4.25.2009

Width, eLearning, ID, Sentences, Science, & the 8-Hour Workday

Beads

The Long and the Short of Learning - Peter Orton, David Beymer, and Daniel Russell

Subjects reading the narrow paragraphs had better retention than those reading the wide paragraphs. After reading the material, subjects were given a surprise multiple-choice test on the material. On average, subjects reading the wide paragraphs answered 43 percent of the questions correctly, while those reading the narrow paragraphs answered 58 percent correctly. Narrow-width paragraph readers spent less time reading but had greater retention, so the additional time required by the wide-width paragraph readers was devoted not to reading and processing the material, but rather to reorienting their eyes.

To Successfully Implement E-learning, Forget What You Know About Change - Tom Werner

Forget those old ideas about change that never worked that well anyway, such as:
  • seeing senior management as the customer and seeking management support as the driver for initiatives.
  • treating the four levels of evaluation as being of equal importance.
  • using roll-outs as the vehicle for implementation.
  • relying on accountability to motivate people to accept change.
  • planning large-scale, blanket change efforts.
  • thinking of change agents as lone individuals.
  • using kick-offs as a way to create excitement.
  • taking years to implement change.
  • letting "overcoming: be our natural response to resistance.

Instead, we need to:

  • build the business case for e-learning.
  • document business results (Level 4) as the way to evaluate e-learning.
  • create "pull" by making e-learning easy to adopt.
  • have real dialogue with people about their business and learning needs.
  • build a change agency by building a coalition among likely clients and colleagues.
  • communicate frequently and specifically to inform and educate about e-learning.
  • move fast and get quick wins with e-learning.
  • talk openly about resistance, and the reasons behind it instead of trying to conquer it.

When the Rubber Hits the Road - Ellen Wagner in eLearning Roadtrip

ID represent the essential core of what makes our work unique when compared, say, to the work of a graphic artist or a web designer or an LMS administrator or a content author, or a technical writer or a research analyst.

How Does the Brain Form Sentences? - Scientific American

The procedural memory system is responsible for putting grammatical sentences together. The findings also shed light on our understanding of procedural memory itself, which was thought to be restricted to specific experiences and motor skills. This study shows it is also able to support abstract knowledge, making it more powerful than previously thought.

A Really Dangerous Book - Forbes

By showing people that science can be dangerous, Gray aims to put some of the pizazz back into the profession.

"People in science do exciting and dangerous things," Gray says. "That's what our message to kids should be: If you want to do exciting and dangerous things, go into science."

Biological Basis For The 8-hour Workday? - Science Daily

We have less of a handle on the 8-hour rhythms than the 12-hour rythm, but the fact that we can see them reliably means there is the possibility that there could be a biological basis to an 8-hour cycle.

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