Emergent Things

So, I’ve changed the direction of my blog for two main reasons. The first reason is that I’m no longer a teacher. The second -- and perhaps more pressing reason -- is that I have to write a blog for my current grad school course.

See, the transition from teaching to corporate training was something I had considered for a while, which, more than anything, piqued my interest in pursuing a graduate degree in learning design and technology from Purdue. This has led to me to take a course in human performance technology, which will, at least for the time being, be the new focus of this blog.

The problem with this is that I don’t necessarily know what human performance technology is. I do know (or, at least I’m fairly certain) that it isn’t training. The fact that it isn’t this, coupled with the inherent clue in its name, leads me to believe that it involves the use of non-training tools to increase workers’ (or learners’) abilities to perform a certain task. I try to think of it in the context of when I make cookies. I don’t need to be trained on how to make cookies because I don’t make cookies that often; however, I know that when I do want a cookie, it’s a cookie made by my brother – so, I had him write down the recipe so that I can make them when I want. I don’t necessarily have to know how to do it – I just need to know where to access the document that tells me how.

While not all-inclusive, I think this is perhaps a smidgen of an understanding of what human performance technology is – the dichotomy between training and non-training alternatives for improving performance in a variety of settings. If this is correct (and I hope it is), I feel that I’m well on my way to succeeding in my current course because I’m obsessed with performance improvement in my daily life. I create checklists to ensure that my bills are paid, to remember to pack everything I need to in a suitcase, etc. I visit websites that help me pair wines with meals, fix my car, and tend to my garden. Simply put, I keep resources available that help me do things I don’t know how to do – more importantly, things I don’t need to know how to do. I think this perspective will help me in my contributions to this course, as they have helped me look at a number of performance gaps in my own life and given me tools to address them.Looking at the weeks ahead, I hope to build on this basic understanding to better help people other than myself.

Looking above, I’ve done a good job of surrounding myself with resources to help with my own performance gaps. Because of this, I don’t really know how to go about analyzing performance gaps in other individuals or in organizations. More than anything, I’m looking forward to building on my understanding of instructional design and human performance to establish a means by which I can identify holes and explore them on a larger level to best discover potential solutions.

Having just started the course, I’m already excited to see how it will benefit me in my career. I’m currently in charge of staff training and development at my company – however, we’re very training-oriented, which oftentimes leads to training being labeled as the solution for just about everything. I’m hoping that by taking this course, I’ll be better equipped to suggest non-training alternatives to increase my company’s efficiency and decrease the amount we spend of staff training.