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The Training Life
Alternative Assessment with VoiceThread
Aug 26th
Assessment continues to weigh heavily on my mind here at the beginning of the 2010-11 academic year. While I have worked with students using VoiceThread as an alternative learning artifact, I had not considered using it as form of assessment or digital portfolio until friend and colleague Diane Cordell pointed me to this fantastic post, “VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio”, in which Chrissy Hellyer, a teacher who was working at an international school in Bangkok at the time of the posting, used VoiceThread as part of student led conferences (you can also read a cross-post of how this teacher implemented VoiceThread here). In these posts, Hellyer thoughtfully outlines the steps she took before, during, and after the creation of the digital portfolios, including reflections on what she would do differently.
One of my goals this year in my work with our teachers and students, particularly our new cohort of Media 21 students (now called Learning 21), is to help students take a more active role in articulating what they are learning. After reading this post, I think VoiceThread is a perfect medium for this endeavor; not only could students showcase learning artifacts they feel reflect mastery of course performance standards, but they could also use this digital portfolio to share other key learnings, insights, reflections, and learning tools they feel are an essential part of their story as a learner.
As I start to lay the groundwork to pilot this form of assessment in my collaboration with teachers and students, an additional blog post by Silvia Tolisano, a Technology Integration Facilitator and 21st Century Learning Specialist, is also informing my planning for helping our students create digital learning portfolios.
Are you using VoiceThread or other tools a means of student or learner led assessment in your library environment either with staff or with students? If so, what advice would you recommend for those embarking on this endeavor, and which web-based tools have you found most effective for creating digital learning portfolios? I look forward to your sharing your experiences and examples, and I will also be blogging on our own student created portfolios later in the semester!
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Loading ...The Tension between “Learn It Fast” and “Learn It Well”
Aug 4th
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.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ALA Conference 2010: Trainers Talking and Acting as Leaders
Jul 7th
You can’t, as a few of us suggested during a presentation on trainers as leaders sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) Learning Round Table at the Association’s 2010 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. last week, be in that city without thinking about leadership. The monuments, the government buildings, the sense of history that surrounds you makes it an undeniable presence—something that permeates your entire being as deeply as the hot and humid weather which greeted us.
So it was natural that a few of us—Maurice Coleman, Technical Trainer for Harford County (MD) Public Library and host of the biweekly T is for Training podcasts; Sandra Smith, Learning and Development Manager at the Denver Public Library system; and Louise Whitaker, Training Coordinator from Oklahoma’s Pioneer Library System—chose leadership as the topic for a 90-minute conference session that was part formal presentation, part panel discussion, and lots of interaction with approximately 50 colleagues who joined us for that Sunday morning gathering.
Drawing from interviews Lori Reed and I have been doing with Maurice, Sandra, Louise, and several others for Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers (to be published by ALA Editions in May 2011) to document the leadership roles that workplace learning and performance professionals are assuming in libraries and other organizations across the country, we began with the idea that leadership is positively explosive. When it is effective, it lights up skies. Draws people together. Creates collaborative opportunities and results which are not achieved in any other way.
Leadership, for most of us, doesn’t mean we have to be bombastic. It’s the day to day incremental efforts we make that lead to long-term and sustainable changes within our organizations. And that’s what our colleagues seem to appreciate most from us.
Lori and I, in our interviews and our own experiences, are not finding a one-size-fits-all model of leadership, nor is that what we expected. Interviewing colleagues from the ALA Learning Roundtable and from other organizations throughout the United States, we are, instead, finding a group of very passionate, creative, and dedicated people doing what they believe is right. And even though Lori couldn’t be with us in Washington, D.C. last week, we were lucky to have a few of the people who have been guiding us so they could share a little of what we’ll be dealing with in the book.
Maurice, for example, discussed how the T is for Training podcasts draw colleagues from a geographical cross section of the country together every other week to discuss workplace learning and performance issues and solutions. Those live shows provide a first-rate forum for the exchange of ideas and have been instrumental in further developing a community of learners among those responsible for fostering organization-wide communities of learning.
Shifting gears a bit, Louise talked about how she revamped the entire way in which evaluations were conducted at Pioneer to determine whether the learning opportunities she was designing and offering to staff were actually producing results of benefit to the library, its staff, and its users.
During the final segment of our discussion, we moved to the heart of library trainers as leaders within their own organizations: Sandra provided examples of how she works from a position at the library management table to help shape and implement workplace learning and performance programs. By consistently working to be part of the decision-making process in terms of designing and offering learning opportunities for staff at Denver Public, she shapes as much as implements what her colleagues need and appreciate in a workplace learning and performance program.
Exchanges between presenters and audience members were as lively and creative as the topic we addressed; in briefly discussing ways to create something sustainable from our initial 90 minutes together rather than having that session be an isolated learning experience, one member of the Learning Round Table offered to collect business cards and set up an online discussion group for those who wanted to continue the conversation.
If that’s not creative leadership in action, I need to go out and do more interviews.
N.B. – For a different view of leadership on display at the 2010 ALA Annual conference, please see Paul’s Leaders Emerging article.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Mind Maps for the Rest of Us
Jun 3rd
Sometimes, when I sit down to begin work on a project, it feels like there is a tornado whirling through my brain. So many ideas begin to pour in that I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to remember them all! I would have to say that ever since I became a mother a little over three years ago, this condition has definitely become more severe.
In the past, I have used the method of brain dumping to just get it all down on paper. However, I found that when I wanted to bring all of the ideas together in some kind of logical order, it was difficult to do using a static list. I can remember actually grabbing a pair of scissors and cutting each little line of thought from my notebook into a strip of paper and then spreading them out all over my office floor to create a flow for a user manual.
That lead me to my next endeavor – index cards. I believe I was big into David Allen’s Getting Things Done philosophy at the time. This was definitely better than small, hard to pick up slips of paper. Still, I felt like I was left with a monumental stack of cards that just didn’t want to get into any kind of order for me. And the environmentalist in me could not stand all of that waste of trees.
Enter the spreadsheet. I would type each idea into a line in a spreadsheet and then cut / paste / click / drag my way into some kind of flow. Again, a little too cumbersome for me.
A little buzz word was ringing in my ear periodically. It would flit in and out saying “mind map… mind map… mind map…”. I had seen mind maps here and there. I actually attempted one on the whiteboard in my training room trying to mimic the way our Network Administrator would just let things flow through his marker. Instead my whiteboard became a mass of erased and rewritten words. By the time I was done with it, I felt like I had lost half of my ideas. Plus, I then had to copy the whole thing to a piece of paper before my next class.
It’s truly amazing to see the works of art that others have put together.
You see, I’m not a very creative person. It’s true; I admit it. I am very mathematical and linear. I always start my Basic Circulation classes with that fact when I hand out my test patron cards to the librarians to use during the training. There are no funny, themed names like Sally Latefee (which in itself is no good, but I TOLD you, I’m NOT creative). No, instead students will meet Test One, Test Two, all the way to the very exciting Test Fortyfive. I always tell them that’s why THEY are the ones doing creative programming at their libraries and I’M the one teaching them how to use the computer!
Then, a glimmer of hope arose on the horizon this past week. The name of this shiny gem…Mindmeister. I actually looked at this a few years ago, but did not bother playing with it because remember, I’m not a creative-type. I figured my brain just would not mesh with what I called in my head Mindmonster. See where negative self-talk will get you? I missed out on a few years of actually using this!
What was so painful to do on a whiteboard actually feels comfortable using this online interface. It’s very easy to use. The best part is that I can manipulate the information in any way I like. I can add colors, change text size, bold items, even add icons to let my thoughts actually take shape. Here’s their quick and simple tutorial:
A Tour of MindMeister from MindMeister on Vimeo.
Just for practice and to get familiar with how to use the software, I took my Circulation Manual and put it into mind map form. The red signifies the topics taught in Advanced Circ. Remember, I’m very new to this…
I’ve set up a new map where I’m brain dumping some ideas for a PC Troubleshooting class I’m developing. Each time I have a thought, I add it to the map. I’m currently sitting in on calls with our technicians to help me assess what needs to be covered in this class.
Then there’s this huge monster I’m creating for a Training Needs Assessment I’m working on. It’s just a place to gather all of the resources I’m pulling from as I work on my methodology for the assessment. It may look insane, but it is actually bringing me so much comfort to have all of the tornado down in software form. It makes sense to me and that’s all that really matters…
I’m hoping I get better at this over time. You can see a whole list of mind mapping software on Wikipedia. The Wild Apricot Blog also has a great post describing mind mapping and giving some how to instructions.
Here are some of my favorites that I’ve bookmarked over the years:
Non Profit Social Media ROI Mindmap
Robin Good’s Collaborative Map
Overdrive Interactive’s Social Media Map for Social Media Marketing
Overdrive Interactive’s Search Marketing Map
John Haydon’s The Shelf Life Of A Facebook Like Map
So what do YOU do to get ideas out of your head? What process do you use? If you use mind maps, would you be willing to share some with a newbie?
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The TED Commandments
May 13th
The TED Talks promoters send this tablet as a guide for speakers prior to each event. In her TED Talk Amy Tan described the arrival of the TED Commandments as “something that creates a near-death experience; but near-death is good for creativity…”
Used in a broader sense I’m convinced that many of these rules can be applied to almost any talk or presentation, but (of course) would welcome your comments!
Image by Rives, transcribed by Tim Longhurst. Via Garr Reynolds.
- Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick
- Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
- Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
- Thou Shalt Tell a Story
- Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
- Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
- Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desparate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
- Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
- Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
- Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee
Pressure yourself to keep learning about a topic. I have an Information Overload talk I gave a few years ago, and wouldn’t dream of presenting it again without catching up on the latest theories and contributions to the debate.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with what you’ve already learned. Share not only what you know, but what you’d like it to be. Look at your processes, at what you do every day. If it works for you, it’s quite possible the process is a good one and could be shared, inviting discussion to make it even better.
It’s your topic, your audience. Own them. Your talk may be at a monthly department meeting or national conference, but most likely you’ve got a keen interest in the subject. Show it!
Perhaps you actually are passionate about the topic, even better. Share your excitement as well as your progress.
Involve your audience by giving them someone to empathize with and to make them care. The story might be about yourself or someone else, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s a good tell.
As you catch up, read and get involved on blogs by those you admire within the topic. Commenting on posts is a great way to become engaged with those who care about the same things you do. Also explore dissenting opinions, adding your own if you have them.
No one wants to hear about how wonderful you are because you figured this out, but the different methods you used to get the conclusion. If you’ve learned from your mistakes, someone else will, too.
While I agree that I don’t usually want to hear a sales pitch, I’d take exception to this when appealing for library funding or for my job.
I’ve heard different opinions on humor during talks, but I gave this advice to a staff member just the other day: If you’re going to use humor point it towards yourself. I use self-deprecating humor quite a bit, it seems to somehow relax the audience, especially when teaching technology. Also be careful of humor that may offend someone: I thought about writing this post as if I were Moses and God Himself had delivered the tablets and burning bushes were involved. I reconsidered…probably very wisely.
Worse yet, never turn your back to your audience to read slides. Then again, don’t put so much text on a slide that you’d have to read it at all! Text is for handouts.
Make your talk worthwhile with your passion and your knowledge. Give them one big thing to remember a week later, your chance of retention is better the less you try to put in their heads. Even though some training is repetitive in nature, get them excited, fired up and ready to go use what you’ve taught them!
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