Eight Tricks to Stay Focused During online Training

After I have done my CBT/RP assessment, I have committed to develop a WSQ curriculum. I realized my mind get distracted often whenever I sit infront of my computer. Coincidently, I came across this article which very useful in my case even though it is meant for those online learners.

Here are the eight tricks to practice to be focused during online training:

   1.   Schedule it: Depending on how long your online course is, schedule it into your calendar and set a reminder. Making time for it, instead of just finding the time, will help you actually complete the work. Adjust your day accordingly to fit around your training course.

   2.   Time it: Choose to take the course during your lightest time of the day and when you are most ready to work. Typically the first two hours after lunch or when you first arrive at work are good times. 

3.   Close your door: Don’t be afraid to close your door and post a ‘do not disturb’ sign. Keeping your door closed will deter people from walking into your office and distracting you. 

4.   Log off: Log off your email and any other websites that are distracting, including your company's internal instant message application. Log off and stay off until your course is complete. 

5.   Turn off notifications: Turn your phone ringer off on both your cell phone and work phone until you complete your course. You can even turn off your email notifications to help you remain on task.

6.   Just say no: If you are in the position to do so, just say no. There are times when it is okay just to say ‘no, thank you’ at work. If someone comes to you for help or a question, it is okay to ask them to come back at a later time or to seek help elsewhere.

7.   Sit up straight: Not only is sitting up with both feet on the floor and your shoulders back good for your posture but it's also great for your ability to focus. Getting your body ready can help you stay focused on your course.

8.   Allow for a break: Some courses take a long time to complete and you may want to schedule a break in the middle. Allow yourself to get up for a cup of coffee or take a restroom break. Five minutes should help, then it’s back to the course! 

Yes, I am practicing it and being focused.

Reflective Practices

Reflections can be formal or informal. A less formal approach could simply reflecting back on an event and considering the various activities carried during the event. We all do it unknowingly most of the time. Doing it deliberately make improvement is something great for every professional adult educator.  In DACE program we learn it theoretically and we starts practicing it with efforts to improve us.

What is Reflection?

Most of us would probably think of ‘what we see when we look in a mirror’ as the answer to this question.

The Oxford Dictionary does indeed have a definition very similar to that, but also includes

‘serious thought or consideration’ (OUP 2009)

This suggests something which is more than what we see or think about on the surface, and we believe that deeper, more thoughtful reflection is the key to Reflective Practice. We are not suggesting that there is one type of reflection which is the only one which works.

This set of resources intends to help you come to your own conclusions which approaches may suit you best.

Use the approaches and ideas which help you, your teaching and your students the most.

There are various approaches and methods of reflective practice to adopt. I come across this article which I found worth reading to find more about reflection.

http://reflectivepractice-cpd.wikispaces.com/Definitions

Reflection will be based on the following four approaches:

1. Our autobiographies as A E and Learners
2. The Learner’s Perspective
3. The Peer’s Experiences
4. The Theoretical Literature

Individual autobiographies as Adult Educator and Learners

Every trainer performance reflects deeply embedded influences from their past experience. Practices question our self who was our favorite teacher during my school days. Will try to relate own experiences of fear joy during lessons and feel the same to see learners from their angle. This will help to identify our strength and weakness to capture learners and create an impression on them.

The Learner’s Perspective

This approach of reflection is seeing things through learner’s eyes. Learners are influence by not only the lessons covered but many things such as trainer’s honesty, commitments, personnel touch, rapport and relationship also. 

Adult Educators must learn how to identify different body languages and able to interpret them. Should ask questions like “what would it if I am one of them?” I learned to think as I am in their shoes from.

The Peer’s Experiences

This approach helps o see through a colleague’s eyes. In this way will be able to identify one’s blind spots which left unattended.

The Theoretical Literature

This form of reflection refers to the importance of critically reading theoretical literature. It is necessary to have sound knowledge of things what we do. Having a strong theoretical knowledge may trigger to see old and known thing in a different angle. It initiates good conversation and trigger critical thinking.

To find out more on using these four lenses, please see this link below;

http://sydney.edu.au/arts/teaching_learning/academic_support/four_lenses_index.shtml

Image courtesy: http://joeypauley.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CollaborationReflective-Practice.jpg

Competency Based Training approaches

Today in CBT module of DACE we had a perfect facilitation session with Mr Rhonny.  As I have never worked with civil agencies, I have not experience in WSQ frame work. How ever participating in various learning activities with my classmates who have a lot of experience with WSQ helped me to understand basics of WSQ system.

WSQ is a powerful business tool for employers to recruit and maintain a skilled workforce, thus enhancing their competitive edge and advancing their businesses. WSQ can benefit employers in the following ways:

• Benchmark best practices
• Guide development of job descriptions
• Improve performance management systems and training programmes
• Establish employees' career paths
• Guide training needs analysis
• Facilitate recruitment of competent staff equipped with required occupational and industry capabilities
• Strengthen in-house training capabilities

There are 33 Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) frameworks. Each framework is recognised by the respective industry

For each framework, an Industry Skills and Training Council drives the development and validation of skills standards, assessment strategies and training curriculum for the industry

Each council comprises key industry partners, including employers, industry associations, training organisations and unions.

Revisiting the WSQ frame work and recalling ACTA CU1 was really helpful. It helped in various activities to apply one of three Training pathways Facilitated Classroom Learning(FL), On Job Training(OJT) and E-Learning(EL). We also recalled on six level and seven qualifications in WSQ system.

Mr Rhonny brought in activities to understand National Training System (NTS) by comparing it against other countries such as Germany, UK and Australia.

In overall, I enjoyed and learned a lot today.

Source:http://www.wda.gov.sg/content/wdawebsite/L102-ForEmployers/L208-WSQforEmployers.html

12. How Games help in classroom facilitation

In DACE CU3 ID (Apply Instructional Design to create Courseware), our facilitators Darren was sharing with us on the assessment criteria of this module. According to him, I must include two of the following learning activity in the courseware we create:

·         Case Study

·         Game

·         Role play

This really made me think of how I am going to make difference in my classroom lectures. At this point I am doing a simple teacher centered presentation and my naval trainees are keep sitting and listen to me (no other choice). After spending some time researching on how learners learns moving away from classroom, I found the games are a powerful tool I must use to engage my young naval trainees in their learning. Let me explain why I should use games in my facilitation. Games follow several learning principles that make them better instruments for learning than the traditional classroom structure Games helps students to learn something that traditional education cannot provide

Games Provide Feedback and Adapt to the Learner
Another learning principle is that each student is different and, therefore, will have a different style of learning. Games allow players to customize their difficulty level or style of play. Students in the traditional classroom may feel material is too hard or too easy, and they cannot try on different learning styles or use another problem solving method without the risk of failing or receiving a bad grade.  Games make it less risky and pleasantly frustrating to fail. Players know the game is possible to beat with enough practice, and “good games adjust challenges and give feedback in such a way that different players feel the game is challenging but doable and that their effort is paying off.

Many games also allow players to win or play in multiple ways, allowing the player to take on challenges with a method that suits their strengths or try a new problem solving approach.

Games Utilize Situated Meanings

Traditional classrooms tend to focus heavily on facts, definitions and isolated events. Whereas Games act as learning scaffolds, delivering information to the player just in time when they need to use it. Game designers are constantly considering what the player needs to know for their next challenge; this helps break up content so that facts are learned as a side effect from simply participating in these challenges. Games encourages the player to experiment concepts while providing guidance and information whenever the player needs it.

Games Create Meaningful Experiences 

As players explore their game world, they also create memorable, rich experiences which can be used to retrieve and reflect upon knowledge. They are basically learning by doing, and this is also known as situated learning where people learn through active experiences and critical interpretation of their experiences via personal reflection and interpersonal discussion. Traditional classroom lectures rarely create these meaningful experiences without interactive or hands-on activities. 

Games Make Learning Socially Relevant 

Games are able to make learning socially relevant. As concepts become more difficult in school, “students no longer see science as connected to the real world and lose interest in the subject” (Honey and Hilton 2010). By participating in an immersive environment or storyline and taking on the role of a scientist or mathematician, players can watch how their knowledge applies in these realistic simulations.  Games often challenge players to take on the roles of professionals, allowing players to problem solve with a new frame of reference.

Games Encourage Interactive Learning

First of all, good learning allows the student to be a producer rather than a passive consumer of his own learning. A typical classroom has a teacher that gives a lecture while the student passively listens and takes notes without context or application. However, games are interactive; that is, “when the player does something, the game does something back that encourages the player to act again”. Their actions shape the game world around them, causing the player to reflect on their decisions and form hypotheses. Therefore, whereas traditional blackboard learning sees the learner as a passive recipient of knowledge, game-based learning allows…students to become an active member of their education.

World Café

On the last day of our FAL module, I have learned a new facilitation tool which I have never experienced. It was World Café developed by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs in1995. Ms Constance lee explained us how it works and what to prepare for world café.

The World Cafe offers practical tips for hosting "conversations that matter" in groups of any size- strengthening both personal relationships and people's capacity to shape the future together.

It introduces readers to a simple, yet powerful conversational process for thinking together and creating actionable knowledge that has been used successfully with organizations and communities. Clearly articulates seven key World Café design principles that create the conditions for accessing collective intelligence and breakthrough thinking

The World Cafe is a flexible, easy-to-use process for fostering collaborative dialogue, sharing mutual knowledge, and discovering new opportunities for action. Based on living systems thinking, this innovative approach creates dynamic networks of conversation that can catalyze an organization or community's own collective intelligence around its most important questions.

Filled with stories of actual Cafe dialogues in business, education, government, and community organizations across the globe, this uniquely crafted book demonstrates how the World Cafe can be adapted to any setting or culture.

Facilitation: An art to promote learning

My 2^nd facilitation session was an inspiring session for me to develop me further from “presenter” to a “facilitator”

I chose another segment of my topic which I managed engage participants effectively. From the previous session experience and feedback  I was aware about importance of using flip chart to cover the assessment criteria.

What I experienced in the session is the power of facilitation to send the message across. Usually my workplace environment doesn't demand such a wonderful tool during lessons. However I am now inspired to integrate facilitation wherever possible and move away from presentation or teaching.

Power of storytelling: I have shared my real life story of a ship sinking and a submarine explosion. While applying transformational learning theory, storytelling play and important role 

Use of flipchart and powerpoint slide in facilitation

I was volunteered myself to do my first facilitation record on the day 1 of our C6 FAL on 3 August 2013 of our DACE. I was prepared for it even though it was too early and before I could  pick some effective skill  from Mrs Constance Lee.

I did a 15 minutes session in 17 min which was not bad in my presentation/facilitation skill. I have prepared Power point slides, flip chart and some life jackets for my leaners to have an experience. Unfortunately at the end of my 17 min facilitation, I was shocked to realize that I did not use my flip chart which was prepared to display.

I had a shock to discover from the learner’s guide and lecturer  that Adult Educators must use flipchart and powerpoint slides in facilitating adult learning. Is it really important to use both Flipchart and Powerpoint Slides in facilitating adult learning ?

As per assessment criteria we were given the impression that we would be graded ‘NYC’ (No Yet Competent) if we failed to use both of these training aids in facilitating adult learning.

I saw a lot of discussion on this matter on Facebook. The discussion revolved around the ‘seemingly mandatory’ requirements against the backdrop of increasingly complexity of current level of technology, changing demographic profile of the learners, learners’ expectations as well as learning styles.

Should I conclude my previous training session with navy is failures as per this new set of adult Learning concept?   I had never used flipchart and power point slides in experiential activities in my outdoor training sessions, especially boat work or deck work.  

Does it mean that I was not effective in facilitating adult learning then ? I agree that I could had been increasingly effective using flipchart when I conducted outdoor activities for adult learners.  In my view, it would be technically feasible to bring along a flipchart for outdoor experiential activities though it would require additional resources and time.

I think I would be asking myself two questions if I had to conduct outdoor experiential learning activities in future: could I and would I bring along flipchart and powerpoint slides ?, what other tools would help me facilitate adult learning as equally well as flipchart and powerpoint slides ?

I am determined to use flip chart as well as powerpoint slides in my second session which I should restrict in to 13 minutes .

Incorporate Kolb's Experiential Learning theory with Gagne's 9 events

I was conducting lectures and practical training sessions all the way since last few years. Unknowingly I have done some sort of experiential learning in my sessions. However applying various learning theories deliberately was not something familiar to me. I am going to try Gagne’s 9 events model incorporate with Kolbs Experiential Learning in my next FAL module. 

As per lesson learned from Dr Yin is while applying EL in training session, must do 3 events first ie; Gaining attention, Inform learning Outcome and Recapping prior learning before EL cycle: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation and Active Experimentation.

Towards consolidation, consider events 8 and 9 ie; Assess learning and Enhance Retention.

I would consider this change in my mind as an important milestone in my learning and training journey.

Day 4 (AL)

Collecting Data

Every learner is unique with his or her strength and weakness. Identifying strength and weakness can be done through three common techniques.

1. Questioning

2. Survey

3. Observation

We have practiced it through Samuels’s example characters.

In the second chapter we practices a peer coaching skill. We were grouped into 4 and tasked to prepare for a peer teaching invarious hindrance in adult learning. My group tasked to share “Age” as an important factor in  learning.

I have been doing peer coaching in various classes in my workplace. However I realized the pitfalls of my way of doing after this fruitful day with Dr Yin learning a systematic way of doing it.

Day 3 (AL)

I am trying to spent more time reading some of the notes in LG ( Reflective Practice and adult Learning) in the last two weeks trying to understand more. I believe it will help to improve my reading habit and comprehend some part of the content.

Moving towards 2^nd module of DACE I realize there is a big difference in this diploma program from other course I did in the past few years. Here I have to pick up and progress my reflection on what I have done and re-reflect on what I have reflected. Here my mind is compelled to think and be creative to keep up with many high caliber course mates. I would call it as creative stress in my learning journey.  I would like to highlight the decision to join in the learning journey was a critical incident in my lifelong learning.

On 20^th July 1^st day of AL I have experienced a meaningful day with new information to me. Let me jote down some of them below:

 Knowle’s comparison between Andragogy and Pedagogy

According to Knowles Pedagogy focuses on the child as a learner. Whereas Andragogy is “art and science of helping adults to learn”

It was very interesting to learn this comparison through MORSE. Learning depends on the following characteristics of learner:

Motivation

Orientation to learn

Readiness to learning

Self-concept

Experience

Three Dimension of Learning Model (TDLM)

It provides a useful perspective on how the three dimensions interact to produce effective learning in the individual:

·   Cognitive: which involves giving meaning to facts, events and experiences

·  Sociality: where learning is a social interactional process between individual and surroundings

·  Emotion: Learning is an emotional or psychological statesas per one’s feelings, emotions, attitudes and motivation

Adult Learning Theories and approaches for adult Learning

Dr Yin greeted and welcomed us with warm and pleasant into next module of DACE Incorporte Adult Learning Theories and approaches for adult Learning(AL).

We have strted with an group activity of learning new language by passing few items blind folded. The learning objective of this game was to make us think what hinder us from learning during this short game. They were Stress, Fear, complexities, loud music etc…. In my view that game was well connected into the lesson of the day.

Thereafter Dr Yin moved into make us understand the continuation or link between ACTA modules and DACE by a nice pictorial explanation. I think it was a nice way to put into every learners mind well.

 

We learned two out of four chapters or steps using Adult learning Theories of this module. Describe the adult Learners and Assess impact of environmental factors on learning

Applying David Kolb’s Experiential Learning in Reflection

We did a good learning activity using Kolb’s experiential learning theory in reflection. It explain the following four stages of learning:

1.      Concrete Experience

2.      Reflective Observation

3.      Abstract Conceptualisation

4.      Active Experimentation

Towards the end of the day, I have set my core values in this professional development journey in DACE.

1.      Learn from everyone, anytime and anywhere

2.      Be self-driven and motivated

3.      Lead by example

4.      Keep current with trends

5.      Make learning simple and purposeful

6.      Adapt and respect others knowledge and tap them

Single and double loop reflection

It was interesting and new for me to learn Schon’s Single and double-loop reflection. In fact I do this reflection very often by not knowing it.

Single-loop reflection is asking question “Am I doing the right thing?” when something goes wrong or feel it so. And immediately addressing the issue and finding an alternate option to resolve it by being in the governing variables.

Whereas double-loop reflection, is higher level form of reflection that recognizes that action and consequences in the first loop may not valid and needed a question and close inspection of governing variables. In double-loo, educators may examine and reflect on the the theory or perspective in use. By altering the governing variables one  can achieve a shift in the way which strategies and consequences framed.

image courtesy: https://sites.google.com/site/reflection4learning/double-loop-learning

Brookfield’s four lenses of reflection

One of the sessions I enjoyed on first day group discussion was on brookfield’s approach of Critical Reflection. In it consider the environment which impact adult educators. He uses four reflective lenses to explain it.

1. Our autobiographies as adult educators and learners

2. Learner’s perspectives

3. Peers experiences

4. Theoretical

Among these three lenses, what impact me the most is peers experience. It connects my own experience back in 2002 when I joined Singapore as an instructor in navy. Cultural and language difference was a prime hindrance in my development in my lectures. I am so grateful to my two Singaporean colleagues who spend their valuable time in my class and helped me my blind spots in language, slang and terms usage.

I wish to use peers experiences and learner’s perspective lenses in my learning reflection.

How far will you go in ten minutes?

What a hooking question to start a reflective journal.

It was 6^th July 2013 Saturday. After a week of having burned down in hot weather in NDU, I was at IAL for my first day of DACE (Diploma in Adult Education and Continuing Education) programme. I chose this new learning journey as part of my lifelong learning.

After an icebreaking, Mrs kala started her first day of modue 1 develop practice through Reflection(RP). I was amazed with her skill in storytelling and  transferring the knowledge through stories.  Kala was sharing her experience in a temple during her visit where a temple watchman asked the foresaid question when she was rushing before prayer starts.

Lecture was on Reflection-in-Action’ and ‘Reflection-on-Action’. That story linked so nicely to the content of lesson. It talk about how an event trigger your thinking and cause reflection in action and on action.

Reflection was not new to me as I do it in a structured manner in my Navy training school where I work. Every day twenty minutes in the morning my learners write few lines about previous day and share them the class even though many of them did not like to do it. I do reflect on my personal experiences at the end of the day in my dairy and I enjoy going through those pages once in a while.

Today from the first day of DACE I realise that  'true learning' comes from ‘reflective learning’ and it can make  learning more meaningful towards professional and personal development.  This module (RP) convinces me the importance of reflective learning through regular practice

Take away from 1^st day of DACE  is the concepts of ‘Reflection-in-Action’ and ‘Reflection-on-Action’.  I have learned how to take prompt corrective measures in my action and adapt long term measures by listening to my beliefs and values through reflection on-action.