Professional Education

We have probably all heard the adage that “the only constant is change.” Undoubtedly, this phrase rings true for those of us in today’s military space. Over the past several years, the military has seen vast changes in everything from the challenges it faces to the technology it uses.  With soldiers stationed and deployed throughout the world, a new generation of young, tech-savvy recruits, and ever-tightening budgets, the military must remain agile enough to evolve with these changes.

With these factors in mind, how can military trainers best adapt to current trends while preparing for what lies ahead? Here are my thoughts on best practices for modern military training:

• Use time wisely: Effectively engaging military learners is easier said than done especially when you consider the extraordinary demands placed on their time. Instead of spending critical training time teaching young, tech-savvy soldiers how to use technology they are already familiar with, including learning management systems (LMS) and smartphones, focus on instructing them on how to leverage these tools on the ground.
• Foster collaboration: The military prepares soldiers to work together as a team, so why should their classroom training be any different? Use collaboration tools that combine formal instruction with informal learning and structured social interaction to help learners share knowledge with one another so they will be best prepared to succeed as a unit.

This October, ASTD will host a conference in Washington, DC on the future of learning in government. As a Premier Sponsor, Blackboard is excited for this opportunity to share our expertise in government learning technology with practitioners who work to promote government innovation through better professional training.

The Government Workforce Innovations Conference will not only present unique discussions on developing strategic training plans, but will also provide critical insight on the most pertinent trends for today’s federal instructors and trainers.  Here are my top five themes from the conference you won’t want to miss!

1.  Budgeting: In this era of tightening budgets for learning and training, learn how to demonstrate a business case for your agency to see learning as an investment, not an expense.

2.  The multi-generational workforce: Discuss the challenges and opportunities brought on by a multi-generational workforce, including ways you can leverage technology to engage new and experienced employees alike.

3.  Political transition:  Learn how to create a roadmap during an administrative transition to keep you agency agenda on track while managing relationships between career and political appointees.

These days, many of us take PowerPoint and other slide-sharing tools for granted.  Presentations that feature slides have become so commonplace in colleges, boardrooms, and professional training environments that the phrase “death by PowerPoint” is not unfamiliar to those who feel inundated with slide-centric lectures.

But how can those of us in the military and government space ensure that we aren’t boring our audiences to death with slides, but are instead using PowerPoint to make presentations more engaging and memorable? A recent post by Federal Computer Week’s Steven Kelman titled “Confessions of a PowerPoint convert” offers some insights to help answer this question.

As a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, author of several books on public policy, and former Administrator at the federal Office of Management and Budget, Kelman can speak from many perspectives on the ways we learn and teach in the government space.  Kelman offers the following tips to government readers on delivering engaging, informational PowerPoints:

1. Minimize text on slides and use concise bullet points instead of paragraphs
2. Use different colored text to draw focus to specific content
3. Try animations (such as text zooming into view) to grab viewer’s attention
4. Focus on appealing visuals such as photos and charts – and don’t be afraid of image-only slides!

And what results did Kelman see when using PowerPoint for the first time in his classroom while following the guidelines above?  He states:

“I saw the first results while I was teaching, which was a dramatic increase in the amount of student notetaking. But I just got more detailed results — my students’ evaluations of the first classes where I used the PowerPoint presentations. My overall teaching ratings went up. But there was a very dramatic increase in one specific area: “Clarity of the main ideas presented in class.” With the slides, participants were able to absorb main points and themes better.

This has been a real eye-opener. I know some people believe slides inhibit learning. I am now inclined to think that, used well, they really do help learning. And this is with executives who are not part of the videogame, text-message generation. I haven’t even tried this yet on my twenty-something master’s students; this will happen when the semester starts in a few weeks. There is something here, I think, not just for professors, but for managers or anybody else trying to get messages across.”

Be sure to read the rest of Steven Kelman’s “Confessions of a PowerPoint convert” for his full thoughts on adopting slides in his presentations, and please share any additional PowerPoint tips you have with us in the comments below!

A few weeks ago, Blackboard was proud to host its first Federal Series Event, featuring speakers from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ HR Academy, the Federal Aviation Administration, and The Graduate School. The event provided attendees the opportunity to network with others in the federal training space and provided new insights into best practices in blended and distance learning.

During a presentation from The Graduate School, Dr. Sharon Fratta-Hill presented several tools and strategies she has leveraged in blended learning environments. I learned quite a bit during her presentation, including these best practices for engaging distance learning:

1. Sharing audio and video isn’t enough. Even though multimedia content is a great way to grab learners’ interest, they will learn more from media content when given the opportunity to collaborate with their peers.  To foster interaction, encourage students to leave constructive thoughts and questions on multimedia content to spark discussion and dialogue.

As I have discussed in a recent post, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel is pushing for government IT initiatives that “enable the delivery of digital information and services anytime, anywhere, on any device, safely and securely-throughout the Federal workforce and to the American public.” This digital government movement seeks to develop a more open and agile government IT system, and is driven by the coming of age of cloud computing.

But can military and defense agencies be a part of this movement to the cloud? And if so, how can they reap the benefits of cloud computing while mitigating risks?

Pros and Cons of the Federal Cloud

Listing the benefits of cloud computing is easy: not only can the cloud help large agencies save on IT infrastructure costs, but it also allows for “on-demand” access to computing power from any location.  Though all agencies need to be aware of the costs of the cloud, these benefits alone make it an easy choice for many within government.

When it comes to the military and defense community, however, there are several key factors to consider that make moving to the cloud more of a risk:

• Security and privacy: In defense IT, data location and access is of critical importance, and different data exist at different levels of sensitivity and importance. As a result, defense and military outlets may be wary of moving their classified data and mission-critical computer power off-site.