Chapter 18 Media Specifications: Four Approaches to Learning

After reading Ch. 18 of Lee & Owens, I never thought about how the senses could be used to determine learning. According to Lee & Owens, there are four approaches to learning, which are: (1) visual, or presenting anything learners can look at, including video, animation, or written text. (2) Auditory is anything that students can listen to including tapes, CBT, music, and sound effects. (3)Olfactory, presenting anything students can smell or taste. (4) Tactile or kinesthetic is anything that students can touch or manipulate such as models, equipment, role plays etc. The most interesting is the olfactory because, to me, the sense of smell is not something that we associate with learning; however, if you think about it how do we learn to cook? We can smell if a cake is done, or if our food is burning, and we know what to do about it. Another example would be smelling something coming out of your car engine and learning what it was so next time you smell it you know what to do. We use our sense of smell more often than we think for learning. One question I have is how do organizations provide supplemental training for those people with disabilities who can’t hear, or see, or smell? I would like to know more about the efforts businesses make to accommodate these people.

Project Management

This week, I chose to write about Project Management because it is a profession that I may enter one day. Project Management is composed of many different things including scheduling activities and developing teams as well assigning tasks. According to Lee & Owens, scheduling a project means documenting general project information, including the projects purpose, it's desired outcome and any constraints. You also must list any project deliverable, as well as schedule activities so that all team members know their responsibilities. In defining roles and responsibilities for team members, you must list the roles of each team member, as well as list the tasks that will be needed during all phases of the project. Once you have the people, and the roles are defined, you can then assign those roles their respective responsibilities. One great tool for managing a poject is Microsoft Project 2007. Using this program in my TSTM 560 class has taught me a great deal about how to manage a project effectively.

Google Presentations

Since we focus so much on Web 2.0 and open source software, I find it fitting that Google has now added "Presentations" to its online suite of applications which include Docs and Spreadsheets. Because of the new addition, Google Docs and Spreadsheets is now just Google Docs. What's great about Presentations is that multiple users can simultaneously work on a slide at one time, and what's even better is that when it's time to present participants are connected through Google Talk. It's not just Google however, that's making a little competition for Microsoft. IBM is about to unveil its own line of open source software apps known as Symphony. Some people are pro-Docs, others do not see it as a threat, but as Chuck Sanchez, director of public relations for Haute PR says, "Prior to -- and often during -- every big meeting, there are technical difficulties that turn what should be a simple plug-and-play into a convoluted delay." Utilizing Google Docs eliminates the mishaps of losing a flash drive, or not being able to plug a projector into a laptop. Today, as a society we need things to be faster yet more reliable, and now with the addition of Google Docs, we have an open office application suite that can be used by anybody, anywhere. Will this hurt Microsoft in any way? I personally feel that those organizations who rely on Microsoft Office right now, will continue to do so until convined otherwise. People are creatures of habit, so until they begin to see for themselves any benefit of using Google Docs, they won't switch. I do see one pitfall however; with MS Office, you don't have to be on the internet to create a presentation or to present. If you're ever having internet difficulties, you'll want MS Office as a quick backup.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59400.html

E-Learning's Impact on Design

In Chapter 15 of Lee & Owens, two views are presented as to how design e-learning: objectivism and constructivism. Objectivism is traditional, one path on which learning will take place, and usually knowledge is provided by an expert on that particular subject; however, constructivism is an approach where trial and error are allowed, and learners gain knowledge through discovery. When designing e-learning, one must think about the material available on the web, and come up with ideas to motivate learners to go find that information. The traditional subject matter expert does not fit here, as traditional as it may sound, SME's tend to know everything about a subject and are comfortable with it, possibly leading to overlooking information; however, with the constructivist idea, a learner could take more responsibility for their own learning and acquire any information left out by an SME.

A-Space: A Place For Spies

We talk so much about today's social networking sites, whether it be in schools, workplaces, or homes, but now our very own U.S. Intelligence Agency is jumping on the bandwagon and creating a social networking site simply for their operatives to communicate, share files, have vitrual meetings. A-Space will be built with typical commercial software but will require extra security because of sensitive information. What's most interesting is that nearly half of all U.S. intelligence analysts are younger and have only been working for less than 5 years, which is good for the intelligence agencies because more of them will be more likely to embrace this new way of information management. The ultimate goal is to put more eyes on more problems, a mere cooperation of agencies if you will so that information that is important can be seen by all analysts. As stated by this article, "Experts say the service will only be as effective as those who use it. With many older workers puzzled by their younger colleagues' obsessive use of Facebook and its ilk, full-blown use could take time." For so often we've focused on how to transfer the knowledge of older workers and capitalize on that knowledge so that it is transferred to the younger employee. Now, however, the agency needs to focus it's efforts on obtaining the knowledge from the younger employees about new technologies so the older employees will be able to progress in their positions. Even though the younger employees have been working for less that 5 years, they are a technology driven generation and have a lot of valuable information to offer any organization. If you want to read more on this article click this link:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59217.html

Metacognitive Domain

In Chapter 10 of Lee & Owens, the five domains of learning include the cognitive or thought processes, affective, meaning a learners feelings and attitudes, motor, the learners physical movements, psychomotor which involves movement without thinking. Last but not least, the metacognivitive domain includes thought processes involved in "learning how to learn" that have been brought to the automatic level. Lee & Owens cite this as the strategies learners use for learning without thinking about it. In class, our group was given the task of explaining a real world example from our own learning that would indicate the metacognitive process. What made this so interesting was that while reading about the metacognitive process to gain a better understanding my colleague Dwight was presented with a word that neither he nor I knew, so without thinking Dwight immediately highlighted the word, copied and pasted the word into an online dictionary service, read the material presented and committed it to memory, all while I was watching him perform these tasks!! WOW! What a great example of what the metacognitive domain is all about. I observed the steps and in a way learned that if I find myself in similar situation that I can use those same steps to identify a word I don't know. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have known how to find the definition of a word and would have learned how by watching Dwight initiate learning through the metacognitive domain. The metacognitive domain is by far the most important of the domains because it allows you to observe problem solving strategies and apply them to other situations. Lee & Owens say it is the least written about and least understood of the domains, but after experiencing it first hand I don't see how it could be any clearer.

Adult Learning Theory Chapter 7 Multimedia Based Instructional Design

I wanted to focus on task analysis in chapter 7 because task analysis has been the most interesting part of training to me, but when I read the chapter I found information on the adult learning theory. I find it interesting that even though adults learn quicker than children due to experiences in their life, they still revert back to child-like development when learning something knew. According to Owens, adults must have a direct relationship between the learned info and the real world where knowledge is used. Also, they want to be actively involved instead of listening passively. He also says that adult learners must have independence to learn including where they learn, what they learn, and how they learn. What I found most interesting though is that adult learners need privacy for learning and individualized, self-paced instruction. When we are children, a typical learning enviornment includes a classroom and 30 other students, however as adults we desire individualized learning at our own pace. Is this because we've experienced the differences between the two styles of learning? What does that say about our kids in school's today, would they also benefit from this individualized learning? Something to think about...

Learnging 2007 Elliot Masie

After watching Elliot Masie's video on Learning 2007, I found it interesting that learning has changed so many things. Elliot makes some interseting points in the video when he says that when we as learners see someone else "learn well' it impacts us and changes us in a way that our own learning performance is enhanced. How then are companies going to use learning to steer their performance? The content of learning is becoming much shorter in the sense that what used to take 3 days to traverse through a manual now only takes 1 to 2 days with viewing and listening via technological advancements. Elliot also states that collective intelligence is also making a big push, citing "Wikinomics" as an information guide to wiki's. The learners are also changing in the workplace, some are younger just out of college with no work experience and othes are much older, working well past the 'retirement age'. The question is how do we caputer the knowledge of the older generation, make it immersive and usable for the younger generation, all while still meeting the business needs of the organization? It seems that there is no defining way to give your learners what they need, only that you must first acknowledge what they need to learn and provide it for them in a way that will benefit their experience. I wish that the Learning 2007 conference was simulcasted via internet; in a way I guess I could "learn" using technology over the internet.