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E-readers: step into your patron’s shoes

February 21, 2011 By

My best preparation for helping others adapt to this new technology has been to own and operate my own e-reader. I will hereby truly confess that I was not instantly savvy and suave with the gadget of my choice. No, I definitely had a learning curve to climb. Even if you had no moments of confusion or missteps, put yourself in the shoes of your patrons. Imagine helping your not-so-computer-slick grandmother who doesn’t care about keeping up with the tech-savvy Joneses but just wants to read on a device that will allow her to adjust the font size to her liking.

The following are some of the assumptions I bumped up against while getting acquainted with my e-reader. Your patrons may be coming to the library to be disabused of similar assumptions.

1. I know how my device works.
Gadgets don’t come with detailed instruction manuals these days. No, I don’t believe it is the responsibility of library staff to be a walking instruction manual to educate patrons in the use of their devices; just be prepared for some level of ignorance about the features and functionality.

My shoes: I bought my e-reader at a big box electronic equipment store. After waiting 10 minutes for someone “knowledgeable” about e-readers to show up, I was not told anything more than the information I had arrived with and did not even have the opportunity to operate a test device. I learned later while reading reviews of my model that it has a stylus (so sleekly embedded that it was invisible to me) and the capability of writing and drawing note pages—cool!

2. Checking out an e-book from the library is as easy and familiar as checking out any other item.
It is super-easy to purchase a book from the brand’s online store with a wifi-enabled device. Simply locate the object of reading desire, supply your payment info, click purchase and the e-book pops onto the home screen rarin’ to be read. The commercial entities are good at creating a user-friendly process. This sets up a consumer expectation that the process will be equally seamless for a library download. Not so much.

My shoes: As I navigated to the special “digital books” section on my library website (not the regular catalog), I did diligently read the fine print, the list of compatible devices and the instructions for installing the special software to my computer (not my e-reader) that would allow me to download a book many steps later. I managed to download the desired book but then became confused about how to transfer it to my e-reader. I called tech support and received immediate assistance—yay!

3. I won’t have to wait on a hold list for the electronic version of a popular book.
Wrong.  Don’t be surprised if you are confronted by disappointed patrons. With the surge in popularity of e-readers, the waiting lists will only lengthen.

My shoes: If I had stopped to think about licensing restrictions on electronic content, I would have realized that, of course, there would be limited distribution of digital copies. But in spite of my insider library knowledge, I was caught by surprise to find that a book I wanted had 3 copies available and 8 people ahead of me. I’ve been waiting over two weeks so far …

Enough assumptions for now. I’ll close with a success story for my library: Seattle Public Library. This is actually my husband’s story. He was attempting to download his first library e-book and ran into a similar problem to the one I had encountered. Only it was 2:00 in the morning. He called the tech support number listed on the SPL “digital books” page. Someone answered the call! My husband was so pleased with the immediate help he received that he asked how he could donate to the library. The tech support person helped him navigate to the online donation form and the library was subsequently $50 better off.

Moral of the story: if your library is proud of its e-book tech support, why not place a “Donate Now!” button right next to the “help” button?

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: Cool Tools, Learning Styles, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Tension between “Learn It Fast” and “Learn It Well”

August 4, 2010 By

As trainers, of either our customers or other staff, we often deal with dueling priorities.  Twice in the last month I’ve been confronted, as a trainer, with the tension between “Learn It Fast” and “Learn It Well.”  It’s a very stressful tension, and one that is not easily resolved by those of us who train, those who manage staff, and those who coordinate staff development and learning.

The “Learn It Fast” faction wants staff training and learning to not take very much time away from duties that they deem to be more important.  This faction wants learning to be instantaneous, efficient, and speedy.  They want learners to spend as little time as possible on staff training, period.  This faction tends to prefer webinars, online learning, and self-paced learning…which in and of itself is not a problem.  But when it’s the only learning that’s allowed, no matter what the topic, then we have a problem.  This faction tells instructors to cut a two hour class to 20 minutes, content be damned.  This faction tells training agencies that their staff can only spend 1 hour per week on a self-paced 4-week online learning class…and they still want to get the continuing education credits for it so they can tell their Commission or Board that they’re contributing to staff development.

The “Learn It Well” faction values the stick-to-it-ivness of training above all else.  They want learning to count, to stick.  This group allows for diverse training methods and media, as well as diverse training approaches.  They want to ensure that if they’re going to give staff time to go to training, that the time actually means something.  I’ve heard folks on this side of the line say “I’d rather give my staff 5 hours to go to a class and know that they’ll remember the content, than have them attend a 1/2 hour webinar that they can put on their performance review but which won’t help them in their jobs.”  This faction tends to like training evaluations, assessments before and after training series–all to make sure that the training is worthwhile and has the highest impact potential.  Those continuing education credits are like gold trophies to this group. Occasionally, this group values training almost too much, so much so that they over-complicate the process of training and creating training materials…thereby setting the barrier to entry so high that sometimes no training happens at all as a result.  Perhaps only face-to-face training is allowed, or online learning doesn’t “count” toward an employee’s development requirements.  Making things too long, too hard, can be problematic too.

There is a happy middle road–a common sense approach to training, the flexible “just get it done” approach.  Make what is useful to you, share it with others in a variety of ways depending on topic, don’t waste the learner’s time, and make sure you are always following best practices for learning and training.  That’s it.

To me, libraries (and anyone, really) should never, ever sacrifice quality and impact for ridiculous expediency.  Likewise, libraries shouldn’t over-complicate training to the point of never allowing the quick-and-dirty learning too.  As trainers, our primary duty is to our learners.  Just remember that, stick up for good training practices to those in charge, and you’ll at least know you’ve done your job.  And if you find yourself in the center of a battlefield of the “Learn It Fast” and “learn It Well” armies, hold up your white flag and scream for compromise.

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: Learning Styles, LearnRT News, The Training Life Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Training for Change: a 6-Step Program

May 5, 2010 By

As I get older, I have come to realize that embracing change is like drinking from a fountain of youth. Change keeps the brain healthy. The brain thrives on learning new things and forging new neuronal pathways. An active brain supports overall health and quality of life.

Riders on the STP

Riders heading out from Seattle, courtesy of joshua_putnam on Flickr

There are many types of change that we welcome in to our lives—travel, children, new languages, athletic challenges. But even when change is voluntary, there are times when it makes me feel old and tired, like I’ve been asked to adapt too often for too long. That’s because the mental muscles get overworked, according to Switch, the new book from the Heath brothers of Made to Stick fame. The brain muscles for creative thinking, focus, and persistence, which are key ingredients for effecting change, can get exhausted, just as the body’s muscles fatigue from strenuous exercise. Preparation for significant change in a person’s or an organization’s life is critical. It is akin to preparing for an athletic event. If I want to participate in the annual bicycle ride from Seattle to Vancouver (RSVP), I would set myself up for failure if I were to embark on the ride without any prior training. Planning for any major change is no different. Create a training program for change and enhance your probability of success.

Here is a 6-step training program to prepare for change.
(This plan is based on much of the Heath brother’s book. It uses some of their terminology, without going into their elephant/rider metaphor. You’ll have to read the book.)

1. Know where you’re going
For the RSVP, the destination and direction are straightforward. I can look up the route, the distance, even the location and elevation gain of the hills (obstacles). There is little ambiguity about what I’m aiming for and what success entails. This kind of specificity feeds the cognitive part of the brain, the part that grasps logical sequence and strategic analysis.

It is too often the case that organizational changes are vague. “Everyone in our library will be web 2.0 savvy by next year.” “Our library will become a learning organization.” What does that mean to each individual involved? What is desirable about the change and how will we know when we’re there? What is the distance and where are the hills to be climbed, i.e., when can we anticipate the tough spots and potential setbacks? It’s not possible to predetermine all the variables in a big project but the more specific and clear you can be, the more you engage the cognitive processes of each of your team members.

2. Get the feeling
It is crucial to motivate the emotional side of the brain, that ancient lizard brain that can put up amazing resistance to the rational, cognitive side. If it’s not on board, the change is not going to happen. For the RSVP ride, it’s not hard to feel enthusiasm, to be caught up in the excitement of my team members and to imagine the satisfaction of crossing the finish line.

For any organizational change, find a way to appeal to the emotions of your team. Create a vision of the library thriving in its ability to reach new users by telling stories of how social network tools dramatically extend that reach. Frame a learning effort as a fitness program with near-term targets and rewards for small steps toward the goal. Emotion is infectious—both positive and negative. Get ahead of any negative tendancies by identifying early enthusiasts and working with them to infect the rest of the team with their excitement.

3. Cultivate identity
Identity is a powerful aspect of emotional engagement. It promotes a “growth mindset” in which the entire brain is geared toward success. If I start calling myself a power cyclist and start thinking of myself as someone who can go the distance on a bike, I increase the likelihood of actually becoming that person. The Heath brothers cite some convincing examples: a Brazilian tin can manufacturer calling all of its employees “inventors” and thereby inducing thousands of suggestions for improvements to their production; a class of disadvantaged students calling themselves “scholars” and leaping ahead in scholastic achievement. Notice how these identities eliminate hierarchy or elitism. Everybody is an inventor or scholar or power cyclist.

I would love to find a strong identity for people who work in libraries. I would start by ditching that strained differentiation between librarians and library staff. What if we all started calling ourselves “catalyzers”? Everyone who works in a library has the potential to catalyze information access, research, community connections, demonstration of impact, etc. Everyone is invited to envision better ways for the library to thrive.

4. Clear the path
It is a major point in Switch that so often we tend to blame character flaws of individuals and ignore the impact of the situations in which they are involved. The Heath brothers repeat throughout the book that “what looks like a person problem is often a situation problem.” Let’s say that I’ve been on a few practice rides building up to greater distances. While I’m improving my stamina, I’m still frustrated that I seem to always lag behind the rest of my team. I start to think that I’m just too old and out of shape. When three of the other women on the team tell me how much their performance improved by switching to road bikes with high pressure, low friction tires and light frames, I get a clue about how my situation on a heavy, fat-tired bike impedes my progress. Getting a faster bike clears my path for success.

In your large organizational change effort, think about how you can reduce the friction and smooth the way. Avoid the tendency to label individuals as flawed: “that person is a luddite and just won’t adopt new technology.” Take an objective look at the situation surrounding the resisters. Are there structural changes that will make it easier for people to adapt? If team members are resisting the switch to a new technology, look for unnecessary hurdles that can be removed. If staff are not finding time to achieve their learning goals, look for ways to build in time by letting them start an hour before opening or reserving an hour/week in a quiet office. Pair up learning buddies to learn together and coach each other.

5. Chunk the change
elevation of the RSVP bike rideYou may be clear about the direction and still see the end point as daunting and unattainable. For the RSVP ride, the elevation gain in those hills lights a bit of fear in my gut.  It would be ridiculous to try to ride the 183 hilly miles on the first practice runs. It’s just common sense to start out with easier near-term goals, building up from 25-miles to 50- and 100-mile rides. A cycling performance recommendation is to increase your mileage no more than 10-12% per week.

Think about the achievable increments in your organizational change. What are the small wins that will help people feel like they are advancing? Knowing that you are 20% toward the overall goal is a sense of accomplishment that increases motivation to go the rest of the 80%. If your overall goal is to get staff up to speed on 23 web tools, set weekly targets with a way to check off the achievement—it worked like magic for the 23 Things programs. When you construct a learning plan for staff, make sure there are some easy successes early on in the plan to build up that “money in the bank” motivation.

6. Find the bright spots
It may happen that I’m following my training plan but find that I’m struggling and getting discouraged. This is a good time to look around and see what’s working for others, or in Switch terminology, “find the bright spots.” If one of my teammates tells me that she makes sure to ride at least 5 times a week, that may be just the tip I need to improve my path.

Organizational change on a large scale will inevitably hit snags. Some of these will have been identified in step 1 so that the team is mentally prepared to encounter and overcome obstacles. It’s those unanticipated obstacles that can cause a plan to founder. When it does, look for examples of people or teams who seem to have surmounted the difficulty and figure out what they are doing that is enabling them and promote the solution to everyone. If one person is keeping on top of blog and Twitter news while the rest of the team claims to have no time, it may be that the exceptional person has her computer set to logon to those accounts so it’s the first thing she sees in the morning. If something is working for one person, it just might work for the many.

Good luck with your training and may the change be with you!

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: Learning Styles, The Training Life Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Learning and User Experience: Good UX=Good LX

December 30, 2009 By

Steven Bell (who writes often and well on the topic of usability and customer experience over at the Designing Better Libraries blog) recently turned me on to an thought-provoking video of Jesse James Garrett discussing his ideas on User Experience at the Adaptive Path UX Week 2009 Conference.  (Jump to the bottom of this post to see the video)

Garrett’s ideas are simple to understand and elegantly presented.  Since watching the video,  I find myself increasingly seeing the world through UX (user experience) eyes.  It’s occurred to me that Garrett’s ideas on user experience also lay out a simple roadmap for engaging learners. In fact, many teachers and trainers probably already use UX principles effectively, whether they do so consciously or not.

FOUR WAYS TO ENGAGE LEARNERS

Garrett suggests that there are four primary ways that we can engage users:

  1. Perception (Senses):  Engaging through sight, sound, smell, etc.
  2. Action (body/kinesthetic): Engaging through movement and physical action.
  3. Cognition (mind): Engaging through thought, reflection, logic, imagination.
  4. Emotion (heart): Engaging through emotion, feelings.

Four Ways to Engage Learners

You’ll notice that two types of engagement (perception/action) involve direct engagement with the external world, while the other two types (cognition/emotion) are internal engagements.

Reflecting on my own experiences  I realized that the most successful, effective trainings I’ve been involved with, as both a learner and a trainer, offered a balanced engagement in all four areas.

I think there is an opportunity for trainers and teachers to bring their lessons to the next level by consciously designing learning experiences (LX) that engage learners in all four areas.  In other words, I believe that Good UX=Good LX.

USER EXPERIENCE: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

One example of what it looks like when it all comes together (i.e. when people are engaged, internally through emotion and cognition, as externally through their actions, and perceptions) is illustrated beautifully in this video, The Fun Theory in which researchers replace regular stairs with “piano key” stairs.  What do you think happens?  Click play to find out…

So how were the people in this video being engaged? I observed:

  1. Perception (sound, music, visual stimulation of piano key stairs)
  2. Action (jumping, stepping, climbing)
  3. Cognition (curiosity, decision-making; choosing between stairs/escalator; processing the cause/effect of walking on the stairs)
  4. Emotion (fun, fun, fun!  Joy of the unexpected.  Joy of seeing others having fun.  Sense of community, and sharing in a novel experience.)

Did you observe any other types of engagement?

Thinking about your own experiences,  can you recall ways in which you’ve successfully engaged your learners or been engaged as a learner? Share your suggestions and experiences in the comments section. And if you find these concepts useful in designing future learning experiences please drop a line and let us know!

(see the complete Garrett video on user experience–well worth a watch–below)

Jesse James Garrett on The State of User Experience, UX Week 2009

All images used through Creative Commons license as follows:

Looking for creative commons images?  Try Sprixi!

Peter Bromberg

Filed Under: Learning Styles Tagged With: , , ,

The Fun Theory

October 12, 2009 By

Volkswagen has a very cool site up and running.   It’s called The Fun Theory and the site states:

This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.


One of their videos proves this point with no question:

There are more videos on the site and they are currently running a contest.  As a technology trainer, teaching mostly on software applications and having very limited time to cover the material, there isn’t a lot of room for fun.  So I try to make it fun with my humor and poking fun at myself when I make a mistake.  Or easing stress by sharing stories of there ALWAYS being someone slower than you think you are at picking up information.  I keep a laid back attitude too which trainees seem to appreciate.


How do you build fun into your training?  Has the thought even crossed your mind?

Stephanie Zimmerman

Stephanie Zimmerman is the Training Coordinator for the Library System of Lancaster County (Pennsylvania), a federated system with 14 member libraries, three branches and a bookmobile, which serves 490,562 residents. She designs and implements technology and development training and consulting to the member libraries. This includes training on Innovative’s Millennium Integrated Library System, Microsoft Office Applications, emerging technologies (i.e. social media) and various other areas. Her goal is to remove the fear of technology and help others to realize the amazing possibilities it provides. Teaching others to do things for themselves and see their excitement when they break through their barriers is her greatest reward. Stephanie has been a software trainer for 15 years. Her past employment involved training on federal and county government applications. She also worked for a private industry marketing company where she traveled across the country showing manufacturers and retailers in the consumer packaged goods industry how to use geodemographic targeting software. Always wanting to help others, Stephanie graduated from Millersville University (in Pennsylvania) cum laude with a BA in Social Work. She was also a student in the Computer Information Systems program at Harrisburg Area Community College. She is a member of ASTD (American Society of Training and Development). She is also a regular contributor to the T is for Training podcast which focuses on training in libraries. She was a trainer for WebJunction’s Spanish Language Outreach project and has done training for Commonwealth Libraries. She is grateful to have landed in the world of libraries. When she began her current job in January of 2004, there were no other library trainers in her immediate area. She turned to the social web to begin networking with other library trainers across the world and immediately realized her passion for social networking and social media. All of her continuing education has been done through these networks and she can’t help but push others to discover the immense opportunities available through online collaboration. Stephanie lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with her family which includes husband, Bill (a self-employed stay-at-home-dad) and two children (ages 2 and 4 months). When she’s not being Mommy, or working, you’ll most likely find her singing. Stephanie can be reached at szimmerman[at]lancasterlibraries.org.

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How Youth Want To Learn

August 25, 2009 By

I was pointed to an enlightening video today in Training magazine’s weekly newsletter, Training Tech Talk.  It shows all of us involved in learning that the old methods are not going to work with the generation coming into the workforce.  Larry Edelman from the University of Colorado Denver produced this video titled “Youth, Technology, and Learning: Opportunities for Educators and Future Employers”.  “On the video, high-school students discuss how they use technology for communication, problems they have with traditional education, and how they would best learn a new job,” explains Edelman.


Most of the training I do for my Library System involves hands-on use of technology.  I’m grateful that I have a training lab where we can actually do the work on the various software programs.  However, I do have to do demos where everyone is just sitting and watching me show the software when I go outside of our building and there is no training lab setup.  I’ve known for awhile that the old sit and watch method doesn’t work as well, but as the newer, younger library workers come into my classes it’s becoming even more apparent.  After watching this video, I feel a new fire underneath of me to ge cracking on new ways of teaching.  These highschool freshmen explain very well what it’s like to try and learn all day in school using the old methods when the rest of their world involves an entirely different way of interacting and communicating.  What a disconnect.  Go ahead, watch for yourself and please leave some comments with suggestions to help build the fire!


Stephanie Zimmerman

Stephanie Zimmerman is the Training Coordinator for the Library System of Lancaster County (Pennsylvania), a federated system with 14 member libraries, three branches and a bookmobile, which serves 490,562 residents. She designs and implements technology and development training and consulting to the member libraries. This includes training on Innovative’s Millennium Integrated Library System, Microsoft Office Applications, emerging technologies (i.e. social media) and various other areas. Her goal is to remove the fear of technology and help others to realize the amazing possibilities it provides. Teaching others to do things for themselves and see their excitement when they break through their barriers is her greatest reward. Stephanie has been a software trainer for 15 years. Her past employment involved training on federal and county government applications. She also worked for a private industry marketing company where she traveled across the country showing manufacturers and retailers in the consumer packaged goods industry how to use geodemographic targeting software. Always wanting to help others, Stephanie graduated from Millersville University (in Pennsylvania) cum laude with a BA in Social Work. She was also a student in the Computer Information Systems program at Harrisburg Area Community College. She is a member of ASTD (American Society of Training and Development). She is also a regular contributor to the T is for Training podcast which focuses on training in libraries. She was a trainer for WebJunction’s Spanish Language Outreach project and has done training for Commonwealth Libraries. She is grateful to have landed in the world of libraries. When she began her current job in January of 2004, there were no other library trainers in her immediate area. She turned to the social web to begin networking with other library trainers across the world and immediately realized her passion for social networking and social media. All of her continuing education has been done through these networks and she can’t help but push others to discover the immense opportunities available through online collaboration. Stephanie lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with her family which includes husband, Bill (a self-employed stay-at-home-dad) and two children (ages 2 and 4 months). When she’s not being Mommy, or working, you’ll most likely find her singing. Stephanie can be reached at szimmerman[at]lancasterlibraries.org.

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Tufte the Magnificent

April 30, 2009 By

I finally seized the opportunity to see Edward Tufte deliver his one-day workshop Presenting Data and Information. Due to his rockstar reputation, I had some overblown expectations—something more theatrical, with flashy graphics, head stands, perhaps a light show? I spent the first two hours feeling a bit let down until I realized how antipodal his message is to the marketing flash of someone like Seth Godin. Tufte’s presentation is all about delivering substantive content that is cognitively engaging—an approach that he modeled expertly, sans bells and whistles. While I had overestimated Tufte’s histrionics, he did not underestimate my (his audience’s) intelligence.

The workshop is directed more toward those in the business world who need to present data and information to address engineering problems, inform budget decisions, and the like. However, I found a couple of take-aways for trainer-facilitators.

1. The Super Graphic (or Return of the Handout)

There is a tendency (especially in online learning) to reduce data and information to a minimal amount per screen, or to stretch data sets out over a series of screens. This is driven necessarily by the compact pixel real estate of the computer monitor, but the outcome is to shrink information toward meaninglessness or to confound the viewer’s cognitive ability to make comparisons and draw conclusions by scattering the inputs and forcing super-human acts of memorizing.

Enter the SUPER GRAPHIC! This is a printed, efficiently annotated graphic, dense with data, legal size or larger, that allows the learner to scan the entirety of an information set, make comparisons from proximal visual, numerical and textual information, and derive informed, self-propelled conclusions. This kind of information presentation could/should accompany most online training. Many courses include downloadable handouts of resources as more of an addendum than an integral part of the learning. Why not design a course around a super graphic, using the online portion to direct the learner’s attention, inject probing questions, and allow interactions to demonstrate the successful intake of knowledge?

2. Give the learner time to think

Several times during the workshop, Tufte asked the audience to study a data set or super graphic in one of his books, which we all had stacked in front of us. And then he stopped talking. Attention was not focused on the stage but on the pages of our books. There were some low murmurs of people sharing observations but the room of 400+ was otherwise quiet. This went on for five minutes—an eternity of “dead air” in broadcast parlance.

This was an aha! moment for me. Not only is it okay to give learners some studying-thinking time during instruction, it empowers them to absorb, reflect, and contribute to the formation of knowledge. It allows real learning to take place. Isn’t that more important than filling up every second of audio space?

Do I recommend going to see Tufte’s presentation next time he’s in your neighborhood? Sure! Yes, you can buy all the books for approximately half the price of the workshop, but you would miss the directed tour through the material and you would miss Tufte’s modeling of effective delivery.

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: Learning Styles, Presentation Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

PicLens –wish I had this yesterday

March 21, 2008 By

PicLens_wall1

My learning style is about as visual as they come. Which means I like to load up my PowerPoint presentations and online instruction modules with images. Just yesterday, I spent a lot of time in Google Images and Flickr searching for the just right photo or graphic to illustrate an upcoming presentation. I’m sure you know how tedious it is to scroll down each page of results, click to the next page, scroll down, click, …until eye and mouse fatigue set in.

Now there’s PicLens! It wasn’t until this morning that I found Jenny Levine’s recommendation for this very cool tool. Tedium transforms to levitation. There is a sense of flying past the 3D image wall, hovering over sections, zooming in and out for near and far perspectives—a dragonfly view of the online image world. Using the same Google Image search that I had performed yesterday sans PicLens, pictures that I hadn’t noticed before jumped out at me. I could scroll the length of the few hundred results with fluid ease instead of giving up after 3 or 4 pages. You’ve just got to try it to appreciate the experience.

Downloads are available for Firefox, IE, and Safari. It only works on certain sites like Google Images, Flickr, Facebook. I found it pretty intuitive to use, but tutorials are available just in case.

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: Cool Tools, Learning Styles, Presentation Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Post-it™ Way

February 25, 2008 By

post-it1
“… the widespread use of Post-it™ notes and cheat sheets reveals a lot about the way people learn and how they apply that knowledge to their jobs.”

This is from an intriguing post by Tom Kuhlman on the Rapid E-Learning Blog: What We Can Learn About Instructional Design from Post-it™ Notes. I have to admit that I recognized myself in the description of a typical e-learning designer, who has a tendency to include “more information than is necessary to learn the task.”

After reading it, I did a quick tour of my office to see how many people had post-it notes scattered around their desks. Fourteen out of sixteen desks had visible post-its or equivalent note scraps. Why is the Post-it note such a winner?

  • Its small size forces you to record the bare essence of a thought or instruction. In Kuhlman’s words, a note does not contain all you need to know, but what you need to do.
  • It can be stuck on things to easily catch your attention.
  • It can be grouped with other Post-its and rearranged as needed.
  • Only the most immediately relevant bits of information stay within view, limited by the area of your desk.

I’m not going to convert all my training materials to Post-it notes, but I could do more to apply the “what you need to do” filter to instructional design. Along the same lines, Presentation Zen tells us we need to choose between deep or wide scope. “How much can I cover today vs. how much can my students absorb today?” Why not think of a PowerPoint presentation as a series of Post-it notes? Pare each slide down to the shorthand essence of what you want to convey.

Think Post-it! This is my new mantra. I have a Post-it on my laptop to remind me.

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: Learning Styles, Presentation Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Learning v Training

February 8, 2008 By

Helene Blowers (LibraryBytes), points us to a wonderful post over at the Twopointouch blog. In his post, Sit and Listen, Author Ian Delaney makes a number of great points including:Dunce

  • Employers also tend to confuse training and learning. Training gets done to you. Learning is something an individual does themselves. Companies tend to think of training as their responsibility, rather than learning.
  • Educationalists have identified at least 37 different types of ways in which we learn stuff, from reading a book to playing simulations. Each individual will have their own preferred and most effective learning styles. In-house training tends to focus on one - sit in a room with a bunch of other people and get talked at.

Delaney suggests that part of the problem is tied in with many organizations’ dreadful appraisal/evaluation processes (and I heartily agree.)

The entire post is well worth a read, as is Helene’s post, where she writes:

The best learning happens by self-discovery, when two very important elements are present. In order for anyone to truly learn, they must be

a) engaged in their own discovery process and
b) be motivated to learn.

and neither of these really require a “trainer.” :)

Peter Bromberg

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