U-Blog 6

A few weeks removed from our Workshop I feel like my group did a pretty good job. We still have to turn in the final copy of our presentation and also group evaluation forms. The past week the module was on Learning outside of the classroom. Personally I think learning outside of the classroom can be very effective for certain subjects. I'm currently taking two optional online courses that really help me out a lot. I have about an hour commute from Sumter to get to my classes in Columbia so being able to do my work for the classes online saves me a ton of time. I do however feel there are certain subjects that should be taken in class around other people. Taking a class online can really take away the social aspect of school. The social part of college, or any other learning facility can really help prepare you for some real situations that can happen in the workplace. I feel like learning outside of the classroom is helpful in a lot of ways(time saver, etc.), but I don't think all classes should be taken online. There's just too much you miss out on socially when you do everything online. I realize there are some classes that allow you to use web cameras and so on, but it's just not the same.

U-Blog 5

This week my group did our workshop at the Heritage. We did our project on OpenOffice Writer. That application is free and it's also very similar to Microsoft Word. I thought we had a great group and did a pretty good job with the presentation. For our powerpoint, we tried to lay everything out as simply as possible. We had step by step directions for the assignments we gave the students to work on. We began by going over the basics of Writer and telling some things it can be used for. We then took screen shots of each step for their assignment. First, we took a screenshot showing how to open writer by double clicking the icon, or by using the start menu and finding writer through there. Once they had Writer open, we had them write at least one paragraph about how they felt about using a computer now that they had been through several workshops. This was pretty much the bulk of the class time. We also had steps going through how to save the document, reopen the document, as well as editing the document by chaning the font, font size, and also making something bold, italic or underlined. We planned to have them go through each step one by one but that really didn't seem to happen. Some students were actually able to get through the entire thing very early, and some were behind. We found it very hard to get their attention again to go over the next step once they began to use the computer. My advice to any future teams, make sure you say everything you need to before you let them begin their assignment. Over all the class did very well and I was very pleased with our workshop.

U-Blog 4

These past few weeks have been very busy. We were assigned groups for the various workshops we'll be presenting after spring break. We were given quite a few group assignments involving our workshop team and a different group for the wikipage assignment we have to do. For the most part the workshop assignments have had the same type of format. First discuss a topic within our own team discussion board, elect a leader, and have that leader post a summary of the team discussion on the main board. The discussion topics for those assignments have been, Workshop Topics and IT's top five training mistakes. For the most part, our team did a pretty good job of having everyone participate and quickly electing a leader to post the summary. I feel like I have a very dependable team and look foward to finishing this workshop with them.
To make any group project successful you really need to have everyone play their part. I see no problems with someone not playing their part within our group. I've had some pretty terrible groups throughout the years so I'm glad to finally get in a good one. We're scheduled to meet during tomorrows class to work on finishing up our draft for the presentation part of the project. Our group will be presenting on OpenOffice. We had originally planned on doing Word, but the computers in the lab at the Heritage only has OpenOffice. We're scheduled to present on March 23rd. I believe we're the third group to go. I'm glad we're presenting earlier. I'd much rather get it out of the way.

U-Blog 3

Well, this is my third U-blog so I'm beginning to get the hang of it now. For this weeks assignments we were asked to take survey's to see how we learn best. My results came out as I thought they would. I'm a visual learner. I've been a visual learner for as long as I can remember. When you have to sit there for over an hour and listen to a teacher go on and on about something, sometimes you tend to just tune them out. That's been my problem for a long time. Being a visual learner I just have to go back read the material myself and I'm usually ok with it.

That's why I love this class. All of our assignments can be done straight from blackboard with all the articles and diagrams right in front of me. I'm able to pick up the information quickly and do whatever work needs to be done. While I am a visual learner, I still like going to the classes because it gives me a chance to ask any questions I have. That would be the only bad thing I could see about doing the class online only is the students don't have a chance to see the teacher in person and ask questions. Some people may say "...well yeah but I could just e-mail her the question.". Well, yeah that's true but your e-mail could also get lost in the mix of other emails and she may not get to the question in time. What are you going to do if she doesn't get to it until after the due date?

We also had to take our second online quiz and I did pretty well on it. I missed one out of a careless error. I do like how the quizes have been set up. The questions for the most part have been simple and straight forward.

U-Blog 2

This past week we were we given our groups for our group workshop. In one of our assignments we were asked to create a list of topics that we would like to do our workshop on. We thought one idea would be to do a workshop on the different types of search engines such as yahoo and google, and what each has to offer. We also thought about doing one on different web browsers such as Firefox and IE. In preparation for our own workshop and the report we have to write, we were also asked to select another workshop to observe. Its been a very busy week, but I feel like I have a great group to work with on this workshop.

U-Blog 1

We've read and learned a lot of things during class so far, but the one thing that interested me the most was the article "Keeping it Real." This article discusses what changes can be expected with the competency model in the years to come. Knowing this will help workplace learning and performance(WLP) practitioners find out what they need to know in order to be successful.

There are 4 roles at the top of the model the practitioners can view the model through. These roles are: learning strategist, business partner, project manager, and professional specialist. The article goes on to say the model is shifting toward two strong trends, technology and globalization.

Technology is becoming a huge part of all industries and will be the focal point of many WLP professionals. They are going to have to take in all of these advancements and try to find the best way to make them beneficial to their particular industry. Many industries are already using the advancements in technology in many different areas. Industries are using technology to communicate with employees and conduct business with clients and customers in all locations. It's also being used to gain knowledge. With the retirement of workers it's important for companies to find ways to keep the knowledge they have in the workplace. Technology is also being used to deliver messages through e-learning.

Globalization and Diveristy is also becoming a huge part of the workplace. Industries have to train their workforce to be prepared to go anywhere in the world. They have many methods of training at their disposal including translation and localization. It's important for these industries to match the right method with their audience if they want it to work.

This was only a summary of a small portion of the article of what I believed to be the most important points. Technology and diversity will effect everyone, especially those of us that are tstm majors. It will be our job to keep up with all of the newest technology to make sure our industry stays on top of the competition. We are going to have to be the most innovative group of workers ever.

Workplace Learning

Trends in workplace learning have changed throughout the years. The cost to process information is steadily declining. With this steady decline in the cost to process information, it's difficult to define what a competitive advantage is. Many experts believe we've entered a new era, leaving the information age behind, and entering the knowledge era. The ability to obtain new knowledge is now becoming the primary competitive advantage in most industries. The industries that are able to obtain new knowledge the fastest, and apply and use it best will have the most success. It's our job as up and coming workers to find new and innovative ways for businesses to stay ahead. Not only as up and coming workers, but also as Americans. It's obvious with everything that has happened recently, America seems to be falling behind other countries. Instead of sitting back and letting other countries come up with all of these new ideas, we need to become the innovators again. It's very important that workers in all industries realize the changes that are happening around us. Everyone needs to understand that in order for America to remain competitive we have to continue to come up with new and innovative ideas.