Girl, you got style...

 I like taking tests.  I like taking standardized tests.  I like filling in the little ovals...I like that I can select an answer from a group of answers, thus having a chance to reason it out, I like to write essay question answers...I am a big geek.

I also like to have my personality explored via tests.  It's a little like the fun of a fortune teller.  You take what works, you leave behind what doesn't.  And as I have gotten older, it seems to be more and more consistent.

So as a learner, in the VARK, I was really happy to see they added the R, because as I suspected I am a High Visual Learner AND a High Reading/Writing learner.  Joanne talks about note taking in HS in her blog, well I am always the note taker in meetings.  I am accurate and fast.  And once I write it, I remember it, so I don't have to look at it again.  Sometimes my notes are in the form of a pictogram to describe what I am hearing.  This does slow me down in reading, as I like to skip the niceties, transitionals, things I already know/agree with and write down the main points so I can recall them.  If someone is a good non-fiction writer this usually is in the first line of the paragraph.  Highlighting is not enough.  I have to re-write it.  Sometimes I wish all text books would be in the form of a chart that you could look at for the high level ideas, and then click on them for examples and details....WAIT! BRAINSTORM! Copyright Marianne Witterholt Carr 2010! Got it!

And this is also representative of my other learning style according to Kolb.  I am just a bit right of the center on the line between Diverger and Assimilator.  According to this theory, the closer to the middle, the more of a well rounded learner you are...but what does well rounded mean?  I think I was taught to be able to learn in these difference manners in elementary school.  I was fortunate enough to attend grade school in Connecticut in the late 60's early 70's when many experimental educational programs were occurring even in the public school system.  We were taught how to learn.  

I have always been very comfortable with divergent thinking -- coming up with many, many ideas.  I think any one can be encouraged to improve this skill (as indicated in the video supplied in Tobi's blogg).  I think the assimilation part mirrors my love of making charts and pictograms of concepts.  Often this is the art of taking concepts and assembling (or assimilating) them together to show relationships.  Good stuff.

So as a teacher, I think I have to be very cautious to remember that everyone is not like me.  I have to push outside my own comfort zone and include more kinesthetic or aural work so that for those students they can feel connected.  I believe I will actually need to be conscious of looking for specific activities and tactics that teach the same thing, maybe four different ways. 

This is also the case in leading brainstorming activities.  There are many different types of divergent and convergent activities.  Different types of people will be more productive in the different activities because of their learning styles.  Learning styles may also come into play as a way to market an innovation.  In order for people to embrace something, they must learn about it.  So how do you make a launch of an innovative product appeal to all these different kind of learners? WAIT! BRAINSTORM!Copyright Marianne Witterholt Carr 2010! Got it!

Self-reflection as a form of learning.

I think I am stuck…I just read The Seasons of a Woman Life, by Daniel J. Levinson, and I realized I am stuck.  When looking at my life, I am feeling that perhaps I didn’t do so hot in the “culminating life structure for early adulthood stage.”  This is a time when I was supposed to be “forming a structure with in which I can establish a more secure place for myself in society” (26).  Well, during this time I got married, quit a job, got a divorce, changed careers, moved to Japan, moved back, changed careers again.  Does that sound particularly secure or stable? 

So how does this impact me as a learner?  I think the first step of any learning is realizing you don’t know something.  “Know not know,” is the phrase I have heard in the past.  And this is a painful stage.  It’s the one that comes after the “ignorance is bliss” stage.  Oh, for the bliss of being un-diagnosised. 

I did some additional self-diagnosis in examining the generational differences.  For me, it was a bit like horoscopes.  Take the label off and you can get that feeling of “that’s me” from each of these descriptions.  I did take a test once that measured how much you have in common with Gen Y (millennials).  I actually got a 91%!  So I am always interested in the descriptions of the other groups.  I do feel I have the least in common with Gen X, even though I am on the cusp. 

It has been difficult for me to pin down my learning style definitively.  I do like to experience some things, I like to attend lectures by really good speakers, I like to take notes and create visuals of concepts.  So what does that make me? 

So in conclusion, and so forth, and I would have to say (to quote a pageant contestant) I want to have learning experiences that stimulate and help me evolve.  I definitely have some internal motivation, an important part of being an adult learner.  But for now, I am going to have the rest of my latte and ponder how if I have really entered a developmental crisis phase, or read my New Yorker.  Self-reflection, this is a form of learning, too, isn’t it?

Source: Levinson, Daniel J. 1996. The seasons of a woman’s life.Knopf. New York.

Using teaching strategy to inspire other's creative solution finding skills.

My intention

In this economy, businesses, and individuals, need to be innovative in their thinking.  Two issues often arise when trying to apply creativity in practical terms.  Individuals will often say, "I'm not creative," thus they are stymied. Organizations jump straight to brainstorming activities and get the same, old, results.  I have been studying the art and science of applied creativity for about five years now, and want to teach others how they can be productively creative with better outcomes in both their professional and personal lives.

Subject matter

Applied creativity in general, and specifically, the

Osborne-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Methodology

Learner Outcomes

1. Learners will be able to explain how applied creativity is useful in their own situation.

Strategy: Cognitive

2. Learners will be able to demonstrate the phases and steps of the OPCPS method by the end of class.

Strategy: Mental Model Strategy

3. Learners will gain confidence in their own ability to be a creative solution finder.

Strategy: Virtual Reality Strategy

For our assignment, I will focus on the third outcome and the virtual reality strategy.  In fact, this "lesson" could be executed as a three part course.   In planning for the third part, there will be some assumptions made regarding the first two parts in my lesson plan for implementing the virtual reality strategy.  

One note about the virtual reality strategy, although this serves well for learnings that need safe environments, particularly those learnings that have high physical risk, I feel that utilizing a specific creative solution methodology can also involve personal risk. Feeling foolish or embarrassed is big fear for many people.

It takes commitment and the confidence to execute a rigorous creative problem solving methodology., Others may not understand what you are doing as you proceed to the end, which, hopefully provides a better solution. This can feel very risky in professional situations as well as in some personal scenarios.

Also, by focusing on this issue in the third part of the lesson, hopefully people will demonstrate what they know in front of others, thus making a recommendation to others to take this class from me.

Substitute the word training with innovation.

When I read this today, I experienced deja vu.  Not only is this concept that strategy is often overlooked here in Davis' guide to Effective Training, it is stressed in every book I believe I have ever read about business planning.  

Objectives are fun to set!  Tactics are fun to make-up!  But strategies? These are skipped because the importance of deciding how you will get there is not as fun, I guess.  Unless you are like me.  

It's like planning a trip.  I want to go to Hawaii for New Year's Eve this year.  This is my objective. Tactically I am going to take a plane and, yeah, I will be there! Yes!  Done.  

Or am I?  What about how will I pay for it? What will I bring? Who will I go with?  This may start with re-defining my objective, then looking at the "paths" that will lead to that outcome.  

So, for example, my objective becomes "I want to have a wild, fun time on NYE in Hawaii." This will change the strategy of who I want to go with...if it was a relaxing time, I would take someone who is calming and low key. But if it's a wild time, my strategy would be take someone adventurous, outgoing and who likes to stay up late because it's NYE.  

The tactic would be choosing between my friend Mark, who is up for anything, versus my friend Lisa, who likes to try new things, but goes to bed early.  If I had not refined my objective, THEN determined my strategy, I may have taken Lisa, but been disappointed in the outcome.

This is true for innovation, too.  Often objectives are set and then tactics are developed via brainstorming for new products.  Very little time is spent on all the strategic paths that could be taken to reach the objectives.  Perhaps the innovation is not even needed in the products, but in the marketing approach, or distribution, or financial models.  With a dedication to the step of creating strategies, you can only improve the chances that objectives will be met. 

Another quote from the reading this week that I think I might have tattooed on my forehead so others can see it when planning either innovation or training (or how about innovation FOR training?!) -- "Tactics is the art of using troops in battle. Strategy is the art of using battles to win wars." That's a little paraphrased, but you get the gist.

I like to draw pictures...

One of the ways in which I like to learn, is by visualizing a concept.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.  I created this one because I was inspired by the essence of adult motivation for learning.  I would love to have feedback from others to see if this diagram works for them, as well.  I would like it to be bigger, but I am still  "getting to know" this blog format.
In class last week we also discussed the visualization of statistics.  I have included a link to a gentleman who has very definite ideas of how knowledge, of any sort, can be presented visually for good communication.  This link is to the one visualization that gets the most attention.  Tufte did not create it, and he is not a graphic artist, but he promotes it as one of the best examples of visual communication of knowledge. http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters
I also like these guys for creating concept maps, not so much about statistics, but about processes. http://www.dubberly.com/concept-maps
And finally, a book I came across recently also has a website: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/.  Once again, not all of this is statistical, but a lot of it is.  I am interested in how some of this visualization of knowledge would translate culturally and how could it be a tool especially in the realm of the fun/delight factor in motivating adult learners (like how I brought this back to the topic?!).  I know I am delighted by it!