On The Job Training Through Online Technology

Today's job world has changed drastically within the last few years with some jobs going fully remote or hybrid where possible. With this now online world of work, online training is becoming the new normal. By doing trainings, both onboarding and reinforcement, you can give your employees an edge and help them stay competitive in their given field. By having their skills grown and nurtured in this technological field, they will take it back to their work: therefore making your support of their success, a success for your company.

There's new types of technology to do these trainings as learning in general has become more complex for just a pencil and paper to handle. But with these new systems employers are able to help tackle all the unique learning needs of their employees all at once and track their knowledge - giving extra assistance where needed. Bob Lockett of ADP says that with online job training & development there are four steps:

1. Assessment > what do they know ahead of time

2. Simulation > real-world practice of the learning

3. Reinforcement > keeping the knowledge fresh & integrated

4. Feedback > make the knowledge come alive

All of these are able to be done through virtual video chats, so training is not limited by location. And for trainings not specific to an employer, like if it is through an internal development software, the world is filled with resources employers & staff and find that are accessible, engaging, and convenient. Like an animated video with subtitles that's easy to follow along. Working the technology to make the information easier to navigate makes the technology people-literate, instead of making people technology-literate.

Resources

1. Flores, G. (2021). How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development. MadCap. Retrieved from How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development| MadCap Software 

2. Hyder, S. (2021). How Technology Is Transforming Workplace Training in 2021. Forbes. Retrieved from How Technology Is Transforming Workplace Training In 2021 

3. Lockett, B. (2020). Elevating the Role of Technology in Training and Development. ADP. Retrieved from Elevating the Role of Technology in Training and Development. 

4. Media Sources: remote training photo - technology/digital literacy

Training the Future with New Technology

"Technology has always been at the forefront of human education." - Purdue University

This has always been the case since the beginning of education. Technology gave way for new technology for newer technology. Like the Magic Lantern to the chalkboard, to the overhead projector, to the photocopier, to the smart board. There's even talk of brining Augmented Reality (AR) into the classroom. So while some of the technology may now seem outdated, like the overhead projector from the 1930s, at the time of it's invention it changed the way student's were learning & being taught for the future. Just take a look at this video, posted on YouTube in 2022, showing video instructions on how to use the overhead projector. (Just a warning: it goes for about 10 minutes and then does the whole video again in French!)

This video is an example of teachers needing to stay up to date on the latest technology to teach students, or they'll all fall behind. But it's also not just the technology itself that needs to be learned, but how to use it & interpret it. Media & Culture Literacy helps students understand how the media around them works, how each aspect is different, and how it relates to them & their future. Even I learned about Media Literacy in my undergrad studies and wrote another blog post about it on this very blog! But media culture is so engrained in the lives of students today, but it's so important to get that literacy knowledge out to them for better success outside the classroom. Media literacy can be as simple as knowing a satirical article from a real one, knowing the right post format for Twitter versus Facebook, to more complex concepts of how harmful rhetoric is shared online disgusted as something else.

With each day more media are brought online, which means more and more is being use in the classroom; like teachers using social media within the classroom lesson & outside to answer student questions. This helps not only the students, but also the teachers in their educating by helping reach the students where they are. By teaching students about the digital world around them, we can better prepare them for the physical world they'll enter in adulthood. There's so much about Media Literacy to know, check out the infographic to the right from the EAVI - Media Literacy for Citizenship site.

Resources

1. Goodyear, V. A., Casey, A., & Kirk, D. (2014). Tweet me, message me, like me: using social media to facilitate pedagogical change within an emerging community of practice. Sport, Education & Society, 19(7), 927–943.

2. Purdue Online. (n.d.). The Evolution of Technology in the Classroom. Purdue University Online. Retrieved from The Evolution Of Technology In The Classroom | Purdue Online 

3. Tatarnikova, A., Oleshko, A., Voronovska, L., Shvets, N., Sushkova, O., & Sbitnaia, D. (2022). The Impact of Media Culture on Future Professionals’ Training. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 11(1), 117–128.

4. Media Sources: Projector Video - Let's Talk About Media Literacy infographic

Teachers Using Technology to Advance Their Training (and Themselves!)

Teachers today have to navigate different ways to develop and hone their skills, along with the new digital media world we live in. Normally for trainings & conferences you'd have to find a time to go, and work out the funds to also get yourself there, but now teachers don't have to go to training conferences far away. Instead the 'virtual workshop' is right in their phone. Social Media & Networking! This tool can help teachers build a network of other educators to help develop their skills, adjust & change curriculum, and have autonomy in their development.

Social media helps give teachers the tools to pick how they want to do the training, when, and how to implement it back into their classroom. While the set up of the classroom is for the most part the same as back in ancient Greece when philosophy was the main subject, the way teachers use that space has changed just as rapidly as the technology has.

There's another great benefit for teachers using social media and virtual spaces for their development and networking: fighting isolation. Sometimes teachers can feel isolated without a network of teachers in their field or subject to get & bounce ideas off of. Being able to tweet at another history teacher about how to set up a lesson on the Victorian Era that's successful can help grow the network & grow the ways a student's curriculum is taught to them.

This digital dexterity of teachers will not only allow them to develop and achieve better outcomes in their teaching, but also help get better outcomes for students and the school overall.

Resources

1. Flores, G. (2022). How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development. MadCap. Retrieved from How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development| MadCap Software 

2. Goodyear, V. A., Casey, A., & Kirk, D. (2014). Tweet me, message me, like me: using social media to facilitate pedagogical change within an emerging community of practice. Sport, Education & Society, 19(7), 927–943.

3. Harvey, S., & Carpenter, J. P. (2020). Chapter 3: Genesis and Change in Physical Educators’ Use of Social Media for Professional Development and Learning. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 39(4), 445–453.

4. Media sources: Ancient Greece - Virtual Learning