Long Journey to Mill Creek

I am very fortunate to live in this wonderful place called Salt Lake City, Utah. But that statement has been years in the making.

Many years ago, my parents picked up my family moved from Utah to California. I still remember when Dad took my younger brother and me and a truckload of furniture to Reedley, California. We found a home, parked the truck at a secure location and then proceeded to hitchhike back to Utah to get the rest of the family for the trip to California. But that is another story. We were now Californians! Swimming pools, movie stars!

I adopted the way of thinking that anywhere but Utah would be a good place to live. California was a great place to grow up and the endless sunshine added to my joy. Where else could you play baseball all year long, float the lazy rivers of the San Joaquin valley and eat the fruit right off the vines and trees. Life was good.

As I prepared to go to college, I again had that anywhere but Utah mentality. I settled on a great little school in Southeastern Idaho. Some might say "That's Utah with a different name" and they might be right, but the name mattered and I enjoyed my two years in the hard winters of the Snake River plains.

Then I was off to see the world. Two years in Hong Kong, another two years in Taiwan and I was finally ready to settle down and get an education that would bring me work. My choices for MBA were UCLA and BYU. That should have been an easy choice. But after following a serious decision making process that has served me well, I turned to the unlikely choice of BYU. Now you have to understand that going to Happy Valley (Utah County) was the ultimate in betraying my life-long pursuit of staying out of Utah. The only reason that I could justify this move was to tell myself that for the next two years I was going to be locked up in a library studying my guts out and it wouldn't really be like I was "living" in Utah. It worked well, I got my degree, found the love of my life, and high-tailed it back to California after two-years.

Then I wandered around a bit more. Some time in California, back to Idaho, to the deep south in Alabama and back to California. And then something strange happened. My company asked me to transfer to Seattle. My wife, whose family all lived in Utah, then asked if it wasn't time to consider a stint in Utah near her family. We had been on the road for 12 years and the kids needed to get to know her family. Counting on that aforementioned decision process, we made the move to Utah. That was 17 years ago.

Why would I write about this journey? Monday was Memorial Day and after a hard day of working in the yard and running errands, we packed a picnic lunch and within five minutes we were lost in the Wasatch mountains building a fire and roasting our favorite cuts of meat. The late spring runoff was gently rushing down a nearby creek and we were completely at peace as we enjoyed a perfect evening barbecue. There may be other places as beautiful and quiet as Mill Creek Canyon on the east side of Salt Lake City, but on this day and at this moment I felt that this was indeed "the right place." That is what Brigham Young said when he came into this valley.

The outside world may not understand what we have here in Utah but the huge number of outsiders, such as myself, that have come for one reason and then found hundreds of other reasons not to leave is amazing.

Meeting Challenges

I had an incredible experience over the weekend, the opportunity to visit with three really great men and talk about those things that are most important in life, i.e. family, friends, faith and service. One a lawyer/historian, one a technology/financial expert and the last a pediatric dentist. Very different in vocations and the paths they have followed but very similar in dedication and passion. I am a better person for the few hours that I was able to spend with these great men over the weekend.

In the process, there were some priorities in my life that were moved a round a bit. But more importantly, my priorities were confirmed. The things that really matter in life are family, friends, faith and what you do with the things you are given stewardship over.

I absolutely love a good story, particulary one that teaches me something about myself and teaches me principles of truth. I just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the umpteenth time. I still get teary-eyed when the four shortest heros in the classic, the Hobbits, play such a huge role in the battle for Middle Earth. It gives me hope. But as I watched this time (watching takes two or three weeks when it is done 30 minutes a day while I am working out on the treadmill), I was impressed with one of the great themes of the story. This bit of dialogue will help me explain:

Frodo says "I wish The Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."

Gandalf replies "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

We all are given such different paths and opportunities in life. It is easy to wonder and ask why some have struggles, some have success, some seem to find financial treasure and some have all they try turn sour. There are no easy answers, there are only more questions. But I truly believe that what does matter is how we decide to spend the time that is given to us. This is a principle that I can accept and live by.

Another great man said it slightly different. He was lamenting the fact that he wished with his whole heart to be able to go and pursue a course which wasn't granted to him. Instead, while his friends went and worked in far-flung locales and had great success, he stayed at home and minded the store, so to speak. In the end though, he stated a principle that I love. He said "why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?

And that is what I try to live by; understand the work that must be performed and do it to the best of my ability without regrets or vain hope to do something else more glamorous. If I do the task, whatever it is, to the best of my ability, then I have no doubt that I, like Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippen, will have a postive impact on the world we all share.

The Times They are A-Changin

So goes the popular song by Bob Dylan. The rate of change continues to increase too. I have found that the Internet gives us daily changes to the tools and tricks available to communicate, teach, learn, google and tweet. Even our language is changing as we try to stay on top of the ever changing landscape. The marketing slogan “Reach out and Touch Someone” has never been more possible in so many different ways.

How does one keep it all straight? I have recently discovered a web site that tries to help. Jane Hart, a Social Media and Learning Consultant of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has created Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day. Every day she selects an item of e-learning interest and spotlights it on her site. LearningZen.com was recently spotlighted. Jane’s site is very informative and also provides several ways to keep current on the new tools available in the e-learning world.

In Jane’s own words “Having set up a number of web portals in the past, in 2007 I established the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies - now one of the world's most-visited and most popular learning sites on the Web. I am the author of a number of blogs including the popular Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day, where I post a daily item of e-learning interest. You can keep up to date with what I am bookmarking in a number of ways.”

We are glad to be in a community of passionate people such as Jane Hart. Learning and teaching is something that we all believe will have a positive impact on the world we live in. And we believe that there should be ways to study, educate and collaborate that are free and easy to use. That is what LearningZen is all about. Come see what it is all about by visiting http://www.learning.zen.com/ and be part of the revolution.

Managing the Training Investment

As an employer, I am faced with a growing challenge in the area of training. My challenges are not unique. They include reduced budgets, limited resources, limited learner time, rising costs of training and so forth. Utilizing e-learning resources is one way to overcome these challenges.

Large organizations with large budgets may not be hit as hard by these challenges. But for the organization of a few hundred employees, providing training can be a true challenge. As a result, less training is being delivered and the training that is being done is focused on mandatory and job-specific training.

Margaret Driscoll, Ed.D. and Matthew Dirks, Ph.D. recently published an article in Training (e-networks; Are You an E-Learning MVP?) that listed 10 tips for expanding e-learning in an organization.

Tip #1: Use training as an incentive and benefit for retaining and recruiting employees. Employees want to remain competitive and seek organizations that help them accomplish that goal.

Tip #2: Use e-learning to drive adoption. Initial effort to change or adopt new ideas is generally not enough and can be supported by a training effort.

Tip #3: Use e-learning to address busy schedules. Bundling training in easy to digest courses will encourage people to start the process. Anything that over 60 minutes meet adoption challenges.

Tip #4: Use the right technology. There are so many alternatives to the traditional face-to-face approach, many of which are very cost effective.

Tip #5: Master and share the tools. The right tools can also be quite easy to use and with minimal practice can be mastered by all.

Tip #6: Move all or part of a traditional instructor-led class online. Even with online training, collaboration tools, forums and online discussions can provide the hand-holding that some require to master the topic.

Tip #7: Design for reuse. It is amazing what free material is available. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Tip #8: Extend the impact of online learning classes. With the right tools, trainees can easily be given refresher courses and by keeping people current, the cost of training can be kept under control.

Tip #9: Tone down the bells and whistles. Keep it simple and cost effective. After all, mastering the content is the goal, not impressing the student with our great creative skills.

Tip #10: Teach others how to use templates and style sheets. Sharing content and tricks for creating courses can pay dividends to the organization.

Given these great suggestions, it is then incumbant on me to find a delivery method that can take advantage of technology and deliver content in a cost effective way. I am curious, has anyone found a cost-effective (OK, FREE) delivery method for e-learning that can meet these needs? I am very interested in your thoughts.

Shouldn't We All Be Certified?

As an educator, I have long been concerned with the process of grading. Not the least of which was my concern for grade inflation. I have seen some creative approaches to this problem. One I would mention is an approach by an institution to evaluate faculty by the grades they give. The standard is that the grade point average of all students in the class must be no greater than 3.2. This pretty well forces the instructor to grade on the curve. While that might not be a bad thing, society has pretty well told academic institutions that we should not fail our students.. We have a tough time with failure.

In an opinion piece date May 6, 2009, Walter Williams of George Mason University stated that due to grade inflation, possessing a college degree often does not mean much in terms of basic skills. College graduates, although gaining ever rising grade point averages, cannot pass basic skill tests. He recommended that employers deflate grades of applicants by one letter and interpret a C grade as an F. (Williams)

I would make another suggestion. There should be a certification for the basic skills needed to perform as an entry level employee. Who cares what the GPA is if the person can’t form a complete sentence, solve a basic math problem, or interpret data? For some reason, educational institutions want us to believe that a degree means something, but they seem to want to give one to anyone that can pay the tuition.

In order to get my Ph.D. I was required to take a battery of tests on educational theory and practice and then compose and defend a dissertation. My grade point average mattered for nothing if I couldn’t pass the comprehensive exams and convince five committee members of the validity of my research and conclusions. That to me is certification to the max.

Shouldn’t we all be certified?

Basis of the revolution.

We live in a time with unprecedented access to information. A simple search on Google’s search site for any rudimentary term will provide millions of links to the desired term. But it hasn’t always been this way. A brief examination of the history of education will confirm that the last ten years are truly phenomenal in the amount of information available to us.

Prior to the advent of writing, education was accomplished orally and with a very specific purpose. Families would pass down oral traditions in order to provide cultural and social context to children. Ritual and religious philosophy were also passed on orally in order to maintain the moral teachings. For example in non-literate African societies, learning was by initiation, observation and repetition of what parents did. Another example is the training of children on the influence of spirits in averting sickness, death and pestilence. Other education was passed on to facilitate agricultural and vocational acumen and was accomplished orally or by example. The result was that the society was trained in the areas needed to keep everyone gainfully employed, appropriately socialized and culturally acclimated

There have been three huge developments that have impacted education. The first was reading and writing. No longer was information only shared orally. It became possible for many people to have access to the written word. The second was the printing press with movable type. This accelerated the spread of information to the masses. The final revolution is the Internet. Now information is absolutely available on demand.

Despite these three events which I am calling revolutions, the educational and training world has not made similar changes. I think we are in for a major revolution as the world starts to adapt to the concept that information is available to the masses. I love the concept of learning and education. I hope to see the pedagogy keep up with the access to content. I hope you'll join me as I explore issues in training and education in this blog.