My first module in Learning and
Emerging Technologies was certainly a learning experience. As a technology trainer, I am always learning
new software and other technologies. It is a state of being for my work. That being said, I usually have a process or at
least I like to think that I do. I start
out high-level, because I should have a general understanding of where I am and
the purpose of the product or technology.
Annnddd, that only last a few minutes when I find myself thinking, “How
do I?” or “Where can I?” and then off I go, clicking, pointing, trying away
using google and other resources as necessary.
I find navigating software or other
technology comes quite easily to me. I
admit I may not be an expert in everything I have used, but I learn enough to
get by, then add to my knowledge as I need to use the technology further. For me, as an adult learner, I learn better
when I need to learn. I’m not one for
grazing if it isn’t necessary. The
virtual environment was new to me, (well as long as you don’t count that one
time in Minecraft when my son made me a house and gave me, my Minecraft me, a
tour. I wish he had given me more closet
space). I certainly have some more learning to do. My avatar looks nothing like
me, I need to find more suitable clothing and I want fun hair! Oh and I think I want fairy wings (I know,
but sometimes we just all wish we could fly)!
So I will find these things and have an avatar that represents the
virtual me proudly. I still have to find
a way to integrate this into our business.
Perhaps If I tell our staff that IBM has virtual meetings this way, maybe
there will be a Keeping up with the Jones
moment and they’ll gladly hop on board.
I am not new to PowerPoint although it
has been a while since I had to create a presentation. I discovered that I had to remind myself
repeatedly how to incorporate some of the animation components. I’ll be honest with you, I hated Prezi! I couldn’t wrap my mind around why on earth
would you want something so limiting. Especially if you have PowerPoint. I
wanted to control the animation and I wanted to control the font. With each Google search, where I often turn
to gather information, I did, I found the results disappointing in that I couldn’t
do what I needed to do. I created a few presentations before I settled on the one
I posted. I don’t think I will go out of my way to use the product anytime soon
and I respect that if there are no other presentation options, then the free
version of Prezi would certainly be an option. Free or not, I did expect Prezi to
do what I could easily do in PowerPoint. Some products aren’t for everyone, Prezi
(the free version) isn’t for me.
I need to keep in mind that everything
is not for everyone. My goal for my learning
environment is to create a learning module on a few features for Dashboards using
Excel. There are some fantastic features
available to create great visuals that could potentially be dynamic as well. Perhaps
because of their complexity, some of the features will fit within a person’s purview,
some will not. Regardless of how
appropriate I might feel the feature is for the client’s need. So I always need to open my mind to other possibilities. Will it work this way instead? Should I teach or suggest all the
possibilities and let the learner choose or will that be overwhelming? It’s different when I am face to face with a
client. I can read their cues, the scrunched
up face or dazed look says it all. In
eLearning, I have to make some tough decisions.
I will explore this further in the program as well. I am looking forward to the exploration and
understanding how to make those decisions.
It was fun looking at the presentation
samples and at the time I submitted my presentations for discussion the only one
other set of presentations in the group.
Even without personally meeting the folks who created the presentations,
I thought the presentations mimicked the personalities of the person who
created them. I’m not sure this will always
true, however, in the case where personal information was shared and the passion
for the learning environment came through, I saw it. With that bit of information in mind, I
reviewed my presentations as though I didn’t create them and learned that I am
all business with a twist. A bit of fun,
but not too much fun. In reality, it’s
the way I need to teach a course. I need
to create an environment where my clients look forward to the course and feel
comfortable sharing ideas and asking questions.
Humor helps with that. But not
too much to take us off course! It’s a
balance (Hint: My Prezi presentation was selected because of this).
