Interview: Lou Pugliese, Chairman and CEO, Moodlerooms, Inc.Moodle: a "free" course management system that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.Moodlerooms, Inc.: a hosting and support company for users of Moodle.Podsafe music selection from Music Alley"Ain't No Reason" by Brett Dennen - featured on several TV shows including "House", "Scrubs" and "Grey's Anatomy"Duration: 25:17

A recent post from Doug Belshaw, in which he quotes extensively from Steve Shapiro got me thinking about a conversation my husband and I often have, out of sheer frustration.One of the things South Africans in the UK are often accused of is being gung ho. This is because of a different formative workplace experience. I don't know what it's like now, but during the years that we lived and worked there, actions would be allocated during meetings, and the owners of those actions would be expected to go away, do the job and come back with the completed chart, project, design, whatever. If you needed help doing X-thing, you spoke to the person with the skills or the access or the authority and you got it done. If you had a meeting with your line manager or your team before the task was complete, you would report on your progress and then get back to it afterwards. If you needed to escalate the matter to your line manager because you weren't getting the results you wanted, you did. But you owned the task.So when we moved to the UK, we adopted the same approach... and it didn't go down at all well!As an example:I once worked at a company as the in-house IT trainer. I should point out at this stage that it was explicitly stated that they wanted me to be able to hit the ground running, because my line manager (the IT director) had a big project looming, and wouldn't be able to allocate much time to training. At a meeting with the stakeholders, it was decided that everyone in the company needed to have (among other things) certain Excel skills. Now of course, the skills that were needed day to day by the people in that company weren't the same as the skills needed by people in another company. So we identified the core actions that were likely to form part of pretty much everyone's day job within the organisation. We also identified a set of additional Excel skills that a subset of employees would need. These we would address separately. It was decided that everyone should be invited to attend a core skills workshop, but that, initially, at any rate, only those who used the additional skills would be asked to attend that workshop.It seemed pretty clearcut to me, so I did what I thought I had been asked to do. I hit the ground running. I designed a core skills workshop. I set up exercises using familiar spreadsheets that users were likely to encounter on a day to day basis, in order to provide context for the features being covered. I created a manual, using screen grabs as signposts. I created an index, so that attendees could refer back to the manual after the workshop. I spoke to the in-house print team, and got them to do a nice layout for me.We had already drawn up a very nice questionnaire which served as a base level TNA, and we had a clear idea where the greatest need was.We had also kitted out the training room with the equipment needed.So, we were all systems go. I invited my first batch for the pilot session of the workshop... and all hell broke loose.Apparently, I was supposed to check back with my line manager at every step of the way. Each step needed to be approved before I could move on to the next step. Since no-one above me on the food chain had the remotest idea about learning or training... and were singularly lacking in people skills, I was completely non-plussed. We had already decided everything that needed to be decided, surely? I had been given my actions, and I was, well, actioning them.My husband's experience is similar. He will be asked to write a report on X thing, but the report is sent back umpteen times, with minor changes and edits, sometimes to changes and edits made earlier.And it is this ethos that I think stands in the way of the successful implementation of social business, collaborative working and collaborative learning. I have been in situations where it has fallen to me to create a shared space for a certain project (for example, a wiki). Immediately I have done so, the rest of the team has then deferred to me as the owner of such space. Instead of editing material entered, they would send me an email, identifying suggested changes. I have also worked with organisations that have introduced systems such as Sharepoint in order to encourage collaborative working, but then immediately locked down all the permissions and so on, so that only management approved materials can be published in shared space.So, I would suggest that, if social business is to become de rigeur, then the offline attitudes and culture need to be addressed, too.When you give someone a task to do, you need to trust them to do the task, and empower them to call on such resources within the business as are needed in order to do so. You need to trust them to manage their time, to assist others with other projects as and when it is appropriate. You need to allow them to have an exchange of emails without CC-ing you in all the time. You need to be available to them, if they need your help, but not hanging over their shoulders to make sure they do the job as you would do it (if you don't have anything else to do, maybe you should have done the task yourself, huh?). You need to let them make mistakes and ask them what they learned and what they would do differently... then let them try again. You need to let them take credit for what works and own up to what fails without feeling that they are failures.In other words, you need to trust yourself, too. If you hired them, because you believed that they could do the job, then let them do the job and appreciate the time it frees up to let you do yours!In most of the organisations I have worked with, the nature of online relationships replicates the organisational culture offline.Until we start to give people a bit of room to breathe, I think we're not going to be able to properly harness the power of social business....or that's what I think, anyway.

Interview: Aaron Wasserman, Director, Blackboard MobileAaron is one of the founding members of Terriblyclever Design. Terriblyclever worked with Stanford to conceptualize iStanford, a suite of iPhone, Blackberry, and mobile web applications for fellow students. In 2009 they were acquired by Blackboard and Aaron now leads the new Blackboard Mobile division. We'll try to answer the questions:what is Blackboard Mobile?which platforms are supported?what are the benefits to an institution?why is a native app better than a web app?can you customize apps for your platform?what’s on the future road-map for Bb Mobile?Podsafe music selection from Music Alley"Maybe I'm Amazed" by Blake Morgan. His licensed cover of the Paul McCartney classic has topped the charts on the iTunes Music Store. Duration: 22:49

Trent BatsonInterview: Trent Batson, Executive Director of The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning.A Survey of the Electronic Portfolio Market Sector: Analysis and Surprising TrendsThe Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based LearningPost Secondary Electronic Standards CouncilThe International Journal of ePortfolio (IJeP)Pearson's Open Class LMSPodsafe music selection from MagnatuneVivaldi: Concerto No. 3 in F Major "Autumn" (Allegro movement) by the American Baroque Orchestra. The full CD "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" is available at magnatune.comDuration: 31:00

Interview: Andy Dorsett, Academic Key Account Manager, Wolfram ResearchMathematica is billed as the world's ultimate application for computations, a development platform integrating computation into workflows, moving from initial ideas to deployed solutionsView interactive Demonstrations in life science and other domainsRun Wolfram Alpha on mobile devicesDownload the CDF (Computable Document Format) Player to view Mathematica interactive documents  Podsafe music selection from Music AlleyThe Christmas Season by Devo Spice, a comedy rapper from New Jersey who has become one of the most popular artists on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento Show.Duration: 23:47

You've probably heard me say this before, but I am increasingly of the view that the workplace training/learning/L&D (whatever they're called in your organisation) team should be moved out of HR and into Operations.Why?Well, HR is responsible for looking after people: their payroll, their working conditions, their treatment under employment law, etc. and has no direct accountability in terms of the organisation's business objectives.L&D's job is all about performance, and performance is an operational thing. Our job is to help the organisation meet its business objectives by helping people do their jobs.While L&D remains under the umbrella of HR, it remains okay to take people out of their workspace and put them into a learning space, and then to put them back into their working space again at the end of it.An operational view of learning means that learning needs to be situated in the workspace, because it's part of the job.Let's take the research and development bods at a sweet factory. I pick this example (a) because I'm a bit of a chocoholic and (b) because my mother worked at a sweet factory for over 30 years, so I have some vicarious insight. They don't know before they start working on it whether their new idea for a confection will work. They don't know whether the new flavour of toffee will enjoy favour with their customer base. So they experiment a bit. They find a recipe that works, and they send out a bunch of the new flavours to the children of all the staff members. They ask the kids to identify what each flavour is and to mark it out of 10. They also ask the kids to suggest some flavours that they would like to see added to the range. My reponse said that flavour A was 'mint 8/10'; flavour B was 'chocolate 9/10' and flavour C was 'soap? 0/10' (it turns out flavour C was actually grape). I suggested licorice as being a flavour they should look into.The R&D team gathered back all the results and decided to go with the mint. They also developed a licorice version (obviously other people had suggested it, too), and they eventually took those two flavours to market.In fact, the whole process was a learning process. They learned how to make the new toffees. They learned what the consumer reaction was to the different flavours. They learned what other flavours consumers would like to see. They learned how to make those.Once they knew how to make the new flavours, and the products had been given the okay, the R&D team passed on the information to the factory. The manufacturing staff then learned what changes needed to be made (and when) in order to produce the new flavours.Work is learning. We can seldom say we know how to do a thing before we need to do it for the first time. And when we come to do it for the first time, we mightexperiment, based on past experience/existing knowledgewatch someone who already knows how to do itlook it upget some advice from someone else who may have some ideasAll of this is learning, and it simply forms part of the workscape.Too many of our learning solutions require people to separate themselves from the very context in which the learning applies. Now I don't doubt that there are some tasks for which this will remain a necessity, but, applied as a blanket approach, this ensures that learning is an interruption of the workflow, instead of facilitating it.I know it's a gross generalisation, but the COOs I've met have always been driven, results focused individuals. This is where I believe L&D needs to position itself. Learning should be viewed as a strategic function, one that contributes directly to ensuring that the organisation meets its targets and achieves its vision. It's not something you do in order to ensure that union requirements are met.

Interview: Jon Corshen, CEO of GoingOnGoingOn has developed an innovative academic social networking platform, enabling students, faculty, and administrators to more effectively connect, collaborate, and learn. We discuss:Beginnings at University of PennsylvaniaUse as messaging tool and ePortfolio LMS IntegrationContrast with Facebook, Twitter, Ning and othersand morePodsafe music selection from MagnatuneVivaldi: Concerto No. 4 in G Minor "Winter" (Allegro movement) by the American Baroque Orchestra. The full CD "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" is available at magnatune.comDuration: 28:37

Interview: Courtney Peagler, Vice President of Strategic and Business Development, TaskStreamEducators and students use their Learning Achievement Tools (LAT) to plan learning activities, assess student performance, and demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes.Institutions use the customizable Accountability Management System (AMS) to support continuous improvement projects and manage accountability processes at a macro level.Other Podcasts on ePortfoliosRPP #99: GoingOn: Interview with CEO Jon CorshenRPP #97: ePortfolios: Interview with Trent BatsonPodsafe music selection from Music Alley"Too Long" by Yael Naim, the acclaimed singer/songwriter from Israel, from her album Yael Naim. She gained fame when her song "New Soul" played during Apple's Macbook Air ad campaignDuration: 27:23

It's perhaps appropriate that I should be formulating these thoughts at Christmas time. According to Christian beliefs, Jesus was a carpenter before he embarked on his three years of ministry. Why? Because his Dad was a carpenter. That was pretty much the way things were done all those many years ago. When you were old enough, you went to work with your Dad and you learnt his trade from him. I'm not quite sure what happened if you were the son of a carpenter, but you really wanted to be a farmer. Perhaps, if you had understanding parents, they went and had a word with a local farmer and arranged an apprenticeship for you.Of course, there were gender inequality issues, and certain choices were only available to one gender or the other, but girls learned from their mothers how to dye cloth, make clothing, prepare meals, etc.There were no exams.In the middle ages, it was much the same. Experienced stonemasons taught would-be stonemasons, skilled glassblowers taught apprentice glassblowers, and so on. People learned their craft from someone who already knew how it was done. No doubt there were those with great potential and those with less. No doubt there were those who quickly outstripped their teachers, and no doubt said teachers reacted with varying degrees of grace (or lack thereof). No doubt some teachers were kind, while others were cruel.Today's employee is (hopefully) more empowered than the apprentice of yesteryear, so perhaps the vagaries of the 'master's' temperament can be thus addressed. And there is so much that can be achieved with the implementation of a variation on this model. Learning from someone who is more experienced has got to be more effective, more timely than waiting weeks before going on a generic course. Progressing at your own pace with your own personal mentor, who gains kudos from your achievements. Asking the bloke at the next desk leads to an answer which can be implemented right away: quick win, uninterrupted workflow. What's not to like?With the speed of change and technological innovation, who's got the time to put together a slick learning resource before something changes again anyway?My thoughts along these lines put me in mind of a conversation I had recently with some L&D leaders about redundancies.Think about it like this. The economy is rough. You've got to lose half your team. You've got two senior members earning an fair amount, and several inexperienced folks who are still learning the ropes. After a fair amount of thought, you are able to identify the stronger performers from among the more junior team members, and you cut the rest. But you still have to lose one of your senior members. One of them churns out work like a machine. The other seems to a spend a fair amount of time chatting to the newer staff members and his work rate suffers as a consequence. So you decide to keep the one with the higher work rate.And it turns out to be the biggest mistake you've ever made.Why?Because when he was 'chatting' with the more junior staff members, what he was actually doing was helping them come to grips with the system, teaching them a few skills, mentoring them, coaching them, turning them into productive team members. Once he goes, the morale of the whole team plummets, and the workrate follows suit. Even your star performer's workrate suffers because she's not getting the handovers from the rest of the team.In marketing parlance, this is 'below the line' training. It just happens, because your newly unemployed staff member is naturally an enabler.What if you turned that into a KPI? What if you actually set the expectation on every team member to contribute to team morale and development? What if you had a system by means of which team members awarded one another kudos points (or gold stars or thumbs up or something) every time they helped one another out? What if it became enviable to be the person on the team with the highest number of kudos points? What if management realised that the enablers on the team might in fact be more valuable than than those with the highest measurable output?What if everyone shared what they learned with everyone else. What if the young techno-wizard on the team were encouraged to look at innovative ways to tackle things? What if he got to share his ideas at the weekly team meetings? What if he spent time teaching the wonderfully creative, but slightly techno-challenged member of the team?What if everyone was teaching and everyone was learning...all the time?What if the L&D team stopped being the bottle neck, and started being the team that helped people help each other - going from being the only goal-scorer on a low scoring team to being the person with the highest number of assists on a high scoring team?What if? What if?

Freelance teacher trainer, Olha Madylus, looks at some of the issues related to improving students’ writing skills ahead of her upcoming webinar on Solutions Writing Challenge #1: "My students keep making the same mistakes". Many teachers voice concerns about their students’ inability to improve their writing and learn from their mistakes. Why is it so difficult to improve? Is it the approach we take to writing? We don’t like to write in our own language so why would our students want to write in English? There are a number of ways to help students overcome their difficulties. Students jump very quickly from producing short texts, which are often written in order to practise a particular grammar item, to writing compositions which require a lot more than simply getting the ‘grammar right’ to be successful. They need to consider how to address the composition title, come up with arguments and ideas, use rich vocabulary, structure the text appropriately and even be imaginative. So, it’s a good idea for writing tasks to be ‘scaffolded’. This is a term we use a lot with early years’ language learning. ‘Scaffolding’ means that tasks include a lot of support so that learners aren’t overwhelmed and can be successful. Gradually the support is withdrawn as students’ ability and confidence increases. It’s like teaching a child to swim: once they are ready, you take away your hands from under their tummy and off they go alone. Within scaffolded tasks learners can still be allowed enough freedom for their imagination and creativity, which adds to motivating them to write. Writing is a process and teachers can help their students by focussing on different parts of that process individually. Tasks can focus on various sub-skills, as teachers help their students improve the communication, the language, even the register of their writing. Teachers can also drive their students toward success by taking a more positive approach to marking writing tasks. Getting back your homework covered in red ink and negative comments is very demoralising. Success is a key element in the classroom. If learners, particularly teens, whose egos are quick to bruise, feel they are failing at something, they tend to avoid it and rather than making more effort, make less or none at all. We should also reflect on where students do their writing. Much is done at home, but teachers can also encourage their students to collaborate when they write. Working in pairs or small groups encourages learning writing skills to take place and not just testing these skills. Register for Olha Madylus’s webinar ‘Solutions Writing Challenge #1: Solutions to mistakes’ on either Tuesday 24th or Thursday 26th February to explore this challenge further. Filed under: Professional Development, Teenagers Tagged: Solutions second edition, Solutions writing challenge, Teaching Teenagers, Teenagers, writing challenge