My Thoughts so far (11)

All of the training tools that I reviewed could be very valuable to training developers. This semester I was exposed to training tools that were new to me, as well as training tools that I had never considered to be training tools before.

Twitter is another tool that I still feel slightly uncomfortable with but its capabilities in training are very strong. It is a real-time way to create a learning environment and share information among trainees. 

Captivate is a very useful tool for both novices and professionals to develop interactive training courses. I really enjoyed using this tool and I hope to use it again within my career. It is not the most user friendly out of the rest of the training tools I reviewed, but with a little practice it is easy to use.

 Pinterest is a tool that I love to use, but I had never considered it as a training tool previous to this class. It is a highly visual and organized way for a training facilitator to encourage learning, and find new strategies to make training successful.

 I had never really thought of YouTube as a training tool before this class either. It is user friendly, widely accessible, widely accepted, highly versatile, highly visual, and...I really like YouTube. In fact, before this project even started, one of my favorite phrases was, "Let's YouTube it." 

 I really enjoyed working with all of these training tools, with the exception of LinkedIn, simply because I am still familiarizing myself with it. However, LinkedIn is a really great tool to be able to link training facilitators with other facilitators as well as link training facilitators and SMEs to their trainees.

It is not just amazing to think about how much technology has changed the way we live, it is even more amazing to me to think about how technology has changed the way we learn. 

(10) LinkedIn

I have always gotten invitations to LinkedIn before this project, but I always ignored them. It wasn't that I was opposed to using LinkedIn, in fact I was well aware of the networking capabilities associated with it, I just did not feel any urgency for joining another social network.
I just joined. It is an interesting website. The interface seems to be pretty user friendly although I do have a small amount of awkwardness while navigating through it. It is pretty interesting to be able to "connect" with such a wide variety of professionals, ranging from one of my best friends who is a middle school teacher to my boss at the restaurant I work at.
LinkedIn could be a great way to facilitate learning. An organization could have its top trainers or SMEs be available on LinkedIn to aid in coaching trainees. LinkedIn accounts can be linked to Twitter, Facebook, and even sent through email so they are very accessible. LinkedIn could definitely be used to create a more friendly learning environment by encouraging leaders, trainers, and SMEs to be involved with trainees.

(9) YouTube

Generation Y is a generation of Youtubers. We are very technologically capable and are always creating and taking advantage of new content. A lot of the time, YouTube is used to watch ridiculous people do ridiculous things but it also has a lot more capabilities than just pure entertainment.

YouTube allows any individual or organization to be able to post videos that they have created. YouTube has been around for quite some time, but before YouTube was a widely accessible website, people were not able to share multimedia content so easily. YouTube can be used for training and educational purposes quite easily. For example, a fashionable men's clothing store may want to teach their employees how to tie an eldredge knot. A trainer could film the instructions (taking advantage of both visual and auditory learning techniques), post it on YouTube, and the employees could have free access to this video to watch repeatedly until they have perfected the new skill. This YouTube author not only has this Instructional video on YouTube, but he also has a link to his website where you can view an instructional diagram of the eldredge knot.

YouTube can also be used to facilitate learning in classroom environments or added to E-learning modules to give a detailed explanation of the task to be learned. YouTube videos can easily be embedded into blogs, websites, PowerPoints, and eLearning development software such as Captivate. 

For example, this YouTube video could be embedded into a Captivate eLearning module that instructs lifeguards on the different methods of CPR. 

Youtube (8)

I am pretty familiar with YouTube because I have been using it for a long time. Whenever someone says, "Hey, do you know how to do this?" or "Hey, check out this cat video!" they are more than likely referring me to YouTube. I did not know the history of YouTube before this, but that is besides the point. When I was about to write a post about YouTube, I thought "Hey, I bet YouTube has a video about this!"
I would say that this is the best thing about YouTube. There are copious amounts of videos to choose from, whether you want to look up how to braid your hair...

...or if you need a beginner's guide on how to use Excel.

Pinterest (7)

I really do not need any practice in learning how to effectively navigate Pinterest but others might. I remember when I first joined Pinterest I did not realize that the pictures were also links, I thought it was just an image collecting website. I still remember the feeling of awe I had when I realized it was more than just pictures (I realize I was being a little oblivious). Besides that little hiccup in the beginning, I found Pinterest to be a very user friendly website.
A lot of the users of Pinterest are teachers. All of my friends that are teachers actively use their Pinterest boards, and tell me of how amazing their classrooms look because of the ideas they got from other teachers. I happened to find this article online about ways teachers use Pinterest.
http://www.teachthought.com/social-media/37-ways-teachers-can-use-pinterest-in-the-classroom/

There are several methods of using Pinterest that are listed on this website that would be great for any training facilitator to use. One way is to use Pinterest to share successful lesson plans. If training developers have easier access to ideas for training strategies it might save them a lot of time when they are re-adjusting the training after conducting a formative evaluation (it would take a lot of the error out of trial and error). Also, using a pinboard to collect ideas could be a training activity that benefits highly visual learners. For those trainees that are not visual learners, Pinterest can also provide ideas for lessons that cater to auditory and kinesthetic learners. Training developers can also use Pinterest to find tutorials to add to their training modules. The Pinterest possibilities are almost endless.

Pinterest (6)

Pinterest is "pinboard-style photo sharing website." It allows its users to create and manage theme-based image collections that can then be browsed and used by other users of Pinterest. I would say that the majority of people think that Pinterest is a website to be used mostly by girls. I would somewhat agree with that. I am a girl and I am an avid pinterest user. In addition to sharing great style tips with the multitudes, Pinterest could also be used to facilitate learning. It may seem a little confusing if you have never used the website before. I will try to give a brief overview. 

This is an area of Pinterest that is commonly browsed. In this section you scroll through and it shows you the most popular photos that have been shared. Most pictures, if clicked, will take you to an outside website. The user may want to know more about the swimsuit in the picture or may want to know how to make a penguin ornament out of a light bulb. 

Although I don't think Pinterest is commonly used for training it could very easily be used to facilitate learning. An organization could start a Pinterest board with information their employees should know. Employees could also post useful information that they have found with other employees. It would be more of a knowledge sharing base instead of a developing tool. Any organization that used this would need to monitor the board to make sure that the information being shared is relevant and correct, but it would be a great way to encourage a work environment where learning and development is always occurring. 

(5) Captivate

 I needed more time to get comfortable with Captivate. We used Captivate a little bit more in class and now I feel very comfortable with it. I even discovered that you can upload a PowerPoint presentation into Captivate as a template for an eLearning module. I thought before that Captivate did not allow the designer to easily create aesthetically appealing learning modules, but using PowerPoint makes making pretty modules really easy for Captivate novices like me. 

Some of the buttons are still lost on me, but I can easily figure them out by trial and error or by simply hovering the arrow over it to get a general idea of its function.
This video shows a professional using Captivate to develop training.

It goes to show that a training developer of any skill level can use this program to create effective and interactive training modules.

Captivate (4)

When we first started using Captivate in class I was a little hesitant. I had never used it before and I was unsure as to whether I would be able to navigate through the interface comfortably. When trying anything new, of course its a little nerve wracking but I found Captivate to be pretty easy.
The interface reminds me of a mash-up of Photoshop and Avid. The properties panel is very similar to Photoshop and the timeline is very similar to Avid. I believe Photoshop also has a timeline feature but it has been a long time since I have used it. Anyway, with a little extra guidance from our professor I was able to navigate through it and create little mock training programs.
This program would be great for any novice developer to use to create training as well as for expert developers. You can even make your design process simpler by creating a design on PowerPoint and uploading it to Captivate. There you can add all of the interactivity your heart desires.

Twitter (3)

I really tried hard to use Twitter personally but it was very difficult. I posted a few pictures of meals that I had made but I have very few followers so the reaction was disappointing  Although I'm sure if I started following some of my favorite celebrities, I would fall in Twitter love rather quickly. One person that I am following is my old kinesiology professor from my community college in San Antonio. He used Twitter as a way to communicate with his class about assignments, readings, or assigned workouts that we were supposed to complete at home. Even though I still found Twitter pretty revolting at the time, it was a pretty good way to get information out to us and to create an online community that facilitated learning. The way that he posted/posts information could easily be done by an organization's training department.
 So...let's say that our organization is a gym. That gym could get a Twitter account, not just for the customers they are trying to attract, but also a public account geared towards their employees. This Twitter account could talk about how customer satisfaction and health are our number one goal and that they encourage their staff to be as educated as possible on health, effective workouts, and safety so they can help to meet those goals. This Twitter account would be a forum and an online knowledge community where the employees could view informational videos (For example: about the proper form of a push-up) and share ideas with other employees. This could even be really great for PR if a customer was to stumble across this and realize how committed the organization is to making sure their employees are the best they can be. Maybe a gym was a poor example, but really any organization could  use Twitter to create a cutting-edge, knowledge sharing community.

(2) Twitter

Twitter has 200 million active users worldwide. Twitter started out as an individual form of communication whereby, users could post short statements (tweets) about how they were, what they were doing, and any other interesting thoughts they might want to share with their friends and with the world. I remember when Twitter first gained popularity. I gave it a try for personal use, but I could not understand (at the time) what the point of it was. Twitter has become much more than just another social media website for individuals, businesses have also started using it and realized the benefit. Businesses using Twitter can use it for so much more than just good PR and to encourage customers to buy their product. Businesses can also use it as a source of Training and Development for their employees.
I recently re-joined the twitter community to test whether or not Twitter could be effectively used to enhance an organization's T&D goals. I personally still find the interface and navigation of Twitter to be pretty confusing, but I remember having the same initial feeling of confusion when I joined Facebook way back in the day. I understand the basic premise, I just don't find any enjoyment in it thus far. I will let you know how it goes!

Introduction

Hello! My name is Amy. I am a student at the University of Houston, majoring in Human Resource Development. The field of Human Resource Development is growing tremendously as organizations realize the importance of developing their employees to be the best they can be. A lot of organizations are currently using or would like to use new technologies to facilitate learning and development. The technological resources that can be used for training are vast. Organizations and the people within them may be intimidated by the volume of these tools. They may not know which tool best suits their business needs, and they may not know how to use them.
This blog will identify and discuss all different kinds of technological software, tools, and social media that can be used to aid in employee training and development. Within this discussion, the reader should be able to get a basic understanding of basic functions, how it could be used to facilitate learning, and how it can benefit   the developer of the learning content, the employee, and the organization as a whole.