Back in the Saddle Again

Greetings from Seattle! It’s been a helluva long time since I last posted to the Shady Learning Blog.  Around a year ago, I started a new job as Project Manager for a high-end e-learning company out here in Western Washington. Knowing it would take awhile to get up to speed, I intentionally pulled back from the blogosphere (both posting and reading) in order to also nurture a non-work, offline life balance. I think I mentioned that in my very last post.

Not long after that, the global financial crisis happened, and I found myself spending a lot of free time studying economics and investment strategies – out of a commitment rebuild a sad portfolio and to NOT rely on generic Wall Street spin ever again. But that’s grist for another mill!  Bottom line, I’ve been busy.

On the Realization the Blogging is Good for My Health

Alas, I have missed blogging and staying connected with the instructional design/adult learning/ and e-learning world “out there.”  I didn’t realize before the true importance of networking, even in a virtual world. And I didn’t realize how much blogging (both reading and writing) benefited me. Being with a small company, it’s difficult to find the time and resourcing to go to conferences, workshops, etc. So over the past year, I have sadly gotten too disconnected from the big picture of adult learning.

I want to keep sharing what I have to share, and learning what I can from other bloggers eager to share as well. That’s one of the great things about learning via social networking, etc – we are no longer limited to the four walls of our own offices for good ideas, feedback, letting off steam, etc.

So, I’m back in the saddle and looking forward to reconnecting. It’s been too long.

Enough with the sentiment…..now, let’s sing along with Mr. Autrey:

Work-life balance in a 2.0 world

I love exploring the Web 2.0 thing and the possibilities it offers the world of workplace learning. I love that blogging gives me access to information and connects me with others in such awesome ways. But I am starting to feel a strong need to draw a line. Enough is enough! What I’m talking about is the increasing amount of time and energy it all takes. Screen suck, blather, aighhhh!!!!

Work/life, online/offline — we need balance, folks!

Although I have long been a proponent of work/life balance, I’m now seeing the need for more virtual life/ real life balance. And I’m finding that balance a bit more difficult now that I have gotten into blogging. It takes a lot of time to read even the headers of the main 10 or so blogs I subscribe to. Trying to write my own regular posts takes even more time, especially if I am creating something original, and not just gabbing about something I read somewhere else.

After seeing the odd hours at which some folks have commented to my posts, and the volume of posts on some of the blogs I follow, it is clear that it consumes a lot of time for a lot of people. The way I see it, the only way to really read/post regularly is to:

1. Get paid officially to blog
2. Blog on the clock at work
3. Blog on your free time

1 and 2 are not options for me, except for the odd times when I need to conduct a bit of research for a professional reason. That means I blog at home. No big deal, but I need boundaries. You may or may not know it yet, but you need boundaries, too. It’s healthy.

Here are some nagging questions. Do you have answers?

1. What ways have you found to effectively manage your blogging time?
2. How do you stay tuned in the on-line world, without dropping out of your “real” world?
3. How do you keep a work/life, online/offline balance?

What would Yoda do?

ID Lessons from “The Electric Company”

Back when I was a kid I loved watching the TV show “The Electric Company.” The show used funny skits and simple animation to teach elementary aged kids (those who were too old for Sesame Street) reading and writing skills. The show’s theme song promised to “turn it on (and) give you the power.” And they did. The show was highly creative, hip, and open-minded (mixed-race relations, for example). It was good stuff. Recently, being in a nostalgic mood, my wife and I took out a DVD copy of old Electric Company episodes from our local library.

I am in awe and now have a new set of instructional design heroes. Move over Gagne. Like a lot of childen’s education, the show does a great job at explaining complicated things in a simple, fun way that make sense and are easy to apply. A good example is their lesson on “silent e” of the English language.

Pretty cool, huh? Now read what some smart writer on wikipedia wrote about the same topic:

Silent E is a writing convention in English spelling. When reading, the silent letter e at the end of a word signals a specific pronunciation of the preceding vowel letter….

Yawn…..ughhh……OK, that really sucks. If you want to learn more about silent e’s orthographic pattern you can read more here. I’d rather scrape my head on hot Georgia asphalt.

Now, the writer at wikipedia probably wasn’t writing with creative or effective instructional design in mind. But an awful lot of adult educational material reads like that. IDs and other business writers tend to make things too complicated, too long, and too detailed. I guess deep inside, a lot of us secretly think that long explanations with plenty of big words make us sound smarter.

Instead, we need to apply these lessons that The Electric Company writers mastered long before e-learning even existed:

1. Get to the point.
2. Keep it simple: Leave out the theory and unnessary explanation.
3. Show how to do something.
4. Give lots of examples.
5. Be light, engaging, and fun.
6. Don’t be afraid to express yourself in the material. (Its OK to show some personality! Honestly.)

Is it possible to turn adult learners on and bring them the power of The Electric Company?

Yeah, yeah. I know. Adult learners are different. I studied the theory and know the rules. But are we that much different? Not so much. Sure, sometimes what we need to teach is complicated and dry by nature. But too often we tend to bore victims learners with text heavy e-learning. We can do better. We can be light, simple, engaging, fun, and still reach adult learners. Don’t believe me?

Check out this Common Craft video explaining what a wiki is:

Notice that the video embodies some of the same pointers I took from the Electric Company: to the point, fun, engaging, and simple. No long-winded explanations. Good stuff!

So, think about the last boring e-learning you sat though (or created!). How could you apply the Electric Company lessons to YOUR course? How can you make learning a bit more fun and expressive? It might be worth a gamble. Go ahead….turn ‘em on. Give ‘em the power!

Need some musical motivation? Get turned on with the groovy theme song.

Hooking learners with a simple story

Instead of just starting an e-learning course with a dry-as-sand list of objectives, I like to start with a “teaser” scenario. A teaser is designed to hook the user and give them a bit of motivation for taking the course.

Recently I have been working on a WBT about the A3 problem solving process and report writing (made famous by the process gurus at Toyota). The approach is very effective, yet amazingly simple: You follow a certain problem-solving process and, regardless of the complexity of the project, you write the report on a single A3 sized (11″ x 17″ piece of paper). The purpose of the WBT is to introduce people to the approach, which is becoming the company-wide standard at the client company.

Check out my A3 report writing teaser below. Click the Slideshare navigation arrows to go through the screens.

In this case, I wanted to give a sense of fun and simplicity to the subject matter. Hopefully people taking the course can relate to or hope to avoid the pain experienced by the charachter Joe and therefore want to take the lessons. So, the implicit objective is that in taking this course, you will avoid writing crappy, ineffective reports and, instead, create reports that your audience (e.g., your boss!) will understand and use.

Another thing I like about teaser scenarios like this one, is that it sets the groundwork for fun interactions later on. For example, the story can be continued with multiple choice questions and examples.

Following the teaser in my A3 course, users can select from several lessons. Joe appears throughout the course, sharing his lessons learned with the viewer. The viewer is able to help Joe make decisions via short vignettes and branching scenarios. When the learner makes a mistake, Athena (the Problem-Solving super hero) appears, sharing best practices for good report writing. Athena also shows up on summary screens between steps.

So what do you think? The audience is probably a bit like you. Most are smart folks and most have not heard of this approach to problem solving. Does an introductory story/scenario like this make you more likely to be interested? Or is it too goofy? I would also love to hear about any other low budget ideas for hooking learners up front.

Two Useful Visual Communication Tools

I’m always happy to find tools that aren’t just cool, but actually improve my productivity or ability to communicate more effectively. Here are two tools I discovered just this week.

Jing

From the folks that brought you Camtasia and Snagit comes Jing- a very nifty screen capture application that has me salivating. Techsmith describes it as “an always ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video..from your computer to anywhere.”  Videos or images taken of your desktop can be uploaded to screencast.comand linked to from your blog or wherever. You can also save files locally or send it out immediately via email or instant messenger. Sweet.

In terms of It’s raw functionality, Jing is a bit like a scaled down version of SnagIt and Camtasia. But the value-add here is how it improves your workflow. As the FAQ puts it, Jing is designed to be “fast visual communication shared with others in a variety of locations.” So while I wouldn’t use it for for a technical writing or software training project, it is an awesome way to quickly take a picture or video that I want to share with a colleague, the IT help desk, or my Aunt Virginia. You can also annotate the images with text, highlighting, arrows, and other nifty things. All in a manner of seconds. Extra sweet. That’s just the kind of scrappy, seamless workflow I want.

I often question the “ease of use”  and speed that software companies brag about in marketing spin. So I’m gonna test out how easy it is to quickly add a insert on this page a screen capture of my current desktop, along with a simple annotation. OK…here I go….

Yup. That was pretty easy! I was able to snap a picture of a custom region, annotate it, upload it, and paste the embed URL (which was saved automatically to the clipboard) — all in about 2 minutes. Nice.

PowerPoint’s Slide Show Pointer Tool – Great for Storyboard Sketches

When I’m doing instructional design, I storyboard a lot in PPT. Usually I’ll mockup a screen layout and make some attempt at describing an image that I want an artist to create for me. Wouldn’t it be easier if I could just draw a crude stick person, instead of searching for lame clip art? Yes it would! Well, now I know how to do that right in PPT. I don’t even need to switch to another application. Here’s how:

1. Switch to Slide Show mode.
2. Go to the slide you want to design.
3. Right click.
4. Point to Pointer Options.
5. Select a style (I like Felt Tip Pen).
6. Use your mouse and cursor to sketch your image.

Now exit out of slide show mode.

You will be asked if you want to save the ink annotations. You do.

Voila! The slide now has a nice, simple sketch that you can use to communicate your idea with your artist, programmer, or whomever. Below is a sketch I did in just a few seconds. A big benefit of this approach is that I don’t have to switch to another application. I also don’t have to save the image to a folder somewhere and then insert it. It is saved automatically right in PPT. That’s a big time saver. In the example below, I want to convey to the media guy that I want an image indicating that a badly written report is not useful to the audience and ends up as total waste. For our team, a simple picture tells a story easier than describing it in text. 

Another benefit is that a sketch like this could be used in a rapid prototype to share with a client. They’ll get the idea better than they would with just text-based storyboard, and you potentially save cash by not wasting expensive graphics time in case they don’t like the storyboard.