Learning

Learning

Practice & Feedback

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Albert Ip makes a point that practice does not make perfect.

My daughter’s swimming coach puts it very well: "Practice makes your stroke permanent. If you practise bad technique, you just become a more efficient bad swimmer with the bad stroke. It is even more difficult to unlearn the bad strokes."

At an HPT workshop given by ISPI, one of the facilitators told a story about his daughter, who was a gymnastics instructor. This is the story as I remember it. Her main method of teaching was to provide only positive encouragement after each attempt, without criticism. Just before the next attempt, she would give some corrective advice, like "keep your elbows tucked in this time". This method seemed to work quite well.

She took leave from this role, and was replaced by another instructor who believed in immediate feedback. Most other aspects of the program remained the same. After a year of receiving immediate feedback, the gymnasts’ performance was much worse, and some left the program.

The program went into decline.

Many of us in the training and education profession have been told about the merits of immediate feedback, but this one example has stuck with me over the past two years, and I even try to use it with my children. Don’t give criticism, or ways to improve, until the person has the chance to try it again. If you received negative feedback, without being able to show that you could do it better, you would only feel bad about your performance. This makes sense to me anyway.

I still believe that the only way to develop a skill is through practice and feedback, however when and how the feedback is given is extremely important.

PowerPoint to Flash, in a “breeze”

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Here I have been using OpenOffice for the last two years and I didn’t know that you could export a PowerPoint file (or a native OOo Presentation file) from OpenOffice to Macromedia Flash format. The last time I had to send pre-conference slides, I exported them as an Adobe PDF, which worked well. Now I can save slides in Flash format, and they can be read by any web browser. My test file was a 2.5 MB PowerPoint file, which was the same size in OpenOffice Presenter. When I converted it to Flash (.swf), the file was compressed to 360 KB.

I learned this via a post by Scott Leslie, who was looking for cheaper versions of Macromedia’s Breeze. Thanks Scott, and thanks Luigi.

A Viable Business Model for Open Source Learning Technologies?

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A while back, on my previous blog, I said that: I believe the next great business model for an elearning entrepreneur is to provide high quality installation and support services for a select group of open source learning systems. Your customers will soon realize that you are not trying to sell them the next upgrade to get more cash, because the software is free. You will be selling your knowledge, experience, and customer service. Many IT departments would be more apt to use open source if they knew that it was strongly supported. Also, there is a lot less conflict of interest when you remove the vendor from the ongoing support.

I just came across a new business venture that has been 16 months in development, Spike Source. This company is positioned to be the Underwriter Laboratories (UL) of Open Source.

SpikeSource offers validated and certified open source stacks (both pure and commercial hybrids) with add-on functional features designed for faster implementation and applications manageability. We offer vendor neutrality and improved developer productivity using open source software. SpikeSource delivers certified product releases, periodic updates, technical support, and managed upgrades.

If you want more details on the business model, download the one hour interview on the Gillmor Gang  with CEO Kim Polese. It’s worth your time. I knew that this model would soon be taken by someone, but what I found interesting in the interview is that there is room for many more of these companies. I would also wager that there is room for companies using this business model in the learning market. So if you’re looking for a new business model, check this one out.

“ten technologies that are going to change the way we learn”

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From Luigi Canali De Rossi comes Robin Good’s list of ten technologies that are going to change the way we learn. There is a nine-minute audio/video explanation on the site, as well as many explanatory links.

  1. Search technologies

  2. Data visualization tools
  3. Blogs – Direct publishing and content aggregation tools
  4. Audio and video – increased use of audio and video as communication channels for small publishers
  5. RSS – content syndication, aggregation, re-use
  6. P2P – private and public file sharing networks
  7. Unlimited storage – on the desktop and online
  8. Unlimited bandwidth – Wifi – WiMax
  9. Real Time Collaboration Tools
  10. Collective and Collaborative Filtering – human spontaneous cooperative technology like del.icio.us and FURL.net

I’m not sure if these technologies will actually change the way we learn, but they are ten tools for every instructional technologist, educator or training developer. For sure, they are changing the way we teach, and facilitating learning for some.

If you’re in the business of learning, then you should understand the pros and cons of each and every one of these. It might be a good idea to play with some of these if they’re new to you.

“Blogging is rapidly emerging as a threat to Internet users”

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According to Janus Risk Management, reading this blog may be a risky activity, especially if you work for a corporation. You see, you might actually get some ideas that have not been pre-approved by the powers that be. According to the summary of their latest research document ($1,065.00 for a site license), Janus feels that:

  1. Blogging is rapidly emerging as a threat to Internet users.
  2. While blogs have a legitimate use, online journals pose serious threats to enterprise confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
  3. This presentation is designed for distribution to employees to raise their awareness of the importance of using extreme caution if and when it becomes necessary to visit blogs as part of the employee’s job performance.

But don’t be alarmed. Janus provides corporations with three Blog Acceptable Use Policy options to reduce their risks:

  1. ZERO TOLERANCE
  2. LIMITED USE
  3. PERMISSIONED USE

So for all of you who were concerned that working in the knowledge economy might actually require that you think for yourself; never fear. The corporate elite are ensuring that you won’t have to.

If you continue to read this blog, remember that you have been warned ;-)

Via Wirearchy.

Hey brother, can you spare some feedback?

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Calling on all of you educational technologists and teachers out there. Please give James Farmer some constructive feedback on his new website/service:

We’re a new service set up partly through a frustration with current mainstream online teaching and learning technologies (& the pedagogies they inflict!) and partly through a desire to explore the possibilities that wikis, weblogs, open source CMSs and other emerging technologies offer us.Totally free for individual or groups of teachers, drop by the incsub association or checkout the site for more. – James

James is giving a lot of his time and effort in order to facilitate better online learning. If you have some time, please support his project. He’s asking for input.

Beyond the LMS

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Continuing my theme of process before technology, here is a post from Godfrey Parkin on elearning and the ubiquitous LMS:

Our move from classroom learning to e-learning was less like a move from pony-express to e-mail, than it was from pony-express to bicycle courier.
 
Learning software vendors still doggedly pursue their vision of reusable learning objects that integrate via a central standards-conformant LMS. Meanwhile, trainers who really want to encourage experience-sharing and dynamic learner-created content are scrambling to understand blogging, RSS, and peer-to-peer networks.



Many LMS vendors don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t ?¢‚Ǩ?ìget?¢‚Ǩ¬ù learning. Can it really be that they don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t ?¢‚Ǩ?ìget?¢‚Ǩ¬ù the internet either? Are they so afraid of being non-intermediated that they will fight real progress every step of the way or are they about to help us evolve?

University & College Trends

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Small Business Trends notes some changes in IT training in the US. It’s stated that, "Community colleges are growing their market share. They are becoming more creative in partnering with business and provide practical training at lower cost. Apparently 2-year associate degrees in IT are a growing trend." Here we see colleges taking away some of the traditional market share of universities. Perhaps it’s because colleges have more flexible business models, and can better meet the needs of students.

There is also a reference to statistics from the Online Universities Weblog on the decline of foreign graduate students in the US:

  • 28% DECLINE IN NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS from abroad to U.S. graduate programs between 2003 and 2004

  • 36% DECLINE IN NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS from abroad to U.S. graduate engineering programs between 2003 and 2004

  • 45% DECLINE IN NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS from China to U.S. graduate programs between 2003 and 2004

  • 28% DECLINE IN NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS from India to U.S. graduate programs between 2003 and 2004

  • 88% PROPORTION OF U.S. INSTITUTIONS reporting a decline in international applications between 2003 and 2004

  • 67 AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS the U.S. State Department has been taking to conduct security checks for non-U.S.science and engineering students seeking to study "sensitive technologies" in the United States

Is this decline due to the new US security requirements, or are there just more options for foreign students? Does anyone know of similar statistics available for Canadian universities? If Canadian universities are not showing a decline, it may mean that this is an opportunity to focus on international student recruitment. One source that I found shows international student enrolment, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, increasing each year to 2001. I haven’t found any data for more recent years.

“The Bottleneck is at the Top of the Bottle”

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Jay Cross is at TechLearn 2004 and his observations are a real sign of the times. Two comments (as well as the title of this post) particularly resonated with me.

On Learning Management Systems:

Many LMS’s are used as CMS’s (compliance measurement systems). They are cover-your-ass systems to track your honest effort.

On eLearning:

“Your future is not in eLearning. eLearning is a delivery system. Your future is in making your organization strong, profitable, resilient, successful.”

Organisations that are singularly focused on purchasing the best LMS should give their heads a shake. The delivery system should be a no-brainer, once you have figured out all the important things. Start with the link between individual performance and organisational effectiveness, and then figure out what role learning has in improving performance for that particular work environment.

In 1998, few people were talking about performance. Times are changing.

 

E-learning for Non-profits

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Isoph is an organisation that works with non-profits to develop online learning programs. It also offers an LMS, called Isoph Blue. A recent survey, in conjunction with The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network looked at the adoption of e-learning among non-profits. Some of the initial results from the 697 respondents are:

  • Over 50% of total respondents are either using e-learning or plan to within 12 months.
  • Of respondents with budgets over $10 million, 66% are currently using e-learning.
  • 61.4% expect to increase resources for e-learning in the next year.
  • Organizations are using e-learning for a wide variety of purposes:
    • 67% use e-learning for staff training.
    • 52% use e-learning for public workshops.
    • 34% use e-learning for volunteer training.

Go to the Isoph website for more resources and information for non-profits.

Update: The full report (11 page PDF) is now available from Isoph. Nothing earth-shattering in this report but some interesting stats on barriers to adoption, "What are the three biggest barriers for your organization in developing e-learning?" Highest responses included: Staff Time; Expertise, and Concern for Effectiveness.