October 24, 2016 Imagine a system where learners engage with clearly stated, performance-oriented goals, acquiring skills and knowledge that are relevant to real-life challenges. In this system, designed to enable high performance, learners of all levels meet their objectives with the aid of flexible programs that accommodate varied learning styles and abilities. Learners leave the system with all the necessary skills required by both a world-class workforce and as better educated citizens...
October 16, 2012 Last year’s Manufacturing Institute’s “Manufacturing Skills and Training Study” provides us with some interesting information: U.S. Manufacturers are Ready to Grow 50% of companies surveyed plan to increase U.S.-based production jobs by at least 5% in the next five years. Nearly 25% of companies plan to grow more than 10% in the next five years. U.S. Manufacturers Continue to Experience a Skills Shortage...
October 17, 2016 My eyes automatically roll whenever I read a new ad placed by one of the many e-Learning authoring system providers. “You can do it!” “It’s easy!” “Anyone can build an e-Learning course!” Oh, yeah? The evolution of new learning technology adaptation has always been delayed by the do-it-yourselfers. I first saw it with the introduction of videotape training in the 1970s. “Just give any employee a camera and he,...
October 12, 2016 We often overlook one of the more important attributes of well conceived online learning — individualized instruction. Yet, we all recognize that our trainees bring different learning styles into the learning experience. Some read quickly and some more slowly. Some learn by “seeing” the skill being performed while others can readily conceptualize it. Some learn best while having the written portions read aloud while others prefer to read silently....
October 5, 2016 “They were born the day before yesterday, or so it may seem. Millennials have no memory of a world without the World Wide Web, cell phones, or personal computers. They are an Internet-surfing, iPoding, texting, Googling, Facebooking, and IMing generation. They have come of age during a time of dramatic technological changes in our society. Just consider the fact that the cell phone has become the fastest-adopted invention in...
October 3, 2016 Sometimes the points one wishes to make about an important subject are best expressed through thoughtful quotes: “ . . . High schools like Mercy – known as career and technical schools or vocational schools – are increasing their presence throughout the country, at a time when support for career and technical education is picking up steam as an alternative route to the middle class. There are roughly 90...
September 28, 2016 Two months ago United Nations officials urged world leaders to increase their efforts in providing skills training to their young people: “The world today is home to the largest generation of youth in its history, with 90 per cent of young people living in developing countries and with estimates suggesting that labour markets will need to add 600 million new jobs by 2026 to accommodate changing global demographics. In...
September 26, 2016 Over the weekend I was reminded of an event that occurred more than two decades ago in a large Georgia public high school. I was visiting that school as part of a business trip and during the visit was informed that seventeen of the school’s high school seniors had not passed the Georgia state math exams and would be denied graduation. My mind quickly raced to the fate these...
September 21, 2016 In spite of what a vendor’s salespeople have been trained to believe, you are the one that should always drive the “selling/buying” process! Training vendors that ignore your dominant position should be shown the door. Their sales representatives, who exclusively pitch “only what they’ve got,” are not potential partners for you and your organization. You make the buying decision! You are the “party in power” during any sales discussion!...
September 19, 2016 Real education and training must be more than the organized teacher-led group environment we know today. It must be a process that fully accommodates the uniqueness of individuals. And it will only achieve that goal when “intimidation,” a natural by-product of group instruction, has been erased. Visual media-based instruction (video and graphic animations) is uniquely positioned to serve as that ultimate eraser. When combined with optional word-for-word audio the...
September 14, 2016 As more and more organizations continue to adopt e-Learning for much of their training, a major new development effort needs to keep pace by marrying the best of instructional design with the power of online learning. Appropriate content, communicative design, integral multi-sensory media components, and recognition of varying facility IT environments will, eventually, become the winning combination for e-Learning. This new courseware must be designed for “Learning Excellence.” Consideration...
September 12, 2016 American colleges and universities are no longer fully dedicated to the liberation of the human mind. They are no longer as interested in challenging the young minds they encounter. Rather, American higher education has turned inwards, on itself, in an attempt to quantify — trivialize — and, formulaize — the human intellect and the human spirit. Informed passionate advocacy has historically characterized the exceptionally educated citizen. Unfortunately, today’s typical...
September 7, 2016 Last week’s news item in The Wall Street Journal tells a tale I’ve seen before: “Amid growing anxiety about the disappearance of factory jobs, thousands of them are going unfilled across the U.S. The number of open manufacturing jobs has been rising since 2009, and this year stands at the highest level in 15 years, according to Labor Department data. Factory work has evolved over the past 15 years...
August 31, 2016 This past weekend I came across a brilliantly conceived opinion piece by Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel, “Hail the Maintainers: “Capitalism excels at innovation but is failing at maintenance, and for most lives it is maintenance that matters more,” published in AEON. While the article concerns itself with a broad definition of “maintenance” it certainly applies directly to the individuals who read this post and to the worlds of...
