CEdO599 - The Final Chapter

When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there.  Japanese Proverb

As part of our final blog assignment, we had to go back and read our previous blog entries, starting with the beginning of the course.  I have to say that this program did meet most of my expectations.  I started with a good understanding of technology, but wanted to learn more about how to apply it to teaching situations.  The program did introduce me to a few new technological ideas, but for the most part I already had some knowledge about the different programs that we used throughout the course.  However I was happy with how many examples we came up with for how to apply these technologies to learning situations.  I learned a great deal about how to use technology in the delivery of training materials.  Online learning has several benefits and some key challenges that are not present in traditional instruction.  I have tried to distill some of my key learning points from each of the classes on my site.  Here are some of them:


Key Takeaway: A good introduction is key in an online class to make sure all students are comfortable with the technology. Not doing so could prevent them from succeeding, even if they understand the material.


Key Takeaway: Different students will have different experiences with technology. Allowing them to explore the technology will level the playing field and help students who might be intimidated by technology.

Key Takeaway: The world of technology is constantly changing. The tool that you use one year may be gone the next. Always evaluate the hardware and software you are using against the requirements of the class, and be ready to move to a technology when available.

Key Takeaway: Review the online resources that you provide your students, and make sure they are critical consumers of information they find on the Internet. Always consider the source.

Key Takeaway: Make the lessons applicable to the real world problems of the students whenever possible. Tap into their creativity, and let them provide you with the answers.

Key Takeaway: Use the visual and auditory elements of the web to enhance your instruction. Videos, images, and sounds can all make a dry topic come to life for your class.

Key Takeaway: Allow the class to create many of the artifacts for the class using Web 2.0 tools. The class will be richer if you harness the power of many.

Key Takeaway: Analyzing data can reveal trends that might not otherwise be visible.

Key Takeaway: Online learning can be enhanced by active facilitation by the instructor and frequent student/teacher contact.

Key Takeaway: Collecting and summarizing knowledge can help reveal additional lessons.

Key Takeaway: Teachers must lead their organizations through change in order to introduce new learning technologies. They need to understand strategies for communicating and convincing people to change.

Key Takeaway: By combining the lessons from many of the classes, you can create plans for great change.

By taking all of these lessons, I will be able to expand and improve my e-learning teaching, and produce a better quality experience for my students.  That is really what I was looking for in the program.

CEdO599 The Project Continues

I have spent a great deal of time interviewing my stakeholders, and I have found a great social networking site that will work well for my pilot.  I evaluated three different services, and created social networking sites on each of them.  Edmodo was very easy to use, but because it is tailored to K-12 education it did not best suit the needs of our company training.  Privacy and security were two of the biggest concerns that I uncovered in my interviews.  I also evaluated Yammer.  This was very close to our requirements but still not quite right.  The best fit was Socialcast by VMWare.  This service lets you set up a private social network.  It has more administration features than Yammer.  Best of all it is free for groups of less than 50.  After that it is $5 per user per month.

Once I had selected the service I created a sample site for our company.  I used this to begin creation of the initial training documentation for the users.  I made sure to walk them through the sign in process, the creation of their first  posts.  I included lessons on posting links and uploading documents.  Finally I created a lesson on how to search for the content on the site.  This is the most critical part of the process, as it is how people will find the content that others post.

The last part of my project was to show the site to others and have them post content.  Due to some re-organizations at work this has been one of the harder parts of the project.  However I did share the site with the head of our HR training organization and asked her to post her thoughts.  She thought is was a good idea and was looking forward to seeing more.  The project will shift into high gear, so this proof of concept will really some into play at that time.

CEdO599 Week 2 - Goals and Timeline

This week I finalized the goals and timeline for my project.  Basically I laid out the steps necessary to select and install a social networking platform, create the initial documentation, and have users record their first thoughts and lessons.  My goals for the project can each be tied to one of the key milestones or deliverables that I will have to create through the process.  The first is a list of the requirements based on interviews with key stakeholders.  This will include talking to some of the key people who will need to be on board for the change to happen.  The second deliverable will be an evaluation of at least three social networking platforms against these requirements, with a selection of the final winner.  The third will be the documentation for the initial users of the platform.  And the last will be the custom recording that end users can create and share with their tips for the social networking platform.

By creating these deliverables, I should be able to select install the right social network software, but more importantly I will be able to demonstrate that end users can create useful documentation for their co-workers.

CEdO599 - Final project

We are finally nearing the end of this journey.  It is time to take everything we learned and apply it to a real world problem.  I have had several ideas over the course of this program, and by combining them I think I have come up with a great idea for a project. In CEdO525 we talked about using real world problems to engage the class.  Have them create the stories and lessons that will explain the core concepts.  This will help them remember by making the lessons applicable, and it will tap into the creativity of a group so the teacher does not need to come up with all of the examples.  Secondly, in CEdO535, we talked about methods of facilitating online learning, and we also touched on the topic of social networking.  By combining these two ideas I have come up with an idea for a project.

As I have mentioned before, my company is preparing to rollout a new software system that will be used by almost all employees.  This rollout will require re-training a majority of the company.  To help this I am planning on using both of these ideas.  I would start finding a group of early adopters for the software.  These should be people who are excited about the change, because as we learned in CEdO565, it is best to begin with people who are eager for change, and have them help convince others.  I would then give these early adopters the software necessary for them to create short tutorial videos that demonstrate the most common uses of the new software.  This will allow them to show how the software is used to do the things that their departments do most often.  Instead of sitting in class learning about a list of features, the end users can see the software doing the things that they care about most.  Once the early adopters have created these videos, we would have them publish it to a social networking site.  Other people in their department can subscribe to the these lists, and will be able to see the videos as they are created.  Then they can search for older videos or comment on the videos that they find most useful.  It would be the best way to have people create and use the content that matters to them the most.

The biggest issue I see with this is that my company is still months away from beginning the rollout of the software.  I will not have access to the program itself for several months, so it will be a while before we can  begin the process of creating the videos.  For my project I would like to use this same methodology, but use another more common software package, like Google Docs for instance.  The first part of the  project will be having some people create videos that demonstrate the basic uses of Google Docs.  Then I will find a social networking program and have the users post their videos, as well as view and comment on the videos of others.    Finally I will have the users comment on their experience and suggest ways to improve the project.  I can then incorporate those ideas as we get ready for the full rollout.

I am very excited to get started on this project, and will post updates about how it is going.

CEdO565 Week 6 - Leadership Wrap Up

This class has served to reinforce many of the ideas about leadership that I have acquired in previous positions, and given me a few more.  I was already familiar with many of the concepts from the change exercise, including the different categories people fall into when dealing with change (pioneers, leaders, early adopters, late adopters, resistors).  In fact I talked about these in my first blog entry, before  knew we would cover them later.  I was also familiar with the idea of building a change network, and using that to drive changes within your work environment (in my case not a school).

I am currently a leader in my job, and I think I already use many of these ideas in my day to day job.  However it never hurts to rethink your position. or to refresh your knowledge of these basic concepts.  Anyone can be a leader in their job.  For teachers and developers of people, this usually means rethinking how best to connect with your students, then use you knowledge of change principles to start sharing those ideas within your organization.  I hope I will get many more opportunities to improve the  training and development of people within my organization.  I will do this by bring new ideas to the table, and conencting with the right people to try and turn those ideas into actions.

CEdO565 Week 5 - Completing the Change

This week we finished our change simutlation.  We also received several more handouts in the class work that helped us plan for better activities.  As a result our team made much better progress on the change board this week.  We were able to get everyone through the awareness phase, and several people made it all the way to the end of the board.  This game was a good simulation of some of the problems that we will run into when we try and implement changes in real life.  Among them:

• Involve the administration early and often.  Several times we tried to do an activity but were unable to because the administrator did not have enough knowledge of the situation.  When trying to change you can not over-communicate, especially to the people at the top of the ladder. 
• Don't waste too much time on the resistors.  We know early on who our resistors were, and we tried several activities to bring them along.  They would not move, and only changed once we had a cinved most of the others to move.  Then they had no choice, because the organization was changing without them.
• Know your social network.  Identify early who in the organization has the most contacts, and use them as early adopters.  Get them invovled and have them start talking about the change.  Then others will naturally follow.
• Plan your activities in a logical order.  You can not make a vision fo rthe future until you have looked at what is working now, what isn't, and compare it to best practices.  Then you can make an action plan based on your vision.

These are all lessons that I can apply to my job as I try and get changes enacted where I work.

CEdO565 Week 4 - The Change Games We Play

This week we tried a new activity in class.  It is a change simulation game where we try and influence the administration, principles, parents, and teachers of a school district to adopt new learning techniques.  I actually find the game very enjoyable, as it does demonstrate many of the experiences that you will have as you try to make change happen in your own environment.  First of all you need to be aware of the phases that people will go through on the way to a change.  These phases make up our game board, and as we do certain activities, people will advance through the stages:  Awareness, Preparation, Practice, Mastery, and Renewal.  Just like in real life, certain people will move through these changes faster than others, and some will resist you every step of the way.  We encountered this in our group when we tried to talk to some of the resistors directly, and made no progress on moving them at all.  You also need to plan for the communication paths that your audience uses.  Find the people who are the social hubs, and get them involved early.  They can influence others to come a long way.

Just like in real life, it is important to think about all of these things in advance, and to prepare a strategy for your change.  If there was one thing I would have liked to do differently, it would be to get the materials a few days before the game, instead of the day before.  Also it would have been nice to have a pre-meeting with our team, so we could plan our activities.  Trying to figure out how to work as a new group, while reading and absorbing all of the materials for the game, made it difficult to focus on the change strategy and identify the order that we wanted to do them, and the people we should involve.  One idea for next time is to have the cohort divided into their teams at the start of the class.  This would get the groups used to working with each other early.  Then they could also start reviewing the game materials a week or so in advance.

Overall I think the game is a great exercise, and it certainly will help drive home the strategies that need to be employed to get a change adopted in our jobs.