U-Blog 6

I am finding that I am learning more and more about training development as this course progresses. We have come a long way in this course and with only 3 weeks or so left, its time to reflect on some of what I have taken in throughout the semester. All of the assigned readings have correlated directly with what this course is designed to teach, Coorporate Training and Development.

In my opinion, one of the most important assignments/requirements of this class was the training session. All of the preperation leading up to this assignment gave the class hands-on experience when it comes to preparing a training session. The actual delivery of our training session was also a very important requirement of this class. It gave us first hand experience in delivering a training session to a group of students.

All in all, this class has highly benefited me and I look forward to applying what I have learning in this course in the outside world.

U-Blog 5

On Monday (March 23), our team conducted our training session in the computer lab of Heritage at Lowman Home. Our session was on the basics of OpenOffice.org Writer. The students attending were very cooperative and interested in what we had to present. The idea of our presentation of the information was more of a hands-on approach. In order to teach the basics of a word processor, we found it would be easier for them to learn through practice. We took these steps in presenting our material to the class:

1.) We had the class locate and open OpenOffice.org Writer on their desktop/Start menus.
2.) We had the students compile a basic document on their knowledge of computers. This ended up being about 2 or 3 sentences per person.
3.) We then taught the students how to Save their file in the 'My Documents' folder and give their document a unique name.
4.) The last step in this training session was to teach the students how to locate their document and open it back up for further editing.

All in all, our session went very smooth. The students were very cooperative and eager to learn. Although I enjoyed presenting our training session, I am happy to get it over with so I can focus more on the rest of my assignments.

U-Blog 4

Last week I attended a training session at the Heritage at Lowman Home (Wednesday, February 25th). The training session dealed with the basics of emailing. The instructors handed out packets to each student and their first assignment was to create an email account. After this task was completed, they were required to send an email to another person in the class. Once that email was received, the students would then reply with another email that contained an attachment.

Some of the things I noticed during this training session was the fact that the older generation are all very eager to learn how to operate smoothly on a computer and use it to their advantage, yet some had the inability to 'get it', if you will. All in all, I left with a dissapointing feeling that the elder generation were not able to learn these basic ideas while there are elementary aged kids who are able to setting up MySpace accounts, downloading music, playing games online, etc. This goes to show you the difference that generations make.

My team will be putting on a training session at the Heritage at Lowman Home as well. Our session will include the basics of OpenOffice.org Writer. I found an interesting site which depicts what Microsoft Office is able to do that OpenOffice.org cannot, and vice versa. This page can be found at http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/page4765.cfm. Who would have thought that this free software had as many perks as it does?

U-Blog 3

http://www.learning-theories.com/

This article deals with learning theories which help address how people learn. I found that the different theories illustrated on this web site were very interesting. I think that different learning theories are what make us different as people, and that is very intriguing. After taking an online survey regarding my learning style, the results confirmed much of what I already knew about myself. As far as learning goes, I prefer illustrations and visual aids rather than reading boring material over and over again. Although most instructors already do this, I believe that it should be required to give lectures with a PowerPoint presentation. By doing this, you are touching all levels of learners. Those who learn better through hearing, seeing, and reading.

This week was pretty hectic for me, I started working again and it was rough getting back into that swing of things. It always takes me a while to balance school and work and use it to my advantage. I am beginning to keep up with these assignments better. Our group will need to be meeting up soon to further discuss our workshop topics and assignments.

U-Blog 2

What a week! This past week has been crazy for me. I have dealt with some serious computer issues and it has been very difficult to stay up to date with this class. I am starting to learn very quickly the need to check Blackboard as frequent as possible. Over the week we were assigned group members and appointed a group leader. In the group discussion board on BB, we went over several topics for our training assignment. The top 3 that we decided upon were: 1) Web Browsing, 2) Email setup, and 3) Internet scam aviodance. I believe all three of these topics are important when it comes to training. I look forward to the opportunity to train individuals on each of these topics, as all of them are highly important in today's society.

U-Blog 1

After a busy first couple of weeks and getting back into the swing of classes, I am ready to take time to sit back and reflect on the things I have learned thus far in TSTM J444. I am adapting suprisingly well to taking an online class and, for the most part, I am enjoying it. The ability to manage my time around our assignments is really helpful. Taking a class online can free up alot of time and I have been able to get other things done during the time I would be spending in class.

So far, the textbook reading assignments have been okay. It has always been difficult for me to sit down and read from a textbook, but I enjoyed reading the Voices from the Field section with Mike Barger. On the contrast, the online readings were much more entertaining. I especially enjoyed the 'JetBlue - Flying High With Service' article which described JetBlue U, the company's training program. It is becoming more and more evident to me that the need for corporate training will continue to remain high. It is very important that I grasp an understanding of these training techniques and remain technologically savvy.

Workplace Learning

One of the most popular workplace training trends comes from the benefits of the technologies we can access in today's world. More and more companies are moving from traditional learning inside of a classroom to online training programs. This e-learning experience provides people with the ability to take classes or view lessons over the internet on their own time and convenience. This type of learning continues to grow almost as rapidly as the technologies do. By companies allowing their future/current employees to complete training online, you provide them with the responsibility to learn the material on their own time. This process ultimately helps them gain the knowledge better and helps to weed out those who are not responsible of doing work on their own. All in all, these learning trends are required for companies to maintain a competitive edge in America's workforce.

For articles and more information on trends in workplace learning, check out my bookmarks on my Delicious account.
http://delicious.com/ligonm