the “homework” portion of the class is a massive set of reference questions. While I believe in the value of having folks new to libraries demonstrate an understanding of reference resources, I heard seen in my evaluation surveys that new hires really dislike the chore answering the questions. For my next batch of new hires, I plan to use a Twitter game like Resistance 2018 in which I invite the new hires to use their Twitter accounts to answer reference questions sent by me. As in Resistance 2018, the person who answers a question the quickest with the correct answering (citing their source along the way) will receive the most points. I’ll set up a leader board on a private Sharepoint blog so the newbies can compete for bragging rights.
ExitReality
For years companies have valiantly attempted to transform casual web-browsing into an interactive 3D experience. Platforms like GoGoFrog and 3dxplorer can give you an overall feel for the web in three dimensions. Both sites have potential, but by and large, the result is a clunky 3D browser that subtracts – not add – value to your web surfing experience. ExitReality is one of those tools that I find absolutely useless when used as a method for web surfing; however, ExitReality serves as an outstanding three dimensional meeting platform.
ExitReality is a small plugin that, once downloaded onto a computer, turns any webpage into a 3D space based on a theme of your choosing. Turn a webpage into an apartment, dojo, movie theater, etc. The list goes on. Users can select from more than 100 available avatars and then begin chatting immediately – either with text or through VoIP, thanks to the dynamo that is Flash 10. Rooms vary in size, but most are large enough to comfortably handle a small group of 5-7 participants with plenty of space to move around.
Since the plugin automatically renders websites, you will find that pages that have many links on them are somewhat difficult to use in 3D. As a work around, I recommend designing your own simple webpage using Microsoft Word. Include a few links to material that supplement what was taught in class and then publish your site online using a free web hosting site, like X10 Hosting.
Consider using ExitReality as a live, real-time discussion forum for your learners to meet after class and discuss concepts or ask additional questions of instructors. The added layer of interactivity is nice, and the core functionality of multi-user chat with VoIP is well worth this 4.5mb download.
A 3D intro video to one of my e-learning classes shown on the big screen in Exit Reality.
Bubblr
Bubblr is an easy to use, web-based program that allows users to create comic strips from Flickr photos. After a strip is published, it can be printed, shared by email, or embedded in a blog. I envision Bubblr as a tool to where you can invite learners to demonstrate comprehension of class concepts by synthesizing their knowledge through a comic strip. For instance, I’ll be conducting an orientation soon to provide new employees with an overview of the library. As a follow up exercise, the new employees will need to create a short comic strip that demonstrates that they understand how our branches are arranged. Here is a quick strip that I put together to showcase this neat tool.
Bubblr is an easy to use, web-based program that allows users to create comic strips from Flickr photos. After a strip is published, it can be printed, shared by email, or embedded in a blog. I envision Bubblr as a tool to where you can invite learners to demonstrate comprehension of class concepts by synthesizing their knowledge through a comic strip. For instance, I’ll be conducting an orientation soon to provide new employees with an overview of the library. As a follow up exercise, the new employees will need to create a short comic strip that demonstrates that they understand how our branches are arranged. Here is a quick strip that I put together to showcase this neat tool.
What online tools are you using to maximize training transfer?
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...20 Questions for Just That Guy
Jan 20th
1. Your One Sentence Bio
Just that guy.
2. Do you blog? If yes, how did you come up with your blog name?
Yes, but only on ALA Learning. I have much respect and admiration for the other authors here who run their own blogs or who are writing books. I think I must have a case of permanent writer’s block or something. I’ve been going by the online moniker Lawless Librarian for a while now. I believe in the rules – I just believe more strongly that they do not apply to me. Don’t tell my boss I said that!
3. What is your professional background?
I’m a library lifer. I started shelving books at the tender age of 15, and 15 years later, here I am. I’ve worn almost every conceivable public services hat, and I try to bring that diversity of knowledge to my current role as Training Manager.
4. What training do you do? staff? patrons? types of classes?
I do staff training in a blended learning environment. I’m the Inspector Gadget of library learning. It’s rare that I’ll find a concept, tool, or trick that I don’t want to apply to training. I subject my willing (and unwilling) guinea pigs to radioactive live and virtual ILT and neuron-nuking self-paced training. Training topics run the gamut: we have a new hire onboarding program where the Training Team and I will teach the fundamental skills necessary to work in the library. We also offer a ton of continuing education — roughly 80% online and 20% face-to-face – that covers topics of interest like customer service, readers’ advisory, and communication skills..
5. What training do you think is most important to libraries right now?
I think the most important training libraries need right now would be along the lines of helping staff members help customers who need help helping themselves. Try saying that three times fast.
6. Where do you get your training?
I steal it from little kids and old ladies. You might be next, so watch out. Seriously, I’m constantly online looking for supplemental learning assets. I’ve found great content from places like the Ken Blanchard Companies, SirsiDynix Institute, Webjunction, InfoPeople, and Training Zone. I often get inspiration and ideas from notable trainers like Elliot Masie and Bob Pike.
7. How do you keep up?
Rather poorly.
8. What do you think are the biggest challenges libraries are facing right now?
((Usage)^2 +(Funding)^-1) = NOT good
9. What are biggest challenges for trainers?
Budget. Learner engagement. Getting folks to realize that some performance issues are not training issues.
10. What exciting things are you doing training wise?
I’m currently working on my library’s second annual virtual staff day. Another exciting project I’m currently working on is teaching the basics of my library’s circulation guidelines using characters from the Street Fighter games. Hadoken!
11. What do you wish were you doing?
Running my own pizza shop in the mountains of Appalachia.
12. What would you do with a badger?
Give it dredlocks and parade it around town as my long-lost twin.
13. What’s your favorite food?
I’m not picky. You could give me bread and water every day and I’d be fine with it.
14. What’s your take on handshakes?
They’re a little gross, if ask me. Germs, germs, germs!
15. How did you get into this line of work?
A great mentor and happenstance.
16. What is the best part of your job?
I’ll echo what others have said here: it feels great to know that the things I do, no matter how big or small, can help staff members serve our community. How awesome is that?!
17. Why should someone else follow in your shoes?
Like shaking hands, following in someone else’s shoes is a little gross. Seriously, who knows where those feet have been? Buy your own pair.
18. Sushi or hamburger?
How about a sushi-burger, or some cow carcass-sushi?
19. LSW or ALA?
If by LSW you mean Lego Star Wars, then I’m with LSW.
20. What one person in the world do you want to have lunch with and why?
Axl Rose so I can learn how to do the snake dance. Yes, I’m still stuck in the 80s.
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