This article was published in CAUSE/EFFECT journal, Volume 22 Number 2 1999. Copyright EDUCAUSE. See http://www.educause.edu/copyright for additional copyright information.
Recommended Reading
Creating Training Miracles
by Alastair Rylatt and Kevin Lohan
(Jossey-Bass Publishers, Inc., 1997,
$44.95, 368 pages)
ISBN 0-7879-0992-0
Reviewed by Vicki Bundrick HarrisMost managers don�t expect miracles, and rarely do they expect to create them in training situations. Rylatt and Lohan offer strategies and techniques to help workplace trainers create a positive and effective learning environment. Special attention is given to the unique blend of technology advances and understanding human behavior.
Creating Training Miracles is an excellent resource for managers who want to understand training theories and trends; moreover, the authors suggest effective ways to use role-playing, case studies, icebreakers, and energizers. There is a helpful chapter on competencies--an important concept in higher education due to increased demand for distance learning opportunities supported by technological advances. This book includes a valuable section on neurolinguistic programming, often referred to in higher ed as learning styles. Focus remains on respect for the individual learner and encouraging learners to accept responsibility for learning as a continuous improvement process.
According to the authors, training miracles happen when trainers help learners develop accountability for their own professional development. To motivate the learner to do so, the authors stress positive expectations and attitude--in other words, a spirit of suspending personal judgment by the trainer in order to increase risk-taking by the learner. When trainers suspend judgment, learners are more likely to feel safe enough to accept responsibility for self-directed learning. Creating training miracles calls for a sincere valuing of individuals coupled with helping learners accept responsibility for self-directed learning.
The authors provide useful tips on celebrating training champions, best practices, and just-in-time learning. Trainers who understand the importance of setting and clarifying expectations throughout training --and making appropriate adjustments based on learner response--are more likely to create training miracles. Additionally, the authors provide guidance on �anchoring,� or helping learners make connections between previous knowledge and new knowledge, to improve retention and recall.
In Creating Training Miracles, Rylatt and Lohan contend that respect for individuals can help workplace trainers create training miracles. Having been responsible for providing training during administrative software implementations, I recommend this book for managers who want to help learners develop ownership and accountability. For managers who provide end-user training and for those involved with �train-the-trainer� projects, the authors� suggestions are useful in practice and thought-provoking for developing one�s own training philosophy.
Reviewer Vicki Bundrick Harris ([email protected]) is an account consultant with SCT Education Systems and former registrar at Collin County Community College District in Plano, Texas.
Always in Touch A Practical Guide to Ubiquitous Computing
by David G. Brown
(Wake Forest International Center for Computer Enhanced Learning,
1998, $12.00, 71 pages)
ISBN: 0-9644070-2-7
http://iccel.wfu.edu/publications/books/books.htm
Reviewed by Carole A. BaroneThis read was a refreshing surprise. When I picked up this book, I did not have high expectations. I wondered what new could be written about computing in higher education. In format, style, approach, and conceptualization of the topic, this tidy book of 71 pages is unique. The chapters are succinct. Each is just a few pages long but packed with practical insights and lots of good and realistic sense.
Early on Brown tells us, �The revolution is about connectedness�with a focus on communication, connection, and community.� He then proceeds to build his argument around these values and to set forth a strategy to attain a state of ubiquitous computing on our campuses.
Brown communicates emphatically the message that information technology is indeed transforming teaching and learning. However, he takes the techno-jargon of which many of us are so fond and reformulates it into language and concepts that are understandable by, acceptable to, and compatible with the mainstream academic community. Readers are not threatened by the message when it is delivered in this way. Likewise, this is a lovely little primer for technologists who have been admonished to learn how to communicate but who have had few useful examples of how to translate their worldview into something that appears hospitable to other members of the academic community.
This is a book for provosts, deans, department chairs, faculty, and technologists alike. I find myself often recommending it to groups with which I interact. It helps each of us to gain the necessary perspective to be successful in our shared mission of improving teaching and learning.
Finally, the thinking, learning, and reconceptualizing need not end with this publication because Brown proposes to use the Web to continue the dialogue. He invites us to post comments to a Web site, and he is committed to organizing and circulating comments to this community of readers and thinkers quarterly. Each of us, then, is invited to become an active learner and to develop and extend the thinking in this little book with our experience in applying it.
Reviewer Carole A. Barone ([email protected]) is a vice president of EDUCAUSE, where her responsibilities include a focus on the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII).