Thursday, April 30, 2009

Tip #273: How to Email Large Documents

Since this is a holiday week, I'm going to keep this Tip very short.

Have you ever tried to send an email attachment that is more than 10 MB and had it bounce back? Or have you ever had a client want to email you a large document, but your only option was snail mail? Frustrating, isn't it?

What if I told you that there is a website that will let you securely send email attachments as large as 100 MB- and it is free and easy to use?

Thanks to Kathy Doran of Pump Systems Matter, I have discovered http://www.CuteSendit.com.

No, I have no idea why it has a cutesy name. Quite frankly, I'm so impressed by the site's existence and capabilities, I don't even care.

However, when you do plan to send a large email attachment using the site, it would be wise for you to alert the receiver. Otherwise, when they see mail from CuteSendit, they may not realize it is a legitimate business communication!

After you create your free account at CuteSendit, the rest is a snap.

In Step 1, you simply fill in the recipient's address, write your message, attach the file, click and send.

In Step 2, the recipient receives an email message with a link to the file. This avoids email attachment limitations. The download link takes the recipient to a web page where they can download the file with their browser.

In Step 3, you are sent a confirmation email as soon as the recipient clicks the download link. This eliminates any worry that the file has not been received.

Isn't that wonderful? Thank you, Kathy, for alerting me to the site!

If you know of any other sites that provide this capability, please let us know.

Next week, we will continue our look at some very useful gadgets, strategies and resources for trainers! If you've discovered some gems, please share them and we'll use the Tips to pass the word along!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Tip #272: Three Learning Design Principle

Last week, we discussed the fact that there are apparently three different types of memory: working memory, sensory memory, and long-term memory. So, how does that affect learning design?

There are three design principles identified in Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says:

1. Recognize and address learner preconceptions.

Learners have stored prior knowledge, preconceptions, and experience about an area of study in their long-term memory. It is important to help the learners become aware of this prior knowledge. This can be done with learning activities that will cue it from long-term memory into working memory. These activities will enable the learners to correct any misconceptions, build on prior knowledge, and create new schemas of understanding abut the topic. "Learning is optimized when students can see where new concepts build on prior knowledge."

It seems to me that this relates directly to the concept of transfer, in which the learners' prior knowledge and experience transfers into the classroom. Positive transfer means that this information is useful as a base on which to build any new learning. Negative transfer means that this information can get in the way of the new learning. A good learning designer makes sure to incorporate learning activities that enable the learners to identify and build on positive transfer- and disconnect negative transfer.

For more information about learning activities that handle transfer, see Tip #3 and Tip #39.

2. Make concepts personally meaningful to learners.

In order for learners to develop useful schemas about the topic, they need to participate in learning activities that show them the topic is relevant and meaningful to them.

A long-identified adult learning principle is that learning is more likely to occur if learning is made meaningful by relating it to the learners' experience, goals, or interests and values.

This second principle differs in that it introduces the concept of "authentic learning," which is defined to include three key concepts: depth of academic concept or deep learning, relevance to person(s) outside the classroom, and student use of the key ideas in a production. [I believe production refers to an application activity.]

Learning designers need to incorporate learning activities that engage the learners both emotionally and intellectually, and then give them a chance to apply what they have learned. These activities will, therefore, draw on working memory, sensory memory, and long-term memory.

3. Develop learner metacognition.

Learners need to be taught how to think about what they are thinking. Then they will be able to approach problems by "automatically trying to predict outcomes, explaining ideas to themselves, noting and learning from failures, and activating prior knowledge."

This third principle directly relates to learning strategies that create germane cognitive load in working memory. In order to help learners form new schemas, learners need to be encouraged to provide their own explanations of work examples.

There are three ways to promote productive self-explanations: (1) train learners how to productively self-explain, (2) use faded worked examples (where they have to complete portions of the example and explain their rationale), and (3) add questions to the worked examples that will stimulate self-explanations.

This concludes our discussion of multimodal learning. Next week, we will begin a look at some very useful gadgets, strategies and resources for trainers!



Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tip #271: Three Types of Memory

I was very surprised to learn that there are actually three types of memory. According to Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says, these are: working memory, sensory memory, and long-term memory.

Working memory is where thinking gets done. It is dual coded with a buffer for storage of verbal/text elements and a second buffer for visual/spatial elements. Working memory is short-term and limited to approximately four objects that can be simultaneously stored in visual/spatial memory and approximately seven objects that can be simultaneously stored in verbal short-term memory. [Keep in mind that these 'objects' could be very large and complex schemas.]

If the person shifts attention when those buffers are full, new elements may be introduced into working memory, causing others to disappear from thought/consciousness. This is called an attention blink!

As trainers, we have known for a long time that the more senses engaged, the more likely the learning will be retained. We work to engage as many senses as possible through vivid stories or visualizations, meaningful metaphors, and participatory learning activities. Neurological research now explains that if a number of senses provide input to working memory at the same time, this convergence will have a positive effect on memory retrieval. It creates linked memories, so that triggering any aspect of the experience will bring to consciousness the entire memory, often with context.

Sensory memory occurs when we experience any aspect of the world through our senses. A sensory experience is involuntarily stored as episodic knowledge in long-term memory. We need to pay attention to sensory memory episodes for them to get introduced into working memory. Once the experience is in working memory, we can consciously hold it in memory and think about it in context.

Long-term memory in humans is estimated to store the equivalent of 50,000 times the text in the U.S. Library of Congress. The brain has two types of long-term memory, episodic and semantic:

Episodic memory comes directly from sensory input and is involuntary.

Semantic memory stores the thinking accomplished in working memory, such as ideas, thoughts, schema, and processes. The processing in working memory automatically triggers storage in long-term memory.

How the brain works has direct implications for effective training design.

Next week, we will conclude our discussion of multimodal learning with a look at three key principles that should be considered when designing learning.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Tip #270: Avoid Too Many Inputs

Last week, we learned that multimodal approaches help students to retain what they learn. However, the use of multimodal approaches needs to be managed and kept in check, because new scientific studies reveal that multitasking results in losses in efficiency.

According to Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says: ...Thinking processes happen serially, resulting in delays caused by switching from one task to another. The delays become more pronounced as the complexity of the task increases.

Even though we are capable of simultaneously processing a wide variety of inputs, we can really only focus on one thing at a time. Thinking, decision making, and cueing of long-term memories invoke and require the central cognitive processor, which only works serially. This executive cognitive control slows down thinking and makes multitasking inefficient.

That's probably enough input for this week!

Next week, we will continue our discussion about multimodal learning by looking at the thinking process.