Today’s post is by Ed Flahive, Chief Learning Officer of Videonitch. Videonitch provides a platform for organizations to create, organize, centralize, and secure training assets within a dedicated and branded video channel that is available on-demand, 24/7/365, to employees and partners. I met the folks at Videonitch at ATD’s (Association for Talent Development) Techknowledge conference this year and was impressed. I had a wonderful conversation about how their platform works and aligns with various learning strategies. After the conference I continued my conversation and received a demonstration of Videonitch’s platform. I naturally thought of them when I wanted to post an article about video as part of a training solution. Enjoy the article and be sure to check out what Videonitch is about. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them. They are great people! When most adults want to learn how to fix something, learn a new process, or simply need information, we typically do a search or watch a video on the Internet (ie; YouTube). So why wouldn’t we apply the same rationale at work?  According to the Masie Center, "Video is changing the format of content, collaboration and knowledge publishing in the workplace. Our employees are increasingly turning to video as their media of choice to access updated knowledge, skill development, corporate storytelling and even peer-to-peer social collaboration."  There’s certainly a reason why over 4 billion (yes, with a "B"!) videos are watched every day on YouTube, and it’s not just for entertainment.  When it comes to utilizing video for learning, studies show that it is far more effective than more traditional methods.  According to Nick van Dam, Chief L&D Officer at Deloitte, "90 percent of learning comes from informal training activities like apps, social networks and……..VIDEO." So, when someone asks me, "Why should I use video in my learning strategy?" my response is simply "Why wouldn’t you?"  If there is any truth behind the saying that a video is worth 1.8 billion words1, and that people retain information 200% more with video than with audio alone2, then you are missing a significant and effective learning asset in your strategy if you are not utilizing the power of video.  Face-to-face training is expensive; video is a cost-effective, but a personal way of getting your message out there.  Training via video can slash your training spend and save you a fortune.  Video can also take the benefits of face-to-face training and combine it with affordability, convenience and anytime, anywhere access.  Videos can also be re-watched, re-wound and re-visited as often as the user wants and needs. They can even be used as part of an e-learning course, as a pre-requisite to classroom training or as performance support where learners can refresh themselves rather easily by watching a video tutorial that summarizes the main points of a longer training program.  This ensures that they are able to get to grips with any element of the content they’re not confident with, before moving on.  Furthermore, with a video content management system (like www.videonitch.com), videos can be hosted on a single platform where students can share and comment to promote collaboration. Video appeals to the largest volume of people. People like to learn through visual and audio stimulation. It gives students the ability to see complicated things in a way that keeps attention and shows how and why it works. Three days after learning something, our brains retain 65% of what we see and hear. Compare this to the 10% we retain of what we read!  People are immediately drawn to watching a video in a way that is lacking in a book, or a downloadable resource.  Remember at school, when the teacher said, "We’re going to watch a video today?" I don’t know about you, but I LOVED those days! Despite what some people think, videos can be quick to make and can engage the audience.  Aside from using them just for training, videos can be created quickly and affordably to promote, what I call, "Corporate Glue."  These are videos of senior leaders in an organization that give focus to key messages and reinforce significance.  By utilizing video, these messages can reach employees around the world, regardless of time differences, and can ensure that everyone is hearing a consistent message, unlike PowerPoint, which can be amended or ignored. After all, the video is the same for all who see it, so the message will remain unchanged. Let’s get back to why one would use video in a learning strategy.  When e-learning was first introduced in the late 90s, most organizations weren’t ready for it.  Not because they didn’t think it was effective, but because they didn’t know what e-learning was.  There are many similarities between e-learning in the 90s and video learning today.  For example, when e-learning was first introduced, authoring tools were very complicated and very expensive.  In most cases it took someone with an html coding background and an understanding of instructional design to produce an effective self-paced course.  Over a number of years e-learning authoring tools became much easier to use and certainly much more affordable.  Today, anyone that understands basic instructional design can create e-learning courses with very little technical expertise - and definitely do NOT need to know code.  So how does this relate to video learning?  Companies have been creating training videos for many years, that concept isn’t new.  However, producing traditional training videos used to be very expensive and time consuming.  Like e-learning, the tools to produce video content today are MUCH more affordable and anyone that can point and shoot can create effective videos.  Why use video in your learning strategy……WHY NOT? 1 Dr. James McQuivey’s Forrester study "How Video Will Take Over the World" , 2008 2 Yankee Group’s Anywhere Enterprise:  2010 US Unified Communications FastView Survey, 2010

Which is worse? Reading below grade level or living below the poverty level? Achievement gaps or gaps in healthcare? Failing M-Step (substitute your state test here) or failing to get enough food to eat? Institutions without structured curriculum or institutional racism re-enforcing structural poverty? Children who don’t know their math facts or homeless children who don’t know where they are sleeping tonight? Kids who break the dress code or kids who are broken from domestic abuse? Students who aren’t engaged in class or students whose families are stuck in the lowest class. Kids who aren’t exposed to "rigorous" learning or kids who are exposed to drugs and crime in their neighborhood. Students who don’t memorize the right answers or students whose civil rights are violated. Photo by Urbanfeel https://www.flickr.com/photos/30003006@N00/3538568443 Should we start firing social workers to hold them accountable because of all of the domestic problems in this country? Should we cut national funding to cities who have segregated neighborhoods with high poverty, drugs and crime? Should we privatize police forces in areas with high crime rates to save money and give communities "choices?" The United States is a world leader in child poverty. Maybe instead of all of the time, energy, and money spent by politicians on testing to blame schools and teachers they should try to spend some money actually helping the families of our poorest children. But that would require a change in mindset to admit that our system isn’t perfect and is designed for those at the top to remain there. It would require admitting that people don’t choose to be poor. It would require empathy and compassion. Maybe education alone can’t solve all of our problems.

Comparison slide This past week we went to WMCAT, a local arts center and students worked on final art pieces to related to gender equality and women’s rights. One of the options that students could do was fiber art and sewing. I was very impressed with one of the boys who broke the gender stereotype and was excellent at sewing. I checked in on a new fiber art group the next day and asked "who is the best sewer?" Appropriately, the girl identified by her classmates as the best responded with the above quote, adapted from Theodore Roosevelt, "Comparison is the killer of joy." It was a new quote for me and definitely got me thinking about how often we do this in schools…

Structures to "protect" us. Schools are overwhelmed with structures. Almost all of them are limiting. Don’t go off script. You have to implement this curriculum or policy. All students must… Bell schedule, hallway passes, class periods, subjects, graduation requirements, AYP, school improvement plans, …  Most schools have layer upon layer of structures related to classroom management, behavior, standards, curriculum, assessment, and more. Almost everything structurally about school is designed to control either teacher, student or both. My friend Kiffany Lychock uses the term "visionary vagueness." This is the idea that there needs to be space in institutions for great change to happen. Leadership at all levels needs to give people the freedom to experiment with ideas, new and old. So how to "structure" visionary vagueness? PBL is one of the few structures that allows for creativity, teacher judgment, and freedom for both teacher and student. It respects teachers as professional designers of student centered learning and students as agents of their own learning. Some people think student centered learning is a "free for all" but that is not the case. At the other extreme some people may think that all structure is limiting. PBL destroys both of these misnomers. It provides structure and freedom at the same time. PBL is a structure that gives freedom for people to be innovative and student centered. PBL lets people think structurally about innovation and changing schools. If you are interested in learning more about the PBL process, please drop me a note on my contact page about my PBL workshops.

My students made a video to document how they took over the Water Project last year.

I like this short video 10 Expectations. It is what students should expect of schools and PBL meets these expectations very nicely.

This post is totally selfish and self promoting. Skip it if that offends you I am excited to officially be a National Faculty member of BIE. BIE is a leader in professional development of Project Based Learning and I will be doing PBL 101 workshops for them in the summer. I am excited by this opportunity especially since it is part time and I will remain doing my true love-teaching in the classroom. I also am available as a consultant for workshops on various topics ranging from PBL, Standards Based Grading, inquiry and student centered curriculum, and more. You can leave a comment or reach me on my contact page.    

Creating a great culture in a school is no accident. The key is to build a community of trust, respect, and responsibility among teachers and students. Relationships matter. Without strong relationships, there can be no community. There are also intentional activities that can be planned to help build school community at the beginning of the year. This is especially important if this will be your students first experience with PBL. I recommend not starting the year off with a PBL project or class content, but instead with activities to build community and expose students to the PBL process. Simple, mini projects that teach the structure of PBL help expose students to how PBL works. Then when you start your first project students won’t be confused by the process and the lingo and can focus on the content. I created this document to share activities that have worked for my school at the beginning of the school year to create culture and introduce the PBL process. Questions? PBL Consulting?  I can be found at my blog michaelkaechele.com or @mikekaechele onTwitter.  

I team teach American Studies, an integrated class of U.S. History and 10th grade ELA in a full time PBL environment. We have a daily, two hour block and students get two credits for it. This past year was our third year of this class. I often get asked about scope and sequence of the class. So I made a table overview of our class projects to give other teachers ideas of how to teach a thematic, PBL social studies class. This is not meant to give out every detail of the projects, but rather to give ideas of themes, DQ’s, products, and audiences that others can adapt to their own local situation. I have also included some links to blogposts and other resources about certain projects. This is also my projects from last year only. My projects for next year will have some repetition and some new ones. I like to keep projects that go well and especially ones with good community partnerships. But I don’t like to keep everything the same as that gets boring for both me and students. Also the students change every year and there needs to be voice and choice each year. Questions? PBL Consulting?  I can be found at my blog michaelkaechele.com or@mikekaechele onTwitter.

In A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger von Oech recommends being foolish to stimulate creativity: Look at the problem before you and say, "It’s not what everyone thinks it is," and then give a different interpretation of what’s going on. Deny that the problem even exists, or maybe solve a different one. Doubt the things that others take for granted. Ridicule your basic assumptions. Expect the unexpected. Ask the stupid question that nobody else seems to be asking. Do whatever you can to shatter the established way of looking at things. You’ll find that it will stimulate your creative juices. Where in school is there room for this kind of thinking? It won’t help kids on standardized tests. It might lower their grade on an assignment. Some teachers might feel disrespected or irritated. It also might lead to new understandings of content and life. Students and teachers might come up with imaginative solutions to problems. As a side effect students might not be bored and might find school fun and relevant.

In Memoriam: Amy WinehouseI'm feeling really devastated by the news of Amy Winehouse's death. The last three years have been a rollercoaster with more drops than rises. I loved her performances in the early years -- 2004 - 2007 (even 2008-ish). I could not bear to stand to watch the decline. It is tragic in many senses -- for Amy Winehouse personally, and in the way she is / was all of us, no

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