It's Been A While...

...since I last posted a blog.  I'm not terribly proactive about this stuff but I think it's time to kick off again!

Check out this latest post on AI and Machine Learning
https://dhl66.wordpress.com/

Oh, and I will probably be moving my blogs over to WordPress at some-point

The #blimage list - Playing Catch-up

On July 24th I accepted a challenge from Steve Wheeler:

Unfortunately life got in the way, I know poor excuse, but hey that is the way things are sometimes. So here is me playing catch-up because I have accepted another challenge, and I want to finish this one before I start another one.

What is #Blimage all about:  you can read all about it in Steve blog, but in summary we had to write a learning blog about the image that was presented to us and challenge 3 of our peers.  As a new challenge is now up and running I'll challenge them in the new one.

Steve gave me this image:

When I saw it I immediately saw informal graffiti painted on a cracked wall in a haphazard fashion. For people who know me, when I say this is how I learn they will understand completely.

Learning in a formal classroom drives me bonkers, so when I am subjected to it I draw randomly on my iPad.  This obviously distracts me from the very important person at the head of the class, but it does prompt me to find alternative ways to learn the subject matter at hand.  Here is a drawing from back last year when I was subjected to a 'compulsory' class on writing a business case:

Maybe a self portrait, maybe not.  But I was obviously not learning.  I LOVE learning in the way I choose, from my peers, friends, YouTube, conferences, unconferences, Video, Online, Books, Games you name it I love it.  What does this say about the classroom - has it had its day?  Well for me, I just find it a barrier and will find any way to learn I can that keeps me out of a classroom.

So, in essence, the image to me reflects my learning personality.  Learning through public shared spaces - the internet is a great example of this as you can learn almost anything you need online nowadays - that's public space learning.  The more we can help with the democratization of learning for all, the more people can learn in that public space when they want, the way they want, on whatever medium they want.

The definition of the word graffiti

graffiti

ɡrəˈfiːti/

noun

1. 1.

   writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.

Working at Pluralsight. Who?

So here we are, 2015 and I am not working in Parliament.  I really never thought I would leave but hey this opportunity came along and I couldn't refuse. Why? I hear you asking.  I had a nice job, nice salary, nice pension to look forward to, it was secure but it was just that it was nice.  Parliament for me was the people not the job the people were exceptionally talented and want the best for everyone.  Now, don't get me wrong I like nice, but I have always wanted Awesome.  I have always wanted off the hook.  I have always wanted somewhere where I can be me and fly - this is what I want.  And guess what - THIS IS WHAT I HAVE GOT!

When I say to people, Hey I work for Pluralsight, I get different results depending on who I am talking to.

• Non Tech friends - Who?  Are they an opticians?
• Dev friends - COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL can we get a freebie?
• Other Dev friends - That is so awesome, I have a subscription

The next question is What do you do?  And I say I am an Enterprise Learning Architect and my role is to create awesome learning experiences.

So, enough about me, lets look at the company I have joined.  Well I say company. it's more of a family.  I cant remember the last time someone asked if I needed anything to do my job actually meant it from the bottom of their hearts.  No-one has an agenda, egos are left at the door, everyone is there to do a job and they are trusted to do it.

So, going back to my first question - or the question that is on many peoples lips - Who are Pluralsight.  Well, why don't we hear it from the people themselves. But before you listen to the video - remember - we are a young company with big ideas and we are going to do it without stepping on people along the way.  

Our Purpose:

To democratise professional learning for all. To improve peoples lives everyday by giving them access to high quality, affordable education that they can consume anytime, anywhere.

We are three things:

1. Truth Seekers
2. Entrepreneurs
3. Eternal Optimists

I am a truth seeker.  I study things, question things, do what's right and always focus on continuous improvement. I am not afraid to experiment, come up with ideas and have discussions.  And I welcome the healthy conflict, this helps me improve and learn.

I am an entrepreneur.  I take ownership and embrace autonomy.  I am not afraid to be who I am and I do not rely on others to fill my workload. I value learning and am not afraid to fail fast and learn from it.

I am an eternal optimist. This means bringing positive energy into everything I say and do, to lift others up when they are down, to find joy in my work.  And as everyone who knows me, this is so me.

All three things I live and breath every single day - even before I joined Pluralsight I was this!

We have two rules:

1. Be respectful, considerate and kind, even when you disagree
2. Always act in Pluralsight's best interest

What is interesting is that these two rules apply to all scenarios within Pluralsight. Don't be a Jerk, do what is best.  

We don't track time off which means you don't clock in and out each day you just apply the two rules.  Of course you co-ordinate with your colleagues and customers so just do what is right.  We are encouraged to take time off, it is a way of recharging the batteries so that we come back refreshed.  Here is a small video from our CEO Aaron Skonnard explaining it.

So my first days have been amazing.  I have never worked from home before, oh did I forget to mention that - I work from home!  I have converted a spare room into an office and I have a proper set up.  I practice the Stand-Up working philosophy which means standing up most of the day to do my work.  I have never felt so good and I have lost nearly 28lbs so far.  

So, do you want to know what we as employees think about working at Pluralsight.  Check out this next video.

I didn't start this blog entry as an advertisement for my company.  I was intending on telling you about the fantastic people I work with, the work I am doing, and the joy I get out of waking up each day.  But thinking about it?  That is exactly what I have done!

Here are some pictures of our office in Utah - note the sweetie wall.

www.pluralsight.com

Until the next post.

Why don’t you smegging well smeg off, you annoying little smeggy smegging smegger!

I am so glad no-one has ever said that to me!  But I am sure there may be a few other words said when I finally leave Parliament.

After 8 years, give or take a couple of weeks I am finally leaving the hallowed halls known as The Houses of Parliament.  There have been good times, and some not so good times, but the people have always kept me going.

So what can I say I have achieved during my tenure. 

• Built a 12 person training team
• Won the Learning & Performance Institute Training manager of the year TWICE
• Took the Parliamentary ICT Training team to the finals TWICE
• Educated thousands of people who work in, around and outside Parliament
• Introduced some cutting edge theories and technologies
• Survived a General Election
• Folded a 12 person training team (everyone was transitioned to new and exciting roles via promotions and transfers)
• Went online
• Chaired and keynoted across the United Kingdom discussing taking your training out of the classroom and online
• Coached some excellent leaders
• Left Parliament

Doesn't sound much in the scheme of things, but had an absolute blast doing it and met some fabulous people on the way.

Thank you to all the people who have supported me and made me smile.

 

LearningPool Live Wales

Part 2 of what happens when 3 Learning professionals get together and develop an idea from Sheffield.  This week we took 2 elements of our scribbles  and expanded on them using a Venn diagram.  Now I am not one for being all technical do far as L&D speak is concerned, but we came up with some very interesting links and uses for mobile learning technology.

Picture one shows TEXT (as in Mobile SMS) can be linked by Cultural, Technical and Pedagogy. We can see from a Cultural perspective, a whole new language has grown up around SMS, with many people around the globe using and conversing using the same abbreviations.  This means that cross cultural learning possibilities are endless.  From a technological perspective, the convenience at which group SMS can be sent out in one hit makes linking group learners messages from the tutor simple.

We then moved on to AR, (Augmented Reality) completely at the other end of the spectrum.  As you can see the circles are not as full as previously, however we did make some interesting associations - such as the skills required to create the 'app' in the first place would be completely out of the pocket range for most companies today.  Also, the legal and ethical aspect of using AR from a cultural perspective without the individual knowing about it - hidden technology...  Unfortunately we didn't get as much time as we would have wished to continue the conversation, suffice to say it gave everyone food for thought.  

My own personal thoughts on using mobile technology for learning include why limit thinking to what we know we can do today, why not push the boundaries and come up with ideas on how we want to use the technology at our fingertips and let the developers come up with something for us.

One thing I would say is:

• Mobile learning can only get better
• It is in our pockets (or handbags) all the time
• We use it to find 'stuff' when we need it
• We can connect to our #PLN (Personal Learning Network) whenever and wherever we are
• There is always someone out there who can help you
• Age is not a barrier
• You are Not in a Classroom

Well, that was a bit more than one thing, but what I guess I am trying to get cross is that learning at your fingertips, anywhere, anytime anydevice is a wonderful thing - its magic - just like the people who put it all together for us.

For a lovely blog about mobile learning check out Steve Wheelers Learning with E's

LearningPoolLive - Sheffield

Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to be one of two keynote speakers at LearningPoolLive Sheffield.  The day kicked off with Steve Wheeler presenting his view on mobile technology and how it is a game changer in the field of Learning and Development.  To prove this fact we participated in a live workshop, the results of which were amazing.  Steve, Andrew Jacobs and myself couldn't stop scribbling. The most fascinating thing for me was how everything we wrote down could be linked together.

Prior to my presentation I was a tad worried I would be on my own with my opinions on the industry, especially how internal training could and should be run.  As is turned out I wasn't.  The topic of  my keynote was Get out of the Classroom!  I outlined the fact that we ditched classroom training over 18 months ago, and with it the cost associated with running rooms, events, and the hours spent writing material that no-one really read.  Instead we replaced it with a more customer focused approach which includes floor-walking in the departments, 1:1 'just in time' desk side coaching when people need it, shadowing computers focusing in what the individual was trying to do,  online content, Fact-sheets, task based clips, videos, messaging - basically anything other than chalk and talk.  Too many trainers sit behind their desks and take orders without questioning what people really want and why. 

We now offer moment of need performance support in the form bite-sized-chunks of learning, all of which are focused on what the individual needs to do to accomplish a task.  

Oh, and I forgot to mention that instead of 7 trainers and 2 admin staff I now only have 3!  Where are the others?  All promoted into other roles.  It's great having trainers who are now customer advice team leaders, business analysts and benefits realisation officers - and guess what, they still use all their training skills but with their own teams.

This week it's Cardiff, let's see how that goes. 

Myths and Fairy Tales: Stories of Love and Hate

I have just embarked on a new psychology course with Birkbeck University.  This is actually my third in a series of courses.  My first one back in September 2011 was called the psychology of learning and learning styles and my second in January was the psychology of problem solving and decision making skills.  Both quite heavy subjects as you can imagine, so I decided that my third module was going to be one whereby I could relax and read books that I actually enjoy reading.

Well, I loved my first class.  The tutor was literally 'away with the fairies' and with it she gave one of the best tutorials I have experienced in, well, for ever.  We were all treated to 'Story Time', whereby she banged her gong to take us into the realms of fantasy then read us the Grimm tale called the White Snake.  At the end of the story she banged her gong again to bring us back into the normal world of consciousness.  We then spent an hour dissecting this story.

I found out that there is a major difference between fairy tales and myths.  Every culture has both, but fairy tales are cross cultural and follow a universal framework irrespective of where the story originated from.   Myths, on the other hand, are very cultural based and are generally about the gods interfering with humans.

We are also throwing in a bit of Jung as well, discussing symbolic meanings of the characters, their archetypes and language.

The sad thing about the whole experience was the number of people in the tutorial who had never had a story read to them as a child, or who had read stories to children.  It may be that they cant remember, or it may just be that their parents were not interested in developing their imaginations, leaving it up to their school friends.  Whatever the reason, we need to understand the importance of allowing the imagination to grow and to be creative.  Hopefully, this class will feed these individuals and fill a space that they had in their development as children.

All in all a wonderful learning experience.  I cant wait to see what we discuss this week and what story we will be delighted with, only to dissect it into its symbolic representation.

Keep watching.