When Does Your Workplace Discuss Professional Learning Goals?

Some organizations have scheduled, yearly employee reviews, and others have a less formal approach. The less formal ones might fall into the ongoing-conversations category. As a manager and employee, when do conversations about professional development occur in your workplace?

As a manager during either reviews or conversations, I could bring up two subjects—what professional development is expected for current organizational progress, and what personal learning goals the individual has set. The best of both worlds shows a convergence between the personal goal and the organizational development. In listening to the employee talk about personal goals, a manager has the opportunity to respond in a way that motivates the employee plus making the connection between the personal goal and the larger organization. Even when an employee’s goal is not supported by professional development policy or dollars, having heard the person’s goals is another way of getting to know what matters for that person, knowledge which may connect to a future opportunity.

In setting my own employee goals, I would pay attention to my workplace’s learning needs or expectations that have been expressed in meetings or memos. Smart money would say I would mention I’m ready to participate in those learning opportunities. I’d also think about explaining my personal learning goals—either for expanding my current skill set or expanding my skill profile.

From searching on this question, there’s evidence a number of organizations do consider these discussions and here are their thoughts on how those discussions can drive personal engagement and organizational results:

https://www.google.com/search?q=discussing+learning+goals+with+employees&oq=discussing+learning+goals+with+employees&aqs=chrome..69i57.6867j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Once these goals are defined, there are many learning formats for going for it! They might be informal, like reading a book, shadowing someone, or taking a free online course such as a MOOC. Others might be in a face-to-face format or online. Links to UGotClass and Ed2Go at the left provide connections to the online offerings of two long-time providers.

In considering which choices are a match for  the learning, these earlier posts address related topics:

What Instructional Objectives Tell the Learner and Instructor (Helpful for knowing whether a course is worth your time):

https://constantlearningorg.blogspot.com/2017/10/what-instructional-objectives-tell.html

Getting Started in Real Time with Online Learning:

https://constantlearningorg.blogspot.com/2016/05/getting-most-out-of-off-shelf-workplace.html

Getting the Most from Off-the-Shelf Workplace Learning:

https://constantlearningorg.blogspot.com/2016/05/getting-most-out-of-off-shelf-workplace.html

What Instructional Objectives Tell Learners and Instructors

The following three minute video explains instructional objectives. It is focused on instructors and uses the word students rather than learners. In some ways, it's a reminder piece. Whether it's old or new news, Common Craft's short video reminds us of the value of intentional learning expectations and assessment.

Instructional objectives are statements that name what a learner will know or show as a result of the learning, in observable terms. Other related terms you may come across are performance objectives and competencies.

On the instructor/design side, instructional objectives remind the instructor to focus on key support material (not everything and the kitchen sink), and to assess the the learning in ways described by the objectives.

What is the value of this video for the learner? If I am starting a course or looking to take a course, looking at the performance expectations/instructional objectives helps me orient for success with the learning experience. If none are stated, I might ask the instructor what the objectives are, so I can determine whether the match is close enough to my learning want or need.

Here’s to clarity and valuable learning!

Getting Social in Real Time with Online Learning

I recently visited with an organization’s HR members about how employees there were responding to some online learning courses. Some of the employees had enrolled in Spanish and some had enrolled in sign language. Their feedback was

Insightful.

One employee said she had made flash cards to rehearse the various sign vocabulary, but when a person who had also taken sign gestured to her in sign, she found herself fumbling to communicate back. When she heard that others had signed up for the course at a future date, she resolved to contact them, share her flash card technique, but also practice with them in real time.

Having heard this great example, HR could also share this idea with employees who were also enrolling in the Spanish courses.

The insight made so much sense, especially since these are applied communication courses. The rehearsal sessions could even be done over lunch, for that matter.

The rehearsal strategy could also be used with Skype or Google Hangout if other learners in the course were not on site. A learner might ask the vendor contact to help them find another enrollee who might be interested in such a strategy.

Looking for some related communication courses? Possibilities await you with Ed2Go and UGotClass at the right margin.

Project Debriefing: Valuable Lessons To Carry Forward

Today is the day a client and I will meet to debrief a workplace learning project (online compliance training game) we’ve delivered yearly for the past five years. It occurred to me in year 2 or 3 to create a lesson’s learned document, given some bumps in the road in the first years of the project. I’ve come to refer to the prior year’s lessons learned as the first step for a new one.

My document covers these items: 

• Software choice and content strategies
• Completion numbers  
• Evaluation numbers, rating average, and specific reviewer remarks
• Support feedback (two IT groups are involved), and
• Questions for the HR members in the meeting.

Additionally, here are a few sites that provide some solid tips to focus your own project debrief:

“Four Questions to Ask When You Debrief on a Project”: https://hbr.org/tip/2015/10/the-4-questions-to-ask-when-you-debrief-on-a-project

(Source Credit: Adapted from "Debriefing: A Simple Tool to Help Your Team Tackle Tough Problems," by Doug Sundheim):

This site provides four basic, helpful questions, beginning with whether the goal was reached, then moving on to successful or unsuccessful spots, and ending with evaluating which practices should be kept and which should go.

Jason Womack’s “Three Tips for Boosting Productivity with Project Debriefing”: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222546

In addition to providing questions to consider, this author provides tips on communicating the debriefing content for different communication styles.

Sometimes there will be remarks to add from the HR participants in the meeting. I've come to appreciate how the de-brief document facilitates the meeting's discussion and closure on the given project.

Borrow from your Library or Buy?

April is National Library Month. And here's a tip: By adding the Library Extension to  Chrome, you can see if your local library has titles you may have looked at in Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Good Reads: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/browser-extension-to-find-library-books-on-amazon_us_587cdd32e4b0b3c7a7b20e2e.

Find the extension/app in the App Store, and install it on your Chrome Browser as directed (The site says, the extension for Foxfire is forthcoming.) Select a local library or libraries in the extension to connect their catalogs with Amazon or Good Reads.

Next, if you see a title in Amazon, click on the title, and it will activate the search in your library.

I have been very happy with the results--I can see the number of copies available in our local branches, or where it might be loaned from if an interlibrary loan is needed. I can put a hold on the book with my library card number. The first time out, the book I wanted did need to be loaned from another library, and my own library notified me in a few days that it was available for pick-up.

As an added note, I've had an exchange with the developer. He is a programming professional and created the app to speed up his own search process with his own library. Great contribution.

How Tech Developments Impact Our Definitions, Our Curricula, Our Knowledge

Yesterday I delivered a work for the the 37th Valley Visual Art Show. While there, a printmaker arrived to deliver her work and what ensued was a discussion about giclee and inkjet prints, and whether they constitute reproductions of an original piece of art.  I went home to do some more research to better understand the effect of digital methods on the print continuum. As an educator, I am also interested in how developments in a field impact knowledge, practice, and in this case, definition.

And in addition to giclee and inkjet, a term relevant to this discussion is digital art, which is “art made or presented with digital technology”( http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/digital-art).

Both giclee and inkjet are methods for reproducing/ making a copy of a previously existing work of art. Giclee typically is printed on archival papers (or canvas) and inkjet can even be produced by desktop and the inks are of much lesser quality. Both giclee and inkjet prints differ from printmaking methods that are the means of creating the original artwork itself (seriograph, lithography, monoprint, woodcut, silkscreen), since the artist is creating the work on the plates/surfaces.

In contrast to giclee and inket copy methods for reproductions is digital art. Digital art is the use of technology to actually create an original work.

A prime example of 2D visual art is the use of a table and drawing program by David Hockney. He creates/draws the image using the screen as substrate, then prints the final work with a printer. His artist’s statement also says, These prints “are not reproductions” (http://www.hockneypictures.com/computer_drawings/cd-statement.php). (See also: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1175521/iHockney-Artist-David-uses-Apple-phone-paint-mini-masterpieces.html.)

All of the above methods are different from collage or mixed media, as collage and mixed media might incorporate images. A distinguishing feature of collage and mixed media is that these works ultimately create new works with the images they bring together.

That said, galleries might want to clarify whether copies (reproductions) or original works only will be accepted for exhibit. And artists might consider how the varying productions and reproductions invoke different responses from viewers. #art

Why Digital Literacy Matters

Common Craft has created a following because the authors explain concepts in a very understandable way. This three+ minute video defines literacy, and talks about how digital literacy depends on both our knowledge of various technologies and how their use for specific purposes defines our ability to interact in today's world:

                                           

To view the wide range of Common Craft videos and subscription terms, visit their site at https://www.commoncraft.com/

A Vendor's Offering for Teaching Ethics

I met a person from this company a few years ago at a Colorado eLearning conference. Today I see they have an instructional product for teaching ethics across disciplines. I think you'll find it interesting. Dr. Baird also gave a Milehigh TedX talk on the subject.

 

Getting the Most from Off-the-Shelf Workplace Learning

Organizations have been sending their employees to external training experiences for a few different reasons. The organization pays to send a person or group of people to courses offered by external vendors because the courses don’t depend on having a large number of enrollees from your organization, and the offerings may offer convenient real-time or online schedules.

So beyond those reasons, how do you ensure the value of that learning and the needs for your own workplace?

Megan Torrence offers these three practices in her article, “Seven Simple Secrets to off-the-Shelf Course Success:” http://www.elearninglearning.com/frs/4942977/seven-simple-secrets-to-off-the-shelf-course-success/download

• Target which off-the-shelf opportunities match your organization’s needs/identify good matches for individuals or groups whether its single or groups of courses.
• Make participation social for those taking it inside your organization whether it’s by providing a lab, or a discussion area
• Add your own materials to bring home the relevance to performance in your own organization.·

Allowing people to share their experiences in your own organization can help someone needing extra support to complete the course itself.  Having access to related, in-house materials ups the performance-support value, when someone may need extra help performing a task that was covered by the course which is now over.

Last, here are a couple post-course strategies that can provide clues as to the value of the organization’s payment for that learning experience: Make it a practice to ask attendees to share how the “off-the-shelf” learning now impacts their post-learning performance (Level 3, Kirkpatrick) or benefits your organization’s goals (Level 4, Kirkpatrick). 

A client’s question for Constant Learning about additional course offerings provided the impetus to explore vendors who could add to opportunities for that client. In addition to learning experiences designed by Constant Learning, Constant Learning was pleasantly surprised about partnership opportunities with these well-established vendors of online courses.

As you look to the right of this post, you can immediately explore the offerings by Ed2Go and UGotClass and enroll in courses from the link. So glad to easily expand learning options with clients as we discuss their particular needs.

Let me know if you have questions about these offerings, and I am happy to follow up. If you are a vendor who would like to add a link to your offerings, please contact me at Constant Learning Org . 

Sharing the Games: Games for Change and Others

In the last four years, I’ve presented on a few serious games in crowdsourcng research solutions to disease, and oversaw the development and tracking of games that serve compliance training in a government organization.

 

Serious Games for Learning from Alice Bedard-Voorhees, Ph.D.

I’ve also participated in game nights where faculty and students were invited to sample various games and discuss their value. I also spent some time with middle school bloggers who researched games they could place in their particular blog topics, wondering if more people would visit their blog to play the game there, or if we should have another after-school enrichment course where students could create and play each other’s games. In other conversations with colleagues, we’ve talked about games for decision-making based on fault-tree models—games that give students experience with coming to terms in those sticky social situations students grapple with. And games that are more than drill for learning another language.

Somewhere in my ongoing perusal of Twitter offerings, I noted a mention of Save the Parks, a game to ultimately encourage volunteerism in National Parks. This was my gateway introduction to an non-profit group called Games for Change. After going to the site and playing some of the games, I not only shared the news about them with others, I’m on my way to this April 18th event hosted by the non-profit Games for Change (http://www.gamesforchange.org/games-and-media-summit/)

I’ve been sharing the site with others from varying programs for the potential of the games: Upward Bound is a nationally funded program to support high school completion and entry into post-secondary through colleges. I believe in their transformative potential, and I have volunteered to do Saturday activities with them. I told them about Spent (http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/spent/), and I told them about That’s Your Right (http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/thats-your-right/). Given the financial insecurity of some their families face, and given civic education for new immigrants and upcoming citizens, they were excited to look at both. When discussing what games they might recommend to the students, we also talked about how it might be fun for the students to choose which games to play and review, and then present a panel to their peers as a program activity. 

I’ve also shared one of the games called Spent (http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/spent/) with a program called Gateway, one for displaced women and men, where “Housing, childcare, and transportation” are “a trifecta” for survival, according tot the program’s director. Having played the game, I totally get it—even though I ended the game a month’s survival with $43 to the good, I realized I never bought TP and found myself asking if I had lifted it from public bathrooms. For participants from households who regularly face financial despair and homelessness, placing the circumstances in a game format can depersonalize it enough to develop financial management skills around those tough choices.

Another Game that caught my attention also was Beyond Eyes—it’s a natural for anyone hoping to create awareness related to disabilities:http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/beyond-eyes/.The work of Alice Brouhard to research and adapt apps to support the independence of those with disabilities certainly plays a role in this awareness. For this game players aid a young blind girl on a journey. Her blindness is the result of an accident with fireworks. It is not only a way to experience someone else’s limitations that are out of their control, it is the way to practice compassion.

Games fall under the category of immersive learning. Playing and debriefing what players experience offer great value in influencing their/our own realities. If a goal of a game is to win, in these games the winning involves learning strategies that will make a better existence at many levels. I find myself being a real town crier about getting people to this site to view the variety of experiences offered in the 137 games there and playing some. The games are indexed by age or types like civics, health, and poverty. Players are invited to sign up to post game reviews. Resources are provided to support game development. The site is Rich, Rich, Rich. Go play. It’s your opportunity to become the change or the change agent.

A Book Worth Reading About Intellectual Property Rights: Who Owns Culture

Confession: Though I read many posts and tweets or articles at any given time, each year I try to read what I consider to be at least one or more significant books pertinent to the 21^st century learning.

Understanding copyright, fair use, and Creative Commons licensing are important to me as a writer, researcher, faculty member, trainer, and artist. Those roles were the motivators for reading Who Owns Culture? where known faculty Susan Scafidi explores the conundrum of copyright and patent protection for communally created works.

I intentionally did not read reviews, and I decided my learning goal was to come away with what I felt were important take-aways from her work.

My takeaways from her work:

1) There are three types of property: real, personal, and intellectual (Scafidi 160).

2) Copyright law provides protection for individuals, but products held in community have suffered. The provision for commonly held property is called “concurrent ownership” (162); this mechanism is useful for defense with external challenges, but does not define mechanisms for managing disputes within a particular group.  The author expresses the opinion that there is still more work to be done in this area by the legal community.

3) An important concept to understand in cultural context is the evolution of cultural practice into a definable product. An example has been cases related to the use of the American flag. Over time commercial, artistic, and political demonstrations involving the flag provided restrictions that have currently been overturned in favor of their use for open express and commercial use. (The most current controversy of this nature was captured in SC where public outcry resulted in the removal of the flag from the state capitol.)

4) These two entities have been established to ensure the livelihood of indigenous artisan and their products in the marketplace: Ten Thousand Villages and the Native Artist Registry with the US Patent Office.

5) There is still potential for power struggles within a community as to who can define community membership. Also, there are still questions as to decisions to keep certain items in secret, or release them to the public, and challenges to those accompanying decisions that might develop.

6) “Outsider Appropriation”, “Misappropriation”, and “Reverse Appropriation” relate to cases where persons outside a culture take features from another culture into a product, or use it in such a way that puts something into the public market that was never intended or causes disrespect or inaccuracy by the way it is presented.

Current examples:

·      Outsider Appropriation: The Valentino Ad in the March 6, 2016, New York Times Sunday Styles Section (p.3)

·      Misappropriation: A professor filming non-public tribal ceremonies: http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-11510-the-professor-and-the-pueblo.html?utm_content=buffer2857c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

·      Misappropriation: Another recent example comes from an episode in Longmire, found on Netflix. Walt has his friend tie him to a tree in a way participants in the Sundance would be tethered to a tree during that sacred ceremony. The context for this practice is not only incorrect, it is inappropriate for Plains tribes who observe this ceremony.

·      Reverse-Appropriation: Individuals who are fans of a certain characters or works may influence the development of the persona, but also create their own spin-off creations, known as Reverse Appropriation (p. 127). Sometimes such creations are protected under the auspices of fair-use, and at other times the creators of the series or work provide more specifications as to what is allowed. In some cases, court challenges have been made against the public creators, like the author of Done Gone With the Wind, a work in the voice of Miss Charlottes created half-sister and slave (The author, not the estate of M Mitchell ultimately won the right to publish the work.)

Yes, this area of law continues to be better defined as our global property practices continue. As for the realm of cultural preservation, the author notes a model to further rights for distinct cultural practices is UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Interested in what others did write about this work? Searching by the title + reviews might find you some sources: I particularly thought this one was helpful as it summarizes the contents addressed in various chapters—not so much a review but a guide to the ideas: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hj7k9

Bibliographic Entry

Scafidi, Susan. (2005) Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law.  Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Back in the Saddle: Why Having an Editorial Calendar Keeps You Going

I can't believe it's been this long since my last post. It's like other goals: If you write it on paper or say it out loud, you have upped your level of commitment to following through. I must have been surfing on the fact that the local paper ran the last article as a print piece.

That said: here's a list of posts I've been talking about but haven't published:

• What artists can teach us about engagement with content
• What VR has to offer us as educators
• A synopsis of key takeaways from reading the book Who Owns Culture by Susan Scafidi. 
• More on OER and Creative Commons (IV and V of that series are in my drafts!)

In addition to putting some topics out there, I also revisited some practices behind the calendar. Audience, Topic, Timeliness are what I think make big differences. For example, if you are in education, yearly planning cycles,  and beginning, middle, and end term cycles are key time frames. So planning topics in sync to those cycles provides content more likely to be of interest to those readers. (And then there is maximizing on audience reach by pushing the link or article to other social media.)

That said, attention to hot/trending topics in the publications and and social-media communities of practice also provide clues to the timeliness of a topic.

Here are a couple links that provide some solid thoughts on the practice:

This link focuses on the content and timeline and also notes some different ways to use tech to aid calendar creation and management:
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/11/content-marketers-checklist-editorial-calendar-essentials/

This one offers a free Template: http://offers.hubspot.com/blog-editorial-calendar

Wordpress also has an editorial calendar plug-in. In discussing it's use with a colleague, she noted it did not work the way her brain does, so she has not used it. Which brings us back to the key point about the calendar--the tech is a product that might help you capture your thinking, but most important is the process of thinking about the topic, the audience, and the prime timeline related to their interests.

And now, looks like I'd better set myself some dates around my content.

The Bridge to That Future: GARCO Sewing Works

How exciting to see the social entrepreneurship recognition earned by the Whole Works in Rifle in October 2015:http://www.postindependent.com/news/18748091-113/rifles-the-whole-works-wins-business-award.

Reading it, I was reminded of the organization that created the bridge to this future, GarCO Sewing Works (GSW).

The Impetus

In 2011 CMC’s Customized Training and Workforce Dean Beth Shaw went to the county board of commissioners to present an idea—the creation of an industrial sewing training project that could equip people on public support with industrial sewing and process experience. In addition, this forward-looking presentation had the goal of post-training employment. The impetus and opportunity were based on the fact that industrial sewing groups in Denver and Grand Junction had a three-year wait-list, and that small lot sewing projects were not readily accepted by the industrial sewing factories.

The Philosophy

Usual thinking in a welfare to work program is to provide skills development and work habits. More than that, GARCO Sewing Work’s vision took into consideration that social girding to help people exit public assistance was to stabilize the personal side of their lives so they could have work lives. This included the wisdom that a whole person model “honoring their personal histories and “moving them out of the bondage they are in” are essential.  Hence, the model considered child care, needs, transportation needs, housing, and for some, and the flexibility to take care of personal appointments such as court hearings.

Seed Money and Development Milestones

Initially, the CMC project, GarCO Sewing Works (GSW), requested $26,000 from the commissioners to purchase industrial sewing machines, or the equivalent of the cost of two people moving off assistance rolls. The commission countered that if the GSW was still operational after one years, the machines would be theirs to keep. At the end of one year, GSW was not only operational, but seven individuals were off assistance.

Three years later, the thirty trainees who have moved off assistance translates into a savings of $450,000. 

A Credit to Partnerships

Though Beth will tell you that “Sewing is the vehicle, not the end game” to transferrable skills such as process and project management, here’s how that happens within GSW’s operations and how that developed with the support of many partnerships.

From the outset, the responsiveness of the county commissioners and Human Services were critical. Beth attributes their familiarity with Gateway Director, Jill Ziemann’s track record and CMC’s affiliation as contributors to county confidence levels for the initial proposal.

But before GWS had even opened it’s doors, Beth spotted a news article about CORE’s project to make Aspen free of plastic shopping bags. CORE had hit a rough spot because the most competitive bids for bags were from China. Her call and offer to make bags in Rifle, Colorado resulted in GSW’s first order, even though they were not yet open, for 4500 reusable bags.

Shortly thereafter, CORE had five pallets of automotive upholstery fabric delivered to GWS’s site. The pallets were too large to fit though the door and it was raining. So Beth, Jill, and two students carried the materials off the street themselves. And they were off to the races.

Shortly thereafter, artist Mary Noone offered eight rolls of canvas printed with her original design, and these materials helped filled another order for a city about to move away from plastic grocery bags.

Soon after, Beth discovered that the hospital had blue wrap that was also going to the landfill. As a follow-up Greg Jeung, a Valley View Green Team member, started deliveries.

The City of Aspen has been large as a repeat customer: Each year Aspen orders about 2000 bags to give citizens and visitors. They now have a “Take a bag, wash a bag, and leave a bag, “ receptacles around the city. And we are prototyping two sizes of windshield frost guards for citizen vehicles made from old (Big Agnes) sleeping bag pads for vehicles that are parked outside during the winter. (How did this come about? The city has an ordinance that you cannot idle a vehicle for more than 5 minutes, an emissions reduction effort.)

The Bridge to Whole Works

From early press on, GSW consistently expressed the need for a for-profit operation to employ successful trainees. So in 2013, they started monthly meetings with four interested investors, discussing a potential partnership. And though The Whole Works received invitations to locate elsewhere, the Rifle location was important for two reasons: 1) the location of GSW’s facility, and the opportunity to economically train both workers to new developments in the field.

While Dean Beth Shaw retires from her service at CMC at the end of 2015, the GSW will continue to serve citizens of Garfield County. As recently as last week, GSW trainees were assisting the Whole Works prepping a large order that required more workers at short notice.

GSW is an admirable example of Educational Entrepreneurship for Social Good. How forward looking that it included and accomplished the development of the next social benefit corporation, the Whole Works with its emphasis on “ethical and sustainable” jobs and products so workers can get off public assistance (http://thewholeworks.co/).

Applause. And sincere wishes for the continuation of these life- and community-changing enterprises.