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A Particular Set of Skills
Liam Neeson’s name was trending on Twitter on June 26. It appears that his movie, Ice Road, is now showing on Netflix, hence the volume of tweets about him. One tweet caught my eye: Liam Neeson in response to the ransom caller in Taken (2009), said: I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very…
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Becoming an Entrepreneurial Instructional Designer: Know What Sets You Apart
This is the age of the side hustle. As a multipassionate and multipotential person, I want to experiment and grow with my different giftings through my side hustle. I have started consulting work as a side gig using my Adobe Captivate, graphic and motion design skills. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to hold a fulltime job. My side hustle is a side hustle; it’s not my main occupation. My next growth phase as an instructional designer (ID)/learning designer is to learn to become more self-directed in securing and working…
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What is Your Course Built Around?
Let me repeat: What is your course / learning solution / training built around? Who is the focus of this learning solution? Instructional designers, together with your content expert: we need to do this check because what you think you have done well for the course may not turn out well for the learner. In an online course I’m now enrolled in as a learner, it is obvious to me that the course is built around the CDROM content. Learners are expected to watch the CDROM videos and complete the CDROM exercises,…
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Concept and Technique: How to Build a Digital Escape Room
Background This is a hot topic among many K12 teachers, and we could definitely use this in higher ed and in industry. Last November, I was inspired by a session at AECT to make a digital escape room. If you have access to this AECT 2020 session, it’s called Escape Rooms: Pedagogy without Borders. The presenters were Tracy Russo, Ferris State University; Kalianne Lund Neumann, Andrea Ramirez Salgado, and Frances M Alvarado-Albertorio, all from Oklahoma State University. Check out their article, Online Approaches for Implementing a Digital Escape Room with…
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PD Forever: Always Sharpening the Saw
Happy 2021! This is my first post for the year! I’ve written in the past (2016) about my super power as an instructional designer (ID) (someone actually asked me this question!). I wrote: What makes me extraordinary or good at what I do? My mind. In order to continue being extraordinarily good at my work, I have to keep sharpening this mind of mine and looking for ways to be creative. During this winter break, I completed a WebAIM document accessibility course that started in October 20 (Finally done! I…
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Restorative Times: Drawing & Painting on the iPad with Procreate
Update, December 26, 2020: It’s been 7 months since I last did anything creative, or made anything. Work took up all my time, with a thousand and one things I personally have to attend to (without some Graduate Assistant help I used to have in my previous job). As I wrap up the few courses on my list, I took time to relearn and learn new design tricks with Procreate, After Effects, Illustrator and Captivate. My favorite way to unwind and relax is to create something with a design software.…
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PD Musings: Guided Reflection
I love having thinking protocols to guide reflection. In the opening module from an online training course (professional development) I’m taking on facilitation, we are encouraged to use this protocol to reflect in writing: What? Which aspect(s) of the materials resonated with you most? So what? Why is this information important to you? Now what? How are you going to take action as a result of your new learning? Let me begin. Here are some nuggets that resonated with me and why: “The group must define and solve its own…
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F2F or Onground
Definition of face-to-face. 1: within each other’s sight or presence; met and talked face-to-face; a face-to-face consultation 2: in or into direct contact or confrontation; came face-to-face with the problem (Merriam-Webster, 2020) It took a while for me to get used to people at my workplace referring to face-to-face (F2F) courses as on-ground courses. I mean no ill will and am not being snooty. It’s new to me and it just fascinates me that we have these two terms to describe this in-person form of learning experience. I’m speculating that maybe people were describing and referring…
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About That Poster Presentation at AECT 2019
If you had read my previous post, you’d know I was heading to Las Vegas to meet up with my virtual friend and collaborator at AECT 2019. And we met! It was unreal and real, to us, and to those who had heard of our story in my previous post. At the poster gallery walk, some folks seemed more incredulous of our partnership across space and time (without having met at all in person) than they were of our poster. Of course, the poster received a lot of traction…
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What’s Training Got to Do with the Boeing 737 Max Crashes
737 pilots trained for Max 8 with short online course Trained. Self-administered. Short. Online. Course. This news trended a week ago. I was both cognitively and emotionally engaged when I read it. This CNN news touched on areas close to my heart: training, continuing education, online learning, instructional and learning design. But where do I start to process this information? I who used to ride airplanes fearlessly. I have to sort through this news. I enjoy traveling, for work and leisure, and for now, I don’t trust the FAA or airline…
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Course Metaphors
Courses as conversations – this metaphor was first brought to my attention several years ago by a VCU professor, Deb Cowles. Inspired by The Cluetrain Manifesto (Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger, 1999) where markets are conversations. I did not pause to ask her more or stop to think much about it then. Recently, I tried to pick up a book I started a few years back and the author (Petersen, 2005) talked about how his book is a conversation because conversation implies a back-and-forthness, several voices engaged in considering,…
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Lecture Video Speed Control
I enrolled in a post-graduate diploma program in November 2018. Taking courses as a learner allows me to see how other folks design their courses. The instructor does a great job of teaching. However, the speed control feature was missing from the Vimeo videos. I wrote to the support desk to inquire because I usually watch/listen to lecture videos at 1.25 to 1.5 speed. The support person came back with this: Having a speed control may lead to participants missing out some key information shared by the faculty. Hence we…
