If you don’t understand basic maths then Excel won’t make you numerate.

If you are a boring public speaker, then you will be even more boring with PowerPoint.

On the other hand I also believe that all of those skills are trainable. In the process of learning to use the tool you may also pick up the fundamentals of the technology.

Because the good time manager can spend a lot less of that valuable time if they learn to use a good tool to manage appointments, deadlines and contacts. The great speaker, who is used to connecting with an audience, won’t abuse the slide-show technology to the detriment of the audience.

The mathemagician will make Excel models that dazzle one the tool is understood.

So how about e-learning. Does the technology make it easier to learn?

After a semester using e-learning technology to learn about e-learning my essential bias remains that if you can’t do it without computers, then computers won’t suddenly make it easier by themselves.

As a learning tool, though the learning has to take place on two fronts. First learn the technology, then learn the subject content. I found the technology we were given to work with very easy to use. we were asked to prepare a blog using Edublogs.org, asked to communicate through a social networking system – Ning.com and asked to prepare a wiki on wikispaces.com. The tools were new to all of the members of the learning team I joined, but we all had enough computer literacy to pick them up pretty quickly. Our comfort with the tools increased progressively, and this is evident when I scan the progressive contributions.

But learning to use 3 bits of software is not a masters level subject. It was the content, rather than the process that we were interested in. did using these tools teach us more about e-learning?

I would have to say a resounding yes. But it would not have happened if we didn’t have some basic study skills and high motivation.

An example of the course design was posting our assignments as blog posts. for the first time in many years of formal and informal study, it was the first time I was ever able to see exactly what my class mates were learning. not only did I know what they were reading – as might happen in a face to face class – I could also see what insights that they gained from it. The technology didn’t make it happen, it just made it possible.

So like the good speaker with PowerPoint where the audience’s experience is enhanced, or the good time manager with an electronic organiser, where contacts, appointments and tasks are brought together with a few keystrokes, the e-learning tools made the subject more beneficial for the students who did the work.

I suspect that many of us put a lot more effort into this subject than others we have done. I think the technology aided this for two reasons, interest and possibility. we were interested in the content, rather the process. The process just made it possible to satisfy our interests.

The person who made it possible was Anne Bartlett-Bragg, our lecturer from UTS. To her we owe a great debt, because she provided the tasks and the tools that helped us learn for ourselves. I’m suspect Anne is a great face to face lecturer. To reinforce my bias – she couldn’t have designed and facilitated the on-line course if she was not. But with the tools that she arranged for us to use our learning was exponentially greater. 

Thanks Anne. and a special thanks to my teammates, Prue, Heather, Mal, Nic, Debra and Michelle for taking advantage of the opportunity. I learned lots from you all.

But it also to say that the learning is over so now the learning can start.

I have been reluctant to commit to a blog in the past because i feared that I would not be able to come up with enough material to post regularly. In this subject i have learned otherwise.

I also had some questions about what would make interesting reading. My area of interest is adult learning, in particular experiential learning. I also have some rather strong views on what makes a presentation interesting. A third area of interest is making the findings of adult learning researchers accessible to people whose most positive memory of a classroom is leaving it.

This subject has given me plenty of material to work with in each of those areas.

I have also learned about new tools, in particular wikis, RSS feeds and aggregators.

I am setting up a private wiki to allow a number of trainers to develop assessment materials to meet some national competencies. Without the collaborative experience that went into making the JuJu wiki that a team of us developed for the course, that idea would never have seen the light of day.

I also intend to use Jing to develop five minute explanations of software features – primarily for my clients, but links will be posted on a public netvibes page. I doubt that I would have found the tool or the content without the course. I also intend to move a directory of on line tools there from my current public page. If those pages are not up yet, they will be shortly.

The most valuable part of the learning, though, was the people.

I participated in the best team I have ever worked with. And it was on line – a virtual team. We came from a variety of backgrounds and had a range of objectives. We were a truly self managing team.

I will have more to say on the reasons i believe that the term worked together so well in future posts. But the most valuable piece of learning from the whole course was that virtual teams work.

Thanks to all who helped me learn that. I look forward to hearing how your implementation of our learning develops.

It was great JuJu.

On the first day of “flying lessons”, Clarence could barely control his excitement (and Felix could barely control his bladder). Clarence explained that their apartment had 15 floors and each day Felix would jump out of a window starting with the first floor eventually getting to the top floor. After each jump, Felix would analyze how well he flew, isolate on the most effective flying techniques and implement the improved process for the next flight. By the time they reached the top floor, Felix would surely be able to fly.

Felix pleaded for his life, but it fell on deaf ears. “He just doesn’t understand how important this is…” thought Clarence, “but I won’t let naysayers get in my way.” So, with that, Clarence opened the window and threw Felix out (who landed with a thud).

Next day (poised for his second flying lesson) Felix again begged not to be thrown out of the window. With that, Clarence opened his pocket guide to Managing More Effectively and showed Felix the part about how one must always expect resistance when implementing new programs. And with that, he threw Felix out the window. (THUD!)

On the third day (at the third floor) Felix tried a different ploy. Stalling, he asked for a delay in the “project” until better weather would make flying conditions more favourable. But Clarence was ready for him. He produced a timeline pointed to the third milestone and asked, “You don’t want to slip the schedule do you?” From his training, Felix knew that not jumping today would mean that he would have to jump TWICE tomorrow. So he just said, “OK. Let’s go.” And out the window he went.

Now understand that Felix really was trying his best. On the fifth day he flapped his feet madly in a vain attempt to fly. On the sixth day he tied a small red cape around his neck and tried to think “Superman” thoughts. Try as he might, though, Felix couldn’t fly.

By the seventh day, Felix (accepting his fate) no longer begged for mercy. He simply looked at Clarence and said, “You know you’re killing me, don’t you?” Clarence pointed out that Felix’s performance so far had been less than exemplary, failing to meet any of the milestone goals he had set for him. With that, Felix said quietly, “Shut up and open the window”. He leaped out, taking careful aim on the large jagged rock by the corner of the building. And Felix went to that great lily pad in the sky.

Clarence was extremely upset, as his project had failed to meet a single goal that he set out to accomplish. Felix had not only failed to fly, he didn’t even learn how to steer his flight as he fell like a sack of cement. Nor did he improve his productivity when Clarence had told him to “Fall smarter, not harder.” The only thing left for Clarence to do was to analyze the process and try to determine where it had gone wrong. After much thought, Clarence smiled and said, “Next time…… I’m going to find a smarter frog”

That started me thinking about the things that I now do by internet that 10 years ago would have required a physical world activity.

Looking up a phone number is now an on-line activity for me. Do they still print phone books?

Books. That’s another major change. Looking around my office and home, i guess I must have been a pretty prolific book buyer, once. I still read. Often i reread books that i bought years ago, but now I am more likely to download an article from the web and read it. I have almost completed a masters degree without going to the physical university library. A very different approach to my earlier studies. The on line library has replaced the physical one. Downloads and print outs have replaced books. 

The ones I do buy are, as often as not, bought from Amazon.com.

They still make great gifts though, and I suspect that most of the books I have bought in the past few years have either been as gifts or for my 9 year old son. He shares my love of reading, but also has an extensive collection of (approved) sites in his favourites folder.

I cannot remember when I last used a street directory. For years I used Whereis to print out a map and directions. These days I have a GPS unit in my car, so even online maps have been superseded.

My banking is predominately online. I cannot recall the last time I visited a branch. 

I have always had a dictionary very close to my desk. it is still there, sitting beside the thesaurus. They are rarely opened now, though. I go straight to one look when I need a synonym, antonym or definition.

I haven’t quite got into Skype, yet. I have made a few international calls and conference calls that way, and found it useful.

I used to subscribe to a number of international magazines. Now I access them on line.

I still buy a daily newspaper, but also have Google news alerts delivered to my inbox on key topics and as RSS feeds for more general updates.

When I take a photo it is on a digital camera and I view it on my computer before deciding to (rarely) print it out.

When I started this blog, it was part of an e-learning subject. Now I realise I am not just into e-learning. I have adopted e-living! 

Her question started me thinking about the many terms in social networking and in IT generally that have been appropriated from everyday vocabulary. 

I thought we were designing a system, which to me met a way of working. system to an IT professional means hardware. I thought we were networking – each of us contributing our knowledge and experience to the whole group and involving others we knew so that we could use their expertise, too. It seems networking is done with blue cables in IT. Of course these are not the sort of cables that used to carry text messages fifty years ago. They were named after the cables that carried the message, but soon became synonymous with the piece of paper they were printed on.

According to the Global Language Monitor there are an estimated 1 million English  words.

The monitor also says that there are:

• 450,000 words listed in the Merriam-Webster’s 3rd International edition, according to its introduction;
• fewer than 100,000 words in the French language; 
• About 50,000 ideograms in the various Chinese dialects (though countless more words);
• in the order of 7,000 human languages and dialects
• 12,143 different words of a total 787,137 words in the English version of the king James Bible,
• 8,674 different words in the Hebrew Old Testament,
• 5,624 words in the Greek New Testament;
• 24,000 differing words to be found in the complete works of Shakespeare, about 1,700 of which he invented.

Even with so many words we need to double up.

Left and right mean more than sides. Top and bottom are not just a toy and a base. Tear can be pronounced two ways, each with a different meaning.

As far I can see, the word set is the one that has the most meanings. think about it, what does it mean to you?

Place down? Collection? Harden? A series of tennis games? Prepare to run?

My favourite resource, the One Look Dictionary search found definitions in 99 dictionaries and gave 45 different meanings in their quick definitions – a feature that normally has between one and three meanings. By contrast the word system only featured in 66 dictionaries and had a mere 9 quick definitions. Reification was only found in 18 dictionaries with 2 quick definitions, while bricolage only made it into 12 dictionaries without a quick definition. 

Back to the program that I thought I was designing, no it was not the booklet that lists the cast and order of events in a theatre, it was not to be broadcast on TV, it was not even computer software. It was a set of training materials. 

On the subject of words, do you know why golf was given that name? All of the other four letter obscenities were already taken. 

50 years later there is no shortage of Theory X and Theory Y managers in organisations throughout the world.

I can’t help thinking that if McGregor was writing today he would notice a very different approach to the introduction of new technology for communication with the workforce which aligns with his seminal work.

A study of the use of a Virtual Synchronous Classroom in a global consulting firm was described by Thompson (2004) at the World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (ELEARN) 2004.

This response is typical of a theory X organisation.

A YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4VhoWGZ2eA shows a theory Y attitude. The video is about school students, but those students are going to be in the workforce before very long and the technology they are using was purchased by their parents.

This is how I would categorise the beliefs of today’s theory X and theory Y managers

21st century Theory X managers believe

• There is not enough server space or bandwith to store all of the data that we need to provide if we used podcasts (technology)
• There are too many security concerns. we could not be certain that people outside the company were not viewing our confidential material (security)
• The material would become out of date and people would be relying on old material (currency)
• The technology is not good enough yet. (technology)
• We would have to cater to people in several countries and so would have to provide the information in multiple languages (diversity)
• The media devices would be used for non work activities. They could also be stolen. We would have to be able to clear them remotely if they fell into the wrong hands. (trust)
• Most of our people are not tech savvy enough to use the equipment. training costs would be exorbitant. and the equipment becomes superseded every year. (competence)

21st Century, Theory Y managers believe

• The stuff is out there. To maintain competitive advantage or even a place in the market we have to use it. (currency)
• Communication means using whatever our people use to communicate. (currency)
• We trust our people to deal with our customers face to face. Surely there is no more important priority. If we have got it wrong there we are in trouble already. (trust)
• The volume of information that we need to participate in the market place is so huge we have to have the server space and technology to cope. It is just a cost of doing business. (technology)
• This will help us deal with our customers, suppliers and other stakeholders as well as our employees (diversity)
• Security and privacy is a priority. We need to be using best practice. (security)

So

When McGregor published in 1960 his approach was politely acknowledged by most, and included in every supervision course ever since. Meanwhile, back at the coal-face Theory X continues to dominate. 

Some Theory Y managers operated in small cells and prospered. Others were run over as people raced to take advantage of them.

Neither theories were universally right. Which direction is more appropriate in the new millennium?  

Are you more inclined to Theory X or Theory Y? What other beliefs need to be considered?

References

McGregor, D. (1960) ”The human side of enterprise”  McGraw Hill, New York.

Thompson, T., (2004), “The Virtual Classroom @ Work: How Technology Shapes Workplace Learning”, In G. Richards (Ed.), “Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (ELEARN)2004″, pp.2166-2171, Chesapeake, VA: AACE, downloaded (purchased) from  www.editlib.org April 12, 2008.

Joel Barker discovered Paradigm in a 1984 article by Harlan Hahn about Law Enforcement for Disabled Americans and made a movie about the word – not the topic. This was almost twenty years ago and it has now made its way into everyday language. Generally misused, but nevertheless ever-present.

I found Bricolage in a readable, but nevertheless scholarly, article and have adopted it to describe everything I do. While my son guessed it was a green vegetable, my wife suspected it was highly calorific. She suggested that it may be a progression from Irish coffee, which contains only four of the five essential food groups – alcohol, sugar, cholesterol, caffeine and chocolate. That’s what happens when you work with whatever materials are at your disposal.

But the word of the week must be reification. It is an Anglicization of the German term Verdinglichung, which is almost onomatopoeic. I found it in an article by Etienne Wenger, but it is not defined there. As is my wont, I went to the Onelook on line dictionary and discovered two options:

representing a human being as a physical thing deprived of personal qualities or individuality (freedictionary.org).

OR

To regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence. (Random House)

The two may seem opposites.  ”Removal of the spirit” – turning humans into objects or materialization – “giving an abstract concept a concrete form”.

But this can be the effect of so many policies and procedures. The humans are required to comply with the written word. The rules are unchallengeable. The humans become robotic and treated as though incapable of thought. The rules, however become living things. The policy is about to descend from its ivory tower and Verdinglichung you into submission.

Like reification, policies have whatever meaning the upholders wish to ascribe.

I am not against written policies. it is just that I believe that any CEO should be able to express them when asked to do so in a social setting. It would be even better if the front-line workforce jumped out of bed in the morning committed to implementing them as a way of making the customer’s experience more pleasant.

But that would require reification.
 

 The traditional Johari Window was set on two axes to form four panes. Was the matter known to me? Was the matter known to others?

There are things that I know about me that I am happy to let you know about. These may include my name, age and / or  gender in a face to face contact. I may be more reluctant to disclose those on line.

There are things that I would prefer to hide about me both in face to face and on line contacts.

There are also things that you have determined from our interactions that I am not aware of, or at least I am not aware that that is how you see me.

Then there are things that neither you or I am aware of.

When we move on-line our Johari profile changes. I may be less likely to reveal things about myself, because of fears that they may be misused by people I don’t know, or retrieved far into the future by people I do.

To a large extent the posts that we make on line are attempts to expand the open pane. We want other people to know things about us that we know about ourselves. That may range from broadcasting an opinion we hold dearly to claiming a characteristic that we share – for example shyness. We may say on line that we are shy because we want people to understand why we are not prolific contributors.

While our intention is to expand the open pane of the Johari window, others may interpret our statement differently, leading them to conclude something about us that we didn’t intend and that we don’t know.  So a statement of our beliefs may lead to someone deciding that we are insensitive or misogynist or uncaring. We don’t know that they have arrived at that conclusion, but they have.

There may also be things that we have decided not to talk about on-line. Our religious or political beliefs, our family life, our ambitions, our history. We can decide that any or all of those are outside the things we share. They remain in the hidden pane.

I find the Johari window a great model for analysing what I am saying in my posts and for analysing what others are saying in theirs.

But I think that the best part of the Johari is the origins of its name. It sound incredibly elegant to me, but in fact is a contraction of the names of its originators - Joe and Harry.

There was no problem, but the link did show how the face of business has changed with social networking tools and the web.

The link was to Carol Daunt Skyring’s blog in which she proudly proclaims that she has reached number 1 ranking in Google for “Videoconference“.

I searched a bit deeper and discovered that Carol is an Australian entrepreneur who heads up LearnTel a 5 person team of consultants not aligned with any particular brand of equipment and works with all major service providers. Like most overnight successes, it has taken Carol 20 years to reach the top – she started in 1986. Her media page shows that she is  a recognised international expert on the effective use of videoconferencing for teaching. She works with lecturers, teachers, trainers, health workers and management from government departments and private organisations throughout Australia, New Zealand, USA and Europe.

Her blog is posted in Edublogs, so we share the technology and opportunity.

Prior to embarking on a second career about 20 years ago I was told that if I wrote something every day within a year I would be knowledgeable, within 5 years an expert and within 20 years the world authority.

I lost sight of the goal for a while, as one does. But it is great to know that Carol has done just that. Her Masters degree was gained during the twenty years and she is now working towards a doctorate. 

I am astounded by the amount of talent in our EMT group and feel confident that in twenty years time there is every chance that someone I met on this group will get primary ranking on Google.

It seems that the Eurpopean Union has moved to standardise acceptable commercial practice throughout all member states. The full directive is available in a 36 page pdf of a powerpoint show.

The outlawed behaviour that inspired the blog post that Debra cites includes “Falsely claiming or creating the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer.”

Flogging – or business owners using blogs which they pretend include customer feedback - is just one of the questionable practices that are outlawed.

The directive has been introduced because:

Currently, there are differences in national laws on marketing and advertising practices. What is fair in one country may be unfair in another. The Directive will put in place a common set of rules regarding what constitutes an ‘unfair’ commercial practice. This means that businesses of all sizes will be able to spend less on legal advice on how to comply with unfamiliar advertising and marketing rules and will be better able to market their products on a Europe-wide basis.

A commercial practice is misleading if it either:

• Contains false information and is therefore untruthful, or
• In any way, including overall presentation, deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the information is correct
• Causes or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision that he would have otherwise not taken.

Excuse me, but are these currently legal and require a new law to prevent them?

The examples given of outlawed behaviour include:

• A trader selling vacuum cleaners has been let into a consumer’s home to demonstrate the product and insists on continuing the sales presentation in spite of the consumer having stated that he or she is not interested.
• Making persistent and unwanted solicitations by telephone, fax, e-mail or other remote media except in circumstances and to the extent justified under national law to enforce a contractual obligation.
• A trader sells a used car (which is not his own private one) through an advertisement in the local shop billboard and not revealing that this sale is part of his second hand car business.
• Creating the false impression that the consumer has already won, will win, or will on doing a particular act win, a prize or other equivalent benefit, when in fact there is no prize or other equivalent benefit, or taking any action in relation to claiming the prize or other equivalent benefit is subject to the consumer paying money or incurring a cost.

If this takes off a lot of marketing books will have to be rewritten. On the other hand, a similar regulation was published in Chapter 20 of Exodus about 3000 years ago. It is one of the ten commandments.