5 a.m.

INTRO

It's 5 a.m. on a Saturday. I'm on a path that I'm not sure where it goes.

FADED PHOTOGRAPHS OF VIVID MEMORIES THAT MAY NOT HAVE HAPPENED, YET

I'm on my way to #LSCon, the Learning Solutions Conference, produced by the eLearning Guild. But that's not what this post is about. I'm on my way to Orlando, Florida where the conference is held. To get there I have to travel along a path from my distant past.

The end of 1977 found me at Corry Station learning the finer points of being a technical sailor in the US Navy. Corry Station, in ancient times, was a naval air station. I have a vivid memory walking across the old runway apron and tripping over an old aircraft tie-down cleat. It was set, recessed, into the concrete, a small loop of rusted iron. At least that's how I remember it. I think I took a photo of it. If I did I lost it. It isn't in my Flickr, one of the apps I use to record photos.

At this very moment I'm in El Paso readying myself for today's travel. I'm connected to the Internet via a 3G Verizon mobile device. In its day it was fast. Today it's like molasses. A few minutes ago I was in Flickr looking for old photos. After about two years of pictures the screen turned gray. The photos are there, on a server somewhere, but not here in front of me to verify my memory.

I hope to travel 600 miles today just like I did yesterday. Except that yesterday I barely made it 400 miles. I kept stopping, for reasons of health and curiosity, to pass some time among memories. I flew my BeBop drone to give me a perspective I didn't have back then. If you follow me on social media expect lots of fisheye views of the ground from 30 metres up the next few days.

OUTRO

In 1977 parts of Interstate 10 hadn't been completed. Today, I hope to find a detour I took around one such unfinished section. Only I'm not 100% sure where it was. One end was at Fort Stockton, Texas. I recall a cattle watering tank and an ancient Ford Aeromotor (a windmill). If I find them, expect a flyover. If I can't find it maybe I'll do a sketch of the vivid memory of something I think I saw 39 years ago for a moment.

 

 

Hey Aviator

PROLOGUE

I'm an aviator. Ok, not really. But I do wear glasses and own a drone quadcopter. The point is I drive something that flies.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to _______. But I have a short attention span. It doesn't help I'm attracted to shiny objects. So along the way of my life I've half started a lot of things. But now that I'm an OldPa (a term I remember from an old Lionel Barrymore as grandfather movie) I have a little more disposable income.

So the other day I used some to buy a Parrot Bebop 2 drone. I needed one to respond to an RFP (Request For Proposal). Now that I've responded I have a cool red toy to play with.

Speaking of play, I like to have fun while learning. One way I have tons-o-fun learning is by participating in EdCamps. In a nutshell they're gatherings of teachers where everyone is a genius. I've lost count of how many I've participated in. Anyway, at one of them I noticed how learning can be influenced by environment. I was in a first grade classroom. Not only was everything small, like models I glued together as a boy, most things in the room were scaled down, maybe 3:1. I had expected that.

What I hadn't expected was how low things on the wall were. I'm 6 feet and 5 inches tall. I had to look down at learning aids placed on the walls. Something a six year old looked straight into I had to peer down at. This has AHA! moment kick-started my thinking on learning environments.

THE TOPS OF THINGS

When I spun up the props on my Bebop and got it about three metres in the air I saw a whole new world. Tall as I am I mostly look down at things. Of course I look up at stuff too. But being a creature of habit I tend to not really notice the usual stuff around me. Taking a look at my surroundings from higher up than usual really opened my eyes. Cliche though it may be to say I saw a whole new world it's true.

RETRACING OLD STEPS

Cactus tops, tree tops, house tops, my bald head are all things the drone and me have captured. I don't expect the novelty to wear off for a while.

In 1977 I entered active duty with the US Navy. I did a lot of traveling over the next six years. One of my more memorable trips was driving my then new Toyota Celica from Corry Station near Pensacola, Florida to my boyhood home in California. The 2209 mile trip took me around 44 hours. I remember bits and pieces of sights along the way. What I remember most though was how big and diverse the southern United States is.

In seven days I start driving from my home in Arizona to a conference in Orlando, Florida. I'll be in my new Honda CR-V. I expect to make a lot of stops along the way. I'm looking forward at what the drone's view reveals.

EPILOGUE

What the drone really does is expand my view just a little bit. My eyes are almost 40 years older than they were in '77. It occurred to me just now how Google Earth lets me look down. The drone makes it more personal, so much more up close. I think that's what an aviator might feel flying through the air. I'm not a passenger peering out a window at the world going by. I'm choosing the path and experience what's coming up.

 

Conf it up

INTRO

What do you do when the concurrent conference session you were really interested in falls flat?

THE LEARNER IN THE MIRROR

I've done it. I'm in a conference session whose title and description really resonated with me. But then a little into it I catch myself browsing the web on my mobile device because the actual presentation isn't all that interesting.

Over the past 12 months I've gone to a dozen or so conferences. Most were EdCamps; the others were sponsored by professional development organizations.

As a presenter it stings when I don't connect with the people in the room. Heads go down and it's plain they're doing something else. Mea culpa. Reflecting on this on the long drive home from EdCampVentura Sunday I wondered how a presentation might play out if it was more conversational. That's where the root of conference comes from: conversations among people brought together by similar interests.

OUTRO

When a presenter asks their audience to put their mobile devices away are they doing it to avoid disruption? Or might they be saying, "What I have to share isn't all that interesting." Maybe an appropriate response is following that basic tenet of EdCamp: Vote with your feet.

 

 

An Old Dude Gets Whyze

INTRO

In my personal life rarely do I have a plan.

GIVING UP CONTROL MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE UNTIL IT DIDN'T

A basic tenet of EdCamp is to vote with your feet. Not getting what you came for? Vote with your feet: Let them take you where you might.

Almost 40 years ago I gave up control of my life for six years. At 20 I enlisted in the US military. In the Navy to be precise. I made choices, sure. But for the most part others made the decisions. Except they were really my choices. Confused? So was I. At least until I read a blog post by @davidtedu on a writing technique known as The Three Whys. The way I figure it asking why three times takes one deeper into a subject. This allows one to glean insights that might have been missed during a more conventional process of analysis.

Why did I join the Navy? To have an adventure. To have a chance at living a life beyond the commute here and there existence I'd known for far too long. Why did I want adventure? Because I felt my life to that point resembled a connect-the-dots puzzle where predefined forms reveal themselves after a period of focused effort. The point is the forms were there all the time. It was live by the numbers 28-29-30 and there you are hello Mr. Easter Bunny. Why do I have a problem with numbers? Because life isn't about counting. Life is more about formulating. And there I got brought up short. Because I don't like to plan. If I really believe in formulating, in thinking deep thoughts and applying, them isn't that planning, which I have mentioned I'm not a big fan of?

AN IDYLLIC YEAR LIVING IN A JUNGLE

Diego Garcia. I spent one of the best years of my life there. Located a little off the equator in the Indian Ocean it's a coral atoll and jungle. The thing about jungles is they smell. Jungles smell bad. It's because jungles are in continual renewal. Old stuff falls to the jungle floor where decomposes. It feeds new life. I had to travel something like 11,000 miles from home to learn that lesson.

I got there after a week riding a C-141 transport plane all the way from Norton AFB (Air Force Base), to Travis AFB, to Hickam AFB, to Anderson AFB, to Clark AFB, to.. Trust me on this point: It took a whole lot of tos to get me where I wanted to be.

Which brings me back to choices. Diego Garcia in 1978 was isolated duty. I volunteered to go there so the Navy obliged and sent me. I learned that I could usually get what I wanted by asking for stuff few wanted. It wasn't a plan. It was a formula.

UP UP AND HEY

I've voted with my feet twice in the last couple weeks. At Design Camp San Diego and EdCampPerris I listened for a time then got up and moved on. What got me moving was a static message, a conversation where one person was doing most of the talking. I know this as teaching. What I'm much more into these days is learning. It's like traveling by air. You can get there slowly by balloon. To go the distance, to make the big leaps, takes oomph, the sort of thing a rocket is good for. The great thing about EdCamp are conversations, where everyone speaks up and shares. It's a kind of design thinking. Everyone speaks up. Different things resonate with different people. Bonds of empathy bring people together for deeper collaboration.

OUTRO

So I asked why a few times and I got whyze. With this whyzdom came the realization that I don't much like being told how something works. I'd much rather listen to a multitude of others share how they think something works and then try it on for size so I can figure out how it works. Thank you David for why assist.

 

Learning is motion

INTRO

Initial meetings with clients can be illuminating.

LEARNING ENABLES HEARTS AND MINDS TO GET MOVING

The other day I met with a new client. Their team and I are in the "getting to know you" stage. They showed me a number of slides with data on how many courses were in production, how many were live on their LMS and how many courses were taken by their employees.

When I asked about results, what we refer to in the business as return on investment, they drew a blank. Sadly, this is typical. Their data tell a story about butts-in-seats: developing and completing training. But learning is so much more than that.

Don Wettrick teaches a course on innovation at his high school in Indiana. In a Periscope video this morning he talked about how he's considering moving away from traditional grading to PASS/FAIL.

Reflecting on his thoughts I got to thinking that the methods my client and Don use to assess learning misses on efficacy. How well did they achieve their planned result?

One (among many) things I've learned after two years of professional development (PD) alongside K-12 teachers is that mistakes matter. They're a significant part of the learning process. My client, tracking the data they do, don't have visibility on the number of mistakes their organization is making. They don't know if the training they've developed has moved the organization towards its planned result.

OUTRO

I would suggest to Don that grades are important. PASS/FAIL doesn't capture the mistakes learners make along the way. I don't believe grades are a carrot to entice learners to do better for the sake of a higher grade. In Don's Pure Genius he writes how learners say what they're going to do, how much their ultimate work will be worth and then assess along the way and at the end. I believe learning is much more than butts-in-seats. It's about enabling learners to get their hearts and minds in motion doing stuff. Honor the mistakes learners make along the way. Keep the grades.

 

Wanted Moster

INTRO

I used to be a Hagar the Horrible fanboy. The Dik Browne strip was a hoot and helped me get my day started right. One of my fav strips was where a bartender asks Hagar what he wants. His reply is something I cherish to this day.

WHAT DO I WANT? WHAT DOES ANY VIKING WANT?

Today's #ds106 daily create challenge was to produce a wanted poster.

To get some ideas I googled "wanted poster". An animated poster of Have You Seen This Wizard caught my eye right away. So that's what I decided to make.

OUTRO

I love using my iPad to ideate and prototype. The daily create challenge helps me open up my creative mindset.

 

Pains of Glass

INTRO

I spent most of the morning after Christmas looking out my back window and sketching. My mind, free to wander and wonder, eventually coalesced around a pane of glass

INTO THE AIR WE EVENTUALLY THRUST OURSELVES

I used to make a mean paper airplane. It was fun experimenting with folds and tossing them into the air. Some flew mostly straight. Other planes flew erratic paths in the air.

Somewhere, sometime, I remember someone telling me there would come a time when I would have to put aside my childish things. So at some point in my life I did.

Now, many years later I find myself wondering, is there a difference between childish and childlike? As usual when my mind drifts too far afield I ask Mrs for her perspective. What usually happens is while she's sharing I either have a sudden AHA! moment of crystal clear insight or my thoughts go off on an unexpected tangent.

Today it was a sudden insight that brought understanding. Childish suggests something having to do with one's maturity. Caught with my hand in the cookie jar do I deny it's my hand or do I ask, "Want a cookie too?" Childlike, on the other hand, speaks to innocence and wonder.

OUTRO

It's sometimes painful when I look back and recollect. What might have been, if.. I used to think they were cognitive excursions of the wasteful kind. The past is immutable, right? But of course they're not wasted. Reflections can lead to the old seen in new ways and to new directions.

Which brings me to my granddaughter Carly. We light up when we see each other. I've mostly given up sharing things I know with her. We both get more out of our time together when I experience what she shares with me. I like being childlike alongside her. Problems I'm working on seem smaller when I see them as I think Carly might. No pane, no gain.

 

Experience It

PROLOGUE

Bored, the boy took off his watch and began fiddling with it whilst the teacher droned on about predicates. Turning his head he gazed out the window at the concrete playground. Lost in a daydream playing ball with his friends his watch, somehow, found its way into the cuff of his uniform pants. "Five more minutes. Please God make the time go faster." the boy prayed as he stared at the clock high up on the wall. "My watch! Where did it go?" he thought as he sat up suddenly, his face worried. His right arm shot up, hand waving frantically trying to gain the teacher's attention.

LEARNERS EXPERIENCE LOSS EVERY DAY

This actually happened. A few days after Christmas Break in 1969 I lost my watch. The sister, at Our Lady of Guadalupe School teachers were nuns of the Incarnate Word Order, when she noticed my raised hand smiled. Maybe she thought I was going to ask a question predicated on predicates? Sadly, we'll never know. What I do know, much to my embarrassment, was what happened next. After I told her I'd lost my watch she asked the class to help look for it. Before anyone could start Peter, sitting at his desk in the row next to mine said "He stuffed it into his pants cuff a few minutes go." What do you think happened next?

I learned lots of stuff in school. Reflecting on my experience now, so many years later, it surprises me that I did. I mean so much of the time in class I was daydreaming.

Fast forward to now: I finished watching George Saunders: On Story. My takeaway from his talk, I watched it several times, is that story is experience boxed up. Opening the story exposes someone to wonder. Being individuals we appreciate the story based on our experience. So I reflected on this a little more and connected some dots.

What if an online learning experience was more about story than facts? I'm taking HumanMOOC at the moment. I'm learning how to make online learning experiences a bit more learner friendly and engaging. The course is presented in two modalities that I don't completely understand. One is instructor directed whilst the other, I think, is learner directed. As usual in school the subject matter is chunked into lessons or modules the thought of which makes me shudder. They're artificial structures designed to make it easier for.. sorry, I'm going off on a tangent that has nothing to do with my story.

Except that it does. When a student is engaged in her learner experience hours can seem to pass in a blink. In this MOOC I'm put off by the structure of the first modality and confused by the second. The dissonance I feel makes me seek a third learning mode: rhizomatic learning. It's where I come up with a question and go in search of stuff. Sometimes I find answers. Most of the time what I find is more questions.

This is where the magic happens. Rather than poring over media the course designer and/or instructor thinks will provide learning I go on my own way. I don't believe it's serendipitous. It's purpose driven. It's my purpose that motivates me to go out and learn based on my own needs via my own resources.

EPILOGUE

My face, I'm told, flushed the deep red associated with life-threatening embarrassment as sister bent down to retrieve the watch from my pants-cuff. Geez that memory comes back so clearly despite the passing of almost 50 years. How might we leverage story to build life-lasting knowledge and skill? Might it encourage learners to open a door and, curious, go out into the night and experience it?

 

 

Where The Teachers Are

INTRO

I spent Saturday October 24 with a roomful of ELA (English Language Art) teachers at the Arizona K12 Center. We learned about educational technology tools, including how to leverage them to support teaching to Arizona’s college and career ready standards. Disclosure: I’m not a teacher. I do instructional design.

IMPROVISATIONAL PD: FAILING TO GET IT RIGHT

Me not being a teacher is a good thing. I don’t know enough to keep quiet when something was introduced during the workshop. It’s all new to me. Except that it’s not. I learn a lot about K-12 strategies and educational technology at the EdCamps I participate in. Through some applied improvisation later on I figure out how to apply it with the adult learners I support.

I get asked sometimes why participate in so many EdCamps? I think I’m up to 30 so far: EdCamps in Texas, Arizona, California and Washington, DC. It’s because I like the improv. Hearing about something cool I want to try it right away, or as soon as possible, before it gets stale. I view doing something that I just learned from teachers as improv because I’m flying without a net. I don’t know what the cues are. Not being a teacher means I’m not sure about context. So I give it a try and add or drop stuff as seems to make sense.

OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING INSIDE OF A BREAKOUT EDU BOX

I hear now and then how we instructional designers need to be more innovative and creative. A lot of times the ideas that come back from “How?” involve advanced educational technology. Since EdCamp I prefer simpler more natural and humanistic approaches.

At CUEROCKSTAR Las VegasI learned about this Breakout EDU thing. The way it works is you get a box. But not just an ordinary box. Noooo. You get one with a sturdy hasp. About that hasp, it’s an electricians lockout hasp. There can be as many as six locks on this hasp.

The teacher, or in my case instructional designer, crafts an engaging story. This is what teacher and author Dave Burgess calls “A Hook”. My name for it, after watching Jack Black in Goosebumps, is “The Twist.” Anyway, the learner or learners, once engaged, work to solve puzzles. The puzzles and their solutions are grounded in what the learner is being taught or trained on.

EVENT WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK IT WORKS OUT

At AZTEA’s P3: Problems, Projects, and Possibilities conference I presented a session on designing interactive presentations. One of the things I demonstrated was the Breakout EDU box. There were “technical difficulties”, however, and I had to do some improvisation to get over the bump.

Here’s how it was supposed to go. First there was the trailer. Then the backstory. Lastly was the vital clue. Anyway, given technical difficulties I had to play all the parts live. I got to feel the learning. It was pretty cool. I have a whole new perspective on how to do it next time. I’ll definitely have some backup stuff, too.

SCORE ANOTHER ONE FOR THE ZOMBIE (LEARNER) APOCALYPSE

One thing I need to work on, what teacher Chris Long calls Self-Development is the BOOS (Butts-Out-Of-Seats).

I think, and some research studies suggests, learning efficacy can be deepened when learners are actively engaged and moving around doing learning activities.

THATS WHERE THE TEACHERS ARE

To review, why do I get most of my PD (Professional Development) from EdCamp & CUE? Because that’s where the teachers are.

 

Sit n Get

INTRO

My K-12 experience spanned from 1961 through 1974. My butt polished a lot of chairs in that time.

SIT

I can't recall many times, outside of PE class, where I wasn't sitting down in school. Sure, there were those terrifying moments working problems on the blackboard. But this activity wasn't something a kid looked forward to.

The classrooms I knew had rows of chairs. Desktop collaboration was difficult. Aside from the floor flat surfaces to spread out and collaborate on were few. I cannot recall a time when we used the floor.

@ErikWahl and @KidsDeserveIt if you want to move education forward then your delivery needs to get students' bodies moving.

GET

I design learning experiences for adults. In the almost two years that I've been participating in EdCamp I have learned many ways to teach kids. I have been able to use some of these techniques and strategies and tools with the learners I support. The best of them involve movement.

Devices and technology give students reach: to information and each other. The information stores, libraries, that I encountered in the 1960s were places to borrow books. The Internet of the day, card catalogues, were slow and cumbersome and in the end useful only insofar as the library was able to keep the resource: book, periodical, or map. Accessing the resource required that I go to the library. Today the information comes to students through browsers and apps.

Students need to be set in motion. In a Twitter chat some time ago I heard about Heutagogy. In a nutshell I think its about going after learning. Students, whether adults or children know what they need. It's arguable that maybe adults have a more definite idea of their needs than children. I'm not so sure.

OUTRO

If we're serious about growing flexible, curious, and creative people we have to set them free to go after what interests them. It's our job as educators to design learning experiences that facilitate that chase. Set our students free. My granddaughter Carly is counting on you.

 

 

EdCampUSA Reflections

PROLOGUE

"When the student is ready the teacher will appear." -- Buddhist Proverb?

EdCampUSA

Friday May 29, 2015 saw me keeping company with educators at EdCampUSA in Washington, DC. It was quite a the learning experience. My PLN (Personal Learning Network) grew a few sizes whilst I listened and shared.

REFLECTIONS

I'm going to be thinking about the stuff I learned today. Chief among these includes wearables in education, student voice, and caring enough to figure it out. Not for the first time something occurred to me along the way. Some of what I heard wasn't new. Maybe it was deja vu? Or perhaps I was rehearing something I had heard before and set aside. I can't say for sure. But engaging with peers in conversation and chiming up when I had a mind to made for an exciting time.

EPILOGUE

Brad Pitt, in World War Z, said something to the effect of, "Movement is survival." I think he said it. Any, I think of learning in a similar way. I have to put myself out there where others are. Deja vu or new doesn't really make much difference. When the student is ready learning happens and stuff begins to make sense.

 

 

 

Be Long

PROLOGUE

AprilBlogaDay Day 16.. PLC & PLN and why they matter.

BE

Old news if you know me but worth saying again: The know-how and skills I learned during three months of EdCamp in 2013 got me home. Home, Mrs and me agree, is where I need to be.

LONG

From 2010 through early 2014 my job kept me far from home. I'm talking thousands of miles over that-a-way. Eager for new ideas to inform my instructional design craft I researched educational technology from my cubby in New Mexico. Up to that time, this was August 2013, I'd been active in my PLN (Personal Learning Network) on Twitter.

I participated on chats. I heard about stuff. Only it was mostly tried and true stuff. Don't get me wrong. The instructional strategies I heard about were practical, effective, and easy to put into practice with the learners I supported. But I could feel myself sliding slowly into a rut.

That was when I found my first PLC (Personal Learning Community). I'm talking about EdCampWestTexas.

Subtle: the difference between a PLC and a PLN I mean. It's subtle. As I get it a PLN is a gathering of like-minded people located some distance from each other. Social media apps like Facebook and Twitter enable them to come together virtually periodically. Occasionally individual PLN members might meet at an event. But for the most part their interests bring them together online for brief periods of time to share. A PLC is a group of people rooted in a place. It's easy for them to gather and share.

Because PLC members are mostly local to each other it's much easier for members to support collaborative learning, sharing, and making.

Most of the PLCs I consider myself a member of are a long distance away. Still, I am motivated to go the distance for the deeper learning I know I'll find with them. PLCs are communities of practice. I suppose one could argue distance is relative. If it's worth it you'll belong.

EPILOGUE

EdCampNavadota (Texas) is this Saturday. I had planned to go the distance and participate. As it happens my work requires me to be elsewhere. I'll still get to learn from members of my PLN that do attend. It's going to be amazing.

 

Social Earning

PROLOGUE

Good news bad news: learning in collaboration with others via social media can be amazing when learners(and their organizations) engage.

SOCIAL

Learning in the company of others offers learners a significant benefit. Individually they learn from gaining and applying their own knowledge. In groups learners benefit from insights triggered by others sharing their perspectives.

A traditional classroom's capacity may constrain group learning. Environmental issues might hinder social learning as well.

EARNING

Learning via social media removes some of the constraints. One, with walls gone you can share knowledge with as many others as you can network with. You can leverage technology to share perspectives across a variety of media: writing, videos, podcasts to name a few.

To benefit from social media learners have to invest themselves in it. Thinking about learning as earnings they have to work at it.

Social media can be a thorny issue for some organizations. Some I have produced learning experiences for have strict policies in place on how social media can be used. Others may prohibit it completely. There are cultural constraints as well. Things people share online via social media is visible. It takes a lot of trust for this exchange to happen.

EPILOGUE

Trust is the currency of learning with social media. When the trust is there learners are motivated to share. My job is designing training that leverages story, what some might call case studies, to hook learners interests and empathy. I keep advocating for it, designing it in where I can. We're getting there.

 

Expeditionary Mettle

PROLOGUE

"There's an old man sitting next to me.." -- Billy Joel -- Piano Man

EXPEDITIONARY

Why I teach.. My response to AprilBlogaDay Day 14.

Once upon a time, "When I wore a younger man's clothes," a US Navy uniform actually, I went on an expedition. I travelled far from home and all I knew. It's why I teach.

METTLE

I'm a little older now. I'm still expeditioning. These days my voyages are mostly over the American Southwest. At the helm of my Honda Pilot I travel far and wide to unconferences and conferences. I meet and learn from some amazing educators. Mettle. It's why I teach.

EPILOGUE

Why do I teach? I teach to learn. Those years I taught multimedia production, animation, and programming I learned from my students. I benefitted greatly from their questions and perspectives.

Today, as I design transformational learning experiences, I continue to learn. It's why I teach.

 

Connect Ed

PROLOGUE

AprilBlogaDay Day 12: What is my passion project? Finally, an easy question.

CONNECT

If the last 18 months have taught me anything it's this: connect, with loved ones, with those in the know.

ED

In most things, maybe everything, the most leverage you'll have in a project is early on.

 

EPILOGUE

Carly is my granddaughter. My passion project is putting things in front of her she can learn from. Doing it from a young age is the thing. It's something I'm not going to pass on.

 

Hiddenest Selfs

PROLOGUE

"Our own truths can be the hiddenest of all." -- Me

HIDDENEST

Day 11, AprilBlogaDay: It dawned on me a moment ago that it's a challenge. We're being dared to keep at it ever day, all month long. That's 30 days of month days.

Today's suggested topic: What are you reading professionally or personally, and why? My holistic take is everything I read has application in my craft and is fun to one degree or another.

I am always on the prowl for instructional strategies. The other day my gaze fell upon this gem: Simpson's Grammar.

I tend to read during quiet times. It's been a while since I read with other readers nearby for more than a few minutes.

SELFS

I start lots of books. Mostly they're on my iPad's Kindle app. I like science fiction. Some cool ideas have come from the genre.

Many books come recommended by people I know from EdCamps or Twitter chats. The thing they have in common include making the learning visible, doing what it takes to engage curiosity, and setting high and achievable expectations.

A couple-three years ago my professional self noticed many learners were disenchanted by what and how they were learning. I'm mostly talking about the training we get through our employers.

The people I interviewed gave a lot of reasons why it turned them off. It all got down to b-o-r-I-n-g. But not in the dull mind-numbing sense that probably popped into your mind first. The learning experiences they were being subjected to were superficial: Designers didn't develop learning that grabbed attention, that drilled down into what people wanted and needed to really learn and apply to improve their job performance.

EPILOGUE

Maybe we do a better job going our own way, seeking out learning that clicks for us. Or not. One thing I learned a while back that really touched me deeply: When Mrs needs help I should jump. She needs help putting the new leaf blower together. What makes you jump?

 

Knot Tried

PROLOGUE
I’d like to teach the world to sing “I’d to teach the world to sing” — The New Seekers, 1972.
KNOT
Day 10’s AprilBlogaDay is suddenly upon me. Who knew it’d wrap me up in its all encompassing thrall? What have I not tried this school year that I want to? (Disclosure: I’m an instructional designer producing learning experiences for health care providers).

Sure, a Tangram is supposed to come with seven shapes. But if seven is good eight or more must be great!
Anyway, most of my better ideas for learning activities have their roots in K-12; the bulk of my PD (Professional Development) activities come from participation in EdCamps, CUE, and TCEA events. There’s some amazing things going on in K-12. The rub for me is my learners are quite a bit older than first graders, so there’s that. Other differences are a little more knotty.
For example, teachers sometimes assign stuff to be completed after school hours. With adult learners being trained this way can be a big no-no; unions have contracts and there are strict rules for overtime and so on.
I usually have to reflect tons and bounce ideas off my PLN (Personal Learning Network) before an idea morphs into something that I can test.
TRIED
Tried is tired spelled sideways.
When, as part of my design thinking instructional design process, I interview learners I hear a lot of moans and groans about stuff that doesn’t work or work well. Don’t get me wrong. Most of the learning I see is great. But there’s room for improvement.

The thing I’d like to try next is a series of case studies told over a campfire. There’d be a campfire hook (thank you @burgessdave and his Teach Like a Pirate book for that) to draw learners in. What would have been a series of PowerPoint slides on a wall and a lecture would instead be transformed into hearing about a problem and then working through to an actual solution.
My thinking here is that at by the end of the training transfer would have occurred and learners will have made something (job-aids, decision-trees, something I haven’t even thought of (!!)) to make their learning visual and discussable. To the English teachers in my PLN: apologies for that run-on.
EPILOGUE
A lot of technology goes into education and training. I’d like to try a more primitive and earthy approach next time out. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Own It Don't Moan It

PROLOGUE

What would I say to my still wet behind the years self, just starting out in education? That’s the AprilBlogaDay Day 9 question.

OWN IT

If you fail, own it. If you didn’t learn it during your formative years here it is. I was reminded of it during the educational technologist Adam Bellow’s final keynote at the CUE15 Annual Conference a few weeks ago.

You’re going to fail from time to time. Stand up and own it. Share what you learned during the attempt. Ask for help when you try again.

When you are learning it’s to be expected that the first time around might be difficult. Own it.

DON’T MOAN IT

I had a talk with a peer the other day about my ball cap. I got this cool tan cap at CUE.

I happened to mention that wearing the cap took me back to when, whilst in the US Navy, a ball cap was part of my work uniform. Me and that ball cap were inseparable. Except that soon after I completed my enlistment the cap turned up missing. I didn’t moan or lament its loss. I moved on.

Talking about my ball cap experience and my CUE cap my led my coworker to say that the next time I suggested or advocated a novel learning activity I slow down. He said maybe in my excitement to hurry things along I’m not giving others the chance to understand its benefits.

This was huge. And to think that if I hadn’t been talking about a lost then found ball cap our conversation wouldn’t have gone there.

EPILOGUE

So to my younger self I would say: When you fail, share what you learned and try something else. When an experience doesn’t go your way move on strong as ever.

Tuna Piano

PROLOGUE

It’s a mystery. "Show them something to ask about..” sung to the tune of Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to talk about."

TUNA

Somehow I made it to Day 8 of #AprilBlogaDay. No one’s more surprised than me. Okay. Maybe that’s not true. But it could be.

I have lots of stories to tell. Some true. Some not. Like the time on Diego Garcia when.. a story tangent best left for another day, methinks.

So Day 8’s suggested topic is “How do we (educators) get students (them) asking then seeking rather than asking then getting?" In other words, "Why would a student want to find answers for themselves rather than being handed them?”

Consider for a moment the title of REO Speedwagon’s 1978 album.

Nonsense or sense making? Anyway, the first time I heard the album’s name I did a double-take. And that was way before the Internet. Imagine where a little crazy could take your students?

PIANO

Seriously. I used to watch a lot of TV. Okay, I still watch a lot of TV but that’s not important right now. What is important is this: The Paper Chase. I didn’t really like watching it much though. The part about it that hurt had to do with the lecture hall.

Hundreds of students learning law from a Sage On The Stage. Maybe if you can find and watch an episode or two you’ll see what I mean. Then again, maybe there’s a gem in there that, had I stayed and kept watching would have enlightened and entertained. I may never know. But you might.

EPILOGUE

I think about learner engagement a lot. I think the way to get it, so they get it, is to arouse their curiosity. If you can factor in an emotion, laughter or empathy for example, better. I’d stay away from clever. It’s easy to spot and can be a major turn-off. Authentic, that’s the way to be.

Approximate Like a Champ

PROLOGUE

Mr. Crowley. There have been many in my almost six decades of life who have helped me in one way or another. This man stands out for setting me on a path that I didn’t even know I was on.

APPROXIMATE

My second trimester at DeVry Institute of Technology, Mr. Crowley taught analog circuit analysis. He taught a design technique that I use every day in my craft and elsewhere: approximations.

The design technique he espoused involved looking at a problem or solution in stages. The first stage was ideally. How does the circuit operate without losses or constraints? Each successive approximation drew closer to real-world conditions.

LIKE A CHAMP

My instructional design craft continues to take advantage of approximations. How would genius hour, a learning strategy I learned about at EdCamps, work with adult learners? First pass: It would be awesome. Motivated learners would.. The second pass through I’d add a real-world constraint like, say, a union contract that places limits on how and where workers can learn.

This, of course, guides me in identifying problems and steers me towards teaching and learning strategies that work in my environment.

“Approximations work like a champ.” I recall Mr. Crowley saying often. He was right.

EPILOGUE

How will I become someone’s champion? If it works with others like it did with me then I probably already have done or said something to help someone launch or continue boldly on their way.