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Learning about learning

How NOT To Learn Something

4/26/2016

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Last September, my name came up in some official roll-of-the-dice selection process and I got the authoritative dispatch informing me I had been selected for jury duty. I dutifully reported to the courthouse as required only to discover this was no ordinary sit around, read a book, knit a scarf and maybe get picked one day jury. 
 This was the Grand Jury at the Federal Level, and those who were selected for the honor would be committed to a full year of service, reporting to the courtroom every other Tuesday for a year.  There were 58 of us, and they needed to select 23 jurors and 6 alternates, so I figured I had a 50/50 chance of missing the winner's circle on this one. They pulled 29 names mine wasn't included. Phew.
Then we began the excuses and dismissals for people who had relatives involved in a trial, the jobs that would create hardship, the grandmother traveling overseas for the birth of a child who would miss several months, etc, and one by one, the pool diminished and a replacement was added. We were close to being finished, and a "what about...." question arose from a final candidate. She was dismissed, and my name was drawn.  <Cue Perry Mason music> What the heck, I figured. You can always learn something, right? I have fond childhood memories of the Perry Mason theme song playing as I walked down the hall to bed every night. It was one of my grandfather's favorite shows and it came on after the 11:00 news. 

Sworn to Secrecy

Our training included very stern instructions that we were not to discuss the proceedings of the trial with anyone. Spouse. Mother. Therapist. Nada. No one. It was especially important because this is Rhode Island, and as a small state, six degrees of separation is more like 2.31, so we aren't allowed to talk about the cases. I can tell you that it's like watching a mashup of Law and Order where the case changes at each commercial break. We've had 16 cases so far, and I've filled up three notebooks, which, by the way, must be left in the courtroom, along with the officially appointed court pen. We may not bring our cell phones past the security guards (lest we record something!) though we can house them in a little phone locker with the security staff by the metal detectors and sign them out at lunch. I was jonesing over that the first couple of weeks (How do I tell time?) but I got over that and now don't even bother to bring my iPhone along to sit in the little locker.

So What Does This Have to Do with Learning?

You may be wondering, since I can't talk about any of this, what it has to do with learning. LOTS! Let me explain. 

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Ribbons, Awards & 15 Minutes of Fame

3/21/2016

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Guild master? Me?

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Last week was the eLearning Guild's 2016 Learning Solutions Conference. I love going to this conference because it consists of kindred spirits; people who get learning, what works, and are passionate to share those ideas. It's a community of practice that gathers in Orlando to learn. Yeah, I'm a learning junkie. I fly to Orlando and sit in hotels to learn about learning and love every minute of it.  

During this year's second day opening session, the 2016 Guild Masters were announced. I was stuck in Orlando traffic, so I missed the announcement. In reading the back channel Twitter feed, I saw that the late Jay Cross was honored with this title and that made me cry. Jay is credited with inventing the term elearning, and taught us that most of the learning occurs outside of training - informally. He was truly one of my heros. 
Then the feed started congratulating me. For what? All day long people were congratulating me for who knows what. It wasn't until late in the day that David Kelly presented me with my award as 2016 Guild Master. Apparently he handled that great awkward silence when I didn't pop up by asking everyone to have some fun with me and congratulate me without sharing what as they saw me throughout the day. That was fun. I suppose there is some irony in having the two 2016 Guild Masters presented in absentia this year. After all, we are about the virtual thing in elearning. 

I was astounded, humbled and honored to be included with the likes of those who have taught ME so much: Clark Quinn, Jane Bozarth, Chad Udell, Michael Allen, Mark Rosenberg, Allison Rossett, Joe Ganci, Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher. All I know in this business I have learned from those who have been willing to share what they know with others. 
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Go figure. My 15 minutes of fame and I missed it stuck in traffic.

So what does a guild Master do, anyway?

Today is the first day back to work after receiving this award, and I'm sitting here wondering what the heck a Guild Master is supposed to do, anyway, when it hit me. More of the same. For me, that's sharing what I know with others. It's not about being the professorial sage on the stage. It's about learning together. Noodling with others on the best way to do things. Mentoring other IDs on dealing with the SME who can't meet deadlines, who don't get this learning thing at all and want to dump more content than any human can absorb in a few days into a 15 minute elearning module. I have loved developing the IDs on my teams, watching the lightbulbs go off, and seeing them move into better learning for their clients. I've also watched them carry that mission forward. (My husband calls that the cult of Jean Marrapodi. )

It's reminding people that the goal of your learning must be able to be encapsulated in one high level sentence. In the end, what do you want them to KNOW and DO? then finding a way to assess that. It's about assessing the right things. Not vocabulary. It's about making things look good so people aren't distracted and the information is organized. It's about listening and learning from others. It's about tweeting new ideas. Retweeting great ideas of others. Taking scissors to red tape. Documenting processes to see how convoluted they are. Challenging "because we've always done it that way".  

It's about always learning. Not just what we do for a living, but applying tangential thinking to what we do to make it better. This year I've been working on human computer interface design and learned a ton from the world of design thinking, and interface design, and the way they explore people's needs to solve problems. We don't do that enough.

It's about attending conferences, sharing workshops and learning from others. I leave on such a high from a conference and can't wait to try out the new discoveries. It's also about connecting with those who are in the trenches making a difference to continue to learn from them.


It's also about encouraging every individual to leverage their strengths; to learn from their mistakes and hear the voice of Abilene telling YOU what she told Mae on a regular basis: You is kind, you is smart, you is important.

Cause you is.
​Now..... what have YOU learned today?

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Rebels, Leaders & Other Tide Buckers

2/25/2016

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I'm a rebel. There. I've said it. I admit it. And it gets me into all kinds of trouble trying to fit into Corporate America. Tracy Goodwin (aka The Red Sweater Lady) of Captivate the Room asked to interview me and titled the conversation When Speaking Your Truth Becomes a Threat and More. Yes, indeed, I have stories. How about this?
Me: There is a major problem here and we need to fix it. We could....
Boss: Yes. We all know there is a problem. You need to stop harping on it.
Me: But [boss] don't you see this is just like story of The Emperor Has No Clothes?
Boss: Yes it is. We all know that this is a problem. Nothing is going to change. No one is going to fix it. We need to stop talking about it.
Me: But we could...
Boss: I don't care. WE are not going to fix this. It's not our problem.
Me: But it's making everything we do take six times as long.
Boss: That doesn't matter. That's how it is. If you are going to work here, you need to deal with it.
Me: But isn't fixing it dealing with it?
Boss: No.
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I just spent a year on this merry-go-round working for a large regional bank. I was specifically hired, courted, actually, by my boss to come in to make changes. That was just fine as long as nothing had to change. Huh? I managed to convert a series of allies and bring them along with me to embrace change and work in new ways and they loved it. But it's hard bucking the tide all the time. 

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Unexpected Learning

5/18/2015

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Musings from ATD2015

I'm in Orlando at the Association for Talent Development International Conference and Exposition, fondly known in the industry as ATD ICE. This is my second year, and I'm still amazed by the mammoth size of this event. I forgot from last time that I should have prepared for the Boston Marathon prior to coming here. This place is HUGE and I'm convinced that I am walking several miles between the parking lot and between sessions. 

It's also an interesting thing to see the family gathering atmosphere that occurs here as people who have made connections over the years reconnect at the conference. There's lots of catching up, and I suspect that there are some job connections that come from this event as people build their PLN. One the flip side, if you come alone, things can be daunting and feel clique-ish. It's important to realize that things are not like that at all. Everyone is welcome and often invited. 

The discoveries so far have been rather unexpected.

MUSING One
GIRLFRIEND, Get Down Off Your PRIVILEGED High Horse

When I arrived in town I picked up my rental car and began to grumble about how uncomfortable it was and WHAT! It didn't have power windows and locks. It's a Kia Rio, and definitely NOT a car I'd ever buy for myself because the headrest pitches you toward the windshield and it's really hard to get comfortable.

I drove from the airport to the timeshare I'd rented for the week. RCI had a special promotion of an extra week of vacation for $249, so I cancelled my reservation at the Hyatt, right next to the convention center, and booked a week at the High Point World Resort. The pictures looked good, and the reviews were mainly five star. I'd always had wonderful resorts whenever we'd stayed at RCI places, so I had great expectation, especially after the resort we stayed at for Learning Solutions with its full service, incredible food, poolside restaurant by the enormous pools with multiple hot tubs and posh accommodations.

This place was a little different. My GPS sent me to the strip with all the cheap souvenir shops and down a tiny road to what looked like a pre-fab housing development of budget townhouses. The welcome center was two guys at a desk. One checked me in and the other handed me a stack of paperwork about the "amenities" which included a hot dog roast by the pool in the middle of the complex on Wednesday night.

I found my unit and walked into 1980 complete with the brown canvas couch, the VCR and the Formica furniture in the bedroom, complete with mirrored closet doors.

It looked clean anyway, so I settled where I met the lizard running around the walls of my living room. Oh boy. Could this get any worse? At least it wasn't a mouse. 

I posted something on the ATD Facebook page about the lizard and Michele Lawson suggested I give him a red feather and invite him for networking. So I named him Richard, after someone I'd met at dinner, and decided I could deal with him.

It's funny, how that little bit of perspective changed everything. Last night when I got back Richard was no where to be found, despite his very visible dashing presence the night before. I was kind of sad about that.

This morning I woke up and realized that this place would be luxurious if I were in India and decided that it's not so bad after all, even though the wi-fi is not working. I have a hot spot on my phone. What's the big deal? What was so annoying yesterday is not so much of a bother. I realized that I needed to get down off my high horse and be grateful for having a place that saved me a ton of money and a car that gets me to the conference safely. I have sneakers to wear to be comfortable in the marathon walk from the parking lot, and can walk off some of the calories from the fabulous meals we've been eating. So first lesson learned: In the moments of tiredness, annoyances are bigger than they really are. Get over it and put things in perspective.

MUSING TWO
UNexpected Conversations

I was invited to dinner gatherings by two people I'd never met before, and I'm so grateful to Michelle Lawson and Megan Torrance, who gathered together random groups of people to go to dinner. I ate at Margianno's Italian restaurant and Fogo de Chao Brazilian Steak Houses; both places I wouldn't have stumbled on. The food was great but the company was really fascinating.

I met Richard and Austin from Sage Media out in Denver. They do video, which was pretty interesting, but the conversation evolved to elements of film, which is something I know next to nothing about. It was really interesting piecing fragments of the conversation together with my little knowledge store in this area. I wonder how often that happens in our training classes? Definitely something to think about to make sure that I attach new concepts to something familiar.

On Sunday I had breakfast with Aaron Silvers, a long time Twitter friend of mine who is an expert in xAPI, and his friend Russell Duhon. It was interesting hearing the geek side of the process and the evolution from SCORM, something no one really understands, but we are expected to conform learning in our LMS to it. I wish my friend Jason Kramer would have been there. He'd have eaten that up. Perhaps another conference.

Musing Three
Learnings So Far

I've been focusing on instructional design at this conference. I attended a workshop on Design Thinking for Instructional Designers with Angel Green from Allen Interactions. She walked us through some exercises we could use with our SMEs, which generated an oh duh! moment for me: Leverage Design Thinking Principles with our SMEs. I'd recently taught the principles of Design Thinking to my team of IDs and never thought to have them use that with their SMEs.

After teaching my session, I went to a workshop with Dick Handshaw and Jim Robinson called When Instructional Design Meets Performance Management. I'm trained in both disciplines, but it was really nice to have a refresher from the people who were key influencers in practices we use today. I'd never thought about the importance of getting to the right SME to identify the business issue, and that often means escalating a level or two. I plan to share their slides with my team and work a little harder to dig out the business issue around the behavior problem or need we need to solve for. When training addresses and corrects a business issue, the business sees training as a valued partner. I returned to Dick's ID workshop today and was reminded yet again how important that is.

Today I attended Ken Blanchard's presentation on the new One Minute Manager. His original book is over 20 years old. Business has changed, but paying attention to employees has not. Connecting, praising and redirecting toward the goal go a long way in developing people. It's amazing to have been able to see the pioneers and leaders in our discipline in person. 

Reflection is important

I've been tweeting up a storm at this conference. It's been great meeting people, and sharing the nuggets that I've been discovering in workshops. I really appreciate having the handouts available and online so I can go back to them and add them to my notes. I'm not convinced I appreciate the long trek from one end of the building to another between workshops and from parking to the conference, but I have appreciated having quiet time to reflect like this.

I've learned a lot so far. How about you?
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Six word Memoirs

12/30/2014

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I was wandering on a path of tangents from Twitter this morning, and stumbled on Six Word Memoirs. What a brilliant writing prompt! I would love to use this in a class somewhere. I was pondering what my six words would be for 2014, since this has been a year of transition. 

If I use this as a scratch pad for 2014 I come up with:
  • Jason, Kara, Naomi, Ali. Piggy Pilots.
  • Teaching, Learning, Growing, Loving, Discovering, Creating.
  • Work, church, home, computer computer computer.
  • Charity, Casanova, Faith, Rosalina, Rocco. Pets.
  • Life, death, change. Experiences, memories, change.


I suppose I could get all Freudian about what came out there. But I won't. 

What would your six words be?
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reflecting on 2014: Celebrate and Change

12/12/2014

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2014 is going to go down in history as a year of celebration and change.
  • Celebrate and change. This year I led my team at work to win three national awards, then left the company in November.  I am so proud of the Piggy Pilots and all we became together. I celebrate all that I learned in my time at NECB, and look forward to the change that a new job will bring.
  • Celebrate and change. This year my daughter and her family moved back to Rhode Island, so the six grandkids live nearby again. That means more interaction, and planning  space for them in life. 
  • Celebrate and change. I finally redid my website. It's about time, since the first version was built about 10 years ago. Definitely time.
  • Celebrate and change. This year I also spent considerable time reflecting on what really matters in life. I was able to spend time with friends, and celebrate with them as they experienced changes in their lives. 
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Joann, Stephanie and Jean
This year I was able to spend time with two women who pulled me out of my comfort zone as I walked through the upheavals of life with them. Stephanie is 22 and I cannot imagine living through the horror and abuse she faced in her first 18.  I came out of a mess, but it pales by comparison to hers. Yet today, Stephanie is a mirror of God's grace. I have watched one of the most remarkable transformations in her over the past five months, but also some of the most intense suffering as she battles to regain custody of her daughter unfairly taken away at birth. Some days life just doesn't seem fair. But God is faithful, and knows the bigger picture.
Joanne let me see secularism through our conversations and her perspective. Coming from a world devoid of Christ certainly is different than the place I live.  We are both educators, with similar lifestyles, but certainly very different thinking. We have had many heated debates as she wrestles with her newly found faith.  This has given me a better sense of compassion this year. It is my honor to mentor both Joann and Stephanie and walk into 2015 together.

Celebrate and change. For me, it will be a change moving into another job. As I've been going through the interview process, I've been able to redefine who I am and what I want in my career.  I'm not changing who I am by any means. I'm just sharpening the focus a bit. I've realized how much I enjoy leading and teaching others, and look forward to working with another team. I also recognize the maverick that I am, and that creativity leads to innovation. However, many are threatened by it so I need to learn to tread lightly.

With change, comes predictable patterns. I anticipate the ups and downs of the new year with the changes, but I'm making a point to celebrate along the way. I hope you are too.

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    Jean Marrapodi

    Teacher by training, learner by design.

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