Terminology Tuesday

Most of us have heard the phrase Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO. FOMO occurs when you experience anxieties associated with being afraid that you’re going to miss out on something. However, until today, I had never heard of the phrase Fear of Not Knowing (FONK).

FONK? 

I was reading Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains by Susan Greenfield, and she began to discuss FONK. Specifically how it impacts our use of technology. You know that feeling you get that drives you to obsessively check your email, applications, etc.? That feeling is driven by FONK. By constantly checking in, you’re satisfying your mind’s need of being constantly up-to-date.

However, there are bigger implications associated with FONK that impact our behaviours. One such example is staying in a job that you hate because you’re afraid of what changing jobs/roles/etc. might involve or that you’re afraid of not being satisfied with the change. This too is FONK, and this is a situation that we see more and more. I feel like the millennials are a bit better at being more adaptive to change, and being more willing to subject themselves to change. However, in a traditional sense, we’ve been programmed to do things in a certain way, check the boxes, and stay put. This is causing unnecessary stress and suffering on a generation of working class individuals.

I don’t have any good suggestions for combatting FONK, but my greatest recommendation can only be to do what you can to be happy. Set boundaries for yourself (e.g. working for 1 hour before you allow yourself 5 minutes to check your news sites), and don’t let FONK control your destiny. Take a cue from FOMO, and give yourself permission to become more adaptive.

I’ve been reading a book by Susan Greenfield, Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains, and the concept of iDisorder was referenced. It’s a concept that seems increasingly relevant in a digital society, so it seemed apt to talk about.

iDisorder?

The concept iDisorder was coined by Dr. Larry Rosen (who wrote a book about it), and it is defined as “changes to your brain´s ability to process information and your ability to relate to the world due to your daily use of media and technology resulting in signs and symptoms of psychological disorders – such as stress, sleeplessness, and a compulsive need to check in with all of your technology.” (Dr. Larry Rosen’s Website)

iDisorder and Education

It’s an interesting concept when you consider it in the context of education. Outside of education many of us are glued to our devices, continually checking and refreshing our email and frequently visited websites. Within the realm of education, students are doing this too, and it’s causing an increased expectations (on the instructor) to be constantly available.

Whenever I work with faculty members on crafting their course outlines or syllabus, I always emphasize the importance of setting expectations; not just for assignments or graded components, but for their availability. When will you be available in office? What will your email turnaround time be? When will you return feedback on assignments? Without defining these expectations, faculty members are setting themselves up for failure in terms of how students perceive their availability. In a society where ‘on demand’ is a popular service offering, students have been trained to believe that you, as an instructor, will also be on demand. This is a bit dehumanizing. Even if students don’t mean to dehumanize, the expectations makes instructors seem a bit more robotic.

When instructors don’t outline their expectations, and students perceive them as constantly available, slower response times may emphasize a student’s iDisorder – increased stress, sleeplessness, and constantly checking their devices as they wait for a response, which poses the question “how to we deal with this?” Unfortunately, I think the change needs to begin at home, and then in K-12, and then throughout classes in university or in the real-world at places of employment, and it all hinges on setting clear expectations and modelling. When I say modelling, I mean that if you outline your communication expectations clearly, you stick to them. If you say you’ll respond within 24 hours, you do; you don’t respond in 36. When you say that you’ll be unavailable after 5pm, you stick to that and don’t respond to emails or inquiries after 5pm.

It’s unfortunate that this concept has been coined and seems to be running rampant in our society, but if we can take small steps to be clear with our expectations, we might just combat it as much as possible, and then, if individuals still experience symptoms associated with iDisorder, they’re doing it to themselves.

Several weeks ago, I attended CAUCE-CNIE 2016, and there was a session put on by a gentleman with Google. He was talking about Google Cardboard, and it got my imagination whirring with ideas for an online chemistry lab one of the university’s faculty members is developing. She likely won’t use Google Cardboard for this lab, but it’s nice to know that it’s an affordable option, if the need arises.

Virtual Reality? Google Cardboard? WHAT?!

VR provides an immersive experience that mimics an environment, and simulates the user’s interactions within the environment. Working within the military sector, VR and Augmented Reality (AR) were often discussed as they have very big applications when it comes to defence training.

Most VR technologies involves headset type setups, like Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard – examples at two completely different price-points, and the VR environments are deep-seated in programming.

How VR Facilitates Education

The great thing about VR is that it can provide an extremely economical solution to otherwise costly training endeavours, while not wavering on the reality of the experience. For example, if an aircraft maintenance technician were learning to repair a rotor blade, it would be extremely costly to book an aircraft in the hangar for a day or week or more of training, and the available aircraft likely wouldn’t have a damaged rotor blade. This is just one situation wherein VR and simulation can play a critical role.

This week, I was asked by a prospective client to complete a work sample – on looking at the sample files, I promptly had flashbacks to my military contract days where I spent years (YEARS) creating task analysis for flow diagrams (Aircraft AC/DC, I do not miss you). However, the design aesthetic this particular client looks for is one of Material Design.

So, what is Material Design?

Google came up with the language, concept, and initial delivery of material design; it’s a design language that focuses on responsiveness, grid-based design, and the use of light and shadows for depth. Material design is very clean, and you may recognize it when using any Google application – such as Maps (below).

Notice the clean lines and flat design elements. Material design was based on the concept of paper and ink, and Google is currently in the process of rolling this design language out across all of its applications.

Want some more examples? Check these sites out:

• Material Design Lite
• design.google.com
• MaterializeCSS
• Material Design Icons

I’m ramping up to attend ATD ICE 2016 next week, so I’m busy planning my conference map, deciding which sessions get to make the cut for my attention. One such session is being presented by Shannon Tipton on the 21st-Century Toolbox. Today, she tweeted about the session with a link to a brief article she wrote last month. It’s here that I came across a term I hadn’t heard in several years; a term that took me back to my graduate studies, and one which I here said every now and again: Integrative Learning.

Integrative Learning

The idea behind integrative learning is that it is learning designed to allow learners to connect information and enhance understanding of topics across disciplines. When I do hear this term tossed around, it’s usually in the context of K-12 education – why? Because K-12 education, at least around these parts, is largely based on curriculums that have been carefully crafted to created integrated learning experiences. However, integrative learning is happening in many other places. For example, any higher education course that’s been offered has usually undergone a behind the scenes development to ensure that learning objectives and learning outcomes are closely linked with appropriate assessment measures.

We also see integrative learning in procedural training, where learners are taking theoretical concepts, such as their knowledge of lug nuts, and applying that knowledge to a task at hand, such as connecting the lug nut to the 1/4 inch screw (full disclosure – this was a horrible example – I know nothing about lug nuts or screws, I’m sorry). Or, their prior knowledge of how their cat will behave when they try to clip the cat’s nails – in this context, the individual is integrating their prior knowledge of how their cat will react with the steps they take to proceed, such as first wrapping the cat tightly in a towel in a burrito-esque manner (that was a better example, yeah?).

What I’m trying to say here is that integrative learning is happening all around us, albeit, we may not be thinking too much about it. If you’ve experienced a traditional K-12 education, you may especially be oblivious to it because it’s just ‘the way it is’, but now that you know a little bit more, you’ll likely begin to notice integrative learning happening around you a bit more often!

This week I thought it might be useful to talk about development plans, as I work within them nearly everyday within my current role.

What is a Development Plan?

A development plan is a document that outlines an entire course. Typically, it will consist of the following information:

• Course Developer, including contact information
• General Course Information, such as:
  • Course Name
  • Course Title
  • Calendar Description
  • Required Text
  • Credit Weight
  • Overall Course Goals
  • When the course will be offered or revised
  • Prerequisites
  • Enrolment information
• High-Level Leaning Objectives
• Module Information, including:
  • Module Names
  • Module-Specific Learning Objectives
  • Topics
  • Learning Activities, which may or may not be assessed
  • References or Resources (e.g. module readings/videos/etc.)
  • Assignment Information
• Assessment and Evaluation Strategy

Wow. That’s a lot of information. Why is a Development Plan important?

That’s exactly why development plans are important – because that IS a lot of information! Development plans serve as a course outline, and streamline things once the course developer gets to the development phase. A well written development plan will have a lot of elements that have been fleshed out and are ready to be copied from the development plan into the course site.

Development plans are also important because they allow key reviewers (e.g. department chairs, subject matter experts, etc.) to review the plan and make necessary changes or recommendations prior to entering the development phase…and it’s a lot easier to modify a Word document than it is to modify content in an authoring tool.

In online learning, development plans may also come in handy when it comes to fleshing out your activities and assessment strategies with an instructional designer, especially if you’re used to teaching in more traditional mediums (e.g. in a classroom).