OS X Lion Support Essentials First Class

February 9th, 2012 | by Jeremy | apple, technology, training

Feb
09

Today I finished teaching my first full class of OS X Lion Support Essentials. And barring the slight network issues and the fact that I had a server completely die on my this morning (and it was sitting in the server room), it was a pretty good experience.

My class size was larger than usual, and the students were extremely bright. All of them caught on quickly and easily, making it possible to cover a lot of topics faster than usual. We even had time to run a certification exam that afternoon (the student passed!).

For those who have not taken the class before, we cover the necessary essentials in managing an OS X Lion computer. We cover installation, configuration, accounts, file systems, Directory binding, providing network services, printing and the boot process. There’s more and if you are interested in learning, feel free to register! I call this certification the phone support cert, as it prepares someone to work at the help desk for Mac computers. If you pass the certification exam then you receive your Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) certification, which is an accomplishment. Ask anyone that had to take the exam, and I’m sure they would agree.

I really enjoyed the class today, and I’m looking forward to this April for our Server Essentials class. That will be a blast as well, particularly since I got to contribute to the Workbook on that one!

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Review: Treehouse Training and Badges

February 3rd, 2012 | by Jeremy | analysis, assessment, distance learning, learning, review, technology, training

Feb
03

Having finished all the available badges on the Treamtreehouse.com website, I thought I would provide an evaluation of what I thought of the website, the learning method, and the delivery.

Website

The website is very well put together, even though there is a feeling of “start-up” on the site. The feeling comes from the three badges (as of this writing) that are incomplete (JavaScript Foundations, Photoshop Foundations, and Ruby Foundations). Also, there is generally a delay in getting to certain pages (like the Profile and Dashboard). When you take the quizzes to get your badge, occasionally some will blank out for no obvious reason, meaning you need to go through the questions again.

But the organization is very well done. It’s easy to navigate through the course materials, from one badge to another, and the Dashboard makes it easy to follow up on what your next badges would be. Over all, I really like the website.

Learning Method

The badges are organized by topic, which build upon each other to show which skills you have accomplished. You know you have accomplished the skills, because most badges have challenges and final challenges that require you to show your knowledge by accomplishing a task. It’s well built, and equates to a classroom Topic then Quiz learning method to establish skills. I’ve mentioned the incredible motivating factor that comes from earning a badge.

Straight video lectures with demos are not for everyone. They are great for those who learn in a visual and/or auditory, but those who are tactile in their learning (needing to get hands-on) will find the speed of the videos a little frustrating. Another frustration I experienced was the number of videos or length of videos that will precede a quiz. It requires the student to retain a lot of information. Without more practice for each video, quizzes can get frustrating. In particular I’m thinking about the Introduction to Programming badge and the iOS 4 badge. Both badges had videos that lasted 11+ minutes, and had several in succession, making it harder to retain information for the quiz. And I find that it’s the test that helps you learn more than just the lecture.

Overall, I think this is a great way to learn. Video lectures can work well when quizzes are appropriately spaced, and most of these badges do really well.

Delivery

I found the most effective learning experiences with Treehouse were those that had videos lasting no more than 7 minutes, badges (modules) that had no more than 4 or 5 videos, and challenges that preceded a small selection of modules. From there the retention was optimal, while also giving me plenty of content on which to work.

Conclusion

Overall, I would definitely recommend using Treehouse, or any similar badge-based learning method. The motivation you get from earning badges that build into more badges is intense, the ability to show your knowledge in such a clear cut form is refreshing, and the knowledge that you know what you know is even better. Overall, badges are looking like a very viable new way to qualify learning at an incremental level.

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Badges: Motivating Education

January 26th, 2012 | by Jeremy | assessment, distance learning, learning, technology, training

Jan
26

For many years Education has had a big problem: It’s been seen as being boring, tiring, and a chore. Since the days of “No more Teachers, no more books” to the “Hey Teacher, Leave them Kids Alone”, people have been complaining about education. Everyone from parents to teachers have been looking for some way to make education fun again. And it seems something has grown from the video game world that can help: badges.

Badges are, essentially, minor accomplishment trophies, showing a mastery of a skill. Unlike the old “Gold Star on Forehead” methods used by teachers to reward correct answers, badges can be linked directly to a single skill (or series of skills). Video games use them as a way to modivate the player to continue to play the game by giving them something to work toward that takes perhaps less than 15 to 30 minutes. Before long, you have a player that has spent hours playing a game just to get a virtual award and feel accomplished. While many parents have seen these accomplishments as hollow, educators have seen them as a way to keep students interested in learning.

I have to admit, I was skeptical at first when I saw a number of institutions that apply them. How can you be sure they show a level of accomplishment? What is the standard of measurement? How is the badge a sign of a quality of education, and show a quantative, measured result? Well, the only way to know for sure would be to test it out. I found a website, TeamTreeHouse.com, that provided training videos that built the student up with a number of badges. The rates were reasonable for registration, so I signed up to see what it was like.

They (currently) have three main badges: Web Design, Web Development, and iOS 4 Programming. Looking at the number of videos, the length of each video, I figured if I booked through them I might be able to finish the whole training regime within a month, so I selected every badge path they had. Then I started on the first badge, which was an Introduction to HTML. As a learner, you watch a series of short videos (the longest was almost 20 minutes, the shortest was less then 2), and then at the end take a quiz to see how much you learned. After answering five consecutive questions correctly, you are awarded the “minor” badge, and move on to the next. After accomplishing all the minor badges in the HTML badge set, you are awarded the HTML badge, and so move on to the next set. After completing all the Web Design badges, you are awarded the Web Design “super” badge.

Once I saw how it worked, I was impressed. Evaluation of student knowledge is critical to learning, both before they start to learn, and after. By using this method of taking a quiz at any time during the badge sessions, the student can evaluate how much they already know about a given topic, and how much more they need to know. For online learning, this is great, because students have a way to self-evaluate when they need more instruction, how much instruction, and get instruction on targeted skills they seek. Also, as an added bonus, badges show everyone involved in the person’s education from the teacher, to the parent, to the student, and even to a potential employer, what skills they truly have beyond having “taken a class”. They may be minor accomplishments, but they represent real skills that have been acquired.

There is a caveat to this though: with the automated testing on TeamTreeHouse.com it is possible to continue to try answering questions until you get them right, as the questions repeat from a relatively small subset of questions. Of course that can be easily remedied by having either a larger question set, a limited amount of time to take the quiz, or both. Personally I don’t think it’s too terrible, as even by answering a question wrong it forces you to rethink the answer, and that in and of itself is learning.

So what about our guilded halls of learning in education, both K-12 and Higher Ed? How can this be implemented? Well, it would be both very easy (at least in concept), and extremely complex (in execution). Most educators have already built a well-ordered lesson plan that breaks down into topics, skills, knowledge, etc. that would directly relate to badges, both minor and regular badges. Continue to collect them, and you get a certificate with all your accomplishment badges, detailing the skills you have learned while studying. The real problem would be keeping track of these badges. An easy way would be to offer quizzes and assign them as each quiz is passed. But someone would need to manage the badge accomplishments, and provide a way to make them “puiblic”, either by having physical badges or digital badges.

The logistics of the badge question can be worked out, but it will take time to apply it to traditional education. In the mean time, to illustrate just how addicting learning by badges can be, I started the task of completing all 66 available badges on the site (as of this writing) on Monday and I have just 10 more to go. It is definitely taking less than the month I thought it would take, and that for me is reason enough to take education with badges seriously. If you would like to see what these badges look like, you can view my profile. This is just one very exciting thing I can see coming up for educating a connected generation. What do you think?

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OS X Lion Server Essentials 10.7 Workbook is Available!

November 30th, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, training

Nov
30

For those of you who are looking for Apple training for OS X Lion, particularly if you have a Server, the classes are now available for registration, and the workbook is available for those classes. And while I am excited that the classes are available and are being taught (some by me, of course), there is another reason: I contributed to the writing of the Workbook. I can share this now with the publication of the workbook, and I’m excited. It’s the first time anything I have contributed to has been published, and it’s a very good book.

The process was longer than I expected for such a small contribution, but it was a great experience. I was contacted by the project manager/official author of the book to help with the exercises. I chose one chapter, and got to work in my spare time rewriting the exercises to work with the release of Lion. My contributions, with screenshots, were then sent on to the technical editor for review, and he made a ton of excellent suggestions and corrections. I’m not the best at taking criticism, but every one was correct, though not all the suggested changes needed to be made (instead different changes were made). It then went on to editing, where more screenshots were taken, updated, etc. My part ended with the Beta class where Mac OS X experts who had more experience than I did got together and tested out the workbook. More suggestions and corrections were made by the Author, and the final book was compiled.

The publishers and editor at Peachpit were excellent to work with, and the staff at Apple were fabulous. Arek Dreyer, the author of the Workbook and the Reference book, was great to work with, as was Adam Karneboge the technical editor. I loved the experience and would do it again in a heartbeat.

For those of you who are interested in purchasing the workbook, I’m afraid to say the price may be more than you think: It’s only available from Apple Authorized Training Centers, and only distributed to students that take the Lion 201 training course ($1500.00). But you get three days of training in the bargain, learn how to use Apple Server to manage a domain, website, file sharing, and Mobile Device Management for Macs and iOS devices. Classes at the University of Utah start in the Spring. Check them out!

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Benefits of Teaching

April 15th, 2011 | by Jeremy | learning, training

Apr
15

There are several things that make Teaching worth while. These things help you look past the politics, layers of red tape, and constant posturing for respect and position. And all these things come down to the students learning something.

In spite of what most people tell you, where you go to school doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you learn more things. You may have better tools for learning elsewhere (like books, equipment, etc.), but ultimately learning is a personal responsibility. As a teacher, it is your responsibility to provide information in such a way as to increase someone’s ability to learn. So we present learning plans, schedules, assignments, assessments, quizzes, tests, grades, grade levels, etc. all to provide you, the student, with a healthy, safe, responsible environment to exercise your rights to learn.

There are times when that fails. Construction, relocation, faulty air conditioning, etc. can all distract from the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to learn. But these are just that, distractions. Often, they can be taken as excuses for not learning, reasons for letting that responsibility slip from your grasp while trying to fling it on to someone else.

And then there are times when we as teachers succeed, and that alone makes it all worth while. For instance, today in my Linux class, my students started telling me how they integrated using the command line and scripting in their work. Both techniques they learned while in my class. Both stories warmed my heart no end. That, my friends, is what teaching is all about. That is what makes it all worth while. My personal investment in my students was accepted, and validated in their learning process.

Ever wonder what makes parents really proud of their children? It’s the same thing. They work with their kids to teach them something, pass on knowledge they gained, and see their children apply it. Teachers are the same, and take just as much pride in the learning of others. It’s a great feeling.

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Dog Training and Service Dogs

February 6th, 2011 | by Jeremy | autism, training

Feb
06

We have had out dog now for well over 6 months, and he and our son have bend well. He is tolerant, to a point, and shows the Labrador traits strongly. He also shows his Corgi traits, making it an interesting mix. And now, he is ready for training.

When we first found our dog Toby, we wanted a smaller dog to be a good service dog for the boys. We wanted something small so that he wouldn’t take up too much room. We also wanted a breed that was a working dog, with an emphasis in herding.

When we found Toby’s listing, the family that had him said he was a border collie/corgi mix. Instead, he turned out to be a labrador/corgi mix, making him a very big dog. We were dubious about him at first, but when he started herding your youngest away from where he was not supposed to go, I was hooked. We loaded him up in the car, and were ready for the new member of the family.

So now, we are ready to start his training as a service dog. According to the ADA, a service dog is any trained dog with good manners in public a public place that also performs working tasks (a list of requirements cand be found here).

The training we are putting our dog through is beginning stuff, and we don’t expect to hve him ready as a service dog for at least a year. But in that time, we intend to teach him at least seven useful skills to help a child with Autism. First, to sense a coming meltdown and react to short-circuit it. Second, to find our son in various situations. Third, to open doors when necessary. Fourth, to close doors when necessary. Fifth, to fetch various objects for our son, Sixth, to put objects out of harms way (toys, and such). Lastly, to tug our son from dangerous situations or as a way to restrain him.

Vests marking him as a service dog are not difficult to find, and I have already targeted a couple that I think would be useful. But until he is ready, our dog Toby is a service tog in training. I’m looking forward to the day when he is ready to keep a good watch out for our son in all social situations.

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SME’s and Instructors: The Good, and the Difference Between Them

April 23rd, 2010 | by Jeremy | learning, training

Apr
23

I was talking with my friend Joseph about a training that he had in Puppet, and the instructor’s assumptions when they started the class. Now, before I start, let me tell you that Joseph was a trainer and instructor with Guru Labs, a well-respected source for Linux training. He started relating to me the experience he had with the trainer, and how he reacted to the training process. I immediately identified the trainer as a SME, or Subject Matter Expert. This prompted a quick discussion on the differences between the Subject Matter Expert and the Instructor or Trainer.

If you have been following my posts for a while, you know that I have a different definition of what a Trainer is, or rather what a trainer should be. Trainers are those who not only know their subjects, but know how to convey the subject to the student without exceeding their cognitive load. There are a lot of tricks to doing this that anyone can learn, but the real instructor can recognize and adjust to their student’s cognitive capabilities.

At the heart here is the cognitive load. That is, the level a student can reach before they feel overwhelmed. Some do so quickly, either because they are new to the subject or they have inhibited their learning somehow (no breakfast, poorly hydrated, medicated, distracted, etc.). A great instructor can adjust the environment, terminology, and teaching methods to appeal to the student’s learning ability.

So where does the SME fit into this? A poor SME can be easily identified by how they react to a question to which they do not know the answer: they lie through their teeth. They make something up that sounds plausible, and then teach it as though it were fact.

A good SME will do the research, though usually they do it during the training when they should be moving on in the lecture. This means they keep the students on hold, often bored, while he tries to find the answer. A bad instructor will do this as well. Also, it’s well worth noting that a good SME can become a good Instructor, with proper experience or training.

A good Instructor will place the question on hold (often after polling the students present to see if anyone has had a similar experience), and then will do the research after the lecture and while students are going through exercises. He will then immediately come back when he has the answer to let everyone know what the answer was, and as a bonus point, tell them where the answer was found.

There are a lot of other clues to telling a good instructor from a good SME, but this one is the one that came up in our discussions. Does anyone else have a similar experience, or one they would like to share?

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Week In Review: Politics and Training

April 22nd, 2010 | by Jeremy | apple, certification, ipad, iphone, politics, technology, training

Apr
22

This week has been really interesting, and really busy. For that reason, I’m doing another week in review (and it’s only Thursday!).

First, Apple Training. I taught the Mac OS X 10.6 Server Essentials course this week, and had two students. Both were sharp, but one, Aaron Hix, works with Apple. It was fun to talk with him, learn some things from his experiences, and talk about people we know. I also got to see him at work (three laptops, an iPad, and an iPhone all running). It was great fun, and we got a lot accomplished, and quickly! It was the first time the Server Essentials class finished in 3 days instead of 4 (though we did skip exercises that both students were not anxious to go through).

Second, I ordered an iPad from the Campus bookstore. They had a sale where sales tax was not included in the price of all Apple merchandise, so I thought I would go for it. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any iPads in stock (none! Not even the 32GB which is supposed to be the unpopular one). So, I placed the order and paid for it anyway, and I’m still waiting for it to show up (it could be in as late as next week). In the mean time, I’m getting my apps ready, my pictures put together, and other fun things that come with getting a new device.

Third, I became a Master Trainer for Apple IT classes, which means that we at the University of Utah can offer T3 courses. It’s pretty exciting, and I’m looking forward to some being scheduled. I also found out that we are unique among Apple Authorized Training Centers because we are able to run classes with just two students. Other AATC’s usually need to have 5 to 8 to run a class. We are hoping this means we get more students coming to our site, knowing we won’t cancel on them.

Now for the Politics. Apparently former Illinois Governor Blagojavich wants to have President Obama testify in his corruption trial, as part of the defense. It will be interesting to see if a federal judge will try to subpoena the President in this matter. My guess is he will not find reason to do so, though it’s always possible. Even if it doesn’t happen here in Federal Court, it may be taken to the Supreme Court where the President will be asked again to testify. And if asked, will the President make a personal appearance, or will he participate in some other way? I’m keeping my eye on this one, just because it’s an interesting situation for the Judicial and the Executive branches.

Apple vs. Adobe: An interesting game of attacks, primarily from Adobe. All over Flash.. Sure, Flash is a big part of the web (advertising, at least for my part), and it’s quite popular. But Apple doesn’t want it on their iPhone or iPad. So, Adobe tried to work around it by using Flash to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad, which Apple killed with the 4.0 user agreement (which also killed Titanium from Appcelerator). Rumors were flying about Adobe suing Apple, but today they attacked Apple by saying they would rather work with Open platforms with their proprietary platform than with Apple’s closed ecosystem that supports open standards. Apple fired back, the first time the Company has said anything publicly, while Adobe as a company and as individuals have been spewing forth hatred and ire at Apple.

Now, I really like Apple. I teach about their technologies, and I’m developing for the iPhone using their tools (mostly because I can’t use Titanium for my class I’m developing). I like Adobe. Photoshop is great, as are many of their other products. But, much like fanbois for any technology that attack others for their choices, Adobe as a company has been very, well, surprisingly unprofessional. So has Steve Jobs in his remarks, though they were never made publicly (I don’t consider a company meeting public, as it’s within the private company).

I come away from this liking the experience I have with Apple’s tools, not having stupid Flash ads pop up over websites I’m trying to read, and enjoying the idea of having open standards grow faster on the Internet. I also come away from this with a bad taste in my mouth for Adobe. Perhaps I should start to look at the GIMP a bit more. Also, I come away with having less respect for Steve Jobs as a person, though he seems to be doing very well as a CEO.

Anyway, that’s the week in review. Hopefully there will be some new news on the iPad soon, as in tomorrow. But if not, I’ll be talking about it when I finally get my hands on it.

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Learning Captivate

May 19th, 2009 | by Jeremy | distance learning, learning, technology, training

May
19

Recently I have been looking at various trainer and instructional design positions to get a good view of what the Industry is looking for, and how we as a Continuing Education department could help meet those needs. One program that kept coming up is Captivate.

Captivate, for those of you who are not familiar with the program, is a process and training development tool from Adobe. It will make Flash videos from processes and provide a number of plugins, such as SCORM, so that these processes can be in turn graded and developed in that manner. I haven’t had any previous experience with Captivate in the past, and as such this new process is new to me. Also, Captivate is not currently available for the Mac, which makes learning in a Virtual Machine all the more difficult.

So why bother? Well, for one, I can make a better looking test for my classes, and have the results plug directly into a WebCT or Moodle course. I can also provide additional training that I don’t have time to cover in class. All in all, it’s a great method for professional looking presentations that are self-paced. Anyway, there is a chance that Captivate could be released for the Mac soon, and it will be interesting to see how it will be implemented.

So how am I learning Captivate? There is a Captivating video podcast that provides some great instruction on Captivate and using it in a classroom setting. To date I know how to create a video demo and training process with Captivate, and I’m looking forward to the Editing episodes.

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Teaching Writing Skills

April 24th, 2009 | by Jeremy | autism, learning, training

Apr
24

My son is currently trying to learn how to write his name. He is excited about this, because I have been trying to help him write his name since he was 2, and now he has the chance to show his teachers what he can do.

There are two things to keep in mind when teaching an autistic children:

Autistic children need to have the steps broken down for them.
Autistic children need to have both auditory and visual stimulation to keep their attention.

For the steps, this may seem easier than it really is. For writing, you need to include “Touch the paper” as the first step, then down for a line, up for a line, over for a horizontal line, and so forth. It can be pretty involved, but it’s the same steps that you should be using for any pre-schooler. The result is a step by step instruction manual for writing the alphabet.

For auditory and visual stimulation, just saying the letter as it’s written has worked for my son. His preschool will say the steps as they write, but I would rather he identify the letter with the visual queue. For me, it just makes more sense.

Of course a really neat tool that could be used to teach children how to write with their fingers would be, say, an iPhone app that would give you a letter to write, tell you the steps as the letter is written in front of you, and let you trace your finger as it writes. This would be a huge SCORM module for the iPhone (if the iPhone supported Flash of course), and could help teachers evaluate preschoolers in general. Hm. Something to work on, I suppose. ^_^

For now, I find using a whiteboard easel (available at IKEA) works for my son, as he can write his name and then draw other things on it. We have also used a Magna-Doodle, crayons and paper, and finally sidewalk chalk. The medium doesn’t matter, it’s the motion and the sound that helps the autistic child learn.

So now while he’s able to write some letters, I want to help him understand that they are related and have specific sounds. This is going to be really hard, because sounding out letters is primarily auditory. Perhaps if I add some finger gestures with each sound… I’ll post what I find.

So for those of you with autistic preschoolers and were wondering how to reach them with writing, give the above a try. A huge thanks to my son’s preschool teachers for their help and insight!

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