I love this post from Kim Cofino about “The 21st Century Learner.” She skillfully presents themed ideas for engaging learners through the use of new technologies. Kim’s second presentation, “The 21st Century Educator: The Power of Personal Learning Networks,” demonstrates how web 2.0 technologies change the way learning professionals communicate, collaborate, learn, and teach. Both are worth a look. Let me know what you think
Adult learning
Would You Stop to Listen?
Would You Stop to Listen?
A man sat at a metro station in Washington, DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
– From The Effective Club
Polling – What do you think?
Writing effective scenario questions
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?
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
