23
Mar

Learning and the Power of a Good Story

© sherrie smith | Dreamstime Stock Photos

© sherrie smith | Dreamstime Stock Photos

I recently finished reading Sheryl Sandberg’s new book. Before you stop reading, let me start by saying that this post is not about contributing to either side of the spectrum of reviews of Sheryl Sandberg’s (Facebook COO)  Lean In: Women, Work and the Desire To Lead.  What I did want to share, however,  is my respect for Sandberg’s storytelling skills in supporting her larger message/teaching point (what is holding women back from getting into the C-suite).

The sign of any good autobiographical style book,  is the author’s skill to use meaningful anecdotes, personal stories, and life experiences that hook the reader, connect with them on some level, and keep them reading. It doesn’t really matter what the topic is – if the storytelling is there, even what we might consider the most dull of topics, can be brought to life.

When I started reading Sandberg’s book, it was her anecdotes and personal experiences in the C-suite at companies like Google and Facebook that hooked me in. I mean, who wouldn’t be interested to know what feedback Mark Zuckerberg gave Sandberg at her first performance review? ( ok, I’ll admit, maybe not everyone finds that as intriguing as I do).  I’m not saying that I agreed with everything Sandberg put out there in terms of her theories of why women aren’t in the C-suite, and her supporting research, but she was successful in capturing my attention with her storytelling, which kept me motivated to keep listening.

Storytelling is not a ‘buzzword’. Think about a conversation you had at work recently where a story (experience) was being shared and where you were drawn to listen. Maybe that story motivated you to ask questions (and even to want to learn more).  This is the power of a good story. Weaving storytelling into learning doesn’t have to be complicated or intense, but it does require us to reflect and to do our homework so that we really understand how to connect and what is meaningful to those we want to reach.

Once we’ve crafted our stories, we as learning professionals really have an unlimited number of creative and collaborative ways to share those stories. It’s precisely in this area, where K-12 teachers are leading the charge and where L&D folks could find some inspiration in how to make storytelling simple yet engaging.   Some of the tools I’ve used  include Bitstrips, Voicethread,  GoAnimate, but the options don’t stop there. I’ve included a few sites below that provide great options to get started with storytelling (digital) in learning.

The research on the importance and significance of storytelling in business, leadership, learning, health, and parenting is immense. I’ve shared some resources below (some are blogs, some are articles that require access to the publisher databases)  that I’ve found useful.

If you have a few minutes, please leave me a comment letting me know how storytelling has impacted your learning and/or your learning design.

Storytelling Resources

Technology

Kean Univesity has a great page of resources here: http://www.kean.edu/~cnelson/elearning/storytelling.html

Edtechteacher – Storytelling Tools - http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/presentation-multimedia/digital-storytelling

Research & Reading

Barker, R., & Gower, K. (2010). STRATEGIC APPLICATION OF STORYTELLING IN ORGANIZATIONS: Toward Effective Communication in a Diverse World. Journal Of Business Communication, 47(3), 295-312. doi:10.1177/0021943610369782

Fawcett, S. E., & Fawcett, A. M. (2011). The ‘Living’ Case: Structuring Storytelling to Increase Student Interest, Interaction, and Learning. Decision Sciences Journal Of Innovative Education, 9(2), 287-298. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4609.2011.00307.x

Malamed, Connie (2011) Why you need to use storytelling for learning. http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning2-0/why-you-need-to-use-storytelling-for-learning/

Sharda, Nalin (2010).  Using Digital Storytelling for Creative and Innovative e-Learning http://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=1773975

Taylor, S. S., Fisher, D., & Dufresne, R. L. (2002). The Aesthetics of Management Storytelling: A Key to Organizational Learning.Management Learning, 33(3), 313.

 

 

 

 

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30
Jan

Learning Happens… Even When L&D Isn’t Looking

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26
Jan

It’s official: The Changing Role of L&D

I thought that title might catch your attention.

Businessman with Bullhorn

I’m actually referring to the Bersin by Deloitte press release that came out earlier this week that highlighted increased spend in social learning and the shrinking footprint of L&D.

This trend is one sign of the changing role of the L&D function, which no longer is “the place” for learning. Instead, the role of the L&D team is to facilitate and enable learning. L&D teams should build skills in performance consulting, gain expertise in new technologies including social and mobile, and work to cultivate strong learning cultures within their organizations. (Bersin by Deloitte, Press Release January 22, 2013)

For many of us, this is not news – not by a long shot. Thought leaders in this area  have been blogging, tweeting and speaking about this for quite some time now.  (I’ve copied the list of some of the thought leaders that I’d included in my Social Learning in the L&D Trenches   post to the end of this one)

On my end of things, however, while I’ve been advocating and socializing where learning is going inside and outside of my organization (sharing blog posts, studies, tweets, webinars), I think that being able to flip the Bersin at Deloitte press release around helped in a small way make this change appear more  ’mainstream’.  ( I really do hate using the “official” & “mainstream to describe this. The reality of corporate, at least in my experience,  is that we often need to be able to demonstrate ‘official’ and ‘mainstream’  to get buy in from risk adverse cultures  - – especially if we are going to be asking for budget ) .

So, now that’s it’s” official”, there are no excuses why we as L&D professionals can’t our ‘game on”, even if it’s by starting small (like forwarding the press release around your organization).

If you’re looking for some inspiration on what to do next, make sure you check out the list of thought leaders at the end my blog post, and check in with Jane Hart’s blog post as well on the topic (includes a great diagram of how L&D roles are evolving).

 Resources 

Reading

 

 

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20
Jan

A First Kick at Constructing a Digital Learning EcoSystem

During my graduate work in Education at UOIT, my colleague Nancy Zomer (@kindergirl73) and I collaborated on designing a framework for a Digital Learning Ecosytem while in a grad class with Dr. Francois Desjardins (@FJDesjardins).  I will admit, it was a painful process designing and then trying to articulate our framework, but it also an invaluable learning experience. I’ve never looked at a framework the same way again . The exercise gave me a renewed appreciation and respect for the thought leaders and their ever evolving frameworks on which this effort was built. It also made me really appreciate having such a great colleague to collaborate and construct with.

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19
Jan

WordPress Blogging Using Evernote

I’m dictating this blog post using the  Evernote dictate option. I’m using the Evernote app on the Google Nexus 7. (Note: this dictate functionality is included in the free Android version of the app, I’m not sure why I can’t get it on my iPad 2).

I know that text-to-speech has come along way since the days of having to spend hours (days) trying to configure an application to recognize your voice and that applications like   Dragon Naturally Speaking provide extensive and robust text-to-speech functionality, but I hadn’t really been motivated to try it on a mobile device to write.

tablet

My experience dictating this blog post on Evernote has been pretty fair, I’d even venture to  say good. It hasn’t caught every word,  and I’ve had to go back and make  corrections,  but I do think it is just as fast or maybe even quicker write simple blog posts this way on a mobile device where the keyboard doesn’t lend itself to speedy data entry.

Once I’ve written my blog post in Evernote, I email it the custom email address I set up just for WordPress content. I’ve provided some links on how to do this below that I’ve found helpful. You can share Evernote content to WordPress directly from an Android if you have the WordPress app installed, but at this point in time, it seems to only post content as a hyperlink, not the full post.

 Maybe my process seems cumbersome, but I  like having the content in Evernote so I can search for it and reuse it and I like being able to send it directly to WordPress without having to rely too much on my keyboard. I don’t anticipate I will be doing all of my blogging dictating through Evernote  on my Android device , especially because it offers scaled down  functionality relative to images, multimedia and links, but it does provide me with an alternative way to keep up my writing and to share some of my Evernote content.
Getting Started Emailing Blog Posts to WordPress
Want to try emailing your Evernote content directly to your WordPress blog? Here are some helpful links to
get you started:

Tip: I strongly recommend installing the Postie WP plugin to make the process easier. 
WordPress on emailing blog posts (see Discussion board below for gmail settings)
Postie  WordPress Plugin – let’s you configure WordPress to receive emailed blog posts
Discussion Board providing support using a Gmail account (slightly different settings then other accounts)
By the way,  I am taking part in the 10 Tools challenge. Do you think  Jane would consider this as 3 tools? ;-)  < If you want to take the Ten Tools Challenge – visit : http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2013/01/08/take-the-10-tools-challenge/
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12
Jan

Getting Back to Practice & The 10 Tools Challenge

Leave it to Jane Hart to find an innovative way of motivating us L&D types to revisiting our practice for 2013 (and to get us blogging again).

I welcome the 10  Tools challenge  to come out of semi-winter hibernation and to get back at it again.

My first tool will be Google+ as a way to kick start my 2013 learning professional development.  I’ve had a Google+ account now for quite some time but because of my undying love for Twitter, never really gave it a fair shake. So, moving forward from today for the next month I will make it key tool in my professional development and a way to further connect with my PLN.

Please look for me on Google+ (Nancy Slawski)  and if you are an avid Google+’er  (what are you called?) please reach out. I look forward to connecting and learning from and with you.

If you want to take the Ten Tools Challenge – visit : http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2013/01/08/take-the-10-tools-challenge/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2
Nov

Go!Animate Rocks Easy Video Creation

I’m so happy that Go!Animate asked me if I was interested in creating videos when I was standing in front of their booth at the 2012 CSTD Conference.  As they started to describe it and show me the functionality, I quickly started to realize that Go!Animate was similar to BitStrips, which I love (and so do my kids), except that instead of static cartoons, it creates animated ones. I created a quick basic one in less than 15 minutes (see my post).

Go!Animate provides characters, speech to text (you can record your own audio as well) and scenes that you can easily configure.  With the free version you are limited to the characters and scenes, but even the free version lets you create something fun.

The quick tutorial was just what I needed to get started playing. My 9 year old daughter sat here and watched me test it out (read: play) and was quite jealous that I wouldn’t let her play (work) with it (although I’ve promised to let her go to it tomorrow).

What’s even cooler is that once you create your videos, Go!Animate hosts them and lets you embed the link in an email, your blog, or, yes, wait for it, even your LMS (yes they host it). And, for all of this, you pay one monthly fee regardless of whether 10 people or 10,000 access it. You don’t have to sign a binding long term contract and can go month to month.  Can you tell I’m excited? This is a tool anyone can use and with more templates and characters coming (they told me if I needed some industry specific characters in white coats I could put in a request because they are adding new ones all the time).

I love that I can also easily tweet my video, or upload it to Facebook or YouTube.  Given how much my kids love Bitstrips, I think I’ll be needing a work and play account.

Give it a try. Let me know what you think.

 

 

 

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2
Nov

A Post CSTD 2012 Reenactment (with the help of Go!Animate)

Some of the names and voices have been changed to protect identity.

My CSTD 2012 by NancySlawski on GoAnimate

Animation Software – Powered by GoAnimate.

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31
Oct

Musings from Day One of CSTD 2012

The 2012 CSTD Conference kicked of today in Toronto. Today’s focus was on Research to Practice and it was interesting hearing what is new and even not so new in learning. One of the more dominant themes today, at least in the sessions I attended, was informal learning.

From the comments and feedback I heard both in and outside of the sessions , it appears that there was a desire for clarity on two fronts: a definition (maybe even a taxonomy) for informal learning and then some concrete examples that one could relate their practice to in their own domain or context whether it be banking, military, retail or government or any other environment.

Despite my tangent, however, the intent of this post was not to explore informal learning but the topic did generate a lot of discussion both inside and outside of the sessions which brings me to my point …..today’s focus on research to practice succeeded in it’s intent to get us thinking, and challenging ideas and reflecting. Today reminded me why I make the conference every year a personal priority. While the value of the sessions are great, the opportunity to connect and share experiences and to engage and re-engage with new and not so new colleagues and ideas is just as great.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

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8
Oct

How to Live Social in the L&D Trenches (or …it’s not easy being L&D)

Kermit the Frog’s rendition of “It’s not Easy Being Green” could be the theme song for L&D folk who are trying to push against the grain of workplace cultures that are heavily siloed , that define learning in terms of content heavy learning events and who see social learning and social media as one in the same.

On top of these internal challenges, learning professionals also have external pressures of learning and industry. We are reminded daily that unless L&D can morph ourselves into social, informal, collaborative gurus  who have their fingers on the pulse of talent and performance , our days are numbered. (is that a DoDo bird I see?)

With all of this pressure , it’s a wonder that any of us can sleep at night.

For those of you who work in the L&D trenches in organizations where the definition of social is a company-wide meeting, I’ve put together a few self-help steps that have helped me keep my sanity and get some sleep.

Step One: Take a deep breath…

Step Two:  Realize that while it appears that while you were grabbing a coffee that the entire learning world, except for your organization, became this social and collaborative utopia, that it is still more of the exception than the rule (especially for anyone in banking, insurance, government, military, and a lot of traditional retail ,large IT…..).

Step 3: Articulate in writing where you want to go – your ultimate vision (even if it does seem like a utopian vision) and then do a reality check with where you are. Once you know where you want to go and where you are you can build a road map for how to get there.  Even if your roadmap only has one social initiative on it – it’s a start. Don’t boil the ocean on this one – think small (tiny). What programs/initiatives are you currently supporting that might be the right fit for early adoption.

Step 4: Understand your company’s culture and how this will impact your initiatives and desire to move out of the dark ages. Recognize that it may require taking a first stop in performance land before you get to social city . This is more eloquently expressed by Harold Jarche: “My experience is that it is difficult to move a traditional training organization directly to a social learning focus and it is easier to start with performance consulting and then expand to social and collaborative learning.”

Step 5:  Spend a little time brushing up on the principles of change management. Find yourself a change advocate/champion/enabler partner in your organization (preferably outside of learning) who can help you start positioning and road mapping where in the organization you might find a tiny supportive and friendly space that is also interested in change. Once you can demonstrate success, you will find the culture friendlier and more willing to entertain large plans for change.

Step 6: Continue to follow thought leaders in learning (Jane Hart, Harold Jarche, Clive Sheppard, Jane Bozarth, Marcia Conner, Jay Cross…) but also find those L&D folk that are wrestling with the same challenges as you are (Twitter, LinkedIn, and like-minded communities).

 Resources 

Reading

Communities

In case you aren’t familiar with Kermit’s rendition – I’ve included it for your viewing pleasure.

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