First, read this article on the booming growth in the product-customization business.Now consider how we in the learning-and-performance field might use the essential ideas of the product-customization business in our work.The Tutoring ModelAs learning professionals we know that one-on-one tutoring/coaching can provide superior benefits. Can we provide customized coaching?Maybe social-media covers this a bit, but having a one-to-many relationship is NOT the same.The Pretest ModelPretesting and diagnostics that suggest learning content  might create benefits. Instead of offering training courses in a big LM-meSsy list, why not try to offer training diagnostics in a big list, and let our employees select their own training. The Prequestion ModelUtilizing prequestions within learning content is a way to do mini-customizations within our current e-learning delivery paradigms. Prequestions tell learners whether to pay attention, and tell them which info to pay attention (and which to skim).The Customized Job Aid ModelJob aids can work brilliantly to prompt learner/employee behavior, but they typically suffer from three problems. First, they have a maturation problem. As people do a task over time, they need less and less prompting. So, we might offer people a maturing job-aid that changes as their prompting needs change. Second, generic job aids don't energize like customized or grass-roots job aids do. Customized job aids might provide more engagement and they might also help with the first issue too--they might people create the job aid they need. Third, job aids tend to be developed by high-level experts without a full understanding of the on-the-ground realities that real employees/people face. For this reason, a job aid's "final version" may not actually be optimally effective. Enabling customized job aids might be just the thing to allow people to fine-tune job aids to make them more effective.Job aids actually suffer from a fourth problem as well. They can be ignored and they can be habituated so that they no longer are processed deeply when people encounter them. Why not use the product-customization meme more literally by creating job aids embedded on the side of coffee mugs, on knick-knacks, on pens, etc.KarmaNow that I've given you training entrepreneurs millions of dollars worth of ideas above, why not engage me to consult, to brainstorm more ideas, to ensure that your innovations are really learning-worthy, or just to meet the kind of guy who wouldn't blanch to make a direct appeal. SMILE. Authenticity is not customizable...

Searching for "learning research," Work-Learning Research is fairly highly rated.Google: #4Bing: #4Yahoo: #6I'm honored and want to thank all the fans who make it so.

You've undoubtedly heard that newspapers are in trouble. But think about it this way--this means stories aren't being written--or are being written by (1) amateurs who largely do a poor job and (2) financially-motivated people who often do a biased job. When less information is uncovered, or when more information is biased, we have a recipe for disaster in a citizen-governed democracy. Read this article from the Los Angeles Times to see the extent that journalism is crashing.In order for a democracy to work, its citizens have to be learning from good sources.Some say that the blogosphere will compensate for journalism's rapid death spiral. I'm not at all confident of this. People have to put in substantial time to do good honest reporting (and good honest research, by the way). Putting in a lot of time generally requires some kind of payment so the reporter can afford the computer, the roof, and the food to keep doing the reporting. I just don't see 100 people doing shallow reporting equaling the quality of one person doing deep reporting. A full-time reporter puts in 40 to 60 hours a week, allowing them to dig deeper, develop more insights, and do fact checking. Part-time bloggers may put in one to five hours, maybe ten. Having a salary also makes it less likely that financial incentives will bias the reporter's work (ignore this for Fox News). I try to make this obvious in the following graphic. You might have to click on it to expand it and see the details. Eventually, poor information will lead to poor decisions. Eventually the democracy implodes. Some may see signs of this already. Certainly, most of us would like our democracy to be doing a better job.But with journalism's problems, it is bound to get worse.

A review of research on training to prevent back injuries offers disappointing results.The authors conclude:In this systematic review we found no evidence that training with or without lifting equipment is effective in the prevention of back pain or consequent disability. Either the advocated techniques did not reduce the risk of back injury or training did not lead to adequate change in lifting and handling techniques. (p. 5)As the authors say, it could be the design of the training interventions. What I wonder is whether this is a motivational or information issue. Or if the design is just not effective in generating spontaneous remembering in the workplace.Research Citation:Martimo, K., Verbeek, J., Karppinen, J., Furlan, A. D., Takala, E., & Kuijer, P. P. F. M. (2008). Effect of training and lifting equipment for preventing back pain in lifting and handling: Systematic review. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 336. 1-6. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39463.418380.BEArticle may be available by clicking here.

It’s not every day that a valued client "retires" from a company to which she has devoted a good part of her career. I’ve known Annie Laures for almost half a decade in my role as an outside consultant and work-learning auditor. I’d like to take a moment and acknowledge her work at Walgreens—and wish her well as she begins a new adventure as a consultant to chief learning officers, training directors, and learning professionals. Annie retired as Walgreens Director of Learning Services after a 32-year career helping Walgreens’ pharmacists, store managers, service clerks, corporate managers and others learn and succeed in their jobs. Here's Annie's picture from a relaxed informal moment. Annie’s accomplishments are too many and varied to recite here. Here’s a short list. In her learning-executive role heading up learning services, Annie directed the overall learning strategy for Walgreens, led multiple teams and units of learning professionals, and worked closely with business management and operations. Annie has also led the Performance Development and Training and Development units at Walgreens. She’s led leadership development. She led the transition from classroom-only training to an integrated e-learning system. She’s created customer-service initiatives, developed videos, done executive coaching, managed instructional design, built 360-degree instruments, and helped Walgreens as it merged with other corporations. Annie has long been active in the International Society of Performance Improvement, won an award, and earned her Certified Performance Technology designation. Annie has presented at various industry conferences, including a presentation she and I did together titled "Is Your Learning Organization Healthy?" Annie’s colleagues remember her as a person of integrity, wisdom, and a deep and practical knowledge of learning. They also remember her as someone with a quirky sense of humor. "Often she would tell you a story that was off-the-wall but she would do it with such a straight face that you believe her. One time she mentioned that the new hire missed her dog so much that we agreed she could take it to work." For me, Annie represented the best kind of client. She wanted to do the right thing and create learning interventions that really worked. She was politically savvy enough know what would fly and what would be derailed by management. She worked within the system to get the best results possible. Annie was also just a joy to work with—friendly, open, direct, personable, and caring. She also had great instincts about learning and performance. Her recommendations and thinking were almost always aligned with research and best practices. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about Annie was her willingness to be open to new ideas and improvement in learning-and-performance design. Her inquisitive non-defensive nature helped her and Walgreens Learning to continue moving forward in continuing cycles of improvement. Annie just seemed to want to do what was right for the learners of Walgreens. It never appeared to be about her. When a person has a passion to make things better, when they are focused on the general good (and not themselves so much), when they are skilled at getting things done, and when they are open—truly open—to learning, the world will become a better place because of their actions. To me, that seems the story of Annie Laures career at Walgreens. I want to acknowledge Annie’s Walgreens work and also thank Annie for hiring me when my research-and-consulting practice really needed the work. I also want to wish Annie the best as she opens up her consulting practice. If you’d like to inquire about Annie’s consulting services, contact her at this email. Thanks Annie!!

If you don't know Howard Zinn's work, you should. At least read yourself at least 50 pages of his book, People's History of the United States. You will be enlightened. (You can purchase it below.) History usually tells the story of the powerful, of wars, of great intellects, of popular athletes and celebrities. History shines a light on those who fly above the hazy smoke that haunts the human hive. History rarely tells us about regular folks. It rarely tells about workers fighting for better lives, for fair treatment, for moral principles. It rarely tells us about powerful institutions murdering the leaders of the low and luckless. Zinn helped balance the scales of justice just a bit. YouTube remembrance of Howard Zinn:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjn6rwKryWU Two interviews with Howard Zinn:  http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/01/listening-back-to-howard-zinn Article Remembrances: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100215/zinn/single http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/opinion/30herbert.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-green/remembering-howard-zinn_b_439541.html http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/522763/howard_zinn_the_historian_who_made_history http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/29/howard-zinn-obituary http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/28/howard-zinn-america http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/29/howard-zinn-history-activism Howard Zinn on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=subwDAZtEN0 (On human nature and aggression) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BydZv9ykJU (Interviewed by Woody Harrelson) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mebqz79O6AA (Taxes are a class discussion) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUBYI97cUgU (We can't say bad things about 3 U.S. wars) Book: People's History of the United States DVD: Recent Documentary about Howard Zinn (with Matt Damon and others)

Last week I spoke at one of the major conferences in the workplace learning-and-performance industry to a room filled with about 150 people. I am not including the name of the conference organizer because I don't want to single them out. They are not alone in the going-paperless practice.Unfortunately, two of the conference decisions---(1) not to provide participants with paper handouts---(2) not to allow electronic handouts to include sufficient pages to provide images of the slides that are shown---may have hurt learning results. Perhaps ironic in a conference devoted to help people build better learning interventions.Setting the Scene of My PresentationI spoke on the topic of Situation-Based Learning Design and the session seemed to be well-received. I got the following emails afterward: "I found your session to be amazing!" "One of the highlights of the conference for me." One of my friends, who sat in the audience, told me afterward that he knew the session was good because (1) hardly anybody left even after 90 minutes, and (2) many people were furiously taking notes.But was it a successful learning experience? Isn't that the key question?I could have been entertaining. People could have liked the session. They could have taken lots of notes. But probably the most important reason they came to the conference was so that they could go back and do something better and to think differently because they had attended.I used some learning-design techniques to help them remember---to help them integrate the new learning with their current conceptions---but was this enough?I think something was missing because of the paperless practices, but before I get to that, let me recount some of the design tactics I used specifically to ensure remembering and application to their work. Content was verified (by research) to be effective in supporting good work practices around learning design. Some stuff you learn at conferences can actually make you less effective. Participants were provided with realistic learning-design decisions to make before topics were introduced. By activating prior knowledge and situating the learning in situations similar to those folks would face in their work as learning professionals, the learning would become more usable and more memorable. Examples of real-world e-learning courses were provided to again link realistic context cues to the learning points. Learners were encouraged to specifically engage in trigger setting (what researchers call implementation intentions) to increase the likelihood that they would take action in implementing what they learned Participants were presented with spaced repetitions of key learning points to support long-term remembering. Repetitions were achieved by providing (a) prequestions, (b) research explanations, (c) supporting metaphors, (d) real-world examples, (e) follow-up practice, (f) similar topics that reinforced points from previous topics, (g) a final summary, and (h) a reminder to link the learning to their future situations. Good stuff to be sure, but was anything missing?I think so.The biggest thing that is missing is super-strong links back to the workplace. Even though I use great long-term retrieval support (better than most conference sessions provide I would think), having our learners rely only on the learning-remembering link when transportable cues are available is committing learning-to-performance malpractice. If learners could take their annotated slide images back to the workplace, they would remember more, share more, and apply more of the session content.The Problem of Going Paperless.Note-taking can prompt learners to engage in deep processing of their learning. By organizing the learning content during note-taking, learners will be more likely to fully understand what they're learning and remember it later. Note-taking has other benefits as well. Learners can go back and study their notes at a later time, providing themselves with spaced repetitions---a proven aid to long-term remembering. Finally, learners who take notes may be more likely to attempt to share what they've learned with others when they return to work. The process of preparing to teach others, provides further deep processing of the learning material and makes it more likely that the learning content will be remembered and utilized on the job. When a conference goes paperless, it is likely to curtail note-taking. When I asked my 150 learners how many of them had paper copies or were looking at the handouts on their laptops, less than half raised their hands.Just because participants can print out the handouts beforehand, doesn't mean that they will. This is a lame excuse for conference organizers.Taking Notes with Slide Images versus Taking Notes on Plain PaperThe conference organizer only allowed us 8 pages of handouts. I could only fit 12 of my slides into these 8 pages, because some other things were required as well. For me, this meant that more than 85% of my slides were NOT provided to my learners. Ironically, one of the research streams I talked about in my session was the importance of context in learning and remembering. Specifically, research is very clear that if stimuli are available in both the learning context and the retrieval context, people will be better able to remember what they learned. The contextual cues in the retrieval situation remind the learners of what they learned. Slide images are such stimulus cues. If learners can transport slide images (and any notes they've added to those images) from the learning situation (my session) to their work situation, they will remember more of what they learned. So, conference organizers who deprive their participants (aka delegates) of slide images and concomitant note-taking are hurting learning.This is compounded because learners will also be less likely to take back their learning to their coworkers. Just yesterday I did a web meeting with a prospective client and last night I got a request from that prospective client to get copies of my slides. They said they took notes, but they wanted the slides to ensure they didn't miss anything and also to prepare to persuade others in their organization.Finally, if you've ever looked at a copy of somebody else's slide deck, you know how hard it is to make sense of it without the context provided by aural narration or annotations. People need to be able take notes so that they will later have the full context of the slides. Research also shows that labels, annotations, and notes must be geographically close to the objects of those textual elements---so that limited cognitive resources are not overtaxed, hurting learning. Bottom line here: Notes near the paper on slide images are more effective than notes taken without slide images.The Push To PaperlessThe paperless movement is bound to continue. It cuts into profits for conference organizers to print handouts. It goes against the rising tide of the green environmentally-friendly zeitgeist (which I am very sympathetic to). If everyone brought their laptop to each session and had the slides available on their screens, they could take notes using Adobe Acrobat's commenting features, or perhaps some other program. What is needed is the ability to put a comment or note where you want it to be, and draw simple diagrams in case there is some visual meaning that should be captured. Note that PowerPoint, even the latest 2007 version, has no such capability. One must wonder if the environmental costs of laptop energy-use might outweigh the environmental costs of paper printing, shipping, etc.If organizers expect participants to print their own copies, than there doesn't appear to be an environmental benefit. Just the costs are shifted to the conference participant.I have found that I am sometimes able to annotate my own slides so that my audience members don't have to---this would create a minor learning benefit perhaps---but it doesn't really solve the underlying issues.Academic conferences often have session-leaders write short papers that conference participants can access for later reading. This might be a way to transfer more of the learning content back to the workplace---but could we really make this cultural shift. Also, such short papers would provide a strictly post-learning intervention. It wouldn't fully compensate for the loss of context and note-taking.Summing it UpWhen conferences go paperless: They either hurt learning, remembering, and on-the-job application, Or, they create minor environmental improvements. With current state of installed technology usage, they can't create good learning impacts and good environmental impacts (most people don't have a way to take notes on their slides on their computer). Conference organizers save themselves a heap of money, increasing their profits, which probably doesn't trickle down to conference participants in the form of lower registration fees, especially if participants have to print and transport handouts to the conference and back by themselves. You as a learner have to make a conscious decision to support your conference learning, and you can do this by getting a PDF of the slides beforehand and either printing them out or using Adobe Acrobat to take notes on the slides on your laptop. If you as a conference goer want to maximize learning, you can contact conference organizers and complain, or vote with your dollars by not attending conferences that don't support your learning. Tell them: You want slide images. Tell them: You want a way to take notes on those slide images.

This is what it all comes down to; you’re sitting in the exam hall, waiting to get your hands on that anticipated piece of paper. You’ve jammed a ton of information into your brain and your fingernails are non-existent - it’s time to get down to business! Yes the exam… Read More

The Association of Psychological Science commissioned a review of the evidence for the benefits of using learning styles, and the report is clear.We conclude therefore, that at present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice. Thus, limited education resources would better be devoted to adopting other educational practices that have a strong evidence base, of which there are an increasing number. However, given the lack of methodologically sound studies of learning styles, it would be an error to conclude that all possible versions of learning styles have been tested and found wanting; many have simply not been tested at all. (p. 105)Research Citation:Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105-119. You can access the article by clicking here.You can access Richard Mayer's nice intro to the article---which stresses the benefits of research---by clicking here.My $1,000 Learning Styles ChallengeThree and one half years ago I offered $1,000 to any person or group who could demonstrate the benefits of learning styles in a real-world practical training program. No one has collected the money yet.Here was the challenge:Can an e-learning program that utilizes learning-style information outperform an e-learning program that doesn't utilize such information by 10% or more on a realistic test of learning, even it is allowed to cost up to twice as much to build?You can access my original Learning Styles Challenge by clicking here. You can access my three-year update on the challenge by clicking here.Final Nail in the Coffin of Learning Styles?Is this excellent research review by some of the most highly-respected researchers in the learning-research field a final nail in the coffin of learning styles?Well, as a researcher I must always maintain openness to new information. Perhaps someday more research will demonstrate some specific benefits to learning styles. As the authors of the review say themselves: Although we have argued that the extant data do not provide support for the learning-styles hypothesis, it should be emphasized that we do not claim that the same kind of instruction is most useful in all contexts and with all learners. An obvious point is that the optimal instructional method is likely to vary across disciplines. For instance, the optimal curriculum for a writing course probably includes a heavy verbal emphasis, whereas the most efficient and effective method of teaching geometry obviously requires visual-spatial materials. Of course, identifying the optimal approach for each discipline is an empirical question, and we espouse research using strong research methods to identify the optimal approach for each kind of subject matter.Furthermore, it is undoubtedly the case that a particular student will sometimes benefit from having a particular kind of course content presented in one way versus another. One suspects that educators’ attraction to the idea of learning styles partly reflects their (correctly) noticing how often one student may achieve enlightenment from an approach that seems useless for another student. There is, however, a great gap from such heterogeneous responses to instructional manipulations—whose reality we do not dispute—to the notion that presently available taxonomies of student types offer any valid help in deciding what kind of instruction to offer each individual. Perhaps future research may demonstrate such linkages, but at present, we find no evidence for it. (p. 116)As a consultant in the workplace learning-and-performance field, I will likely do my clients harm if I advised for the use of a learning-style learning design. I will continue to advise clients against designing their learning based on learning styles. At the same time, I will encourage them to be watchful for specific learning needs of individual learners. For example, when a learner is confused, he or she probably needs feedback and guidance.I recommend that you read the article and Mayer's introduction. Both provide wisdom about how to think about research and how to avoid being fooled.Article Note: The date in the article and on the database PsycINFO says the article is from 2008. However, the copyright is from 2009 and the article includes citations from 2009 and the article appears as the "current article" on the APS (Association for Psychological Science) website, and news reports just started surfacing in December 2009 and January 2010. The evidence suggests the article just recently came out.

Traditional Training vs the Bite Size Approach Infographic The Traditional Training vs the Bite Size Approach Infographic explains why Microlearning is the ideal training solution for employees’ shrinking attention spans! We need a new way to solve for society’s shift towards hyper attention and Microlearning is the answer. Small, bite-size lessons solve for dwindling attention spans, while serving learners and trainers better than traditional training in a variety of ways. In the Traditional Training vs the Bite Size Approach Infographic you’ll learn: How we’re moving into a culture of ‘hyper’ attention and what that looks like. How rapidly changing technology is affecting individual workers, businesses, and driving a $1.3 trillion loss to the economy. How Microlearning is changing the face of training with a 300% increase in speed of production while costing trainers 50% less. Bite size is the right size! We’re moving from a culture of deep attention to hyper attention. Deep Attention Able to concentrate on one object or information stream for long periods of time, ignoring outside stimulation. Hyper Attention Switches focus between multiple information streams, a preference for high stimulation and lower tolerance for boredom. Attention Spans Are Shrinking: 2000 attention span 12 seconds 2013 attention span 8 seconds goldfish attention span 9 seconds Meanwhile… Technology Is Advancing As a result of rapidly changing technology, a digital skills gap has emerged — one that is costing the U.S. economy OVER 1.3 TRILLION DOLLARS annually in lost productivity. Training Can’t Keep Up This technological change has also led to a skills half-life of 2.5 years. Because training hasn’t kept pace, workers are falling further and further behind, putting a strain on our workforce: 1/3 of workers clock over 50 hours per week. 43% get less than seven hours of sleep per night. 25% of execs report their communications are unmanageable. 40% say they don’t have time to do the training they need. Therefore, traditional training doesn’t work. Microlearning beats traditional training in a variety of ways: Microlearning in 3-7 minute chunks matches the brain’s working memory and attention span. Bite size microlearning yields an average of 4-5 learned items taken from a series. Microlearning can cut development costs by 50% while increasing the speed of development by 300%. Over 1.2 billion learners have access to smart devices and expect to use them. Read also: 4 Steps to Microlearning Mastery Microlearning Pros and Cons Why Microlearning is HUGE and how to be a part of it View also: 5 Important Reasons To Create Bit-sized Learning Infographic How to Master Microlearning Infographic   Via: resources.grovo.comThe post Traditional Training vs the Bite Size Approach Infographic appeared first on e-Learning Infographics.

Summer time is not known as a time for getting school work done, but you and I both know that just the opposite is true. Summer is hardly a time of rest when there are summer classes to be had. You thought you’d take a class or two to get… Read More

March 2010 Speaking Events If you want to see me speak, there are lots of opportunities in March. Also, I've got a screen cast you can watch below introducing my four sessions at the eLearning Guild Learning Solutions Conference. Tuesday, March 2 ISPI Massachusetts ChapterNewton, Massachusetts TITLE: Learning Measurement: Overcoming Myths, Research Wisdom, and Full-Source EvaluationLINK: http://www.mass-ispi.org/public/event-details.asp?ID=180Tuesday and Wednesday March 23 and 24theLearning Guild, Learning Solutions ConferenceOrlando, FloridaSESSION (FOUNDATION INTENSIVE): Research Answers: What is the Value of e-Learning? What Designs Work Best? Tuesday, March 23, 11:30a-12:15p SESSION (ID ZONE):  Nine Biggest Mistakes in Learning Measurement. Wednesday March 24, 11:45-12:30 at the ID Zone. SESSION 203: Assessing e-Learning Results: Fundamentals, Myths, and Special Opportunities. Wednesday March 24, 1:00p - 2:00p SESSION 302: Improving Systems Training by Adding Informal Learning to the Blend. Wednesday March 24, 2:30p - 3:30p SESSION (Free Consulting and Question-Asking at Speaker Clinic):  Wednesday March 24, 4:00p - 5:00pWatch my brief (3 minute) introduction: http://screenr.com/5VxSign up to attend the conference: http://tinyurl.com/ydyzn9o

This is intriguing. Thought you might be interested in this sort-of-browsing, sort-of-data-searching technique.

Flashcards have been widely used in early childhood education but contrary to what you might think, this tool is not only useful for children. As a learning resource, Flashcards are the key to strengthening your memory and absorbing information easily. One of its main benefits, the development of an active… Read More

Thanks to Bill Ellet, editor of the unbiased Training Media Review, writes about the awards in our industry and how hopelessly biased and corrupt they are.Click to read Bill's excellent article.

The Displacement Hypothesis says that one activity can displace another activity.In the following research by Robert Weis and Brittany Cerankosky, boys given video games (1) did worse in school, (2) spent less time in other after-school activities, (3) had more behavioral problems, and (4) had lower reading and writing scores.Abstract of the Research Article:Young boys who did not own video games were promised a video-game system and child-appropriate games in exchange for participating in an "ongoing study of child development." After baseline assessment of boys’ academic achievement and parent- and teacher-reported behavior, boys were randomly assigned to receive the video-game system immediately or to receive the video-game system after follow-up assessment, 4 months later. Boys who received the system immediately spent more time playing video games and less time engaged in after-school academic activities than comparison children. Boys who received the system immediately also had lower reading and writing scores and greater teacher-reported academic problems at follow-up than comparison children. Amount of video-game play mediated the relationship between video-game ownership and academic outcomes. Results provide experimental evidence that video games may displace after-school activities that have educational value and may interfere with the development of reading and writing skills in some children.Analogs in Adult LearningAre there analogs in adult learning? In a quick database review I couldn't uncover any research on the displacement hypothesis with adults, but here are some learning events that may displace other learning events: Twitter Social Networking Web Surfing Blogs RSS following Gaming Postscript: When I asked the lead author if he knew of any studies on adults regarding the displacement hypothesis, he said "no," but he pointed me to this article on college students.

Robotics in STEM Education Infographic STEM Education promotes a learning environment for students around the world to be active in fields like Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Many STEM related programs use a hands-on learning approach that encourages students to be active and involved inside the classroom. This inspires and motivates students to continue their education in STEM related fields, like robotics, beyond school, building a career in an economy where job openings in STEM industries are skyrocketing. In fact, it’s predicted that by 2020, the demand for STEM professionals will add over one million new jobs in STEM fields.Government officials have started to recognize the need for improved STEM Education programs. In 2015, $100 million in federal grants were made available through White House initiative, TechHire. This initiative increase the number of STEM trained professionals inside schools and supports STEM programs across the country. The Robotics in STEM Education Infographic from KUKA Robotics shows the importance and the growth of robotics both in and beyond STEM Education and encourages programs to implement a hands-on approach to learning. KUKA has created the KUKA KORE Kart as a solution to the need for robotics in STEM classrooms. The KORE Program is designed to give students real world robotic application experience and can be implemented into any high school, community college, university, or technical center. By providing materials and a strong curriculum, educators and students are trained in the use of advanced robotic technology. Facts and Stats to Share: KUKA Robotics offers the most inclusive STEM robotics program STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in mathematics and interested in a STEM career. - US Department of Education KUKA KORE joins innovative robotic curriculum certification with career cluster credentials Only 30 percent of high school seniors who took the ACT test were cleared for college-level sciences Average income for STEM career: $77,880/year KORE packages include training, curriculum, course labs, tests, and student manuals Via: www.kukaconnect.comThe post Robotics in STEM Education Infographic appeared first on e-Learning Infographics.

Cammy Bean interviews me in regard to the three most important e-learning design flaws in today's e-learning. I discussed three---and then two more!! Five design flaws in all.How's your e-learning?Check out the interview here.You can also download the segments as podcasts.

Great article on How to Create Great Teachers. It's focused on K-12 education primarily, but there is wisdom in the discussion relevant to workplace learning.Here's the major points I take away: Great teachers need deep content knowledge. Great teachers need good classroom-management verbalization skills. Great teachers need their content knowledge to be fluently available to them in the context of typical classroom situations. To get this fluency, they need to practice in such situations---and practice linking actions (especially their verbal utterances) to specific classroom situations.

Great article in the Economist on the Information Explosion.This has huge implications for human learning and performance.Here's what Bob Cialdini wrote in his masterful book, "Influence: Science and Practice."More and more frequently, we will find ourselves in the position of the lower animals---with a mental apparatus that is unequipped to deal thoroughly with the intricacy and richness of the outside environment...The consequence of our new deficiency is the same as that of the animals' long-standing one: when making a decision, we will less frequently engage in a fully considered analysis of the total situation. In response to this "paralysis of analysis," we will revert increasingly to a focus on a single, usually reliable feature of the situation...The problem comes when something causes the normally trustworthy cues to counsel us poorly, to lead us to erroneous actions and wrongheaded decisions. (p. 232)As learning professionals, our clients---our fellow workers---will be more and more confused and duped by information overload. To be successful, we'll have to figure out ways to help them fight their way through the accelerating storm of information.Again, read the Economist article.

I'm thinking some of us bloggers ought to learn from journalists.Here's a whole group dedicated to citizen journalism. AND, they have a book available to help us learn how to do it.

Nice review of Diane Ravitch's new book on schools, schooling, and the importance of good teachers.Seems like it shows just how hard it is to find easy answers.

How Games Help Students Learn and Teachers Teach Infographic Traditional classroom structures can leave many students unmotivated and disengaged. Moreover, traditional assessment through homework and exams provides limited information on specific areas where individual students need more help. However, a high percentage of students and teachers enjoy games. The use of games in the classroom is booming. But they provide more than just a fun, interactive, multimedia-driven way for people to learn and explore - they can also improve teachers’ ability to assess their students’ progress and provide targeted support. The How Games Help Students Learn and Teachers Teach Infographic illustrates the benefits of games on teachers as well as children. How Learning Games Can Help Students and Teachers Students are digital natives: Today’s students enjoy using games and technology as part of their daily lives - the familiarity and interactivity helps learning integrate seamlessly with assessment. Immediate feedback: Automated and instant feedback helps students understand not just where they need to improve but how, saving time and effort by allowing targeted interventions. Promote fairness: Data analysis within games can help to ensure the integrity of an assessment by spotting irregular behaviour patterns and randomizing questions. Encouraging repeat attempts: Game points and rewards give a sense of ongoing progress and achievement, encouraging repeated play and ingraining learning. Enhancing understanding: Unlike static learning, the interactivity and immersion of narrative-based games can help students to explore how various approaches to new concepts can lead to different outcomes, moving from abstract to practical, real-world understanding.   Via: www.pearsoned.comThe post How Games Help Students Learn and Teachers Teach Infographic appeared first on e-Learning Infographics.

Michael Lewis's new book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, sounds fascinating---and important. Brad Pitt bought the movie rights, so it's clearly got an interesting story to tell. Michael Lewis tells the story of the folks who first figured out that the financial disaster was coming (the one that caused our current Great Recession). Lewis shows how these oddball stock traders figured out how Wall Street was making huge mistakes---when no one else could see it coming.The following two interviews are must reading if you want to know how we got into the economic mess we are in. They're also riveting storytelling for the most part.Learning professionals should listen to the interviews---and read the book too---for two themes: (1) How do people's mental models make it hard for them to understand the changing landscape, (2) How attempts at persuasion often fail in the face of these mental models. You might also find it fun to consider how you would "train" the citizenry to have a better understanding of how its government and Wall Street tycoons failed, how financial markets work, etc. Finally, note how Michael Lewis (and the interviewers) set up the dialogue to make a very difficult topic understandable. Great stuff!!Interview with Terry Gross of Fresh AireAbout 40 minutes.Interview with All Things ConsideredAbout 9 minutes.