Section 4: Human Performance Technology

Human Performance Technology

1.      Identify a performance problem in your area of work and provide a non instructional solution to solve the problem.

·         The Problem:  Teachers are not using online technology to enhance student instruction:

This year, we have implemented the use of an online Portal.  This Portal has numerous advantages for teachers and students.  The advantages can not be seen if no one is using it.  At the beginning of the year, all teachers were registered and trained in using the Portal.  We have designed a teacher group and there are only two teachers using the Portal, and only one, myself, that is using it to post assignments.  This is the first step to offering some kind of distance education for our students.  It will also prepare them to work in the new college environment so it is very important that all teachers use this Portal.

·         The Solution: Create a Human Performance Team (HPI) that will encourage teachers to use more online technology in their lesson plans.

Steps to take:

1.      Create a culture change by using more online communications through the Portal.  Have a notification system alert each teacher when they have a message.  The HPI team should communicate on a regular basis, inside and outside of school times.

2.      Offer neat tips and tricks to maneuver around the Portal.  Teach informally by sending messages such as: “Check this out this weekend and shoot me an email of how you liked it.”

3.      Give incentives or prizes for the teacher who logs in the most air time, creates the most online lessons, watches the most educational videos, downloads the most web 2.0 tools, etc.  Create meaningful incentives that will motivate the teachers intrinsically.

4.      Create subgroups that would include the Science Department, the Math Department, the Technology Department, etc. and have the teachers design their home page themes (much like a website), with lessons to share amongst each other.

5.      Have the HPI Team evaluate activities and monitor student participation for each teacher.

6.      The HPI Team should develop clear consequences for teachers who are not participating and develop ways to assimilate them in the new school culture.

2.      Define Electronic Performance Support Systems and describe why they are not widely used.

·         Electronic Performance Support Systems are computer software programs that work together to improve user performance.

·         Electronic Performance Support Systems is a set of tools that can help an organization to reduce the cost of training and offer technical support to staff.

·         Electronic Performance Support Systems is an integrated electronic environment that is available to and easily accessible by each employee and is structured to provide immediate, individualized on-line access to the full range of information, software, guidance, advice and assistance, data, images, tools, and assessment and monitoring systems to permit job performance with minimal support and intervention by others.

I like the last definition because it emphasizes that the system is not just software but is an integrated electronic environment.  It is easily accessible and structured to provide help at the users fingertips.

I think that money to set up the EPSS is a considering factor to why it has not been widely used.  I do believe that once the system is in place, the company will actually save money by not needing expert interaction for troubleshooting or to come in and solve performance problems.  I also think that each business has different needs so each EPSS must be specifically designed for that company.  That can be very costly.

I think that once businesses see that the initial cost to set up a EPPS is a one time investment, they will begin to design prototypes that would be interchangeable within different industries; thereby making them more affordable to businesses.

3.      Identify a problem at work and describe how a blended learning approach could be used to solve the problem.

The Problem: The technology technician at school is the only person that has total and complete access to all security settings making it impossible for the technology teachers to make just in time changes in class to incorporate other learning strategies.  The technician has to schedule a time to come out and put in the password to make simple updates and changes.

For instance, if I am creating something in the design class that requires printouts to be made in color, only one computer supports the color printer so all students have to wait in line and sign in and out on that one computer.  The time wasted on that is incredible.  I am allowed two sets of toner per year and all other classes have access to that printer as well.  They just come in and use it when they need to.  No one ever thinks to request a set of color toners for their use.  Anyway, if I had the knowledge available, I could set the default to the color printer on the network so that every student’s computer could print that day’s assignment only.  Then I could set it back as needed. 

Because we only have one tech person for the district and she services five schools, it sometimes takes days for a simple change to be made.  If a KM system was in place, we could share the information that right now is embedded in only one brain. Because KM is the creation, archiving, and sharing of valuable information and we have similar interests and tacit knowledge, there really is no reason that we do not have the competitive advantage.  A KM system would increase opportunities available to our students by enhancing human performance.  There is no reason to lock up the information that technology teachers need to do their jobs, it should be shared and training on undiscovered knowledge should be made available as part of the blended learning approach.

One way to accomplish this would be:

1.       To have access to the information

a.       Synchronize resources so answers are easy to find  

2.      To collaborate using tacit knowledge

a.       Incentives to reward the sharing of knowledge

3.      To put a system in place that would allow the teacher  access to information

a.       Use metatags for just in time operations

Right now only one person has the authority and ability to make changes to the computer network.  I think that if we start small and create a knowledge management system; which includes a team of technical people including the technician, the librarian, and the technology teacher it would improve the performance of the teachers and the students being taught. 

4.      Informal learning in my adult life

Wow, I am pretty old so I have had a ton of informal learning. 

·         I started my adult life when I got married.  Talk about informal learning!  What I learned most in the early years of marriage was compromise and empathy.  My instructor: The husband needed nurturing much like a child.  His needs resulted in my learning to take care of his needs, usually at the expense of my own.

·         I then began having children and learned about Love, real love that makes you a protector and a leader.  My Instructors: Three children, the roles they played were to create the friction that makes a human grow.  Decisions had to be made daily, hourly, in the minute, and in the second.  So many mistakes and false assumptions were made during that time. I learned it was okay to make mistakes and how to listen because not everything is as it seems when dealing with children.

·         I went through a time of sickness and loss and that time taught me strength and perseverance. 

·         My first taste of formal education began in a technical college where I was training to be a Registered Nurse.  That taught me that I did not have the compassion it took to spend my entire life in that career so I quit college.

·         I then went to work as a bartender.  At that time, because of my own life experiences, I was the best at my job and made an excellent living for my children.  The social skills I learned are unmatched anywhere in any profession.  When the customer enters the bar they are normal; but after a few drinks they change from sad to mad and everything in between.  I learned to control a room full of personality changes and could calm the angry, cheer up the sad, and impose shame on those who started acting inappropriately.  I tended bar for over 30 years. The greatest skill I learned there was compromise.

o   As I look back, I realize that God was preparing me to be a school teacher.  He gave me one son who has a rare liver disease and because of his illness became learning disabled.  I have seen him treated badly his entire life.  From his doctors and nurses to his teachers, people want to push him aside and not take care of his needs.  This has made me an advocate for those who are misunderstood.  No one realizes it but he is an angel sent here to test others in authority positions.  One day, many professionals will have to answer for the way they treated him.

o   The social interactions I had through my career as a bartender, the training I had as a bar manager, and finally the authority I had as president of a non-profit group taught me how to persuade students to complete their assignments and classroom management techniques.

o   Finally, it seems that the most important skills you learn in life cannot be taught but must be experienced.