Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell
I have always been fascinated with the process of solving problems, and this week I set out to find resources on problem-solving during the learning process. There are two that I found particularly useful.
The first is Mind Tools, specifically the Problem Solving Techniques section. The site features a How Good Are Your Problem Solving Skills? quiz as a place to begin, and having taken the quiz, I have to agree that it is the place to start.
My score on the quiz places me in the class of “a confident problem solver,” which is nice, but of real value to me are the recommendations about how to improve my problem-solving skills. The Mind Tools site allows visitors to Browse by Category and features topics such as Problem-Solving Approaches, Finding the Cause of a Problem, Improving Business Processes, and Diagram-Based Tools.
While on the Mind Tools site I learned about Constructive Controversy, a problem-solving approach introduced by David Johnson and Roger Johnson in 1979.
“Using Constructive Controversy tends to produce better solutions, compared with solving problems using consensus, debate, or individual effort. This happens because the Constructive Controversy process forces you to face your assumptions and avoid drawing conclusions too quickly. At the same time, it pushes you to use clear reasoning to defend or argue against a position, and it helps to protect you from logical fallacies and blind spots, because you're forced to explain and defend your rationale.” (http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_71.htm. Accessed 0700712).
Mind Tools offers a lot of information for free and even more for people who want to pay to join the Mind Tools club. The website is rather simplistic, and the information provided is likely too superficial to be useful for anyone seeking empirical research and higher-level discussion. However, for me, the lighter tone is a refreshing change from the heavy thinking I do in my work as a graduate student, small business owner, and mother to two evolving little people. Mind Tools may be most useful as a jumping off point for new ways of thinking and problem-solving.
The other site I bookmarked is the Problem Solving Strategies page of the Advising and Counseling Department at Lorain County Community College. The site features a step-by-step problem-solving process that is not particularly novel, but is subtly and importantly different than most models. In Step 2 – Problem Analysis, analysis questions include: “How is this problem affecting me?”, “How is this problem affecting other people?”, “Who else is experiencing this problem?”, and “How do other people deal with this problem?”
This other-orientation appeals to me as a former counselor and as a training consultant. None of us live or work in a vacuum, yet many people feel as though they do. Some organizational cultures reward autonomy and individual achievement above all else, and problem-solving is necessarily non-collaborative. Such ongoing competition for recognition may be useful for promoting hyper-innovation, but it can also narrow perspective and limit fresh thinking. As Einstein noted, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Most of us need input from others and access to other perspectives in order to change our thinking.
By including consideration of other perspectives in the analysis of a problem, the LCCC method of problem-solving reminds me that other people have faced or will face similar problems – whether educational, artistic, organizational, political, etc. – and prompts me to consider and evaluate the steps they took to solve it, which I hope will increase my success at solving the problem at hand.
Thank you for reading my post. I hope you will share your thoughts on these resources and problem-solving in general.
Make a great day,
Sally Bacchetta
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Brain-Stretching Resources for Instructional Designers
As a freelance writer and instructional designer, I have limited opportunities for guided professional development and enrichment, which is one of the reasons I am pursuing a Master’s degree in Instructional Design and Technology at Walden University. At the suggestion of one of my Walden professors, I recently began exploring online resources in or related to the field of instructional design. Here is a round up of some of my favorite sites:
Learning Solutions Magazine
Subscription to the magazine is free, but I would gladly pay for it if I had to. (Note to the folks at Learning Solutions Magazine: Please keep your subscription free!) Marc J. Rosenberg’s June, 2012 article Marc My Words: Seven Questions eLearning Developers and Managers Should Answer… Every Time is one example of the topical enrichment I find in abundance at Learning Solutions Magazine. Based on the diversity of subject matter and contributor background, I believe this is a professional resource I can grow with for a long time.
TED blog With blog posts that include Conflict as Thinking, In praise of cooperation without coordination, and Everything is a Remix, I find this blog personally and professionally irresistible. “So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it. Have an idea? We want to hear from you.” (www.ted.com/pages/view/id/5. Accessed 062912.) Oh, you will, TED. You will!
The Chronicle Blog Network “This digital salon, sponsored by The Chronicle of Higher Education, features leading bloggers from all corners of academe.” (www.chronicle.com. Accessed 062912.) In addition to informed opinion pieces, this blog features news, statistics, and online forums to expand my understanding of learning theory and application. The resources on this site are rich and varied.
Learn at Vivid blog I was drawn in by a June 25th blog post titled What works in real life, works in eLearning. From there I went on to explore the company website, and I found enough interesting content to make me want to visit again. Vivid Learning Systems is a provider of online training programs, and although their customer base is different than mine, I believe I can apply some of their strategies and resources to my own work. One of the ways I differentiate myself in the freelance market is by offering strategies to increase ROI of my customers’ training budgets. I am looking forward to learning more about Vivid Learning System’s “integrated retention tools that are built-in to every course, including interactive exercises, random test banks and multi-modal delivery templates.” (www.learnatvivid.com/company. Accessed 06/29/12.)
The Physics Suite: Peer Instruction Problems I love that this site is housed in the physics department at the University of Maryland, because my work does not touch the realm of physics, and I have no connection to Maryland, and therein lies the beauty of online learning. Technology facilitates connections that would not otherwise be made and delivers to my desk more and better resources than I could find using traditional methods of research. The site features information about the Peer Instruction technique, which is “a method created by Eric Mazur to help make lectures more interactive and to get students intellectually engaged with what is going on.” (http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/role/PIProbs/. Accessed 062912.) Engagement is a fundamental issue for instructional designers, educators, and trainers. I am already considering ways I can incorporate Peer Instruction into the corporate training workshops I design.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will share your favorite sites with me here.
Sally Bacchetta
Learning Solutions Magazine
Subscription to the magazine is free, but I would gladly pay for it if I had to. (Note to the folks at Learning Solutions Magazine: Please keep your subscription free!) Marc J. Rosenberg’s June, 2012 article Marc My Words: Seven Questions eLearning Developers and Managers Should Answer… Every Time is one example of the topical enrichment I find in abundance at Learning Solutions Magazine. Based on the diversity of subject matter and contributor background, I believe this is a professional resource I can grow with for a long time.
TED blog With blog posts that include Conflict as Thinking, In praise of cooperation without coordination, and Everything is a Remix, I find this blog personally and professionally irresistible. “So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it. Have an idea? We want to hear from you.” (www.ted.com/pages/view/id/5. Accessed 062912.) Oh, you will, TED. You will!
The Chronicle Blog Network “This digital salon, sponsored by The Chronicle of Higher Education, features leading bloggers from all corners of academe.” (www.chronicle.com. Accessed 062912.) In addition to informed opinion pieces, this blog features news, statistics, and online forums to expand my understanding of learning theory and application. The resources on this site are rich and varied.
Learn at Vivid blog I was drawn in by a June 25th blog post titled What works in real life, works in eLearning. From there I went on to explore the company website, and I found enough interesting content to make me want to visit again. Vivid Learning Systems is a provider of online training programs, and although their customer base is different than mine, I believe I can apply some of their strategies and resources to my own work. One of the ways I differentiate myself in the freelance market is by offering strategies to increase ROI of my customers’ training budgets. I am looking forward to learning more about Vivid Learning System’s “integrated retention tools that are built-in to every course, including interactive exercises, random test banks and multi-modal delivery templates.” (www.learnatvivid.com/company. Accessed 06/29/12.)
The Physics Suite: Peer Instruction Problems I love that this site is housed in the physics department at the University of Maryland, because my work does not touch the realm of physics, and I have no connection to Maryland, and therein lies the beauty of online learning. Technology facilitates connections that would not otherwise be made and delivers to my desk more and better resources than I could find using traditional methods of research. The site features information about the Peer Instruction technique, which is “a method created by Eric Mazur to help make lectures more interactive and to get students intellectually engaged with what is going on.” (http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/role/PIProbs/. Accessed 062912.) Engagement is a fundamental issue for instructional designers, educators, and trainers. I am already considering ways I can incorporate Peer Instruction into the corporate training workshops I design.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will share your favorite sites with me here.
Sally Bacchetta
Monday, June 25, 2012
Welcome to the Instructional Design Hub
Welcome to the Instructional Design Hub. I am a freelance writer and instructional designer, currently earning a Master's degree in Instructional Design and Technology at Walden University. I look forward to getting to know you and exchanging perspectives on all that is relevant and exciting in the world of instructional design. Make a great day!
Sally Bacchetta - Freelance Writer / Instructional Designer
Sally Bacchetta - Freelance Writer / Instructional Designer
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