Category Archives: Professional Development

Need for Good Sleep

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I had an interesting situation where I was talking about sleep (or the lack of it). Then I came across the following link: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organizational-cost-of-insufficient-sleep?kui=A1OcUHPLEb4aNa1Z_Hcdow&utm_content=buffere1994&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer. It’s important to get good sleep not just to feel your best but to do your best work. For quite awhile, I’ve been working under the impression that I need to be “on” 24/7. It is time to reconsider this philosophy. I’m hoping this will make a difference in my work and in my life.

We learn fast…

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I saw this article on my twitter stream, and it really piqued my interest:

We learn fast…

Quote: “The role of L & D professionals in their background and their present form will disappear soon.”

Reflection: This may be the case, but I think that many will be willing to have others tackle this problem. Those who understand this will be the most successful and stand out.

Quote: “His apprentice-employees need to be nimble and quick in learning new technologies, acquire new flexible and continuously and permanently skills.”

Reflection: This is the part where we fail. I think that we push too much on drill and kill. But it may be necessary to keep some of the drill around, just make sure that it plays a lesser role.

Quote: ” Understanding how the brain learns and how we can optimize our ability to learn pioneers will cause changes in learning and development.”

Reflection: It is interesting that this isn’t more at the core of teaching and learning. We take ideas from teaching and learning more from experience than from physical study.

 

 

 

 

Why Organizations Don’t Learn

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I came across the following article on my twitter feed:Why Organizations Don’t Learn. There are a few items that really resonated with me. The author tackles bias and how to handle the organization as a leader to avoid pitfalls.

According to the article there are 4 consequences of a bias toward success:

  1. Fear of failure
  2. A fixed mindset
  3. Over reliance toward past success
  4. Attribution bias

To me, the consequences of failure are the real sticking point. Without success, at some level, a venture will be short lived.

I really like the part that directs leaders in how to overcome the bias toward success:

  • Destigmatize failure
  • Embrace and teach a growth mindset
  • Consider potential when hiring and promoting
  • Use a data-driven approach to identify what caused success for failure

Next, there is the bias toward action, which means reaction. Here are the consequences of this bias:

  1. Exhaustion
  2. Lack of reflection

How do leaders help to overcome this bias:

  • Build breaks into the schedule
  • Take time just to think
  • Encourage reflection after doing

Now, the consequences for a bias toward fitting In are addressed:

  1. Believing we need to conform
  2. Failure to use one’s strengths

How to address bias toward fitting in:

  • Encourage people to cultivate their strengths
  • Increase awareness and engage workers
  • Model good behavior

Finally, there may be a bias toward experts with these consequences:

  1. An overly narrow view of expertise
  2. Inadequate front-line involvement

And how to address this bias in leadership:

  • Encourage workers to own problems that affect them
  • Give workers different types of experiences
  • Empower workers to use their experience

Great article by Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats. I look forward to applying these principles.

Reflection for 6/15/15 to 6/19/15

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I’ve been out of the office all week for a conference. Monday was a travel day and so will Friday. I had some time to enjoy the scenery and outdoors on Tuesday. I’ve been getting up early to take a hike each morning. It reminds me how introverted I can be. I gain strength from the time alone.

Some big take-aways from the conference are the philosophy that people are more important than pedagogy and technology. I believe this to my core, and I’m encouraged to see that Canvas believes this as well. Also, pedagogy and strategy trump technology. This transition to Canvas from ANGEL is going to be about innovating, not technology. I’m also seeing that it is important to use Canvas to train faculty and walking the talk while we train is also going to be of utmost importance.

It was a great week to learn, grow, and connect. I’m realizing at the end of the week that I really needed that professional development opportunity.

 

Reflection for 5/18/15 to 5/22/15

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It’s Monday of the first week of Summer ’15 courses. The week has started out well, and I’m hoping that we had a great start and wonderful semester.

I received a note on Friday about materials for the supervision series that I’m attending. I’ve enjoyed the sessions so far. I printed off materials as instructed. That was too much paper.

I attended a session for COIL RIG. I’m looking forward to my first review process. I’m planning to do a bit at a time to meet the deadline.

I’m continuing to work on my Fall ’15 230 course. It is nice to get a chance to update things. I’m updating a few problems and putting together a few videos since I used live sessions the last time. I’m definitely more in favor of making videos over live sessions because of the time requirement and the need of students to watch these according to their schedule.

I’m attending a meeting for Amy G at the OB and hope to interact a bit more with those around the university. It was a good meeting that highlighted the reasons for going through the formal process that involves risk and legal for using 3rd party tools in courses.

On Friday, I attended the LMS Transition Steering Committee. This was the first meeting. It should be interesting to see how the work of this group unfolds.

It’s been a busy week. I went to a ton of meetings and felt a bit out of sorts. We have vacation on Monday and will be back at it next Tuesday.

 

Reflection for 5/11/15 to 5/15/15

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I’m starting this week at the 2015 IST Statewide meeting on both Monday and Tuesday. It’s good to meet with faculty f2f that I often only meet virtually.

I’ve been busy with working on the first week of courses. Not big red flags are present.

I’m also working on 230 for Fall ’15. It’s nice to know that I can make a few adjustments to improve the course.

I also met with faculty for two revision/developments.

A staff retreat was on Friday. It is always good to spend time with colleagues. The focus of the retreat was on leadership. It was interesting to talk about a topic that was covered in my recent supervisory training. The topic was about work style. I found myself wondering about what others thought my style was and what it really is. Then, I began to think about those who I work with and what there style was. I feel like I learned a few things both about myself and others. I know that there are a few holes in our team in terms of style. I’m hoping to work on my skills in those areas to help complement.

Reflection for 3/23/15 to 3/27/15

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I just quickly published an entry from last week. Really busy time. I’m hoping to get to reflecting a bit more this week than last.

I had a good day on Tuesday. While it was busy, I was able to get 423 to a good point to send back to faculty for next steps.

I also had a meeting for DMT at the outreach building. It looks like we are reaching a huge transition in terms of the LMS. I hope that this transition goes smoothly.

I felt like today was a day that I heard a voice within that was telling me the answers to some of the questions that I’ve been having on a personal level. It’s an awesome feeling when this happens. I’m always glad to be reassured of the right decision for a circumstance. Lately, I’ve been more emotional about things. But I’m finding that I need to get past the emotions so that I can get to the reasoning stage. I can’t just ignore the emotions; they have their place. But when I get to the other side, the answers are more clear.

On Wednesday, I made another trip to the Outreach Building. This time it was about a video commenting tool. It was good to touchbase on this topic, but it was also nice to eat lunch with a good friend of mine.

Things continue to move forward regarding course developments and revisions. 423 has turned out to be more of a revision like I originally suspected. I’m looking forward to seeing how the update affects the running of the course in the summer.

It’s Friday, so I’ve been busy. I’m hoping to get back in the flow next week as emails have been stacking up.

I’ve been thinking about multitasking how inefficient it can be. Here’s an article that address the impossibility of multitasking: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20707868,00.html. It’s a good reminder.

Reflection for 3/16/15 to 3/20/15

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I’m making this on the Friday before the week starts. I have a few items on my schedule for next week. I’m hoping that we can move forward in a good way.

It’s Monday March 23 at the end of the day, so it should be obvious that I had a busy week. While I got alot accomplished, it was impossible to keep up with reflection.

A huge highlight of the week was that I attended the TLT Symposium on Saturday. It’s a great time to reconnect.

Reflection for 01/19/15 to 01/23/15

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It’s the end of the day on Monday, and I am starting this up. It’s been a busy day of grading my 230 course in Canvas and communicating with students. I also have been working with Ronda and Tisha to get the undergrad courses set.

We had lunch and talked about MLK Day. It’s cool that there was a viewing of his speech when here at PSU 50 years ago. I didn’t get to go but here is the script from the speech: http://news.psu.edu/story/142989/2013/01/21/martin-luther-king-jr-rec-hall-jan-21-1965.

The continuation on work with assessments is going on. We have been working on 210 b/c of an error by the publisher with regard to questions in the ANGEL bank of questions. Yesterday, there was an error with an assessment in 402CC. Both of these errors were outside of ANGEL. But the process of fixing the errors is so difficult in ANGEL. It involves knowing the system well and takes so many clicks. I’m hoping that we can move from this LMS soon and have something that works better.

I planned to work at home on Wednesday in the morning only, but some snow made me think that it was better to work from home all day. I was able to get to quite a few things today. First, I’ve been able to keep pace with prepping for my live online session. I also had the chance to work on 140. It has been good to work with Steve Haynes to put the course together.

Moving to the world of sports, there has been alot said the past few days about the Patriots in the NFL and the fact that they played with deflated balls. It’s amazing to me that this type of thing has been allowed by a league that is quickly showing a lack of integrity. It’s becoming a joke that they could be called a dynasty. This playoffs has been so bad. First, there was the terrible officiating that led to Dallas making the 2nd round of the playoffs. Next, we have the deflated balls by the Patriots that may have lead to them to make the Super Bowl. As a youth coach and parent, I’m scared at how easily this league is manipulated  by money. You can make an argument that the Super Bowl could have been Detroit v. Baltimore. Is Big Data running the show? Are those in power in the league looking at what match ups are going to maximize return? It may seem outlandish or too far on the side of conspiracy theory, but I’m not so sure. Either way, there will be an asterisk behind the champion this year since the league has not allowed the players to determine the winner.

It’s Thursday, and I’m moving along. We had a nice discussion among the undergrad IST team about how to move forward with IST 140. I’m liking the developing team dynamic.

I sent a student project along to Chris and Anil to put together a digital graphic for John Bagby regarding Big Data.

It’s Friday, and I won’t be in the office until Feb 2. I’m looking forward to a long vacation with my family. I’m planning to come back refreshed and ready to go.

Reflection for 01/12/15 to 01/16/15

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It’s a new semester, and the first day was a bit busy. I spent about 3/4 of my day on mps. I’m not sure if this is because of the culture which has been created before my taking over the support position or because it is mps. Nothing major, but it makes for more craziness than is necessary.

I went late into the evening working on things which mostly turned out to be minor. I ended up working with Rosalie on BB Collaborate and am pleased that the tool is working well for her. I worked at home this am and am keeping up with emails and requests well. I sent out another announcement to the 230 pilot class about the live session.

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked from home in the AM. It is nice to have the flexibility to do this especially since I find myself working at odd hours like Monday evening to accomplish my tasks.

I was able to see the presentation on Tuesday by Andrew Sears. He is a potential dean candidate for the College of IST. I look forward to see the 2nd candidate and seeing how we will move forward at the college.

On Wednesday, we met with Steve Haynes again about IST 140. We are going in a good direction and at an adequate pace to get the course ready for Summer ’15.

On Thursday, we met with Joe Oakes. It was a good conversation. I hope that he can deliver on materials so that we can run his 402 in Summer ’15.

Tonight is the first live session for my IST 230 course for Spring ’15. I review the material and am ready for the meeting.

The meeting went well albeit there were only 2 students present. When I checked the course announcement, the url to the room was missing. That may have been the issue. I went through the course today and replied to the introduction messages. I also noticed that 15 of the 20 students have purchased the text. Hopefully, all is cleaned up by the weekend.

Fred Fonseca held an online faculty luncheon (minus the lunch). Anna Divinsky talked about MOOCs. It was a robust session, but I’m getting the feeling that instructors are not as interested in MOOCs right now. They are alot of work without much return for the faculty.

It was a busy week, and I’m ready for some R&R. Disney is only a week away, so I’m really excited!