July 11, 2009 By 1 Comment

ALA Saturday Session: Creating a Culture of Learning

Saturday I gave one of my favorite presentations ever. Previously I’ve given this presentation as a webinar for WebJunction. The session covers the differences between training and learning, why learning is important, and ways you can become a learning organization. My co-presenter was Pat Carterette from the State Library of Georgia. There were some great questions that came out of this session and I’ll be discussing them in posts on this site in the coming weeks.

Do you have ideas about creating a culture of learning? Post them here in the comments.

ALA 2009 Creating a Culture of Learning

View more presentations from Lori Reed.

Filed under: Conferences, Learning, Presentations
June 12, 2009 By 2 Comments

DON'T Imagine Them Naked! My Pres4Lib Virtual Presentation

I had a lot of fun putting this together. This was supposed to be my Plan B in case the live feed from my office did not work. But after putting it all together last night this morning, I decided it really would work better as a video rather than live session.

In the spirit of learning here are a few details about how I did this. I always seem to wait until the last minute with presentations. I came up with the title Wednesday night and began working on the PowerPoint Thursday around 5pm. First I did a title and notes for each slide so I would know what the framework would be. Then I used Flickr to find supporting Creative Commons images. It took hours to find the right photos. In all it took about 3 hours to create the PowerPoint.

Sometime during all this I came up with the idea for the opening scene. I tried recording the opening scene with a webcam but the quality was bad…even with a good webcam. My husband, who happens to be a brilliant video editor, asked me why didn’t I use our digital camera. After kicking myself in the head for not thinking of that I set off to find a flashlight and hat. It took about 10 takes to get the flashlight and handheld camera effects right.

After recording the opening scene I used Camtasia to narrate the PowerPoint. This took forever but I consider some of the takes as rehearsal! Next time I will record one slide at a time or a few slides at a time.

Once the PowerPoint narration was done I imported the video from my camera, added a title slide, transitions, and some spooky music. Anyone recognize the tune?

Then I produced the Camtasia project to default Internet settings and uploaded to YouTube. In all it took about 9 hours which comes to about 90 minutes of development per minute of presentation. I would say the norm is about 60 minutes of time per minute of e-learning material.

What does all this mean? When you compare development time of e-learning to face-to-face learning there is a much higher front end investment for e-learning. But once the development is done, you are done. The content is there for your learners to access at any time and you can move on to other projects. However when someone tells you to “whip together a quick tutorial” keep in mind that there is nothing quick about it!

You can read more about e-learning development time on the following sites:

http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/1/time%20to%20develop%20Survey.pdf

http://www.nwlink.com/~Donclark/hrd/elearning/myths.html

p.s. Just for the record. The words of wisdom did not actually come from “Pete” or anyone else in recent years. I think it actually came to me from an episode of the Brady Bunch.

Filed under: Conferences, Instructional Design, Learning, Online Learning, Presentations, Public Speaking
March 31, 2009 By 1 Comment

Web 2.x Training for Customers & Staff

This afternoon’s session is also in the Social Software Track. Presenting are my own social network friends: Beth Tribe, Michael Sauers, and Bobbi Newman.

CIL 032

Beth up first talking about how to know if your staff are using Web 2.0. Hint: they may not know it is called Web 2.0.

Word of mouth class advertising is “golden.”

Reach out through Web 2.0 tools as well.

Have fun with training. Bring chocolate. Beth known for chocolate :)

Michael next talking about Nebraska Learn’s 2.0.

Don’t make assumptions. The older folks may understand technology better than than the younger folks.

If you have not done 23 things you need to do this program.

Bobbi

For training…applied for and received grant for mobile training lab. 16 laptops and a cart to take to branches for staff and community for public training.

Summed up by Aaron Schmidt who said training users on Web 2.0 is essential to our democracy.

Filed under: Conferences, Learning, Social Networking
March 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Webinar: Social & Informal Learning

Social & Informal Learning: The Business Opportunity
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

If learning were an iceberg, then formal training and development would only be the tip. Most learning is “informal” in nature, but this portion lies beneath the proverbial waterline, virtually invisible and, therefore, much harder to navigate.

  • But such navigation is becoming increasingly important. New research from an i4cp survey, commissioned by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), reveals social and informal learning opportunities for companies that need to improve productivity and performance in 2009.
  • Social and informal learning already has a strong presence in many organizations and is expected to increase.
  • Very little of most firms’ training budgets are devoted to informal learning
  • Using social and informal learning pays dividends, as there is a significant correlation with reported market performance

Join internationally recognized futurist Elliott Masie and i4cp’s VP of Research Jay Jamrog as they examine this research and provide solutions on how to drive productivity and performance by implementing effective social and informal learning strategies. Takeaways include:

  • What social and informal learning approaches are currently working for organizations
  • Where are the gaps that can serve as opportunities
  • How can organizations put social and informal learning strategies into action sooner rather than later

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/195339614

I really wish I could attend this but I will be at training all day. If anyone attends and gets a link to the archive please share it with me! :)

Filed under: Learning
March 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Twitter's Place in Learning

Imagine you’re teaching a class or presenting at a conference and you hear the click clack, click clack of someone texting away on her cell phone?

What’s your initial assumption?

Is she chatting with a friend about the latest Twilight movie (which by the way is scheduled to release November 20th)?

Or could it be that she is so engaged with your presentation that she is sharing the content with hundreds of followers and millions of users of the micro-blogging tool Twitter?

The March issue  of T+D, ASTD’s monthly magazine, has an article titled Twitter as a Learning Tool. Really.

The article shows that corporate America is catching on to what libraries have known for years…informal learning counts and learning communities exist–whether you want them to or not.

Among conferences Twitter is often seen as the “back channel” where you can find out which presentations are good, which presentations are not so good, and where the free food is! Key themes and concepts are also shared for the benefit of those followers not attending the conference or for those not attending the same session.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nico_macdonald/2604409630/

As a kinesthetic learner–my hands have to constantly be moving–Twitter has been a great way for me to reinforce what I am learning and share with colleagues across the world.

However this can be an area where worlds collide–Learning 1.0 versus Learning 2.0 or Facilitator 1.0 versus Facilitator 2.0. Not all presenters are familiar with Twitter or comfortable with the concept. There’s even discussion in academia about whether tweeting content from a class is a copyright violation. <Pause> <Sigh>

Michael Stephens is using Twitter effectively and innovatively to communicate with his LIS students, but more importantly his students are communicating with each other. Check out one of his class’s tweets here.

So I challenge all the trainers and facilitators out there, even if you never become a Twitter user, at least be familiar with the concept and recognize the value it brings to your audience and learners.

Some tips if you are facilitating while twittering is going on:

  • Embrace the technology. Don’t ban it. My personal pet peeve is attending training where laptops and cell phones are banned. Sorry but I feel naked without a keyboard and I’m not even a digital native. If you want to instantly alienate digital natives, force them to sit still and ban texting.
  • If you truly want to embrace the technology follow David Lee King’s example and connect with your audience during the presentation. Not only does David monitor Twitter during his own presentations but he answers questions that come in through Twitter as well. Twitter is a great way to get instant feedback during a presentation.
  • Give up control. Realize that we are all adults and we are training adults. Yes there may be some texting discussing whether Rob Pattison’s hair will grow out in time for the shooting of New Moon but we need to put more responsibility on our learners. It is not our responsibility to police the use of cell phones and laptops during a presentation.

Want more tips? Read this great article on Pistachio Consulting with more tips for presenters.

While you’re at it be sure to read Peter Bromberg’s tips of what not to do if you are twittering during a conference.

Don’t get Twitter? You’re not alone! It took me at least a month to catch on. To learn more watch this video by Common Craft, Twitter in Plain English.

If you decide to give Twitter a try, make sure you say hello. I love connecting with readers and many of my closest colleagues in the library world are people I’ve met through sites like Twitter.

Filed under: Learning
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