lisaneal – The eLearn Blog

Meet Jill Duffy, New Senior Editor at ACM

lisaneal — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:47:59 +0000

Not only am I introducing a guest blogger, but Jill Duffy is the new senior editor at ACM responsible for eLearn Magazine. Meet Jill and learn about her skills and background:
When I was an undergraduate student at the University at Buffalo, a tech-savvy friend of mine helped me land a work-study gig doing something that he claimed would one day boost my resume. He introduced me to Martha, a woman who had a passion for technology that I could see burning behind her eyes. She was the kind of person who was both on top of current trends in technology, as well as able to see exactly it was headed, and it was her mission to move the university to the bleeding edge.
She hired me to be a tech operator for two nursing classes that were participating in distance learning pilot programs. My job was to hook up the video and audio feeds that connected the two sites, and then make sure they stayed connected throughout the class. This is how Martha explained the job to me: “You’ll basically be making sure that seven beefy telephone lines are staying open for three hours.”
She added, “If the lines drop, reconnect them. If you can’t reconnect them, hit the record button so at least we’ll have a VHS.”
I was also in charge of manipulating the cameras, cutting between shots of the teacher’s face, shots of the students’ faces when they spoke, and shots of the reference materials. “The most important part of your whole job,” Martha explained, “is to make sure the camera is never stagnant. Make it look like a movie or a television show, not a class. That’s the only way the people on the other end will be interested enough to get anything out of it.”
That lesson – that technology-based education should embrace entertainment standards – has stuck with me.
It’s funny, but for a long time I had forgotten entirely about that work-study job. It came rushing back when I started investigating serious games while writing and editing for Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com, two professional video game development publications. I spent a good five years talking to developers of games for health, education, military training, business training, and social change.
The biggest problem in the serious games sector since its inception is that content experts all too often want to spoon feed information to their audience. And while I’m sure most eLearn readers will agree that neither students nor education are usually best served in that manner, the problem that remains is, well, “How do we do it?”
I’ve been on yet another side of the e-learning equation, too. As a graduate student studying English Composition, I read and wrote about the effects of technology on students who are not adept writers. What happens when a student, who is already not confident in his or her writing ability, is forced to communicate with other students primarily online? What happens when students who are technologically confident finally get to take a Comp 101 class that actually encourages them to blog, post comments, and chat online? Are students more or less likely to ask questions in an online learning environment? Are students more or less likely to answer one another’s questions and figure things out for themselves?
I’ve just joined the staff here at ACM as senior editor of eLearn (in addition to a few other publications), and I hope to continue exploring many of these questions, from the theoretical to the practical to the technological.
Jill Duffy, Jill.Duffy@hq.acm.org

Do You Need to Wash Your Hands When You’re an Online Learner?

lisaneal — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:57:05 +0000

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that H1N1 is officially a pandemic. This will undoubtedly lead to more information about what to do to prevent the spread of germs, all actions people should take even when there isn’t a crisis. One of the main ones is to wash one’s hands frequently. Computers and mobile devices have the advantage that, with the exception of computer labs, Internet Cafes, libraries, and senior centers, they tend to be used by one person and are therefore unlikely to be spreading germs. My prediction is that there will be a resurgence in e-learning and telecommuting because of the WHO’s decision. It may not be lasting; using a bicycle to commute became popular when gas prices rose, with proponents touting the health benefits. But that largely ended when gas prices dropped. However, exposure can break down barriers – not exposure to germs, but exposure to online education.
For those in higher education, EDUCAUSE provides resources about pandemics, many applicable to the corporate environment. I wrote an analysis of some H1N1 resources as well.
And, yes, wash your hands frequently whether you are online or in the classroom.

Love, Math, and e-learning

lisaneal — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:07:32 +0000

My father-in-law, Dom Gualtieri, teaches math online at Saint Leo University (my sister-in-law teaches geology online too; quite the family I married into!). Tekia Johnson, a Sergeant in the US Army, was stationed in Iraq when she wrote the following poem for one of her assignments for Dom’s College Algebra course. I am posting it with Tekia’s permission. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Math is more than just a game
No pattern or equation is ever the same
Math is used for more than counting and calculating
It is all about how you write it and manipulating
Love is a math problem, let me quickly explain
The addition of a person in your life may seem plain
but the division from that person is what makes it new
So you try to subtract the love to show the world you are through
But then when you find true love, you seem ready to multiply
Willing to give your whole quotient to them for no reason why
Or is it that love is not math at all?
How about life? Is it a math problem unsolved?
Notice how numbers cross over each other, never to dissolve
With multiplication, division, addition and subtraction everywhere
It is a wonder that many don’t notice the math in life there
You work hard everyday to ADD to your life
But you SUBTRACT with fear if you run from strife
You DIVIDE yourself from others to set yourself apart
You MULTIPLY with someone to show the love in your heart
So why should I be afraid of mathematics?
It is just numbers that work out differently like schematics
It holds no illusion, it is plain as day
But then again, life is a surprise so who knows what the equation could say from day to day…
I guess math is life and it is just that way.

The Ultimate Revenge: “It’s a Training Problem” Revisited

lisaneal — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:36:31 +0000

I wrote about a frustrating experience with poor customer service (“It’s a training problem”) and was surprised how many people told me that I should have “outed” the company and that the Internet is the ultimate revenge. I was mindful of this when I read on the front page of the Boston Globe about how a “worried passenger” on a Peter Pan bus from Boston to New York videotaped the driver and posted it on YouTube.
The driver was breaking at least two company rules: using his cellphone and taking his hands off the steering wheel to tear tickets. The passenger called the bus company while on the bus, concerned about safety, and also tried to report it after the trip. Company officials are reportedly concerned not only about the safety issues on the bus but that the complaint did not reach them until the YouTube link was sent to them.
There can be a large gap between training and performance. One assumes that all companies teach policies, but determining that training was effective is hard, level 3 and 4 evaluations notwithstanding.
Enter irate – or scared – customers using social media: the ultimate revenge, as I was told. Not only is the training problem made apparent, but the person reporting the problem can get his or her proverbial 15 minutes of fame.
Is a performance problem really a training problem? I’ve taken mandatory compliance training both in the classroom and online and they tend to be dull and do little to enforce the importance of what is being taught. In general, I only referred back to the course material when I needed it: on-the-job training essentially. Perhaps the only benefit of my training was to teach me where to find information when I needed it.
With inspiration from my 10-year old daughter’s homework to locate and circle the twenty misspelled words in a page of text and spell them correctly, I redesigned how bus drivers are taught company policies. I decided to avoid on-the-job learning, especially delivered by mobile devices, since mobile device use is part of the problem.
Here is how my training would go. First, teach the rules. Then show video clips and challenge students to find the violated rules and identify what should have been done differently. Conclude the training by arming students with video cameras and sending them on bus rides. If any violations are detected, how much better if a trainee finds problems because then the driver and the trainee both learn in the process. As an added benefit, fresh videos are produced for the course. I can see Peter Pan’s training director winning awards for this – much more pleasant for all than having the company “outed”.

“It’s a training problem”

lisaneal — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:09:48 +0000

Have you ever contacted a company about fixing a problem and felt like you weren’t being listened to or were even insulted? This happened to me recently with my telecommunications provider when my phones started working intermittently. My first phone call informed me about an outage that was “fixed”, the second told me that the outage really had been fixed and I needed new phones, and, on the third, I found out that it had yet again been repaired and I should not be experiencing any further difficulties (like no dial tone). The next day, I received a phone call asking me if everything was working fine and I used it as an opportunity to complain about the process I had been through, especially being told that I needed to replace my phones. The response was, “It’s a training problem”.
I have not changed telecommunications companies despite my annoyance and living in a town where I have ample choices. I have not contributed to the abundant “IhateX.com” sites – there was ever one that included “loathe” and “detest”!
But I did ponder the “It’s a training problem” response. Here is what I cynically imagine: this is what customer service representatives are told to say to calm an irate customer because there are few responses to that statement. But suppose that my complaint is actually logged. In fact, wasn’t that call recorded? The segment where I am told to replace my phones is used in a new online course: listen to this and identify why the customer was offended. Listen again and suggest a different direction the customer service representative could have taken it in. Now speculate on the result: would the problem be solved? would the customer be irate? Now let’s do some online role plays. Playing the irate customer would be both insightful and fun. And then, it’s no longer a training problem.

Back to the Future: Distance Learning, Correspondence Schools, and Pandemics

lisaneal — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:27:39 +0000

Converge Magazine reported that the World Future Society predicted that one of the ten breakthrough technologies that “will transform life as we currently know it” is distance education. I was amused because (1) it has already transformed so many people’s lives and (2) most people no longer call it “distance education”.
In the article, Roger Schank said that not much has changed in the past fifty years. His vision is that students should be put in simulated environments where they can learn by doing, rather than memorizing facts and formulas, and believes that few education leaders and politicians are visionary enough to make sweeping changes.
While I agree about the lack of sweeping changes, I disagree about the role of memorization and the lack of change. Memorization is essential, but it needs to be coupled with learning how to apply facts and formulas in meaningful ways. Medical students, to pick on a discipline where memorization is crucial, can not just “learn by doing”. And the change is evident in every aspect of education, although one can certainly argue not all change is for the better. This sentiment was expressed last week at the Health 2.0 conference, where Esther Dyson said “we should be paying for health, not for health care, and we should take $5 billion and train more gym teachers.”
Back to the future – I mean back to my points. Distance learning and educational technology has certainly transformed education but there is room for more change. And what we call it matters: e-learning, online learning, etc. are the more au courant terms. When I read about distance learning, it reminds me of correspondence schools. And even one of the few remaining correspondence schools recently changed its name. The International Correspondence School is now Penn Foster. Started in 1890 by newspaperman Thomas Foster, the initial goal was to help anthracite coal miners become mine superintendents and foremen, studying over candlelight following a 12-hour shift. Talk about people who would have been better off in simulated environments!
The glow of technological devices has replaced candlelight, email has supplanted postal mail, and the e-learning of today is not just lessons placed online but uses innovative technologies to engage learners. The classroom has not been replaced because it serves an important role, as Saul Carliner eloquently articulated in the controversial Long Live Instructor-Led Learning. I wonder what the World Future Society has to say about that.
The World Future Society, interesting, does have something to say about pandemics. An article about the Threat of a flu pandemic, from a 2006 issue of their magazine, was just updated to say that the initial carriers were birds rather than pigs but that the article “still provide[s] a reliable picture of what government response to a pandemic might entail”. While Stephen Downes might have a field day reviewing and grading their past predictions, this article seems quite accurate although not a prediction per se.
No one will argue that predicting the future is hard, Jeane Dixon notwithstanding. But, using the right terminology makes it easier to look to the future.

Learning from Renowned Chefs

lisaneal — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:02:35 +0000

“Taste, taste, taste,” was the advice of Chef Jody Adams from the Rialto Restaurant in Cambridge, MA. And “know who your customers are”. When was the last time you did the e-learning equivalent and sampled one of your own courses or checked in with your students?
Jody and Chef Jason Santos, Gargoyles Restaurant, were the two renowned chefs on the panel What Can User Experience Learn from Food Design at CHI 2009 organized by Patanjali Venkatacharya, Oracle Corporation.
What impressed me most about Jody and Jason’s descriptions of what they do is the attention to detail and the incredible project management skills needed to run a successful restaurant. They both spoke of the endless sources for their inspiration and how they keep pads of paper everyplace to jot down ideas. Having eaten at both restaurants, I can attest to the success of their creativity, the attention to detail, and the delicious results.
I was interested in the discussion about ratings and reviews, especially when Jody described telling her mother and her mother’s friends about the anonymous reviews they receive online. Their reaction: “Why that’s rude”.
As press, I spoke to both following the panel and asked, of course, if it is possible to learn to cook online. Jason’s immediate response was that it was “impossible” and “the silliest thing he had heard in his life.” In the ensuing discussion, Jody said that cooking shows can help provide an affinity for food and cooking and are entertaining as well. Jason clarified that knowledge can be acquired online but not techniques, but went on to say that Julia Child inspired him. As he warmed to the topic, Jason amended his earlier statements to say that learning to cook is multi-sensory and, even with a webcam, one needs an instructor to taste and adjust the salt, to which Jody agreed. We concluded the interview with a discussion of the impact of food scares and recalls on their menus and about cities that require restaurants to provide calorie or nutritional information. Jody and Jason talked about how some chefs are cream- and butter-driven and Jody concluded the interview with, “I love butter.” Maybe we can all take a lesson from them and make our next courses richer.

Perishable Learning

lisaneal — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:44:27 +0000

Recently I learned how to put together a memorial service and how to make cotton candy. The former was for the sad occasion of my father’s death and the latter was for my daughter’s elementary school fair. The commonalities are that, in both cases, assistance came from more experienced individuals, my knowledge sufficed for the occasions but had neither depth nor breadth, and the knowledge and skills are perishable in that they are unlikely to be used again.
What does it mean for learning to be perishable? Certainly, there is little difference between the process for acquiring perishable or more permanent learning because some degree of mastery is required: A memorial service needs to go smoothly and eager children must not be disappointed. I think what perishable learning ultimately means is that blinders go on.
In the case of the memorial service, I had little curiosity about the the psalms we chose or the reasoning behind order of events although my understanding of the mourning process is more comprehensive due to expert guidance. And, knowing that I may never make cotton candy again, I was less curious than I otherwise would have been about how the machine worked or the composition of the vibrantly colored powder, but may retain the optimal flick of the wrist that I mastered after a few tries.
Were these pursuits that would be repeated, I would have had far more questions. The answers could have led to new questions. Perishable learning is pervasive because of the multitude of situations that arise when one uses software once for a project or rents a car without bothering to master the bells and whistles. Perishable learning, therefore, is not merely learning that is discarded in the same way perishable foods are discarded after their time, but learning that does not invoke further pursuits and tangents.

Can the Best of Informal Learning Simultaneously Be the Worst Thing for Cognitive Processes?

lisaneal — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:37:30 +0000

It struck me recently that mobile learning (or m-learning) is no longer a discipline within e-learning because of the ubiquity, enhanced screen size, and improved display quality of mobile devices. Remember when it was worthy of a press release when a medical or law school decided to require the use of mobile devices? No more. The question now seems to be when can they be used and when students are asked to turn them off or drop them in a bin as entering the classroom. Of course, the lack of presence in an online classroom has always meant that, pajamas and bunny slippers notwithstanding, it is possible for students to use all sorts of devices without a teacher typically knowing where students’ attention was focused.
The adoption and use of Internet-enabled mobile devices facilitates easy retrieval of information. Many people look up information at the slightest provocation. Who sang the song with the lyrics, “Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars”? (Answer: Frank Sinatra.) In which year was Ceylon renamed Sri Lanka? (Answer: 1972 and officially it is called the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.) But in the process of answering questions so easily and quickly, there is no time for happy memories of dancing to Frank Sinatra at the Rainbow Room or humming the song through to see if the singer comes to mind. Similarly with Sri Lanka and other queries: there is no time for the association games we all play, often with pleasure and occasionally with frustration when the answer is on “the tip of your tongue“.
While mobile technologies provide excellent “Cognitive Prosthetic Devices” in the sense that they reduce the burden of recall, they reduce the pleasure of recall and may impair cognitive processes as a result. Exploring memories and challenging myself to remember things I learned may (if you’ll excuse another idiom since I was just searching for them), go the way of the buffalo. Convenient informal learning through mobile devices is fun too, since often when I do a search I learn new things, either tangential or relevant. Perhaps what ultimately matters is finding the right mix and the appropriate timing; and the classroom may be only a marginally better place for instant access than the dinner table.

Professionals Use Searches to Locate Graduate Programs

lisaneal — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:17:15 +0000

Not only has technology “dramatically changed the way students experience university life,” according to The Guardian, it has impacted how they learn about schools. College selection has progressed far beyond browsing college catalogs in the library, although the many online (web) and offline (college coach) methods primarily target high school seniors. How, then do early- and mid-career professionals find graduate programs? Not surprisingly, through searches.
I have been thinking about this because of two experiences. This first was a program review and technology evaluation for Goucher College’s Master of Arts in Historic Preservation. Students and alumni, when asked how they heard about the program, mentioned searches and word-of-mouth. In the former case, many stumbled upon the program after multiple searches because their initial search terms were not “Master of Arts in Historic Preservation”. One of the recommendations the program review committee made was to determine what are the terms current students used to find the program and make sure through a combination of techniques that these terms actually led to the Historic Preservation program website.
Then, I started helping the Tufts University School of Medicine Pain Research, Education, and Policy (PREP) program promote their program using social marketing techniques. Not surprisingly, they have a similar situation: students primarily find out about the PREP master’s degree online. This time, my recommendations, in a detailed proposal, led to funding for a PREP student, Pam Ressler, and a series of meetings, including one with students, alumni, and faculty providing ideas about the types of students who might be interested in the program and the search terms they might use to find it.
To date we have launched a blog about pain. The initial entries include data about the disturbingly high number of people who are in pain (26% of Americans reported being in pain for more than 24 hours during the prior month) and the provocatively titled, “Is Pain a Symptom or a Disease?” Pam, as community manager, has student, alumni, and faculty commitments to write new posts, since blogs, especially group blogs, rarely manage themselves and the quickest way to lose a visitor is for the most recent post to be 6+ months old.
If you think the PREP blog was a good idea, I will only take partial credit since one of my sources of inspiration was the U Mass Online blog, which is also a group blog that brings in multiple perspectives. I don’t know how successful it has been at attracting new students but I would imagine that someone considering the program would likely be influenced positively by their posts.
Blogs are a great way to come up in a search. I blogged one of the last articles I wrote, “Dr. Google: Your Patients, the Internet, and You“, and, when I search on it, not using quotes, my blog entry comes up first in Google.
If your prospective students are online, they are likely to be doing searches, one of the most popular online activities. Blogs are a great way to attract their attention. There are other initiatives we have planned and I’ll write about those once we implement them.