Archive for October, 2008
Welcome to the 6th Working/Learning blog carnival! Thanks very much to Dave Ferguson for kicking it off and letting us host it this time (more details and how you can host it, here,) and to all the very talented folks who’ve contributed the posts you’re about to enjoy. And we’re off …
- Ferguson writes about using training as a last resort after fully evaluating workflow and incentive structures so that it can be true performance support.
- Laurie Bartels writes about an expansive view of professional development that, as she quoted Elkhonon Goldberg saying, turns “neuroplasticity to your advantage.” Mmm, neuroplasticity.
- Karyn Romeis encourages people not to get so caught up in predetermined steps that they forget how much fun learning is and how much they can enjoy it.
- Ken Allan writes about the energy required for the learning process, and how it can be supplied by a teacher’s pedagogical and scaffolding techniques even for individualized elearning. And I’ve seen the truth of his conclusion in my own studies, that without the meta-cognition of what you’re building towards, as supplied by an instructor or a learner of a certain level, self-directed learning can lose focus quickly.
- Harold Jarche thinks that if mass marketing is dead, mass training will soon follow.
- Penny Ryder is interested in feedback about how to build links with her students’ parents so she can be a more effective instructor.
And … that’s it, everyone! I’ve had a great time reading through these contributions and would recommend hosting the carnival to anyone whose day is brightened when their inbox gets loaded with good reading material. See you around next time 
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Manish Mohan recently wrote a post, in response to the monthly Learning Circuits question, describing resources on how to get started with instructional design. In it, he said the following about what he looks for in recruits:
… But honestly, as a manager who has had to recruit for ID, I look for prior experience, and if there is no prior experience, I look for their core writing skills and ability to learn. Having a diploma is good but not essential.
… Basically you need to have good writing skills. This is most critical to get into instructional design job. … [They are] typically what is tested by companies for taking on new IDs. …
Which suggests that instructional design hopefuls can also get a lot of use out of resources that help them with their writing quality. So you might want to check out recent posts at Dave’s Whiteboard and Making Change on the subject of how to write for readability …
Be sure to stop back by on the 20th, when we’ll be hosting the Working/Learning Blog Carnival. Until then, here’s a grab bag of edubloggers and others who are interested in expanding people’s capacity to think effectively …
Janet Clarey: Responding to the monthly Learning Circuits question, a look at how a newbie can approach e-learning.
Harold Jarche: Instructional design with a greedy algorithm may allow more agility.
Brain Blogger: The brain blogging carnival awaits you. (via)
Ken Carroll: Will the economic crunch pave the way for widespread networked learning as a viable replacement for many venues of formal education?
Apemyp: A brief overview of Xerox’ blended learning supported SAP software rollout, using an approach that cost them less and still boosted worker productivity.
