T+D Blog
Monday, May 02, 2005
  The T+D Blog has moved!

The new T+D Blog is now officially launched.

I have the option of importing all this existing content into the new blog, but it will cause this blog to be unreadable.

Until people update their bookmarks and Webpage links, though, I want to leave this one up. So for now, the two versions will co-exist.

I've replicated my past few posts from this blog onto the new one to get it off and running.

Enjoy, and please feel free to let me know what you think. Permalink
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Thursday, April 28, 2005
  Best you might've missed

I'm posting this week's best early because I'm taking tomorrow off to enjoy some rest and relaxation before our crazy conference season starts. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Traditional training/business

Book report: Resilience at Work: How to Succeed No Matter What Life Throws at You. A study showed that workers who showed resilience and succeeded in the face of change demonstrated "three basic attitudes...: commitment, control, and challenge."

Leading Ideas: Grow the People Around You. The Fast Company blog reports on Jack Welch's new book on leadership and some key points on how leaders can develop the people under them.

E-learning

"PBS drops its middleman role in college telecourses." The end of an era.

Emergent learning

"A Model Patient." A fascinating article from the New Yorker describes how doctors are being trained on sophisticated simulated patients.

A Learning Blogosphere: Parts I and II. How a professor and students used blogging at the University of Michigan.

Educational podcasts. Have you gotten into this new digital trend? Here's a list of podcasts for and about learning. (Thanks, e-learning Centre.)

Definition of emergent workers. The senior VP and chief human resources officer at Spherion defines them at the Future of Work Congress.

Mind research

"Unleashing Creativity." "Moments of brilliance arise from complex cognitive processes. Piece by piece, researchers are uncovering the secrets of creative thinking." (Thanks, Fast Company blog.)

Technology

Keynote on the Semantic Web by Tim Berners-Lee. The inventor of the World Wide Web opened MIT's Emerging Technologies Conference last fall. Permalink
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005
  Redesign soon to be launched!

I can't wait to show it off. I've been working on the redesign of this blog and the new version is so much better!

I'm waiting for some technical help with the logo, but once that's done, I'll be able to unveil it.

In the meantime, here's a sneak preview of what the new Typepad (paid software) has allowed me to easily add:

--much prettier design without having to get deep into the html (my coding skills are very minimal)

--an about link--standard with Typepad, lets you get to know the blog's mission and a little bit about me

--my picture, for a personal touch

--an archive by topic category--as I post and the list gets full, it will allow this blog to be used as a knowledge base!

--list of recent posts--lets you see their topics at a glance rather than having to scroll

--a list (blogroll) of bloggers and Websites I read regularly and gather linking fodder from.

--better support for Firefox users.

Stay tuned for the new link! Permalink
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  Infomania affects IQ more than marijuana

Shocking news from a study by Hewlett Packard: Excessive use of technology such as email and text messages can cause a fall in IQ greater than that caused by smoking marijuana.

The study of more than 1000 adults was commisioned by HP and conducted at the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry.

The research showed that the average reduction of 10 IQ points as participants' work was interrupted by emails and text messages is more than double the four-point loss caused by smoking marijuana.

A third of all adults will respond to an email immediately or within 10 minutes, the study showed. But women are more effective at multitasking: Their drop in IQ was only five points, compared to 15 for men.

Read more here and here. Permalink
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Monday, April 25, 2005
  Trends article on mobile learning

My most recent Trends article for Learning Circuits, "Mobile Reality (A Tale of Two Experts)," has been posted to the Website. The article includes Q+A with two leading experts in the field--Chris Koschembahr, IBM's Worldwide Mobile Learning Executive, and Clark Quinn, executive director of the consultancy OtterSurf Labs and co-founder of the Meta-Learning Lab.

Koschembahr says that mobile learning is easier than you think, and you can get started immediately. Quinn asserts that m-learning's gold rush hasn't happened yet. Permalink
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Friday, April 22, 2005
  Best you might've missed

Today it seems spring went into hiding. It's cold and rainy here in DC, but I hope you all have a good weekend anyway. Here are the best articles from this week.

Emergent learning

What is Workflow Learning? A good basic outline (along with entertaining graphics) from Jay Cross, co-founder of the Workflow Institute.

"War Games." "In offices created by an ex-Star Trek designer and using techniques and technology from movies and gaming, some of Hollywood's top creative talents are helping the US military to train for war in the 21st century."

E-learning

"The Distancing Question in Online Education." Glenn Russell examines "the affective domain—in particular, the ability of students to empathize, connect, and interact with their distant peers and instructor, and the ability of instructors to adequately respond to the emotional states and needs of students from afar."

The Interface is the Content. Clark Aldrich writes, "One of the big 'ahas' of the next generation of elearning designers is that the interface is a significant piece of the content, not just a conduit to the content."

Traditional training/learning

EducationForAdults.com Uses Blogging Technology to Inform Busy Adults About Educational Opportunities. "An online directory of nontraditional education programs for busy adults has created a blog...to form a community where adults contemplating going back to school can interact with people in similar situations..."

Wiki on Becoming a Better Thinker. A host of resources. Also look for my June Intelligence column, which will cover three software programs that say they can boost brain power.

Business

Leading Ideas: Embrace the Lunatic Inside You. Ideas on tapping into your crazy (but ultimately good) ideas, from the Fast Company blog.

Recovering the Lost Art of Note-Taking. Tips on taking notes at work from the Working Smart blog.

Information

"'Infomania' Worse Than Marijuana." Can it be true? A new study says excessive use of technology reduces workers' intelligence more than marijuana use. (Thanks, e-Learning Centre.)

"The Infinite Library." A fascinating and in-depth article on how Google's plan to digitize millions of books will affect libraries. Also see an item on this program in April's Intelligence column in T+D. Permalink
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Thursday, April 21, 2005
  More free Webinars

Interwise is offering a wide variety of free Webinars in the next few months, including sessions on such topics as

--Merging Live Conferencing with Collaborative Group Workspaces
--Succession Planning: Beating the Panic
--Getting Started with E-Learning
--Running Learning Like a Business
--Formalizing Informal Learning
--and more.

Check out their full schedule here.

TrainingOutsourcing.com is presenting a free online session on How to Increase Business Value Through Customer Education on May 26th at 2 pm EDT.

Their email on the Webinar says it is "designed for corporate executives considering innovative customer and channel partner learning strategies that can provide positive impact on business performance by

--increasing customer satisfaction and retention
--building customer loyalty
--reducing costs for product training
--gaining market share and top-line revenue
--improving shareholder value
--generating additional revenue from channel partners and resellers
--enhancing quality of customer learning initiatives
--mitigating risk and product liability
--implementing best practices in customer and product education." Permalink
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Friday, April 15, 2005
  Best you might've missed

Here are the best articles and resources I came across this week.

Business

"Leadership Decision Making." A paper by a University of Baltimore professor (yay, Baltimore! I'm a native daughter) gets deep into this issue. (Thanks, Lifehacker.)

Best site for travelers. The Business 2.0 blog links to SeatGuru, a great resource for business travelers that can give you detailed info about seats on many commercial aircrafts before you book your ticket.

Free small business websites. Yahoo is offering a free website for companies who list themselves on Yahoo Local.

Learning theory

"Can Blended Learning Be Redeemed?" A scholarly paper from the United Kingdom examines this question.

New Paradigms for Learning. "Can training departments, with all of their post-industrial-revolution baggage, rise to the challenge and effect the kind of post-knowledge-revolution changes that are both necessary and inevitable?"

National Education Summit on High Schools. A speech by Bill Gates: "Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today’s computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. It’s the wrong tool for the times."

Traditional training/development

ATLAS (Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults). A short test that lets you determine what type of learner you are. (Thanks, eLearning Centre.)

"Great Managers Understand Their People." "Average managers treat all their employees the same. Great managers discover each individual's unique talents and bring these to the surface so everyone wins. An excerpt from Harvard Business Review."

What are topics about which a Learning Professional should be uniquely proficient? A thought-provoking post on the redesigned Learning Circuits blog. Add your comments.

Emergent learning

"A 'Sim' That's Dead Serious." The Army is using interactive video to train officers for Iraq. From the Washington Post. Permalink
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Wednesday, April 13, 2005
  Google poised to take over the world (Google Learning to follow?)

(Commentary alert!)

I'm going to go on record right now to say that Google is going to be the next Microsoft or IBM. It seems like every week they come out with a new product that makes our lives easier in a way that no one has done before, or that no one has done nearly as well.

A good way to be one of the first to know about their new offerings is to read the Google Blog.

Google Labs is where you can access all the new projects they're working on.

Today I was blown away by Google SMS. Using text messaging on your cell phone, you can access driving directions, business listings, answers to short fact-based questions, movie showtimes, stock quotes, and more.

I tested it out, asking for directions from my home to my work, and within a few minutes I got directions in two text messages that were dead on.

For someone who often drives around lost in DC without a map, this could be invaluable. I printed out the wallet-sized tip sheet to keep handy so I can remember how to send in queries.

You can do a lot more with Google on your mobile phone with Google Mobile. I had tried out some of these features before but my phone didn't support them.

But if you have Web browsing on your phone, you can search the Web, images, and more with Google using it.

Many people already use Google tools for personal knowledge management (see this blog entry I wrote). Can a Google Learning application be far behind? Permalink
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  Free Webinar and free intriguing seminar

Wilson Learning is offering a free Webinar by Harvard’s Dr. William L. Ury, "world-renowned negotiations expert." Principled Negotiation: Reaching Agreements While Strengthening Professional Relationships will be held from 11 am to 12 noon CST on April 29, 2005.

Dr. Ury is the founder of Harvard's Program on Negotiation and the co-author of Getting To Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In and Getting
Past No: Negotiating With Difficult People and Getting To Peace.

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For those of my readers located in or near the Washington, DC area, there is a very interesting-sounding talk taking place on April 22 from noon to 2 pm in the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Herb Rubenstein, an attorney, member of the World Future Society and its US National Capital Region chapter, a founding director and member of the Association of Professional Futurists, and a founding member and advisory board member of the Society for Leadership Change, will be giving a free talk on The Future of Leadership.

Although the talk is free, registration is recommended due to limited seating. To sign up, visit the National Capital Region World Future Society Website.

Here's more info from the press release on the talk:

"Herb Rubenstein distinguishes between 'leaders' and 'leaders of leaders.' Leaders are people who see existing problems and develop solutions for those problems with the support of the group they lead. 'Leaders of leaders' employ foresight and organizational tools to envision and avoid entire classes of problems from arising. They guide leaders when problems arise within the organization.

The future would be brighter if society encouraged more 'leaders of leaders' to emerge. Herb believes that most Western societies only encourage the emergence of leaders, not leaders of leaders. In his talk, Herb will explore how we can encourage the emergence of more leaders of leaders in the future through improved technology, more ethical decision making frameworks, and other tools. Permalink
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Friday, April 08, 2005
  Best you might've missed

Happy Friday, all. Here are the most interesting articles and resources to hit my eyes this week.

E-mergent learning

"Games for Learning." This article focuses on children's use of video games, but since they are your future learners and workers, it's worth reading.

E-learning/e-content

Standards for online content authors. A good practical tip-sheet from a company in New Zealand.

"Online Learning: Social Interaction and the Creation of a Sense of Community." "This paper centres on the sense of isolation that online study may engender among learners, a factor...that may make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful online learning environment for many students."

Traditional training/business

10 steps to develop learner support - a guideline through the key issues. The eLearning Centre links to a useful PDF.

Searchforclasses. Another training-finding Website. I've written about a few of these over the past couple of months.

"The New Steps to Career Advancement." "A recent study comparing Fortune 100 executives in 1980 with their counterparts in 2001 reveals changes in the path young executives take along the way to the C suite."

In Our Humble Opinion: What Will a World of $5 Gas Be Like? This musing by Future of Work gurus Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware posits that remote work is really going to take off with gas prices soaring.

"How to Start a Startup." An irreverent essay based on a talk given at the Harvard Computer Society.

"Got a Good Strategy? Now Try to Implement It." A Q+A with the author of Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change.

Theory

Learning vs. Training. Thoughts on the re-designed Learning Circuits blog. Permalink
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  Training for Dummies

Not that I'm saying you're a dummy or anything, but if you're interested in a good basic book on training, Training for Dummies was just released by Wiley Press and ASTD (co-published). It's part of the familiar Dummies series.

The description on the ASTD store reads:

Learn how to design and deliver effective training courses with Training for Dummies. Filled with hands-on advice, you'll use modern instructional techniques and dynamic delivery to reach and teach trainees. With real-world examples, author Elaine Biech shows you how to follow a training cycle from start to finish; and along the way you'll discover how to

--conduct needs and assessments

--custom design training courses

--adapt for different learning styles

--enhance participation and learning

--prepare for the new certification process Permalink
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005
  T+D April issue online

The April issue of T+D magazine includes

--"Relevance2," an article on the future of the profession by ASTD CEO Tony Bingham
--"Steelcase: Demonstrating the Connection Between Learning and Strategic Busines Results," by George Wolfe
--"Five Experts Speak Out," What's ahead? What skills should you have? Five industry sages show you the way
--"A Monstrous Welcome," by Dan Sussman, on orientation at Monster.com.

In addition,

--my Intelligence column covers the coming talent gap
--the new Re:Search column looks at keeping employees happy
--Development discusses coaches for training professionals
--Books reviews Radical Collaboration: Five Essential Skills to Overcome Defensiveness and Build Successful Relationships

and more. Permalink
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  "Good people are worth keeping"

I don't usually post about products and services for sale, but this brought a smile to my face and thought you all might enjoy it as well.

T-shirts, mugs, a teddy bear, clock, buttons, bags, and more with the "good people" slogan.

I think this is sponsored by trendspotters The Herman Group--the link was in their latest newsletter.

With CafePress, anyone can cheaply sell all kinds of items with their own slogan, logo, etc. on it. Check out the site for your own use. Permalink
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  What Keeps You Up at Night?

The Masie Center is offering a new free e-book containing 672 issues and challenges reported by workplace learning and training professionals.

Chapter heads designated categories of worries, such as Learning Management Systems, Company Culture/Structure, Time and Resources, Technical Requirements, and so forth.

Very interesting reading, and you can't beat the price. Permalink
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Friday, April 01, 2005
  Best you might've missed

Happy Friday, all. Still catching up on my reading (and work) from being out part of last week, but here's what I've found so far for your reading pleasure.

Emergent learning/communications

"Extreme Learning: Decision Games." Jay Cross's latest column for CLO magazine discusses "thin-slicing" or rapid cognition.

Virtual Meetings Through 'Telepresence.'"Pierre Boulanger, professor of computing science at U of A, has just received $1.7 million to develop new and inexpensive 'telepresence' tools."

Traditional training/business

"How to Battle the Coming Brain Drain." An article from Fortune magazine discusses how to keep older workers' knowledge from leaving the organization with them.

"Employee-Driven Design Moves into the Workplace." A novel idea: Let employees design the spaces where they spend the majority of their time. (Thanks, Future of Work Weblog.)

"Lessons of Successful Entrepreneurs." Tips from the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Conference.

Theory

Will That Be Coordination, Cooperation, or Collaboration? Another thought-provoking post from blogger Dave Pollard.


Cool tools

Free conferencing calling. A great deal from Freeconference.com: Conference calls with up to 25 participants at no charge.

Design Your Own Anti-Procrastination Plan. "Below are several lists of specific, concrete things you can do to confront and change your own tendencies to procrastinate. Choose several suggestions from among the four lists and put them into practice."

Answers.com. This is a site worth exploring more. SmartMobs pointed out that Answers.com just launched a mobile service. I'm curious about the site in general. Permalink
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Tuesday, March 29, 2005
  Free teleseminars

I received the following press release:

In an effort to help plan the coming months, we offer this handy reference for the 2nd Quarter 2005 One Person Training Department FREE teleseminars.

You might want to print this out and tack it up in your office.

You’ll definitely want to pencil these dates in to your calendar NOW.

= = = = = = = = = =

All calls occur on Tuesdays from 1:00 – 2:00 pm Eastern.

Just call in!

The call-in number for ALL teleseminars listed below is:

1-805-620-4000 and the passcode is: 58543

= = = = = = = = = =

The 2005 schedule (2nd quarter) of speakers includes


Date Guest Expert & Topic


4/26/2005 Bill Walton

Strategies for Teaching Adults: The Making of a Maestro in the Classroom


5/24/2005 Lenn Millbower

Razzle Dazzle Design: Developing Training for 21st Century Learners


6/28/2005 Carolyn Balling

Managing the One Person Training Department Permalink
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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
  Out the rest of the week

There will be no best-you-might've-missed this week, as I will be out of the office spending time with a Marine friend who just arrived safely back from Iraq. (Yay!)

Have a great weekend, all! Permalink
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  Customer service training that worked

(Commentary alert!)

Those of you who read my Intelligence column in T+D might have guessed that customer service is a bit of a pet peeve for me.

I've written on the topic quite a few times--most recently the column "Unbelievable Service" in August 2004 and a two-part series "Just One Thing" and "Strategic Service" in October and November 2003.

I'm always on the lookout for good customer service, and I had an experience over the weekend that I'd like to share with everyone.

I had gone to a restaurant in my neighborhood for a nice brunch with a couple of friends. After ordering, we sat there for about a half an hour without any food. I noticed, but didn't think much of it, as the restaurant was quite crowded and I remembered waiting a while last time I was there for brunch. I figured it was just the price we had to pay for eating at this popular restaurant at a popular time.

However, all of a sudden a man appeared at our table. "I'm the manager," he said, "and I want to apologize for your food taking so long. Frankly, we dropped the ball. I want to you to know that your food will be out shortly, and the meal is on us."

The waitress came over about 10 minutes later with the food and explained that there was some mixup in the kitchen and the cooks thought they had made it when they hadn't.

I was impressed. Although the principles of take responsibility, apologize, fix the problem, and go above and beyond aren't hard ones to understand or master, it seems rare that an organization follows them these days. But the manager's words were magic. Any irritation I had at being left waiting melted away in the face of his speech.

I might've thought that we had just encountered a particular good manager, except that my friend said, "That's great. The only other time that happened to me was in this other restaurant" that's in a neighboring town.

I said, "As a matter of fact, they're owned by the same people." So it became apparent that this type of service for mess-ups was a company-wide policy that managers were trained to enact.

A round of applause. It did my customer-service-hunting heart good. Permalink
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  Free webinar on outsourcing

TrainingOutsourcing.com presents a Webinar on Identifying and Driving Value Through Key Learning Indicators and Outsourcing next Wednesday, March 30th from 1 to 2 pm EST.

"This interactive e-Intelligence Webinar will look at how new models for assessing and measuring the value of learning in the enterprise are emerging. This executive webinar probes the challenges corporate learning executives face when trying to show the impact of learning and presents concepts that help determine if outsourcing training is right for their organization.

Chris Moore, President of Zeroed-In Technologies, introduces key learning indicators, a component of performance-based measurement for learning, as a means of measuring and predicting value. Dan Cantwell, Vice President of Performance Solutions at RWD Technologies, follows with an assessment model that gathers and assesses key measurement areas to determine the effectiveness of your learning organization and your candidacy for improving value through outsourcing." Permalink
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More thoughts, trends, and links from the worlds of training, learning, business, and technology.