How do I turn the windscreen wipers on?!

Last night I was putting the windscreen wipers on whenever I meant to indicate. 

I was being flashed by other drivers in the hope I’d stop blinding them with my full beam lights. 

I had to figure out how to tune the car stereo so that “Country FM” would not be the accompaniment for my entire journey.

Last night this all happened because I was driving a courtesy car. I was no longer driving on autopilot.

When it comes to our development, I believe we can unintentionally fall into “autopilot”. What once started out as learning practices, have become habits. We get used to learning one way and perhaps fail to explore other options.

When you need to deepen your knowledge or understanding…do you automatically register for a classroom training session? What if you made a conscious effort to explore an elearning course or talk to a someone to learn from their experience?

You subscribed to a monthly Leadership Journal…do you automatically flick through it when it lands on your desk and then put it in your drawer to gather dust? What if you made a conscious effort to read each article and reflect on how you could apply it?

You’ve read a book, listened to a podcast, been in a classroom, talked to a mentor...do you automatically tick it off your list as being complete and move on? What if you made a conscious effort to put into practice what you learned and share it with others?

As I drove the courtesy car, yes I did have to think about the basics that I don’t normally have to think about. Yes, I did feel slightly apprehensive in an unfamiliar car. Yes, I did get frustrated at points when the car wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do. Yes, I would have preferred to be driving my own car.

But guess what…

30miles, 2 hours in rush hour traffic and a conscious effort later, I started to use indicators to indicate, windscreen wipers to wipe my windscreen, and my IPod took over from Country FM.

What if we took our learning off autopilot? What if we explored our development in a different way?

One last thing…

The phrase “procrastination is opportunity’s assassin” came into my mind as I wrote this…

Why?

Because the reason I had a courtesy car was due to one of my electric windows that stopped working…2 months ago. 

Don't cruise along on autopilot for another 2 months, how about fixing your learning experiences today

What’s Your Red Balloon?

Kid’s parties.

Balloon animals.

That person at a party singing “I will Survive” after emptying a balloon of helium.

This is what the humble red balloon means to many. Not me.

It’s my perspective.

It’s my confidence.

It’s my courage.

For 6 months in 2007, I volunteered in Sri Lanka’s Tsunami affected South, with most of my time spent working with kids and teenagers.

About a fortnight in, I bought some balloons for the pre-school kids…plain red balloons. No fancy writing on them. No brightly coloured string attached to them. No noise made when you punch them. Just plain, red balloons.

I will never forget when the 45+ children were given their own red balloon. If someone had just walked into the classroom (let’s call it what it is…a shack), you would have assumed they’d just been awarded tickets to Disney Land, with unlimited ice-cream and 24/7 access to the biggest toy shop in the world.

But they hadn’t.

This overwhelming joy, manifested in huge smiles and big sparkling brown eyes, was down to a plain, red, 1p balloon.

This is a mental picture I will never forget. My drive, my determination, the risk taker in me…all driven by the kids’ reaction to a plain, red, balloon.

It’s my perspective.

A child who lives a life of adversity is satisfied with a plain, red, balloon. I take that perspective when my workload feels overwhelming.

It’s my confidence.

A child who lives in unthinkable conditions, escapes reality as they play with their plain, red, balloon. I take that confidence when I’m in a situation outside of my comfort zone.

It’s my courage.

A child who treasures their plain, red, balloon, yet proactively asks others to play with it and share in their excitement. I take that courage when I make a risky decision.

You don't have to travel as far as Hambantota in Sri Lanka to have a red balloon experience. We all have countless experiences everyday. Have you considered how these can be applied to develop yourself in your work life?

What’s your red balloon?

My Professional Values

For me, my professional values should reflect, and be, an extension of my personal values. I wouldn’t want my personal values to be compromised in my profession or vice versa.

Some may see that as naïve. Some may think we should be one person in work, and another in play. Not me.

As I see it, I can only be one person, and that is me…Caroline. I can’t be anyone else. I wouldn’t really want to be anyone else if I’m honest (although some may wish I was).

So when thinking about my professional values, I concluded that I will be Clear, Authentic, Respectful and Open. I will Listen to you, remain Informed, Nuture and provide Energy. I will be CAROLINE.

Clear – I will be transparent in my advice and what is expected from each other

Authentic – I will be real, trustworthy and myself, while providing a professional service

Respectful – I will respect you, your ideas and your opinions

Open – I will be honest in my service to you at all times

Listen – I will listen to you and consider your thoughts

Informed - I will continue my professional development so you can be confident in my advice

Nurture - I will take the opportunity to coach, counsel and cultivate to help you reach you potential and/or achieve the best possible solution

Energy – I will be passionate and determined to help you succeed in whatever you ask of me

Now my next challenge…living these out

What makes an elearning professional – do they need to be able to swim?

A few months ago, comedian David Walliams swam The Thames for Sports Relief. Professor Greg Whyte guided David through his training regime, advised him on his diet, shared techniques to help him complete the challenge and even swam alongside him at points during the challenge to motivate and support him. Greg describes himself as having “professional experience assessing, treating and improving the performance of athletes and sporting enthusiasts”.

I heard another swimming story a few years ago when I attended a course, about a competitive swimmer who wanted to rank in their next competitive games. The swimmer sought the advice of a professional trainer, who trained with him most days, critiquing his performance and giving him advice on what he could do to bring his time down and improve upon his technique. In the end, the swimmer’s time decreased and he won silver in the competition. Like Professor Greg Whyte, the trainer had many professional accolades, however there was one vital honour that he did not have...this trainer couldn’t swim.

Regardless of the technical ability (to swim in this case) of the two sporting professionals, the end results were the same - both swimmers reached their goal. So in that case, both “professionals” who were employed, did their job, with common characteristics displayed by both:

-          Critique performance and offer advice on how to improve performance

-          To motivate and influence the swimmers to adopt the techniques based on their recommendations

-          Understood the goals of the individuals, what they wanted to achieve and what was motivating them to achieve it

-          The swimmers seeking their advice trusted and respected their credentials as professionals (based on their knowledge from their experience, qualifications and professional standards achieved by them and wanted to learn from them.

When looking at my mind map of what I think defines an elearning professional, many of the above mentioned soft skills emerged, with them outnumbering the technical skills. (When I talk about “technical skills” of an elearning professional, I mean the basic skills to use and implement the technology).   This didn’t surprise me as I am of the opinion, for example, that a good manager doesn’t need to know the “nitty gritty” of their employee's job, but needs the skills to bring out the best in them, which will in turn help them achieve the goals.

As with any “e” market and its constant evolution (now “e” is turning into “m” for mobile), an elearning professional must keep up to speed and that is why accreditation of a professional body and continuing professional development fits into my definition. They are passionate, are seen to offer sound judgement and are influential with their opinions that are respected and trusted. The elearning professional has transferable skills from face to face learning that they can bring into elearning, making people feel they are not missing out on the traditional interaction of a classroom environment or a paper based experience.

My mind map shows the technical ability necessary, is the knowledge they have of how elearning tools can support the learner and in what circumstances they would benefit.  They may not necessarily know how to build the technology, but they have a network of people who can do that for them. The “technical professional” will know how to create multimedia, podcasts and build the infrastructure needed to support an eportfolio structure for example, but will not necessarily know how this will impact the learner.

What I would also highlight (slightly contradictory) is that the elearning professional who has the technical skills plus the behavioural skills will, in my opinion be more credible in the elearning field, however a lack of these technical skills doesn’t make them an "elearning unprofessional".

So does an elearning professional need to be able to metaphorically swim? I guess that all comes down to the opinion of person who is seeking their professionalism to decide.


Listen to this blog post as a podcast

Elearning Professional...I'm getting there

Spag bol is my speciality dish (I use the word “speciality” loosely). When friends come around for dinner or I want to make something that I don’t have to think about, spag bol is the dish of choice. I don’t have to measure out ingredients or follow a recipe book, in fact I could probably make it standing on my head. I would also be confident to change the recipe to suit people’s taste, for example if someone was vegetarian or another didn’t like mushrooms, it wouldn’t throw me into a blind panic.

By thinking about my objectives for studying this module and assessing my skills as an elearning professional, I’ve discovered that being an elearning professional is a bit like having a speciality dish. There is a basic recipe for being a learning professional, which can then be tailored to become an elearning professional

In my previous blog  I highlighted that my strengths were those things that I was “unconsciously competent” in, and as I look at my PDP grid, I can see that these will also my strengths in the elearning world as they are key skills to have in any learning environment. For example, my ability to use examples throughout, answer questions helpfully and summarise key content should remain constant and consistent whatever the method of delivery. Another strength is my ability to communicate online/audio without having ever met the person. I don’t see this as a barrier for me and is something I would encounter on a frequent basis.

My weaknesses are not so much my technical ability (as I know I am quick at picking things up) but more my technical knowledge. I would class myself as a complete novice not only in my understanding but also my awareness  as to whether certain technology would be applicable for me or not. I suppose the starting point is researching what they are and then assessing its relevance. What I’m specifically referring to are the suggested technical competences e.g.  Text-based communication systems, online community and the understanding of technical copyright issues. At the moment, facing these would cause me to react in the same way as if someone turned up for dinner and said they didn’t like spag bol!

I would struggle to say I have “learned” anything new about my strengths and weaknesses as a result of this activity, but more so it has reinforced for me what I already knew and has allowed me to put it down on paper, or should I say epaper!

My current ability to be an elearning practitioner

”You played really well today.” “I would have played better if I had more practice time”

“I like what you’re wearing”. “This is just an old top I’ve had for years”

“That’s a really good idea”.” It’ll do until someone comes up with a better one”.

We don’t cope well with being complimented. It actually frustrates me at times when I give really positive feedback to someone and they then play down their achievement. Saying that, I know this, “pot, kettle, black” are words that spring into my head at this point!

So if it’s that difficult to accept a positive feedback, how much more difficult is it to openly share our strengths (weaknesses I’m sure for most of us would be much simpler)?

The grid below is an analysis of my current ability to be an elearning practitioner. This is by no means exhaustive, but simply the key points. I am an advocate of the  4 stages of learning model and feel it gives a very clear way of identifying strengths and weakness.

Unconscious Incompetence This is what I’m still ignorant of when it comes to being an elearning practitioner– I don’t know what I don’t know I don’t know! This week my eyes may be opened to something new in the course groups discussion form. I may receive feedback about myself in terms of strength or a weakness that I never knew. However, at the moment, I will remain in the dark!

Conscious Incompetence This is what I know I need to work on when it comes to being an elearning practitioner: Technical ability – I am aware of different types of elearning however still lack the technical ability of creating them  (e.g. Podcasts) My reluctance to slow down at times– Although a strength of mine is being proactive, I recognise that I am impatient at times to learn about why things have developed. I would rather think about what it means to me. E.g. looking at the drivers of eportfolios could help me understand the implications to my organisation, but I’d rather “jump in” and think “what can they bring and how can I implement”.

Unconscious Competence This is what I can do naturally when it comes to being an elearning practitioner: My passion – I love my job, I learning about learning and I love having the ability to support people in their development. This enthusiasm will follow me into the elearning world My ability to learn quickly – I know I can pick things up quickly which will help in my elearning journey My ability to provide the right training – whatever the platform for delivery, I am comfortable and competent in following the training cycle and recognise it as invaluable in my context

Conscious Competence This is what I can do, but have to still think about. It doesn’t come naturally yet. Motivate, engage and lead students - The qualities I have as a face to face trainer need be transferred into an elearning environment. I am very competent in these, however don’t have as much experience of how they will manifest in an elearning environment Transform training material for the elearning environment – I have experience, although limited, of amending material for non-classroom delivery. I am more than comfortable at designing material, which will help me with this.

At this point, this is my perception of my development as an elearning professional. By the end of this week I will have produced a needs analysis for my own development and discussed in the course forum, so I look forward to reflecting about what I have discovered.

Eportfolio recommendation: Activity 3.2

The purpose of this report is to share the objectives of implementing an eportfolio in the organisation, an overview of 3 eportfolio systems currently available, and concluding with a specific recommendation for the organisation.

The objective of implementing an eportfolio system within the organisation is to better manage and support the organisation’s talent pool. An eportfolio system will allow a repository of evidence to be created by all, which the employee can then submit when a development opportunity arises. The result of implementation will be a culture of experimental learning in the organisation, leading to employees being more aware of their capabilities and the organisation being more aware of the talent, resulting in a more focussed, motivated and innovative workforce.

The 3 eportfolio systems investigated were:

1. FolioSpaces – particularly aimed at schools and education systems. It is an open space for people to structure and manage their files as they desire. It also has a blog facility.  It is owned by the individual, who controls what is shared. Individuals can link their eportfolios to the organisation, which allows ease of reviewing.

2. Digication  – as well as having the key functions of FiloSpaces, Digication also has assessment management and a resume builder. Unlimited eportfolios can be created in one account.

3. PebblePad  – clear structure to record (e.g. my action plans, my experiences) allowing for a clear focus. There are also prompts within the system to encourage reflection on practice and learning

Based on the investigations and the resources available to the organisation, I recommend enhancing the functionality that is already available to the organisation. I purpose that the skeleton for an eportfolio system is already in existence ( the private space available to mange a CV and record learning) which can be built upon. I propose adding a blog functionality to allow for reflection, a file manager so work can be stored and categorised and also adapting the security so that individual’s information can also be shared and comments added, as they wish. Finally I recommend that this portal is not restricted to internal use, but can be accessed off site so that employees can update it at a time convenient to them.

The motivation for individuals to use the eportfolio system is for personal development planning, acting as an 21^st century “learning log”, being solely owned by the individual to present and use as they wish. Support and coaching will be provided to them by their manager as to best practices for use (e.g. see guide on reflection ).

I recommend the following implementation plan:

Stage 1: Project team set up

Stage 2: A working group to be set up (comprising of 11 people – 1 from each business area). Their responsibility to communicate the implementation to the different areas to gain buy in

Stage 3: Rollout of the enhanced system, with the working group acting as a support network to provide guidance

Stage 4: Monthly evaluations of how the eportfolio is progressing and any key points that need addressed