A recent post at the SIOP Exchange from Jacob McNulty said this:
Training: in the world of Facebook, Google and You Tube, people are accustomed to getting the information they need when they need it. And the most tapped sources for this knowledge are typically someone’s personal network and learning on the job. What research opportunities exist for helping to understand how we can better support this informal learning? As we continue further into an economy reliant on knowledge and therefore knowledge workers, it’s my prediction that this trend will do nothing but grow.
Oh look! One of my research areas. I mention it here because I think many people don’t understand why people seek out these sources of learning when there is a perfectly good company training program available. What makes Facebook, Google and YouTube more attractive than a company-designed program? Simple. Using these appears to save both time and effort on the part of the learner.
Say, for example, Johnny Q Employee is a computer programmer and needs to use a programming language that he’s never used before. Does he start with a book? Probably not – he would have to leave the office to buy the book, and then scan the book for the information he needs. Does he seek out company training programs? Only if those programs are convenient, comprehensive, and allow him easy access to the information he needs. So instead, he unleashes some Google-fu to find online tutorials and references for what he needs to know.
The power of this? Johnny already knows what he knows and what he needs to know. Most formal training programs assume a common starting point for all employees. So if the training designer designs his program to make sure everyone is on the same page, Johnny will be getting material that he is already familiar with – a waste of time. But if the training designer designs his program to start at the average level of competence of the trainees, half of the trainees will be lost as soon as training begins.
By using Google as a training springboard, Johnny can start exactly where he needs to start. This is not because Google is informal and the company programs are formal – it is because Google has more information than company programs do and in an easier-to-access format. Theoretically a company could provide a comprehensive training program with more information on a particular topic than Google – but I question how realistic this is.
There is a large caveat. Generally speaking, people are actually pretty poor at figuring out what they know and don’t know. In studies of learner control (web-based training programs where you can choose the order and pacing of the material), people tend to perform more poorly on tests of knowledge gained after training programs where they had control, compared to those where the structure was predetermined. So in reality, learners may spend more time fighting with Google to find what they want to find than if they had sat through the training program in the first place.
What is the balance? How can formal training programs be best designed to take advantage of informal sources of information? We don’t know yet. But I aim to find out.
Courtesy iit.edu/~parkjef
Today, I got a haircut. And not just any haircut – it was likely the last haircut that I will ever get in Minneapolis. Now, that wouldn’t be so odd except that I have a regular stylist. Yes, a stylist. It’s not like a sought out this stylist; I just came in one day and she gave me a haircut. And then, almost every time I dropped in for two years after that, she happened to be working that day.
So because I’ve seen her so many times, we struck up conversation randomly as one often does during a haircut. I’m not sure if such idle chitchat is for my or my stylist’s sake, but it just always seems appropriate – much less awkward than sitting in silence, anyway.
As a result of this, when I came in today, the first thing she said was “Oh, I thought you’d already moved!” Yes, this is the kind of familiarity I have with someone who takes scissors to my head. We chatted amiably as usual – about moving, about movies, about the weather – and then as I was paying came to an awkward moment. I cunningly said, “So I suppose this is the last time I’ll be coming in,” to which she replied with equal enthusiasm, “Yeah, I guess so.”
Awkward. It almost felt like a break-up, except that neither of us actually cared that we’d never see each other again. And as I walked out, I wondered just how many of these little interactions I’m going to have in the next two months. We close on the house April 30 and are out of our apartment May 31, so there’s not much time left. Most of the people I know are academics in I/O, so I’ll be seeing many of them at least once a year for… well, a long time. But the others, I may be leaving behind forever. Should I be sad? Pensive? Indifferent? Does it matter at all?
Last time, I said that each time things went well, I grew increasingly suspicious. That hasn’t really changed. You see, we got notification of final approval for our mortgage today, which by all accounts is fantastic news. Which of course means that something must be wrong.
I’m not sure what terrible thing will happen. But I know it will be something. Things can’t consistently go well. I mean – I have a new job, a new house, reasonably good health, and my dissertation seems to be progressing on-time. We’ve been having trouble getting insurance companies to get back to us about home insurance, but other than that, everything has been smooth-sailing. So whatever’s going to go wrong, it must be big.
Plans for the house itself haven’t really changed. We bought HGTV Home Design Software in order to better model what our renovations will ultimately look like, which has been slow-going. It’s very complex software, but I think creating a 3D model of our new home that we can virtually walk around is worth the learning effort. Plus, then my wife can redecorate at will without making me lift any furniture!
Some advice though – if you are buying a house from afar and planning to make a 3D model of it, make sure your room measurements are accurate before you leave!