Never Worry About Transfer Again: Strategies for Converging Learning and Work
an eLearn2005 Wednesday keynote presentation by Allison Rosett, San Diego State University
arossett@mail.sdsu.edu
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/Arossett.html
I want to talk about our work in a way that is a little bit different
Transfer is everything (my belief)
- also believe when you are doing a keynote you have to be hyperbolic (need to exaggerate)
- if we are teaching, surely we are not doing this to hear ourselves talk
- the purpose is for our students!
- for our students to be able to do something out there in the real world
My definition of Transfer: “the application of skills and konwledge learned in one context to the context that matters.”
We are all about transfer to performance, resulting in accomplishment
- if transfer does not happen, where’s the value? What have we added
MY THOUGHT: THIS GOES ALONG WITH THOMAS FRIEDMAN’S CONCEPT OF THE “VALUE ADD” IN ECONOMICS
The traditional teacher centered educational model raises much cause for concern about transfer
- www.marcosenberg.com
Am I “doing it” in a useful way that will permit learners to “reach for it” in a meaningful way later?
- another model: has the learner in the center, around them is classroom training, libraries, communities, field experts, online training, intra/internet websites
- pervasiveness, distributed risk
- here in this model, the student has more potential for
Higher education owns the buildings, the terra firma: often people think of that infrastructure as the higher ed competitive advantage
- that is nonsense: our brains / intellectual capital is our completive advantage, our credentialing power
Most favorable model also includes on the outside:
0 assessment, field practice, credentials/certificates, supervisors, communities, processes, coaching/e-coaching, …
Consider that the answer to our concerns about IMPACT is convergence
- convergence is “infusion of information, education, guidance, policies, and support into the context that matters”
We will focus on 6 strategies for converging learning and work
1- Job Aids
- book “the handbook of job aids”
- how do you give people just what they need just when the need it, not “just in case”
- boosting performance at the moment of need
- information presented at the moment of need
- examples:
– at supermarket: what did I say we needed to purchase?
– what should I consider as I prepare to this performance appraisal?
– how do I change the message on that answering machine? Mix a new drink?
Job aids delivered online
- thousands of people can look at them online
- example: eHow website, “clearn instructions on how to do (just about) Everything
- very useful direct support
MY THOUGHT: GOOGLE HAS BECOME MY PRIMARY WORK JOB AID WHEN IT COMES TO ANSWERS TO TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND OTHER ISSUES
Transfer Boosters
- matrix: human or system? independent or communal
2- Performance support tools
- they are all over
- independent technologies based on wrap-around
- available 24-7
- the tool has the smarts, the worker doesn’t have to be– the worker just has to be smart
- when info and coaching is “one with the work” - as identification grows, so does the impact
- think MapQuest, GPS
GPS is integrated into the task, it is one with the process
- with MapQuest, you have to anticipate and print first
- and then you are driving and reading (not desirable)
Mapquest helps you plan, has a different context
Example: the IRS has a website that blends a class and a PST
- ITIN Process Support tool provides the info for people at need
MY THOUGHT: PROVIDING INFORMATION AT NEED FOR CONSTITUENTS IS A MAJOR PART OF MY ROLE AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL WEBMASTER
Another example: PST at sea
- remembering different tolerances, checklists, error rates have plummetted
- now they rely on a PDA to inspect and report
- as they record, they sync and data reports are produced
This is a combination of learning (just in case) and performance support (converged with the work just in time)
At Purina.com: Decision guide to help you pick your dog breed
- from 185 breeds to 3
- sometimes all the variables we care about are not included in the matrix
3- Coaching, E-Coaching
- in the 80s, many business managers turned away from control and command and towards a more participatory model which infused coaching into work and used immediacy and personal relationships to boost performance
- the role of the coach: train, integrate, and motivate
- the TIN model of coaching (Strayer & Rossett, 1994)
Coaching is good
- Hay group estimate: between 25-40% of Fortune 500 companies use executive coaches
- we call it advising in higher education, in most programs this is a weakness
- it is often idiosyncratic, not systemic
- productivity and satisfaction are highly impacted by coaching
What is coaching (versus teaching): through people and technology, enabling performance with timely, contextual support, guidance, information and encouragement
Knowledge management aspects (to share knowledge) are really important now
coaching is the delivery of support, kinship, and expertise, as needed at work
- incentives are also needed
E-coaching makes sense even under trying circumstances
- 2001 Wang and Wentling studied
Visit www.alicebot.org
- English language training for $9.95 per month
- ALICE = Artificial intelligence Foundation
Defense Acquisition University
- AT&L Knowledge Sharing System
MY THOUGHT: WE SHOULD CREATE A COLLEGE WIKI FOR GRAD STUDENT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Defense Acquisition University- Google this, there is lots online about this
- lots of subject matter
Using Macromedia Breeze now to coach a doctoral candidate with dissertation work
4. Knowledge bases
- useful data is made available at the moment of need
- Blue Web’N is great resource for software K-14 mainly
- online resources that allow you not to have to remember things by heart
Non-training interventions
- I always tell my students, training is great, but how else can you get it into the bloodstream of people?
- Google for “Performance Improvement Emporium”
Encylopedia of Educational Technology is another example built at SDSU
There are so many things to know, NO ONE can know them all and stay up to date on them all: That is why we need knowledge bases
MOOM: The Museum of Online Museums
5. Communities of Practice (CoPs)
- great idea, not always great execution
- Babycenter.com is an example
- why do they work: narrowly focused, have a deliverable aspect to them
- lots of content that is shared
The eLearning Guild has an info exchange: elearningguild.com
6. Nagware
- also known as “captology”
- BJ Fogg writes about this
- use of computer software to actively nudge voluntary performance and persistence
- an independent and communal strategy
- examples: diet websites like Weight Watchers online
– Quitnet.com - Created by US CDC
These have been 6 ways of bringing messages into the workplace
Convinced of the power of convergence?
- Mary Broad’s research on transfer says: What works is what the manager does before the training, what the trainer does BEFORE the training, what the manager does AFTER the training
The new world, a technology infused world, REDUCES the distinctions between before, during and after
- MY THOUGHT: BECAUSE IT IS MORE JUST IN TIME CAPABLE
Learning, support and work become converged. Thus, transfer becomes less of a concern….
This is all about busting through classroom walls to the real world
- how might a professor use these concepts, a university use these ideas to do it more and better
Quotation from Einstein: “Experience teachers that men are often so much governed by what they are accustomed to see and practice, that the simplest and most obvious improvements, in the most ordinary occupations, are adopted with hesitation, reluctance, and by slow gradations. Men would resist changes, so long as even a bare support could be ensured by an adherence to ancient courses, and perhaps even longer.”
In the past we had a lot less information that we do today in courses
Will Rogers: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just site there.”
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