A Pharmaceutical Leveraging Web 2.0 --In a Big Way

If you think Web 2.0 can't be used in your company because of legal or regulatory concerns, think about this...

Pfizer, the world's largest research-based biomedical and pharmaceutical company, with its corporate headquarters located in New York, created Pfizerpedia (based loosely on Wikipedia) in 2006 and has been leveraging the interactive-community-based tool ever since.

The site started out as an online encyclopedia but has grown virally and morphed into something far more powerful than an encyclopedia. It has become a user-generated, centralized index of all things R&D across Pfizer's worldwide organization including people, projects, events, blogs, and discussion groups. Integration with the enterprise directory and other data sources greatly enable "people finding." With a simple search, users can quickly locate colleagues doing relevant work—and not only find their contact information, but also recent projects, publications, and seminars.

Pfizerpedia is resource-sharing Web 2.0 site containing information on mechanisms of action, employee and project profiles and Pfizer products and other information useful to researchers and sales personnel within Pfizer.

Pfizerpedia’s popularity has grown and it is fast becoming an on-line resource of first preference for R&D employees, seeking knowledge pertinent to their job role. Pfizerpedia now has over 2500 contributors creating over 5000 content pages. More than 3000 pages have received at least 1000 hits each. In total, there have been over 11 million page views and approximately 100,000 page edits since it was set up.

Bookmarks of interesting information from Pfizerpedia and other sources can be tagged at tags.pfizer.com by individual employees. Those might be bookmarks of a favorite blog page or other information from an internal Pfizer resource and then they can be stored and viewed to determine the information of most interest across the organization. For those of you who wonder about regulatory and legal issues, even Pfizer's ultra-cautious regulatory affairs group is using the wiki to generate ideas.

According to one article, one clever thing that Pfizer did to promote the use of Pfizerpedia was to create a series of small slide shows to indicte how Pfizerpedia would work-so potential users of the site would understand its value. (as shown in the slideshow below.)

meet Jessica

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web_2.0 enterprise_2.0)

In the future…Pfizer plans to launch Pfacebook—a social networking site modeled after Facebook.

Here is an article from InformationWeek on the topic.

Here is an article from ON Magazine called Enterprise Collaboration 2.0: Is it time to jump in and swim? by Christine Kane which contains good information on the topic.

Another interesting article on the topic, Pfizerpedia: knowledge repository at Pfizer

Also see Pfizer launches RSS for R&D and eyes "Pfacebook" social network

Also see Pfizer Case Study.
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The Right Place to Find Help: ASTD's Big Question

This month's ASTD Big Question on the Learning Circuit's Blog is about Social Networking and finding help and expertise if you have a question or a concern for which you need input and/or advice. The basic question is "If you need input from people, where's the best place to ask?"

But, then the question breaks into sub-questions.
-How to reach out and find expertise
-How to use Social Media to Find Answers to Questions
-How to Learn through Conversation

And then the questions are even broken down further into more sub-questions which you can read for yourself at the original ASTD Blog posting Network Feedback.

The assumption seems to be that there is one "best" place for asking a question. One social network for Learning Management System questions and, perhaps another, for a question about learning strategies or business strategies or marketing strategies. If only you could pinpoint that particular location or network then you could be more efficient in finding answers.

I think the question sort of misses the power of social networking and Web 2.0 tools. Let me explain.

In the old days (before Web 2.0) when working a network to find information the whole process was severely constrained by time and resources. Seeking out advice, counsel and ideas from your network or a related network was time consuming and costly. You had to take the time to make a phone call to a friend who, hopefully, knew someone who might be able to answer the question. Then you had to call that person, reference the discussion with your friend and launch into an explanation of the question you wanted to have answered. That person would, possibly, answer your question for free, offer to help for a fee, or refer you to another person.

If they referred you to another person, you had to start all over again with more phone calls, explanations, etc. It could literally take you all day to find the one person who had the specific answer you needed. You really had to "work your network" to find the right person to answer your question. You had to hope the Return-On-Investment for the time you spent finding the answer was worth it. There was really no cost effective way for the average person to "broadcast" a question to a large group of people.

With Web 2.0 and social networks, the cost of asking a question and seeking advice from several different channels simultaneously is so minimal that it no longer matters whether or not you know the right place to ask the question. Ask it in multiple places because you never know who might have the answer and the overall cost is negligible. And once you ask the question, you can then work in parallel until the answer arrives. You don't need to stop working while seeking the answer.

For example, we have an alumni network consisting of professionals who have graduated from Bloomsburg University with a Master's Degree in Instructional Technology (very competent and accomplished folks.) If I need to ask a question or seek input from the field I do the following:

-Send the question to our Yahoo! Group Listserv
-Post a discussion question in our NING network
-Post a question in our LinkedIn network
-Ask a question to the alumni group on Facebook
-Send a group email via our CAC Conference web site which has registered members

Total time to post the question in all five places...about 5 minutes. The ROI for using all five methods is phenomenal. I invest a small amount of time writing the question, copy and paste it into the proper location in the social media spaces and SHAZAM! I have hundreds of folks (maybe even thousands) who have the potential to answer the question. I don't need to pinpoint or target a specific group or person. In this case there is some overlap but if you broaden the concept beyond alumni...even the overlap is reduced.

I think this low cost of "working the network" is the power of Web 2.0 and social media and is what makes it so effective. Therefore, I don't think a whole lot of time needs to be dedicated to finding the "best place to ask a question." Instead, place it out there to multiple networks and wait for an answer.
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Blending Online and Classroom Instruction: At the Same Time

Last night, Scott came to my class to talk about "Polished Presentations" usually he drives up to Bloomsburg for the presentation but last night, due to a mix up on my part, he was unable to make the 120 mile trip. Scott has a theatre background and a great deal of experience presenting in front of groups and he provides great advice and ideas to students as they prepare for their major presentation to our Corporate Advisory Council.

Due the the distance, this semester we leveraged technology and Scott gave an online presentation...so far pretty normal stuff. However, Scott's presentations are typically highly interactive with a lot of physical activity required of the audience. I was curious to see how the combination of online and required classroom movement would work. Would the students choose to participate or ignore his requests for interactivity since their was a large distance?

So first, here is the set up. We used Adobe Connect, two computers and a web cam in the classroom. On Scott's end, one computer and a web cam. In the classroom, I projected my screen showing both cameras to the audience of students.
Notice the small web cam on the podium.

Scott then proceeded to provide his presentation. It worked pretty well, although we did have some lag a couple of times. Scott provided his content and interacted with the students through the classroom mic (students came up and asked questions) and from time-to-time Scott would ask them to raise their hands in agreement or to check understanding. Then he really got them moving and put the students through their paces by having them do some breathing and speaking exercises.

Screen shot of the presentation where the students practice the famous Buh, Duh, Guh exercise.
Then Scott got the students on their feet and had them do even more breathing exercises. He really interacted well with the students over a distance and was a great example of how a person can present to an audience via distance and still engage and keep the attention of the learners.

Everybody stand up.

The class was a great example of how an online presentation to a group of students can be engaging and interactive. Scott stood up to illustrate hand placement and aids like a pen to assist with speaking and breathing and we could still see him on the web cam. He could see if students were raising their hands and he could direct them through exercises. The set up worked well and while the interaction wasn't ideal, it still showed a great deal of interaction and promise. This is especially interesting since Scott provides such movement and physical activity in his talk. Overall I'd say it was a great example of the impact and potential of distance learning.

To top off the class, Robyn from the Dishing Design blog made a guest appearance and spoke to the students about networking which they will need next week when the meet the corporate professionals at the Corporate Advisory Council Event... I'm sure they'd be glad to get any advice...so if you have some, please comment.

Robyn providing valuable networking tips and techniques.
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President Elect Brings Web 2.0 to the People

We all know that President-elect Barack Obama used text messages and his web site to a distinct advantage in the election.

Well, we now know his is going to be using those tools in his presidency as well. He just launched Change.Gov

The web site will be used to revolutionize the way the commander in chief communicates with the American people through online videos and interactivity via the web. For example, Barack Obama could start doing a weekly YouTube video and fireside chats for the 21st century by allowing people to text or email questions to him that he might answer live during the webcast.

Check out the entire article Obama launches Web site to reach public.

Then ask yourself, if its good enough for a president-elect to deliver messages and information via social media and Web 2.0 tools...isn't it good enough for your learning and development department and your company to use these tools? If you want to break down the traditional and artificial boundaries of the learning function within your organization, you can use the web to help do it.

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More Learning from Video Games

Here is some interesting results related to playing video games from the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association that was held in August.

The article, Playing video games offers learning across life span, say studies, does a good job comparing the good and bad of video games and states that:

"The big picture is that there are several dimensions on which games have effects, including the amount they are played, the content of each game, what you have to pay attention to on the screen, and how you control the motions," said Gentile. "This means that games are not 'good' or 'bad,' but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could."

Similar to other media, there are good and "not so good" aspects of playing video games.
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The Lost Footage...

Several weeks ago my original link to this video was lost. This video is from a local television station that interviewed me about Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning.

Unfortunately, somehow it was deleted. Finally, I found the lost footage and have been able to post it. You can see the original blog posting at Roll The Tape.




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Some Facts about Immersive Learning Worlds

Calling a meeting to order...sort of.

The other day, a blog reader sent me an email asking about Immersive Learning and wanted some information about what it meant and how it is being used. So, here are some interesting facts and figures about immersive learning environments. But first, let's define the term.

Immersive Learning—An umbrella term that refers to an online educational experience which is highly interactive in which the learning engages with the content to facilitate the learning. Immersive Learning includes the concepts of games, online Simulations and Virtual Learning Worlds.

• According to the eLearning Guild, over 93% of Guild members report that their efforts to conduct learning in an immersive learning environment produce results that are either somewhat or much better than other forms of rich-skill practice. Further, 50% of the respondents plan to do more with mini-games in the future, 72% plan to do more with simulations/scenarios and 36% plan to do more with serious games.
  
  
• There is still going to be a steep learning curve for virtual worlds. According to the eLearning Guild 16% of respondents indicated that the were unaware of online virtual worlds, 55% had heard of them but never tied them while 21% have tired them and 7% play them frequently.
  
  
• A survey study by SRI indicated that 58% of the respondents has a strong interest in how virtual world technologies can be deployed in the workplace.
  
  
• Acceptance of virtual worlds seems to be occurring at a rapid rate. According to the analyst firm Gartner, “By the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a “second life”, but not necessarily in Second Life.”
  
  
• The use of virtual worlds as learning platforms is hitting the “traditional” business press. The May 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review ran an article titled Leadership’s Online Labs, by Reeves, Malone, and O’Driscoll which highlighted the skills players gain from playing online role-play games, and even suggested changes in business practices according to behavior seen in virtual multiplayer environments.

Examples:

• Swiss construction giant Implenia is working with IBM to test ways to turn off lights in real buildings by flipping virtual switches in the virtual world of Second Life.
  
  
• The University of Maryland simulated a highway emergency and had participants respond in a virtual world. The world was designed by Forterra Systems, which creates a variety of custom virtual world learning spaces.
  
  
• Qwaq, a company that creates virtual worlds, created a zone of oil rigs, refineries and offices to enable energy professionals to walk through their properties and discuss repairs while viewing actual equipment.
  
  
• Several pharmaceutical firms use virtual worlds of one form or another for training and social networking.
  
  
• The Double Happiness Jeans factory allows someone to create a pair of wearable jeans that are "printed" on canvas after the person watches them being manufactured in the virtual world of Second Life. (see Virtual Jeans=Real Jeans)
  
  
• Immersive environments are being used to teach all types of languages (see Immerse Your Self in Another Language.)

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Forget about the politics of this piece...

Ok, I do not want to be political on this blog since today is election day in the US. Really, I don't care who you vote for (just vote) but no matter who you want to vote for...check out this video.

The technique is really awesome. It embeds the name of any person into the video. Look for my name in the newspaper headline, on the cardboard box, on the Facebook page, on the scroll bar on the bottom. Incredibly clever and what a great way to customize online learning...the possibilities are amazing for customizing learning pieces within corporations and schools what child won't want his or her name on a customized piece about algebra or history.

WARNING...they did go a little far in the middle of the piece with bleeped swearing, so be careful watching at work or around others or yourself if you might be offended. The bleeped swearing is really unnecessary but included. Still check out the technique.



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How Widespread is Mobile Learning?

The other day at a presentation, a participant asked me how many companies have adopted mobile learning...was it widespread and if they where behind because they didn't have a full blown mobile learning roll out yet?

The answer is that mobile learning is just now starting to get a foothold but it is not widespread by any means.

In fact, two separate surveys indicate that m-learning is just now starting to become of interest to organizations. Although there are a number of contributing factors to m­learning only recently becoming of interest to organizations, the three biggest seem to be the recent proliferation of multi-functional “smart phones” with multimedia and broadband capabilities, the increasing availability of Wi-Fi connectivity, and the increase in screen size on many of the mobile devices.

Two external reports point to only a few organizations actually implementing m-learning.

One is by the Masie Group and that study revealed that only 3%, or six of the 204 organizations surveyed were deploying mobile learning widely throughout the organization (although 21% did indicate that they have implemented it in some areas of their organization.)

Another study by the eLearning Guild of survey of 940 of its members indicated that only 9% or 84 organizations had actually implemented m-learning.

Of the 9% who had implemented m-learning, 65% use it for less than 10% of their learning initiatives. These organizations are not developing content specifically for mobile devices; 70% of them indicated they create 10% or less of their learning content specifically for mobile devices.

Additionally:

The Masie Study revealed that 38% of its 204 member organizations indicated that they were not planning any Mobile Learning initiatives.

The eLearning Guild found 33% of its members had no plans to implement m­learning.

So now is the time to implement to seize a competitive advantage but the road will not be easy since there are not a huge number of case studies or examples to guide the way.

Here are a couple of books that could help:




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Presentation Resources

Great presentation last week to a group of enthusiastic trainers.

Group Three

Group Two.

Group One.
Today I am doing a presentation called "Innovations in Technology And What it Means to Learning and Training"

Here are some resources related to the presentation;

List of Recommended Books

Definition of Mnemonic

Here is a copy of the presentation.

Learning Technology

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Mentions in the presentation
Jelly Vision
YawnBuster
Performance Develoment Group
Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning
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We have 2D Virtual Classrooms, Why 3D?

Sitting around a conference table for class.

Another question and this one is simple...why 3D? We've got plenty of great 2D platforms for communication, what does 3D add?

Here is a short answer.

In a 3D world, the interaction with the students feels more intimate than with a 2-D distance learning application such as Centra, Horizon Wimba or Adobe Connect. One reason is because I can see the personality of the student but, also, there is a sense of presence and connection because two humanoid people are standing face-to-face with proper social distance having a discussion. We are relating as two people as opposed to disembodied names on a screen.

When students talk to me or sit around a table and provide input to the group, it feels as if we are all actually in the same room. We can refer to elements in our environment that we can all see. It is important because it brings together the students from distant geographical areas to one central location where we are actually seeing the same thing and interacting as if we were all in one physical location. Additionally, it is important because I have students work with each other in teams and the closeness of the virtual world helps foster trust among the students and they work well together virtually because they have a sense of one another.

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Teaching Higher Order Skills in a Virtual World

Students standing outside of green building on MSIT island.
Another question about virtual worlds and learning.

How do you get learners to engage in higher order cognitive skills (e.g., abstraction; synthesis; evaluation; experimentation; reflection) in a virtual world?

Virtual worlds are ideal for placing a learner into a problem solving situation. For teaching higher order skills it is always good idea because it requires the learner to apply multiple levels of thought to a situation.

For example, a learner can’t decide the best method of running a business without synthesis of concepts, without experimentation or reflection. Running a business in something like Second Life is inexpensive and better way to teach business concepts than having students run an actual business in Real Life with big bucks. Another example is putting out a fire or arranging traffic flow in a building or a city street.

Student interaction is another great way to foster higher order thinking skills. When students interact with each other, they have to engage in higher order skills, especially if the students are involved in a thought provoking discussion or solving a problem. Here are two exercises that provide some opportunities to apply higher order skills.

The first is to ask the students to create a “green” structure within some cost and time constraints. They then must research what it means to have a “green” structure and how to solve some of the problems with the concept of “Green” in an economical fashion. Where to put solar panels? How to deal with wind power when it can mean an ugly structure in an otherwise beautiful setting? Does the initial cost off set the long-term savings. The students need to make trade-offs, compromises and synthesize different information to come up with an effective structure and then defend that structure while giving a tour of it. In this case, through the application process (building the building) they are actually applying higher order skills to solving the problems and trade-offs that arise from the creation of a truly green building while balancing aesthetics.

As mentioned before, another activity is to give students money in a virtual world and let them run a virtual business. This exercise requires many higher order thinking skills.

Additionally, I was recently told a story about a Spanish teacher who immerses her students in a 3D Spanish town for the class period. She indicated that her students became better writers in Spanish because the writing was richer and more personnel than previously with the virtual world because the students were engaged in the Spanish environment and had a richer experience. The richer experience was reflected in their richer writing (in Spanish). This obviously enables higher order skills such as reflection and synthesis.
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Complaint? Students Don't Hang Out in Virtual Worlds After Class

In the course of a week, I get asked many questions about Virtual Worlds, an interesting one that keeps occurring goes something like this.

It seems that students find virtual worlds boring. None of my students “hang out” in-world except for class activities, and my students rarely go into virtual worlds after the semester is over. How can I get them more into virtual worlds beyond the classroom?

It is interesting to me that we often require a higher standard of new teaching technology than we do for existing teaching technologies. Let me give you an example.

In the physical world (real world), not many students hang out in my classroom when class is not in session! So why do we expect it to happen in a virtual world?

The same is true of Adobe Connect, Horizon Wimba and other 2D classroom software. When class is not in session, no one hangs out in the virtual classroom looking to have “fun.” I don’t think virtual worlds are much different. If there is not a compelling reason to be in the virtual world, people will not go to the virtual world that is not a "problem" it is a fact of human motivation. In fact, many young people leave small physical towns when they are old enough because they claim "there is nothing to do." The problem is not confined to virtual worlds.

We can’t expect students to hang out in the virtual world if we don’t have anything for them to do in the virtual world. If we want them to hang out in the virtual world and have “fun” we need to create engaging in-world environments that are asynchronous so they have activities to perform in the virtual world (and this takes some work.) Instructors must remember that virtual worlds are first and foremost social spaces. Virtual worlds are synchronous tools which means you need more than one person to really make it work.

To make virtual worlds work as an instructional environment, I have found you need:

• An instructor or facilitator who is present to guide the activity and set the parameters for interaction.
  
• Other learners who are also engaged in the activity
  
• The activity is supported by the 3D environment (meaning the environment matches the activity, like teaching security checks in an environment in which the security guard will be working)
  
• Teamwork is an essential element in the instructional process. Or one-on-one role-plays add to the learning of the student.

Notice, for the most part, more than one person is needed. Yes, you can create an interactive "click through" environment" that works in a virtual world and it does engage students individually but those environments will continue to be rare until more people learn to comfortably use the software of virtual worlds.

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Death and Dying in a Virtual World

Here is an intriguing story about killing another person's avatar...and going to jail for it. The story Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby tells of a 43 year old Japanese women who hacked into a computer system and killed her virtual husband.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy....The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world... if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

*Thanks to Fernando over at Cultura Inglesa for the original post on that.

I wonder if virtual CSI solved the crime.

Also, this posting gets a little deeper into death in virtual worlds, called Death in Virtual Worlds: Play, Magic, Grief and the Search for Meaning

The line between the virtual and real is blurring more every day.
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Notes, Videos and Slides from Virtual World Presentations

One of the things that I love about the Internet (Cue the violins) is the life that presentations and information after the live presentation is over and begins to fade from memory. Because we now have blogs, wikis, podcasting and Web 2.0 the presentations can add value long after the presenter has "left the building."

This sharing of information and its longer shelf-life is exciting and reminds me of an old saying.

If I have a penny and you have a penny and we exchange pennies, then we each have a penny. If you have a thought and I have a thought and we exchange thoughts, then we each have two thoughts and in some cases three because thoughts are cumulative and build upon one another.

In that spirit here are some resourses from some recent presentations I've done where the content is living beyond the presentation.

1) My slides from my Penn State Presentation on Virtual Worlds.

Why3 D2 Penn State Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: second life)

2) Bart took some great notes on the presentation. You can see them at his blog entry Karl Kapp Visit.

3) I presented virtually at the Eduverse symposium held in De Balie, Amsterdam. The host of the event posted dozens of presentation videos from live and virtual presentations. In addition to my presentation, there are presentations by David Williamson Shaffer from Epistemic Games, a Conversation with Philip Rosedale, a panel discussion and a presentation by IBM's Chuck Hamilton. Good presentations worth checking out.

ADDITION
4) Here is another entry on the presentation along with a great video done by a summer student in my Learning in 3D Class. Dr Kapp at Heritage Hall at University Park. Click around the blog a bit as well. Good stuff. Check out the Welcome Page and click on the gentleman you meet.
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Great Time at Penn State

Why 3D Presentation at Penn State.
Today I gave a presentation at Penn State called "Why 3D?" The presentation was a lot of fun and I had a great audience and met some awesome people. The great thing about the presentation was that I got to see a number of alumni of our program and meet a few readers of Kapp Notes and some really interesting people doing some really interesting distance learning work.

It is always great to see alumni being successful and hearing what they are doing. They are involved with some very interesting activities. From developing online programs in a number of topics to creating exciting learning areas in Second Life around the topic of network security.

Also, meeting readers of the blog and talking to them about learning and elearning, it is a lot of fun and interesting especially since often a blogger doesn't have a chance to meet readers in "real life."

I always hope that the entries are helpful and I really appreciate all of my readers and the feedback in person or whether they comment or just "lurk" on the blog itself. Although I encourage everyone to comment, especially if you haven't commented on a blog before. It's easy.

Anyway, a great deal of fun and Penn State is such a huge school especially compared to Bloomsburg University.

So thanks everyone for being such great hosts at the presentation.

So here are a few pictures taken by Amanda.





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Estimating Client Time on Projects

Received a very thought provoking question the other day in email and thought the concept was too good not to share, plus I'd like to get some feedback to see if I am on track.

The paraphrased question:
"Are there any estimation guidelines for determining the amount of client time required on an eLearning project. For example, if we estimate 300 hours on a project in terms of our efforts, should we expect the client to budget 30 hours or 10% of their time as their expected level of commitment? Should the number be higher or lower?"

My answer:

...it depends.

If the client provides excellent documentation, detailed speaker notes and a step-by-step, indisputable process then 10% works well. However, I say the norm is closer to 30-40%. Here is why, often times e-learning is developed for a process that is not universally understood or applied. Then you get two Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the mix and they disagree with the exact steps. Then the time explodes as they and others try to decide the "real" or "official" process.

Here is how it most often happens, you work with one person from the client's organization and that client signs off on everything until the end when they just have to show it to their boss or a representative from another department who wants to "just take a look" ...it is just a formality...then chaos. The person disagrees with the steps, the content is not right and things need to be changed. Boom, the 10%of the time from the client team ballons and 3-4 or more people are involved and the time to completion goes up.

So.

If detailed and universally agreed upon--10% for review, minor clarifications and normal correspondance.

20% if a little less detailed but not disputed. You sit with SME and she knows the exact steps and is the only authority on the process.

30% if really vague and obscure but their is some process in place and the disagreements are minor.

If gray and uncertain with major potential disagreement and disputes--40%

Typically amount is probably 30%

Your Input:

So what do you think? Does that sound right? Any input or comments. Is 30% right, are my assumptions accurate. What do you think?
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Speaking at Penn State University Park on Virtual Worlds

This upcoming Tuesday, I will be speaking close to home in State College PA...home of Penn State on the topic of "Why 3D Worlds for Learning?" It promises to be a lot of fun since many alumni from our program are working at Penn State in various departments and capacities. I look forward to seeing them all.

The group is pretty savvy about 3D worlds and how they function so I will focus on the pedagogical aspects of 3D worlds and some considerations in desgining and developing virtual learning experiences for distance learning.

Here is a link to the description of the talk.

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Storytelling and Instructional Design

Story telling and instructional design have a lot in common and perhaps they are not thought of as having any overlap but they do. In e-learning we have instructional strategies, in a story we have a plot. In e-learning we have objectives, in a story we have a morale or an underlying theme or symbolism (good ones anyway, i.e. the Christ references in the original Matrix). In storytelling we have characters, in e-learning we are teaching people to perform certain roles (order entry clerk, salesperson).

But there are differences which impact the ability to include storytelling in learning.

In ID we break everything down into compent pieces, in storytelling, we integrate everything together. In storytelling we take the time to provide the context and environmnent in which the story takes place, in ID we usually just plop the person in the middle of the content to be learned (we are not supposed to but...that happens more often than not). In storytelling we aim to create connections to the audience, in most e-learning...we just tell the learner stuff he/she needs to know (like policies and procedures).

To highlight some differences, here is a blog entry I wrote which I think does a good job (at least in the compliance world) of pointing out some problems. Design: Compliance Complaints

So the question might be asked, how do we help instructional designers become storytellers. Here is one idea, have the designer create a lesson entirely in pictures using PowerPoint or some other slide media and force them to "tell the story" to an audience complete with characters, plot and setting--no words on the slides...none. It really forces the analytical side of a designer over to the "story telling side" and requires some real thinking about stories and e-learning.

Some related articles
A Unique Perspective on Video Games and Storytelling
Tell Me a Story__

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What We Can Learn From The Blue Man Group

Having recently been invited to speak in Las Vegas (see Keynoting in Vegas--Not the same as headlining but...), I took some time to see a few shows and one of my favorites was the well known creative and innovative act know as the Blue Man Group.

As the Blue Man Group's web site describes;

Blue Man Group is a creative organization dedicated to creating exciting and innovative work in a wide variety of media. Blue Man Group is best known for their wildly popular theatrical shows and concerts which combine music, comedy and multimedia theatrics to produce a totally unique form of entertainment. The blissful party atmosphere created at their live events has become the trademark of a Blue Man Group experience.

The Blue Man Group (BMG) never speaks a word and always have a slight look of confusion and wonder on their faces. They play PVC piping, drums which emit a colored liquid and provide a variety of information through a large screen with words and images along with rhythmic drum beating and audience participation. They even educate the audience on the topic of animation and the Rods and Cones of the human eye.

The one hour and forty-five minute show really got me thinking about how the creative energies of something like the Blue Man Group could be used to enhance classroom and online learning and to aid retention, application and utilization of learning and knowledge.

First of all, the BMG gets the audience involved right away. As we were waiting for the show to start, a scrolling red-LED board provided information about specific audience members, one person had a birthday, another was an Olympian and another was "late for a credit card payment." Each person stood up and was cheer. Interaction with the audience as established immediately and maintained through out the entire show even to the point of bringing two audience members onto the stage. Not to mention the many times the members of the Blue Man Group ventured into the audience. Interaction is a key element of the Blue Man Group (as it should be with classroom and online learning.)

Second, the Blue Man Group used a variety of media from film clips, live interaction, music, and even tissue paper as part of their show. It was a "blended" show. They are not confined with one method of interaction. Learning and development professionals need to use a blended approach as well. How about job aids, an e-learning module, a face-to-face role-play and reminder email messages. Using a variety of media keeps it interesting and focuses the learner's attention.

Third, the BMG maintains audience enthusiasm. How enthusiastic are your learners? Think you teach compliance so you can't be enthusiastic...Southwest Airlines takes the boring compliance requirements of airline safety and makes it fun as compared to other airlines. With a little effort, you can add some enthusiasm to your instruction.

Fourth, during the show the BMG creates a couple of Spin Art pieces that are available after the show (for purchase of course). But the idea is that you should have your learners create "works of value" during the learning session. If you are teaching about budgeting...have them create a budget. If you are teaching about sales strategies, have them create a strategy. Learners need to create artifacts in the learning session that are of value and usefulness to them during the course of their work routine.

So if you get a chance, go see the Blue Man Group and consider it an instructional design workshop.

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Keynoting in Vegas--Not the same as headlining but...

Tomorrow is an exciting day for me, I will be keynoting the Inforum Conference in Las Vegas. Inforum is the conference of the software company, Infor.

Infor is one of those "big software companies no one has ever heard about"...but you should check them out.

Infor is the world's third largest business software company. We develop and acquire proven software products that have rich, built-in functionality. Then we make them better. We invest resources into product innovation and enhancement. We work hard to simplify and shorten implementation times. We enable our software, services, and support globally. And we provide more flexible buying options.

They are doing some really innovative work with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to provide a method of incrementally updating portions of your enterprise software. Being a former ERP software training/implementor, I find this stuff facinating because ERP upgrades were always a headache.

I will be speaking on how to teach, manage and train the gamers. My presentation is titled From Boomers to Gamers: Bridging the Manufacturing Knowledge Gap.

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Er...Happy to Make the List?

Last night I am on Cammy Bean's Learning Vision's blog and I see that she has posted Zaid's new list. It is called 27 Inspiring Women Edubloggers which was motivated by the backlash of the female edublogosphere against his original top 25 list which included mostly males which, sadly I was not one of them.

So, I start paging through to see who I know and recognize. I see many familiar faces, Christy Tucker, Lisa Neal, Cammy Bean, Jane Bozarth, Cathy Moore, Janet Clarey, Vicki Davis, as well as a number of new blogs I will be checking out and then...the shocker as I came upon this page...


Now, sure, I am honored to be on the list with so many distinguished female bloggers many of whom I read regularly...but really I don't deserve to be on the list...really...no really...this isn't false modesty...I am a male. I have XY chromosomes, I think that disqualifies me from the top female category for anything.

So, Zaid...thanks, er I guess.

Anyway, check out the great list by Zaid, he always puts together great visuals and fun lists.

27 Inspiring Women Edubloggers

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: education women)

I told my wife and two boys about being on the list and they laughed. And then as my younger son was leaving for school he says "Bye Mom" to my wife and then turns to me as says "Bye Mom."...very funny.

***Actually, I think Zaid was really just trying to acknowledge my comments on Janet Clarey's blog, On Growing Facial Hair (which I have) about the topic of lists and female edubloggers and I am pretty confident he does not think I am a she.

Good amusement for a Friday...Thanks Zaid!!!

New Games Institute Unveiled

A new effort to create games for middle school students has recently been announced.

Games for Learning Institute, a $3 million research effort at New York University that was publicly unveiled on Tuesday. The institute, a partnership between the Microsoft Corporation and six universities (N.Y.U., Columbia, the City University of New York, Dartmouth, Parsons the New School for Design, and the Rochester Institute of Technology) will study games used in middle school classrooms and then create prototypes for new ones.

Check out the entire article Video Game Helps Math Students Vanquish an Archfiend: Algebra

Not an new topic on this blog, check out:
Learning Algebra in a Game

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It's Not Gibberish, It's Learning as a Process

Too often learning and development professionals (and practically everyone else) treats learning as an event. The assumption is that a person attends one class or takes one online course and SHAZAM, they instantly know everything they need to know about a topic, software application, new corporate policy or product.

This is a lie.

But we all buy-in.

For example, you might ask "How do I fill out my expense report again?" and someone will respond, "You should know that. You just went to the training." Even though it was a one time, 2 hour event, you are expected to know everything there is to know about completing expense reports and when you ask questions you are accosted.

Other than highly emotional or dangerous events like touching a hot item, we humans need repetition to learn. In fact, sometimes even after a traumatic event we still burn our hand by touching something we "know" is hot. We need several instances to understand, we shouldn't touch hot things.

If we want to change behavior...I mean really change behavior in an organization let's say ethics or compliance or diversity acceptance or selling style or machine operation. Or if we want to create a person who is a "Master" at their craft (sales, negotiation, leadership). Then we need to design a learning process and not a learning event.

A great example of a learning process is how a child learns to master language. They might one day speak their first word and a few months later suddenly speak their first sentence and all of the sudden, they won't stop talking. These language events don't just happen...even if it seems that way. In fact, children are learning all the prerequisite skills to "instantly" say their first word or sentence all the time.

Let's break down the process of learning to speak.

Less than 1 month. Babies listen to the rhythm and melodies of speech. Usually can pick out their mother's voice.

1-4 months. A baby gurgles, babbles and makes noises in a speech-like way, including sound like “p,” “b” and “m”. He or she also vocalizes excitement and displeasure and observes the reactions by the parents. Baby begins to learn that making certain noises leads to predictable responses from parents. At about 3 months, make cooing sounds back to someone who is talking to them.

5-6 months. Baby makes sounds like "goo" and blow bubbles at the same time. At about 6 months, start to babble, repeat sounds, such as "ma-ma-ma" or "bah-bah-bah" to get attention or express feeling.

7-12 months. Baby's babbling now includes both long and short groups of consonant and vowel sounds, such as “tata upup bibibibi.” Baby can now use speech or sounds other than crying to get and hold your attention. Baby imitates different speech sounds and incorporates them into the baby's babbling. Says first words such as “mama,” “night-night” and “bye-bye.” Mimic the rhythm of the way others talk to them. They "pretend" to be caring on a conversation with someone by babbling the correct cadence and pausing with of a conversation.

1-2 years. Baby can follows one- to two-step commands, such as “Bring your book” or “Come here and sit.” 25 percent of the baby's speech is intelligible. Asks two-word questions, such as “What that?” or “Where’s dog?” Combines two words to make simple sentences, such as “Daddy go” or “More push.”

2- 3 1/2 years. Has a word for almost everything, and vocabulary increases from a few dozen words to 300 – 1,000. Utterances are usually one to three words long. Baby asks for something by name or draws attention to it by naming it (“book”) or one of its attributes (“big”) or by commenting (“wow!”).Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time. Follows two-step commands, such as “get your pail and put it next to the door.”

3 1/2 - 4 years. Baby makes sentences up to four or more words long. Speech is usually fluent and clear to non-family members. Talks about activities at friends’ houses or preschool. Begins to ask questions using pronouns and plurals. Baby usually talks easily without repeating syllables or words. Approximately 75 percent of speech is intelligible.

4 -5 years. The child's speech is clear and fluent. He or she can constructs long and detailed sentences. Child can tells a long and involved story and sticks to the topic, using “adult-like” grammar. Still, may have trouble pronouncing l, s, r, v, z, j, ch, sh and th sounds. May tell imaginative “tall” stories.

5 - 7 years. Child rhymes words. Shows pre-reading skills, such as identifying words that all start with the same sound (ball, bat, bacon). Recognizes that words can be broken into parts or syllables. Can manipulate words, such as “p at = pat,” “m at = mat.”

7-12 years. Children master the nuances of the language but still keep learning new words and vocabulary.

Yet, we learning and development professionals continue to treat learning as a one time event, we continue to perpetuate the myth that one well designed class or e-learning module will magically elicit a desired behavior that a person hasn't exhibited in years but will now suddenly, because of our learning event, exhibit flawlessly.

What we need to do is stop designing courses and modules and start designing LEARNING PROCESSES. Studies show that distributed learning is effective, personnel experience shows it is effective and observation shows it is effective. So, next time someone asks you to design a course or a module tell them, "no" its much more effective and will elicit far better results if you design a learning process. Distributed learning in different formats delivered to the learner over time.

It works for a complex, cognitive and physical task like learning to speak, it will work for complex compliance policies, sales techniques and any another topic you need to teach.


Baby Language Sources:
Major Developmental Milestones to Speech

Speech and language development, birth to 1 year of age
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Logistic and Transportation Industry Training Needs

A few years ago, I co-conducted a study to determine the training needs of the Logistics and Transportation (L&T)industry in Northeastern PA. What I found was an interesting list.

Even with the recent climb in gas prices, I think these expressed needs are all current. Many of these needs cut across industries and even job levels. I think many of these skills are needed at the executive and hourly levels. What does it say when almost every job requires "better communication" than what the existing communication process happens to be? Better communication is a universal training need.

The training needs assessment consisted of a survey and number of focus groups to gather the data.

• Properly trained workers are a critical need. As is the need for on-going training in a number of areas such as diversity, technology, communication, driving and mechanical skills.
• One skill set that was highlighted strongly in focus group meetings was that of basic worker skills. This ranged from interviewing skills to work place skills such as showing up on time, not bad-mouthing the boss, not taking 2 hour lunches, not asking for a raise on the second day of work. These are basic employability skills.
• Good written and oral communication skills. For example, when to use email and when not to use email.
• Few companies have customer service training but it is a big need.
• There is little computer training. The training that is needed is in the area of trouble-shooting basic problems. New workers know a minimum amount of computer programs (MS Office Suite) but don’t know what to do if they have a problem or how to figure something out on their own.
• Most of the mechanic training is on-the-job while driver training is primarily focused on safety but there is a need to deal with driver paperwork and customer service issues as well.
• Forklift training is a critical need in many L&T firms and most of the training in that area is done in-house.
• Managerial, supervisor training was indicated as a need in many firms.
• Finding and locating CDL drivers is an issue.
• Train-the-trainer is an area of need. Since much of the training is done internally, these organizations would like to know how to prepare people who know the subject matter to present it to new and existing workers.

This is also a shout out to Stan. Keep hanging in there. We'll find you something.
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Overheard Discussion

Here is a snippet of a discussion I overheard between a manager of instructional design and her supervisor.

Customer: So what are you doing about getting this curriculum on-line? I want 100% on-line.

Developer: This is a radical change and we need to think about the audiences' needs to see if this is the best method for them. Are you asking that the entire curriculum be converted to e-learning?

Customer: Yes. I want it all on-line. How long will that take?

Developer: Well, we need to redesign the materials, add instructional strategies, check with the IT department, add visual elements and interactivity and then roll out the training. The ratio of development time for conversion for online training is anywhere from 40 to 100 hrs to 1 hr of delivery depending on the level of interactivy and current state of content, and for a 6 week curriculum - that's a very long time.

Customer: What? Can't you just scan it all in? I thought you could just scan it into the computer. I am sure I saw somewhere that you could just scan information into the computer.

I hope you've never had a similar discussion but I bet you have...

It reminded me of my posting Instructional Design Clients...Gotta Love'm

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Help, I have an Instructional Design Master's Degree and I Can't Create E-Learning

This month's ASTD Big Question relates to a person who graduated from a theory-only program in Instructional Design and was not provided with the experience of actually creating instruction using any of the latest tools. So the question is:

What advice would you give to someone who has no experience with e-learning development tools? Where do you start?

• Particular tools you should explore?
  
• Resources you should read? Videos/screencasts you should watch?
  
• What would your "To Learn List" look like?

Holding myself back, I will calmly answer the question as per Tony's request to not comment on the content of the Master's program...but my tongue is starting to bleed from biting it so hard.

My first suggestion is to take an online course that offers hands-on experience using some of the tools. Bloomsburg University's Department of Instructional Technology offers many online courses that include, as a standard part of the program, instruction and hands-on experience with development tools. These courses can be taken without being enrolled as a full-time Masters Student. Any one who is interested can leave a note on my blog and I will contact them.

Here are two such courses.

• 57.584 Online Course Design -teaches Blackboard, Centra, Captivate, Adobe Presenter, Snag-It and Hot Potatoes.
  
  
• 57.588 Learning Management System Administration requires students to develop and deploy an actual course using the LMS Plateau (Why Plateau? because they donated it).

If that doesn't work...

I agree with one of the comments on Tony's Site. Have a specific course in mind that you want to build that will provide you with the motivation and focus needed to learn the software.

Then download the software (free demo version) and build something that you will post on the web. Forcing yourself to build it to a quality level good enough to post in public will motivate you to put the time and effort into the project and increase your learning. That focus will also give you a better understanding of the software than if you were just "fooling" around with it.

Alternatively...

Purchase one package and dive deeply into it. Once you master something like Lectora or TrainerSoft, you will have the basics needed to master similar programs. You might even want to learn all the ins and outs of MS PowerPoint because PowerPoint is now the foundation for several quality e-learning development tools such as Articulate and even Adobe's Captivate can utilize PowerPoint slides (just make sure your PowerPoint slides don't look like typical PowerPoint...see Avoiding Death by PowerPoint.)

Or...

Go to YouTube and search for "Learn Flash." You will find a bunch of videos on how to use Flash. You can do the same with "Learn Captivate" as well.

If worse comes to worse...

You can always get a book about the software...while it is not exactly the same as having the actual software, it can provide some help. And if you are using the software with the book, so much the better.

Now I have to go clean up the blood dripping down my chin...
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Blog Field Trip: Cognitive Technologies

Today I thought a blog field trip would be fun. What is a blog field trip?

Well, if you regularly view this blog and leave a comment or just lurk (which is great as well). Today, I thought you could spend your time at Cognitive Technologies and leave a comment there or lurk on that site. Like an actual field trip, visiting another blog will give you a new perspective and something to think about. New surroundings.

I left a comment on post e-Learning is more than an online presentation. Currently it is awaiting moderation...in the meantime, I encourage you to leave a post on that entry as well. See you over there!

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Time to Learn Basic Physics? Then Time for an Online Game

An image from the physics game LunarQuest.
For those of us who struggled to learn physics, here is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) teaching the fun of physics in an interactive way. Check out the description of the game called Lunar Quest. The game is not yet ready for release but is on a busy development schedule. And you can keep up with what they are doing in their blog about the development process. They are calling it the LunarQuest Developer's Diary.
Here is the vision:

Lunar Quest is an NSF-funded project that seeks to examine the effectiveness of a massively multiplayer game for teaching introductory physics. It is our hypothesis such an educational tool will yield greater understanding of physics, which will improve their testing and classroom performance in the area of physics. It is our contention that in order to study how and why game play can be a serious tool for education, or serious gaming, we must build a game bridging the gaps of entertainment and pedagogy.

Lunar Quest is a serious-game experiment that is an MMOG for two main reasons: MMOGs are built modularly which behooves experimentation of which features contribute to or hinder the learning or the physics content contained within, and MMOGs are communities that allow designers to reach classrooms of prospective students at one time.

We (or our kids) can learn basic multiplication, algebra, spanish and now physics with interactive games.

Here is a list of other educational games.
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