Human Performance Technology

Much of the world of industry and education is in the business of doing. Getting employees and students to perform is not always easy. Although instructional technology and human performance technology may both look to training as a way of improving performance the latter also takes a larger view. HPT understands that the lack of skills and knowledge is only one cause of the lack of performance. However, they also see six others including incentives, tools, physical environment, and organizational systems. Although many companies will first try to implement training as a cure of poor performance it is not always the best solution. Training can be extremely expensive to do and in many cases is ineffective because the lack of skills or knowledge was not the root of the problem. It may be the equipment is faulty or the temperature is too high both of which are much less expensive to fix. As a result the solutions that a HPT is willing to consider will include just about anything. They do however look at the cost and benefit of a solution. If it is not cost efficient they will not do it.

One thing HPT examines that really caught my attention is incentives. It reminded me of something that I read years ago. It described a daycare in Tel Aviv that tried to stop parents from picking up their kids late by fining them $3.00 every time they did. What they found was that instead of late pickups declining they went up. This was the case because by paying the fine they were removing the moral incentive to do the right thing. This just shows how complex human behavior can be and how difficult the job of HPT can be but it can have dramatic improvements in productivity is implemented correctly.

I also thought of cash for grades programs and I wounder what a human performance technologist would say about the program.

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Naturalistic Evaluation

The Naturalistic Evaluation

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Clay Shirky: Cognitive Surplus at the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo

Reigeluth

Instructional design theory is used in very practical ways to create an environment where learning can easily occur. I thought it interesting that Reigeluth saw learning to include "cognitive, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual" (pg. 5). Unlike learning theory that studies the results of certain events or stimuli instructional design theory focuses on the desired result first and then designs an environment to achieve it. Dr. Gibbons wrote that learning theory looks for cause and effect relationships and instructional design theory seeks for effect and cause relationships. Furthermore, because instructional design theory is designed oriented it is more useful to practicing teachers because it can be applied in practical ways to help them teach their students. Reigeluth writes that the desired outcomes of instructional design theory are effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. However in actual design their are trade-offs that must be made.

Reigeluth said, "instructional-design theory identifies methods of instruction (ways to support and facilitate learning) and the situations in which those methods should and should not be used." I have been thinking about the paper that I wrote on webcasting. From this reading I realized that the goals I had for the paper were not based on instructional design. I was looking for a solution to an instructional problem that I was having and because of the high poverty rate at my school I was unsure if it would be effective. However, it is clear that learning theory is the foundation for effective instructional design theory.

I have been reading a book called Disrupting Class and found many parallels to this article. Both saw the current model of instruction as ineffective for for solving our modern challenges. They also agree that technology will be the catalyst to start moving toward a more customized form of education. It seems that their thoughts are becoming reality. I recently talked my sister-in-law who had meet with someone who was working with Brain Honey. He had actually brought the book Disrupting Class to the meeting and was describing some exciting ways that they are trying to use technology to customize learning.

Cognitive Apprenticeship

Here is the link for the Content, Sociology, Sequence, Method for Cognitive Apprenticeship (click on page 476): Link