Job-Hunting Tips for Recessionistas: Benefits of Learning Programs in a Depressed Economy

We’ve been doing a lot of good work on Instructional Design over the last week, so I think you deserve a break. Today I’m going to consider the wider implications of the benefits of learning and professional development in the current global economic environment.

Now read on…

Job seekers take heart! In the current financial maelstrom, you may suddenly find yourself unemployed, laid off, or downsized, with too much month at end of the money. Well, a report from the Harvard Business Review will bolster your confidence as you search for that all-too-elusive new role. So, especially you executives, take this time to retrain, build your skills, and take advantage of the excellent career development and e-learning programs that have emerged over the last decade or so.

No.

Actually: that's wrong: it seems that you won't be getting the keys to the executive restroom unless you're a member of the correct 'old school tie' network, the right golf club, or can give the interview panel a "positive gut feeling" – whatever that is - in your single, not-very-rigorous meeting with your interrogators. That's if a C-level exec bothers to attend your interview at all.

According to HBR,

...only half of those recruited for the top three tiers of management [in Fortune 500 companies] were interviewed by anyone in the C-suite. And fully half the companies relied primarily on the hiring manager’s gut feel, selecting a candidate believed to have ‘what it took’ to be successful in any job.

When the publication surveyed fifty CEOs of global companies, along with a pool of executive search consultants who work with about 500 organizations, they found hiring practices to be “disturbingly vague:” respondents relied heavily on subjective personal preferences or on largely unquestioned organizational traditions, often based on false assumptions.

Sir Fred Goodwin, ex-CEO, Royal Bank of Scotland: did he have “what it takes?” [Image courtesy The Guardian]

Even better news for jobseekers: the evidence of the survey indicates that regardless of a candidate's suitability for the role, their professional experiences, and their range of competencies, the executives surveyed held

…widely differing views regarding the desirable attributes of new hires. They emphatically disagreed on whether it was best to hire insiders or outsiders, on who should be involved in the recruiting process, on what assessment tools were most suitable, and on what the keys were to successful hiring and retention.

Little surprise then that about a third of promising new hires leave an organization within three years of being recruited.

The HBR admitted to being "stunned" that many CEOs are ignorant of their company’s own demographic projections mandating hiring to replace soon-to-be-retiring managers; "even those who recognize the looming shortage of talent are ill-prepared to fill it."

However, don’t despair: I'm pleased to say these redoubtable captains of industry, the self-styled masters of the universe who got our economy into this whole mess are maintaining their impeccable record of due diligence, risk assessment, and forward planning, and can't be accused of continuing to behave like the greedy, short-sighted, self-serving parasites they've proved to be in the past. Could anyone really agree with a shareholder who said of the board of one of the Irish banks:

If we didn't live in a tolerant society, the chairman and the rest of the board would be hanging by their necks by piano wire.

Now – that’s wrong too.

In a recent blog post, I discussed some of the implications and consequences of the 'PlayStation Generation' entering the workforce; the HBR report supports the view that if the world's 'top' organizations can’t even establish a process for on-boarding employees in the present, we ordinary working Joe’s and Josephine’s are all pretty much up the Swanee if we rely upon them to hire - and perform effectively in times to come.

The famous Suwannee River, Florida. What we are up.

The Review published a very useful seven-step guide outlining the phases of a properly-structured interview process (see Figure 1).

Don’t forget, that these fine fellows - for it is mostly men - are all looking for gainful employment too, since they have all resigned their positions in ignominy, if not shame (most of them don’t seem to understand shame). Perhaps they can take advantage of this comprehensive process too:

Figure 1. Hiring Executives Process Guide (after Harvard Business Review, 2009)

Look and learn.

___________

References:

Fernández-Aráoz., Groysberg, B., Nohria, N. (2009). The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad. Harvard Business Review [Internet] Available from: http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/05/the-definitive-guide-to-recruiting-in-good-times-and-bad/ar/1?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_STAT-_-MAY_2009-_-STAT0519 Accessed 19 May 2009

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Discovering Instructional Design 6: Developing Objectives

Continuing this E-Learning Curve Blog series on Instructional Design. In this article, I'm going to discuss:

1. Describing the Target Audience
2. Objectives Writing

Target Audience Description
The Target Audience Description describes the key characteristics of the learners that you're designing instruction for. It assists in the selection of objectives, examples, terminology, typical work practices, and cultural issues.

Typical headings include:

• Age
• Gender
• Culture - organizational / ethnic / socio-economic
• First and other languages
• Education
• Existing skills and skill sets
• Professional and life experience
• Values
• Motivators
• Interests
• Taboos
• Current job
• Career history

An effective approach to elicit this information is to ask the SME to describe someone he knows who would be a typical audience member: what kinds of things would that person relate, react, and respond to?

Understanding organizational culture is important from the perspective of gaining learner acceptance when developing customized training. The instructional designer should find out about vocabulary/argot, typical topics of conversation, clichés, conversation buzzwords, TLAs, corporate beliefs, do’s and don’ts, examples of successful and unsuccessful people and performance; speed of organizational feedback, and symbols (logos, mission statement, mottos etc). Considering these factors will help paint a realistic picture of the people in the examples, scenarios and problems covered in the learning program.

Similarly (and particularly in e-learning and web-based training) there will likely be a need for a visual depiction of the audience profile – age, sex and particularly dress code (i.e. customer-facing organizations typically wear formal business clothes or uniforms, clean room production workers bunny suit).

Objectives Writing
Objectives are the key learning outcomes desired from the instruction. They emerge from the previous analyses – performance, task and goal – to provide the objectives that learners need to have mastered to perform the associated tasks competently.

Classically, instructional objectives have three elements: conditions, performance, and standards (see Table 1):

Table 1 Instructional Objectives

“Given that you are in a high-pressure job,	CONDITION
reduce workplace stress	PERFORMANCE
and lower your blood pressure by 10%”	STANDARD

It's quite common to find aims disguised as objectives in training materials. However, there is a fundamental difference between the two. Broadly speaking, we can say that an aim (or goal) is a general statement of intent. They are not especially helpful for deciding an appropriate (1) teaching strategy or (2) assessment procedures.

Examples of aims include:
• An awareness of the types of breakdowns electric motors are prone to.
• An understanding of how silicon chips are produced.
• An appreciation of potential hazards in an industrial plant.

Objectives are precise: both learner and instructor know exactly what is required to master the learning activity. An example of an aim translated into an objective might read as follows:

The learner will, without using reference materials, draw and label accurately a use case which shows all the stages involved in a human-computer interaction.

Conditions
A performance of any kind will always have important conditions surrounding it. The nearer these conditions can be to the actual work situation, the more accurate the objective will be. For example, it is one thing for a worker to be able to repair a piece of equipment in a workshop with every sort of tool available, but quite another to expect him to repair the same piece of equipment somewhere on-site, far from home base.

Conditions must be realistic. Learners must be asked to carry out the performance objectives under normal conditions. For example, use the Hitachi Chip Etching Tool to set as a condition 'using an electric drill', would be pointless (and irrelevant) if there was no silicon blank, no fabrication facility, or the person concerned did not have a cleanroom space suit.

Performance
A statement of actual performance is of primary importance and is central to writing of good objectives. This performance must be an observable action of some kind. Words and phrase such as "understand," "appreciate," "feel a sense of pride," "know," "feel deeply about," are irrelevant when deciding learning objectives. If you have any doubt about the appropriateness of a verb to describe a performance, just place the phrase "Watch me..." at the start of a sentence containing the verb.

For example,

• Watch me appreciate this piece of hardware (!)

or

• Watch me etch this 45 nanometer silicon chip processor core.

It is obvious which is the observable performance (the second one).

Standards
When developing courseware, instructional designers must consider the level or standard of the performance - how well must it be done?

For example a performance objective describing an activity relating to some aspect of workplace safety demands a 100% standard. If a serious accident occurs, an employee won't get a second chance to do the task more carefully.

Just as the conditions need to be defined with real, everyday situations in mind, so too do the standards. When setting the standard for an objective, always consider the level of performance required in that particular situation.

Next Time: Objectives Analysis

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Discovering Instructional Design 5: Stages in the Affective Taxonomy

Goal statements (sometimes called purpose statements) are often used with the Affective Taxonomy. They answer the question, "Why does the student need to learn this material?" Goal statements reflect the instructional designer's empathy for the learner's motivation and attitudes, which should enhance the outcome of the lesson (see Table 1).

Table 1 Levels off the Affective Domain

Affective Domain
Level	Definition	Example
Receiving	Being aware of or attending to something in the environment.	Person would listen to a lecture or presentation about a structural model related to human behavior.
Responding	Showing some new behaviors as a result of experience. To act or comply; to perform an act willingly and to obtain satisfaction from it.	The individual would answer questions about the model or might rewrite lecture notes the next day.
Valuing	Showing some definite involvement or commitment. To accept, prefer or commit oneself because of its perceived worth or value; to appreciate; defend; judge; praise; volunteer	The individual might begin to think how education may be modified to take advantage of some of the concepts presented in the model and perhaps generate a set of lessons using some of the concepts presented
Organization	Integrating a new value into one's general set of values, giving it some ranking among one's general priorities. To compare, relate and synthesize values into one's own value system; question; dispute.	This is the level at which a person would begin to make long-range commitments to arranging his or her instruction and assessment relative to the model
Characterization by Value	Acting consistently with the new value. To integrate values or value systems into one's style or philosophy of life.	At this highest level, a person would be firmly committed to utilizing the model to develop, select, or arrange instruction and would become known for that action.

Using behavioral terms, samples of performances are constructed that will provide evidence that the students have achieved the purpose.

For example

Original objective:
“Upon completion of tasks in the auto repair shop, replenish supplies to maintain the stock levels specified in the shop stock handbook.”

Amended to include an affective goal:
“Upon completion of tasks in the auto repair shop, replenish supplies to maintain the stock levels specified in the shop stock handbook without supervision”.

If learners meet this objective "without supervision," no one will watch them, pressure them, or remind them to replenish supplies; they must now complete this task on their own. If learners meet such an objective, they are functioning at the Responding level of attitude, or perhaps at an even higher level.

Other goal statements include:

• Voluntarily takes action to…
• Without being told to do…
• Without promise of reward…
• Without threat of punishment…
• In spite of social pressure to do otherwise…
• Initiates on his or her own…

Notice the last three of these phrases. If learners undertake an activity in their own time, initiate something on their own, or do something in spite of social pressure to do otherwise, they are displaying behavior at the Valuing level of the taxonomy (and perhaps higher).

Short courses and brief exposure to material can be expected to change attitudes only in small ways, and only at the lower affective levels (receiving, responding, and, possibly, valuing).

Changes at the higher affective levels (valuing, organization, and characterization) require much longer exposures - an entire course rather than a lesson, or a program of instruction: these are more difficult to evaluate and measure, typically at Kirkpatrick Level Three. We cannot be sure a particular attitude characterizes a person if the only measure or index used is a formative or summative assessment.

More...

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++Stop Press++ iKonstrikt ‘Educate’ Launched ++

If you read my recent E-Learning Curve Blog post Educate: An E-Learning iPhone App with Potential you’ll know that I have been following the progress of iKonstrukt Educate with interest. Well, it’s just been released to the Apple iTunes Store.

According to the developers

Educate is an iPhone/iTouch application designed to support teaching professionals in schools, universities and colleges. Featuring inbuilt lesson planning, student tracking, teaching strategies and eLearning tools, Educate provides teachers with a holistic approach to engaging students in 21st century learning environments.

There’s a short demo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWzPFgZKY9w

Key Features:

• Plan lessons: Educate’s inbuilt weekly planner allows teachers to personalize their timetable and plan lessons all from a single interface.
• Monitor student attendance and progress: Quickly and easily track student attendance or performance in classes via ready made scales.
• Engage students at a deeper level: Access easy to follow strategies for engaging students during individual or collaborative activities.
• Implement eLearning: Post real time content to Moodle learning spaces, anywhere, anytime. Also, access critical tools such as a voice recorder for anecdotal notes, a camera that allows you to label images and a stopwatch for time-critical tasks.
• Collaborate with other Educate users: Connect online through Facebook with other Educate users to discuss pedagogical practice, suggest application features and seek support.

Price: $6.99 US

You can purchase from iTunes by clicking here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=313379802&mt=8

Find out more: http://www.ikonstrukt.com

I’ll be installing Educate today, and I will (of course) review it in the near future.

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Discovering Instructional Design 4: The Affective Domain

The Systems Approach to Instruction, like all instructional design processes, can be said to have a number of phases:

1. determine the current state and needs of the learner
2. define the end goal of instruction
3. develop a learning intervention to assist in the acquisition of new skills, knowledge or expertise.
4. assess the quality of the instructional design and improve where required
   

Last time, I began discussing the analysis stage of the process, which is used to determine the current state of learners' knowledge and skills, and to define the learning needs of the student. Today, I will look at goal analysis and the relevance of the often-overlooked affective domain.

Goal Analysis
Goal analysis is used when there is an abstract state or condition that must be taught/encouraged in the learner.

Typical goals are:

• Be self-starters
• Exhibit good leadership characteristics
• Be conscientious
• Be professional
• Have a customer service attitude

These are called affective objectives, and can be arranged according to a taxonomy. According to Mary Miller (2005), when instructional designers consider the affective domain, “they think only in terms of a learner's motivation to learn.”

As Smith and Ragan (1999) have pointed out, "any 'cognitive' or 'psychomotor' objective has some affective component to it (if at no deeper level than a willingness to sufficiently interact with learning resources to achieve the learning)" (p. 250, parentheses in original). Motivation is certainly important, as "a student's attitude toward a given course or subject area can be a contributing factor to his achievement in it.

(Edwards & Porter, 1970, p. 107)

While it's natural (an logical) for instructional designers (and learning professionals in general) to emphasize the cognitive domain (associated with Benjamin Bloom) the affective domain can significantly enhance, inhibit or even prevent student learning. The affective domain includes factors such as

• student motivation
• attitudes
• perceptions
• values

Considering the affective domain when designing programs can increase the learning effect, whether delivering content and activities, and during formative and summative assessment.

David Krathwohl's affective domain taxonomy is perhaps the best known of any of the affective taxonomies. Krathwohl's Taxonomy refers to a person's awareness and internalization of objects and stimulation.

The taxonomy is ordered according to the principle of internalization. Internalization refers to the process whereby a person's affect toward an object passes from a general awareness level to a point where the affect is 'internalized' and consistently guides or controls the person's behavior.

(Seels & Glasgow, 1990, p. 28)

As such, a goal analysis can assist in determining what can be taught.

There are five steps to the procedure:

1. Write down the goal using appropriate abstract terms to express the intent. Ensure the statement is written in terms of outcomes rather than process – for example “Have a favorable attitude to… rather than “Develop a favorable attitude…”.
   
2. Understand the activities or performances required to achieve the goal.What would SMEs have to do or say (or stop doing and saying) before you, as an instructional designer, are willing to say that the performances represent the goal? List as many performances as you can think of.
   
3. Sort the list. Many of the items will be fuzzy and not describe anything about performance. Ask SMEs to undertake steps 1 and 2 again. Continue until you have a list of performances that collectively represent the goal – that is, until you are confident that if a learner did these things (and did not do other things) the goal would be achieved.
   
4. Expand the words and phrases on your list into complete sentences that describe when or how often the performance is expected to occur. This helps you to limit the scope of the expected performance. It helps to define “how much" performance would be satisfactory. For example, a goal analysis on security consciousness included the item ‘lock unattended PC.’ When expanded into a complete sentence it could read “Employee always locks PC before leaving workspace unattended.”
   
5. Test for completeness. Review the performances on your list and ask “If someone did these things would I be willing to say that he or she is competent in the activity?” If so, you have completed the goal analysis. If not, return to step 2 and add reiterate the goal analysis.

More...
___________

References:

Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S., and Masia, B.B. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook II: Affective domain. New York: David McKay Co.

Miller, M. (2005). Teaching and Learning in Affective Domain. In: M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved 20 May 2009, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Seels, B. and Glasgow, Z. (1990). Exercises in instructional design. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing Company.

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Discovering Instructional Design 3: A Systems Approach

The process of instructional design specifies all the interrelated learning components that collectively constitute a specific training program for one content area. The generic high-level process is typically characterized as having four basic stages, each of which can be further divided into smaller constituent elements:

1. Analysis
2. Development
3. Implementation
4. Improvement

A Systems Approach to Instruction
According to Paul Saettler (1990), the systems approach to instruction emerged in the later 1950s and in the 1960. It grew from the then-current focus on integrating contemporary technology into learning environments including language laboratories, (the quaintly-named) teaching machines, programmed instruction, and Computer-Assisted Instruction. Most systems approaches are similar to computer process flow diagrams (see Figure 1). The instructional designer steps through the process during the development of the four stages. With its foundations in the military and business worlds, the systems approach involved setting goals and objectives, analyzing resources, devising a plan of action, and continuous evaluation/ and modification of the program during implementation.

Figure 1. A Systems View of Instructional Systems Design

ANALYSIS

Several types of analysis are undertaken when using the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) strategy to learning program development.

Training Needs Analysis (TNA)
This focuses on:

• the business goal related to the training need (e.g. more sales, higher productivity, employee retention, product knowledge, customer satisfaction, reduced costs, employee satisfaction).
• the improved or new performance needed to realize the business goals

Performance Analysis
This process:

• reveals the differences between what people are actually doing and what they should be doing
• identifies those differences that can be eliminated by instruction.

Note: Not all performance-related issues can be remediated by training.

Task Analysis
The outcome of a task analysis is a step-by-step description of what a skilled person does when performing a task, whether the task is cognitive or psychomotor in nature.

The purpose of a task analysis is to develop an understanding of what competent people actually do (or should do) when performing a task. From this understanding, we can deduce what others have to be taught to enable them acquire the skills to perform the task competently.

The instructional designer often undertakes a task analysis with the assistance of a subject matter expert (SME), who identifies and illustrates key elements and tasks related to the skill or activity. Here are some useful approaches to elicit an effective analysis of a task under investigation:

Work Behaviors
The SME demonstrates the steps or aspects of the process required to complete work-driven tasks. These can be organized in many ways (for example, chronologically, by level of complexity, frequency etc). The instructional designer records what each step or process is called, and its place in the overall structure of the activity. The instructional designer documents:

• how often the task is done
• what percentage of users will need the task
• how critical the task is
• task complexity

Expert Behaviors
Here the SME demonstrates tacit tips and tricks that are not usually documented in source materials. Expert behaviors typically have lower frequency and higher complexity ratings.

Analytical Behaviors
The instructional designer asks the SME to describe decision-making processes that are performed during the task. As useful inquiry strategy to follow is the 4WH1 approach ("Who?, What?, When?, How?, and Why?").

More...

________________

References:

Saettler, P. (1990). The evolution of American educational technology . Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.

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Aligning Learning Theory with Instructional Design

As you will know if you read yesterday's post, the proliferation of learning theories over the last century or so has led to a broad range of philosophies and ideas for learning professionals to choose from when undertaking the development of a learning program, as you can see from Figure 1, which is a simplified timeline of the philosophies and disciplines that influenced learning theories.

Figure 1 Influences on Learning Theories (after Stahl, G. 2003)

The heterogeneous nature of learning theories, with sometimes subtle and occasionally significant divergences in their character usually serves only to confuse an already complex domain: even gathering an understanding of the key terms associated with the subject (see Figure 2) can be an overwhelming task for those new to the discipline of instructional design.

Figure 2 Tag Cloud of Learning Theory Terms

So how do you choose a learning theory for your instructional design?

In their 1993 article Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features, Ertmer and Newby use Dale H. Schunk's definitive questions as well as two more of their own to enable those engaged in instructional design to distinguish between learning theories at the highest level. Schunk (1991) defines five questions to distinguish learning theories:

1. How does learning occur?
2. Which factors influence learning?
3. What is the role of memory?
4. How does transfer occur?
5. What types of learning are best explained by the theory?

Ertmer and Newby include two more questions for instructional designers:

1. What basic assumptions / principles are relevant to instructional design?
2. How should instruction be structured to facilitate learning?

Based upon these criteria, we can say that instructional design can be characterized as being effective in the contexts described as below:

Learning Program	Learning Theory / Instructional Design Approach
Introductory learning	A behaviorist/cognitivist approach works best. Instruction is predetermined, sequential and criterion-referenced
Advanced learning	A cognitivist/constructivist approach works best. Tasks require an increased level of processing (schematic organization, analogical reasoning etc)
Expertise development	A constructivist approach works best. Tasks associated with subject matter expertise demand high levels of analysis and problem-solving (i.e. situated learning, cognitive apprenticeships, and social negotiation)

__________

References:

Ertmer, P. A., Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6 (4), 50-70.

Schunk, D. H. (1991). Learning theories: An educational perspective. New York: Macmillan.

Stahl, G. (2003). Building Collaborative Knowing: Elements Of A Social Theory Of CSCL, IN J.W. Strijbos, P.Kirschner & R. Martins (ed.), What we know about CSCL in higher education, Amsterdam: Kluwer.

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Educate: An E-Learning iPhone App with Potential

iKonstruct got in touch with me yesterday to let me know about the launch of Educate; an iPhone/iTouch app for teachers.

Here's what they say about Educate:

Featuring inbuilt lesson planning, student tracking, teaching strategies and eLearning tools, Educate provides teachers with a holistic approach to engaging students in 21st century learning environments.

While the iApp is not yet available via the iTunes Store, you can check out their website for more information about Educate in action.

According to their website, Educate's key features include:

	Lesson planning	Educate's inbuilt weekly planner keeps all your planning in one place. Personalize your weekly timetable and plan for individual lessons all from a single interface
	Effective teaching strategy implementation	Access easy to follow strategies for engaging students in your lessons. Choose from a variety of individual or collaborative activities directly aimed at improving learning outcomes.
	Student attendance and progress monitoring	Quickly and easily track student attendance or performance in all your classes via ready made scales. Update records as you teach and export to your PC, Mac or Learning Management System
	Collaboration with other Educate users	Use your Facebook account to connect with other Educate users to discuss pedagogical practice, suggest application features and seek support
	Engage with eLearning	Post content to your Moodle learning space, anytime, anywhere. Also, access critical tools such as a voice recorder for anecdotal notes, a camera that allows you to tag images and a stopwatch for time-critical tasks

This short video outlines the product's features.

(Alternatively the video is available on YouTube here)

I think that this app has a lot of potential for educators, and I’ll be following its progress with interest. I’ll certainly review it when it becomes available.

More on instructional design tomorrow.
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Discovering Instructional Design, Part 1

At its heart, learning is about growth. The single, central reason for learning, training, and education is to facilitate peoples' need to acquire and develop new skills, knowledge and expertise.

The E-Learning Curve Blog focuses on the development and deployment of learning technologies, and I've been known to discuss approaches to cognition and Constructivism at great length. For one reason or another, I haven't really discussed the bridge between the theoretical and the practical aspects of education - the twin pillars if you like - so over the next few weeks, I'm going to spend some time discussing this in an occasional series of articles on instructional design .

Instructional Design (ID) is the practice of maximizing the effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility of instruction and other learning experiences. The ID process can be said to have a number of steps:

1. determine the current state and needs of the learner
2. define the end goal of instruction
3. develop a learning intervention to assist in the acquisition of new skills, knowledge or expertise.

Before we dive in to ID with much gusto, I want to begin by briefly outlining the theoretical basis for pretty much all contemporary approaches to instructional design.

1. Behaviorism

Based on observed changes in behavior, Behaviorism focuses on a new behavioral patterns being repeated until they becomes automatic. The theory emerged from work done by Ivan Pavlov in associative learning and classical conditioning. The theory of behaviorism concentrates on the study of overt behaviors that can be observed and measured (Good & Brophy, 1990). It views the mind as a "black box" in the sense that the response to a stimulus can be observed quantitatively, while totally ignoring the possibility of thought processes occurring in the mind.

In his 1953 text Science and Human Behavior B. F. Skinner developed the concept of operant conditioning and its application in education and training through the use of positive and negative reinforcement techniques. A behaviorist approach to learning was first implemented in educational technology in the 1960’s.

Main characteristics:

• Behavioral objectives (performance, condition, standard)
• Programmed instruction
• Individualized instruction
• Computer assisted instruction
• Systems approach

2. Cognitivism

Based on thought processes governing behavior, the theory of Cognitivism emerged from the inability of the Behaviorist Model to explain how children do not imitate all behavior. Similarly, the Behaviorist Model could not account for certain types of learning.

Bandura and Walters' 1963 text Social Learning and Personality Development led to Social Cognitive Theory, a concept further developed by Jean Piaget.

Main characteristics:

• schema
• 3-stage Information Processing Model (sensory register / short term memory / long term memory)

Cognitivism began influencing technology in education in the 1970’s. Its adoption led to a shift from measuring external behavior to focusing on the internal mental processes behind behavior, leading to a greater emphasis on task- and learner analysis. According to Cognitivists, tasks are broken down to move from simple to complex, based on previously-learned mental models, or schema. Cognitivism is currently the principal theory used in instructional design.

3. Constructivism

Based on individual perspectives addressing demand of the real world, The theory of Constructivism emerged from work undertaken by Bartlett (1932).

Merrill and Jonassen (1991) further developed the theory to postulate that our reality is perceived through a process of social negotiation.
First implemented in educational technology in 1980’s and 90’s. Led to a movement from objectively to subjectively focused learning, and the development of more open-ended tasks where results of learning are not so easily measured, and are not the same for each learner. Constructivism is not compatible with simple Systems Approach and outcomes of learning are NOT predetermined.

Main characteristics:

• Use of realia (real-world objects)
• Authentic tasks – task-based learning
• Reflective practice – learning to learn
• Use of hypertext and hypermedia – branched learning rather than a linear learning path

More...

___________

References:

Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1963). Social learning and personality development. New York: Holt

Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge University Press

Good, T. L., Brophy, J. E. (1990). Educational psychology: A realistic approach (4th ed.).White Plains, NY: Longman

Jonassen, D. H. (1991). Objectivism versus constructivism: do we need a new philosophical paradigm? Educational Technology Research and Development, 39 (3), 5-14.

Merrill, M. D. (1991). Constructivism and instructional design. Educational Technology, May, 45-53.

Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan.

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The Challenge of Training the PlayStation Generation

We now live in a multiplex world of many voices and ideas, mediated by the internet. At the forefront in using digital technology is the e-learning industry.

I'd forgotten about that.

That is to say, I'd forgotten that I had written those sentences until my quarterly copy of T&D Magazine came through the mail the other day. Included in the magazine was a short article I'd contributed to the publication on workplace training, e-learning, and one of the challenges organizations are about to encounter.

Recession notwithstanding, the PlayStation Generation (Digital Natives, Millennials, Generation Z: pay your money and take your choice) is beginning to enter the workforce, and the trickle of people will grow to a flood over the next decade. These workers will test the skills and expertise of training professionals in ways never encountered in the past, and quite unlike the demands the current economic unpleasantness is making on L&D people.

Like other generations, the PlayStation Generation is "shaped by the events ...and trends of its time" (McCrindle, M., 2008). In particular, the emergence of internet-based technologies and synchronous communication systems including e-mail, txtng, and IM, as well as new media used through websites like YouTube, and the (ever-growing) range of social networking sites and influence of the Read/Write Web seem to be a characteristic of this generation's reputation for intense peer orientation and their desire for instant gratification.

In their 2008 text, Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa found that in a survey of 7,705 college students in the US:

• 97% own a computer
• 97% have downloaded music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
• 94% own a cell phone
• 76% use instant messaging and social networking sites
• 75% of college students have a Facebook account
• 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod
• 49% regularly download music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
• 34% use websites as their primary source of news
• 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
• 15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week

(I think it's time to use the quote from my article - don't you?)

It’s clear that we now live in a multiplex world of many voices and ideas, mediated by the internet. At the forefront in using these digital technology is the e-learning industry.

To meet the challenge of workplace generational diversity, L&D professionals must embrace the knowledge that change is coming, look to the training tools and technologies that already exist, and be prepared to embrace innovation in organizational learning. Understanding the demographics of the 21st Century workforce should influence future training techniques; if you're smart, you'll be developing training strategies and approaches already.

Some approaches to consider:

• Understand the importance of the peer group
• Incorporate viral marketing or word-of mouth/ referral strategies into learning.
• Use an anecdotal style / storytelling to engage learners
• Use scenarios, risks, and consequences to develop skills, build cognitive awareness, and likely outcomes to events. Dealing in theory, raw data, or pure statistics will not motivate this group of workers to learn.

As the 2008 US presidential election demonstrated, everyone from GenX onwards is technologically savvy (if not quite literate) and think nothing of accessing trends and movements online. They are not inclined to hang around for traditional, authoritarian leaders (or trainers) and the government (or company) to tell them what to do; they have decided to "get on with it."

I predict that one of the consequences of the current economic crisis is that many older employees will choose to leave or be forced out of the workforce. Here in Ireland we've already seen unskilled and semi-skilled people losing their jobs by the tens of thousands, as both they and the firms they work for have problems adapting to the new economic reality.

This story is unfolding all around the Western Hemisphere.

The chances are that the industries that supported these people will go to low cost base economies and will never return. The older, Baby Boomer generation-aged manpower than supplied these businesses will be hard-pressed to find full-time work in the same economic sector again.

If, as an L&D professional, you fail to adapt your training strategies to the needs of the new, diverse workforce, start planning a career change, because you might find your skills as relevant as those of other obsolete professions, such as chimney sweeps, match girls, gurl hurriers, and stagecoach tilters: the workplace of the future won't hang around for if you can’t adapt to its requirements.
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References:

McCrindle, M. (2008) The ABC of XYZ: Generational Diversity at Work. McCrindle Research. [Internet] Available from: http://www.quayappointments.com.au/email/040213/images/generational_diversity_at_work.pdf Accessed 10 May 2009.

Junco, R., & Mastrodicasa, J. (2007) Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students. NASPA.

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Launching from the Flash Platform

Adobe Flash has evolved considerably since Macromedia Flash was used to create animations and develop and run interactive Web-based content. According to the current developers, the Adobe Flash Platform is

an integrated set of technologies surrounded by an established ecosystem of support programs, business partners, and enthusiastic user communities. Together, they provide everything you need to create and deliver the most compelling applications, content, and video to the widest possible audience.

The Flash Platform combines tools, an open source framework, ubiquitous clients, and scalable servers (see Table 1).

Table 1 Components of the Flash Platform

Application Type	Technology
Runtime Environment	Flash Player
	Flash Professional
Authoring Tools	Flex
	Flash Catalyst
	Flash Media Server
Flash Server	BlazeDS
	LiveCycle DS

The environment enables content developers create applications and content from prototype to deployment in an integrated framework (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 The Flash Platform

In the context of Flash-based authoring tools like Adobe Captivate, the platform enables e-learning content authors to rapidly and efficiently design, develop and implement Web-based learning applications including:

• Screen recording and demos
• Software simulations
• Scenario-based training
• Presentations
• Quizzes
• Podcasts
• Screencasts

I have written about the pros and cons of Captivate in previous blog articles so I don’t intend to go over the same old ground again, but you can find out more by clicking here.

________________
References:

Adobe Website: http://www.adobe.com

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What’s the difference between Flash and Captivate?

Question: can you briefly explain the advantage/difference between Captivate and Flash. I can't seem to find any one place that discusses this.

Well, I'm back from leave and the walls still seem to be standing, so I thought I'd return by responding to E-Learning Curve Blog reader Marvin Pyle’s query about Flash and Captivate. [As an aside, I assume you’re not the same Marvin who guided my wife and I around the Mayan site of Copán Ruinas in Honduras?]

I can see where the confusion surrounding Flash arises, and I also understand why you'd find it a little difficult to find a site that discusses this. More on the latter, later.

There are a number of facets to any discussion about Flash, Captivate, and why the tools and technologies are important to e-learning. To do justice to the subject, I will address these aspects of the subject over the next few blog posts:

• Background and Context
• Flash Player
• Flash Application
• Flash Platform
• Captivate
• Flash and E-Learning

Background and Context
Adobe Flash (previously Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its 1996 launch, it has become a very popular tool for adding animation and interactivity to the Web. Flash is the de facto standard tool used to:

• create Web-based animations & advertisements
• run various Web page components (i.e. menu items, drop-down lists)
• integrate streaming video into Web pages
• develop rich Internet applications
• deliver e-learning content over the Web

Flash can manipulate vector and raster graphics, and supports streaming audio and video media delivery. It is programmable via an interpreted scripting language called ActionScript (currently at v3). A range of software products can be used to create and to run Flash content. Examples include the Adobe Flash Player (which is available for most Web browsers, some mobile phones (though significantly not the Apple iPhone) as well as for other electronic devices.

Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is a near-ubiquitous software client used to view animations and movies, either in via Web browser or as a stand-alone player. Typically, the Flash Player runs ShockWave Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) files that are created and compiled in the Flash authoring tool, in Adobe Flex, and by using a range of third party tools and applications. And herein lies the confusion I alluded to earlier: strictly speaking, Adobe Flash is the authoring environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine used to run the Flash files: these terms have become mixed over time, and "Flash" can now mean either the authoring environment, the player, or the application files.

Flash Player supports for an interpreted scripting language called ActionScript, which is based on ECMAScript. Now in version 3, ActionScript has matured from a pretty loose script syntax to a language that supports object-oriented code.

While originally designed to display 2-dimensional vector animations, the Flash Player has become an environment for running rich internet applications (RIAs), and streaming video and audio. It uses vector graphics to minimize file size and create files that save bandwidth and loading time. Flash is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into Web pages.

The Flash Player is available as a plugin for recent versions of browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer on a number of platforms.

Next time: The Flash Platform

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