Week 4 Reflection: 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. 

          A performance problem that I have encountered at work was students being excessively
        tardy to school. This is a problem because depending on when the student arrives at 
        school dictates how much instruction they are able to receive in a particular content area.
        To combat this situation, as a campus we could have a competition where the winning
        classes receive an extrinsic motivator at the end of each six weeks. We could track the
        progress for each class by posting the days that each homeroom has perfect
        attendance on the outside of the classroom in the hall for all participants to see so that
        they can track their own success as well. This could motivate not only the students to be
        on time,but the staff also.

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.

           I believe that EPSS have not been widely used because the technology has been
         somewhat of a threat to the people who are to use it. Alot of companies introduce new
         systems without getting input for devices from the very people who will be using them. 
         Corporations tend to tell you that this is what your going to use Also it makes employees
         feel inferior. In order to get help from one of these systems you must figure out first how
         to word the question just right or the keyword that will direct you to the answer that you
         are needing assistance with. Once you have done this, quite a bit of time could pass you
         by and that time could have been better spent on doing the actual task.
 
    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? 
        
          A problem that the faculty was having at the school that I worked at was integrating
        technology into their instruction in content areas such as in Science and Social
        Studies. In these areas teachers felt limited to watching videos. Due to the courses that I
        have completed at Commerce, I had been exposed to a few methods that I thought would
        assist with this issue. The one that I chose for this situation was having a Wiki that the
        teachers could assess and add to when they found sites that would be beneficial for the
        students use. For me personally it enable me to not have to search for sites to use each
        school year because all I had to do was use the ones that I had added from the previous
        year. Furthermore, once I shared the Wiki with the other teachers, having access to the
        Wiki minimized the frequency in which people asked me for different websites to go to.
        Most importantly the students were more engaged in these subjects and the teacher had
        a better understanding of the content that they were required to teach. 
            
          http://interactivelearning4kids.pbworks.com/

    4.    Describe the types of informal learning you have been exposed to in your adult life. What was the
           purpose? What was the experience like? Was it engaging? Social? What role did you play? What
           role did the instructor play?
      
           One of the best types of informal learning that I have been exposed to in my life would
         have to substitute teacher. I feel that there is no better way to learn how to be an
         effective teacher. When I was subbing I would look around the room to see if there were
         different types of work on the wall to get ideas for when I would have my own classroom.
         I would look in the different classroom as I walked up and down the halls of the school.
        This experience was I eye opening because I was able to see first hand which grade levels
        that I was better suited at teaching. I was in the role of the student because I was being
        taught by both the teachers and the students. The teachers taught me how to use my
        substitute teaching as a platform to secure a teaching position. The students taught me
        that they deserve quality instruction both in their teachers absence and presence.