My Tryst with 'The Last Lecture'

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” --Randy Pausch

If you haven't read 'The Last Lecture' by Randy Pausch, its time you did it now! This book is an inspiring tale of how to look at your life positively. For the uninitiated, Randy was a professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Randy had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. On September 18, 2007, he spoke to an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” The book is based on the same principles. Although Randy lost his struggle with cancer, his legacy continues with the book...

While I wasn't there in the Carnegie Mellon University Hall to listen to Randy in person, his book helped me connect with him quite easily. Here's what I have learnt from watching the video and reading the book:

1) Have a dream! Childhood or otherwise.
It's important to know what you really want to achieve in life. If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.

2) Believe in your dream.
We often fail to trust ourselves. We find ourselves worthless at many times. The important thing is to for us to keep believing in our dream and ourselves. Only if we think we can, we can.

3) Take help from others.
How often we want to do something but are unable to ask for help. Call it whatever - ego, self-conscious, inferiority...there are many names for this one. We need to break the shackles of our mind and extend our hand - ask for help and take the help coming along our way. We can't achieve all our dreams by ourselves. We need others' contribution including family and friends.

4) Be positive. Period.
Much has been said and written about this already that more is not required. I think being positive is contagious and infectious!

5) Plan for your future.
It's important to acknowledge and accept the reality but still spend energy on planning for the future. It's easier to give up but tough to continue the fight. But if you do, it's worth it!

6) Have fun in life.
Don't take life too seriously because life doesn't certainly take you like that. It's important to spend 'fun' time with your family, friends, and try and make the best out of every moment. Laughing at your own self is a skill. Making people happy counts more than anything else.

7) Life is too short.
There is so much to do and not enough time! Get over petty issues and start living from today. Doesn't matter if you were born yesterday or have been around for some time - every moment is precious. Live life today like there is no tomorrow!

Hope the book and the video inspire you in many ways too.

Learning by doing - a practical example

A couple of weeks ago, I designed and delivered training on 'how to develop effective instructor-led training (ILT)'. My audience was a group of instructional designers who had some experience with developing elearning but had not designed/developed an ILT. I had 3 days from 'conceptualization' to 'delivery' and it couldn't have been more rapid than it was!

So, I quickly put together a blended learning training plan. Here's how it was:-
1) Classroom session - Face-to-face (0.5 day) - Introduction to ILT - Development process/typical components/walkthrough of each deliverable/formats etc.
2) Self-paced reading - Offline - ( 2 days) Participants had to review cuidelines to create an ILT, sample ILTs, library of instructional strategies used for ILTs, specific formats/templates.
3) Applying the learning - Offline - (5 days) Participants were given sample content and asked to develop an ILT (all components - instructor guide/student guide/presentation deck). I offered some query handling and support here.
4) Group presentation/Review Workshop (1 day) - Face-to-face - All participants presented all the components that they had created for the sample content and the group reviewed and critiqued the same. I offered my expertise and guidance and led the discussion and the reflection activities. At the end of the day-long workshop - we generated guidelines/best practices for developing effective ILTs. The guidelines and best practices were used to create project-specific design and storyboarding checklists.

Not only was this the most practical approach to training, the participants also enjoyed the entire 'learning-by-doing' experience. I am glad that I didn't overload my audience with 'gyan' about what is effective classroom training. They went through one and enjoyed it and I feel quite confident about the group creating similar learning experiences for their audience!

At the time when I was designing this plan, my customers for this training were a bit apprehensive. They were not sure if I could not ‘tell’ and still make people ‘learn’. The trainees also expected a series of classroom training sessions where I would describe and explain things about 'effective ILTs'. But I stopped myself from following the rut. I stopped myself at all places where I was tempted to say the obvious, tempted to share my expertise and give a lot of information, or generally just talk about good things. Instead, by allowing my participants to learn by doing – by actually creating an ILT, I gave them opportunities to make mistakes and yet be open to learn from them in a non threatening environment. Instead of a trainer, I took the role of a facilitator and helped them learn from themselves…

I keep implementing a similar approach in many other training sessions. Learning by doing works every time!

To-learn list - to have or not to!

This month's Learning Circuits Big Question is interesting. It's interesting because of how it got generated. Jim Collins wrote "A true learning person also has a “to-learn” list, and the items on that list carry at least as much weight in how one organizes his or her time as the to-do list.”

The questions that we are discussing are:

• If you have a to-learn list and are willing to share, and willing to share how you work with that list, that would likely be helpful information.
• As Knowledge Workers, work and learning are the same, so how does a to-learn list really differ from a to-do list? How are they different than undirected learning through work, blogging, conferences, etc.?
• Are to-learn lists really important to have? Are they as important as what Jim Collins tells us?
• Should they be captured? Is so how?
• How does a to-learn list impact something like a Learning Management System in a Workplace or Educational setting?
• What skills, practices, behaviors do modern knowledge workers need around to-learn lists?

Phew! These are a lot of questions and I can't attempt to answer all. But in general, here is my view! I wonder if I have a different to-do list and a to-learn list! Somehow, the to-learn list is included in my to-do list. All learning happens as a part of what I am doing currently or what I want to do in the future. In that sense, the to-learn is intertwined with the to-do to such an extent that sometimes I fail to notice just how much I need to learn to be able to do! Okay enough of the mumbo jumbo - but really I never have made a separate to-learn list. The question here made be think about it and extract my to-learns and here is something on my current to-learn list that I eventually want to do!

- learn to apply web2.0 technologies in the courses/training I design
- learn to use mind mapping software for collaborative design/development
- learn to play the guitar and sing like a rock star!

I realize that capturing a to-learn list is important to the extent you like to work with to-do lists. The way I look at it, I can split my list into short-term and long-term. Most of my short-term to-learn activities are connected with things that I do, more as in-step rather than a planned learning activity. For example, only today I was trying to learn how to help my friend change some settings for her Picassa album. I didn't feel the need to learn until I was doing and realized I didn't know how. Similarly, every day I learn from many blogs in an unplanned manner. The to-learns in these cases could never have been captured in any lists. But are equally important. So, sure – to give things the right momentum – one should capture the to-learns. But I wouldn’t make too much fuss about it.
Some of my long-term to-learns are stored as draft emails, others as favorite links, and still others in my notepad. So, doesn’t matter whether it’s on paper or on my mind as long as I am working towards it and learning…

What is important is that as knowledge workers we need to be continuously learning; with or without a to-learn list!