Thoughts On Learning

February 22, 2012

Cache it if You Can

A few weeks ago I posted about how we “outsource control of behavior to the environment.” This made me think about the concept “distributed cognition.” Distributed cognition proposes that knowledge is not confined to an individual, but rather is distributed throughout an environment. That is, we use external sources including other people, materials, and other tools and supports within the environment to help us in critical thinking and decision-making.

Distributed cognition always plays into my instructional design thinking. What and who do learners have at hand to support their thinking, ergo support their performance?

Recently, I heard the term “transactive memory” which proposes that groups of people collectively encode, store, and retrieve knowledge. This term is meant to explain the processes behind “hive mind” or “group think.” It’s not really a new idea either, but to me it seemed like another phrasing of distributed cognition.

A lot has been made that we are losing our memorization capabilities due to the easy and immediate access to information. My colleague Matt wrote about “second screens”; I find myself looking up information ever more frequently on my smart phone as I watch TV, read a book, listen to music, or take a walk outdoors. What is that flower, or tree, or snake!?
Continue reading →

February 15, 2012

Lights, Camera, WOOF!

VCA Animal Hospitals (NASDAQ:WOOF) operates over 580 small animal hospitals in 41 states and Canada, staffed with 2,600 fully qualified, dedicated, and compassionate doctors. VCA partnered with Enspire to create an 11 hour blended curriculum focused on doctor communication skills, of which high quality video is an important piece. The large video shoot supporting the program took place recently in Austin, and while days were long it was a resounding success. Here’s how your shoot can succeed, too. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012

Friday Spotlight > Radeon HD 7900 Launch

Enspire’s media arm Houndstooth worked with RAPP and Element X Creative to produce this video. RAPP was responsible for the creative, Element X did the animation and Houndstooth handled 3d modeling of the card, music composition, sound design and mix.

<br />

January 13, 2012

Friday Spotlight > Meth: Two Sides of the Story

Enspire’s media and experience arm, Houndstooth, worked with Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing to develop this cautionary tale on methamphetamine use in Texas.

<br />

January 11, 2012

Change Your Environment to Change Your Behavior

NPR Morning Edition aired a fascinating piece last week: “What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits.” The context of the story was New Year’s resolutions and why breaking bad habits or even starting good habits is so hard to do.

The question: “What does science know about translating our resolve into actual changes in behavior?” The answer: “People, when they perform a behavior a lot, outsource the control of the behavior to the environment.”

For Vietnam veterans treated for heroin addiction, only 5% relapsed during their first year returning home from Vietnam. The serviceman beat an extremely addictive habit by treating the physical addiction and by undergoing a radical change in their environment.

In other words, our mind automatically engages behaviors based on familiar environmental cues and patterns.
Continue reading →

December 21, 2011

The Well-Chosen Gift: Designing E-Learning with the Audience in Mind

At Enspire Learning, we pride ourselves on creating learning experiences that directly impact a specific target audience, designated by each valued client. So when we design those experiences, we take a great deal of care to investigate and understand who those end-users are.

As a timely metaphor, our best learning products are like well-wrapped presents, carefully chosen for each recipient. This holiday season, we’ve created a handy shopping list of the important questions we ask ourselves when considering what “gift” to give our clients and end-users.

1. What’s the occasion?

Gifts are rarely given without cause – they are usually intended for a recipient who is celebrating an occasion: birthday, shower, Kwanzaa, retirement, etc. You pick a gift to commemorate an important occasion.

When designing e-learning, we must have a deep understanding of the learning occasion – is it on-boarding for new hires? Does the company want its employees to better understand its security policies? Is there a need for management training? Start generally and whittle the need down until it’s a precise problem to be solved. For instance, if a client specifies a need for a new-hire orientation, investigate further to understand why the product is needed now. Maybe there’s been evidence that recent hires don’t fully understand their benefit packages. Maybe a certain group at the company plans to bring on a large number of new employees and wants uniformity in their on-boarding experience. Understand the occasion and you can better understand your intended recipient.
Continue reading →

December 16, 2011

Friday Spotlight > Coats for Kids

Austin’s Coats for Kids effort is the second largest effort of its kind in the country. This was the 25th year for the drive, an annual community project that this year put 30,000 coats in the hands of eligible kids. Enspire donated laptop computers for use at donation centers and Enspire VP of Business Development (below left) ran the distribution site at Del Valle Elementary School.

December 14, 2011

Second Screen Apps Aren’t Just for Television

After reading a recent Wired article about applications aimed at users’ secondary attention, I started thinking about new ways to use mobile devices for learning: second screen apps. Second screen apps are mobile apps that are typically used to complement television viewing. Why couldn’t they be used to complement learning events, too? Couldn’t a second screen be useful during instructor-led classes, live virtual classes, and asynchronous e-learning courses?

The use of a second screen during instructor-led training may be the easiest to imagine. A smartphone or tablet could be used to obtain complimentary content, connect to an instructor, or interact with other learners. A class at the University of Texas at Dallas uses Twitter to promote class discussion. Similarly, many conferences have adopted the use of back channels to enhance audience members’ experience. In 2008, I was in the room (and oblivious to the back channel) when the audience turned on Mark Zuckerberg’s interviewer using a Twitter back channel. A few things are gained from these experiences:

The voices of many audience members are heard, not just a handful of outspoken participants.
The instructor/speaker gets live feedback from the audience.
The content can be modified based on the live feedback.
An online archive of the discussion is available both for attendees and those who could not attend.

Continue reading →

December 9, 2011

Friday Spotlight > Holidays at 1708

December is our busiest time of year, but decorations are popping up all over the building, and Houndstooth designers are hard at work on the Enspire/HT 2011 holiday card. This year’s card will use stop motion, traditional, and computer animation to “bring two competitive penguin neighbors to life,” says HT’s David Crumley. “We like to use the card as a place to push boundaries and have fun. We do that in our day to day work obviously, but the card is like our end of year reward where the sky’s the limit.”

Here are some views of work on the card, and our offices. May all your holidays be bright, too.