Business Management Multimedia, Scenarios, Videos: Options for Skill Building

• What does it take to manage an employee you dislike?

• How do you minimize meeting length while maximizing efficiency and outcomes?

• Why does a cash bonus motivate only half of your employees?

These are some of the questions that short, pithy videos and interactive scenarios can answer -- on an as-needed basis, through a variety of techniques that target different learning styles.  While one manager may learn best through a short lecture-style presentation, another may find it easier to grasp a concept when it's presented in anedotal style, and a third may need to actually interact with information in order to internalize it.

That's why the demand for online managerial training tools has grown so quickly: it's easy to take the same basic content, reversion it for multiple learning styles, and make it available as a library of resources.  As a manager encounters an issue, she can tap into a password-encrypted site, select the topic desired, choose the presentation style, and receive instant, actionable input that makes sense to her based on her learning style.

There are a wide range of multimedia tools used to present management concepts.  While not every tool is appropriate to every topic, it's always possible to create video presentations, text publications, and interactive elements to suit individual needs.  With enough time and the right tools, it's even possible to create interactive, scenario-based, "choose your own adventure" style modules that allow managers to practice coaching, conflict resolution, meeting management, problem-solving, and other critical skills.

Building on my experience with virtual and distance education, I've worked with several recent clients on business-related teaching tools.  Just a few projects include --

• 100 three-minute video scripts on topics ranging from SWOT analysis to conflict resolution
• "Smart Stories" for business managers which relate business skills such as meeting management to real-world examples of business managers who have successfully achieved specific goals
• Articulate-based interactive lectures and assessments focused on topics such as marketing theory and fundamentals of branding

How do your managers learn best?

21st Century Learning for a Purpose

Image created by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills

If you aren't involved with education in any way, you may never have heard the term "21st century skills." These are skills which the US Government (and many others) believe will be critical for success in an increasingly interconnected and technological world.

Google the term, and you'll quickly learn that the United States Department of Education, along with countless partners in the US and around the world, are working hard to prepare "teachers for a 21^st century classroom that not only incorporates, but demands, more focus on critical thinking, STEM, foreign language, collaborative problem-solving, and technology literacy."

Of course, these are all terrific skills to learn, though many (such as critical thinking, foreign languages, and collaborative problem solving) were already centuries old when they were espoused by folks like Socrates.  And other skills listed in the graphic above -- life and career skills, for example -- are pretty much essential in order to survive in a modern society, so they're not really new either.

In fact, it's only the technology that's new.  And what's -- at least in theory -- cutting edge is the idea that students should not only know how to access information online but should also know how to participate in the creation of online content.  In an ideal world, of course, students would be using their newfound thinking and reasoning skills to create that online content, which would then generate intelligent conversation and collaboration.

But here's the rub: we seem to be conflating the technical ability to make a video and put it on YouTube with the intellectual ability to have an idea, think it through, develop an artistic vision to present that idea to others, develop a structure in which to present the idea, draft a creative presentation, edit it, and THEN present it to the world.  In other words, we're rarely combining the thinking process with the technical ability to present content.

As a result, YouTube and other online venues are fast filling up with thousands upon thousands of "21st Century" presentations containing nothing more than whatever happened to be said or done when a student turned on a camera.  Similarly, SlideShare is full of two-image PowerPoints with nothing to say...  Flickr is loaded with photoshopped images created to please the "digital technology" teacher's aesthetic.

In short, for the most part, our kids are learning to make "stuff" and post it online.

Every now and then, though, a project comes along that actually pulls together critical thinking, collaboration, technology, and engagement in a way that has real significance both to the learners and to the larger world.  In the process of doing some research for a client, I came upon a few such projects.  All are project-based, technology-rich, and focused on real world problems -- either in the area of service learning or civics. 

Perhaps most signficantly, not all such projects are actually school based: most are run by non-profits or corporations.  Microsoft, for example, offers a World Citizenship award for a technological innovation designed to make a positive difference in the world.  Museums, civics organizations, and even non-governmental organizations are jumping in, with a focus on real engagement, action, and outcomes.

As I delve more deeply into projects related to 21st century skills, I'll be writing occasional blogs on what I've learned.  Here and there, I'm finding the real deal...  when I do, I'll share it!

Scripts, Scripts, Scripts

I'm writing dozens of short, pithy "business tip" scripts for a new client in the field of Instructional Design.  These are being turned, rapidly, into videos for business managers and human resource professionals.  I have to say, it's an education for me: I can now glibly explain exactly how to implement a SWOT analysis, how to turn that into a TOWS analysis, and how to use the GROW Method to coach employees to put their Strategic Plan into action!

It's exciting to get this kind of experience, since it provides me with more tools for Instructional Design and educational writing, both of which are areas I'm building professionally.  I've always enjoyed writing scripts for planetariums, multimedia presentations, and public speaking; this is just one more way to use the same tool to create a unique product!

Science Writing for Healthcare Consumers

During the past two months, I've been busy at work on a project for a major cancer center.  My assignment: meet with doctors, surgeons, pathologists and patient care specialists to collect information, and then turn that information into comprehensible information that patients and caregivers can put to immediate use.

I've done quite a bit of health and life-science writing over the years, but this is the first time I've been asked to create information that has the potential to save a life.  I have to say that the opportunity is both exciting and daunting.  Perhaps my biggest challenge is to avoid answering every possible question, addressing every concern, and describing every treatment.  After all, I imagine, mightn't a patient want every scrap of information available?

In fact, of course, web writing should not and cannot be a series of dissertations.  Few readers will stick around to read thousands of words on the screen -- and every healthcare situation is unique.  Still, as I dive into a deeper understanding of what CAN be done to treat even major cancers, it's tough to keep from telling the whole story!

iBooks for Education: Not Quite Cutting Edge...

My newest client, a small digital publishing company in Massachusetts, has hired me to recommend changes to a web-based Personal Finance curriculum to make the interactivity compatible with the iBook authoring system.  Naturally, much of the animation and some of the interactivity is Flash-based, and iPads don't play well with Flash - which means almost everything written for the Web must now be reconceived.

The multi-touch table is now standard museum fare

I'd be a lot happier about the iPad revolution if I saw real creativity in the authoring widgets.  Perhaps I'm jaded, coming as I do from a museum background.  In the science museum world, touchscreen interactivity has been a standard fixture for nearly 20 years.  Interactive, video based teaching games have been around for even longer.  So the "opportunity" to create picture galleries, multiple choice quizzes and drag and drop interactives doesn't really wow me. Nor do "tap to see the video" screens.

I do understand that iBooks and iPads are here to stay... and that touchscreens, once "future tech," are fast becoming standard classroom and business equipment.  But with so much wonderful potential for interactivity, it seems a shame to stick to the oldest, most well-worn options.

Maybe Apple could take a peek at some of the apps that are available to educators who USE the iPad, and rediscover some awesome opportunities for creativity...  Apps that encourage participation in learning... apps that combine audio recording with video, images, animated drawing and text...  apps that truly make full use of the amazing potential of the iPad tool!

Universal Design for Learning

I'm heading off, on Monday of this week, to a conference at the Museum of Science in Boston which will focus on the development of a universally designed science museum exhibit. 

Cool isn't always inclusive!

My role will start with a presentation about autism and education -- a complex and poorly researched topic indeed!  I've put together a PowerPoint presentation to describe the autism spectrum and planned changes to the diagnostic criteria; describe some of what's known about how people with autism learn and engage with the environment; present some of the technology now in use for people with autism, and provide some samples of what's working in the museum environment (not too many examples so far!).

I'm excited to be part of a group that includes some of the top people in the fields of museum education and technology...  Universal design is a new concept for many of us, and technology should allow us, at this point in history, to create experiences that are flexible, engaging, and capable of teaching a huge range of people.  Can't wait to see what emerges!

What's Old Is New Again: High Quality Leveled Readers

I was delighted, a little over a month ago, to get a call from a company called Curriculum Concepts International. I had never heard of CCI, but it turns out that they were a part of an ongoing project at Time for Kids (part of Time Inc.) in which I was involved many years ago.  Harcourt, creator of K-12 textbooks, had contracted with Time to create sets of "mini-books" as secondary sources to support social studies texts for grades K-6.  I had had the pleasure of researching and writing quite a few of these mini-books on fascinating topics such as --

One of my early trades

The Kennedy Space Center

 The Silk Road
 Climate Change

The Elements

Norfolk and the Navy
The Chesapeake Bay

Tsunami

  Discovering New Species
 The Ancient Phoenicians

  

When the recession hit, the market for these small, high quality books with fabulous illustrations from the Time-Life photo library appeared to dry up.  But it seems that the business merely took a detour.  Now, CCI is managing the development of new leveled readers at the same high quality, and they thought of me.

Last month, I took on a really exciting CCI/Harcourt project: a 4th/5th grade book called Life on a Lunar Colony.  No, it's not fiction -- but it did give me a chance to explore what NASA and private businesses are thinking about relative to our next steps in space.  Wonderful stuff, including gorgeous artists' conceptions of domed habitats, mining facilities and moon rovers.

This month, I've started work on a new CCI/Harcourt mini-book called Measuring Matter.  I'm looking forward to getting back into the world of physics! It's wonderful to be able to mix print and digital education, using the "appropriate technology" for different kinds of learners.