The situation that I want to present is a personal project.  I am a musician and a year ago I started my second production.  To create a CD You will need to considerate many hours of planning and to take care of things to obtain good results.  Automatically I became the PM of the project, and at the same time the ID.  The first steps of the project are completed at my house.  I also have a music arranger, which turn my ideas true during the preproduction stages.  This process has to be very clear and establish details.  Once there are agreements with the other parts; this is permanent.  One example is the selection of songs; once they’re selected we need to search for copyrights and permissions.  This stage brings much money invested and many planning.

After the music arranger started, he calls me to share some suggestions and to change songs.  He wanted to use certain songs that he had the approval of recording them.  Starting the project all over again, meant a waste of money.  This situation interrupted my musical inspiration.  There were many calls, insisting on changing materials.  I don’t want to ignore how this situation made me stop my recording.  I wasn’t sure on how to handle this situation.  I decided to stay firm and share with him my desire to continue the recording as planned.

“There are critical moments when project teams have just gotta say “no!”.(Greer, M. 2010). This weren’t easy moments.  I was trying to keeping it as it was.  This changes affected my timeline and it brought many disappointments.  It end up delaying the date for the release and changes on the agenda.   An important detail is the fact that I didn’t include an PM that would have all evidence and documentation to avoid Scope Creep.   Factors should as “change Scope document” could help us.  These documents help us to stay firm and not accept changes.

References:

“Practitioner Voices: Overcoming ‘Scope Creep’” Walden University, 2010

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

“Project Management Concerns: ‘Scope Creep’” Walden University, 2010

Budgets and Resource Allocation

The process of developing trainings is arduous that requires a series of specific steps for the quality of it.  Various websites dedicated to the development of trainings presents us their services.  It presents various models that shares the amount of hours invested in this profession of Instructional Design.

 Learning Circuits

http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0809_kapp.htm

Learning Circuits is a division of ASTD, dedicated on trainings for all types of business.  The majority of their studies are based on ADDIE.  R. Defelice and K. Kapp presents us a study about training development and the different factors that affect it.

 

 

 

Proton Group Co. 

 

http://www.protongroupco.com/home

 

 

This company is dedicated to project managements of construction projects.  Project Controls, Scheduling, Estimating, Cost control and other specialized services offered.  The design and construction of structures requires a detailed planning process and budget planning.   The control of the inventory, work hours, payroll and schedules are priority for a company that is looking for success.

 

Communicating Effectively

  

The message presented in this email is clear and precise.  If I would have receive this message it would be very effective to remind me of my responsibility.  In my particular situation, emails are effective to communicate in my workspace.  The use of emails in companies, schools and organizations has become part of the daily routine of communication.  Many work areas require the use of emails as a communication tool.  It is important to send emails to maintain evidence of the communication establish.

The use of voice mail could also be a beneficial and essential tool.  In this particular case I don’t like the tone of the message.  The requirements of specific document require a more formal communication, in my opinion.  There are moments when an audio message could bother the person if they are under stress.  Communicating a message in audio allows to perceive the tone in which we want to communicate the message.

Communicating a message in face-to-face is another effective way that will allow to see the reaction of the person.  In this particular case, the communication is less formal.  The message face to face allows the use of body language that could bring a positive reaction in the recipient. The message face to face helps to maintain an effective communication in offices where everyone has different roles.

The three ways presented complements each other.  The email is an essential communication tool in your workspace.  The use to voice mails is other type of communication that could be important in many different settings.  The voice tone is important to consider when communicating a message.  Face to face is essential since allows a reaction of the person who communicates and who receives the message.

Reference

Multimedia Program: "The Art of Effective Communication"
 

Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

 

A couple years ago I received the good news that I will participate of a project to bring video conference to the classroom.  I felt very happy about this project ignoring all obstacles that will prevent this project to be successful.  I remember participating in different trainings and meeting with others teacher participants of the same project.  Each meeting increased our motivation and made us dream of the day of joining all our classes together and reach other classes around the world.

After two months I could identify that the planning process was not effective and that implementation was not taking place.  After two months they didn’t completed the connection and basically there was no basic training on equipment management.  The meetings turned to be paperwork meetings and dream sharing sessions.

The right thing would be to integrate teachers in the project after realizing technical tests.  The lack of planning was key to postpone the implementation of the project.  The selection of personnel for the project wasn’t done in a correct way.  The PM was a person with no technology knowledge and no idea on how to manage a project.

 

A positive part of this project was to collaborate with other teachers to plan lessons and activities.  Exchanging ideas and experiences enriched the process.  All teachers were enthusiastic about creating high quality projects to benefit our students.

Completing a project scope was never mentioned.  It was needed to identify risks and design a plan to work with these knowing what would affect the process.  From my learning’s I would start from scratch.  I would create a team with a PM, an ID and various professionals with educational knowledge.  I would have established a curricular plan to prepare teachers in how to integrate the use of video conference to enrich instruction.  They should have established a curricular plan to help teachers that refuse due to privacy myths.

This was a excellent idea, bad planned.  There was no participation of directors.  In my situation, we received the equipment and the principal didn’t authorize its use.  The equipment was kept so safe that it disappears.   She could never understand why would I want to connect my students with students around the world.  The best way was to integrate all parts.  Present the idea with the use of a scope and have an ID controlling its design and identifying advantages present with the use of videoconferencing.


Reference:
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
“Project Management Concerns: ‘Scope Creep’” Walden University, 2010

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The Future of Distance Learning

We are living in a socio-cultural transformation period.  During this period the institutional and traditional models are object of discussion.  New technologies are transformation and developing new models that integrate access to knowledge.  These technologies of information and communication have motivated a cultural and social change in our communication and the communication channels to share knowledge.  Distance learning continues to grow rapidly not only as a cost-effective option; also as a necessary tool in all educational areas and all types of business.  My perception includes a rapid growth that will be accompanied with the social webs.  The way that we daily interact with the use of Internet has transformed the society in one highly technological.  “Online environment has changed significantly” (Siemens, G. 2010).

As a middle school teacher, in my computer science class one of my biggest challenges is to train my student in the correct use of technological tools.  By the other side, it is my responsibility as a Instructional Designer to design learning experiences to share principles of technology integration with my coworkers.  Other teachers are exploring the use of new technologies without idea on how these could benefit our students and how technology literacy skills can be developed.  It is a challenge to design for adults (teachers) and for teenagers (students) on technology use and integration.

There is no doubt that we are living in a technological era.  It is very important to become a motivating agent to individuals and organizations.  Distance Learning needs to be promoted in different ways.  Many organizations have discovered the effectiveness of Distance Learning to provide trainings design to fit their particular needs.  In the educational area K-12, we need to start integrating tools that provide students with a new learning alternative.  A great example is the expressions of President Obama presenting the use of technology as the tool of the future.  We need to convince many educational systems about the use and integration of technology in the educational system.  Instructional designers should have the opportunity to develop different educational strategies including distance learning opportunities.

My experience at Walden has been gratifying as a student.  Being able to participate in a program that really works.  In 2000, I participated in online experiences that were totally different.  I also participated as an online teacher for high school students.  After these experiences I am a defender of distance education.  I have to consider how our society has advanced in technological areas.  As a teacher, I integrate the use of distance learning as a tool to help my students.  By the other side I try to influence other areas where I collaborate such as church and other educational organizations incorporating distance learning in different aspects of our daily life.  

In conclusion, as a student I can positively talk about the benefits of distance learning.  As an Instructional Designer I can assure that distance learning is one of the most effective tools of our times.  “We need to recognize the global dimension of education” (Siemens, G. 2010).  In corporations, industries and educational areas distance learning plays an important role in the development of instruction.

References:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Video Program: “The Future of Distance Education” 2010, Walden University

Converting to a Distance Learning Format

  

A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees in his face-to-face training sessions and wants to try something new. With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to interact with each other and learn the material in both a face-to-face and online environment. In addition, he is considering putting all of his training materials on a server so that the trainees have access to resources and assignments at all times.

In this scenario the following areas will be consider:

• Pre-planning strategies - Explore and select technological activities that will enhance the learning experience.
• Aspects to enhanced - The use of different tools like wikis, chat, discussion boards and more will enhance the distance learning experience.
• Trainer role - The facilitator will provide significant activities that will bring content to become meaningful for the learner
• Student participation - The trainer will be a motivation agent where the student trusts and doesn’t fear using technology.

Click on the link to read more.