Design Day and the ASTD Big Question for July

I left a comment on Tony Karrer's blog about creating a "Design Day" so that everyone in the blogosphere adds a comment about the importance of instructional design as opposed to focusing on technology.

And then Dennis Coxe over at Sailing by Sound picked up on my comment and posted an entry called "I Declare 'Design Day'". It is a great entry outlining 3 elements of good design.

Around the same time, the ASTD Learning Circuits Blog had the July "Big Question" which was "Choosing Tools" which is actually a series of questions:

• How does the eLearning design process need to change to accommodate such a wide variety of tools?
  
• How does the tool selection process need to change?
  
• What should learning professionals do to stay up-to-speed? Do they need to learn new tools constantly? Can they stick with a few tools?
  
• Will this trend continue? If so, then what does that imply for us?

So, once again, I noted that good design is independent of the technology. Meaning that regardless of the technology what really matters is design. So now that I established that point, the next question is "Can certain attributes of different media be leverage for learning?"

For example, you can leverage audio (MP3) for modeling the pronunciation of certain words as opposed to writing the correct pronunciation on a blog or a wiki without the corresponding audio track.

Or, you can use the motion aspects of technology like Adobe's Flash to show assembly of an item as opposed to static images accompanied by text or even audio.

So, to get to the "Big Question"

• How does the eLearning design process need to change to accommodate such a wide variety of tools?

The elearning design process (which is not dis-similar to the instructional design process) has always included an element of media selection. During the analysis phase of instructional design, one of the decision points is what media to use. The selection of the media is dependent upon the objectives you are attempting to teach. If you teach the concept of "change over time" a video can be effective...text might be a little less effective. If you want to reach the affective domain, use video or immersive 3D environments.

If you want to teach jargon or acronyms, choose a design that emphasizes repetition and rehearsal, maybe a simple game to encourage repetition.

• How does the tool selection process need to change?

I am not sure the overall tool selection process needs to change, tool selection shouldn't matter as much as attribute selection...use the attributes of video where it makes sense...because video can be used in a variety of technologies....blogs, wikis, elearning development tools and even PowerPoint. It is not a matter of choosing the right "tool" but choosing the right vehicle within the tool to provide the desired learning effect. Games to motivate, video for the affective domain, blogs for story telling by experts, wikis for teamwork, 3D worlds for immersive learning experiences.

The tools are less relevant, for example, I can show a slide in a 3D world to teach someone how to assemble a chair, but is that the best media for learning to assemble a chair...no. But a 3D world might be great for teaching a team of people how to cooperate together to respond to a chemical spill. As another example, if the only thing moving in a video is the person's lips...do you really need video or would audio work just as well.

Let's move the argument from "Choosing Tools" to choosing attributes.

• What should learning professionals do to stay up-to-speed? Do they need to learn new tools constantly? Can they stick with a few tools?

Learning professionals need an awareness of tools but it is the attributes that matter more. Go to conferences, attend webinars, read blogs and talk to fellow professionals to stay aware of what is going on but...don't get sucked up into the hype of a new tool, stick with what you know (or should know) about the attributes of media which best convey a message to the learners.

Finally:

• Will this trend continue? If so, then what does that imply for us?

Yes, of course it will continue. It implies that we must constantly be learning in the learning field...makes sense and is what makes this profession so interesting and exciting.

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Four Generations in the Workforce

Here is a great article titled Mixing and Managing Four Generations of Employees by Greg Hammill. It does a great job of explaining the tendencies of four different groups all currently working within organizations and all required to work together even though they have different outlooks, experiences and expectations. The groups are:

• Veterans, Silent, Traditionalists (born between 1922 and 1945)
  
• Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964)
  
• Generation X, Xers (born between 1965 and 1980)
  
• Generation Y, Millennial, Echo Boomers, Gamers (born between 1981 and 2000)

There are a number of really great charts in the article and some interesting comments. Here is Hammill's take on the core values of each group.

• Veterans, Silent, Traditionalists---Respect for authority, Conformers, Discipline
  
• Baby Boomers---Optimism, Involvement
  
• Generation X, Xers---Skepticism, Fun, Informality
  
• Generation Y, Millennial, Echo Boomers, Gamers--Realism, Confidence, Extreme Fun, Social

And here is how he sees each group dealing with money:

• Veterans, Silent, Traditionalists---Put it away, Pay cash
  
• Baby Boomers---Buy now, pay later.
  
• Generation X, Xers---Cautious, Conservative, Save, save, save
  
• Generation Y, Millennial, Echo Boomers, Gamers---Earn to spend.

So do you fit any of the categories? Is he "right on" or off-base?
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Third Class in Second Life

This week, we had Suzi Mazzenga as a guest speaker talking about her adventure as a male in Second Life. You can read about it in her article My Days as a Dude. She gave her presentation using text chat within the Second Life classroom we have set up on MSIT Island.

The class then had a discussion about the places they visited last week and how those places could be used for education. Thanks to Marnie Welliver for taking over the faciliation of the class as I was otherwise engaged.

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Comparing 2D and 3D Synchronous Learning

Here is a video I created for my "Learning in 3D Class" which contrasts the world of 2D Synchronous tools with 3D Synchronous learning tools. I hope it illustrates some of the advantages of 3D environments and some of the things that can be done to faciliate learning within a 3D environment.



The video is based on the work Tony O'Driscoll and I did for the e-learning guild's Synchronous Learning 360 Report. For a full discussion of 3D synchronous learning, you want to get your hands on that report, it contains a complete essay describing our view and explains how to create your own interactive synchronous learning as well as providing a maturity matrix of the use of 3D synchronous learning environments within organizations.

Also, you can check out a webinar where I co-presented with Steve Wexler and Karen Hyder on the Synchronous report. It is worth taking a look. The webinar is titled Synchronous Learning Report.

The webinar provides a great sneak peak into the data contained within the report and shows you the powerful data analysis tool available free to guild members.
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The End of Email?

I often talk about how the "gamer" generation views email as snail mail. Here is yet more proof. Tom King of Mobilemind sent me this great link to an article Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead which explains why kids don't use email.

My favorite part to the article: "Sometimes I say I e-mailed you, but I mean I Myspace'd or Facebook'ed you,"

Yes, they are creating verbs out of nouns...my former English teacher is cringing as you read this.

Over at the Pew Internet and American life project, their report Teens and Technology: Youth are Leading the Transition to a Fully Wired and Mobile Nation published in 2005. Indicates that teens are not really that into email even way back in 2005.

Email, once the cutting edge “killer app,” is losing its privileged place among many teens as they express preferences for instant messaging (IM) and text messaging as ways to connect with their friends. In focus groups, teens described their new environment. To them, email is increasingly seen as a tool for communicating with “adults” such as teachers, institutions like schools, and as a way to convey lengthy and detailed information to large groups. Meanwhile, IM is used for everyday conversations with multiple friends that range from casual to more serious and private exchanges.

This just shows the power of social networks and how important it is for this generation to be wired to one another. The social network trumps almost all other forms of communication. If you are not thinking about creating a social network around topics, areas of concern or competitive advantage...you should be or your training program or academic courses are going to be...obsolete.
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Guild Happenings

Avatar from ProtonMedia's ProtoSphere which will be discussed today.

Today at 12:45 EST, I will presenting, along with Ron Burns of ProtonMedia a session titled Fostering Informal Learning in a 3D Learning Environment. It should be very interesting and a lot of fun. We will focus on how informal learning can be fostered in a 3D environment.

Also, next Tuesday Steve Wexler, the Director of Research and Emerging Technologies, of the e-Learning Guild will be conducting conducting two webinars along with Kevin Brown from Tableau Software. The first half of the webinar will show what people can do with the Guild's Direct Data Access system (pretty cool stuff, especially if you love data.) The second half will show how people can use Tableau to analyze their own data.

This is a great chance for anyone not familiar with how the guild's system works to see it in action.

People can sign up for the webinar here.
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Learning in 3D Second Class...Tech problems

The second "Learning in 3D" class had a few technical difficulties. Second Life was slow and not everyone could log in. And our other 3D space was not accessible either. Our goal of this class was to view a number of educational locations to see what types of educational environments are being created within Second Life.

We had a great guest speaker, one of our graduates, Bart Pursel.

Bart did a great job with his presentation in spite of the technical difficulties. First he created a very helpful link on this blog providing a number of SLURLs which are worth visiting. Check them out at Learning in 3D Talk

He also summarized his experiences with the class in a great posting titled Learning in 3D Wrap Up. He also lists a number of hints for conducting a class like this in Second Life.

I then distributed some note cards to the MSIT group (after some difficulty) and the students then have a chance to go back into Second Life and see some of the places on their own. They are then asked to write their experiences on a note card and then we will discuss those experiences in our next class.

I also created a Machinimia assignment which the students are creating interesting 5 to 7 minute videos to show how Second Life works and how the technology could be used for creating educational sessions. The videos will be placed on YouTube for future viewing.

You can check out all of the class activities at MSIT Second Life Wiki. There is a great discussion going on under the Discussions tab.

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Value of Research

As an academic and a person who values research, I think it is critically important to our industry to back research and to use it to make sound judgments regarding the design, development and delivery of e-learning. One site I especially like is No Significant Difference.

Will Thalheimer has done a fantastic job in promoting that agenda and so have the likes of Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard Mayer as well as others.

Another group that is assisting in that area is the eLearning Guild who is doing some fantastic research in our industry.

However, research does not come without cost as anyone will tell you and Cammy over at Learning Visions has some concerns about the high cost of guild research in her post titled e-Learning Guild Synchronous Learning Systems.

She makes some good points but also brings up a questions I have been asked many times, why is research so expensive. It seems so easy, just ask some questions, record the answers and you are done.

As a seasoned researcher I have to say...not so fast. Research is about asking the right questions, finding the right correlations and investing in the proper tools so that the research is an accurate reflection of reality. Much time is spent trying to obtain responses and then trying to make sense of the responses, of course, this is after you have carefully crafted and tested the questionnaire (a time consuming process itself.)

The eLearning Guild actually gives away much of its research. First, the basic membership is free and then an overview of research reports are free, the webinar that Cammy attended is free...and she took great notes with great information that was all free--check it out...(even if she was multi-tasking while Steve showed the research tool.)

And while $995 for full access to the report (once you are a member) might seem expensive to an individual, to a corporation it is a small price.

We need the guild to conduct research and we, members of the field, need to support it. Why, because empirically-based decision making is critical for our industry and the research the eLearning Guild does is invaluable in helping organizations avoid mistakes that can potentially cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. A small investment in research is good for companies and good for the industry. Research that would cost an individual company thousands of dollars can be aggregated by the guild and end up costing less than $1,000.

So we can lament the cost of obtaining the entire report or...we can be appreciative of the fact that the eLearning Guild is doing our industry a great service and giving away an awful lot of free information as well as providing additional information at a relatively small price.

So, if you are not a member consider joining, for free...and then see for yourself.

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Workshop Success-Teacher/Technologists Doing Great Work

Yesterday, my 13 yr old son and I presented a workshop sponsored by the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit to help teachers integrate technology into the schools. It was a great group of teachers who have been designated, through a grant, as master technology educators. Their role is to go back to their school district, building or academic unit and help other teachers integrate technology.

This group is spending a week at Bucknell University learning all about integrating technology into the class room and how the technology functions. They are being worked really hard...up early, sessions running all day and then even after dinner, more sessions.

We had the privilege of providing some information and education about Second Life. My son did an awesome job explaining how to navigate and build in Second Life but did an even better job answering questions and providing a student's perspective on how he interacts and reacts to SL.

He also had to deal with a resident in SL saying inappropriate things to his avatar in front of the teachers, he handled it brilliantly (no bias here).

We conducted two workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, here are the groups in RL and in SL.
Group One


Now for SL:


Group Two

Now in SL.

I have to say that with the dedicated work of these teacher/technologists from around Pennsylvania and the team at the intermediate unit...technology is reaching the schools and being done professionally and with an eye toward the future...what a great project and group of people. I was glad my son and I had a chance to participate in some small way.

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Training Blog Portal with PageFlakes

Steve Woodruff and I have put together a portal aggregating blogs around the topic of training/elearning/innovation and other learning, development and education topics.

Check it out at TrainingBlogs (we didn't spend a lot of time on the name.)

Here is what Brent Schlenker had to say about the portal.

So, if you don't want to mess around with aggregators and making your own little world of opt-in opt-out content, and you'd rather kick it old school...then just bookmark this little gem and you'll have a very good connection to the training world.

And here is what Wendy Wickham said

Superduper cool!!! Love it!!! Bookmarked it!!!!

And...if something is missing, you don't like a category...we omitted important blogs (your blog), please let me or Steve know. (especially in the Edubloggers tab).

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Father and Son Second Life Presentation

My work with games, gadgets and gizmos provides me with the perfect opportunity for connecting with my oldest son (now a teenager...it is everything they say it is)

In fact, tomorrow he and I are co-presenting a workshop about Second Life at Bucknell University to a group of high school, middle school and elementary school teachers.

My son is going to show them how to edit the appearance of their avatars, how to build items and add textures, how to navigate the world and how to chat and communicate. I am just going to sit back and watch the 13 year old do his stuff (and talk a little about the educational aspects of the tool.) We have co-presented twice before and he does a great job. This is going to be the highlight of my month! (and to top it off, he get 60% of the stipend directly...the rest goes to his college fund!)

Here is a picture of his avatar from the teen grid...Dmc Dench.

You can read more of his Second Life exploits in my TrainingDay post Like a Fish to Water.

If we are going to talk about reaching kids through technology...we need to involve the kids and gain insights from their perspective. I look forward to learning a lot tomorrow in the two 3-hour workshops.
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NCTT Summer Workshop

Every summer the NCTT organization does a great summer workshop for educators in 2-year, high school, vocational schools and other schools about technology in the area of Information and Communication Technologies.

This year the workshop was kicked off by Gordon Snyder Jr. the Executive Director / Principal Investigator of the NCTT center. Check out his blog for great information about Information and Communication Technologies...if you want to be up-to-date on the technology...his blog is the place to visit.

He gave some great statistics about the use of the internet around the world. The stat that I found most interesting was that land line use is actually declining by 9.7% per year. Soon young people will be asking "Mom, Dad, is it true you had something called a 'Land Line' that is so old fashion."

I was fortunate enough to keynote the event and lead with a presentation on the topic of..."The Gamer Generation." The audience was receptive and it generated a lot of great discussions. These are people that are on the front lines of dealing with the techno-natives and are constantly looking for new ways to provide learning opportunities for these kids who have grown up playing video games, surfing the web and creating content on sites like MySpace and YouTube. Thurday we are raffling off 40 copies (signed) of the book.


Gordon, Mike Qaissaunee and Mohammad Shanehsaz then gave a great presentation on Web 2.0 Tools. Here is a picture of Mike. They really had some interesting insights into how the tools can be used in an educational setting to help the upcoming generation understand technical concepts and ideas.

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Total Chaos: First Second Life ID Class...Total Fun

Tonight was the first "Learning in 3D Class" it was totally fun and totally chaotic. It reminded me a lot of the first e-learning classes that I taught, no one was really sure what to do, the software would crash from time-to-time and students and instructors where figuring out what needed to be done.

So here are a few lessons learned:

• Avatar must be off of orientation island before they can teleport (we had some stuck students) A good prerequisite would be for the learner to be off of orientation island before attending class.
  
• Be aware of graphic card issues. You need to have the right graphic card to participate or it will crash on you. Had three students with this issue (out of 30)
  
• Show learners how to create landmarks early so they can find their way back to you. We wanted everyone to come back to the classroom on our island but they couldn't find it.
  
• The scavenger hunt was a lot of fun. I hid blue cones with definitions of key terms the learners had to find. They had a great time looking for the cones and finding the definitions.
  
  
• Things take longer than you think. Allow extra time for helping to return lost avatars and working with permissions. We had some people "locked out of areas" because of permission issues. So they had to be "opened" during the class.
  
• Expect weird and strange noises periodically through class as some more experienced students would virtually "yawn" or laugh or worse.
  
• Develop protocol for asking and responding to questions, everyone talking at once is too much

The lack of audio was really an issue so...we mashed together a solution. We had everyone log into Adobe Breeze and use that audio while we were in Second Life. We also had Heather demo some Second Life stuff through application sharing within Breeze. It worked surprisingly well.

So, I would say the first class was everything you expect from the first time using any new technology and I am sure the other classes will be more tame...maybe.
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Survey Says

Of course you all know about SurveyMonkey...a great piece of web-based software that allows you to create excellent surveys with relative ease. The price is reasonable as well!

I haven't used it for a while and found out they revamped the interface and did some changes to the management of the surveys. Very nice. I use it for the evaluation work I do on some NSF ATE grants.

If you haven't checked out SurveyMonkey before or if it has been a while, take a visit. You'll be impressed.
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Long Weekend: At the Virtual Beach

So for this July 4th weekend, I have been able to visit the beach a little. Check it out. I can even hear the waves.

Also just learned that on Teusday, I'll be giving a keynote address at the Summer Curriculum Workshop for the National Center for Telecommunications Technologies a center sponsored by the National Science Foundation, I'm looking forward to it.
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Heads Down Second Life Work

A good number of hours today are going toward my preparation for my upcoming class called "Learning in 3D."

Today I focus on preparing the MSIT Second Life wiki for the class. It guides learners through the first few lessons for the first class and provides them with some resources. I also spent a lot of time this morning trying to set up a travel itinerary for new avatars to get a feel of the Second Life universe and what can be accomplished from an educational perspective.

Feel free to check out the wiki and add any resources or other items that would be helpful.

I currently am focusing on:

• Signing Up
  
• Communicating
  
• Moving Around
  
• Building

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T&D Reviews Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning

This morning I opened up the July 2007 issue of ASTD's Magazine, T&D and found that Paula Ketter has just reviewed Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning.

Here is some of what she had to say:

[This book, like others, talks about] the impending retirement of baby boomers and how companies are dealing with the critical knowledge transfer that needs to take place.

But what makes this book different is its unique approach to the knowledge-transfer issue...This book is a valuable resource for any business looking to find practical solutions to the boomer-gamer knowledge-transfer gap. It reveals new methods and tools that are being used successfully in a variety of settings, including Flash mobs and cheat codes, video iPods, instant messaging and blogging.

Knowledge transfer is one of the most critical issues facing organizations today.

In fact, I was reading the Philadelphia Inquirer a few weekends ago and they had an article on retiring air traffic controllers. The head of the union said "The margin of safety is decreasing becasue you're seeing an experience drain going on." The article goes on to say that retirements and staffing levels have reduced the amount of time veterans have for fully training recent hires...new methods are needed for training, hopefully my book helps organizations understand some of those new methods and training possiblities.

Also, this month, Wiley's publication Global Business and Organization Excellence published an article I wrote titled Tools and Techniques for Transferring Know-How from Boomers to Gamers. You can read the abstract here.

If you are looking for some summer reading, you might want to pick up the book or the article and provide your own review. You can write the review on this blog or hop on over to Amazon and leave a review.
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Metaverse Links

Lately, I've been tuned into the metaverse since I am teaching a class called "Learning in 3D" starting on July 9 using Second Life and ProtoSphere (how cool is my job?)

The class is focused on designing effective instruction in a 3D world.


So, here are some links on the topic.

• Definition of Metaverse
• The Metaverse Roadmap Project
• Metaverse Roadmap Overview
• Article titled: Another Life: Virtual Worlds as Tools for Learning
• Article titled Defining and Understanding Virtual Worlds
• Games and Learning? Getting Serious
• Blog by ProtoSphere founder. Ron Burns
• Like Fish to Water, my weekly entry on TrainingDay blog
• Intellagirl's web site

And, in the spirit of "fair and balanced reporting" here is a great posting by Clark Aldrich of why Second Life (metaverses in general) are not good learning platforms...read the comments as the discussion progresses in an interesting fashion.

Top Ten Missing Features of Second Life as an Educational Simulation Platform

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Don' Miss Presentation

In case you haven't seen or heard, Mark Oehlert is going to be giving a presentation titled Living and Working with Games and Gamers as part of the Adobe Luminary eSeminar Series: eLearning. Mark is a great speaker and expert on the topic, you don't want to miss it.

Here is the description:

With Gen X’ers and Millennials in the workforce, companies must face the challenges involved in integrating game and simulations into eLearning products and programs. Attend this session, presented by Mark Oehlert, to learn more about the technology and challenges that come with living in a gamer’s world.

You can register here. You will be both enlightened and entertained. Register today!
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So Far to Go: A Local School Board Candidate Armed with Mis-Information

I live in central Pennsylvania so I guess this is to be expected but...please.

Our school board was approving its budget for the next year and there was a line item of $327,000 for the purchasing of nine mobile laptop labs each having close to 30 computers. The district officials said:

...the investment is justified as more class materials are becoming available on computer software and more students can access laptops at one time, rather than sending classes to desktop computer labs with limited number of seats

So far, bravo to the administration.

Enter Dawn Koons-Gill, a district parent and school board candidate..."When I noticed the $327,000 budgeted for laptops, I saw a streak of red...[laptops will] loose effectiveness as the novelty wares off...show me the student achievement, and I'd be ecstatic. It's just not proven yet."

Laptops...a novelty? No evidence what so ever? Dawn, prepare to become estatic...

Dawn's web page sites two articles on the topic, one from AUGUST 31, 2006: from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL called Saying No to School Laptops and one from MAY 4, 2007 in the NEW YORK TIMES "Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops."

The WSJ article does not site peer reviewed research, instead it is a bunch of opinions of parents worried about inappropriate surfing...dah (And by the way, dreadfully awful reporting by the WSJ...no wonder print journalism is in such bad straights...I mean irresponsible reporting like this, the WSJ should hide its head in shame.)

The article itself even states "Anne Carson, a 49-year-old parent in Glen Allen, Va., says the laptop has helped her twelve-year-old son master critical professional skills like how to compile a PowerPoint presentation." What are we preparing our kids for...to take achievement tests while at work...?

Dawn needs to do more research...she needs to look at all the evidence that laptops are good...the other side of the story.

Here are some posts to rebut Dawn's statement, "It's just not proven yet."

Here is an article that says laptops help students. (Full Disclosure: consider the source for this article...but it does claim an independent research project) Research Finds Laptop Learning Yields Better Students and Better Teachers Through Anytime, Anywhere Access

Students who use laptops are more involved in their schoolwork. Students who use laptops explore topics on their own (80 percent of laptop students vs. 46 percent of non-laptop students), review and revise their work more often than students who do not use laptops, and work on long projects (80 percent of laptop students compared to 38 percent of non-laptop students).

Here is another article Impact and Results. (Full Disclosure: Apple sponsored)

Eastern Townships School Board revealed exciting results from studies on the impact of their 1 to 1 laptop initiative. After using Apple laptops for only one year, the number of third- and fourth-grade students who are reading at-level and above increased by 12 percent, while the number of those experiencing difficulty in reading plummeted by 13 percent. There was also a 100 percent success rate on the written component of the Response to Literature rubric, which tests the ability to read and understand text materials. The district also saw a 26 percent decrease in absenteeism.— Eastern Townships School Board, Magog, Quebec, December 2005

Here is another article about the positive impact of laptops...(not sponsored by a computer company)Learning With Laptops: An Urban School Shows Gains and a quote.

Not everyone thinks of Internet research as a third-grade skill. It is at East Rock Magnet School in New Haven, Connecticut, however. There, third and fourth graders are assigned laptops, and not only have test scores increased, but student motivation as well.

Here is another article...based on research States: Ed tech is raising student achievement

In Texas, a program that gave laptop computers to students and teachers in some middle schools has been shown to improve school communications, reduce discipline referrals, and level the playing field for students from low-income families. At least one of the participating schools has gone from being a "low-performing campus" to meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and parents and staff attribute these gains to the laptop project

Here is a great article that you should read on the topic called Loving the laptops

While some school districts in other parts of the country are scrapping laptop programs, citing high costs and few tangible benefits, Mainers remain high on the machines. A soon-to-be completed study at the University of Southern Maine will give laptop advocates some scientific evidence to back up their claims that the devices can bolster learning...

Districts adopting laptop programs outnumber the districts that have shelved them, said Matt Hoover, program manager for the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, a nonprofit group that advocates for laptop learning in Bellevue, Wash. He estimates that a half-million laptops are being used in one-on-one programs around the world.

Maybe instead of throwing out laptops in schools we should try to make them work as author Pamela Livingston advocates in her book 1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs that Work.

Did I mention Dawn Koons-Gill is running for SCHOOL BOARD...
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Guild 360 Synchronous Learning Report Available

If you are interested in synchronous learning, here are some interesting statistics from the report:

• 42% of respondents plan to expand their use of Synchronous Learning Systems
  
  
• Respondents who offer synchronous learning through an LMS report better ROI and a greater level of satisfaction
  
  
• The vast majority of respondents report that synchronous learning systems are essential to their organizations, and that, when set up properly, they rival the best instructor-led training

Not to mention an essay titled "Escaping Flatland: The Emergence of
3D Synchronous Learning" written by Tony O'Driscoll and myself. Steve Wexler of the guild and coordinator and author of much of the report writes:

Karl M. Kapp, professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA, and Tony O’Driscoll, Performance Architecture Analysis and Design for IBM Sales Learning, immerse you into the next generation of synchronous learning systems. This is both a “must read” and a “great read” as Karl and Tony manage to bring the excitement of synchronous learning in a 3D virtual social world to life on the 2D written page.

Ok, so Steve might be a little "over the top"...but that's Steve. Tony and I just think the essay contains some interesting ideas and concepts for using 3D worlds in training and teaching environments.

You can read the abstract here.

Once again, it was a joy working with Brent Schlenker, Karen Hyder, Paula Cancro, Ann Kwinn, Tony O'Driscoll, Karl Kapp, Bryan Chapman and Steve Wexler who coordinated the entire report. The pleasure was all mine in this fun and interesting project.
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"Getting" The 3D Synchronous Learning Environment

Lately, I've been working with Tony O'Driscoll and the folks at the eLearning Guild on some research and thought leadership around the idea of using 3D environments to teach in a synchronous environment. You'll want to read the 360 Report when it becomes available and listen to a webcast on July 10th about the findings of the report.

Simultaneously my oldest son has become interested in Second Life and now is on the Teen Grid, he was using my character but he is fascinated with trying to earn money...so he was going door-to-door selling stuff I had gotten for free. One avatar said "Wow, you are the first door-to-door salesman I've met in SL."

It was time for him to get is own account. He is not going door-to-door any more but is still selling stuff he got for free...or trading it...in fact he is virtually looking for work. Talk about a Personal Learning Environment...all the business courses in the world couldn't give him the experience he is gaining just "playing" on the teen grid. He is negotiating, bartering, cold calling, strategizing, building and partnering to accomplish his goal...not doing that sitting in school in a single file row listening to a lecture about economics.

Anyway, as part of my work with Tony, we created a large giant drill and a scenario describing how a salesperson could navigate around the drill to learn about the functionality and various features of the drill. Explaining this concept to people, for some reason, has been difficult. "I don't get it? Why a giant drill?" or "Seems like a waste of time, just show me the parts." or "Why do I want to be an avatar?"

I showed the drill and learning spaces we developed to my 13 year old son. Immediately he says, "That's neat, I could see how that would be useful." Immediately as in...I didn't even need to explain.

Sorry, I know some people don't believe in a technology gap between boomers/Gen X/Greatest Generation and the gamer generation...but come on, he got it immediately, no prompting, I've spent hours explaining that concept to many older folks and...crickets....nothing.

While much of the generation gap might be the typical stuff...some of it is due to technology and its rapid rate of change.

According to an interesting Business Week graphic called What are People Doing? only 12% of young boomers (41 to 50) and only 7% of older boomers (51 to 61) and only 5% of 62+ people are creating content on the web.

Meanwhile, 34% of young teens (12 to 17) and 37% of youth (18 to 21) and 30% of Gen Y (22 to 26) are creating content (check out the chart). There is a trend showing a difference in how the web is used among different ages.

While not absolute with plenty of exceptions (look at the average age of Edubloggers in our space...35-50. The opposite...but that might be due to the fact that there are not many 22-and-under trainers or teachers...they are more likely blogging about non-education stuff...hey, at 18, I wasn't really thinking about education stuff either).

I think the ages and amount of participation is telling. If you are a Young Boomer trainer or teacher are you able to use the tools that as much of 30% of the youth are using to learn, communicate and create? Hey, that 30% gets the giant drill.

So my personnel challenge is to convey the message that a trend is happening and that we need to dial into the trend to make our training/teaching more relevant and accessible without offending...and thanks again to Tom Crawford and especially Christy Tucker for their insights into the issue.

Might these trends even impact the conference formats that Tony Karrer is discussing in his blog? I am sure they do.
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Did You Know Revisited...great use of graphics...text

Ok, so we all saw the original "Did You Know?" well here is a great revision, look at the graphics and see how they help to tell the story. Compelling in so many ways. Thanks to Miguel at Around the Corner v2 - MGuhlin.net for posting this revision.


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Out and About: Upcoming Online Presentations

On Tuesday, June 26th at 1 pm (ET), I will be presenting on "Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning" in a lively online discussion sponsored by the great folks at InSync Training. You can go here to register and find out more about the event. Hope you can make it, it promises to be a lot of fun and very interactive. Register today it's not that far away!

In July (which is not that far away either) the eLearning Guild is having an online conference called Strategies and Techniques for Building Immersive Learning Simulations (ILS). This promises to be a great online learning experience/conference. Great speakers lined up and good information will be available to anyone thinking about how to create, design or develop Immersive Learning Simulations. Ron Burns, CEO of ProtonMedia and myself will be presenting on the topic of Fostering Informal Learning in a 3D Learning Environment.


We have developed some really great ways that you can foster informal learning in 3D worlds like Protosphere and even Second Life.

Among the other speakers at the event is Phil Charron of Performance Development Group (PDG) who's presentation is titled Failure Is Not a Dirty Word: Strategies to Effectively Use Failure in ILS

So come join us.
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Let's Not Forget New Online Learners

This week my post at the TrainingDay blog is about New Online Learners. It is called New Online Learners and Some FAQs.

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Great Project with eLearning Guild

Recently, I was fortunate enough to be tapped by Steve Wexler from the guild to work on a synchronous learning essay with Tony O’Driscoll focusing on the use of 3D environments for the 3D learning like Second Life, There and ProtoSphere. I can only say that the project was a blast, true collaborative work (we used Google Docs), true exchange of information and truly a lot of fun.

I really enjoyed working with Tony--he's got awesome insights and ideas on 3D learning. If you have a chance, you should work with Tony, he really understands the potential of 3D learning from so many perspectives.

Together, we've crafted a reasonable argument for 3D Synchronous learning within the learning and educational communities.

You can read Steve's comments about the 360 Synchronous learning report in two posts.

• 360 report on synch tools preview
• This essay is killer (and certainly changing my thinking)__

So be on the look out for a great 360 report on Synchronous learning in the near future by Brent Schlenker, Karen Hyder, Paula Cancro, Ann Kwinn, Tony O'Driscoll, Karl Kapp, Bryan Chapman and Steve Wexler who coordinated the entire event. It will be well worth the read.

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Out and About: SPBT Conference Presentation

Just got done with a presentation titled "Games and the Gamer Generation: Realities, Myths, Traits and Training. Are you ready to engage, empower and educate this generation?" for the Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers.

The presentation went well. I used the Turning Point audience response system. It worked pretty well and gave me a great tool for determing the make up of my audience during my presentation. It allowed me to be interactive with the audience, gain information from them and allow them to participate in the presentation. I really enjoyed using the technology. I was also able to expose mis-perceptions that would not be visible in a typical presentatoin. Here are some examples.

I learned that my audience consisted of people born between 1960 and 1980 (and even some born before 1960 since I received a rather nasty comment on the post-presentation evaluation about failure to include people born before 1960, they are pre-gamers according to my definition and so not in the chart, but I will include next time.)



I also learned that most of the audience thought the Hottest Selling Kid’s PC Game from May 2004 to June 2006 was Roller Coaster Tycoon. It wasn't. The correct answer is Princess Fashion Boutique (for which someone commented on my evaluation that I was sexist in my categorization of video games and the gamers...I really thought I was covering male and female gamers equally.)



I also learned that most people thought the average US retirement age is 70. The right answer is 59 and the age has been trending downwards from 1910.


I enjoyed the presentation and hope the audience did as well. I got some good feedback on the presention as well lest you think it was all negative. (recommending I come back next conference, informative, eye opening, best presentation of the conferece...etc....however, the negative comments always stick with one longer and, in many cases, are more instructive for improvements.)

And, I got to meet in person fellow blogger Tom Crawford. It is awesome to meet people in person whom you've interacted through blogging.

So all-in-all enjoyable and the interactive technology is a great way to engage the gamer generation (male and female) as well as other learners (those born before 1960 included.)
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Where is Everybody?

Here is an interesting article called Virtual World Marketing: Lots of Companies, Few Vistors (So Far). One of the most interesting things about the aricle was that it stated "despite entering Second Life to much mainstream media fanfare, companies like Sears, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Coca Cola, Reebok, and Calvin Klein have so far failed to attract even 500 weekly visitors." So are these ventures failures? I think it depends on your perspective.

The real value of being in Second Life or any 3D synchronous learning environment now is, as one comment stated:

Companies aren’t getting into Second Life because of what it is today but what it will become in the very near future….and because of the head start/lessons learned they are betting they will be in a position to benefit from getting involved now.

As learning and development professionals, we need to be in this space as well even if an immediate payoff is not seen. I really believe it is like the early days of the web...or even the blogosphere. All of the sudden, one day the new technology makes sense...are you going to be part of that or left out in the cold? The time to make the decision is now...if you wait until the fad has "caught on" it will be too late.

Plus a problem is that some of these stores do not have any one with whom a visitor can interact. Hey, it's a social software...store owners need to have people in the stores to speak with the visitors--to socialize...empty stores are not attractive to people in virtual spaces. And neither are empty training rooms or other empty spaces. People like to be with other people.

UPDATE:
Well, you can't believe everything you read. As I posted about a certain company that was listed in the article as not getting many visitors, a person from that company corrected me (I have removed the error from my post but it is still in the original article). He then pointed me to another source showing how popular the site is. It just goes to show that with the internet one has to continually be vigilant about sources of information. Here is a link to a chart of the 25 Brand Dwells in Second Life. I thank Dave for the correction. At least the internet allows for fast corrections and updates...as opposed to waiting until tomorrow for a newspaper to print a retraction (where nobody sees it.)
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Blogosphere Welcome to Ben Hamilton

Bloomsburg University Instructional Technology Department alumni Ben Hamilton has joined the e-learning, learning, learning technology blogosphere.

Ben calls his blog Hamilton Notes because the "name was simple enough to cover a range of my musings on topics as the field continues to grow." I think that is a great name and that it will be a great blog to follow. Ben is working on his dissertation which is focused on the motivational impacts of simulations and games--a great topic.

And finally, we need to thank Tony Karrer because, as Ben states:

At the recent ASTD conference in Atlanta, I attended Tony Karrer's presentation on "eLearning 2.0". He discussed several technologies I had heard about, but have not had time (due to dissertation writing) to interact with. More importantly, he challenged everyone in the audience to become an active blogger...

Looks like Ben took Tony up on that challenge. So Welcome Ben and thanks to Tony for encouraging great people in the field to join the blogosphere. If any other Bloomsburg alumni are blogging, please let me know so I can post on Kapp Notes.

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The "Gamer's" Learning Style

Kids who have grown up with video games, Gamers, are self-educating. They seek out and learn from the information that is available to them. They do not rely on formal educational settings for their learning. The gamers’ learning style:

• Ignores any hint of formal instruction. They are self-directed learners.
  
• Includes trial and error and approaching a problem from different angles.
  
• Relies heavily on learning from peers with a distrust of information from authorities.
  
• Focuses on small, focused bits of information
  
• Demands just-in-time information. They don’t want to learn about what they might need.
  
• Is not focused on books and reading.

So while they may look lazy and self-absorbed while sitting in front of the TV playing a video game, they are actually learning valuable skills for the information age. We should all be paying attention.

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Out and About: PREP Weekend Conference

This weekend, I spent my time in Hilton Head Island at a conference evaluating a National Science Foundation (NSF) project called Plastics Resources for Educator's Project. The PREP project, as it is called, was started over 10 years ago to develop Reusable Learning Objectives (RLOs) in the area of plastics education. The project has since spurred a book, additional web site and great collaboration among plastics educators across the country.

Here is Rick Wilson presenting on a plastics certification program.


At the conference, the topics of for credit plastics education, non-credit plastics education and the future of plastics education was discussed. The plastics industry in the 3rd largest industry in Pennsylvania but some schools are having trouble recruiting because it is not as glamorous as other professions but the industry is high-tech, well entrenched in the United States and in need of energetic new employees.

One initiative they are considering is to create an interactive web site for youngsters and placing videos on YouTube...they are reaching out to where the potential students hang out. They have huge industry demand and light student interest...the biggest programs...forensics because of the CSI shows...what they need are some Plastics shows.

Here is Elizabeth Webster talking about Plastics SourceNet.


The emphasis on the need for new students is just another sign of the boomer exodus from the workforce and the need to get "gamers" interested in manufacturing and other industries traditionally thought of as old or not glamorous.
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Podcast Interview: 10 Questions for Karl Kapp

Two colleagues of mine from the world of National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technology Education (ATE) grants and funding, Gordon Snyder and Mike Qaissaunee, interviewed me for their weekly podcast. They both work with the National Center for Telecommunicatoins Technologies (NCTT) for which I serve as the external NSF evaluator. They do great work and you should check out the NCTT web site.

The interview is called, simply enough, 10 Questions with Karl Kapp. Once on the page, click on the title to listen to the Podcast (its about 38 minutes long.) In our discussion, we talk about my new book, the instructional technology program at Bloomsburg University and technology in general.

Mike and Gordon are great guys and I really enjoyed the interview. Have a listen.
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TrainingDay: Summer Reading List

This week at the TrainingDay blog, I posted a list of semi-learning related books you might want to pick up and read on the beach. They are all less than $10 US dollars and are great fun and good reads. Check out Summer Reading Suggestions (only semi-learning related) and leave a semi-learning related book of your own in the comments. Remember, leave a comment on the TrainingDay blog and you could win a book (those are fully learning-related...not as much fun!)
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Show Me the Examples! ASTD Big Question for June

This month the question is "Where are the Examples of eLearning?" and we are supposed to consider both good and bad examples as well as give some thoughts on why the example should get some attention.

I've decided to look at several different types of "e-learning."

Traditional

Here is some learning sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency. It is called the EPA Watershed Academy. It is a web site that has a number of e-learning courses which are very text focused. They are not really exciting or very interactive. Here is an example called Principles of Watershed Management. You can see an entire list of courses at the Introductory Page.

Here is one sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration called Tour of the FDA. It is what I would call first generation e-learning. It has a lot of good interactions and chunks the information well.

Here is a tutorial on how to use e-learning modules. The module is text intensive and not really interactive. It just provides a demonstration of how to navigate the e-learning modules. E-Learning Tutorial for PA DEP. On the left click on Interactive Course Tutorial.

Games and Simulations

Here is a link to a number of casual games, simulation software and general learning games. It is on the Games and Simulations page of the web site for my book Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning . If you scroll down you can see simple interactions that can "spice up" your e-learning. Take a few minutes and browse the content.

Clark Aldrich's blog entry for the big question has a great list of games and simulations that you need to check out.

PowerPoint Based

Here is a presentation I did called Parts of the Stove. The reason for this presentation is to show what can be done with PowerPoint and a digital camera. Imagine, instead of a stove that it is a piece of equipment or machinery. It is a little crude and could use some interactions but the concept of simple design and capturing content with a camera can be expanded upon for a number of e-learning designs.

Avoiding Death by PowerPoint. This presentation is not an e-learning presentation per say but it is a presentation using e-learning technologies to quickly get information to learners or people who would be interested in the topic. I think it is a good use of e-learning tools to develop "rapid instruction."

Informal "e-Learning"

The best example (and I am sure many of you have seen it) is the Learning 2.0--23 Things created by Helene Blowers. Brilliant e-learning or rather Learning 2.0.

Here is a quick tutorial on How to Build Tiny Prims in Second Life. I view this as e-learning since the person watching the video is getting instruction on how to build in the world of Second Life. This can be used for many different training applications using the world of Second Life as a platform for creation of the learning.

Here is a link to a blog entry (another form of informal learning) by my friend Mike Qaissaunee called Web 2.0: Wikis Explained. I consider both the entry and the video as a learning package.

Podcast

I consider e-learning podcasts e-learning and I know Mark Frank would agree with me on podcasts as e-learning as he wrote about it in his entry, Two examples of eLearning.

Check out Gordon's & Mike's Information and Communications Technology PodCast very informative in the areas of technology. Scroll down to the entry Airport Security, RSS Explained, Bluetooth Marketing and Updates
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Bad News for Employers...Retirement Age is Dropping

When I speak and consult with corporations, I often bring up the concept that the retiring boomers are going to be leaving the workforce in a few short years taking with them years of invaluable experience. Experience that cannot easily be replaced, I raise this alarm so that companies can begin to think about capturing all that lost knowledge before it disappears and using some of the tools of the gamers to do it.

Inevitably, someone will say, "Don't worry, Karl. We boomers are going to be healthy and strong and we are going to work well past the 'traditional' retirement age so, at our company, the boomer retirement exodus is not going to hurt...we are going to work a lot longer than people think."

Unfortunately for those companies and many others, the statistics do not support that view. In fact, the retirement age is consistently getting younger and younger. Check out this post Retirement Changes Dramatically Over the Years.


This chart and the post clearly indicate that boomers are not going to work as long as they think they are. Therefore, your company needs to think seriously about transferring knowledge from the boomers to your incoming gamers before it is too late. Do you have a plan?

Read David DeLong's book Lost Knowledge for some great information about the looming boomer retirements and subsequent shortage of knowledge in the workforce. It will scare you a little. After you read that book and you want some practical examples of how to transfer the knowledge, read Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning. It'll supply you with the tools you need to transfer knowledge successfully.

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Great Leads and Misc Information...tying it all together

Sometimes, things just all seem to come together at once.

A number of alumni and friends of Bloomsburg University's Instructional Technology program have sent me some great links and they are all about wildly different things but all are related to the gamer generation. Check them out.

• Here is one titled Most-Praised Generation Craves Kudos at the Office from Alison Stone. It talks about the gamer generation and their desire for feedback and praise...a desire, that I believe, comes from the immediate feedback from video games. Nothing provides faster, more constructive feedback than a video game. You know instantly if you are on target or wrong.
  
  
• Here is an article Swedes open embassy in Second Life of course it is about Sweden opening an Embassy in Second Life courtesy of Katie Rebilas. If you still don't think 3D worlds are important, you really need to look at what is going on. Even if Second Life does not become the learning platform of choice for 3D interactions, there will be an on-line 3D component to training programs in the very near future.
  
  
• Here is short piece on Cigna's efforts to educate young cancer patients about their disease through the use of a video game from a 2002 alumni Brandon Beaver. The article, Cigna offers free video game for young cancer patients explains about the disease and tries to take some of the mystery out of what happens to the patient in a way that they can relate to...video games.

A lot is happening in terms of using games to teach about a serious, life-threatening disease, using a 3D world to set up an embassy of a country and figuring out how to work with the new generation of employee. The gamer generation is hitting the world stage and impacting everything it touches.

Are you ready? If you want to be more prepared, pick up Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning

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Training Day Blog: Virtual Surgery

This week over at the TrainingDay blog, my post is called Surgery Anyone? Virtual Surgery That Is. Stop by the site and leave a comment, you could win a free book.

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