The Times They Are a Changin’ (I hope)

The beginning half of 2020 has been transformative. The worldwide pandemic that basically shut the world economy down, brought travel to a standstill and saw some form of shelter-in-place orders in most of the world is still showing no sign of letting us get back to “normal” and now, the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of police in an American city has sparked anti-racism protests around the world. And many Canadians are being forced to realize that we’re not immune to systemic racism, either.

Because of the ever-present threat of Covid-19, I haven’t been able to attend any of the anti-racism protests, but I’ve been deeply affected by them all. It was so heartening to see that a city that riots after losing a hockey game had one of the most peaceful and respectful rallies in the world. But since I can’t go, I’ve been trying to think of ways that I can help. At first, I didn’t think there was much I could do. I’m not in a position of power, I don’t employ people, I don’t have a say in any company policies, I hold no sway with anyone. Or do I? So, I put a Black Lives Matter sign on my patio that faces the street. A small gesture but at least people might see it and think. But then I had to think… is there more I can do?

I firmly believe that yes, policing has to change, the system has to change, but education and training have to change as well. And I don’t just mean for police. And this is where I see that I can play a role. It’s a small role but it is a role. When clients come to me and ask for my expertise to help them design and develop training courses, it is my responsibility to make sure that I work with them to make sure their training is as diverse as possible and doesn’t have any unintended bias. This is just a very first step but if I do it and I work with my clients to do it, I am, in a small way, working to change and heal the system. I can also challenge you to find a way you can help change the system. After all, as someone said to me recently, it’s no longer enough to just not be racist, we have to be anti-racism. We all have a part to play, no matter how small, we just have to figure out what it is.

Critical Thinking – Now More than Ever

“The objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.”

“Disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.”

These are just two of the many definitions of critical thinking I came up with from a Google search. But all the definitions have an underlying commonality – that you have to look at something objectively and evaluate its legitimacy in order to make an informed opinion.

Critical thinking is not something that just happens. It is something that is learned and I believe, at least in North America, it is a skill that is not taught, or at least not taught well. And now, in an era of “fake news” or real news being called fake and lies being called truths, it is more necessary than ever.

I’ve written about this before but I remember being at a conference with several hundred educators about a year or so after Wikipedia really started to make its mark. I was sitting in a discussion group with several educators from k-12 and post-secondary, as well as a few corporate educators. The conversation somehow turned to how useful Wikipedia really was and I was flabbergasted at the k-12 educators’ responses. They were all from the US and they all said they didn’t allow their students to use Wikipedia at all. Not at all! They said the information couldn’t be trusted, even as a supporting source. The post-secondary educators agreed. No Wikipedia for their students either.

I asked them why not. I mean, I understand that they wouldn’t want Wikipedia to be the only source of information or maybe even the primary source but why not at all? They all answered by saying more or less the same thing, although not ever using the words… critical thinking. They didn’t feel their students could look at the information critically enough to make informed opinions about the veracity or legitimacy of the content. I guess it was easier to just not allow them to look at it than to teach them how to look at it critically. It made me sad.

I’m sure you know the joke “I saw it on the internet so it must be true”. Or, at least I hope you know it as a joke. Unfortunately not everyone does. But why not? I like to think that for many it is because they haven’t been taught to think critically about what they see and hear. In this day and age I really think that we have to change our conversations. We have to stop wondering how so many people can fall for stories and scams and start wondering why we aren’t doing more to help these people. And we have to start with k-12. We should be talking to our kids and teaching them how to determine if information is from a legitimate source, what the source’s bias is, and if they can trust it and, therefore, believe it. It isn’t going to eliminate the possibility that we still trust information that isn’t correct but it can go a long way to ensuring that ignorant, misinformed and even harmful opinions and actions aren’t allowed to take more of a hold in our world.

If we know how to quickly research a source to find out what other types of stories they’ve posted or what organizations they belong to, or we understand what their motivation is, we can, hopefully, begin to think more critically about all the information we’re being bombarded with.

So, I ask you… Are you a critical thinker? If you are, please pass it on. I fear it is in short supply.

What’s in a Pronoun?

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while. Not for any particular reason so I decided to publish it, finally. Just because it’s the second day of the new year. Happy 2017 everyone.

Gender bias and gender equality have been in the news a lot more of late. And now we have gender neutrality. I recently read about a University of Toronto professor who was being called a bigot because he was refusing to use “ze”, “zu” or “they” rather than “he” and “she”. I won’t go into detail about why, you can find several related articles by doing a search on CBC.ca if you’re interested. Then I saw two different TV sitcoms the other week that “talked” about it. And I just saw another news story about how much and why it matters that we start to use “they”. Again, I won’t go into detail. But even before all of this, I’d been thinking a lot about using “they” in my training.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m some great gender neutrality crusader. I’ve never used “ze” or “zu” but I already use “they”, at least in conversation and I have for years. I bet if they’re honest, most people will admit that they do too. Again, probably not because we all think about gender neutrality when we’re speaking but because we don’t want to assume gender when one isn’t in evidence. For me, I’ve always preferred “they” when writing since it saves time and space and when it comes down to it, I’m lazy. But, I’ve only had one client say that they didn’t want me to use “he/she” or “him/her” in their e-learning. My client actually said to me that I should use “they” since it sounded more conversational and in keeping with the rest of the learning. Unfortunately, this client is in a minority of one. Most of the clients and editors I work with tell me not to use “they” as a singular pronoun.

But I’ve never understood why. According to several dictionaries, using they as a singular pronoun to refer to someone of indefinite gender has been done for centuries. Some of the most celebrated writers in the English language used “they”. Hey, if it’s good enough for Shakespeare, Dickens, and Shelley, it’s good enough for me.
I also, mostly jokingly, make the argument that I have to put up with most people using “that” rather than “who” when referring to a person. I cringe when someone says something like, “The person that did that…” But again, it’s not only socially accepted and ubiquitous, it’s in the same dictionaries I reference to support my argument for the use of “they”.

But if those reasons still aren’t enough for you to make the argument for using it, how about (to borrow a line from the current Canadian Prime Minister)… because it’s 2016.

Learn Something New

Happy New Year! Hello 2014!

I have been with my husband for over 16 years. We started dating just before Christmas, way-back-when, and did all the requisite new relationship New Year’s celebration stuff. He asked me then if I was making any New Year’s resolutions and I told him the only resolution I ever made was to not make resolutions. And, as things turned out, it’s the only resolution I’ve every really stuck to 🙂

So, you’d think that he’d stop asking. You’d think that, but you’d be wrong. Just like clockwork, Dec 31st rolled around and my husband turned to me and for the 17th time, asked me if I was making any New Year’s resolutions. I don’t even bother answering anymore. And I really don’t make any resolutions but I do try to do a few new things every year and I try to make each new year better than the year before. Even if only in small ways.

As a life-long learner, I live the saying “you learn something new every day”. I really think I do learn something new every day. Some days are more notable than others but, hey, if I learned something REALLY new every day, my brain would be really full, really fast. But even the little things that I don’t necessarily think of as “learning” can lead to greater knowledge and understanding and that helps make my year a little better every time.

So here’s something, if you’re like me and you don’t care for New Year’s resolutions try this… Every once in a while, when you think of it, think back on your day, or days, and remember what you’ve learned. It can be anything, it may seem really small, maybe even insignificant but if you think about it, you might realize that your year is a little better than last year because you know a little more than you did yesterday.

Happy learning everyone! May 2014 be filled with health, happiness, prosperity and knowledge!

Working Memory

I just watched another great Ted talk. This one was by Peter Doolittle and was about working memory. It is only 10 minutes long and well worth a look, if you’re interested. You can find it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_doolittle_how_your_working_memory_makes_sense_of_the_world.html

He brings up several interesting and important points about working memory that I think have to be part of any sound instructional design project. One of the first things is that we can hold four things at a time in our working memory. It used to be 7 but I guess we’re getting dumber, he was far more charitable, saying that we were overachieving, but in any case, it is four now. We also have to do something with those four things within 20 seconds or we forget them. That isn’t a long time. From a learning standpoint, that means I better get my learners to do something pretty quickly after I tell them something or they aren’t going to retain anything. I always try to design learning to be as active as possible, I want my learners to “do” something almost immediately and it sounds like that is even more important now.

Doolittle also points out that practice, over time, is important. This is something that I’ve sometimes struggled with. When designing learning, how do I ensure that learners have enough time to practice. And how do you make sure that they continue to practice “over time”. Well, I don’t think I can, in some cases. I certainly don’t have any control over whether they practice once they’ve finished my course. But I always try to build activities or exercises right into the training that allows learners to practice as they go along. This doesn’t mean an end of topic quiz or exam, this is actual practice. A quiz is not practice.

One of the several other things that Doolittle’s talk reinforced in me is the need for images. Good images that support the learning, not what I refer to as “gratuitous graphics” that just distract learners and don’t help them remember content. It doesn’t matter how the content is being delivered, we need images to help us with processing those four little things.

He wraps up by saying that “what we process, we learn”. Words to live by! From a learning standpoint, it comes back to that practice thing for me. If I create learning that is interactive, where my learners are “doing”, they will also be learning.

 

Rememberance Day

Yesterday was Remembrance Day so I’d like to thank anyone who has served or is serving in the armed forces. Although I didn’t go to a ceremony, I watched the live broadcast from Ottawa and I was really pleased to see how many younger people and children took part in ceremonies across the country. I was also a little unhappy to think that many of these kids probably do have a direct connection to someone serving.

So, in my way of paying tribute, I’d like to tell you about Air Commodore Wilf Burnett. Wilf, or Bamp, as I knew him, was my step-father’s father. I only had the pleasure of meeting him once, when I was welcomed into his home for several days, but I’ve been privileged to hear about many of his accomplishments over the years. Not from him, he never really talked about the war or even his life after it but I heard stories from his family.

Although Bamp was born in Canada, he left shortly before WWII and went to England where he flew for the RAF. He never came back to Canada to live and by the time I met him, he had a British accent with just a trace of Canada. He died in 2006, at the ripe old age of 91. My step-father got his medals and flight logs and I was lucky enough to have a chance to read through them. It was fascinating! I got to read, in Bamp’s own words, what happened in the skies over Germany when he was flying with Bomber Command. He was shot down but thankfully didn’t crash behind enemy lines and managed (obviously) to get back to the UK. And it didn’t stop there. He continued flying, after the war, and flew over the Arctic, he was in the Gulf of Aden and the Suez, just to name a few. I loved reading the flight logs, this first hand account of history.

Then I got to read even more about Bamp and his life when my step-father wrote a book about him. It was a wonderful way to honour such a life and I’m glad that I got to meet the man and then read more about him, both in his own words and the words of his son.

Lest we forget!

A few of my favorite things…

No, I’m not going to start singing. But I will post a few of my favorite Ted talks about education and learning. Here you go…

I love anything by Sir Ken Robinson and he’s done several. You can find links to them on his profile page – http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html

How Khan Academy uses video to further education – http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html

Daphne Koller talks about Coursera and MOOCs – http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html

And there are so many more. Take a wander through the links on Ted and find some good ones of your own. And, of course, there’s so much more than just education.

Organizational Skills

I have often said that teaching/training/educating was bred in the bone for me. Both my parents were teachers, so was one of my aunts and an uncle. My step-father was also an educator, so I always grew up in a learning-friendly environment. Yet I’m still surprised when outsiders comment on things that I take for granted. For instance, organization. I’ve never really thought about organizing things, things just seem to naturally organize themselves for me. Or at least that’s the way it often seems to me. I look at content and it just seems a bit of a “no-brainer” that this chunk goes with this and that chunk comes before that and after this…

And it isn’t just learning material. For instance, after we were robbed many years ago I had to submit an insurance claim. The insurance adjuster told me that he’d never had such a well organized claim. But I didn’t see what the big deal was. I had just naturally put everything together with pictures and receipts where I had them and written a cover letter detailing everything that was in the package and what I thought might be missing and why.

More recently, we just moved houses and the movers loved us. They said it was one of the most organized moves they’d ever done. And I thought we were so disorganized! I was embarrassed when they arrived and we were still throwing things in boxes, boxes were scattered all over the place and I was changing my mind about where things were going. I guess perception is everything.

But I just don’t remember learning how to organize. Maybe that’s because I grew up in the environment I did. Or maybe it’s something I’ve always been able to do but it has been honed over the years so it is just a habit that I don’t think about and take for granted. I mean, isn’t that part of what Instructional Designers do? We take content and put it together in a more cohesive and organized fashion.

But what about everyone else? I know people take classes to learn organizational skills. Is it something that can be learned? I honestly don’t think I could teach someone to organize because I am never aware of when I’m doing it. What about you? Do you remember learning organizational skills?

Critical/Analytical Thinking, a Missed Learning Opportunity?

I remember being at a learning conference many years ago, around the time Wikipedia had started to really gain traction and credibility but before it was as well used/edited/vetted as it is now. One of the discussions I participated in turned to the viability of Wikipedia as an information source for students. As I’m sure you can guess, the conversation centered around whether it could be considered reliable enough to use as a reference in academic research. At the time, I don’t think anyone really said that it could be since it’s accuracy was still more or less unproven, or perhaps, it was proven to be too unreliable.

Over the intervening years, Wikipedia has proved to be quite reliable. If you Google along the lines of “Wikipedia accuracy compared to encyclopedias”, you get a long list of articles. I’m not going to get into a discussion of accuracy here, that really isn’t my point of this post but just so you know, I know that there is still debate around it.

So what is the point of this post? Well, I said it then and I’ll say it now… Rather than restricting our students from potential research sources, we should be taking the opportunity to teach them how to think critically or analytically about what they read (or see on TV or in movies, etc). I don’t think our children are being taught how to take what they hear, see or read and think about it to determine how valid it is.

My step-niece is in grade 11 and she was told that she couldn’t use Wikipedia as a reference for one of her papers. When the teacher was questioned as to why, she simply stated that you couldn’t be sure of it’s accuracy. I think this is a huge missed learning (or teaching) opportunity. Okay, I can buy a teacher not wanting students to use Wikipedia as their only source, but you always have to have more than one source. So, why not take this opportunity to discuss how to analyze what you’re reading? How to find out if something you read is accurate or not? How to think about what you’ve just read and determine if it fits with other things you’ve read and if it doesn’t, why might that be? As adults, aren’t we expected to do this? Don’t we have to do this in our jobs? In our daily lives?

If we start to teach our children how to think critically about things in high school, they begin to develop a skill that will set them up for success in university, career and life in general.