When I sat down to write a refletion on the expereience of developing an e-learning system as part of my masters degree subject, I had several tabs open to articles by the current gurus of e-learnbing and e-technology: Wenger, Woo and Reeves, Neilsen, Seely-Brown ... the list goes on.
Yet when I started to write, my reflection was more about the old masters in both education and teamwork. Knowles (Androgogy), Mager (Learning Objectives), Kirkpatrick (Evaluation), Kolb (Experiential Learning), Bloom seem to me to be still relevant to the way adults learn up to sixty years after they first published. Adair, Belbin, Tuckman, Blake and Mouton, Blanchard are still relevant on teamwork.
Their insights may not be any more profound, but the way they expressed them are burnt into my memory.
Wenger says: "Learning creates emergent structures: it requires enough structure and continuity to accumulate experience and enough perturbation and discontinuity to continually renegotiate meaning. In this regard, communities of practice constitute elemental social learning structures."
Is this really any different to what Knowles said about adult learners 40 years earlier:
1. Self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being
2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.
3. Readiness to learn. As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles.
4. Orientation to learning. As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centredness.
5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1984:12).
The answer to me is: "Yes! There is adifference between Wegner and Knowles," Readability.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Sunday, May 9, 2010
The difference between good and great speakers: 2 It's all about the audience
I listened to a presentation this week that was the result of a lot of work. As the presentation I attended was the fifth time it had been given, there was even evidence of practice, my first difference between the good and the great. But it was still awful.
The problem was simple. The presenters were keen to show us how much they knew.
They needn't have bothered. We were there because we respected their expertise. We didn't want to know how much they knew. We wanted to know something new, something that we didn't already know.
A presentation is a bridge between where the audience is now and where they want to be.
The presentation that I attended was about a new software application that the presenters had developed. Nothing magnificent. If you can imagine an Excel Spreadsheet where you put in values on the first page and the last page gives you calculated results then you are not far off the mark.
It was a complex design, but the people who have to use it do not need to know that. What they needed was how to put in the data, and how to get out the analysis.
This is the second big difference between good presenters and great ones.
The great ones never lose sight of the audience and what they want to know. The ordinary ones are focused on getting all of the content out there.
I saw this once when a speaker with a very interesting topic came prepared with 200 slides for a one hour session. This needn't be too many, unless you show them all.
What she did was work through the first four of five slides to get a discussion going, then when a question was raised she would divert to another section of her slide show and use that part to explain.
She had lots of information, and there was no way we could have absorbed it all. But by deftly moving between sections, at the audience's prompt, she made sure that we walked out knowing a lot more than we walked in.
Where is your focus - the content or the audience?
The problem was simple. The presenters were keen to show us how much they knew.
They needn't have bothered. We were there because we respected their expertise. We didn't want to know how much they knew. We wanted to know something new, something that we didn't already know.
A presentation is a bridge between where the audience is now and where they want to be.
The presentation that I attended was about a new software application that the presenters had developed. Nothing magnificent. If you can imagine an Excel Spreadsheet where you put in values on the first page and the last page gives you calculated results then you are not far off the mark.
It was a complex design, but the people who have to use it do not need to know that. What they needed was how to put in the data, and how to get out the analysis.
This is the second big difference between good presenters and great ones.
The great ones never lose sight of the audience and what they want to know. The ordinary ones are focused on getting all of the content out there.
I saw this once when a speaker with a very interesting topic came prepared with 200 slides for a one hour session. This needn't be too many, unless you show them all.
What she did was work through the first four of five slides to get a discussion going, then when a question was raised she would divert to another section of her slide show and use that part to explain.
She had lots of information, and there was no way we could have absorbed it all. But by deftly moving between sections, at the audience's prompt, she made sure that we walked out knowing a lot more than we walked in.
Where is your focus - the content or the audience?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Check your slides for visbility for those with color impaired vision
About 5% of the population (that is one person in twenty) has difficulty distinguishing colours, so red writing on a green background appears to them to be a single colored blank slide.
You can check out your slides or web pages at http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/
Vischeck is a way of showing you what things look like to someone who is color blind. You can try Vischeck online- either run Vischeck on your own image files or run Vischeck on a web page. You can also download programs to let you run it on your own computer.
You can check out your slides or web pages at http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/
Vischeck is a way of showing you what things look like to someone who is color blind. You can try Vischeck online- either run Vischeck on your own image files or run Vischeck on a web page. You can also download programs to let you run it on your own computer.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The differences between good and great speakers: 1. Practice
Whenever I am asked about the best way to practice public speaking I inevitably suggest join a Toastmasters club. Go to the Toastmasters International website to find a club near you.
But how well does the confidence gained in Toastmasters translate into confidence speaking before other groups. Toastmasters speak before (mostly) the same people every week and you know everyone is there to help you along.
To answer this question let’s look at how we learn something new. Before we learn we are often an Unconscious Incompetent (we don't know that we don't know how to do it).
For some reason or other we become aware that we could learn. Maybe it's an invitation to speak at a friend’s wedding, maybe it is recognizing that the people who can speak well are advancing faster at work. There are a thousand ways that we may become aware, everyone's story is different.
Even though we are aware, we may not choose to do anything about it - or we may even choose not to do anything. Nevertheless, we are now a Conscious Incompetent. We know that we do not know.
If we make a decision to do something, the first few times we try may be quite uncomfortable. But we stay focussed and we concentrate and we get by. This is the phase of Conscious Competence. We are able to do it, but we have to concentrate.
With practice, and some motivation and support, with knowledge gained from the program we will gradually feel more comfortable, and eventually we will wonder what all the fuss was about. We will become Unconscious Competents. We do it out of habit.
Let me take an extreme example - if you pull your left ear when you are nervous, you may not know it. Someone may draw it to your attention - hopefully quietly and sensitively - and you will become aware. Now you are more likely to notice yourself doing it. Someone may suggest a positive alternative behaviour to help you avoid it - always keep your hands in your pockets. Doesn't look good, I know, but much better than the ear pulling. When you feel yourself about to reach for your ear, whamm hand into pocket. A conscious act. Eventually the habit will disappear and be replaced by another annoying one - hands in pockets - but this is less distracting and easier to change to meaningful gestures.
So back to your original question: the habits that you develop in front of your comfortable group will stay with you. The habit of making eye contact, the importance of a catchy opening, always leaving with a memorable close - they are readily translated.
The other side - being uncomfortable in front of a group of strangers will partly disappear, because you have more confidence as a result of your catchy opening, your eye contact and the fact that your hands are in your pockets, not pulling your ear. But the self belief that this group of people are interested in what you have to say may only come from speaking to several different groups and Toastmasters offers that opportunity, too with over 10,000 clubs in almost 100 countries.
Here is a story that I often use to make this point:
I recently had a conversation with the leader of a band who practices in a garage not very far from my place. Suspecting that he couldn't afford a watch I rang him and told him what time it was. To extend the conversation I politely, although politeness at 3 am is not the same as politeness at midday, asked him "WHY ARE YOU PLAYING THAT MUSIC IN THAT GARAGE ANYWAY?"
He explained to me that they would not let him play at the Sydney Opera House until he got it right. In the garage he could practice the same song over and over in the hope that the nuances that he applied to the music would meld.
He also explained that he received some interesting feedback from my neighbors that was enabling him to adjust the material to suit a wider audience.
He admitted that some of the feedback was not useful (some was physically very difficult) but every now and then he obtained some evaluation that he could use.
Grateful that I had been able to add to his total knowledge, rather than going to sleep (an impossibility, anyway) I compared his method to my participation in Toastmasters.
The Toastmasters club is like a garage. I can try new things before an audience that will give me valuable feedback. Some I choose to ignore, some I modify before include it, some I accept totally.
In return I am asked to provide applause and feedback to my fellow members.
When I get it right in this low risk setting then I will be ready to take it to the real world.
But how well does the confidence gained in Toastmasters translate into confidence speaking before other groups. Toastmasters speak before (mostly) the same people every week and you know everyone is there to help you along.
To answer this question let’s look at how we learn something new. Before we learn we are often an Unconscious Incompetent (we don't know that we don't know how to do it).
For some reason or other we become aware that we could learn. Maybe it's an invitation to speak at a friend’s wedding, maybe it is recognizing that the people who can speak well are advancing faster at work. There are a thousand ways that we may become aware, everyone's story is different.
Even though we are aware, we may not choose to do anything about it - or we may even choose not to do anything. Nevertheless, we are now a Conscious Incompetent. We know that we do not know.
If we make a decision to do something, the first few times we try may be quite uncomfortable. But we stay focussed and we concentrate and we get by. This is the phase of Conscious Competence. We are able to do it, but we have to concentrate.
With practice, and some motivation and support, with knowledge gained from the program we will gradually feel more comfortable, and eventually we will wonder what all the fuss was about. We will become Unconscious Competents. We do it out of habit.
Let me take an extreme example - if you pull your left ear when you are nervous, you may not know it. Someone may draw it to your attention - hopefully quietly and sensitively - and you will become aware. Now you are more likely to notice yourself doing it. Someone may suggest a positive alternative behaviour to help you avoid it - always keep your hands in your pockets. Doesn't look good, I know, but much better than the ear pulling. When you feel yourself about to reach for your ear, whamm hand into pocket. A conscious act. Eventually the habit will disappear and be replaced by another annoying one - hands in pockets - but this is less distracting and easier to change to meaningful gestures.
So back to your original question: the habits that you develop in front of your comfortable group will stay with you. The habit of making eye contact, the importance of a catchy opening, always leaving with a memorable close - they are readily translated.
The other side - being uncomfortable in front of a group of strangers will partly disappear, because you have more confidence as a result of your catchy opening, your eye contact and the fact that your hands are in your pockets, not pulling your ear. But the self belief that this group of people are interested in what you have to say may only come from speaking to several different groups and Toastmasters offers that opportunity, too with over 10,000 clubs in almost 100 countries.
Here is a story that I often use to make this point:
I recently had a conversation with the leader of a band who practices in a garage not very far from my place. Suspecting that he couldn't afford a watch I rang him and told him what time it was. To extend the conversation I politely, although politeness at 3 am is not the same as politeness at midday, asked him "WHY ARE YOU PLAYING THAT MUSIC IN THAT GARAGE ANYWAY?"
He explained to me that they would not let him play at the Sydney Opera House until he got it right. In the garage he could practice the same song over and over in the hope that the nuances that he applied to the music would meld.
He also explained that he received some interesting feedback from my neighbors that was enabling him to adjust the material to suit a wider audience.
He admitted that some of the feedback was not useful (some was physically very difficult) but every now and then he obtained some evaluation that he could use.
Grateful that I had been able to add to his total knowledge, rather than going to sleep (an impossibility, anyway) I compared his method to my participation in Toastmasters.
The Toastmasters club is like a garage. I can try new things before an audience that will give me valuable feedback. Some I choose to ignore, some I modify before include it, some I accept totally.
In return I am asked to provide applause and feedback to my fellow members.
When I get it right in this low risk setting then I will be ready to take it to the real world.
Monday, March 29, 2010
We need more words
When I talked about design of a program with one of my collaborators in the development of a system for social networking, she asked "what do you mean by program?"
Her question started me thinking about the many terms in social networking and in IT generally that have been appropriated from everyday vocabulary.
I thought we were designing a system, which to me met a way of working. system to an IT professional means hardware. I thought we were networking - each of us contributing our knowledge and experience to the whole group and involving others we knew so that we could use their expertise, too. It seems networking is done with blue cables in IT. Of course these are not the sort of cables that used to carry text messages fifty years ago. They were named after the cables that carried the message, but soon became synonymous with the piece of paper they were printed on.
According to the Global Language Monitor there are an estimated 1 million English words.
The monitor also says that there are:
Left and right mean more than sides. Top and bottom are not just a toy and a base. Tear can be pronounced two ways, each with a different meaning.
As far I can see, the word set is the one that has the most meanings. think about it, what does it mean to you?
Place down? Collection? Harden? A series of tennis games? Prepare to run?
My favourite resource, the One Look Dictionary search found definitions in 99 dictionaries and gave 45 different meanings in their quick definitions - a feature that normally has between one and three meanings. By contrast the word system only featured in 66 dictionaries and had a mere 9 quick definitions. Reification was only found in 18 dictionaries with 2 quick definitions, while bricolage only made it into 12 dictionaries without a quick definition.
Back to the program that I thought I was designing, no it was not the booklet that lists the cast and order of events in a theatre, it was not to be broadcast on TV, it was not even computer software. It was a set of training materials.
On the subject of words, do you know why golf was given that name? All of the other four letter obscenities were already taken.
Her question started me thinking about the many terms in social networking and in IT generally that have been appropriated from everyday vocabulary.
I thought we were designing a system, which to me met a way of working. system to an IT professional means hardware. I thought we were networking - each of us contributing our knowledge and experience to the whole group and involving others we knew so that we could use their expertise, too. It seems networking is done with blue cables in IT. Of course these are not the sort of cables that used to carry text messages fifty years ago. They were named after the cables that carried the message, but soon became synonymous with the piece of paper they were printed on.
According to the Global Language Monitor there are an estimated 1 million English words.
The monitor also says that there are:
- 450,000 words listed in the Merriam-Webster's 3rd International edition, according to its introduction;
- fewer than 100,000 words in the French language;
- About 50,000 ideograms in the various Chinese dialects (though countless more words);
- in the order of 7,000 human languages and dialects
- 12,143 different words of a total 787,137 words in the English version of the king James Bible,
- 8,674 different words in the Hebrew Old Testament,
- 5,624 words in the Greek New Testament;
- 24,000 differing words to be found in the complete works of Shakespeare, about 1,700 of which he invented.
Left and right mean more than sides. Top and bottom are not just a toy and a base. Tear can be pronounced two ways, each with a different meaning.
As far I can see, the word set is the one that has the most meanings. think about it, what does it mean to you?
Place down? Collection? Harden? A series of tennis games? Prepare to run?
My favourite resource, the One Look Dictionary search found definitions in 99 dictionaries and gave 45 different meanings in their quick definitions - a feature that normally has between one and three meanings. By contrast the word system only featured in 66 dictionaries and had a mere 9 quick definitions. Reification was only found in 18 dictionaries with 2 quick definitions, while bricolage only made it into 12 dictionaries without a quick definition.
Back to the program that I thought I was designing, no it was not the booklet that lists the cast and order of events in a theatre, it was not to be broadcast on TV, it was not even computer software. It was a set of training materials.
On the subject of words, do you know why golf was given that name? All of the other four letter obscenities were already taken.
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