I returned to the room I designed yesterday on day 2. I didn’t particularly appreciate how the couch cushion was fused to the couch’s body on a single layer. I went in and deleted the cushion and then switched over to the clay tool to add a new one on a new layer. This is shown in this video.
Day 03 (Day 2 review) 3D Model 30-Day Challenge Assembly Review
I was really chatty in this demonstration. I think it was because it was right after my first cup of coffee right before work! I was psyched!
Day 3 – More Tools!
I really enjoyed the 4th video on Substance 3D Modeler from the curated playlist tutorial series by Adobe. ( First Steps with Substance 3D Modeler – 04 All Tools) It covered the rest of the tools and showed other ways to use the first tools covered in the series. Remaining sculpting tools: Buildup, crease, Inflate and paint.
⭐ Buildup Tool
“B” key on the keyboard.
This tool is used to build up areas on the clay.
⭐ Crease Tool
Subtool to the buildup tool.
pull up and pinch a ridge on the clay’s surface.
Tab will alternate pinching up and creasing in.
⭐ Inflate Tool
Continually inflate the clay surface where the tool comes in contact with the clay.
You Change the intensity and also select deflate mode.
⭐ Paint Tool
Can be used as is with the color selection panel,
Also works with all the shapes found under the clay tool!
Nothing fancy but a good way to give an object a decent shaded texture good for a base coat.
Check out what I came up with from using the rest of the tools!
Day 03 – More Tools – 3D Model 30 Day ChallengeLook I made some seed pods in the 3D metaverse!
I rebuilt the basic shapes from those tutorials as a review of day 1.
I am having an issue with zooming in on a single object and getting too close. Then when I zoom away the work that I have created is out of view. I try to tap the “R” key twice like it said in the first tutorial but it doesn’t always seem to reset the scene. The workaround I have found for now is to save and reopen the project. I show this at the end of the video below.
Image of my workspace where I can’t seem to focus back on the object I’m creating
While trying to solve this problem I saw this fantastic page that shows all the key commands used for Adobe Substance 3D Modeler, which is super helpful. Thanks, Adobe! You rock!
At lunch today I viewed tutorial Video #3 from the free Adobe Tutorials on at least Adober Substance Modeler. I say in the video that I picked a scene of a room from a house because of my theater, instructional design, or house rehab background; but it is just as likely that I have been learning Multi-Craft (later iteration of Minecraft) with my son. I also made an attempt to improve the lighting in my room for this recording. Here is what I came up with from day 2:
I am going to teach myself how to create 3D objects in the virtual space. I don’t know how to use Adobe Substance Modeler, Adobe Substance Painter, or Adobe Substance Designer, nor do I know how to use Adobe Substance Stager. I am going to spend the next 30 days taking the free Adobe Tutorials on at least Adober Substance Modeler and sharing my experience here. We will see how it goes!
Upon taking some preliminary video courses I have learned that this can lead to designing in Virtual Reality and Augmented reality and I want to be very clear that, this is my ultimate goal. For now, I want to build a logo for my brand and I am thinking that the 3D space might be easier than Illustrator. I have some basic designs in Illustrator and they look well… flat.
So far I have been working in Adobe Illustrator which to be fair I have not used in over a decade. I like it, it is very powerful. HUGE shout out to my buddy Luke Lindberg who has been holding my hand through this process. You are the man Luke. If you need a graphic designer, then hit him up!
What I love about living in 2023 is that if you want to learn something new chances are the platform that makes the product you want to learn is producing high-quality learning content and sharing it on Youtube for free! HOT JAMS! Just look at this, 10 fresh clean learning artifacts that walk me through the process. I would be mad to not take advantage of this! Adobe Tutorials “https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB0wXHrWAmCwrvuebNKHc7rooXkkVDwln“
So, I am jumping in, I am teaching myself something I know nothing about. So let’s look at what I came up with. You can tell by the concerned look on my face in the next video! This is not the face of a man who knows what he is doing. This is the face of a man who is vulnerable and swimming in waters he does not know.
After Working with the First 3D Substance Modeler Tutorial #1
So, to be candid. I created something and it didn’t work because I was just messing around with the shape of the brush and not actually creating something. Then when I went to reopen the file there was nothing there because I didn’t create anything. So I actually created this after watching the second tutorial but it relates to the first tutorial so I will share it first.
After Working with the First 3D Substance Modeler Tutorial #2
In this tutorial, it became clear how to use the creation “gizmo” or “brush”. You can press the “e” key to set it to a transparent object for erasing. Or you can press the “c” key to create in clay. I am still not clear on what pressing the “c” key does. It sort of bakes the clay and then you can’t erase what you have already done. I really dug in here and created many layers to get an idea of what the limits were.
I am really excited to enter this new space. Even if these aren’t the tools I eventually need to create VR and AR experiences learning these skills will be valuable when I do. I would like to thank the learning team at Adobe who put these learning playlists together. YouTube really is the best LMS on the planet Earth.
Gamification became a hot topic, then a buzzword, and then LMS systems started adding badges for completing painful eLearning modules and calling it gamification. Now those not in Learning & Development see “Gamification” as a worthless fad because they don’t know what it is. Let me attempt to explain game-enriched learning environments.
As I was at my local gym, I found a PRECOR elliptical machine that let me log in and create a user name. I was hoping that this would allow me to track my usage on my phone and therefore onto the YMCA app where I track all of my exercises, but I am not that far in my Metaverse journey to awesomeness.
But now that I’m logged into this elliptical machine, it started to throw badges up on the screen when I hit certain landmarks over my entire elliptical journey.
You just walked across the Golden Gate Bridge! Your cumulative distance over time is the same as Taking a train from Beijing to the Great Wall of China!
NICE! Thanks, PRECOR! That makes me feel really good right now. I am motivated to exercise so these badges alone increase my motivation because I want to see what the next badge is. However, this on its own cannot be considered a game.
If these badges were used for unmotivated learners, then they would simply become asinine and probably, decrease motivation.
Often when I speak to experts, who are skilled and experienced in adding games to learning experiences, they tend to not like the word Gamification. It’s a dirty word now. Why is that? A lot of business leaders and learning stakeholders have requested Gamification in ways that don’t serve the learning model. Gamification is implemented without the funding or skill sets required to deliver.
For example, learning management systems have added only badges across-the-board, and called that gamification. Not even a leaderboard of who is ahead, just little images with arbitrary words like “HOT SHOT” and “ACE”. That’s not a game that is a reward that you could’ve won if you played a good game well to add merit to your performance. However, getting that badge after taking a raw DATA-DUMP in a trackable SCORM eLearning is more like a kick where the sun doth not shine than a game.
So, it has to be a good game and it has to build skills.
I like to think about games with learning purposes on a sort of quadrant.
First of all, is the game fun, or is the game not fun?
Second of all, does the game build skills are does the game not build skills?
( Skills here are skills that can be used in the real world. I would say Educational but that would be a circular definition and possibly a slippery slope that is not accurate. I have also hesitated in using the word Educational here because I don’t want to trigger memories of your teacher or mother asking if the show is “educational” or not? and now I probably triggered it anyway, which is good.)
Quadrant: Fun/not fun develops skills/ develops no skills
What are things that you can add to the games that make them great?
How do you make “FUN” games?
The game mechanics are the solution. (be sure to scroll down to the end to see videos of my favorite game.)
Game Elements
Believe it or not, there is a whole field around how to build games, and we are not just talking about video games here either. These ideas and tools work on all games from monitor and VR to paper and cardboard.
If you want to talk about building Gamified Learning Environments then you don’t have to look much further than the work of Karl M. Kapp. His book “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction” is basically THE BOOK.
Why are some games a one-and-done and others are repeatable? It has to do with the elements of the game, the interrelationship of the elements is what makes the game engaging. Games are based on models of reality known as operating models.
The benefits of abstracted reality:
Easy to understand complex concepts
Cause and effect are obvious
Removes extraneous factors which pose distractions
Reduces the time needed to grasp the concept
Goals
Game goals differ from instructional Goals. Game goals are specific and quantifiable. Instructional goals are broad and general. The final goal should not come too early. Ideally, there are sets of goals that build skill sets that are used to complete the final goal.
Operational Rules: Need the right key to open the right door
Constitutive Rules of Foundational rules: these are usually most important to the game designer. Probability of a die hitting a 6 or card counting
Implicit rules or behavioral rules: Govern the social construct between players. Usually tied to a penalty if broken.
Instructional rules: Define gameplay. The player must internalize before gameplay
Conflict, Competition, or Cooperation
Conflict is a challenge from a meaningful opponent and focuses on slowing the opponent down.
Competition is when a player is “constrained from impeding each other and instead devote the entirety of their attention to optimizing their own performance”.
Cooperation is working with other players to achieve a desirable outcome.
Time
Time is often used as a motivator to take action. When the clock starts. Time is also a part of helping learners allocate time to pieces of their work. The benefit of games is that they can condense time to view actions and results in real time.
Reward Structures
Badges, points, and rewards are not all bad and it is equally fun to let someone else know you received them. The leaderboard is a prime example of a reward where the user sees how they match up against all other players. It motivates additional play. It is best if rewards are directly linked to difficult accomplishments in the game. The text claims that LMS systems do not have corporate leaderboards but that might be dated information?
Feedback
Feedback is more frequent in games than in traditional learning environments. Robin Hunicke describes engaging feedback as juicy. Juicy feedback is tactile, inviting, repeatable, coherent, continuous, emergent, balanced, and fresh.
Levels
There are three types of levels: Game level, Playing level, and Player level.
The Game Level is useful for plot and storytelling. Skills can be built at each level. The level-up is a motivation to continue.
The Playing Level. A simple game is boring and an overly complex game is not fun. Therefore many games have an entry-level at the beginning, easy, moderate, and difficult. It is often helpful to have the first level as a demonstration with guidance and feedback on how to play.
APlayer Level relates to the character’s experience level or experience points in role-playing games. So, think Final Fantasy or Pokemon where a player has EP or “Experience Points”.
Storytelling
Storytelling can be as simple as the name of the game. It can be supported with minimal additions to create a plot. Today video games have huge storylines and back plots. Stories add meaning, provide context, and guide action.
The Hero’s Journey
The monomyth or the hero’s journey includes leaving the comfort of normal life and entering the unknown to battle the conflict. Stories like The Legend of Zelda and even Super Mario Bros build on the Hero’s Journey.
Curve of interest
Using “The hook” to move from this being a required training or an interesting topic toward the learner being excited about the learning experience. The entry point, is that it is mandatory learning, then the Hook where the learner’s attention is grabbed. Last is the climax and then the learning is over.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics range from the design of game board pieces to sweeping landscapes of imagined worlds. Game aesthetics relate directly to Learner Experience (LX).
Example
While we are discussing game aesthetics, I would like to share one of my favorite games. Simple to play, yet complicated to solve. I love this game so much that I think it deserves its own post. I played Monument Valley available on Apple Arcade and I couldn’t wait to download Monument Valley 2+ available on the same platform.
These videos are best viewed on YouTube using a smartphone. (Just click on the YouTube icon on the videos to play there.)
Work Cited
Kapp, Karl M., 1967-. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-Based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education. San Francisco, CA :Pfeiffer, 2012.
Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, Mass. The MIT Press, 2004.
In my last two posts, Consistency and What Does Consistency Mean to You? I delved into who I am and what I am doing to improve myself. It was rather lavishly selfish and self-serving. I apologize for that. I will take ownership of both of those posts and admit they were not serving my readers in ways I am super proud of. At the same time, I will not delete them. That’s where I was at that time, I needed that, and I also need to own them. I was working on personal improvements that maybe don’t belong on a professional Learning and Development blog, or maybe they do. I guess that’s the good thing about blogs, it kind of doesn’t matter.
I was thinking about this last week as I sat watching my son dig through his swim lesson at the local YMCA. I saw him working on lifting his head gracefully to take a breath in a way that was anything but graceful. He was lifting his mouth far above the water and taking giant gulps of air through his mouth open wide. It was cartoonish. Anyone else watching would have seen a child who doesn’t know how to take a breath during freestyle.
However, that was my child, and I talk to him frequently. When we ride in the van to school, as I tuck him in at night, when we sit in the backyard breaking sticks. I know he is working hard on taking a good breath during the freestyle. I know how long it has been since he could not take a breath to the side instead of raising his head in the front. I know this is a challenge for him. I know this is a big goal of his. I know about the personal work he has done alone and with me at the pool to improve his swimming strokes. I know his work on diving to the bottom, practicing holding his breath, and getting his goggles just right. I see the personal work that he has had to do to be able to swim as well as he can now. We have discussed the excitement and fear he has related to deep diving.
When I shared my last two posts I was sharing my personal work. The things I was doing for me to make my overall performance more effective. Nobody really cared, I didn’t get comments on Linked In, and sadly enough I noticed that, and it meant something to me. Then I stopped posting. The truth is maybe somebody did read that and got something out of it. I was making it about me, about people responding to me. It shouldn’t matter if nobody responds. Ideally, I shouldn’t care how many people read.
Better Writing
During the summer months, I mow my own lawn. I normally listen to Music and Podcasts but I have pockets when I choose Audiobooks. Back in February of 2021, I listened to a condensed version of This book will teach you how to write better by Neville Medhora and it answered questions I didn’t know I had.
I can summarize this in two sentences:
People care about themselves, people do not care about you.
People respond to what his new novel or helpful.
As an Instructional Designer, or in this case a writer of learning content, these statements hit home for me. I stopped the lawnmower, pulled out my phone, and typed these nuggets into my notes app. After some consideration and revising this post before publishing, I realized that I am pulling from that moment subconsciously, so I should share why I feel the way I do here. These statements aren’t groundbreaking, and in a way they are a bit obvious, but having them as a guide as a learning content writer who does not consider himself a naturally gifted writer, was very helpful.
Internal Wins
Stephen Covey first published the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in August of 1989, and I first read it nearly 29 years later in 2018. I am basing this observation off of the 7 Habits. The first half of the list is internal wins or “Private Habits”:
Sharpen the Saw, find a balance between work and relaxation
Be Proactive, take charge, and assume responsibility for your life
Begin with the end in mind, Have a vision for the future to make your ideas reality
These three internal wins get you ready for the transition to external wins #4 to Put things first and focus on what’s important. After that is when the internal wins start to support your external wins, wins that others can observe. Once you have implemented the first 4 into your life then you are ready to move on to:
Think Win-Win, find a solution that is profitable for everyone.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood, first really listen, then make recommendations.
Synergize, together you are stronger than alone.
So, sharing my internal wins, or new “Private Habits”, candidly was meant to show what I was working on and how I was improving myself. However, those wins are for me, those are mine, and I can’t really expect other people to be excited about them like I am. After all, People don’t care about me. Do I still bring up my Spindrift carbonated water with lemon juice and my intermittent fasting to strangers at my daughter’s dance practice? Well, yeah, I still do, and I maybe need to work on that if that is over-sharing; but for here, on this channel, this blog, I am going to pause and pivot. I am not going to consistently tell you about how consistent I am in my diet, work, or sleep patterns and expect you to be happy for me.
The truth is, nobody liked the post much on LinkedIn or Facebook, but I just checked the stats on WordPress, because I was curious, and that post had more views than any of my other recent posts in some time, and I even got some likes on Worpress itself, which I’m not sure I have ever had. So, I am back to square one with Dr. Socrates. I now know that I definitely don’t know sh^t. I need to stop overthinking this, (and maybe rebuild parts of my 4th wall.) Overthinking is not a new pitfall for me. Unfortunately, Analysis Paralysis is kind of my jam and I need to shed that like last year’s skin. Maybe that is what this BLOG is about.
I am going to post consistently, for you (and for me). I’m not going to overthink what I post, I’m just going to keep posting consistently. oh, yeah, and I’m going to keep breathing, probably not drinking alcohol, eating right, and working out HARD 3 times a week, (but I’ll try to keep that more to myself moving forward.)
Work Cited
Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. [Rev. ed.]. Free Press, 2004.
Medhora, Neville. This book will teach you how to write better. [1st ed.]. Neville Medohora, 2013.
About the Author
David Kolmer is a learning professional who currently works and lives in St. Louis, MO. He does not have a degree in nutrition but does hold a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts and a Master of Arts in Instructional Design and Educational Technology.
If you had to nail it down, what is consistency? How would you go about being more consistent?
31 days ago, I shared a post on Consistencyand I would like to follow up with my progress using this word to guide my 2023. I made some heavy claims at the end of that post and so far I am holding to all of them, and have even added a few, 31 days later. I have also added that I will not eat any processed sugar. That has grown into me learning about and following Ketogenic meal plans and bumping the gym visits from 2 days a week to 3 days a week. I have also started intermittent fasting with my newfound fullness of burning only fat and not sugar as fuel. It has been easy for me to not eat for 16 to 20 hours each day.
I hesitated to share my deeper feelings about this concept in my first post but I will do so here.
Consistently Who?
Consistency? Consistently me? … Well, who is that!? I change my mind all the time!
The Fleeting Soul
In college, I took a class called Introduction to Philosophical Problems with the great Professor Robert Money. We read a short trialogue, in which I remember many details other than the title of the work itself. (I will reach out to Prof. Money to get the deets if I can.) In this debate, a religious character is on their deathbed and then two colleges visit him. The two visitors are confused about how the religious person can be so calm. The religious character explains his faith in the traditional Socratic concept that the body will decay but when he dies his soul will separate from his body and travel to the afterlife. The character Philo challenges the mystic by claiming we change our perspective, mood, (basically our identity) from moment to moment. Philo the mystic asks how the religious man can believe in a single soul when we manage to change our mind or the full course of our lives in a single moment. Philo argues that there is a stream of souls passing through a person at any given moment.. and then of course the third character is an Aetheist and laughs at them for believing in souls at all.
I would say that Philo the mystic has a good case here. Maybe that is because I am agnostic. I’m not the atheist who will claim I can’t weigh the soul so it’s not real. However, the idea is by nature abstract. If I do have a soul then what is it? Is the mind the seat of the soul? I like this image of us having a continuous stream of souls passing through us because that is what life feels the most like. When I see pictures of myself from decades before, I sometimes have to take a moment to even recall that moment in time. Other times I can’t remember it at all. Getting old is a journey.
Is being consistent really about who you are? Or more about how you want to be perceived?
The Curse of the New Years Resolution
A friend asked how my “New Year’s Resolution” was going at a party two weekends ago. It struck me to the core. I thought, “I dare you label this effort a new years resolution! Besides, I wrote in my blog that I am trying out this word for the year. I intend to keep these plans.
This was my daughter’s birthday party where I ate veggies, pulled beef off the sandwiches, and served cake, but ate no cake. That’s not how I acted just two weeks before. Not even close. I would have had multiple sandwiches and two servings of cake, and I probably would have served beer at the party.
To be fair I drank more than my fair share of alcohol on new years night 2022 and then gave up alcohol the next day. So I suppose my friend’s statement of this being a “new years resolution” rings true. What bothers me is this understanding that people don’t follow New Year’s resolutions. To my benefit, I am also following my first two guiding principles, honesty, and consistency.
So, let’s start with a 1-month update on how How do I plan to implement consistency in my life, and how I’m doing…
I have given up caffeinated coffee since November 24th, 2022, and replaced it with adaptogenic mushroom beverages. I have added a cup of caffeine here and there but only when I’m working out.
I have consistently sat in meditation or yoga for at least 10 minutes a day.
I am not drinking any alcohol for January 2023 and plan to keep this going indefinitely.
I have hidden my cell phone when I am around my children and this has only been an issue once or twice when Zoom popped up from work.
I am building models and figures with my children less often than I would like, but the LEGO building has definitely increased, and I have stepped up to build some incredible aquariums for my kids which I can share later.
I am helping my children read books every day. I have also started flash cards with the younger child.
When I speak I am working on focusing on being calm and honest, and maintaining my true calm and thoughtful demeanor (as much as possible), this has remained a challenge for me but my new diet has helped me improve on this.
I have not gone Disc Golfing much at all, but the ground is covered in ice right now so I have focused more on the gym.
“I will consider going to the gym once in a while.” This is the promise that I didn’t make but was able to keep. I started with 2 times a week but have bumped that up to 3 times a week. I am using the free Strong Lits App. and linking that up to send data to the YMCA app where I track my other activities from the gym and all steps counted by my phone.
Since following this new way of life, I have found some new ones.
I will not eat breakfast and will not eat after 7 PM.
I will not consume carbohydrates.
For now, I will not eat any food that has been found to increase the glycemic index. (Potatoes, carrots, apples, bread, candy, alcohol, etc.)
I will go to the gym three times a week and spend at least 15 minutes on the elliptical and then do a 5X5 Stronglifts set. (below)
What I like about the free StrongLifts app is it takes your weight and looks at how often you workout and then slowly increases the weight as you go. The great thing about resistance training is you continue to burn calories after you lift for repair.
No Sugar
I am not eating any sugar and I have also cut out fruit that increases the glycemic index. So not eating bananas, oranges, mango, grapes, raisins, dates, pears, etc. But I am eating berries, plums, kiwi fruit, grapefruit, etc.
I found a video, (or the video found me) about the benefits of cutting sugar by Dr. Berg.
Ketogenic
I have also given up starches and grains to switch over to burning fat as my fuel instead of sugar.
I have to say that burning fat is keeping me full for much longer. Intermittent fasting has been much easier than ever before and two weeks ago I only ate a huge salad with meat, eggs, and cheese at 1:30 PM and then hearty soup at 4 PM. That was it. That’s all I ate all day, and I feel super full! Last Monday I only ate one meal at 4 PM.
A Whole Lemon Blended with Tumeric
Another thing that I had heard about was throwing a whole lemon in a blender and blending it up with some ice, stevia, and water for a snack while “Fasting” There is a debate whether eating lemon juice during a fast will “Break the fast”. The juice from a whole lemon is 3 carbs. However, if you blend the whole lemon and drink it all it does not raise your glycemic index, i.e. does not cause you to generate insulin, so as far as a state of ketosis is concerned you are not breaking your fast. I have also started throwing a fresh rhizome of turmeric in this shake and taking it with a 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt.
Workout During my Fasting
Something I just started to try out was going to the gym during my fast and seeing how I felt. I did that this morning at 10 AM and I still didn’t feel hungry until 12:30 PM. Then I ate a shake with a whole avocado, some organic cream, walnuts, strawberries, raspberries, water, stevia, and ice. It’s 3:19 PM now and I’m still not hungry.
Striving for a New Self
Perhaps consistency is just striving for a path to keep me coming back to my best self; to keep me honest. I am going to consistently accept Lou Reed’s “New Found Man”. I am finding that I am coming back to things that worked for me in the past. It’s like I am living my life like a track list of “David’s Greatest Hits”. What’s interesting is that these are things that people have shared with me that worked for me and now I am going back to them. Just like the song by Lou Reed that was shared by my friend Bart Ringer.
If you have ever taken a class on play analysis or studied theater in school you might have heard the word stasis. Stasis is another word for peace or rest. When a play starts something happens that breaks the characters out of stasis and the play is about the action the characters take to return to stasis. I feel like when I was traveling the world and making a living doing theater, stunt work, and teaching English; my goal was to live in a state of broken stasis. I was young and that was a cool way to live, it made my life seem interesting, but it was exhausting. Now that I am older and I have kids and own a couple houses I think I have redefined that goal. All I want to do is find a way to return to stasis. I don’t listen to music because I think it’s cool anymore. I listen to it because it relaxes me.
Bigs up Your Vocation
I had a phone call with a mentor (an official unofficial sponsor) of mine who recommended a book titled “The Art of Work“. I started listening to the book soon after our call. I found a YouTube video where an AI bot is reading the whole book. It is creepy that a bot is reading me the book, but I kind of like it and I have been listening to the book while I organize spreadsheets of eLearning content I am curating. This book is giving me a path. It’s giving me a mental model of what building a career and mastering a trade can provide.
The opening of the book talks about how the meaning of the word “Vocation” has lost some of its glory. In the past, a vocation was a calling or a mission. It was often reserved for those being called to work for spiritual or religious endeavors. One thing that struck me is that the book lays out 7 layers of a master. I will write more about this in a future post but for now, I wanted to identify that the layers build on each other. You don’t just complete number 1 and then move on to number 2. You complete 1, Awareness, and that is the base that you use for #2 Apprenticeship.
So to apply this to my word for 2023 of Consistency, it should build off of my theme for 2022, Honesty. So having consistency without honesty will not work.
So for this year, I will be: Consistently Honest So, I’m getting closer to how to be Consistent.
Just getting drunk on new years eve and then waking up the next day and saying I will give up alcohol for January is the first step, but it’s not the path I need to be on. It is not my “path with heart”. If I write these things down and publish them to the world for all of my millions of readers, or even just a couple (thanks for the support Mom.); then I have put the idea out there and even if just one person reads it, I will feel more compelled to follow through.
So, consistently who? Well Consistently the new me. Who is that? Well, I think it’s more of a how. How do I want others to perceive me?
Hello, 2023! May you bring me focus and consistency.
I recently read a post written by a friend named Stephanie Gerald. She was inspired by a friend (who will remain unknown) to have a word for a year. Since this came at the beginning of a year and the end of another year it resounds of a new years resolution. However, living your life according to a word seems so much more possible than going to the gym every day. It’s an ideal, something to strive for. Stephanie was nice enough to share the words she has had from the past few years and I love them: Intentional, Courage, Power, and the newest one Grit, inspired by the great Angela Duckworth.
I wanted to steal one of Stephanie’s words because they were so grand and illustrious, but I realized I need to be honest. In a way, honesty was my word from 2022. as I shared in a previous blog post, HONESTY. Now if you have read ANY of my recent blog posts, you will know that I recently went to my first DEVLEARN conference, (and I promise I will get over that someday), but for now, it is still a huge landmark in my career and life in general. While I was there, the learning guild offered these windows of unlimited coffee, and boy did take advantage of that. There was also an espresso bar at the Dochebo booth and I knew the barista on a first-name basis. I don’t even need to mention how much free alcohol was available.
Me at the height of my caffeine addiction being chased by the angel of death at DEVLEARN.
Either way, by Friday I was revved up like a locomotive. I attended a class on Podcasts hosted by the profound Betty Danowitz, from If You Ask Betty. I don’t recall why but there was some sort of delay in the training and Betty asked if anyone knew any jokes. So guess who started shouting out his favorite dad jokes? Yes, if you answered me, then you are correct. After the third joke, Betty asked me to sit in the front row to be her co-host. This was flattering but I knew she was just trying to keep the Heckler close to her so she could keep an eye on him. (Betty Shared a picture of me in this state but it looks like my chat history doesn’t go that far back on Linked In. Either way that embarrassing photo is not the point.)
Now, I was very engaged in this course on Podcasts, and I’d like to start my podcast soon, but for now, I can gather my thoughts in this blog. As preparation, I have also started listening to the I Love Betty podcast and writing on it religiously. (I am wondering why she is not sponsoring my blog, but I need to remember to take baby steps.) One of the Podcasts that has resounded with me over time was with Tim Slade about building your brand. All the talk about choosing colors and fonts made sense and didn’t phase me, but one thing stood out, it shocked me. The goal is to be consistent with colors, fonts, and designs AND in your behavior. To be true to your real self all the time. Often, the only thing I am consistent at is being random. It’s not because I am overly scatterbrained or legitimately mad, but because my brand of humor is conceptual and abstract. So, I realized, I say and do random things to be funny. In other words, hoping it will make people like me more. However, this often backfires with people who don’t know me well. People think I am being serious and I offend them or concern them. Or even worse, they don’t laugh.
So now that I am being more honest with myself, and the world, I want to take it a step further and be more consistent. Well, how do I do that? I have already taken a few steps.
How do we use our professional lives to better our private ones?
Do we learn more from our teachers or from our peers?
I attended my first DEVLEARN Conference this year. It was a pivotal moment in my career because now I know much more about what I don’t know. In addition, I gained direction, motivation, new career idols, and a plan.
In the learning space, we talk a lot about how deep learning comes more from peers than from professors or teachers. At DEVLEARN I attended a podcast session led by the great Betty Danowitz. I want to be honest that I learned a lot from Betty in that session.
Since Betty is a skilled training facilitator, she allowed the room to provide ideas to support her points. One of these ideas was from Matthew Pierce (whom Betty verbally praised approximately 15 or more times in the class). He shared that a way to back up a podcast for free is to publish the audio to video with a static image of your brand. Then upload to Youtube.com as unlisted to house unlimited audio.
When I ran out of space on my Apple account for photos and video, I was asked to start paying $10 a month to upgrade my plan. It took me a moment to connect the two ideas, but I have decided to use the video I take on my cell phone to create family videos and post them as unlisted to Youtube.com. I read that listing the videos by date in this format [YYY-MM-DD] will automatically list them in the order of the date of recording.
In the process, I am:
Backing up family memories for future generations
Saving money to build wealth for future generations
have a new creative outlet
Here is an example of one of these videos (which I got a little carried away with).
We Saw an Ow
This is a small example of one way I have used an idea I gained from my professional journey to benefit how I live my personal life.
What tricks have you learned on your career journey that you have used to better your personal life?
In what ways could you improve your personal life from skills you gained from your professional life?
In my previous post, I dug deep and shared about a position I held as an Instructional Designer; where I was not passionate and my skills were not well aligned with the needs of the learner. So, here are the top 5 things I learned from the most challenging Instructional Design job I have had so far.
Let Go, Your EGO
Think less about how you are being perceived by others, Focus on the value you can add to the business.
I was trying to add value to the department I was serving. However, I was thinking too much about myself and not enough about the needs of the business or, more importantly, the needs of the learner.
Let Your Interests Guide you
Do not work for an industry you are not pasionate about, seek out your passion.
This topic almost seems idealistic because we have heard it so much. In my current position, I am engaged because the industry I serve is electrical components and electric systems. I find it terrifyingly interesting. When I worked at insurance I felt a bit like I was serving an economically dark lord. I realize I was not working for the satan, but from my perspective, according to my truth, I might as well have been. A person much wiser than I once uttered, “
“Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” – CONFUCIUS
Strive for New Skills
Do not fall back on the skills you have, Seek out new skills.
It is easy to skate by on the skills that have served you best in the past. However, as a learning professional, “The way we have always done it” or “I’m going to use the tool I know best” does not always produce the best outcome for the learner. So, as a principle, force yourself to seek out new tools and identify where they would be useful. However, do not use them simply because they are new.
Enhance, Don’t Rebuild
Use the tools already in place, and then enhance or build on them.
This is huge, and this ties directly back to letting go of your EGO. Don’t build something new just to say, “Look, I made something new.” Often times what is in place is working so don’t touch it. Instructional Designers and even higher-level learning architects do not have to be Organizational Development experts. It’s not our job to reorganize the business so it works better. (Although, sometimes it feels like the fails of business structure are flung onto the easy targets in the training department.)
Use the systems that are in place and find ways to enhance the way people interact with them.
If learning content exists then use it and build on it, do not scrap it and start over unless you have to.
Learn From Failure
Learn From Failure
Don’t let your ego get in the way of learning new skills, fail head first with passion and then learn from your mistakes to improve.
If we do not feel comfortable failing, then we never truly grow.
I recently completed listening to the LOKI series on the If You Ask Betty Podcast, where Betty and her guests discuss how LOKI is every learner and our goal is to find and reach for our glorious purpose.
Another key point in the 5-part series by BettyDannewitz is that failure is fundamental in this process of discovering your glorious purpose. In the Television show by Disney+, LOKI (link to trailer) fails so bad that we can perceive him as an anti-hero. However, when LOKI meets Morpheous and is really challenged to the core, his path diverts, he can start to embrace his failure as legitimate and use that experience as a moment of learning.
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” –ALBERT EINSTEIN
—Albert Einstein
Did you know that Albert Einstein could play the violin?
In my previous post, I promised I would follow up with a work project that in many ways failed, but then I used it in a project and painted it as a success for a school project. Well, I want to open up by sharing that I do not like the idea of insurance. I like having insurance on the things I can’t afford to lose (like my kids) but other than that I desperately hate insurance. So, how did I get experience working as an ID on my resume? Well, I temped for local investment firms that needed some hands and I got some solid gigs at a few local insurance companies.
Would you like some background music to enjoy while reading this? I recommend some Golden Dust by A.L.I.S.O.N.
I would like to try not to make this a gripe session but rather flip this over and use it as a case study in itself. If you would be so kind as to reply and share how you would have approached this assignment differently I would appreciate it. When I went to find the original case study/ web post I created for school (referenced in the previous blog post on honesty) I was shocked to see it in disarray. On top of not doing well on the work assignment itself, it appears as though I did not do well on the web page glorifying it either. Instead of copying the content into a new web page that I owned, I did a facelift on the actual school project from green to light blue. You can see how well this all turned out in the evergreen timeline here: curriculum effectiveness enhancement
If you haven’t read my previous post on HONESTY (which you should!) you might be asking yourself: “Why is Improvement Dave sharing all these fails he had? Isn’t this web page supposed to be teaching me how to live an awesome life?” Well, I want to candidly illustrate mistakes I have made in my career as an instructional designer in an attempt to foster moments of learning. My end goal is to ask you how you would have done things differently.
*The image looks better with red and blue 3D glasses.
So, back to why that web page, (linked above), looks so bad. I created this case study for school around a project I had at work. Then, I wanted to use it in my portfolio (also a school project originally). Instead of creating a new web page, I just threw a blue background up that hid the links to the other student’s pages and posted it on my portfolio. This was a lazy choice, and now I have a web page that has errors and I no longer have access to update them. Also, I wanted to make it all about me, granted it was for my portfolio, so again, I should have just created a new web page with the same content. (Which is what I plan to do nextSure, it would have taken more time to create a second version of the page, but it would have been free (with some ads) and I would now have access to edit it. When I was thinking about writing this post, I had the thought to recreate the web page now so I can use that for this case study, of a failed case study, presenting the ultimately failed project at work, but that didn’t seem honest. The whole point of this is to create a moment of learning from my mistakes, so fixing just one part of this seemed to take away from that learning. I need to fail hard, and I need to own that as a moment of learning. So, if you take anything away from this post, it should be:
“Don’t be lazy, like Improvement Dave was before he was awesome as FCUK.”
So, since that web page has a dreadful dark green background behind black text, making it nearly illegible, I can recap the project here:
I would like to start by saying this was a project for an insurance company in the claims department, but I am very ashamed to say that I have worked at multiple insurance companies and yes, supporting training for their claims department. Let that be your second lesson. Don’t work for a claims department at an insurance company (I am kidding! If you like that then more power to you, you sick and demented person.) So, my point in this paragraph is, I will try to leave the company anonymous.
Excuse #1
The previous person in my role quit right before I started. I was asked to train the higher-level claims analysts, who traditionally were promoted into this higher-level role. A decision was made to hire for this analyst role off the street as long as applicants had claims processing experience. I am using this as an excuse, but I want to illuminate the fact that the learners traditionally would have had 5 to 10 years of knowledge about how this company processed claims for all the different health plans they supported.
Excuse #2
I attended a condensed version of “how to process claims at this company training” that was led by the previous claims trainer to the one who had just quit. I had missed the first week or two of that course. I then attended a 2-week training that was led by a SME. I politely asked if I could record the training so I could use it for content design and development purposes and the SME declined. The training was broken up by type of claim. The SME processed a claim on the projector and then we were given claims on our laptops in class to process. In this second class, I was seated next to claim processors who had excelled at processing claims and had then been promoted to this higher level. At this point, it was clear to me that I did not know what was going on and that I was walking down a treacherous path. When this training concluded the SME who was training the course promptly quit his job, and in retrospect, I probably should have done the same thing.
ADDIE Time
I did not quit. I proceeded to leverage the ADDIE model to develop PDF Learner Guides and Facilitator Guides for ILT, based off of the Analysis I created from the SME training I attended. My first cohort arrived to me when I was about halfway through developing my curriculum. At this point, a second claims trainer was hired who attended the basic claims training and started building Learner Guides and Facilitator Guides for the ILT sessions they started leading.
Escuse #3
There were still two claims auditors on staff who had a 2-pronged job. When they were not auditing claims, they were working on updates on the “claims manuals”. These Microsoft Word documents were linear written descriptions of the process to complete common claim types that were stored on SharePoint. The Claims Manuals had minimal images only where necessary and contained multiple contradictions. It was difficult to search for them and nearly impossible to search them for content matches. If you got a claim you had to know what manual you needed and you had to know the title of that document.
After completing the Learner Guides and Facilitator guides and peer-reviewing the content through identified SMEs we both started getting questions about why we didn’t just train from the hundreds of Claims Manuals. We explained that the Learner Guides contained visual learning tools that explained the concepts around how the claims were to be processed not only the steps and that the Learner Guides always contained links to the relevant Claims Manuals. When I wasn’t updating my training guides I was leading back-to-back training cohorts. In retrospect, I should have made more time for actually processing claims. However, that time was cut into by having to train new hires.
Since the training really wasn’t going as well as I had hoped and the learners were not getting as much hands-on experience with processing claims as I would have liked. I started to ask high performers if I could record their screens while processing common claim types using the claims manuals and then use those videos as learning resources. Many of the new hires liked the videos because they could be replayed, which helped them encode stronger mental models to build from. However, the auditors and other members of operations did not approve of the videos. I also invited high-performing processors into the classroom to provide live demos. These demos were helpful but took high performers from the floor, and resulted in me developing a case of imposter syndrome. I would go home feeling drained and expendable.
It was at this point, that I started applying for jobs outside of the company full-time. I could see that my training was not delivering the results that I desired. There was tension within the department around how certain claims should be processed and new hires were often surprised by how claims were being processed for so many health plans with such few resources.
After that, I accepted an offer outside of the company and put in my two weeks’ notice. My team had a very nice going away party for me. However, when I invited members from the claims department to a happy hour at a local restaurant, only two people attended and one of them was from my department. This is not how my going away happy hours usually pan out.
This post has become a cathartic rant about a job that I feel bad about. It feels good to write it but I think I might have lost the point of this, which was to present it as a moment of learning. I am still curious to hear how you would have approached this assignment differently. What tools would you have implemented? What choices would you have made? What would you have demanded?
In my next post, I will dig into the takeaways I gained from this less-than-ideal experience.
Improvement Dave 