The new, the old, what I liked, what I didn’t

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).