On Monday, Brian shared with you his top 10 technology-based tools for the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT). In no particular order, here are my top 10 tools for 2019.
I receive weekly reports from Grammarly, and it is pretty cool to see that I am averaging over 10,000 words per week. I write a lot and with that many hours spent at a keyboard I make a lot of mistakes, even the free version of Grammarly catches most of them. Continue reading
Each year, Jane Hart and the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT) compile a list of the top 200 (technology-based) tools for learning. This list is compiled by submissions that come in from learning professionals from around the world.
If you’d like to submit your votes for the top learning tools of 2019, you can do so by filling out this form.
Here is the list of the top 10 technology-based tools (listed in no particular order) that I’ve been using for learning and development throughout this year: Continue reading
The moment of need is an interesting concept to me. When we are evaluating our learner’s level of training, many of our instincts tell us to train them on every step and every term because we don’t want to turn them loose untrained for goodness sake! But training isn’t isolated to what happen in the classroom or virtual course and we need to consider to what degree information should or rather will be retained when people exit.
I am working on a few projects right now that require different levels of performance support. What is interesting about them is how much digging it is taking to understand enough about our learner’s moment of need to support their training/performance support balance. As I work through these projects, I find myself setting a couple of common rules on implementing performance support. Here is what I have come up with so far.
If you find yourself writing steps of a process that your participant will not do on a regular basis, consider turning it into a resource. Instead of spending time in the training teaching them the steps of the process, turn it into an activity where they learn how to access and use the resource.
A good example of this is new hire training when people want to acclimate staff as quickly as possible. Acronyms, company jargon, and technical lingo fly around, and eyes glaze over like a donut. Taking the time to develop solid resources and teach people how to use those resources to amplif the learning experience for everyone involved.
How do you use performance support in your training? Let’s talk about more ways to use it in the comments below.
If professional development experiences are a sort of lab, in which learners can test new knowledge and skills and instructional designers and trainers can concoct new and engaging ways for people to learn, I wonder what the basic elements for this lab would be.
Being inspired as the son of a science teacher, I put together this periodic table with elements of amazing learning experiences organized by solids, liquids, gases, radioactive elements and interactive elements. Continue reading
Have you ever played Conference Call Bingo? Basically, it is a bingo card full of squares with common occurrences that happen on conference call like a hearing barking dog, or someone asking “did ___ just join?” another person saying “can everyone see my screen?”. The regular rules of bingo apply, except it is frowned upon by most leadership to yell BINGO in said conference calls. Continue reading
Last week I began to wonder just what employers value in their L&D teams, particularly their L&D leadership. I hopped on indeed.com and searched for L&D manager positions. I grabbed the first 50 job descriptions I could find and plugged them into a word cloud generator and this is what I found: Continue reading
People like their comfort zones. Our jobs as trainers are to lead change which by its very nature is to get people outside of their comfort zone. Many people walk into the training event – whether live or asynchronous– with their proverbial comfort blanket unwilling or not ready to hear what you have to say. Continue reading
In just over a month, I’ll have an opportunity to speak at Learnapalooza, a super-fun annual conference in Seattle that features a wide variety of learning blocks – from speed learning sessions and demos to breakout sessions to keynotes from some of the most important L&D voices found in the Pacific Northwest.
The theme of the conference is superheroes and my session will revolve around three superheroes in the world of instructional design.
One of those superheroes is a tool called SessionLab. Continue reading
Working through a bit of writer’s block recently, I began searching random words and collecting them for inspiration for a project. Once I finished the research, I sat down to a large and seemingly random collection of words, I was reminded of an activity we used to do in a college poetry class called Exquisite Corpse.
Exquisite Corpse is a surrealist parlor game where people assemble a group of words or pictures given some loose parameters depending on the desired outcome. Sometimes it is a poem, a story, a picture, or any number of things. The etymology is a bit awkward, but it makes a bit of sense once you start seeing the end results because they turn out strangely beautiful. After creating my own Exquisite Corpse, I thought it would be fun to put together a few ideas on how this can be done in the training room. Let’s look at a few ideas below.
One-word Exquisite Corpse activities would best be played given a set of parameters such as sentence structure- Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun- where each member of a group is assigned one word of the sentence. This activity is great for an icebreaker or a brainstorming session and instructions can look something like this:
Divide participants into groups and distribute flipchart paper and sticky notes. Each participant is assigned one word of the greater sentence to write on a sticky note. Once complete, assemble the Exquisite Corpse sentence on the flip chart and allow other groups to review.
One-sentence Exquisite Corpse is more elaborate and is best played when they can build off of the last word of the previous sentence. This activity is great for brainstorming or teambuilding where storytelling is a part of their work. Instructions may look like this:
Divide participants into groups and distribute two pieces of flipchart paper to each group. Each participant is given an opportunity to write a sentence on the flipchart which shall remain covered by the second flipchart paper. Reveling only the last word of the sentence, the next group member will then write their sentence. Continue this for as many rounds as desired to complete the story/poem/etc.
When doing an activity where groups are drawing an Exquisite Corpse, it will be important to have parameters defined before participants put pen to paper. It should be clearly stated what each group member is responsible for drawing and that they should bring their own flair. There is a great PBS video on YouTube about this practice if you need inspiration for this activity. Suggested instructions are as follows:
Divide participants into groups and distribute flipchart paper and sticky notes. Each participant is tasked with drawing their portion of their group’s exquisite corpse on their sticky note without looking at each other’s drawings. Once complete, assemble the Exquisite Corpse on the flip chart.
Have you ever played Exquisite Corpse? Do you see any other applications in the training room? Let’s keep this conversation going in the comments below!
When there’s a deadline looming and you haven’t quite found the right creative solution for an upcoming training program, it’s tempting to keep pushing late into the day, even into the night, until a good idea finds you.
According to an article I recently read in a Time magazine special edition focused on the science of creativity, pushing through and sacrificing sleep may not yield the result you’re hoping for. Continue reading