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Inspiring Ideas

AI Recruiting
 

"I'm sorry, Dave, I can't hire you right now."  Is this the terrifying future of interviewing for jobs?  These days, it is just as likely that when Artificially Intelligent Robots are mentioned that you will receive an excited response as a fearful one.  Some see independently thinking robots as the transcendent future, while others fear a dystopia resulting from our enslavement to our electronic creation.  Some companies, are embracing AI technology in ever more increasing levels, particularly in the recruiting and hiring process.   

Healthcare and Gamification
 

Gamification is the focused design technique that relies on inherent human motivations. While the names sounds like it might reduce serious work down to silly playtime, effective gamification taps into natural human motivations to accomplish the training goals. In this blog, the writer highlights a simple example of improving employee performance on a mundane task by simply publicly posting the names of the employees who completed the task.  This taps into the motivations of accomplishment, avoidance, and social influence that Yu-kai Chou explains in his Octalysis framework. 

Instructional Design Commoditized?

 

The growth and quick adoption rates of eLearning authoring tools like Articulate, Captivate and Lectora have raised questions in many organizations as to the relevancy and value of instructional design services.  

 

The assumption is that good eLearning authoring tools make good training programs and that a resident subject matter expert (SME) with a rapid development tool can remove the need for an instructional designer in the development process.

 

The Freeconomy Hits Training

 

 

If anyone had attempted to predict that the most visited websites in the world would be based on giving their products away for free, they would have been laughed at.  However, that is exactly what has happened.  Wikipedia, Google, and others are some of the most popular websites on the internet and yet they charge nothing for their services.  Now, the Freeconomy is coming training.  Coursera is one of those at the forefront of this emerging trend.  

 

Coursera brings together over 700 educational courses from over 100 of the leading universities in the world, including Stanford, Weslayan, Vanderbilt, Berklee, and more.  These courses are offered online, for free, to anyone. 

 

Coursera

 

Augmented Reality and Training

 

What do LEGO, BMW, IKEA, and Google have in common?  They have been a part of the cutting edge of a technology known as "augmented reality.  This is where a live digital streaming image has supplemental information displayed on top of it.  An example that pre-dates the term "augmented reality" but was actually the first workable example of it, was head up displays in fighter jets.  Crucial information was projected onto the windscreen to prevent the pilot from looking down at dials.  BMW is a leader in introducing this technology into the automobile market. 

 

LEGO and IKEA have both created augmented reality tools to help their customers envision their products. Google's Glass product is an attempt to make a mainstream augmented reality product.  What implications do this have for training?  How can the training world best use this technology?  Some of the applications that seem obvious would be:  when the training is risky (heavy machinery, toxic substances, etc.), when the training is focused on a tangible object (auto repair, retail, etc.), or anytime you can use your phone camera to take a video of something in the real world and need information on it (tourism, museums, etc.). 

 

Augmented Reality Explained

 

Augmented Reality Browser

 

Improving the World Through Innovation

Businessweek

 

Google X is the secretive research division of Google and they are the ones responsible for the driverless cars and Google Glass projects.  They dedicate a percentage of their budget to taking 2-3 "moonshots" a year and attempting outrageous things.  They combine a "nothing is impossible" outlook with a passion for making a difference in the world through technolo

 

"If there’s an enormous problem with the world, and we can convince ourselves that over some long but not unreasonable period of time we can make that problem go away, then we don’t need a business plan."  "We should be focused on making the world a better place, and once we do that, the money will come back and find us."  ~ Astro Teller (Director of Google X)

Learning vs. Training

Chief Learning Officer online

 

“If you ask anyone in the C-suite what was their most impactful and career-advancing learning or development experience, it would not be a formal training course or even their formal education or degree program,” she said. “Their career-changing learning experience was a job rotation, stretch assignment or special project, and the coaching and mentoring that went along with it on the job to ensure professional growth and success.”

 

...learning need not be trapped in a box, a classroom or an LMS.


“the most powerful form of learning and talent development occurs in the day-to-day, on-the-job work environment; and that it is directly tied to tangible performance improvement in the metrics that matter.”

Beliefs, Behaviors, Results

Gamification.co

Here is a very straightforward example of gamification.  This company made a game app that teaches and reinforces good leadership skills. 

 

"BB&T has recently proved to be innovative through the addition of a mobile gaming application into their employee training program, with the purpose of teaching valuable leadership skills based on the premise that Beliefs influence Behaviors, which lead to Results, which influence beliefs, and it cycles on."

Deep Engagement
various

Learning must first start with a connection.  Basic educational psychology explains that new information is retained when it is mentally connected with old information.  Trainers must put effort into providing context and engagement opportunities so that communicated information becomes learned information. 

 

One way to accomplish this is through a concept called "gamification".  This term has proven to be something of a stumbling block to some people since it implies frivilous playtime instead of serious learning.  While this can be true, if the designer loses sight of their educational goal, it is not automatically true.  Just like PowerPoint can be used poorly and information is lost in the fog of endless bullet points and volumes of text, any learning tool can be mishandled. 

 

Gamification is the focused effort to use human nature to accomplish a learning goal.  People are naturally curious, competitive, relational, story-driven, goal-oriented, and have a desire to be rewarded.  Learning that is put into a context that offers Goals, Rewards, Competition, etc, can be very effective at communicating new information - information that must be acquired to proceed successfully within the "game".  Here are several links to some good examples of this that I've found:

 

Broken Coworker

 

Connect with Haji Kamal


Psyched in 10

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