A Pause

As an Army Civilian, we fall into a unique group.  We are a part of the military, but not.  We work side by side with military members, but are not necessarily subject to the same rules or the same responsibilities as the Soldiers.  We take an oath, but not the same one as our military counterparts.  Our educational standards are comparable but also not the same.  As trainers, we are tasked with helping our military members create better training and educational products for soldiers and military civilians too.
As a member of a military organization, when our co-workers are in trouble, as a team member, the civilians are also required to step up and lend a helping hand.  On Thursday this week, the entire Army had a safety stand down to address the issue of suicide in the military. The persistent conflict is taking its toll on the military and as an organization, we must address this issue and find a way to help our fellow soldiers that are suffering.  I know that this may not be an 'educational' topic, but as an organization, it is very relevant to training.  We talk about many topics in training and education:  What is the best way to learn? What appeals to a wider audience?  How can we enhance our products to make them more relevant?  But the most important topic in the Army this week:  How can we save lives?  The military does that every day.  Safety is huge.  Safety training is very widespread and popular, but the type of training going on this week, suicide prevention,  is much different. Soldiers don't like to talk about feelings or weakness.  This topic requires both and can be very uncomfortable and 'in your face'. There are many causes and I won't go into detail.  As a resource I include the link to the Army's website.  If anyone needs this resource or would like more information, please feel free to visit this site. You don't have to be in the Army for this to be helpful.
http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/default.asp

classroom 2.0

Since beginning this program, I have learned so much through my peers, I thought it would be a nice time to pay it forward...
For those of you who work in "real schools" I thought this might be a useful site.  This site has so much "techy" classroom stuff, I'm not sure where to begin.  I perused this site for a while before deciding to share it, and I do not believe I even saw half of the great information it has to offer.  I was actually looking for some ideas for the technology-friendly classroom set-up when I found this reference, so add it to your favorites if you see fit and enjoy. 

http://www.classroom20.com/

Evaluating DL programs

I have had an interesting week.  Since the military is ever-changing and constantly seeking improvement, from time to time, as employees of such, we are required to be re-trained in accordance with new policies and guidance.  As our institution undergoes the preparation for accreditation evaluation next year, our mission this week was to be retrained in the basic instructor course.  This is a course I have been teaching for more than four years, but since there have been some changes in the delivery of the material and some parts and pieces have been added, my co-workers and I are walking a mile in our students' shoes for the next two weeks, as we participate in the validation of the new course as students.  It reminds me of basic training all over again..
Although I was very surprised that I was nervous to teach a lesson I have taught many times before as I was evaluated by an outside instructor, I think I was most surprised at the disappointment I felt about the prerequisite IMI training.  The new course has a required self-paced DL portion to be completed before the classroom portion is begun.  While taking these many hours of coursework, I was so disappointed at the quality of the material, it made me doubt my chosen degree.... How can I be one semester from graduating this LSTE program and hate DL this much?  But I think I can answer my own question... it's not that I hate DL itself, I just am very disappointed in the poorly executed DL.  DL can be very interactive and effective for teaching and learning, and I think participating as a student from time to time is a good wake-up call to challenge us to create learning products that are effective, engaging and of better quality than some of the courses that are available now.  While I was pondering on my next steps in education, I did find this interesting document online. It is an evaluation tool for online education programs.  As we incorporate technology into our organizations, I thought this might be a helpful evaluation tool.  Evaluating DE & CE

High School E-learning

I was perusing the internet today trying to think of something to blog about and ran across this very interessting article.  I thought this would be very useful for my classmates that work in K-12 Education.  This article is about schools requiring students to take an online course in order to graduate, to prepare them for college.  I thought this might be an interesting facet of someone's Technology Integration Plan (TIP).  Since so many states have mandated already that students should be learning online, how long will it be before Arkansas does the same?  Is internet literacy becoming a core competency for all students?  Since vocational training has seemed to take a back seat to a technology enhanced curriculum, will all students be required to be an online learner in order to cross the stage? 

Article Link

TIP

TIP (Technology Integration Plan)
The technology integration plan is a comprehensive look at how to incorporate technology into teaching and training in an institution, be it government, higher education or k-12 education.  The principles and phases of TIP can be the same or at least similar in all of these respective institutions.  The main focus is to assess where you are currently, where you would like to go and then formulate a plan to get there, fund it and implement, of course evaluating your progress as you go.  It is essential to have buy in from your staff and faculty, however in order to be successful in the integration of any new technology tools.  Staff and faculty are ultimately responsible for the seamless integration of the new tools and should definitely be included in the plan.