Monday, February 15, 2016

The Biggest Cuss Word in Training

There is a cuss word in training and education circles.  It begins with "FU" like other cuss words, but it ends in "N"..."Fun".  A quick way to have a design dismissed from consideration is to bring up the need for a "fun factor". Never mind that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Never mind that making content interesting can move it through the first stages of Krathwohl's Affective Domain of Learning (at least Receiving and Responding). In that mindset, though, serious training can't include anything frivolous.

When I was teaching programming, I found that if my students had interesting projects to work on, they could learn the most intricate and tricky structures. When they couldn't see the purpose of an exercise, they had difficulty working through it, let alone learning and retaining its principles. If the exercise/project were to build a computer game, my students pitched themselves enthusiastically into the effort... and they learned from it. Though the underlying programming principles were exactly the same for both game and dry exercise, the students were far more ready to learn with the game. In short, it was fun.

I have a colleague, Dave Swenson, who advises to “Find a way to get students out of their seats.” I know that’s critical in motivational-type training. Is it possible in corporate software training? I’m certain of it. Another colleague, Dave Brady, is constantly advising, “Hands-on! Hands-on! Hands-on!” He wants students learning by doing, not by hearing. What they don't realize is that they're both advising to find the fun factor in training. The other thing they don't realize is they're preaching to the choir. I'm big on using the biggest cuss word in training: "Fun".

Check out these sites for tools and ideas:

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Incredibly Good at What They Do

In the course of a career, you manage to meet people who are incredibly good at what they do. I'm certain that I know well over a hundred men and women who fit that category. I'm not exaggerating. I think I'll pick on a few of them now.

Long, long ago on a campus not so far away, an aspiring student filmmaker brought me his 16-mm films to be transferred to video. Yeah, that was back before everything was shot digitally. I was struck by Ken Cromar's creativity in his storytelling as well as his technical ability as shooter and director. I've managed to run into him at grocery stores and post offices ever since, but I haven't had the chance to work shoulder-to-shoulder with him on a project. I'm still looking forward to that opportunity. I'm impressed with his interactive programs, though, which gets him into a blog about media in learning. Check out his work at Blue Moon Productions.

Jon Clark was audio guru and virtual set lighting director when we both worked on computer games for Access Software. We worked on the Links golf game as well as the Tex Murphy series of adventure games. As jazzed as I was about doing the video work, his audio expertise knocked my socks off. I have to admit, not only did he raise my technical expectations about how tracks should sound, but also my creative expectations with how narration should be delivered. I'm finding even now that I want to raise my own audio standards on all my projects. Jon's now an associate professor of theater at Salt Lake Community College.

Gerry Graves and I also worked at Access Software together. He and I tromped all over St. Andrews, Scotland together. Then we brought our footage home and edited it into several mini-documentaries about the history of golf and the development of the courses there. I've been impressed with Gerry's work at TestOut, Inc. They develop software to help students earn certifications in many areas. Gerry raised the technical values of the video they use, but he also improved the content delivery by the talent.  

Technical skill and a creative inner eye (or ear) make these individuals incredibly good at what they do. I'm fortunate to associate with them.