Project America: Education

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KDIR

I chose to discuss this organization because professional trainers and HPT practitioners provide solutions by making important data driven decisions. The International Conference on Knowledge discovery and Information retrieval (KDIR) focuses on identifying and encouraging the development of novel data mining discovery methods. Data mining is an important part of our information driven society. Databases located at learning institutions and business organizations are mined for data that drive the decision making process. Algorithms and data analysis techniques create models that explain the nature of a specific kind of data or explain the business potential of meaningful data. The ideas that are presented and discussed at this conference contributes to enhancing the intelligence of software services and systems (INSTICC,2009). When software applications are improved by engineers, the ability to mine important data more efficiently increases too.

...Just this year, a co-worker of mine, who has not been teach over 5 years, decided she wanted to quit her job as an educator and sell insurance. She not only got her bachelor's degree and certification in Education, but she also attained a Master's degree. The reason she gave for quitting was that she felt trapped. I asked her what that meant and she said that teachers a re given a group of kids and a set of GLE's and told to teach them...

my response -

Free market societies are perfect for exploring innovative ideas and business endeavors. It gets sticky when that "survival of the fittest" philosophy is injected into our system of education. Profit and performance driven systems don't focus on the collateral damage, the focus is placed on the return on investment. We all lose when a person like your friend walks away from public education with so much untapped capital.

My action research project addresses the cognitive interaction between virtual learning environments and online learners. Online learning tactics differ from the tactics students use in traditional learning environments. The structure of traditional learning is aligned with traditional pedagogy principles. Teacher centered learning environments don’t emphasize the importance of learning styles, self- regulated learning principles and the development of critical study skills. However, the concepts and principles I just mentioned are used to develop important electronic literacy skills. These concepts are at the core of the online learning experience. Virtual learning environments are designed to align closely with the principles of adult learning. Students who lack the ability to self-regulate their learning experience struggle in virtual learning environments. The action research project for this course focuses on the role of metacognition in this process.

Have you used any of the tools discussed this week? (In our Discussion Question # 1 forum).

Describe your experience using one of the tools and make a recommendation as to whether others should use the same tool.

Camtasia studio is a screen capturing application that is used for creating training material. The software application can create various video formats. The other publishing formats offered are PDF to video conversion, word and power point formats for printing options. There are also various web formats that are offered by Camtasia too.

The flash component offers a variety of extensions that add value to presentation process. I created a training executable that included dynamic material integrated with a formative assessment component. The formative component was integrated as pre-test questions that could capture the learners' response. I inserted two questions after each learning section was completed. The software can tally up the score when the instructional is completed.

The video creation component is useful, because Camtasia allows users to integrate the video into a flash component. The project an be converted into an executable. The format can be delivered via email or placed on an enhanced CD. The enhanced CD can also contain a likert scale (created in a desktop publishing application) or in Camtasia for capturing a student's experience through their opinions in an interactive fashion. So basically, the learning material can be created with multiple technology components-audio,video and interactive extensions that can enhance the learning experience. This kind of delivery is a shotgun approach to dealing with the many different learning styles found in a learning setting.

Building a culture of commitment through innovative management strategies is a worthy vision for companies to have. This article suggests that woman and generation Y employees seek out employment with companies that are not just focused on making a profit. These individuals seek out companies that value community collaborations and environmental initiatives. The top companies must balance profit driven decisions with a mission statement that embodies a commitment to developing 21^st century social solutions.

Using the traditional ADDIE model to address business needs is typical for most trainers. However, adding rapid prototyping to that training model transforms the ADDIE model into a performance improvement tool. This is how I see the change from a training department(traditional ADDIE) to a performance improvement department(rapid prototyping). I hope this adds some clarity.