Dr. Michael Shaw asked:


E-learning is not a new phenomenon; however, its use has evolved. E-learning originally gained popularity in higher education because of its flexibility. During this phase, Learning Management Systems like Moodle, Blackboard, and WebCT were developed. This allowed flash based SCORM content to be uploaded and shared. Students, especially working adults, could take courses asynchronously from the comfort of their homes, sacrificing little in terms of managing work and school schedules.

As e-learning evolved, a second phase began to take hold within the corporate sector. This phase was marked by increased use of e-learning among corporations in order to reduce training cost and manage large scale training initiatives quickly. E-learning also helped organizations manage content and understanding through standardized curriculum and graded quizzes.

In the third phase of e-learning maturation, schools and organizations began to realize the value of e-learning to geographically isolated students. Schools realized that they were no longer restricted to enrolling local students. They slowly began to look far outside state and country borders enrolling students in every corner of the earth. This was a particularly popular idea in growing markets like Nigeria were education needs were high.

Organizations also learned that they could now offer training to telecommuters and geographically separated work teams. With telecommuting increasing in popularity, e-learning became the perfect solution to a unique and new issue.

E-learning is at the beginning of a fourth stage. The future of e-learning is customization. With off-the-shelf e-learning solutions blanketing the industry, organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the value of a custom solution that pinpoints the needs and situation of the organization. Schools use custom e-learning solutions to match existing ground content. Organizations use off-the-shelf e-learning courses combined with custom e-learning courses to effectively delivery the right learning content cost effectively. Only a select few e-learning organization’s like SilkWeb Consulting & Development www.silkwebconsulting.com have the capability and experience to develop and deliver both custom and off-the-shelf e-learning solutions to schools and businesses. For more information on SilkWeb, email info@silkwebconsulting.com



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Olivia Hunt asked:


Honda was a good leader who was able to deal with all team work issues. He realized that although team work and team building suppose many challenges, the final result from a high performance team is worth all the efforts and time spent on achieving it. Honda understood the way a team plays as a whole determines its success and he treated others as equal and often worked in a workshop with his employees being the owner of a corporation.

During the last two decades the notion of organizational culture has achieved wide acceptance as a method to understand human systems and as one of the central concepts in the human resource management. The research of the data shows that every element of organizational culture can be seen as an important environmental condition influencing the system and its subsystems. One of the major duties of strategic leaders is to build and support the organizational elements that make up the collective work.

Organizational culture is the most fundamental element of the collective work. It includes the attitudes, beliefs, experience and values of the company. Hill & Jones (2001, p. 68) define organizational culture as ‘the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization. Organizational values are beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another’.

Soichiro Honda is an exemplary leader. He was a simple man and people followed him as he inspired them. He demanded practical results, and he found how to achieve these results. Honda was a person with vision and passion. He learned to see failures as necessary steps toward success. Soichiro Honda instilled in his employees the drive to learn without fear of failure, having built the road to success.



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Matt Crick asked:


What is personalised learning? This term is currently a very popular phrase in the world of education. Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personalised_Learning), Every Child Matters: (www.everychildmatters.gov.uk?ete/personalisedlearning) and the Standards Site: (www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/personalisedlearning) all offer background and further information regarding the topic. For me, it is the curriculum you plan and implement for every child to ensure their strengths and weaknesses are developed so they encounter challenge in a supportive, nurturing environment.

The whole process begins with a full, diagnostic assessment which details understanding and attainment across a range of subject areas. It is essential that a breadth of subjects form the basis of the curriculum. Ultimately, teachers and schools have a responsibility to prepare the children for the world around them, not to just extend children as far as they can go without giving them essential life skills. What is the point of developing a genius if a child is unable to relate to the world in which they live, particularly their peers?

The results of the assessment enable teachers to create the curriculum. This may result in a combination of ability ranges. A child may be outstanding in maths, not so good in English, but be gifted in art. Personalised learning addresses all of these differences and results in a curriculum which challenges the child to think, develop new skills, consolidate knowledge and apply this knowledge in a range of applications.

Objectives could be taken from different year groups to best match the child’s ability. This offers the correct challenge whilst keeping the child in the correct age group. Moving a child to an older or younger age group based on ability can prove to be detrimental socially and emotionally. As we have all seen children who have been fast tracked and placed in older year groups do not have the required social etiquette and this often ends in disaster.

It is essential for the teacher to regularly assess a child’s progress to ensure the curriculum is matched to their needs and report progress back to the parents. Parents play an important part in the process. A great deal of support can be offered at home. Homework can sustain learning and help to consolidate concepts. Involving parents in the process takes learning out of the classroom into the wider world. If learning can be applied in a range of circumstances and situations, then skills become more enhanced.

You may ask how a teacher can deliver this in a classroom. In the real situation personalised learning is differentiation. Differentiation, as the word implies, offers different objectives to each child dependent on their needs. Teachers should be planning for three levels of ability for every lesson. They should be planning for the ‘more able’, ‘able’ and ‘less able’ child within the class. Beyond these levels you have the gifted and talented and those with specific learning difficulties who require more specialised support.

Children should not work at the able level and then progress to extension or easier work. They should go straight in at their level. For example, if your objective was to teach addition to a Reception class the ‘able’ child may add a single and a two digit number together. The ‘more able’ may add two, two digit numbers or even three numbers together and the’ less able’ may add two single digit numbers. The important message is that they are working at the edge of their understanding. The work is offering them challenge, an opportunity for them to think and extend their knowledge.

Teachers have also monitored learning styles. This is the essential key that can unlock learning. Analysing how a child learns enables the teacher to utilise a particular style of teaching and task to enable the child to fully interact and understand the work presented to them.

There are three main styles:-

• Auditory learning which occurs through hearing the spoken word.

• Kinesthetic learning which occurs through doing and interacting.

• Visual learning which occurs through looking at images, mind maps, demonstrations and body language.

Children will also employ a combination of the above to facilitate learning. The teacher’s job is to ensure they are able to access the curriculum utilising the best learning style, or styles, for them.

The final aspect is the environment in which they learn. Class size has an enormous part to play. If teachers are trying to teach large classes then this becomes more challenging. Small classes enable excellent adult/child interaction and help to create a purposeful atmosphere. An interactive classroom fully resourced and engaging assists learning and fosters independent thought.

In summary, personalised learning is a combination of careful assessment, objectives matched to need, nurture, guidance and the opportunity for teaching to utilize the best learning styles and for all of the above to take place in a supportive environment. With all of these elements working together every child has access to a curriculum that supports their learning and is not a curriculum in which they have to fit in to. On the contrary: The curriculum should fit around them.



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Rauf Yusope asked:


Most of the time, anger is beyond ones’ control. It is one of the feelings that we, humans, experience in our life. When we are angry, there were times when we were advice to cool and calm. But most of the time we realize that it can be a challenging task to handle the anger especially in a challenging situation. There are steps that one can learn to manage anger.

For example, Pete kept getting angry and frustrated with himself for being disorganized and kept misplacing his items. What are the ways Pete can use to handle such situation? Firstly, every time when he encounters such problems, he should reaffirm himself. Instead of saying I am terrible at organizing, he can reaffirm himself by saying that I am so glad that I am able to have another wonderful learning opportunity to learn and improve my organizational skills.

Secondly, when he is angry, he can learn to find to a ‘relax’ spot. The spot must be away from incident area. Here, he can control his breathing to relax and release the tension and anger in him. Thirdly, another option in controlling and managing his anger, Pete can use is to find avenues to release his anger positively. For example, he can use sports such as swimming for individuals’ sports and soccer for team sports. Enjoying and exercising well can be one great method to be more relax and reduce anger in tense situation.

Fourthly, he can learn to be accountable for his actions. Being accountable for his actions, he will enable to handle his anger better with his sense of responsibilities. A person who takes charge of his mistakes tends to take charge of tense situation better. Fifthly, anger is built and controlled by the mind. Train the mind to view things as a learning process. As part of the learning process about anger management, learn to speak the words wisely and consistently. For example, when Pete makes a mistake, instead of getting angry instantly, he can tell himself what he can learn from the experience. Through such consistency acts given above in handling such situations, he can develop to control his feelings and anger better.

Similar to Pete, we encounter anger which is part of our feelings and life. With preventive measures taken, anger can be reduced and controlled greatly. Such anger management can result is a better, happier and positive lifestyle.



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Lina Smith asked:


Learning is a very personal thing – for some people it comes very easily and they can learn using traditional methods. Others can struggle or find that they need to use different techniques to be able to learn effectively. With this in mind, teachers and other learning professionals have developed various learning methods and techniques to enhance the learning experience of both young and old alike. One of these methods is the use of graphic organizers.

Graphic organizers are a visual way of representing concepts, ideas and areas of knowledge and can take a variety of different forms from more simple classification organizers, relational organizers and sequence organizers to more complex graphic organizers such as concept development organizers and options and control device organizers. Studies have shown that using graphic organizers can help learners to improve their recall skills, cut down on boredom when learning, create an interest in topics, help to organize thoughts and enhance understanding. This can make all the difference to a child or adult who finds learning new concepts quite trying and difficult to grasp.

Storyboards, which are used to develop film and story plots (and are used in comics) are one of the types of graphic organizers that fall into the relational organizers category and they are widely used in schools. Charts also fall into this category and these can be highly beneficial to help learners understand what percentages look like – when used as a pie chart for instance. Using visual representations of knowledge can help to break down many of the barriers that some learners will come across during their education. Graphic organizers, when used in this way can be a huge help to anyone who finds abstract thoughts challenging.

Another type of graphic organizers that are commonly used in educational establishments and in the workplace are mind maps. These are diagrams which represent a chain of thoughts and ideas all stemming from a central theme. They can be massively helpful when a group of people are discussing new concepts and want to get as many opinions on it as possible. When viewed these types of graphic organizers can look a little unstructured, but as you then follow the map you can see the logic within it.

Flow charts are very useful graphic organizers which can be used to help people to understand a process and they can be as simple or as complex as the process requires. These are often used to help children with autism who need to have a structured timetable for each day at school and at home that they can refer to. Graphic organizers when used in this way can provide a solid foundation for autistic children to work with and use in order to cope with each day and feel secure.

As shown graphic organizers can help people in a multitude of ways and they can range from the very simple to the extremely complex – but they all have one thing in common – they help people to understand concepts.



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