Sunday, November 28, 2010

Section 4: Human Performance Technology

1.      Chapter 14 discusses the concept of the evolution of human performance improvement. Several sections of chapter 14 present a variety of non instructional solutions to performance problems. Identify a performance problem in your area of work and provide a non instructional solution to solve the problem. 
  • Since I have been a librarian I had a problem with my students taking an Accelerated Reading (AR) quiz on books that they have checked out from the school library.  Teachers approached me about how to motivate their students to diligently take their AR quizzes.  I took the initiative to request 6 trophies for each grade level (K-5) to present at the end of each six weeks to the homeroom that earned the most AR points for that particular six weeks.  Ever since I have implemented that contest students are more eager to take their AR quizzes.

2.      Chapter 15 presents several definitions of electronic performance support systems. In addition to these definitions, locate a few more and indicate your preference explaining why you prefer it. Additionally, describe why you believe EPSS have not been widely used and if they are more likely be become more prevalent in the future. 
·         According to Wikipedia, an Electronic Performance Support System, is any computer software program or component that improves user performance.
·         On www.msu.edu, an electronic performance support system is, according to Barry Raybould (1991), "a computer-based system that improves worker productivity by providing on-the-job access to integrated information, advice, and learning experiences."
·         Also on www.msu.edu , Gloria Gery (1989) defines it as "an integrated electronic environment that is available to and easily accessible by each employee and is structured to provide immediate, individualized on-line access to the full range of information, software, guidance, advice and assistance, data, images, tools, and assessment and monitoring systems to permit job performance with minimal support and intervention by others" (p. 21).
·         I prefer the definitions on www.msu.edu because it clarifies the definition of EPSS and provides examples of electronic performance support system.  Attached is the link for further reference: https://www.msu.edu/~sleightd/epssyn.html .
v  I believe why EPSS has not been widely used because we are not familiarized to the term EPSS, and if we were introduced to EPSS it was not emphasized to the users.  It is the lack of marketing therefore EPSS is not widely utilized.
3.      Knowledge management is the way we manage information, share that information, and use it. Organizations, such as schools, are full of information/data and we must organize that data in a way that we can make sense of it. We use data to make decisions and good data=good decision making. Identify a real or hypothetical problem in your line of work. How might a blended learning approach, including the use of a knowledge management system, be use to solve the problem? 
·         At my campus, most are our parents are non English speakers; therefore, we have proposed our administrator to utilize our computer lab to teach our non English speaking parents how to speak English.  We have subscribed to a trail version of Rosetta Stone to teach our parents how to speak English before school on Tuesday and Thursday from 7:50 am to 8:25 am.  We didn’t have many parents (mostly moms) to take advantage of this program; however, after several sessions almost 30 computers in the computer lab are occupied.  Our parents are more comfortable speaking with the school staff now; therefore, we intend to purchase the license so that we will continue the service to our parents.
4.      Describe the types of informal learning you have been exposed to in your adult life. What as the purpose? What was the experience like? Was it engaging? Social? What role did you play? What role did the instructor play? 
·         In my lifetime, I have experienced many informal learning scenarios. For example, when I was dating my husband we are looking for engagement rings; unfortunately, we did not know anything about purchasing a quality diamond.  Therefore, we went to the library to read about diamonds and I went to the local book store to purchase book about How to Buy a Diamond.  The learning experience was fun because we were learning a subject that will affect us.  We learned a lot of facts and terminologies about diamonds so we decided to test our knowledge by traveling 2 hours to Houston to test our knowledge.  The jeweler was impressed about our understanding about diamonds but we left the place without a ring. 

No comments:

Post a Comment