Wednesday
Mar132002
231 - TV News Shifts Might Predict Education Shifts; Confessions of an e-Learner in a Masters Program
March 13, 2002
#231 - - - March 13, 2002 - - - 43,128 Readers
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
Training, e-Learning and Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center www.masie.com
Host of: Business of Learning Conference - April
1. TV News Shifts Might Predict Education Shifts
2. Confessions of an e-Learner in a Masters Program
1. TV News Shifts Might Predict Education Shifts: Recent reports from
television networks in the United States report an increasing trend away
from people watching the evening news programs. When I grew up, the
family would have dinner and then move to the living room to watch the CBS
Evening News with Walter Cronkite. This was the time when we all learned
what had happened in our world that day.
The demographics of television watching indicate that adults who are below
the age of 40 are less likely to watch the evening news programs. Reasons
include: they have already seen key news stories on the internet; they
are less likely to want to access news on a regular basis; they are less
tolerant of having one person assemble the list of top news - they would
rather build their own news collection from multiple sources; they are
less tolerant of the "happy talk" between news hosts and they don't want
to dedicate an entire 1/2 hour to the task.
Interesting to apply those preferences to classroom led training!
2. Confessions of an e-Learner in a Masters Program: One of our
colleagues, Lisa Van Damme, from Merck, has been working on an on-line
Masters Program. Here is a note from her about her experience with an
upcoming final exam:
"I knew when I started my masters program that there would be a
comprehensive exam at the end. For my first few courses, I diligently
printed out the lecture web pages and online discussion forums for each
week of class. Each week included a new discussion and if it was an
interesting topic, we'd quickly accumulate seventy or eighty postings. By
the end of the semester, I had some massive notebooks taking up space.
Then I figured I should burn all of the files to a CD. That lasted for a
little while too.
Eventually, I just stopped taking the time to try to save everything.
There were too many links - too many threads leading to all directions.
Now the end is here and I know I have to take that exam in April. I
emailed my advisor to ask about how to best prepare for the exam, and she
said that my coursework should have prepared me. There is no real way to
"study" for the test. I am amazed at how stressful I find that. I feel
like I should be doing something to prepare. Looking through some sort of
notes, I still have my spiral notebooks from high school -- how can I not
have any "tangible" record of three years of graduate work!!
I've decided to read back through all of the graded papers and projects
that I've saved and just forget about trying to resurrect old class notes.
Maybe I'll "peruse" each of the textbooks I've bought over the years.
Mostly I figure that I'll head into the exam happy that my nights and
weekends will soon be free again."
Lisa's note reminds me of the strong need for us to develop methods for
retaining and integrating content from longer duration on-line learning
experiences. LMS system developers might want to look at ways of building
a learner's content briefcase that builds from course to course.
Upcoming MASIE Center Events: www.masie.com
- Business of Learning - Business of e-Learning: April 2002, Washington,
DC
- Skills for e-TRAINERS Lab - May 2002 - Saratoga Springs, NY
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
Training, e-Learning and Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center www.masie.com
Host of: Business of Learning Conference - April
1. TV News Shifts Might Predict Education Shifts
2. Confessions of an e-Learner in a Masters Program
1. TV News Shifts Might Predict Education Shifts: Recent reports from
television networks in the United States report an increasing trend away
from people watching the evening news programs. When I grew up, the
family would have dinner and then move to the living room to watch the CBS
Evening News with Walter Cronkite. This was the time when we all learned
what had happened in our world that day.
The demographics of television watching indicate that adults who are below
the age of 40 are less likely to watch the evening news programs. Reasons
include: they have already seen key news stories on the internet; they
are less likely to want to access news on a regular basis; they are less
tolerant of having one person assemble the list of top news - they would
rather build their own news collection from multiple sources; they are
less tolerant of the "happy talk" between news hosts and they don't want
to dedicate an entire 1/2 hour to the task.
Interesting to apply those preferences to classroom led training!
2. Confessions of an e-Learner in a Masters Program: One of our
colleagues, Lisa Van Damme, from Merck, has been working on an on-line
Masters Program. Here is a note from her about her experience with an
upcoming final exam:
"I knew when I started my masters program that there would be a
comprehensive exam at the end. For my first few courses, I diligently
printed out the lecture web pages and online discussion forums for each
week of class. Each week included a new discussion and if it was an
interesting topic, we'd quickly accumulate seventy or eighty postings. By
the end of the semester, I had some massive notebooks taking up space.
Then I figured I should burn all of the files to a CD. That lasted for a
little while too.
Eventually, I just stopped taking the time to try to save everything.
There were too many links - too many threads leading to all directions.
Now the end is here and I know I have to take that exam in April. I
emailed my advisor to ask about how to best prepare for the exam, and she
said that my coursework should have prepared me. There is no real way to
"study" for the test. I am amazed at how stressful I find that. I feel
like I should be doing something to prepare. Looking through some sort of
notes, I still have my spiral notebooks from high school -- how can I not
have any "tangible" record of three years of graduate work!!
I've decided to read back through all of the graded papers and projects
that I've saved and just forget about trying to resurrect old class notes.
Maybe I'll "peruse" each of the textbooks I've bought over the years.
Mostly I figure that I'll head into the exam happy that my nights and
weekends will soon be free again."
Lisa's note reminds me of the strong need for us to develop methods for
retaining and integrating content from longer duration on-line learning
experiences. LMS system developers might want to look at ways of building
a learner's content briefcase that builds from course to course.
Upcoming MASIE Center Events: www.masie.com
- Business of Learning - Business of e-Learning: April 2002, Washington,
DC
- Skills for e-TRAINERS Lab - May 2002 - Saratoga Springs, NY
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