Education

Continuous Learning, Corporate Learning, Future of education, Informal Learning, Learning, Learning Technology

Independent Learners Cannot Use A LMS

Image | Posted on by David Grebow


Independent Learners Cannot Use A LMS

Learning has become an ongoing process and the CLS is destined to take over where the older event-driven LMS stopped.

Innovative CLS Starts Where LMS Stops

A new program, the Certify Learning System (CLS), has been developed and designed to track and reward continuous independent learning for your most talented employees who learn what they need to know to stay at the top of their field.

Learning today is an ongoing anytime and anywhere process driven by independent learners who learn what they need to know to stay at the top of their field. When learning was formal and event driven, Learning Management Systems (LMS) were developed to help track and record programs that employees were assigned to attend. That was then.Today, learning has become a continuous informal process that occurs independently whenever and wherever people need to learn. Employees can choose on their own to take a webinar, attend a conference workshop or read an important new industry whitepaper. Until now there has been no way to track and record what they are learning.

The Certify Learning System (CLS) was developed to modernize the process and pick-up where the older LMS drops off.Independent learners are often the most knowledgeable and talented people in any organization. Being able to reward them is important. Being able to identify, hire, promote and assign them to key teams is even more valuable. The old LMS cannot provide you with this information, or reward your independent learners for their efforts.The CertifyLearning System (CLS) registers employees online from any device, and records every kind of learning event from a wide variety of providers. By assigning credits to these events, the cloud-based system allows employers to maintain an up-to-date record of employee’s informal ongoing and independent learning.

“Since learning never stops or even slows down, you want to be able to identify the people who are always learning.” states David Grebow CEO, KnowledgeStar and worldwide expert in informal learning. “Highly motivated learners are the smartest employees, and CLS is like a GPS that guides you to them when you need to know who they are.”

With everything online and no software to install, CLS is quick and inexpensive to setup and maintain.  The system is designed to be customized to reflect the brand and identity of your organization.  Because the CLS records are cloud-based they are portable and follow the registered individual from company to company. This again differs from Learning Management Systems where records are kept private by a single employer. This makes CLS especially useful for people who frequently work for different employers in the same field.

The CLS has just completed a successful 3-month pilot with one of the largest educational publishers in the country and is ready to help your organization identify your knowledge stars.

If you would like a free demo, let me know so I can send you a pair of warm stockings since it will blow your socks off and I wouldn’t want you to get cold feet!

Increasing the Graduation Rate

Posted on by David Grebow


(From NPR Sunday November 27, 2011)

The typical college student today isn’t “typical” anymore: Only 1 in 4 lives on campus and studies full time.

But part-timers and commuter students are much less likely to finish — most part-time students are still without a degree or a certificate after eight years. Higher education is desperately looking for strategies that improve those numbers. There might be one in Tennessee.

Many higher-ed institutions brag about all the choices they offer: lots of courses and majors to choose from, pick your own schedule. But for some students, choice can be the enemy, says James King, vice chancellor of the Tennessee Technology Centers, a state-supported career-training program with 27 locations strung across the state.

 “We do not use the Burger King Approach — ‘Have it your way’ — because, most of the time, employers do not have that approach,” he said. “You work according to a schedule they set.”

‘Scared To Death’

Carol Puryear is the director (and den mother, you might say) of the Murfreesboro Center, not far from Nashville. She and the other staff do a lot of hand-holding to make sure students get to their goal — a certificate and a job. Many community college programs let students pick and choose classes, but once they sign up at a Technology Center their class schedule is decided for them.

“They decide on the program and they decide if they want to be full time or part time and that’s pretty much it,” Puryear said.

Students don’t have to worry that their schedule might change from semester to semester. For the 16 months she’s enrolled, student Heidi Khanna knows exactly when she has to show up for her drafting courses: 7:45 to 2:30 Monday through Friday.

Attendance is taken and makes up about a third of your grade. It’s a lot more like high school than the typical on-again-off-again schedule of many college students.

Khanna is working on a computer-aided design program. Yes, architecture is in a slump, but she’s also getting the skills to move into mechanical drawing. The Technology Centers work closely with advisers from local businesses to keep their programs in sync with economic reality. That’s one reason why around 8 in 10 students finish and get a job in their field — amazing statistics for any higher-ed institution. But it’s still scary leaving the nest.

“I’m scared to death,” Khanna says laughing. “I don’t know, scared of change, you know, just getting back out into the workforce.”

 We do not use the Burger King Approach — Have it your way — because, most of the time, employers do not have that approach. You work according to a schedule they set.
 

– James King, Tennessee Technology Centers

Khanna already has a degree — but her associate of arts in liberal studies wasn’t getting her the work she wanted, so she’s starting over at age 39. Other students plan to use their certificates to get a job to pay for more schooling.

Working With Industry

Jeremy Miller, 23, already has an offer to be a surgical technician. His earnings will rise to around $40,000 a year.

“That’ll do for me,” he said. “That’s better than what I’m making now.”

He laughed when asked how much that is. “Nothing,” he said.

“Next August I plan on starting where I left off the first time I went to school with my prerequisites, to start my bachelor’s degree in biology and then hopefully off to med school after that,” he said.

Transferring to a new school is a big challenge for many students, but the Technology Centers have good arrangements with other colleges so students can continue without losing credits.

The centers have followed much the same program for more than 40 years, and it’s actually pretty old school: create a closely knit program, like a small Ivy League college. Now, as more schools realize just how bad college completion rates are, they’re looking in this direction.

Next September, the City University of New York will open a brand new school called The New Community College, with Scott Evenbeck as president.

“We’ve designed a curriculum and core curriculum that everyone will go through together,” Evenbeck said. “And the students will all be, at least in the first year, enrolled full time.”

These schools are building on evidence that shows many students simply take the wrong classes or they can’t get into the right ones; either way, they waste time and money. The longer they take, the more likely they are to drop out. The New Community College will start with a summer program that introduces students to the school and one another.

“Then when they come in the fall, they’ll have an intact schedule where a cohort of students will take everything together,” Evenbeck said.

There are signs this approach has promise for one- and two-year students. The question is whether these tightly focused programs have something to teach bigger four-year schools, where graduation rates are also pretty low.

Changing VILT One Student @ A Time

Posted on by David Grebow


Here’s the press release from Cisco and a video of Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn explaining the importance of the new certification:

Cisco Introduces The New Virtual Classroom Instruction Specialist Certification

Vendor-Neutral Training and Certification Helps Instructors Make

The New Virtual Classrooms Engaging and Improves Student Outcomes

SAN DIEGO, CA and SAN JOSE, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — 02/07/11 — Training 2011, Booth 416 — With more educators using technology to advance the classroom experience, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the Cisco® Leading Virtual Classroom Instruction certification, developed to build and validate the skills that educators and instructors need to effectively teach in virtual classroom environments.

Key Facts

  • According to the American Society for Training & Development, 37 percent of training in 2009 involved electronic technology, up from 15 percent in 2002, while face-to-face instruction fell to 59 percent.
  • The Cisco Leading Virtual Classroom Instruction (LVCI) course teaches participants how to prepare and manage a virtual classroom, effectively deliver material online, and use collaboration tools to maximize student participation and comprehension.
  • LVCI goes beyond tool usage and teaches instructors how to improve learner outcomes through more effective classroom collaboration. They learn how to become Facilitators and work collaboratively with their learners
  • LVCI is delivered virtually using Cisco WebEx™; however, the skills are readily transferable to other conferencing and collaboration tools.
  • LVCI consists of 17.5 hours of live virtual instruction and six hours of participant presentations, delivered over five consecutive days.
  • LVCI is designed and led by experienced WebEx University instructors, who have delivered more than 40,000 hours of virtual training sessions.
  • Certification will be based on a proctored multiple-choice exam (642-132 LVCI) and a practical demonstration (642-133 LVCIP), in which the candidate uses the best practices of virtual classroom delivery.

Supporting Quotes:

  • Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager, Learning@Cisco, said: “As the paradigm of education continues to evolve to meet new institutional and business requirements, developing instructional strategies for new virtual education environments is becoming key to improving student results. The Virtual Classroom Instruction Specialist training and certification help ensure that instructors have the most comprehensive understanding of the latest technologies and effective classroom collaboration strategies. Cisco’seducational offerings provide the skills and depth of knowledge required for educators to differentiate themselves in today’s job market and enable a competitive advantage for their employers.”
  • Kathy Cooper, senior product trainer, WebEx University, said: “Cisco Virtual Classroom Instruction Specialist certification not only covers the skills and techniques instructors need to prepare and manage a virtual classroom, but also shows how instructors can engage learners in the educational process and increase their participation and comprehension.”
  • David Mallon, principal analyst, Bersin & Associates, said: “Our Virtual Classroom research shows that learning in an online environment is both less expensive and can be more instructionally rich than physical in-class experiences. Our research also demonstrates that what makes a great instructor effective online is the skillful use of collaboration tools. As job training and education continue to move online, this type of certification is an important offering.”
  • David Grebow, Instructional Designer, KnowledgeStar said: “This course is a game changer and will make the virtual classrooms the choice for learning in the 21st century. I had the privilege of working with some of the most forward-thinking and smart people at Cisco and WebEx, and we produced a certification program that will turn instructors into facilitators and students into adult learners collaborating with each other and taking the learning beyond the virtual classroom. It’s a new model for making online education really work.”

The Real Meaning of mLearning

Posted on by David Grebow


The mobile web has eradicated any wired person’s dilemma whether to be offline in the real world, or online and stuck in one location (an office cube, a living room, or worse, the basement).

Offline is now online, and online is offline.

mLearning will be the driver for Learning 2.0. Today’s smartphones and tablets – e.g. iPhones and iPads – are just the beginning. We now have real meaning when we say learning anytime anyplace. It first meant someplace other than the classroom. Now it means the freedom to learn when and where you need to know.

The implications for learning are as profound as the creation of the formal educational system. That system was created to support an Industrial Economy where mass production required mass consumption. Learning 1.0 was all about learning as an event, a beginning and an end, ADDIE, Kirkpatrick’s Levels, SCORM and ‘asses in classes”.

Learning 2.0 is all about performance, connection and conversation, mentoring and support, learning as a process that occurs over time and can now be supported with mlearning when and where you need to learn.

The implications for design and delivery are profound. Courselets. 10 minute time limits. Compelling emotional stories to pull a learner in and provide lessons from the real world …

… that’s only the beginning. There’s the added benefits of Social Media and Social Networking = Social Learning. The mind boggles …

Welcome to the new world of mLearning. Like my friend Marcia Connor says in one of her new Learnativity posts (which I recommend you RSS ASAP) “In Naming Elephants, Sue Hammond and Andrea Mayfield write, “Ignorance and knowledge grow at the same rate because the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.””

Get used to it … the more you can learn about mlearning, the more you know you don’t know. Like the unk-unk I use in groups to whom I speak. It means the unknown unknown. You can’t know what you don’t know. You can only keep learning, and discovering, and pushing the boundaries of your expectations aside.

Using Social Media for Learning

Posted on by David Grebow


I’m not only a big proponent of social media, I’m also an educator who develops learning programs for companies and organizations. I love it when I see a blog that collects great information and other related sites … it’s one of the reasons I blog. This one from the eLearning Blog by Tony Karrer is a great example for anyone who is involved with learning and social media.

Take it away Tony …

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Big Huge Opportunity for Education

Posted on by David Grebow


The 800-pound gorilla in the patient’s waiting room, with a rolled-up version of the healthcare reform act in one hand is … an opportunity for you.

Here’s the deal…

The following article is the best of many I’ve read in the past few days outlining the real vision that President Obama has for healthcare in this country. It may be, as it’s detractors say, many things unpopular. But one thing no one can argue about – well they can but it would be a stupid waste of time (or is that what politics is all about?).

The very new foundation of the healthcare reform act is to bring doctors and hospitals and healthcare companies as quickly as possible into the 21st century Knowledge Economy.

To misquote Bill Clinton, “It’s all about technology, stupid!”.

I must say that I think Republicans are Luddites who would throw a monkey wrench into a works just because that’s what they do. And the majority of that minority calling themselves the “Tea Party” couldn’t even turn on the President’s smartphone. So they just don’t get it.

I repeat, THEY DO NOT GET IT!

It’s like that infamous CEO of a now long-gone and once very successful high-tech company who said that no one would ever want a personal computer, and even if they got one it would end up in the closet with the rest of their never used exercise equipment.

Okay, moving right along …

I find that more than funny since I’m writing this on my wireless laptop as I’m walking on my treadmill. So here’s the deal. The following article from Fast Company sums it up better than I could, and points out two important elements of the healthcare act.

First, technology is in the President’s DNA. We finally have a leader who sees a future that we need to get to as fast as possible. And it’s a digital future firmly set in the new Knowledge Economy. And he gets it. So healthcare reform is not just about the way it will or will not impact upon the patients, doctors, hospitals, healthcare companies. Not to mention the Republican Luddites.

It’s about the way it will change the face of medicine in this country forever.  It’s a glimpse at the way the French use Carte Vitale. It’s a look at small software companies that have incredible programs like BioClaim and iSALUS just waiting to get started.

And behind all this technology is THE OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU. Everyone in the chain, from patients to nurses to doctors to hospitals to healthcare companies will need to learn how to make the best use of all this technology. And that means they all will need a raft of education and training.

So here’s the article, and an attached whitepaper, that you might want to read if you want to get in on the game. The focus is financial, but the implications for us are awesome. It’s the topic almost no one during the debate mentioned for a simple reason: most people have no idea of what healthcare will be or look like when it gets hit with the digital tsunami that has been unleashed.

And if you think this is pie-in-the-technology-sky you have no idea how crafty the President has been. One of the key provisions, as you’ll read, is that all this starts within his circle of influence , with the newly created (before the healthcare act was even in the news) department called the Health Information Technology department (HIT).

And here’s the kicker. The new law devotes an entire section to HIT enrollment standards and protocols. And I quote: “Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this title, the Secretary, in consultation with the HIT Policy Committee and the HIT Standards Committee, shall develop interoperable and secure standards and protocols that facilitate enrollment of individuals in Federal and State health and human services programs.”

In other words,  this new world of digital Knowledge Economy healthcare starts in the  Presidential backyard. And the people who are in the know, are fully aware of the savings of dollars that will result from this one change alone.

As pointed out in another great blog Social Media 101 , “Vastly improving the wireless bandwidth accessibility and speed in the country, from New York to Google, Kansas to Silicon Valley, suddenly starts to make sense with regard to healthcare reform.  There’s a BIG plan here for the future if you know where to look!”

… and we need to be part of that plan to help make it work …

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Training IS the Problem

Posted on by David Grebow


I came across the following piece when I was Googling around for information about new versus old forms of learning. I thought the picture in the article was worth more than a thousand words.

It sums up the problem.

There is a pool of always and rapidly changing, ever-growing knowledge that people need to know and the “training department” or whatever name it chooses, is the bottleneck between the knowledge and the people who absolutely need to know and know how to do.

What I especially liked about this article is that it does not just list the problems, it also proposes thoughtful solutions.

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A Purpose-Driven Blog

Posted on by David Grebow


When we were thinking about creating a blog, we initially had all this great stuff we wanted to share – articles, stories, parts of research papers, quotes, pictures and more. Then we stopped to think about it …

What do we provide to our customers and clients when we design and deliver education and training? Simple. Value-add. Something useful.

So we decided that what we really wanted, what would really reflect who we are and what we do, would have a purpose. And that purpose would be to provide knowledge that we have learned during years of creating education and training programs around the world.

Knowledge that moves education and training from the traditional analog Industrial Economy, to the more innovative digital Knowledge Economy.

We have seen that we can raise what we call The Corporate IQ. That means that we can improve performance, increase innovation, add real revenue to your P&L. In short, we can help make your company smarter.

And we know that in this economy  – a brutal, at times downright ugly, and far and away the most competitive worldwide marketplace ever imagined – only the smartest companies will win.

So our purpose is simple. Present knowledge that adds value to what you are doing in the area of corporate education and training. Make this one of the places that you come back to again and again for ideas, examples, great links and more. A place where you can become a knowledge star.

That’s what we mean by a purpose-driven blog.


New Digital Textbooks

Posted on by David Grebow


Macmillan’s New Digital Textbooks Let Profs Reorder, Rewrite, and Stick It to Rival Academics

BY Dan NosowitzToday

Textbook

Macmillan’s newly announced DynamicBooks textbooks are a huge change for the stodgy, ultra-conservative world of academic writing. The digital textbooks give professors the power to reorder chapters, insert extra reading, delete irrelevant passages, rewrite individual sentences, and scribble in the margins. Oh, and they’ll cost half the price of physical textbooks.

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Learning About Learning

Posted on by David Grebow


This is where it all happens. All that I am and will  be. We’ve learned so much about how we learn and know so little. I love “brain rules” by John Medina because it translates what little we know into easy to digest and use chapters.

If you want add the current neuroscience about how the brain learns to your ability to facilitate any type of Knowledge Transfer then read this book.