CivieBlog

I had asked in Blog Post Updates - Effective Pattern? how to update a previous post. I'm still not sure I have the answer. I wanted to add something to Browser Keyboard Shortcut Basics. Since the title of the previous post is a bit different, I'm going to create a new post that is just about this one thing and then I guess I'll cross link. By the way, if you are not sure what Ctrl+T does, then go visit the previous post.

Firefox allows you to add a "Keyword" to any bookmark. This becomes a string you can type in the address bar in order to launch that bookmark. For any of your common bookmarks, it's worth your time to set keywords so that you can launch it in a new tab without having to click on anything.

Ctrl+T

elt<enter>

Opens the page.

Internet Explorer offers a similar capability with hot keys.

In Social Media Conversations, I posted the story of how this post came about.  Briefly, I sent Ken Allan the following question:

Any thoughts on how deliberative practice relates to becoming something less than an expert. It seems like it should be applicable to all levels of achievement, but everything I'm reading is the study of becoming an expert. Is that just aspirational, or is deliberative practice also studied for quick attainment of proficiency?

And he responded with Proficiency and Deliberative Practice.

The best way for me to process something like his post, is for me to walk through it and take notes.  In this case, I'm going to create a post out of it.

Ken starts with some foundation around terms of 'expert' and 'proficient' and it is really a spectrum:

all according to where the benchmarks lie for ‘proficient’ and for ‘expert’.

Then he gets at the crux of where my question comes from … expert status is more difficult to achieve these days:

It is becoming increasingly more difficult for expertise to reach expert level. The matter of change, which can arrive every 6 months to a year, or even more frequently in technology, will limit the efficiency of any aspiring expert in reaching true expert level.

This is the reason that I wrote the question.  I think of myself as being proficient at learning new subjects quickly, maybe even getting to an expert level at aspects of that.  But I'm not an expert in any of these subjects.  Jack of all trades.  My core questions were:

In this time of rapid change, is expertise really the goal anymore?

Does Deliberative Practice Lead to Quick Proficiency?

Ken landed on the same alternative goal, "quick proficiency" …

Here were some of his strategies:

• identify the required base-knowledge/skills, foster strategies for these to be recognized as key, and provide avenues for their appropriate acquisition and practice
• cull redundant and/or recursive procedures or procedural loops in workplace routines
• provide incentive for revisiting and refining/updating key knowledge/skills/procedures (used to be called ‘training’) to clarify current understanding
• foster a culture where its acceptable to ask questions to do with key knowledge/skills/procedures - in other words, it's OK not to be an expert.

Good stuff.

It's interesting to see how these relate to and enhance the core elements of Deliberative Practice:

• Deliberate practice identifies specific, defined elements of performance that need to be improved and works them intently independent of actual performance.
• Goals are set around each element of performance.
• Feedback and coaching is continuously available.
• Deliberative practice is hard, not fun and separated from actual performance.

In reading studies on deliberative practice, it's pretty clear that there's a nice body of research showing that this works.  And the reality is that likely you've seen this with your kids – think improving soccer skills, study skills, etc.

However, do these same elements hold true when we are talking about a world where expertise is not the goal?  Where quick proficiency is the goal?  Where most people will be in a role for only a few years?  Where they need to get up to speed immediately?

I'm also trying to figure out how this relates to Work Literacy.  I believe that some of the methods described in the Tool Set series are actually part of a core set of work skills where concept workers should develop expert level.  However, even there, with the rapid change in these tools and methods, rapid proficiency might be a better goal.  And the use of these work skills are often about rapid proficiency or leveraging the expertise of others to act like an expert.

I don't expect that there's a simple answer to any of this and the great thing about social media conversations is that they can take their time.

I hope you will contribute your thoughts to this conversation.

This post is just a quick reminder of the beauty of interesting new social media conversations and social media relationships. 

Ken Allan and I have had several interesting exchanges via our blogs and around the eLearning Learning site.  I'm not even sure what I would call Ken – it's somewhere in the peer, colleague, friend space.  I've never met Ken and I don't think we've had a real-time conversation (apologies to Ken if that's not true).  And the list of these kinds of relationships that I have is fairly long.

But it's a beautiful relationship with wonderful conversations.  As an example, during a recent email exchange, I threw in a question that I had been pondering:

Any thoughts on how deliberative practice relates to becoming something less than an expert. It seems like it should be applicable to all levels of achievement, but everything I'm reading is the study of becoming an expert. Is that just aspirational, or is deliberative practice also studied for quick attainment of proficiency?

This morning I wake up to find his post: Proficiency and Deliberative Practice.  I'm about to go post about that particular topic so I can collect my thoughts on it. 

But I had to also comment on the beauty of that kind of exchange.

And there's this interesting element that it's a public conversation.  It's part of the appeal of Twitter – you get to peer into a little snippet of public conversation.  Of course, blog conversations can go deeper.  And I'm not saying it's an either or.

I still like to use the analogy of a huge cocktail party when describing social media.  Everyone is standing around and you likely can engage them in really great conversations.  But, there are some patterns and norms at cocktail parties and in social media conversations.

• 95%+ of vendors don't get social media conversations.  They believe that sending a press release to a blogger works.  Good luck with that.  Go ahead and send it, but don't expect results.  Think about walking around a cocktail party passing out flyers.  Well received?
• You do need to Spend Time in social media to be able to engage in these conversations.
• My experience with Browse My Stuff has shown me that most bloggers are quite open and willing to engage. 
• I am quite willing to engage in social media conversations - see Conversation Topics

Okay, now onto Ken's post.  Thanks Ken!

Oh, and it goes without saying that I welcome comments, posts and other social media conversations.

Keeping with the theme of creating posts that really shouldn't be posts, but I need to have an appropriate page in my blog, I thought I should take the opportunity to create a page where I can list any and all disclosures about relationships with vendors, people, companies that may appear in my writing or speaking.

Editorial Firewall

Before I mention these relationships, with any and all companies that I work with in a consulting capacity and who I will discuss in my blog, I include in my contract what I call an editorial firewall clause. That clause says:

• I have a responsibility to provide unbiased content in my blog, presentations and consulting.
• All relationships will be disclosed and transparent.
• All communications in my blog, presentations and consulting will be authentic. In other words, there is no editorial control by anyone over spoken or written statements. There is no offer of editing comments to have a positive slant. I will talk about competitors. Basically, I'm going to say what I'm going to say.

You might think that this would be an issue, but I have yet to have any trouble. The reason is that it really doesn't do a vendor any good to have anything but a fair representation of where they fit in the market. What they are good at. When you might use someone else. It's a waste of everyone's time to say anything else.

Disclosed Relationships

I'm sure this list will grow over time, but the two that I know I should mention are …

• Adobe – Member of the eLearning Advisory Board – High level discussions with Adobe around product direction.
• Upside Learning – Advisor discussing product and services direction, positioning and product marketing.
• ProProfs - consulting around market positioning
  

If you have any questions, comments or concerns – feel free to email me at: akarrer@techempower.com

In Learning, Extended Brain and Topic Hubs, I talked about the story behind the launch of Speaking Pro Central.   While I've been speaking and conducting workshops for quite a while, I've never really treated this aspect of my professional life … well professionally.  So, this post (and since Blogger only allows posts) represents a first step.

For subscribers, I apologize – you only will see this once and then it becomes a fixture on the site that I can update.

Dr. Tony Karrer is an expert on innovative uses of technology that improves human performance and drive business results.  Tony educates individuals, businesses and organizations on social media, web 2.0 tools and the associated methods and skills.  Considering that he's a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Tony's speaking style is energetic, personal, and funny (sometimes intentionally).  Tony personalizes every presentation to make sure that it addresses the specific needs of the audience and is adept at adjusting during presentations to ensure that the audience is understanding and getting value.

He is author of the award-winning eLearning Technology blog, founder of Work Literacy, and creator of eLearning Learning. Dr. Karrer’s experience is diverse including founding CTO of eHarmony, associate professor of Computer Science, and consultant to Credit Suisse, Citibank, Lexus, Microsoft, Nissan, Universal, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Symbol Technologies and many others. He was valedictorian and attended USC as a Tau Beta Pi fellow, one of the top 30 engineers in the U.S. where he received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Email Tony for his speaking fee information (akarrer@techempower.com).

Speaking and Workshop Topics

Tony can speak on a wide variety of topics, but here are a few recent topics that might spark ideas.

• eLearning 2.0 
• Work Literacy
• Learning 2.0 – Changes in Workplace Learning
• Learning 2.0 – Practical Applications for Organizations
• Social Media for Consultants
• Tapping the Social Grid
• Getting Traffic Through Social Media
• B2B Lead Generation Via Social Media
• Long Tail Search Engine Optimization
• Social Networks for Business Generation

Recent Presentations and Workshops

Tony presents, moderates and does workshops at a wide range of association, professional, corporate and organization events as well as online events.  Here are some examples of types of recent presentations and workshops.

• ASTD TechKnowledge Keynote
• Institute of Management Consultants
• ASTD Chapter Meetings
• ASTD Workshops
• ISPI Chapter Meetings
• Technology Council
• eLearning Guild
• Harvard Business School
• UCLA Entrepreneurs Conference
• Cal Tech Entrepreneurial Forum
• Keynotes and Workshops at Vendor Conferences
• Keynotes and Workshops at Corporate Conferences
• Vendor Webinars

Testimonials

“I have known and worked with Tony since the early 90's, and he has delivered a number of very popular presentations and wrap-up sessions at conferences my colleagues and I have produced.” William Brandon, eLearning Guild

"I wanted to thank you for the clear, fun and insightful information. Its good to hear of the solid business and learning applications for these technologies." Director of Learning, WellPoint

Tony gets great reviews from his presentations and workshops.  Here's a few of the evaluation comments from a recent one:

Awesome!!
Enjoyed being able to see live examples. Benefited from the barriers + work around discussion
Tony did a great job of providing an overview of various tools available. Nice job!
Excellent thorough, relevant & engaging!
Outstanding!!!
Tony is a great evangelist for web 2.0 – I’m pumped to use more
Excellent! Loved the way he started by gaining and understanding of current knowledge of audience
Great applicable knowledge to be applied
Tony is awesome…time well spent. Thank you!
Great case study application to process and think about application of ideas!
Now feel much better informed and confident to implement social tools in my organization, feel like the unknown has been “exposed” and best practices can be implemented
Outstanding!!
Wow!

Opportunities

Schedule Tony to speak at your event by emailing akarrer@techempower.com

Weekly Hot eLearning Hot List 5/22/09 - 5/29/09

Top Posts

The following are the top posts from featured sources based on social signals.

1. Presentation: Blogs in Education- Don't Waste Your Time, May 22, 2009
2. Implementing New Learning Technology? Choose the Right Pilot Group- Kapp Notes, May 22, 2009
3. Capture Examples- eLearning Technology, May 29, 2009
4. Twitter: The #1 Tool for Learning- Upside Learning Blog, May 26, 2009
5. Adobe eLearning Suite: is it worth it?- Clive on Learning, May 29, 2009
6. Text to Speech- eLearning Technology, May 28, 2009
7. Poll:What is your favourite eLearning software?- Don't Waste Your Time, May 23, 2009
8. Discovering Instructional Design 6: Developing Objectives- The E-Learning Curve, May 28, 2009
9. Examples of Using Virtual 3D Spaces for Learning- Kapp Notes, May 26, 2009
10. Financial Investment- eLearning Technology, May 26, 2009
11. Discovering Instructional Design 4: The Affective Domain- The E-Learning Curve, May 25, 2009
12. Top 5 reasons for implementing LMS: LC Survey- Upside Learning Blog, May 24, 2009
13. Discovering Instructional Design 3: A Systems Approach- The E-Learning Curve, May 22, 2009
14. Favorite 10 Tools For Creating Learning- Business Casual, May 28, 2009
15. Skype screen-sharing collaboration & feedback- WISE Pedagogy, May 28, 2009
16. More Digital Natives- Upside Learning Blog, May 28, 2009
17. ASTD / ISPI Social Learning Workshop- Social Enterprise Blog, May 27, 2009
18. Gaining Audience Attention >- MinuteBio, May 27, 2009
19. Discovering Instructional Design 5: Stages in the Affective Taxonomy- The E-Learning Curve, May 27, 2009
20. Twitterfall - letting the web work for you- eLearning Acupuncture, May 26, 2009
21. Brain rule #9- Clive on Learning, May 26, 2009
22. How Do You Build A Team?- Blogger in Middle-earth, May 26, 2009

Top Other Items

The following are the top other items based on social signals.

1. 7 Tips for Better E-Learning Scenarios, May 26, 2009
2. Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009, May 24, 2009
3. Modern Corporate Training: The Enterprise Learning Framework, May 24, 2009
4. Poll Everywhere : Use Twitter in PowerPoint, May 27, 2009
5. Royalty-Free, Podsafe, and Stock Music, May 25, 2009
6. Googley design, May 26, 2009
7. Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech " How the book destroyed Community, May 23, 2009
8. WordWrap macro, May 29, 2009
9. 25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals, May 22, 2009
10. Jay’s new book on learning metrics, May 25, 2009
11. The Power of Community | workforce.com, May 28, 2009
12. What would Andrew do?, May 26, 2009
13. The Excellent Inevitability of Online Courses - Chronicle.com, May 27, 2009
14. Creating scenarios for learning - a four-step guide, May 27, 2009
15. Learning and Working in Complexity Workshop, May 29, 2009
16. Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?, May 28, 2009
17. Integrating work support systems, May 27, 2009

Top Keywords

• Social Learning (18)
• Instructional Design (25)
• Free (36)
• Collaboration (17)
• Poll (4)
• Develop (15)

I received an inquiry from a reader who was trying to find tools that they should use for creating their eLearning Script.  They are in a Mac and PC environment and they have to pass scripts around fairly widely for review and input.  The scripts are for eLearning with media (voice-over and video).  They are considering a pretty wide range of solutions from eLearning specific, to media specific, to standard tools like Word and PowerPoint, to doing it as rapid prototypes using an authoring tool.

I was going to respond and then I realized that I hadn't looked at tools in this space in quite a while, so I'd like to hear from readers:

What do you use to create your eLearning Scripts?

What tools should this person consider?

 

Please add your comments.  I'll try to compile things in this post a bit like we do in the Big Question so that it becomes a pretty good resource based on responses.