How important is social media in training?

I’ve been reading widely on the ways trainers have been integrating social media into online and off-line courses, and my feeling is that trainers who use it are:

• Already using social media themselves in their out-of-hours lives
• Are teaching subjects where trainees are likely to believe they can research the topic themselves
• Work with trainees/students for whom literacy is not an issue
• Train groups who can easily afford and access online technology

And before anyone jumps in and points out that it is the rare young person who does not own a cell phone, let me illustrate my point. I was involved in designing face-to-face training for a group of trainees who:

1. Live in rural New Zealand
2. Come from families with limited resources apart from telly, DVD players and cell phones
3. Are sometimes challenged with literacy

We designed an experiential activity in a pilot where a member of a small group had to phone an expert on a cell phone to elicit information to help them write a report (basically notes that they would speak to). What we failed to realise was that no one in the group felt comfortable actually phoning someone on a cell phone. They texted in txt language even during the course, but never used the phone to actually speak into. That cell phone was passed like a hot potato around the room until one of them finally agreed to try. It was an amazing success for the young man with the courage, but certainly challenged our assumptions about cell phone confidence.

Social media probably can be and is used as a research tool in more formal courses, but there is a still, I believe, a rather large gap between the social media learning opportunities within formal courses and those that can be used with less resourced groups.

Heather Sylvawood

www.edutechkm.com

heather@edutechkm.com

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Will learners soon dictate their learning qualifications?

That option could soon be coming our way if universities follow the research of Philip Duchastel, Nova Southeastern University. He says that university education needs to adapt to the new eLearning technology in a number of ways.

Instead of the traditional approach, he proposes a new learning model that includes:

1. Students who define and pursue specific learning goals as opposed to learning explicit content such as from a textbook
2. University course creators who accept diversity of outcomes as opposed to demanding common learning results
3. Students who produce their own researched knowledge rather than the regurgitation of course content
4. Evaluation tasks that demonstrate knowledge application as opposed to knowledge assimilation based on routine course tests
5. Students who can demonstrate they can build learning teams (collaborative learning) as opposed to exclusive individual learning
6. Universities actively encouraging global communities (virtual scientific communities) made possible by internet technology

“This new interactive model of learning is most suitable to online education. The explosion in information makes ‘creating knowledge’ by learners themselves more important than the traditional imparting of knowledge by instructors, whether in the classroom or elsewhere,” he says.

An online model of learning based around discovery learning removes the onus on course leaders or tutors to define what are legitimate knowledge and approved sources. The students working in collaborative teams would have to provide the evidence that their arguments (presentations of information) come from legitimate sources. And, that the conclusions drawn from their research are logical given the evidence they have gathered.

Checks and balances
There are several checks and balances inherent in this model of learning.

1. First, there is the learning team. The online environment allows some quite rigorous debate to take place because there is no body language involved to skew the frankness, unless it’s taking place in a video format (like Skype groups). Team members will understand that allowing someone to come up with poor research will not aid their case. They will want to challenge and analyze the research themselves, and will follow-up anything that could be suspect.

2. Second, the students’ evidence of success is not so much on the amount of content or evidence they have gathered, but the conclusions they have drawn from the evidence or research. Any tutor worth their degree will be able to sit through a presentation and discern whether the evidence is sufficient and whether the conclusions drawn are valid. Very little marking involved.

Tutors would become brainstorm leaders and guides when groups were stuck. They would teach critical thinking skills rather than facts that students could find out anyway. Their weekly (online or face-to-face) tutorials could be model presentations of their own research, and their teaching goals would be to show how they applied scientific method to ascertaining the credibility of the evidence.

The issue of credibility of research and information is a valid one. We just have to look at the victims of online hoaxes to know that if everything looks legitimate we are likely to accept that it is. We have only to read about ‘rogue investors’ to realise that while everything looks like we would expect, we will overlook indications of wrong doing or ‘tall stories’. We also have to quickly ascertain what is purely for entertainment and what is worth giving time to. Critical thinking is a skill most needed today, online or off.

Strange bedfellow as it is, I would propose that intuition is also a human quality that deserves more credit in the way we evaluate knowledge. It can let us down badly, because we rarely want to disbelieve old knowledge or be forced to take on new knowledge that lies contrary to what we ‘know to be true’. However, the greatest advances in science have come from the scientists, explorers and astronomers who trusted their intuition and refused to be bound by old knowledge. They took a very little new knowledge (observation) and allowed their intuition to move them forward into the unknown. Intuition is to be encouraged in our new learners.

I believe the vast knowledge library provided to us through the internet will encourage the world to take dynamic strides into a new way of living, if we are prepared to accept it. What needs to happen is that the old way of judging a student’s worth, through his/her accurate regurgitation of theory from old books, has to change. And it has to change whether the course of study is provided online or off.

Online Nation, a 2006 report by Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman, looked at ‘Five Years of Growth in Online Learning’. The authors say that in the US about one-third of higher education institutions account for three-quarters of all online enrolments. “Future growth will come predominately from these and similar institutions as they add new programs and grow existing ones.”

These figures seem to imply that the early adopters of online (eLearning) have become the industry giants among universities. However, how are they taking hold of the opportunities that eLearning provides, rather than turning old books into online copy, is unclear. Online courses need to include strategies that hook students in. The learners must become active partners in the learning process rather than empty-vessels-that-must-be-filled.

Online Nation describes the barriers to universities taking on online courses as:
1. Cost (both cost to develop online courses and the costs to deliver them)
2. Lower retention rates for online
3. That students need more discipline to succeed in online courses
4. Whether online degrees will be acceptable in the job market
5. The level of acceptance of online instruction by faculty members

Allen and Seaman say: “it is not clear whether these are long-standing or more recent concerns, but survey responses suggest that these concerns are likely factors that have kept them (non-engaged universities) from introducing any online offerings.”

The first objection has largely been addressed by increasingly clever software. The second and third need a change of attitude about what learning is, as discussed in this article. The last two objections sound like pure reluctance to let go of what we currently ‘know to be true’.

H Sylvawood

Bringing eLearning into your training

Cost has been a prohibiting factor when businesses consider the possibility of adding or shifting training into the realm of eLearning. Creating the content, images, written maaterial, videos, audios - it just seems all too much. Then, of course there is adding the cost of the Learning Management System (LMS) to record the student/learner results and the horrendous cost of the software to bring it all together.

However, the news is not all bad. There are many tools today that have been designed to be low cost, or existing tools that have been adapted by clever people to create eLearning design opportunities. Besides, the users and creators of eLearning have realised that the delivery has to change to meet the emerging needs of the new learner. No longer are learners happy with information delivered to them as if they were empty vessels ready to be filled with all they need to know. It doesn't matter how whizz-bang the delivery, they want the chance to contribute/participate in the learning. In other words they want to feed back information.

It's all this social media they've been involved with since teenage years!

That new socialisation is forcing some changes in the way eLearning is created. First: it needs to include some measure of social media (wikis, facebook pages for comments, forums or chatrooms) where the learning is critiqued; second: it needs to be cheap and adaptable for the changes that will inevitably happen in such a dynamic environment.

In the past the reaction has been for software to integrate refinements into a larger and larger and more expensive package. And many of the refinements were not required by most of the users. So it was refreshing when I uncovered the following blog site:

More Information


It's full of ideas and options for creating cost-effective eLearning and learning games - the software, how to adapt existing commonly-used software, where to get royalty-free images, how to create storyboards and access templates. As you are already reading a blog, you probably understand the power of social media, so your next step is to start thinking outside the box and making a plan to integrate it into your training.

I will certainly be sharing the Free-eLearning link above with the course creators on our community of eLearning site eBrainz.net.

A couple of interesting books I have been reading that might give you counter-arguments for detractors from online learning are:
1. Social Media for Trainers by Jane Bozarth - Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning. Jane focusses on training for soft-skills and business skills, but mentions many that could be transferred to more practical learning.
2. The New Social Learning by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner - A Guide to Transforming Organisations Through Social Media. This book includes actual answers for the objections that might be raised to reject eLearning and including social media in online courses.

So now you have all the tools to make a change in your delivery of learning. I'd love to hear how you succeed!

Working from Home

If you are an online course tutor, the chances are that you will be working from home, at least for part of your week. As an at-home worker I have had to learn to adapt myself to the relatively unstructured environment of a distance worker. Although I am one of two directors of a New Zealand business, a lot of what I do helps to create the product that earns the company income. I therefore need to be available and working at least 40 hours a week.

Moving from a regular eight-hour  a day job to working at a distance has proved to have some challenges. I have now spent four years working from a distance.  I’ve always been consistent when recording my time on different projects, so nothing changed when I reached Golden Bay – only the scenery. That was a problem …. From working in a small office in Christchurch I moved to a house on a hill overlooking Pohara, and Golden Bay. It was distraction city.

I’d forgotten how waves can shift and shimmer, grey out and race across the bay in front of a westerly. I became a bay watcher, unconsciously recording the tides and wind changes, the visiting birds and the cruising campers who came to see how the other-half lived. I would sometimes clock out just to sit on the deck and watch the marvellous changes in the bay.

The ability to clock on and off has had pluses and minuses. I found, everyone else thought I could ‘do other things’ during the day. An hour here-and-there, ‘doing other things’, soon eats into the time available to complete projects and meet deadlines. After the first month or so I became more disciplined and moved my office into a space where there was no direct view of the sea. Breaks became more structured.

A contractor we are currently working with says discipline is the key when working from home. “You have to make sure that you stick to your time schedules and deadlines. Not just work, but you have to make sure you take those breaks so you keep your mind fresh and creative,” says Shaun Meredith (Better Informed Ltd).
 

Our spaniel Tilly plays her part in keeping me sane, bringing me toys to play with or trying to climb onto my knee when I’ve been too long at the computer. Yet there are times when even Tilly’s company is not enough and I succumb to cabin fever. Working alone can feel isolating if you’re a social character. When your partner comes home ‘peopled-out’, you’re ready to party!

Sarah, the other Edutech KM Ltd, director, and I have frequent phone ‘meetings’, occasionally use the phone to brainstorm with others using three-way phone calls. We’ve had limited success with Skype, but that’s more to do with our personalities - when we want to create we want to do it now, so we stay within our comfort zone and use the phone.  We’ve also used Team Viewer with each other and clients.

Shaun agrees: “For my business verbal communication is very important. Having that verbal contact keeps you in the loop and you can better judge the situation with your client. Some clients’ expectations can get lost or misunderstood if you maintain textual communication.”

When working on a project together, Shaun and I both use the process of phone calls and follow-up clarifying emails between us and with other clients.
Shaun says: “One tool I have found very useful is Dropbox. The ease of this tool and not having to deal with blocked email or size restrictions makes you feel like you’re working on the client’s intranet.”

I’m lucky to live in an area of Golden Bay where Broadband is available. Over the three years I’ve worked here connectivity has improved. On the occasions it goes down, it’s Murphy’s Law and there is always, always a deadline approaching. Mail and the courier leaves mid-afternoon. There’s no possibility of dashing out to the airport with a CD for the courier’s next-day delivery – the airport’s almost a two hour drive away.  

And that’s a downside. There are times when visiting a client is essential. For a period of about five months I was travelling to and from Rotorua once or twice a month. I had to leave home at 4.30am in the morning to make air connections to Wellington and then to Rotorua. If you’ve travelled the Takaka Hill you’ll understand how, at that time of the morning, it’s a bit of a challenge.  I kept setting personal records like driving seven times over the Hill in 10 days.

For me, working at a distance has had far more benefits than I ever expected. As long as I stay focused during the day and I’m prepared to extend my hours when a deadline is looming, it’s fine. But then, that’s like any job, isn’t it?

Heather Sylvawood

www.edutechkm.com

heather@edutechkm.com

www.ebrainz.net.nz

When passion drives you

When passion drives me it is so easy to get things done. Energy flows, and I feel light and inspired.

I find that if my motivation has been inspired by a book or webinar or program I can hardly wait for the end of the inspirational event before I want to start on whatever it is that inspired me. I forget that I have actually been involved in a learning event. It isn’t learning – it’s doing. Or is it?

Surely learning should lead to:

• A tangible result
• An intangible change in the thinking of a person or group?
• New knowledge that generates action?

So how come I don’t view my passion and inspiration as a learning path?

When I think about it seriously, I have stuck in my mind a belief that learning has to be serious stuff. It has to involve some sacrifice, some putting off passion until I’ve earned it. It also has to imposed from above by people who know better.

But isn’t that flying in the face of what’s happening in the world right now – the integration of social networking into learning? Of course it is. My thinking is stuck in last century’s learning models. Nowadays when I want to learn something I go online and research it. I look for just enough information to answer my current questions. I might note a few interesting things to research later, but mostly I follow the Japanese JIT (Just In Time) principle – information I need just in time for when I need it. That kind of learning doesn’t fit into the 3-4 years studying topics deemed suitable for a named degree.

Unfortunately, formal learning is often a passion killer unless you know that it is leading into a career that inspires you. The very notion that the extent of your learning can only be measured by tests or assignments, in which you support other people’s past comments, doesn’t fit the requirements of our twitch speed future. How will it inspire us to move beyond the ‘now’? How can passion be merged into learning?

Formal learning organisations are facing an insecure future:

• Less money for research (where passion and inspiration leads)
• The increasing pace with which information becomes obsolete (and libraries must be restocked)
• A huge challenge in verifying the validity and currency of online information
• An increasing push for specialisation requiring a wider range of experienced tutors
• Increasing cost for housing students in a location and less government money to cover it

Staff and tutors at formal learning organisations are surely constantly running to catch-up, never mind get ahead of the knowledge tsunami. That young students might feel a bit disenchanted or disenfranchised in such a world is not surprising. They are already engaged in learning in the social networks they belong to. They just don’t see it as learning because it hasn’t been legitimised by the system. And their learning is indistinguishable from the social chitchat that accompanies the sharing of information.

Yet out in the real world, where passion can be a driving force, businesses are finding their knowledge and commercial improvements come from a free-exchange within a ‘what’s new and what does it do?’ culture. They are also finding that the interaction of staff along with the sharing helps to build bonds that will ultimately create a cohesive team.

Somehow over the next few decades the processes of learning and following your passion are going to have to merge.

Powering up training in a recession

Cost and access issues
A New Zealand industry training organisation working with mechanical engineering, manufacturing, baking and food processing industries, Competenz, urged the New Zealand government to reduce the costs of industry training in a recent press release.

CEO John Blakey said that while trade training in New Zealand has been under-funded for decades, the recession has highlighted this problem. "We're taking the message to the Government that cost is the major barrier to employers taking on apprentices and upskilling staff - and this needs to be fixed now.”

Blakey went on to say that Competenz is working with Business New Zealand and the Industry Training Federation on long-term solutions to take to the Government.

The problems
Cost is only one part of the problem, in my view. Other brakes on training include:

1. Fragmentation of the training delivery industry leading to challenges finding the right training/courses


2. Lack of clear career pathways, despite a hefty national framework of possible units to study


3. Challenges with acceptable assessment forcing training providers to produce prescribed documentary evidence of every PC and every minuscule part of the range


4. Lack of innovative (cheap and ‘safe’) solutions to accessing online training resources


5. Companies’ headaches around rostering employees off on courses for more than a day

Solutions could come from:

1. NZQA maintaining up-to-date lists of currently available face-to-face/e-learning/distance learning courses instead of just a list of registered providers


2. NZQA and/or ITOs having easily accessible recommended career pathways for industry careers


3. A review of the prescriptive model of assessment to allow integrated projects to act as evidence


4. Better access to online training, and not just in IT or computing. The Government is moving toward broadband solutions, so companies now have to get over their distrust of employee online intent and give them Internet access (even if only in a controlled IT environment)


5. Partnerships between deliverers and developers of off-site, on-site, and online training material – no one option is best but the best will come from combining them

Subtle brakes
Then there are more subtle brakes on performance improvement:

• The company culture sees training as a ‘perk for employees’ and not as a valuable tool to advance company performance


• Training ends with the employee’s attendance/qualification and no systems exist within the organisation to spread the gain


• Skills training is seen as a one-way process, like feeding hungry fledglings, instead of as a partnership of development


• Understanding business economics is a closely guarded secret that employees must not know about

Integrated improvements
There are many ways of improving performance and giving employees skills improvement training is only one way. Performance can also be enhanced by changing the culture so that every employee understands their vital part in the process of company evolution. That culture change rests mainly on management and, to a lesser extent, the partnership between management and unions.

By educating employees on the way of the market, managers gain 100s of sets of eyes to look for market opportunities and threats. After all, employees are:

• Consumers or customers and can feedback information on market demand


• Observers of the process and can identify bottlenecks and better ways


• Potential markets for competitor products because they know what they like


• Researchers/surfers of the Net so they keep up with trends

Trainers need to rebrand themselves as facilitators of learning and enlarge their own self-beliefs. They don’t have to know it all, they can use hundreds of existing learning resources, and even rely on their trainees to find the answers. Research should be seen as a legitimate and sanctioned use of their time. Let learners learn by experiencing the power of one … or one hundred.

Many of the above options can be accomplished without large amounts of money being thrown at them. They do, however, need a shift in thinking from micro-managing training in a silo to integrating training into a company-wide activity.