Week 5

Chapter 14 discusses the concept of the evolution of human performance improvement. Several sections of chapter 14 present a variety of non instructional solutions to performance problems. Identify a performance problem in your area of work and provide a non instructional solution to solve the problem.

Part of what I think makes education a very complicated line of work is that some problems presented are non-instructional but are approached in a very instructional way. For example,in our district we have so many programs to do so many tasks. Pinnacle for gradebook, Maximo for work orders, TEAMS for HR, scheduling, discipline, eduphoria for employee performance. Teachers who enter the district for the first time have to learn so many applications to perform various tasks. I believe a solution to this problem is to consolidate these programs and invest into Peoplesoft and invest in full time developers to manage these programs. This software developed by Oracle allows for data management to be specialized for the specific needs of the client. I believe that consolidation of these programs will save time and money in the long run.


Chapter 15 presents several definitions of electronic performance support systems. In addition to these definitions, locate a few more and indicate your preference explaining why you prefer it. Additionally, describe why you believe EPSS have not been widely used and if they are more likely be become more prevalent in the future.

Wikipedia desctibes an EPSS as any computer or software component that improves user performance. I believe this support system is not widely used because the resources and knowledge base within a company may be a financial burden. To run this system efficiently and effectively you have to programmers who can create an interface that is simple and user friendly for employees. Additionally, these programmers tend to become indispensable and irreplaceable which drives the cost of sustaining it. I believe that with continued development of electronic organizational managment more people will become interested in entering careers that are driven by this demand. Oracle and Cisco are now offering certification opportunities that are known to yield high salaries.

Knowledge management is the way we manage information, share that information, and use it. Organizations, such as schools, are full of information/data and we must organize that data in a way that we can make sense of it. We use data to make decisions and good data=good decision making. Identify a real or hypothetical problem in your line of work. How might a blended learning approach, including the use of a knowledge management system, be use to solve the problem?

Prior to acquiring a system we call SAS educational deicisions were made solely based on TAKS data. With the introduction of SAS we could acquire more personalized data about students. The best knowledge management system I have used to date within my line of work has been SAS. With this system I look every individual student and there history as it relates to assessment data and academic performance. With this system I can use the knowledge I have already acquired about CogAT, MAP, TAKS, Honors, Pre-AP and reapply in a new way that improves the instructional decisions I make about student,

This data allows me to make data driven decisions about students. An example would be whether or not a student needs to be scheduled in an additional blocked math class. Prior to this sytem students were scheduled in 90 minute blocked classes without assessing their actual abilities. Once these abilities could be ascertained we learned that some students had abilities and were not performing because they were overworked in a 90 minute block. By evaluating CogAT scoresm and Measured Academic Progress (MAP) growth data, I could feel comofortable placing students without only relying on TAKS data as a measure. This sytem allows me to see their growth from Kindergarten to 8th grade.


Describe the types of informal learning you have been exposed to in your adult life. What was the purpose? What was the experience like? Was it engaging? Social? What role did you play? What role did the instructor play?

I have always described my entire life to be a learning experience. I believe that you learn based on the relationships you have with people you interact with. I also believe that self-education is an important quality to have or develop in adulthood. I had a friend who specialized in endocrinology. Just by my association I have learned so much about the human body and can now identify certain things health wise that involve the endocrine system. I am in no way a doctor, however I am more in tune with developments and advances in medicine just by knowing her. I also have a tendancy to take on hobbies for the purpose of learning. In my church, they needed someone to run the PowerPoint or presentation tools for church service. By taking on this position I found myself going to workshops, learning about graphic design etc. The worhsip leader for my church mentored me and I was able to learn and master worship presentation to start it in another church. The most interesting thing about both of the situations was that I learned a lot because I was motivated which brought a certain satisfaction and enjoyment to my life.