New Technology

Ok, let me start off by saying this may seem a bit weird, however, to come up with a "new" idea in this day and age is a challenge! Well, here goes...

Have you ever been to a bar or restaurant and seen the advertisements on the back of the stall door? How about those flat screen monitors posting news and weather in an elevator? Now combine the two ideas and you have Toilet Training. The idea is to have these screens show a variety of 30 to 60 second lessons that play in a loop to a captive audience. In the business place, it could be a lesson about dealing with conflict, or client satisfaction. It could be a reminder of a company policy, or a lesson about the culture in a new clients country. In public places they could provide public service announcements to promote safe sex, or better hand washing. If you need to get a message across that people won't be able to avoid, this would be the opportunity.

As far as new technologies that exist, I think that Apple is making a lot of inroads into mobile learning and changing the way we learn. The I-pad will certainly bring a lot to the table, however the i-phone has a lot on the market already. Below are some interesting links:

http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/
http://www.openculture.com/2009/02/the_top_educational_iphone_apps.html

Already some of the offerings of lectures from top universities are opening quality education to anyone who wants it. I listened to a very cool story on NPR about a nurse who was creating wound care instructions on mobile phones for her patients via text and picture message. While the next article doesn't really outline the training portion, I feel there is a lot of opportunity there as well.

http://medgadget.com/archives/2007/02/101_things_to_d.html


Many people are opposed to mobile learning and mobile anything because they feel that it interrupts life too much. I feel that while this does happen, it also offers us the opportunity of freedom from place. If a Mom can work on a business presentation while taking her kids to the pool, awesome. If I can do payroll while on vacation in Puerto Rico, its great! Mobile learning offers us the freedom to learn and work when and where we choose. We see it affecting the workplace already, with many people working from home, or having alternative schedules. Even the fact that I am able to go to grad school without having to be in a certain place for a certain number of hours each week shows this change. Another argument is that is distances people, which can also be true, however, while you may spend less time with co-workers, yo might have more time to spend with friends and family.

Like everything new technologies have their ups and downs, but like chocolate, it can be pretty great in correct moderation.

I found it challenging...

I found it challenging when reading about the backlash towards training in organizations due to lack of results. It is never good to hear about cuts in funding for positions you may eventually be hoping to land. Luckily, that was a small portion. After reading the chapter, I feel that it is important for trainers to think of performance. Knowledge transfer has been difficult to measure, and students are apt to perform as directed when tested, but revert to prior actions. When designing training, I am often thinking about what I want the learner to know; in the future I think it will be important to think about what I want them to do with it.

At my current position, I train employees on safety items such as safe lifting, fire safety, and PPE use. I will need to think of ways to ensure not just the transfer of knowledge, but to reinforce practice. One idea I had is to spend a day in shipping/receiving to reinforce safe lifting. While the employees are likely to perform correctly while I am there, they are just as likely to revert back when I am not. Maybe periodic observations will keep them using proper technique because they won’t know when a visit is happening. I feel like this is a bit more authoritarian than I like to be, but I don’t have another good idea on how to keep them working at it right now. If I can come up with a rewards system, that would be better.

All of this has me thinking about e-learning now. How can you measure performance on the job in e-learning environments? You can’t see what they are doing, you can measure it with tests, but tests are not the best indicators of everyday performance. It is different for educational vs. professional settings, I think education would be easier to measure as you can tell if a student is processing the knowledge by how well they are able to complete their assignments. Interesting topic, perhaps for another day?