Emerging Technologies and Employee Training Programs

LETTP - Spring 2015Amber Bowman and Donna Fain

What are Emerging Technologies?

According to George Veletsianos (2010) in Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, he notes “emerging technologies are tools, concepts, innovations, and advancements utilized in diverse educational settings to serve varied education-related purpose” (p. 17).

enGauge 21st Century Skills

In order for learners to be successfuly in the workplace learning environment, the following four 21st Century Skills are critical:

Digital Age Literacy Inventive Thinking - Intellectual Capital Effective Communication - Social and Personal

Skills Quality, State-of-the-Art Results

Approach to the learners....

• Understanding learners have pre-conceived knowledge and being able to engage learners from the point of departure where their understanding begins.

• Provide in-depth factual knowledge on subject matter and various perspectives in examining subject being taught.

• Teach students metacognition skills - help students understand their own thinking process to enhance learning.

• Classroom environment must be student-centered. Also, have knowledge-centered classrooms where “attention must be given to what is taught (information, subject matter), why it is taught (understanding), and what competence or mastery looks like” (Bransford, 2000, p. 24)

• Ongoing assessments to help both the teacher and student understand where the students’ learning process is at and how to pace the instruction moving forward.

• Building a learning environment that is conducive for students to feel comfortable revealing their learning process.

Learning Environment and Universal Design

Rose & Meyers (2002) summarize in the following

statement “by developing and applying UDL, we can minimize barriers and realize the promise each student brings to school. The task for educators is to understand how students learn and use the technology available in this digital age to provide selected supports where they are needed and position the challenge appropriately for each learner” (np).

Optional Learning Environments for Workplace Training:

• Corporate training location

• On-site field location

• Immersive/Virtual learning environments i.e. Second Life

• Web-based, asynchronous training modules on LM platforms, video instruction, company training websites; and social media sites i.e. facebook.

Immersive/Virtual Learning Environments:

Immersive and virtual environments hold great promise in providing students opportunities to enhance their learning through simulating real world problems in virtual setting.

Additional information on types of learning environments/modalities:

Video and MemoryShort term memory: Where most of the thinking is done. It connects what we already know to what we are learning.

Long term Memory: Where everything we know and know how to do is stored. In long term memory there is 3 ways that things are stored. •Declarative: First is Declarative. This means for a person to complete a sentence, knowledge is needed prior to that. •Procedural: On the opposite side of that there is the procedural which is the act of already knowing how to do things. These two functions together make up majority of our long term memory. •Episodic: The last part is the episodic or also known as anecdotal which highlights singular events in one’s memory. For me I find that most training I have experienced has connected with short term memory events and used the understanding of long term memory to relate connections to the long term memory.

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Video and Training• Video: According to a summary of

current research and educator surveys, educational television and video:

• Reinforces reading and lecture material

• Aids in the development of a common base of knowledge among students

• Enhances student comprehension and discussion

• Provides greater accommodation of diverse learning styles

• Increases student motivation and enthusiasm

• Promotes teacher effectiveness (CPB, 2004)

Instructional videos• Use video to add to your

instruction to connect to the different type of learners

• Motivates learners by 75%• Video messages using mobile

devices, will connect to your learner no matter where they are and will also readily available ( For Business, because of legal complications video would have to protected by password to be able to obtain the video)

• Social Video Apps/Sites to use:– You Tube– TED– Vimeo

Social Media

• Social Media defined: According to the Webster dictionary :  forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)”

Social Media and Training•Twitter •Youtube•Facebook•Linkedin•Pinterest•Flickr•Blogging•Instagram•Skype•Vimeo

Conclusion:

The use of emerging technologies such as immersive and virtual training environments and web-based video trainings would meet our learner and companies needs. These technologies could provide effective, cost-saving, convenient and engaging workplace trainings.

Reference:• Bransford, J., National Research Council (U.S.)., & National Research Council (U.S.). (2000). 

How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.

• Cruse, E. (n.d.). Using Educational Video in the Classroom: Theory, Research and Practice. Retrieved from http://www.libraryvideo.com/articles/article26.asp

• Dede, C. (2012, May 7-8). Interweaving Assessments Into Immersive Authentic Simulations: Design Strategies for Diagnostic and Instructional Insights. Paper presented at Invitational Research Symposium on Technology Enhanced Assessments. K-12 Center at ETS. Harvard School of Education. Retrieved from website: http://www.k12center.org/rsc/pdf/session4-dede-paper-tea2012.pdf

• Emerging Technology Librarian. (nd). Image: Retrieved from: http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Emerging_technology_librarian

• Hanover Research. (2011). A Crosswalk of 21st Century Skills. Retrieved from: http://www.hanoverresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/A-Crosswalk-of-21st-Century-Skills-Membership.pdf.

• Information processing. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Information_processing

• Red and Associates. (nd). Image: Retrieved from: http://www.redandassociates.com/blog/tag/orientation-programs/

• Veletsianos, George. (2010). Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, Athabasca University Press. Retrieved at March 6, 2012, from the website temoa : Open Educational Resources (OER) Portal at http://www.temoa.info/node/102367