Recently in Training Category

It's great that faculty, staff, and students will be able to access the videos on a number of technology topics such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Connect, and Google Docs.  It's also useful that when a user selects a topic, he or she will go to a table of contents page with links to smaller subtopic videos only a few minutes each. 

This means I can go what I already know, ignore what I don't need to know, and play exactly what I want.  I can learn at my own pace and replay it as many times as I need until I learn it.

But the benefits for Penn State go beyond the obvious. HelpDesks and IT Trainers have an opportunity to stop re-inventing the wheel.  I've been dying to see us coordinate each other and share resources, but seeing us use Lynda.com resources would be a nice start:

HelpDesks could save time and effort by finding the answers to software-related questions in Lynda.com and linking to them in their knowledge bases.

IT Trainers could include links to Lynda.com resources as references in their training.

All of these would also promote Lynda.com to users and teach them to look to this resource.  Users are looking for resources and if we make coordinated efforts to point them to Lynda.com, we will get the word out!

Still playing around with how best to recut our Technology Updates, which are recorded via MediaSite into smaller chunks and redistribute.  Here's another Dr. Nikki installment, called...

Spam, Spam, Spam, Dr. Nikki & Spam!

(download)

I have been testing Camtasia for pulling segments of our MediaSite Technology Updates into other formats.  For example, Dr. Nikki could be in my blog (below), iTunes, or YouTube with the effort it takes me to extract and edit what I get from MediaSite.

Presentation Facelift

(download)

Email Safety: Avoiding Emotional Injury in the Workplace

(download)

December is the perfect month to reflect on the value of playing.  We have a month's worth of work to do and year-end goals (or semester-end) to complete, wrapped up half a month's worth of workdays.  So what do we do?  We play.

This month I have crafted a gingerbread man zombie, planned an Oracle Calendar Tea Party, got my Twitter friends to talk about Zombo as a social network, and participated in karaoke with fellow Penn Staters who are part of a back-channel social group.  Somehow in a month when our workload is larger than usual and our time shorter, we attend holiday parties, special events, and perform team-building activities--and still manage to meet our deadlines. 

Why do we do this to ourselves?  What's the value in these events?  Why is play so important?  If you're looking for an answer, look to the experts at play: children.

For children, play is not just a diversion.  It's how they socialize with their peers. It's how they exercise their imaginations.  It's how they learn.  Are we adults (or those of us merely masquerading as adults at our day jobs) any different?

1. Making gingerbread men with my department as a team-building activity allowed some very busy people to socialize with one another without having to clash over the projects that we make personal.
2. The tea party is a themed training event for University Libraries In-Service Day as a follow-up to last year's migration to Oracle Calendar.  When I need to reach people who need more training on a topic, I try not to repeat the training that was already offered to them.  I also find that making voluntary training fun motivates people to attend and learn.
3. The Zombo tweets, while cheering up a group of moping friends on the last Friday before a holiday, revealed a lot about what people wanted out of social networking applications and what they thought others would want to buy-in.
   
4. My back-channel group is one of the most valuable networks to me.  The playful environment and diversity of the group is important.  By knowing these people first in a social context, I am more likely to take risks and pitch ideas to them.

One phrase I've been hearing a lot from colleagues lately "Other duties as assigned" has me thinking about one of my favorite "other duties": serving on search committees. I love meeting new people and having the opportunity to make the right connection between a person looking for a position and the organization looking for the right warm body to fill it.

That said, from the organizational perspective, and that of the technology training perspective (and previous IT support hats I've worn), there's something else I like to see as we evaluate incoming new hires: their technological skill and willingness to learn.

Let's face it.  There are very few roles left at Penn State that don't touch a computer anymore, even if it's just to do an SRDP.  If securing our machines is important, ensuring that we hire people who can operate them is key to this security.  The key to future success is good hiring.  Or conversely, as Geek Squad Founder Robert Stephens is apt to say, "Training is a tax you pay for a lousy hiring environment."

Now, I'm certainly not saying that training could ever replaced (or that I agree with all of his tactics), but there is some truth to the insight that with the right kind of people--those with "curiosity, ethics, and drive"--teaching is less an act of tracking people down and force-feeding and more of a partnership.

If hiring will help in the future, what about people in existing positions?  Where is your technological skill?  Do you have the skills necessary to do your job today? To explore how you may be doing your job in 18 months?  Are you willing to learn?  Are you willing to teach yourself?

There are many IT and training people out there who are willing to help you, but you must also make that leap to help yourself.  Because you can't say IT's not you job anymore.  If all else fails, IT's the "other duties as assigned."