So — Did You Get A Kiss Goodnight?

It’s been a while since I’ve been out on a date.  I’m awfully busy, I can’t find the right person — but mostly because my wife takes a really dim view of me dating.

sailor-kissBack in the days when I was a young pup, I remember that the big question next morning at the water cooler was “Did you get a kiss goodnight?”  Now, depending on how precocious you were, that might have varied a bit — but this midwestern boy evaluated a first date as quite successful if it ended in a peck on the lips.

It told me that what I’d been doing had been met with approval, and that the object of my affection was satisfied with my performance as a suitor.  Eventually, I found a woman so satisfied with those little pecks that she actually married me — but it took quite a while, and that’s another story entirely.

Special Assessments

If you’re providing information for clients, you probably have some concerns whether you’re going to meet their needs and go on another date.  In the Business Of Learning, we call that “assessment” and spend huge amounts of money on it.  We do surveys, tests, evaluations, focus groups, interviews and consult psychics to try to find out if we’ve achieved our goals. Well, most of us do.

I recently spent some time talking to a Large Federal Agency about doing some work for them — involving Instructional Design of online learning material that would help people understand how we were going to get out from under this huge mortgage mess that Sumdood has gotten us into.  I looked at what they had on their site — it was little PowerPoint slides with voice-overs, lots of bullets, and they’d ported it into Eluminate so they could call it “e-learning”.

We talked a bit about how that wasn’t really a very effective way to communicate complex technical content.  We talked about the fact that they “were just getting started” and wanted to do better.  I asked if they were doing assessments to see how well the content was working, and was told that wasn’t happening.

(Quick review.  You did it cheap and dirty.  You know it won’t work.  And you aren’t bothering to actually measure how bad things are.)

So Are There Other Options?

Since I was trying to sell them on my amazing services, I talked about several other models that they might consider.  What I heard was that they had little budget, things changed often, and they didn’t want to employ any technology that every single person in the unit didn’t know how to use.

OK.  I thanked them for the call.  The next day, I talked to another person in the group.  His major concern was that I’d be willing to spend my days constantly updating the PPT decks with new regulations, specifications, and details.  (Those decks that they know aren’t working, and are afraid to actually measure.)

I later sent him a nice thank-you mail, suggesting that they could do some of this work inside a simple WordPress template (for projection in the classroom) and allow students and instructors to provide feedback within the “comments” mechanism.  It would allow for real-time improvement, collection of best practice teaching tips, and be updatable by any Luddite in the group who owned a keyboard. (Yeah, I was poking at them.  I’ll admit it.)

Today I got a polite message in response saying that although my qualifications were amazing, they’d decided to go a different direction. I’m guessing that the guy they kissed was perfectly ok with not bothering to measure if what they were doing had any effect at all.

And This Means To Me…?

If you’re providing conference calls to potential buyers, what’s your measurement of success?  If they sign up?  If they buy the book / session / coaching / macrame that you’re offering?  Or are you measuring if they’ve actually learned anything of value that will stay with them?

I can show you how to do that, if you’ve got the balls.

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You Can Out-Teach The Competition

If you’re a small business, you can’t out-spend the competition on marketing.  But you can out-teach them.  Here’s a great video with David Heinemeier Hansson (a partner in 37signals and the creator of Ruby on Rails).

He’s talking about how they’ve built a great audience through blogs, lectures, seminars and other teachable moments.  Great stuff!

Source:  Venture Beat via Remarkablogger

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Solving E-Mail Overload, The Easy Way

Many of my little Internet friends keep whining writing eloquent blog posts about how much email they get, how difficult it is to respond to it all, and how their time could be better used spending time with their families or collecting thimbles of the world.  While I don’t want to sound unsympathetic (I am unsympathetic, I just don’t want to sound that way) I’ve often volunteered to take over their inboxes for a few days to help out.

While I haven’t gotten any takers yet, I’m ready and willing to work my magic on your email flood and can guarantee to have it slowed to a trickle in less than one week.  This will give you lots of time to talk to your accountant about the sudden drop-off in business, your therapist about why your wife no longer speaks to you, and your lawyer about the sudden increase in papers being served.

Here are a few samples of the mail I can provide.

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Dear Customer…

I’m pleased that you’ve received our Book, DVD, Phone Recordings and Polaroid Photos as described in our snazzy sales letter filled with testimonials.  While I’m disappointed that you customerhaven’t yet lost weight, found a girlfriend or cured that nasty infection — it’s important that you remember the three-point type that warned results are not typical.

You may have interpreted this to mean that the guy who lost 150 pounds was not typical, and you might only lose 100 pounds.  Actually, as we admitted, any kind of results are not typical.  So your annoying complaints and lawsuits are baseless and unfounded.  And a big fat girlfriend-less infected tub-of-lard like yourself isn’t someone a jury is going to be very sympathetic to — which is why we chose you as our key demographic.

So man up, kiss your $575 good bye, and consider joining our on-line support group:  People Who Fell For Worthless Scams.  It’s only $24/month, constantly re-billing, with no way on earth to stop it.

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Dear Mom…

Yeah, I understand that you’d like to see the grand-kids.  So would I.  But putting them into a daycare was really expensive, so we sent them off to “Camp Lettuce” in Arizona.  They get lots grannyof fresh air, sunshine, and are even learning to speak Spanish enough to get their little green cards.  Once the growing season is over, they’ll be on the bus to Idaho — digging out spuds for twelve hours a day will teach them the value of hard work, and build socialization skills they’ll need when they reach Kindergarten.

Molly and I have converted the guest room to a home office, so unfortunately there’s no place here for you to stay if you come for Christmas.  I’ve taken the liberty of making a reservation at the Howard Johnson’s just south of downtown.  They have special rates for anyone who wants to stay for an entire day, rather than just an hour or two — and you’ll really enjoy the Continental Breakfast.  It’s only pancakes, but Bruno from the front desk actually makes them in the shape of different continents.  You get a free night if you can eat Australia!

Our best to you and Dad.  We’re still disappointed that he didn’t like the snake tattoo he got on the last visit, but if you’re going to be passing out in a diabetic coma around here we can’t be responsible for what might happen.

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Dear Affiliate Partner,

I’m sure you’re wondering why I haven’t been answering emails lately.  I’d like to tell you that I’ve been sick, the kids have kept us busy, and our new product introduction is taking up all our sleazytime.  I’d really like to tell you that. But it just wouldn’t be true.

Fact is, the whole thing was a scam.  There really was no 100MPG Carburetor, I never did Beat Cancer By Rumba Dancing, and it just isn’t possible to Make Google Your Bitch By Starting All Your Posts With The Letter “A”.  The whole thing was a Justice Department scam, sponsored by Eric Holder so that we’d have some use for the cells at Guantanamo Bay once the terrorists are moved out.

Your name and contact information has been forwarded to the local Sheriff’s department, and within a matter of days they’ll be on your doorstep to pick you up with a free ticket to the tropics that I offered to my most successful affiliate marketer.  On the plus side, it turns out you’re all winners.  On the minus side, they don’t have the funds to drain and refill the water-boarding tank so it’s really pretty gross.  Bring antibiotics if you’ve got them.

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So there you have it — just click here to sign up — I’ll need your account login, password, bank account number and blood type.  And soon email overload will be a thing of the past.

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Top 10 Reasons Twitter Doesn’t Work For You

So — you’ve finally decided to try out The Twitter and gotten your own little account.  You’ve posted your photo, added a nice little bio, and even followed some interesting folks.  But your initial tweets have gone out into the Interwebs with absolutely no indication that anyone heard them.  And you continue to tweet, as the silence begins to remind you of Junior High when the cool kids pretended you didn’t exist.  (I don’t know about this first hand, of course — but I’ve read stories.)

I can help.  Here are my best ideas on what you may be doing wrong — from a guy who just passed 10,000 tweets.

lego-fail-whale

Number 10: You Actually Answer The Question “What’s Happening?”

We don’t care about you.  We care about us.  Tell me something I can use, something I’m interested in, or something that amuses me.  Your mom is the only one who wants to know what’s happening.

Number 9:  You’re The Mayor Of 7-11

The vast majority of the Twitter population doesn’t care what Mafia items you have or want, what part of Farmville you hail from, or your successful unseating of your brother-in-law and mayor of your patio.  See also #10.

Number 8:  Uve Abv8ted 2 Mch

Surprisingly, many of us on Twitter are not 14-year-old texting fanatics, and still use English as our first language.  If we can’t parse your message easily, we slide right past.

Number 7:  It’s A Conversation, Not A Lecture

While I’m really glad that you’ve just realized that Dolphins are gods from another universe, it would be really great if you got down off the soapbox once in a while.  Maybe we could find some common ground and actually provide value for each other.

Number 6:  I Don’t Care Which Starbucks You’re At

Unless I’m a burglar, I really don’t care that you’re currently located at the Starbucks on 185th and Glendenning.  And if I am a burglar, you’d better head home right now.

Number 5:  You’re Not Providing Value

If you’re a hairstylist, give me tips on how to keep my new cut looking great.  If you’re a mechanic, tell me what to watch for to keep my buggy running smooth.  If you’re a burglar, tell me how to keep bad guys out of my house.

Number 4:  You’re Thinking Short Term

Only Oprah and Bill Gates get lots of followers in days.  Your experience here in Twitville will be (most likely) a slow climb, and plan it that way.  Anyone who tells you you’re going to get 5,000 followers in a week is providing you meaningless names on a list, not people who really are interested in what you have.

Number 3:  You’re Being A Jerk

Make sure that if you “re-tweet” content you say so, and if you share ideas that started somewhere else you mention that.  Nothing gets you in hot water faster than being a TwitterPhoney.

Number 2:  You’re Trying To Be Somebody Else

The idea of “transparency” gets bantered around a lot, nowadays.  That doesn’t mean you have to tell us all about who you’re sleeping with or those Pop Tarts you shoplifted in the third grade — but you do need to be a real person in your online exploits.

…and the NUMBER ONE reason Twitter doesn’t work for you?

Number 1:  That Avatar Of You In The 4th Grade Just Isn’t That Cute

Yeah, somebody had to tell you.  You were a goofy looking little kid, and that’s why nobody wanted to share lunches with you.

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Beyond The Lecture — Fighting The Learning Wars

If you’re involved in the process of trying to move information from your head into other heads (aka “learning” or “teaching” or “training” or “edumacating”) you probably began with the simplest form –

lecture1972the lecture. Open mouth, spew words, hope recipient can hear and understand and process and retain information. You used this model because for twelve years (or more) that’s the way you were taught in formal education.

And learners like lectures. They’re passive, and don’t require much. It’s easy to zone out, thinking about the weekend and having some fun. There’s little risk of looking stupid, or giving a wrong answer. Somebody else is driving, and you’re just along for the ride. All you have to do is keep your eyes open, avoid drooling, and ask a few easy softball questions at the end.

“So tell me, Professor Canhardly, since you wrote the text we’re using does that mean that you’d heartily endorse all the concepts and theories therein?”

Speaking as a presenter, we like lectures too! You all have to look at us up here in the front of the room, and pretend that what we’re saying is important. We get to decide what’s important, and what’s not. We get to make the lame jokes, and you have to pretend to laugh. And if you ask a difficult question, we get to deflect it or claim that it’s outside the bounds of our subject for today.

So — What’s The Problem?

The problem is (you just KNEW there was going to be a problem here, didn’t you?) that lectures aren’t very effective at long-term transfer of information from one humanoid to another. They’re pretty good if all you want to do is just jam some random facts in a head, take a test, and then forget it forever. Or if you’re just trying to get an evaluation that says “Dr. Neverdidt was really funny and told good stories”.

Here’s a simple example — if you’re headed out to the airport today, would you choose the pilot who’s heard a LECTURE on how to fly, or the pilot who’s actually FLOWN before?

Of course you’d want the guy who’d had some time actually doing the task, in addition to hearing someone talk about it.  And, in a nutshell, that’s why lectures really can’t do much more than give you a really nice overview of a topic.  In the learning world, we’ve got a way to measure what level of actual “doing” you’re going to have after we’ve taught you something — it’s called “Bloom’s Taxonomy“.  (A “taxonomy” is just a fancy word for a classification system — like the Dewey Decimal System at the library or the way butchers grade meat at the grocery store.)

Dr. Bloom ranked the learner’s ability to do something on six levels, and gave them names — and then provided examples and descriptive words to go along with — like so:

Category

Example and Key Words
Knowledge: Recall data or information. Examples: Recite a policy. Quote prices from memory to a customer. Knows the safety rules.Key Words: defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states.
Comprehension: Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one’s own words. Examples: Rewrites the principles of test writing. Explain in one’s own words the steps for performing a complex task. Translates an equation into a computer spreadsheet.Key Words: comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives Examples, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates.
Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place. Examples: Use a manual to calculate an employee’s vacation time. Apply laws of statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written test.Key Words: applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves, uses.
Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences. Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of equipment by using logical deduction. Recognize logical fallacies in reasoning. Gathers information from a department and selects the required tasks for training.Key Words: analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, separates.
Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure. Examples: Write a company operations or process manual. Design a machine to perform a specific task. Integrates training from several sources to solve a problem. Revises and process to improve the outcome.Key Words: categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes.
Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials. Examples: Select the most effective solution. Hire the most qualified candidate. Explain and justify a new budget.Key Words: appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports.
Source: http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html

So, any time you want to teach somebody something, you can think about measuring what they can do based on these six levels.  They range from very low “knowledge” to very high “evaluation”.  To make that a little easier to understand, let’s try a couple of examples.

Suppose your job was to teach people to tie their tennis shoes.  Here’s what that might look like in the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy:

Knowledge: Recall data or information.

 Can identify tennis shoes from loafers.

Comprehension: Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one’s own words.

 Can explain why it’s important to tie shoes correctly (“fall down – go boom!”)

Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.

 Can demonstrate how to tie shoes.

Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.

 Can compare how to tie tennis shoes and boots with hooks and loops.

Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.

 Can devise how long laces must be by counting number of holes, calf size and knotting/lacing model.

Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.

 Can compare and contrast use of rawhide laces, nylon laces, catgut and cotton to recommend the best choice for each situation.

One more example? How about that jet pilot, learning to deal with losing an engine…

Knowledge: Recall data or information.
 Can list the basic steps in engine restart.
Comprehension: Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one’s own words.
 Can give examples of why an engine may have failed, and probable causes.
Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.
 Can demonstrate the “Hot Engine Restart” procedure in the flight simulator.
Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.
 Can analyze cockpit instrumentation to determine most likely cause of failure and choose best restart mode.
Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.
 Can combine engine-out experiences to generate emergency plan for unforeseen circumstances.
Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.
 Can land plane in the Hudson River and have every single person walk away alive.

sully

So, this is why it’s sometimes important to think a little bit further than just lecturing to people about what it is that you want them to know. And that means things like getting their little fingers dirty, testing out concepts, discussing and experimenting, role-playing, tearing it apart, putting it back together, breaking it, fixing it, building a completly new model — all the stuff that takes more time and costs more money.

And aren’t you glad that American Airlines did that stuff?

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I Want A Content Management System!

I’ve been doing some research into a particular Content Management System (rhymes with “noodle”) that I’ve never used before, in anticipation of doing some work for a new client.

I happened to run across The CMS Review — which contains, among many other resources, a detailed list and comparison of 75 different CMS tools, from “Advantage” to “Zope”. Seriously wow.

cms1

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Using “Screenr” To Create Quick Screencasts

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We Don’t Need Better Teachers

I’ve been listening to lots of talk lately about how to “fix” education. Mostly, from people not currently involved in the design or delivery of education.  And there are lots and lots of theories.

(I’d imagine that when plumbers get together for a beer, they laugh about how architects think they know how to “fix” plumbing.  It’s always fun to listen to people who have used a complex system pontificate about how to redesign it.)

And like the plumbers, it looks pretty simple to me.  The problem is that the people sitting on top of the system don’t really want to think about all the crap that flows through the system.  And eventually the sheer amount of crap in the system plugs it up, and the system stops working.

Roto-Rooting K-12 Education

outhouseMany years ago, we all headed outdoors to do our business.  There was a little house with a half-moon on the door and a Sears catalog.  That worked just fine, until the whole idea of indoor plumbing came along and pretty soon there wasn’t much of a market for outhouse manufacturers.  It didn’t mean that they weren’t high-quality outhouses, or that the people who built them didn’t care a lot about their product.

But things had changed.  Technology had come along that was more efficient and better served the needs of the user.

So even if we’d paid more for the outhouses, or given them incentive bonuses for taking higher levels of crap than the average — it wouldn’t have fixed the basic problem.

A Better Way To Do It

The type of learning that we’re trying to support in K-12 is, in large measure, not very difficult to provide.  Much of it is rote memorization, matching patterns, and understanding simple relationships.  The content (reading, writing and ‘rithmetic) hasn’t changed markedly since I was a tiny tot.

What has changed is the availability of technology to deliver this learning.  Beginning with Sesame Street and the Muppets, we saw that the use of well-designed video really worked for learning.  Then video games showed us that higher level learning could also be very effective.  Now e-learning provides more than half of the training that happens in the corporate arena.

But our school districts keep telling us that we need more money to find and hire highly skilled teachers for the classrooms, and pay them incentives if they succeed at teaching Johnny to read.

(In the corporate world, we call this “Instructor Led Training” or “ILT” — and there’s less and less of it every year.  It’s very expensive, often gives inconsistent results and isn’t very flexible for individual learners.)

But - But - But

No, I’m not saying we don’t need to have children spend time learning social skills.  Or understanding how to work with others, be part of a team, support diversity, appreciate fine art or hug trees.  Those are things that technology-driven learning doesn’t always do well — yet.  A human instructor is great for that kind of content.

But right now, 50% of the kids in my state don’t graduate from high school.  The lion’s share of graduates don’t read at grade level.  Making change is a challenge. Basic economics is a mystery. These are skills that could be taught easily (for most students) with technology, leaving our teachers lots of time for the outliers and special situations.

But the people sitting on top of the system just keep downloading more crap.

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Let’s Put On A Show! My Mom Can Make The Costumes…

I spent 14 hours on the road (well, in the air and in airports and waiting in shuttle buses) the other day to come to rainy Las Vegas for a show.  It’s about Learning, that thing that I spend lots of time trying to help clients make happen.

“Putting on a big show” is a concept that has really run into some difficult times over the last few years.  Airplane bombers, tanking economies, online learning and general “I don’t want to spend a week away from my desk” sorts of attitudes are making it pretty difficult.

As someone who used to build content for great big shows, it makes me sad.  As someone who comes to speak at great big shows (to troll for unsuspecting clients) it makes me even sadder.  It’s just not much fun anymore.

bugsy_siegelThere used to be free food.  At this show, I’m going to get a free ice-cream bar.  There used to be free bands at cocktail parties.  At this show, I’ll have to hum ABBA songs or listen to my i-Pod while I pay $20 for a beer.  And there used to be lavish hotels and convention centers — and at this show, I’m a mile from the strip in a hotel that looks like Bugsy Siegal might come around the corner any minute.

But I had a pretty good group for my workshop yesterday — they struggled a bit (I’m not your typical PowerPoint lecture sort of guy) and there were a few evaluations that reflected that.  And I’m enjoying my hallway conversations and the Twitter backchannel discussions during the presentations.

But it just doesn’t stand up to having Bono up on stage, with 7,000 people dancing the night away drinking from an open bar.  Oh, well.

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Learning To Use That New Hammer

I’m facilitating a workshop this week for a bunch of Learning 2.0 folks in Las Vegas. (No, I have no plans to be “teaching” or “training” — thanks for asking.)  The title I came up with is “Relax!  Everything You Know About Content Is Wrong…”

hammerYeah, part of getting sessions accepted is a catchy title — but I really believe that most everything we’ve taught our students about content in their formal educational history is wrong.  How we design it, how we deploy it, how they interact with it and how we judge if they’ve taken it in successfully.

So I spend a great deal of time nowadays talking to fellow learning designers about that, in the guise of showing them “new media tools” like Twitter and Facebook and NING and Wicker and Spooty and Fitzzle…  (Points will be given for those of you who realize which of those are made up gibberish.)

In reality, these things are just tools.  What we’re really doing is responding to the fact that there are better ways of dealing with today’s learners and their needs, and the existence of some of these new technologies is giving us a long overdue kick in the Kirkpatrick to encourage some change.

Here’s my list of what “old” content looks like:

  • I’m up HERE, you learners are out THERE
  • I know the answers.  You’re supposed to take them in from me.
  • My answers are the right ones.  Yours are not.
  • My content (the text book) is correct.  Your experience or theories are not valid.
  • We measure success on how well you can parrot back to me what I said.
  • Old, gray heads make the best choices about what to learn, when, and how.
  • You start here.  Then you do this, then this, then that.  Then you stop.
  • If I want your input, I’ll ask for it.  And then evaluate it.
  • You in the back — quit whispering. You’ll disturb others.
  • Here’s a list of work to do outside of class. I chose it.
  • These are the accepted resources and authorities. I chose them.
  • At the end, we’ll grade on a curve.  There will be winners and losers.
  • If you’re louder, you get noticed.  If you’re quiet, you don’t.
  • If you agree with my theories, you’ll get praised.  If you don’t, you won’t.
  • You should highlight the stuff that I say is important — it will be on the test.
  • Name in the upper left-hand corner.  Points given for neatness.

So — what did your classroom look like when you were in school?  My workshop at TechKnowledge 2010 (TK10) in Las Vegas this week will break every single one of these rules, I hope.

It should be total chaos.

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