Interview with Brent Schlenker

A few weeks ago, I had a very Brent Schlenker kind of week. Have you ever had one of those?

First, I sat in on a Brent webinar: Marketers and Game Developers Know More About Learning Than We Do! hosted by Training Magazine Network. I posted my notes on Brent's session, in case you missed it.

Later in the week, Brent and I chatted it up a bit. A nice follow-on to the webinar, we talked a bit more about learning campaigns, emerging technologies and, of course, the upcoming DevLearn '09.

I think it's a nice addition to the ongoing Kineo podcast series and my first contribution.

You can listen to clips from our conversation or download the entire thing over at the Kineo website (we waxed eLearning for over 30 minutes!).

Interviews on Instructional Design

Last night, Dr. John Curry interviewed me for his Introduction to Instructional Design class.

I was one of four instructional designers that John interviewed and the only non-degreed one in the bunch.

John asked each of us a series of questions: how we came to the instructional design field, what our current day-to-day jobs as instructional designers are like, what skills we feel are important for instructional designers, and what we feels the future of the field will be.

• Alan Young, Director of Curriculum Development at Brigham Young University-Idaho
• Jennifer Summerville, Ph.D, Associate Dean for the Distance and Weekend College for Collin College
• Andrew Teasdale, Ph.D, an instructional designer in the Clinical Guidance Organization for Humana Health Care

Each interview is about 30 minutes long.

Profiles of a Twentysomething and a Fiftysomething Learner

In the fact-gathering phase for an e-Learning strategy project I am working on, I have the fun task of interviewing a whole bunch of potential end-users. I love schmoozing and getting to know people, so this is a perfect way for me to spend my work day. It's not work, it's fun!

Yesterday I conducted my first two interviews: the first was with a woman who had graduated from college in 1979; the second was with a 2003 college graduate.

Now these are just two people, but they are real people who are in the workforce who are making use of technology tools. Here's their technology stories:

"Jane" graduated from college in 1979. She works from home and is her own boss. She self-reports to be "pretty savvy" when it comes to technology. She has two kids, ages 18 and 20.

• Uses Word, Office, Excel, Outlook and communicates heavily with email.
• Watches YouTube, when her children tell her to see something that's funny.
• Her kids have FaceBook pages, but she doesn't. Nor does she see herself ever having one.
• She doesn't have a blog, but she has read a few on sports. "I hear about people’s postings on their blog, but to tell you the truth I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do that. If I have time to do that I’d rather be working in my yard. I sit at my computer all day long."
• She doesn't know what SecondLife is.
• She plays some games on her computer (solitaire), but doesn't want to download anything on her laptop because she's "nervous about getting infected with stuff."
• She uses the web every day and uses Yahoo for searching, sometimes Google.
• She's taken online continuing education classes to maintain her various professional licenses. I take continuing ed all the time for all of my license. Most of the time I do it online. It’s so much more convenient!
• She's participated in webcasts for work, but has never given one herself.
  

"Susie" graduated from college in 2003. She works at an elite academic institution and self-reports an "extremely high comfort level" with technology.

• "Tries to avoid" YouTube, although sometimes watches things with her husband.
• An active FaceBook user -- she logs on in the morning when she gets to work and leaves it open all day. "I probably check it about 5 times a day." It's how she keeps in touch with close friends.
• She's never heard of Twitter.
• She's never heard of SecondLife.
• She reads a few of her friends' blogs to keep up with their families. Has just discovered Google Reader, so sees that this could increase.
  
• Doesn't play computer games, "I never go online to play." But then she admitted to being addicted to warfish. Of warfish she says, "it’s like Risk. I’m very competitive so I hate losing. It’s addictive – they send you an email when it’s your turn. The games can last 2 days to a week. Depends on how fast people respond. I play with friends." (Warfish requires an invite from another player -- talk about creating intrigue and a desire to play. If anyone can hook me up, I'd love to take a look. It sounds like a very interesting approach to gaming).
  
• Doesn't have her own Blackberry, but uses her husband's when they're together.
  
• A personal laptop is essential.
• "If I don't have access to my computer, I feel lost."
• Used BlackBoard in college, but found it sterile and not aesthetically pleasing. "It didn't encourage you to go on unless you absolutely needed to. I sometimes went on to get notes."

Interesting, isn't it?