From DSC:
I signed up to receive some items from Outlier.org. Here’s one of the emails that I recently received. It seems to me that this type of thing is going to be hard to compete against:
The next chapter for Learning on YouTube — from blog.youtube by Jonathan Katzman
Next year, qualified creators can begin offering free or paid Courses to provide in-depth, structured learning experiences for viewers. Viewers who choose to buy a Course can watch the video ad-free and play it in the background.
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…to help learners apply what they’ve learned, we’re introducing Quizzes — a new way for creators to help viewers test their knowledge.”
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To Improve Outcomes for Students, We Must Improve Support for Faculty — from campustechnology.com by Dr. David Wiley
The doctoral programs that prepare faculty for their positions often fail to train them on effective teaching practices. We owe it to our students to provide faculty with the professional development they need to help learners realize their full potential.
Excerpts:
Why do we allow so much student potential to go unrealized? Why are well-researched, highly effective teaching practices not used more widely?
The doctoral programs that are supposed to prepare them to become faculty in physics, philosophy, and other disciplines don’t require them to take a single course in effective teaching practices.
The entire faculty preparation enterprise seems to be caught in a loop, unintentionally but consistently passing on an unawareness that some teaching practices are significantly more effective than others. How do we break this cycle and help students realize their full potential as learners?
From DSC:
First of all, I greatly appreciate the work of Dr. David Wiley. His career has been dedicated to teaching and learning, open educational resources, and more. I also appreciate and agree with what David is saying here — i.e., that professors need to be taught how to teach as well as what we know about how people learn at this point in time.
For years now, I’ve been (unpleasantly) amazed that we hire and pay our professors primarily for their research capabilities — vs. their teaching competence. At the same time, we continually increase the cost of tuition, books, and other fees. Students have the right to let their feet do the walking. As the alternatives to traditional institutions of higher education increase, I’m quite sure that we’ll see that happen more and more.
While I think that training faculty members about effective teaching practices is highly beneficial, I also think that TEAM-BASED content creation and delivery will deliver the best learning experiences that we can provide. I say this because multiple disciplines and specialists are involved, such as:
The point here is that one person can’t do it all — especially now that the expectation is that courses should be offered in a hybrid format or in an online-based format. For a solid example of the power of team-based content creation/delivery, see this posting.
One last thought/question here though. Once a professor is teaching, are they open to working with and learning from the Instructional Designers, Learning Scientists, and/or others from the Teaching & Learning Centers that do exist on their campus? Or do they, like many faculty members, think that such people are irrelevant because they aren’t faculty members themselves? Oftentimes, faculty members look to each other and don’t really care what support is offered (unless they need help with some of the technology.)
Also relevant/see:
TV makers are looking beyond streaming to stay relevant — from protocol.com by Janko Roettgers and Nick Statt
Excerpts:
The search for TV’s next killer app
TV makers have some reason to celebrate these days: Streaming has officially surpassed cable and broadcast as the most popular form of TV consumption; smart TVs are increasingly replacing external streaming devices; and the makers of these TVs have largely figured out how to turn those one-time purchases into recurring revenue streams, thanks to ad-supported services.
…
What TV makers need is a new killer app. Consumer electronics companies have for some time toyed with the idea of using TV for all kinds of additional purposes, including gaming, smart home functionality and fitness. Ad-supported video took priority over those use cases over the past few years, but now, TV brands need new ways to differentiate their devices.
Turning the TV into the most useful screen in the house holds a lot of promise for the industry. To truly embrace this trend, TV makers might have to take some bold bets and be willing to push the envelope on what’s possible in the living room.
From DSC:
What if smart TVs’ new killer app was a next-generation learning-related platform? Could smart TVs deliver more blended/hybrid learning? Hyflex-based learning?
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![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
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Or what if smart TVs had to do with delivering telehealth-based apps? Or telelegal/virtual courts-based apps?
Top tools for learning 2022 — from toptools4learning.com by Jane Hart
Excerpt:
In fact, it has become clear that whilst 2021 was the year of experimentation – with an explosion of tools being used as people tried out new things, 2022 has been the year of consolidation – with people reverting to their trusty old favourites. In fact, many of the tools that were knocked off their perches in 2021, have now recovered their lost ground this year.
Also somewhat relevant/see:
Add BookWidgets To Your Next Google Classroom Assignment! — from teachercast.net by Jeffrey Bradbury
Excerpt:
One of the Google Classroom Add-ons that you can now select and include in your Assignments section is BookWidgets and I’m extremely excited to share my latest video tutorial demonstrating how to easily create a Google Classroom Assignment using BookWidgets.
Regarding tools, also see:
Augmented Books Are On The Way According To Researchers — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick
Excerpt:
Imagine this. You’re several chapters into a captivating novel when a character from an earlier book makes a surprise appearance. You swipe your finger across their name on the page at which point their entire backstory is displayed on a nearby smartphone, allowing you to refresh your memory before moving forward.
This may sound like science fiction, but researchers at the University of Surrey in England say that the technology described above is already here in the form of “a-books” (augmented reality books).
The potential use-cases for such a technology are virtually endless. As previously mentioned, a-books could be used to deliver character details and plot points for a variety of fictional works. The same technology could also be applied to textbooks, allowing students to display helpful information on their smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs with the swipe of a finger.
From DSC:
Also see:
Attend a metaverse job fair in VR later this month: https://t.co/gE1VIDewBT pic.twitter.com/l4t5RgZ9xa
— VRScout (@VRScout) August 6, 2022
The future of learning: Co-creating skills development strategies with employee preferences — from chieflearningofficer.com by Stacey Young Rivers
The limitations of developing just-in-time learning strategies perpetuate a paradigm where learning and development can appear ineffective for teams that have to move quickly and fail fast.
Excerpt:
I believe the future of learning will be a system where employees and learning teams co-create experiences. No longer will skills development programs be created in silos for employees to consume. Gone will be the days of conducting exhaustive needs analysis that can add layers of complexity for program delivery.
The limitations of developing just-in-time learning strategies perpetuate a paradigm where learning and development can appear ineffective for teams that have to move quickly and fail fast. Thinking about how to overcome these challenges conjures a solution similar to a metaverse, a persistent virtual world that is always open. One value proposition of a metaverse is that everyone can create their own adventure in an ecosystem supporting curiosity and experimentation, two areas undergirding skills development.
With this lens, understanding employee preferences for learning is the beginning of co-creating experiences, and one approach for how L&D leaders can begin to structure skills development programs. While conducting a study to engage employees in training, we uncovered new insights into where corporate L&D is headed in the future.
Also relevant here, see:
Workplace Learning: Still a Mess — from eliterate.us by Michael Feldstein
Excerpt:
There’s a mantra these days that higher education needs to get better at listening to industry so they can better prepare students for work. And while there is definitely some truth to that, it assumes that “industry” knows what it needs its workers to know. Former HP CEO Lew Platt once famously said, “If only Hewlett Packard knew what Hewlett Packard knows, we’d be three times more productive.”
In other words, a lot of vital know-how is locked up in pockets within the organization. It doesn’t reach either the training folks or the HR folks. So how are either universities or EdTech professional development companies supposed to serve an invisible need?
It’s not that they don’t know how to learn or they don’t like to learn online. It’s because their experience tells them that their valuable time spent “learning” might not equate to actual skills development.
Addendum on 8/15/22:
L&D Go Beyond Podcast: Bridging the Gap between Learning and Performance, with Charles Jennings — from upsidelearning.com by Gabriella Daniels
Excerpt:
Often, there is a vast gap between learning and performance in many organizations. Given Charles’ experience in the field, here are the key takeaways from this episode:
Training with Branching Scenarios — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
You can do live training with branching scenarios using full group discussions, polls, small groups, or assignments.
Excerpt:
How do you use branching scenarios in instructor-led training, rather than self-paced elearning? I think there are a couple of possibilities for doing live training with branching scenarios. These could work for either classroom-based training or vILT (virtual instructor-led training). For example, you can use branching scenarios in training as a full group with discussion or polls, in small groups, or outside of class as a discussion prompt.
Learning Content Maintenance: Don’t Skip This Essential Step — from learningsolutionsmag.com Adam Weisblatt
Excerpt:
L&D departments get bombarded with requests for new content, and they are reward for their responsiveness. As soon as one eLearning module is completed and loaded in the LMS, it is forgotten and the next course in the queue is started. Multiply this by all the organizations that share the LMS. The result is a catalog of thousands of courses that no one has time to look at.
It is important to see this from the perspective of the learner.
Second Career Satisfaction — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Natalie Schoof
Excerpt:
Hey teachers: In case you didn’t realize it, you’re an instructional designer.
I attended a conference (Learning Solutions 2022) where I met two other former teachers, who, like myself, had recently transitioned from the classroom to the field of instructional design (ID). We instantly bonded over our shared experiences—the rewards and challenges of teaching, of course, but also why and how we decided to move on.
Our stories had striking resemblances. I’m sharing mine here in the hopes that it might encourage other would-be instructional designers.
The Metaverse Will Reshape Our Lives. Let’s Make Sure It’s for the Better. — from time.com by Matthew Ball
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
The metaverse, a 30-year-old term but nearly century-old idea, is forming around us. Every few decades, a platform shift occurs—such as that from mainframes to PCs and the internet, or the subsequent evolution to mobile and cloud computing. Once a new era has taken shape, it’s incredibly difficult to alter who leads it and how. But between eras, those very things usually do change. If we hope to build a better future, then we must be as aggressive about shaping it as are those who are investing to build it.
The next evolution to this trend seems likely to be a persistent and “living” virtual world that is not a window into our life (such as Instagram) nor a place where we communicate it (such as Gmail) but one in which we also exist—and in 3D (hence the focus on immersive VR headsets and avatars).
3 reading activities with a creative twist — from classtechtips.com by Dr. Monica Burns
Taking construction education into a new age — from highereddive.com by Jonathan Arnholz
Excerpt:
In 2021, the sixth edition of our top textbook, Core: Introduction to Basic Construction Skills was released in collaboration with our publishing partner Pearson. In addition to the standard updates to the content, this new edition introduced QR codes to our textbooks, directing students to digital resources to reinforce the material found in the book. In conjunction with the release of the printed book came a new Core eText and a fully re-imagined NCCERconnect online course with integrated augmented reality lessons, dozens of videos on performance tasks, construction math and employability skills, dynamic presentations to support classroom engagement, project-based learning assignments and more.
Addendum on 7/21/22:
Skilled Trades Labor Scarcity: Workforce Aging as Fewer Recruits Enter Trades — from finance.yahoo.com
Excerpt:
TACOMA, Wash., July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The skilled trades industry is proving to be one of the hardest hit by worker scarcity. According to a new analysis by PeopleReady Skilled Trades, a specialized division of staffing giant PeopleReady, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a skilled labor shortage that companies are still struggling with today. In the period from March 2020 to December 2021, four million jobs were open in key skilled trades industries like construction—more than double the amount of vacancies pre-pandemic.
