For some time I have been toying with the idea of writing a buyers guide.

As someone who sells more than one of these tools and is independent of any manufacturer, I have decided the time is right, so here it is. And it’s FREE. Also contains some great historical info.

Download the Inside Buyers Guide.

For some time the flow of emails from offshore companies (offshore is a great term here, how far do they have to be before offshore becomes other side of the world?) had slowed to a trickle. Then our very own Mr Cameron took his high power delegation to inja and once again the emails have started. How many of these companies can there be?

I received emails this week from a number of different companies in India offering services, the first email told me they wished to talk of their enchanting gamut of services. I almost booked the call just to understand what it was they had to offer, really an exciting gamut of services, what does that actually mean I wonder? Then the attached picture arrived!

Another told me they ‘gad great quatity’ in their service. Their quatity was so good they even spelled india without the capital I.

The list of well know elearning companies they claim to be using their services gives great cause for concern. Ask your vendor if they are outsourcing, if they are ask what they are doing to check the quatity.

Then call me. Great week of funny blogs….

But had to share….

This is  strictly a mathematical viewpoint. It goes like this:
What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder
about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all
been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.
How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here’s a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

And

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But ,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E

1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T

2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G

1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, that while Hard work and
Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, its the
Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.

I am presenting on the subject of ‘Just Too Late Learning’, the concept is that there are 4 basic types of learning methods.

1. Want – learning that you want to do. eg I would like to be able to repair my own car so attending a car mechanics course would be ideal for me.

2. Must – Compliance courses fall into this category. eg Anti Money Laundering if you work for a financial organisation. These course you must complete and pass a test to be able to work in your organisation.

3. Need – Often Just in Time learning. Confusing time line on this one for me. eg Going to learn how to do something just before I need to do it….

4. Oh Sh*t – Just too late learning.  eg  I already started working on something and do not know how to finish it.

All too common….

My presentation highlights a new form of learning design and delivery to meet this need plus some ideas for alternatives to be discussed at the Learning and Skills Group and in MOSH Pit in San Diego.

You can be a part of an experiment in social help and assistance starting right now.

On Twitter, use your favourite twitter tool, I use Tweet Deck, search for and follow #ineedtoknow, seems there is a little junk on it already, but I am sure we can take it over!

If you need to know something, anything, then post it here. Do it before you search Google. Let’s see if the people in the experiment can help each other with anything and everything.  Old saying is I don’t know, but know a ‘man’ who does. Get that ‘man’ involved!

I am not sure how this will pan out, and will watch it closely for a few  weeks. Invite everyone you know to take part and lets see if the social learning aspect of helping someone else in need can be as productive as I hope it will.

The results will be published as part of a wider set of research and who knows you may be pioneering something that will become a part of daily activity in the near future.

Now been playing with my iPad for just over a week. This is the future.

Going to be interesting to see what learners make of it when they see what we have created for mLearnCon in San Diego shortly.

Thought it was time I installed WordPress and blogged. It is so easy to type that I can see lots more blogging in the next few weeks.

Impressed? Well if you don’t have one yet, you are missing something fantastic.

More to follow… Now to work out how to add tags!

“In the summer outdoors in the winter when there is so much beauty in all of them will be deprived of if you have already stated he thought we’d be wrong.

Güzelli?ide winter weather is creating a separate restaurant. While watching a movie on TV, “Oh I wish it out of the snow in the mountains or at home if I was at the beginning of the fireplace when it rains,” said the dead?

If your answer is yes, we realize that your dreams are trying to care for indoors. Spell the beginning of this as I mentioned in the entire mountain house in the air is considered out for the snow or rain when you, like glass on the edge of the beauty of watching if you want the fireplace next to his firing from the crackle of meat you eat and wine you can sip.

Another feature of the interior of the hall is a twin. While sitting in a hall or across the room I wonder how I wonder if we sit across the tarafam? because I do not think the two sides to the table decor in the same sequence.”

Reckon they must sell kebabs!

I am sure this post will gain many varied response, I have no idea if there is an answer but…

So here is my view for what it’s worth…

• Analyse – analyse learner characteristics, task to be learned, etc.
• Design – develop learning objectives, choose an instructional approach
• Develop – create instructional or training materials
• Implement – deliver or distribute the instructional materials
• Evaluate – make sure the materials achieved the desired goals

It’s been around for donkeys years, since 1975 actually, developed by the Florida State University

So what is a model? How does it differ from a framework?  Is there a difference?

I saw a comment some time ago from Brent Schlenker (2006), my fellow moderator on Twitter’s #lrnchat, Brent said ” ADDIE is risky and invites failure”, maybe Brent will comment and update his view.

Today the post (note from 2004) was from an academic view. Keep this in mind over the rest of this blog.

ADDIE is a both a model and a framework, it is a simple 5 letter acronym that gives an outline of a direction to go through a pathway of creating a course. It was designed and is still used and promoted for those who do not have a pocket full of models and theories to draw on when creating learning. It is almost the first basic failsafe for those who ask me “where do I begin”.

Look at many other models and you will find ADDIE embedded within them, and they have tried to expand on the simplest model that HAS stood the test of time.

To implement the model you must then draw on a whole of set of theories. Remember it is only a checklist, a quick reminder of the direction to take and the order required.

Analyse: (sorely the most ignored part of any learning development, so many are creating learning because someone else demanded it..”we need a course on…” fixing something that may not be broke…  I commented on #lrnchat a few weeks ago that this was DDIE Do or Die) The theories behind Analyse are numerous, Wright and Geroy and the Flow theory come to mind amongst many others out there on the shelf.

Design: Here the instructional design theories are too numerous to mention, but Gagne, Dick and Carey, Bloom, Reigeluth and Lasher come to mind.. ( Sorry small plug for my 2004 paper the 4A’s, published in Emerald Literati, now called the A Team and there are 6A’s)  Am I worthy to be listed with such names?  Not forgetting the theory behind Cognitive Load Theory, Kolb’s and Phil Race’s experiential cycles and Sweller’s work on memory load all come to mind here and for the trainer who has no experience in instructional design, some of these can be daunting and confusing and often misunderstood.

Develop: Whose role is it to develop the learning? Age old question ask twenty different people involved in development of learning and you will get 20 different answers. Whoever does the grunt work using the media tools, whatever they are, should know by this stage exactly what is required.  If you get to this stage of the model and you don’t already know what it is going to look like, what it is going to say and have the information explicitly in front of you, STOP and go back a stage to DESIGN.  If you are not explicit to the developer and hope he will just get the picture right and the animation will be OK ’cause he knows what he is doing’, then you are fooling yourself, and the developer will get the blame when it does not work.  Fair? Maybe….

Implement:  So you think implementation is putting your course on the Learning Management System and assigning the poor user to it?  Think again….  Great paper on this by Kayte O’Neill and others in 2004 http://informingscience.org/jite/documents/Vol3/v3p313-323-131.pdf

I wonder how much has changed in todays world, I suspect not really very much.  But they talk of some interesting issues that are still very relevant to implementing learning, both from the learner’s perspective and the tutors. Adapting to change, isolation issues, critical success factors, quality assurance…

There is a great book by James Cornford and Neil Pollock called Putting the University Online, they draw on theories from the sociology of technology and on a large and diverse body of empirical research and show the limits to, and implications of, the pursuit of a virtual future. Written in 2003, much has changed you would think, think again…..

Plus of course the question What have you done to market the course, to create the ‘want’? These are the factors of implementation.

and finally,

Evaluate: No not the learner the material…  Did it do what you set out for it to do?

Here the question is should we be considering – Should we adapt Kirkpatricks model to accommodate eLearning environments? Maybe we should rethink how we do evaluate. Bin ROI, it does not exist. (please don’t get me started on that one today)  Great paper on changing Kirkpatrick for eLearning at http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/jcs/jcs48693-698.pdf

What if it does not hit the mark? How do you set about changing it? What is the update route?

Another small plug at this point, want to know more ?    http://www.trainer1.com/MID.html

So my original point  is that ADDIE is alive and well, it works! Not saying there are no better models, not saying I should go and have a drink now as I said it (#lrnchat rules), not saying you should all use it, but if you are starting out and have that question ‘where do I begin?’ open the drawer get ADDIE out of the dark and don’t be scared to use it.  Just remember there is a lot more than the 5 letters in the acronym.

My life has changed somewhat over the last year. The process of divorce, moving home and having a father who has dimentia has taken it’s toll on the stress levels.

It is very easy to bury yourself into your work, bury your head and hope it all goes away. To be honest it doesn’t.

However, I always said it would be good to get a work life balance. Like many however I never really understood what this meant or how to achieve it. Read the book, seen the video etc etc.

When you do finally find how, it is a revelation. So let me share some thought.

There comes a moment when you live on your own after having had a partner and kids in your house for 26 years, when you close the front door on returning home and realise you are alone, this is it.

I thought this would be a lonley place, turn on the laptop, work. However I set a rule when I moved in that work at home was only allowed during work hours. Force yourself to read books, listen to music, learn to cook better, blog loads of thoughts and Tweet, anything other than work.

Some time ago I met a person who has changed the way I think. They have made me consider what I have and what is missing. The time spent in the presence of this person is very challenging and has made me think inwardly. The challenges posed were not easy in the begining, I was pretty closed to new ideas or change. Over time I have seen the light. Seeing this person has become really fun.

Now this relationship has taken a very long time to flourish. I have always been a positive person viewing everything as a challenge in my work environment and with my clients. It is what my reputation is based on, however, how is this affected by what happens at home? Before the rumour machine gets going, this person is a theraputic professional.

At this time I am having a really good time at home, my social life is the best it has been for years, what I do outside of work is fulfilling and has become great fun. I do not have time to blog and Tweet as much as I would like. I do not have enough time to read all I want and the Sky box is filling quicker than I have time to watch it.

Sounds great no?

What I have realised is that this great time out of work has had a serious affect on how efficient and effective I am in the office. The better it gets at home, the more efficient I get at work.

So here is my challenge. I do not know yet how to research this so input from all is required.

My first thought is that we are training the wrong subjects in the workplace. Training people to be more effective in their work could be achieved better by training them how to have a good time out of work. Time management training could include how to stop at the end of the day.

The crazy first thoughts are that if we help our staff learn how to have a good time out of work, they will have a good time whilst at work and be more productive.

New course titles could include:

Cook your partner a great meal.
Understanding the difference between Merlot and Shiraz.
Making cleaning your house a fun experience.
and
Bringing your true self to work!

Do you carry a breifcase home every day? I do! Now I force myself not to open it at home out of work hours. But when I open it in the office, I get twice as much done.

What research is required here? Where do I begin? Interested in taking part?

I am honoured that they thought my lille ol blog was worth hacking.

Back to blogging tomorrow….

John  was in the fertilized egg business.

He had several hundred young layers  (hens), called 'pullets,'

and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.

He  kept records, and any rooster not performing

went into the soup pot and was  replaced.

This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells

and  attached them to his roosters.

Each bell had a different tone, so he  could tell from a distance,

which rooster was performing.

Now, he  could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report

by just listening  to the bells.

John's favourite rooster, Barry, was a very fine  specimen,

but this morning he noticed Barry's bell hadn't rung at  all!

When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters  were  busy chasing

pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the  roosters coming, could run for

cover.

To John's amazement, Barry had  his bell in his beak, so it couldn't

ring.

He'd sneak up on a  pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

John was so proud of Barry,  he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair

and he became an overnight  sensation among the judges.

The result was the judges not only awarded  Barry the No Bell Piece

Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise  as well.

Clearly, Barry was a politician in the making.

Who else but  a politician could figure out how to win two of the                

most  highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at                

sneaking  up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying  attention.

Vote carefully, the bells are not always  audible.