U-Blog 6

I was reading an article discussing the use of competency models to target training needs; in this article one of the statements caught my attention that I wanted to elborate on: " ...once the enterprise has defined what it needs for performance in a challening business environment, the logical next step is to define the gaps and then determine how to align human resources with these targets." This article continues to talk about how models help companies understand and focus on the key factors that drive performance.

Pondering of this statement caught my attention because I truly believe in this concept of targeting the loss of performance after declaring the primary goal of what needs to be incorporated into the system. Once you set a primary goal then its best to go through each department or staff and figure what training could be conducted to enhance performance.

U-Blog 5

Now I see why e-learning is so important!! The feel to be able to utilize informal learning and apply it back to the task at hand is more resourceful than going thru formal learning. In class, we had to conduct a workshop for a hour at a nursing home about the variety of scams on the internet. Realizing that my group did not want to follow to the typical protocol of meeting in person and plan out a list of things needed to be done for this workshop; they wanted to meet just for the workshop itself!! WOW!! I having to put some trust into four strangers that I have never met before nor can put a face to their name. Only able to communicate via email thru chat rooms were stressing enough knowing that it was hard to meet at one time due to everyone schedules. The workshop worked out to be executed with perfection and I was surprised by that knowing what we all had to go through to gather our brains and resources.

U-Blog 4

Reading some of the articles in this modules has given me a better insight on what it takes to keep and industry up on its "toes" to stand on the same page with technology. There was an expression stating that technology grows and updates itself constantly on a day to day basis. This preventing industrial employees to step away from their daily routines to receive the learning that is needed to stay ahead.

With this challenge being presented at hand, it is even harder for trainers to create a workshop of some sort to assess the issues that rises from the world of technology. I can only imagine being a trainer that has to give a workshop or session on a new and upcoming software that executives want to merge into the employees daily routine. Just knowing that I would have to train 100 employees all of which has there very own learning styles and that I have to try and accomodate everyone needs to succeed thru my challenge. WOW!!! Its one thing to be able to have methods consisted with informal learning, but it's still a challenge to presenting this methods to people.

U-Blog 3

I have always wondered if there was a difference between formal and informal learning. For years I have been involved with companies and have experience several changes within that company. These changes could consist anywhere from adding a new product to adding an new procedure to a process; however working with several different types of people I have wondered how do a company make such a big decision on approaching training in a timely fashion to where alot of workers would catch on while preventing down time. Reading an article called Informal Reading states that formal and informal are very much similar and that they co-exist. Even though in our past companies has been using formal approaches to learn that it has caused such a big confusion between schooling and learning.

U-Blog 2

What can I say, this class has delivered an very unique experience unlike any others. TSTM 444's curriculum is very demanding and in order to succeed, a person has to be well-organized and possess great time-management skills.

I am a person with strong visual skills; if I can put a face to your name then I will remember quicker and easier than seeing your name on piece of paper or if I see and example on the board I can remember and apply it better than if a professor tried to explain it verbally. Giving myself a challenge, I decided to accept the "complete online" version of the class. Knowing I have done better by going to class on daily basis, taking it online will increase my flexibility. So far I believe I have done well. I have tried to keep up with announcements and updates. Its shocking to say that my grade depends upon how often I can access a software on a daily basis. WOW!!!!

The biggest challenge of all is being able to succeed through our class project. Not able to initially meet my teammates physically is really different for me. Having to depend on whether my teammates will see the inportance of checking Blackboard on a daily basis is something I am not comfortable with, but have to have faith I guess. I actually had one member to state that he wanted to go through this whole project online. So I am thinking WOW that eliminated meeting in the library one good time!!! On the positive note, I do have some dedicated people on the team. People that want to put forth efforts to bring success to the project. Hopefully over time we will continue to become and very dominate team over the internet...

U-Blog

When creating an environment that makes learning technologies easier for older adults there are several factors that should be taken into consideration. Two of those factors are creating an environment for learning and presenting information clearly so that older adults can better understand advanced technology. Creating an environment for learning includes being sure that adults are comfortable in their learning environment and know that there is very little harm they can do to what is around them. They should know that the class will be difficult but paced and effort is needed to be contribute to such task to comprehend and achieve the knowledge given.

Workplace Learning

Reading an article called "Coping with Change in the Workplace" discuss methods for handling employees and business matters with the changes in the economy. Some of these methods were communicating early and often, acknowledge emotions, name the game, and preparing managers. This article states that if a company know ahead of time that its company and employees are going to go through changes then to allow the corporate leaders to prepare managers for what they are about to witness with the change of emotions with the employees. It also goes in details about how the managers should communicate with all employees about upcoming decision making and/or new products. This method will prevent rumors from starting and allowing employees to leave because they do not know what is going on in their workplace. I know that these methods can be very effectives because once working for a company that made changes during economic distress caused a big lay off at random times in the work week. These steps makes employees have less security with their positions. Having less security results to lack of good performance in the work atmosphere.