Work Literacy - A "Must Read" Blog

I have just found a new blog started June 1 that is on my “must read” list. It’s Work Literacy and is located at http://www.workliteracy.com/. Started by Tony Karrer and Michele Martin, this blog addresses issues of workplace information literacy, obstacles to developing new skills and learning new tools, and methods to encourage change. Two great posts to share:

“In a video presentation at Enterprise 2.0, two of the CIA Intellipedia folks mention a document on their Wiki that was put together by the OSS (precursor to the CIA) which describes how to best sabotage an organization” http://www.workliteracy.com/knowledge-work-sabotage

“…a new kind of illiteracy. And it’s worse, because it’s not a conscious illiteracy. You feel like you can still do your job. But you are slowly falling behind and as time goes by it becomes harder to catch up because you lack the learning skills that are part of this new literacy.” http://www.workliteracy.com/cognitive-age-illiteracy

This falls in quite nicely with the current initiatives in nursing to increase informatics literacy among nurses, nursing faculty, and nursing students. See the National League for Nursing newly published Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses to Practice in a Technology-rich Environment: An Informatics Agenda and The Tiger Summit Initiative. The 2007 Tiger Summar Report is at https://www.tigersummit.com/uploads/TIGERInitiative_Report2007_bw.pdf.

Of course the big question is how to accomplish those goals? I believe both clinicians and administrators want applications and education sessions they can use NOW, a "guerilla informatics" approach.

• How can I keep up to date with my clinical specialty?
• How can I use office productivity applications to decrease manual data recording and analysis?
• How can I communicate effectively with my staff or committe?
• How can I lean these things quickly with minimal classroom time or cost?

Brain Rules, Pecha Kucha, and Age +2

Beth Kanter's blog is a definite read. Today's posting is "Brain Rules for Presenters" with a embedded slide show entitled "Takeaways and Quotes from Dr John Medina's Brain Rules: What all Presenters Need to know". John Medina's website is at http://www.johnmedina.com/.

One point John Medina makes is attention span drops off sharply after 10 minutes, so every ten minutes, break up your presentation with a story, exercise, etc. Pretty much in harmony with the Age +2 approach (although that would make each block 20 minutes for adults) and the Pecha Kucha approach of about 6.5 minutes.

I do like the idea of the fixed time format of Pecha Kucha although I haven't tried to incorporate it into my classes yet. Sad to say I'm still bludgeoning with PowerPoint and waaay too many bullet points. It is important to remember that the format was designed not so much for teaching but as a way of limiting time so multiple presenters would have a chance to show their stuff and consists of 20 images displayed for 20 seconds each.

So if we average 6.5, 10 and 20 we get a little over 12 minutes per unit and given the normal 50 minute class time there would be time for 3 or 4 units depending on how long the "change gears" section lasts.

He also talks about exercise as good for the brain as well as the rest of the body, and the use of images in presentations. All designed to get attention, keep attention, and stimulate the potential to recall information. Kathy Sierra, who sadly no longer blogs, called it "getting past the brain's crap filter". There is a wonderful archived post called "Crash Course in Learning Theory" at http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/01/crash_course_in.html.

Grasshopper minds

A colleague sent me the link to a wonderful article from ReadWriteWeb called "Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web" at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_gen_y_is_going_to_change_the_web.php

I especially like the line

>No more long boring text! Thanks to constant media input, Gen Y has shorter attention spans and their "grasshopper minds" leap quickly from topic to topic.

Got me to wondering whether the "Pecha Kucha" approach might be a useful teaching tool?

• http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/04/a-primer-on-pec.html
• http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha
  

One of my sons was a commercial radio DJ and said they divide up their ratings blocks into 15 minute segments to meet listener attention spans. His wife, a Jr High School science teacher, said there is a teaching technique called "age +2" (they don't go higher than age 18) to determine approximate didactic time before switching to discussion, break, funny story, assignment, etc. The goal is to adapt teaching time to meet optimum attention span. A typical hour long class might have 2 or 3 shorter blocks interspersed with an alternate activity.

Might be a worthwhile approach for both academic as well as workplace presentations.