What’s New

World Champions – Phinally!

/ Susan Hendrich / 2 Comments
Phinally!
Phinally!

What does it take to be a champion?  Here are excerpts from just a few everyday heroes who outta know:

 

Jim Loy: “Most great athletes will tell you that to get where they are took practice, practice, practice, work, work, work.” 

Zig Ziglar: “Learn the importance of:

  • Replacing bad habits with good habits.
  • Seeing the best in people.
  • Taking time to reflect.
  • Meeting challenges with assurance.
  • Greeting others with confidence and enthusiasm.
  • Balanced living.”

Stephen Downes: “Decide what’s worth doing. If you don’t decide what is worth doing, someone will decide for you, and at some point in your life you will realize that you haven’t done what is worth doing at all. So spend some time, today, thinking about what is worth doing. You can change your mind tomorrow. But begin, at least, to guide yourself somewhere.” 

The Philadelphia Phillies proved tonight that they can do all of the above. Congratulations, Phils!

2008 World Champions!

Augmented reality – tagging the world!

/ Susan Hendrich / 1 Comment

Augmented reality

Imagine this: You’re traveling on a desert highway out West, and you see a lone stone fort set back from the road.  The old stone structure looks interesting, and you wonder about its history.  You pull out your phone, aim it at the fort, and poof, a full description of the stone structure and its history pops up on your phone’s screen, telling you when it was built, what happened there, and who owns it today.

That’s augmented reality.

And it’s coming, soon. Check out these two glimpses into the future of storytelling, travel, and social networking:

An augmented reality application for Google Android-based phones: Wikitude AR Travel Guide

Futuristic 3D Storytelling – EyeMagicBooks
Fun, huh?

Writing effective scenario questions

/ Susan Hendrich / 3 Comments

Want to increase the quality of your assessment questions? Think stories!

Scenario-based evaluation questions help the learner to really think about the content, not just regurgitate facts or data. Check out this easy plan for constructing good scenario questions:

Hendrich’s ABCD Model for Constructing Effective Scenario Questions

·        Actor/Audience – Who is in the situation? Who is involved?

·        Behavior – What situation are they in? What are they trying to or unable to do?

·        Condition – Under what circumstances or context is the actor behaving or hoping to behave?

·        Dilemma/Decision – What decision must the actor make? What dilemma is s/he facing?

Examples of ABCD Question Stems

Below are some example questions which include Actor(s)/Audience (A), Behavior (B), Condition (C), and Dilemma/Decision(D). Note that the order of presentation of each component is not important.

  • “Dr. Chang is considering prescribing a blood pressure medication for Jim, who has a comorbid liver disorder. What class of medications is Dr. Chang likely to choose?“
  • “Meryl stopped taking her antidepressant, because she did not like the sexual side effects. What class of medications was Meryl likely taking?“
  • “Ernesto has not found any success with two different SSRIs and is worried that he’ll never find relief.  What might Dr. Cerilski tell him?“

Now it’s your turn…try writing an ABCD scenario question today!

Stayin’ Alive is savin’ lives?

/ Susan Hendrich / Leave a comment

 Old Song Finds a New Purpose

In the Offbeat department, I am inspired by a disco song’s new-found purpose—saving lives:

Under most circumstances, it’s best to keep the beat of the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” out of your head, but heart specialists have come up with one good reason to remember: It could save someone’s life.

Turns out the 1977 disco hit has 103 beats per minute, a perfect number to maintain — and retain — the best rhythm for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

A small study by University of Illinois College of Medicine researchers in Peoria has found that 10 doctors and five medical students who listened to the “Saturday Night Fever” tune while practicing CPR not only performed perfectly, they remembered the technique five weeks later. See the rest of the story at: http://blogs.usatoday.com/betterlife/

Shake your head if you want; it’s just plain cool to see that the BeeGees served a higher purpose after all.

How does the BeeGees’ CPR thing relate to leadership and training?

Here’s what this has to do with leadership and training. As leaders and trainers, we must find a way to tie new concepts to that which is familiar. Everyone knows the song. Not everyone knows how fast to compress when doing CPR. Add Barry Gibb and POOF, you can make a decent attempt at saving a life.  Does it get more magical than that?

Ah – Ah – Ah – Ah…

Susan Hendrich