Week 4, July 10-16, 2006:

This was another 4 day week. I took my second and last vacation day on Friday. We decided to go to New York for the weekend and visit my relative in Springfield, MA on the way. However, despite the short week, work was really starting to heat up. I put in long days, 10-12 hours. Our deadline for completion of the Client Connections Integrated Desktop is a week from this Friday. On Monday, July 17 over 1,000 associates were planning to start taking our course through ALP, Associate Learning Portal, through the company intranet.

I’ll be making observations about Virtual Teaming, becoming the “Lectora Guy,” the need for online courses, the process they use to create training, and our trip to Springfield and New York City.

Virtual Teaming and the Virtual Office

Initially I wondered why it seemed no one ever went to lunch in our work group. I found it wasn’t because they were anti-social; it was because they had a very tight deadline. For six weeks the team members on the East coast gave up their lunches to hold a daily one-hour phone conference to coordinate efforts and report on progress. Our team member on the West Coast was regularly working until 2 or 3am to get the job done. I didn’t know that until this week when it became necessary for me to attend the phone meetings because I had become the “Lectora Guy.” This made me feel a real part of things and I started to get very excited about the project.

This is my first experience with virtual teaming outside of taking or teaching classes online. That gave me a taste, but not at this level. Our project team consisted of six people I know of. Only two of us were in the same physical space, Peggy Chopp and me. The rest worked out of their homes or distant offices. One was near Charlotte, two in different parts of New England and the fourth in San Francisco. These daily conference calls were crucial in making things happen. Email has its limitations. These calls seemed nearly as good as in person meetings. I think the calls are even preferred because you can “multi-task” on your computer. Conference calling is now the norm in large businesses.

Nearly all employees in our department are now working out of their homes at least one or two days a week. On Fridays (and Mondays to a lesser extent) the office is a ghost town. Some now spend most of their work week at home, coming into a work center once a week or even once or twice a month. Peggy says on her Fridays at home she actually works more than she does in the office. Since she’s coordinating with people in California, she often works until 8 or 9 pm at home.

This is a leap forward, especially for employees who are also caregivers. These caregivers are usually female, but not always. One woman said because she could work at home she was able to help take care of her mother in New Jersey who had broken her leg. It gives people a lot of flexibility if it’s not abused.

I talked with our team member in the Charlotte area and asked how she liked working from home. She said it works out very well 4 out of 5 days. They have two small children. She works at home 3 days and two in the work center, and her husband, who’s in real estate, also works from home 3 days. Monday through Thursday they take turns being home, but on Fridays they are both home. She hates Fridays because it gets a little crowded with both of them trying to share the home office and equipment. I wonder how he feels.

I recently attended a dinner for all the interns in Boston. I’m the only one in the training department, but there are others in tech, real estate and other departments. At one point our conversation turned toward working at home. One person said he briefly worked where they now have completely virtual offices. When you need to physically come to work you reserve a desk and equipment for a day, week or two weeks. They are also temporarily assigned a phone.

One person did comment there were some negatives. For one thing he says he gets more done in the office because it’s often better and faster to see people in person in his field. He’s a techie. Another thing he mentioned is that some people tend to fake it at home. They’ll send a couple emails and perhaps join in to a conference call to make it seem like they are working, but they put in only about two hours.

Need for Online Courses

When I told them what I did, they said they were very happy they could take so many company courses online and advance in job-specific skills. The fact that they could take the classes at their convenience at the office or at home was a major plus. There are some courses that are still given live or on paper. They hope those are transferred online in the near future.

It seems many companies are now desperate for people who can help transfer these courses online. Perhaps we are entering a new golden age for EdTec.

The Birth of the “Lectora Guy”

Since this was the first time they were using Captivate for a project they initially had me help with some of simulations. However, they were also impressed with the fact that on my first day there I sought out online training in Lectora (provided by a Benedictine University) and was up to speed by the second day. In time our team member in San Francisco decided it worked out best if he gave up doing Lectora and just concentrated on Captivate. So he became the project’s “Captivate Guy” and I became the “Lectora Guy.” The arrangement seemed to work. I also became the emergency graphics guy, creating small items that were needed to dress things up. They use an outside vendor to do the major graphics work.

The other members of our team fed us dozens of PowerPoints and numerous emails with corrections and changes. For me, in most cases, these were errors or changes to existing modules. In some cases I was given storyboards and had to build the Lectora pages from them.

The Process

The process they went through to create the training was first a need was identified. In this case, based on a need to improve sale coordination, a new desktop application had been created. It helped sales people keep track of leads and sales, and interface with email and calendar functions in their own and their partner’s Outlook. (As an aside – I’ve been a snobby Mac person for many years, but I’ve now developed a tremendous respect for the power of Outlook to coordinate email, calendars and contact information. It’s become an indispensable tool. There is no real equivalent in Macintosh.)

Then a training document was generated. This document outlines the training rationale, objectives, the skills that would be taught, and proposals for how to teach those skills. It included a project timeline and list of team members and managers with their responsibilities.

The next step is the storyboarding process. Each page of training had a separate storyboard that showed what the page should like, say and, if interactive, what it should do. The storyboards were then subjected to a rigorous review process. They attempt to make most corrections at this level, but inevitably there were many more changes later.

Then comes the development stage. Here some outside vendors may be brought in who are development experts. The storyboard writers are often needed to start storyboarding another project and can’t be spared for development, or they are just not good at it. This is the point were the actual training modules are created.

Once developed the modules are subjected to a second rigorous review process both inside and outside the team. It’s very important to bring in people outside the team who have fresh eyes and no attachment to the work to give objective opinions. Everything is read, the visuals are scrutinized and interactivity tested. They try to make things break if they can. This was the point I came into the process for this project.

After that all errors and problems are fixed and with a blessing from top management, the training is published and promoted to the employees. Bank of America employees are a captive audience. Certain people are ordered to take the training and are paid for the time they spend doing it. Their jobs depend on it. When they take it they have to also provide immediate feedback about the training.

There are four levels of evaluation:

1. Trainee reaction to training initiative: Level One Evaluation Forms completed by participants for Web-Based component.
2. Trainee improvement during the training initiative: Learning Assessment questions completed by participants for Web-Based component
3. Trainee’s ability to take training back to the workplace: Surveys completed by Market Managers, Client Managers after completing training components
4. Business impact of the training initiative: Marketing to pull monthly usage stats and report out on RO utilization

These levels coincide with Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation: reactions, learning, transfer and results.

We were going to visit my 86 year old cousin in West Springfield in the afternoon

My cousin has a hair appointment every Friday from 10 - noon

My son is currently in a basketball league

For these reasons we decided to stop at the Basketball Hall of Fame Friday morning on our way to visit my cousin before we drove on to New York.

So let’s recap the steps – we have Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Yup, what I learned on day one of my EdTec program is all there.

Personal Notes:

Visit to Basketball Hall of Fame

Initially I thought it would be hokey and uninteresting. I’m not a huge basketball fan, except the college playoffs. But I do have some connection with basketball hall-of-famers from the time I used to work at the San Diego Sports Arena.

While there I met Wilt Chamberlain, who was the owner/coach of the San Diego Conquistadors, and Bill Walton, Helix High Graduate, when he played for the San Diego Clippers. They were big men. Wilt Chamberlain, who is considered the best player of all time, had to duck to get through the doorways in our offices and when I had lunch with Bill Walton his knees stuck out above the table top. I was present for the final game of famous UCLA coach/philosopher, John Wooden. It was one of the most exciting playoff games of all time. UCLA was losing by a point in overtime after coming from behind in regular play, but a last second half-court shot, that was still sailing through the air while the buzzer blared, swished the basket and won the game making them the college champions that year. And I was there to see it.

I was also an emergency scorekeeper once at a Harlem Globetrotter’s when the regular scorekeeper didn’t show up. I was made part of the act when I inadvertently made an error. The Globetrotters temporarily replaced me with a black man saying the white man (me) was trying to favor the other team.

Visiting the hall of fame brought back all these memories, plus it’s a fantastic facility. I’m a history buff and teach multi-media, so what I enjoyed most was the multimedia exhibit that combined display cases with memorabilia along with a series of video screens. Each screen showed a separate video dedicated to a decade of history. The videos tied what was happening with society with that time in basketball history. The building, a huge silver dome with several levels, was filled with well-conceived multi-media displays. This is another field of EdTec, the creation of educational installations.

Ultimately, this is one more example of something that started in Massachusetts that has influenced the world. A tradition that continues today.

Apparently the visit also had the desired effect on our son. He was inspired by what he saw there. When he returned to San Diego he helped his team win all the rest of their summer league games. Before his visit they had lost all their games.

Cousin (It’s the global warming.)

My elderly cousin has a lovely home in West Springfield. She’s actually my mother’s cousin and my second cousin. She’s independently wealthy – a result of her husband’s decision to own the first McDonald’s restaurant in Massachusetts. Nowadays you can’t own a McDonald’s outright, just a franchise. McDonald’s now pays a hefty rent to my cousin each month and operates the business. Ironically she can’t stand McDonald’s food. She prefers Wendy’s.

When I had called to arrange our visit we talked about the unusual weather. Just before my call two tornadoes had touched down in Massachusetts and we had a tropical storm. Matter-of-factly she said, “It’s the global warming.” In addition to our discussion of family things, this ended up being one of our main topics. She and her daughter, who lives with her, are convinced the end is near due to global warming, unless we change our ways. I don’t think it’s that dire yet, but there has been a dramatic shift in climate in this area making winters milder and summers hotter, more humid and rainy. I wanted to see Guggenheim’s documentary about Al Gore’s environmental lecture, “An Inconvenient Truth,” for some time. After this visit I resolved to see it after my family leaves next week.

Giving our Regards to Broadway

On our way to New York we were trapped for hours in a traffic jam in Connecticut caused by an 8 car pileup. We finally made it to our hotel in Manhattan about 2am. The next morning, exhausted, but excited we started visiting as much of New York as we could.

I really wanted to finally see New York because it’s the place I was born. The other thing I really wanted to do here was got to a Broadway play that is actually on Broadway.

I was born in Queens and lived in Brooklyn until I was one-year-old. We moved to the Washington, D.C. area, then Norfolk, Virginia and finally San Diego, when I was in 7th grade. I never had the chance to come back and really see New York.

That day we rode the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and the skyline. Of course we’ve all seen thousands of images of the Statue of Liberty, but seeing it in person, bouncing on the water, with the wind in your face is very different. It really stirs up emotions and thoughts about history, immigration, the purpose and promise of our nation, and ultimately, because of what’s now missing from the New York skyline, 9-11.

On the way to the ferry we stopped at the half-price ticket booth near Wall Street to get play tickets. Our original intention was to see Spamalot http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/, but the prices gave us second thoughts. $600 for a two-hour play just didn’t seem to make sense for us financially. We settled for Hairspray and were not disappointed.

We were so happy to finally see a Broadway play on Broadway. A real plus was underlying all the singing and dancing was a pointed message about acceptance. In addition clever staging, one thing that distinguishes a play from a movie is the energy of being live. Each show is slightly different from the others because there’s a give and take with the audience. For instance there was one scene in Hairspray between the father and mother, who’s a man in drag, that got a big audience reaction because of the tongue-and-cheek innuendo. They in turn reacted to the audience and we reacted to their reaction. We all felt part of the joke.

I also reflected on the difference between live classes and online classes. Despite their convenience, I enjoy both teaching and taking classes in person more than online. The instant give and take between teacher and student cannot be replaced. That, and the joy of seeing a light go on in your student’s eyes when they get it.

After the play we had dinner at a wonderful outdoor French restaurant and did a walking tour of Rockefeller Center. It’s one of the most beautiful man-made places in the world. The unified art deco design and décor and sculptures along with how well-maintained it is gives you hope that cities can be inspiring places. Plus, it’s a living place, not a museum. At midnight they were busy getting ready for the next-day’s today show in front of the famous sunken plaza where they ice skate in winter. Nearby is also where they do Saturday Night Live each week. It’s also filled with chic stores and restaurants.

On our way back to our hotel, which was across from Madison Square Garden, we walked through Times Square I had been to New York for two brief visits in the past, but on neither occasion had the time to sight see. I do remember walking through this area once and being scarred and repulsed. Other than the lights it was dirty and shabby. Homeless, hookers, pimps and peepshows were everywhere. Now it’s relatively clean and feels safe. Funny, even the police station there has big neon lights that flash.

I heard that it was Giuliani that really helped clean things up through strict enforcement and by bringing in the Disney Company to help manage the area. This was at the time Lion King was a huge Broadway hit and began bringing families back to the area. This is literally Disneyization.

When we returned to our hotel about 2am we understood why they call New York the city that never sleeps. Especially around Times Square there were people everywhere. They showed no signs of going home any time soon.

Our hotel was also filled with people wearing white Indian style clothing. While waiting for the elevator I asked one about their group. They are American followers of Amma, the hugging saint. This world can use a lot more hugging and a lot less fear, hatred and prejudice.

The next day we visited the Empire State Building, Wall Street, Ellis Island, saw the play, Chicago, and lastly made a stop at Trump Tower. For us the highlights were listening to a historical narrative at the top of the Empire State building and our visit to Ellis Island.

In this now Disneyized New York, the Empire State Building has become another ride in the theme park and there’s actually a ride within the ride. It costs $11 each to ride to the top. For “only” $15 extra dollars you can also ride a virtual roller coaster through New York, similar to the Star Tours at Disneyland. Instead we opted to spend an extra $15 for the three of us to share a taped commentary, by Tony the Taxi Driver. He pointed out the sights and gave a brief history. We could have pointed out most sights for ourselves, but his commentary was really well-written and we learned a lot we didn’t know about New York.

One of the things he said was New York is now a place that mostly provides services and welcomes tourists. It’s no longer a manufacturing center. Another fact is New York was dedicated to business from the start. The early Dutch settlers came to trade, not escape religious persecution like the settlers in New England. Business is its purpose today. He said this created a city of extremes. Extreme poor and rich. Extreme good and bad. Sublime art and crass commercialism.

He also mentioned New York is the most energy efficient city in the US. It’s the only place a minority of people own cars because it’s easier to use public transit.

From that perch another thing that struck me was how small the famous places are that are the subject of so many books and movies. Greenwich Village, Soho, Wall Street, Little Italy, Chinatown, Times Square, the Theater district, Rockefeller Center – they are all just a few blocks in size. Each of those famous locations can be walked through in about 15-20 minutes. They are all just one or two subway stops. New York is a vertical not horizon place.

Ellis Island reconfirmed the strength of our country comes from tolerance and making room for others at the table. One fact I didn’t know was why we have public education. The real motivation was because of the sweat shops that used child labor near the turn of the last century. More than the desire to educate children and end the horrible conditions in the factories, was the desire to end children competing for jobs with adults, lowering wages and to create more jobs for teachers.

Chicago, the play, had amazing Fosse -inspired choreography, but its vision was very dark and actually cruel. It’s a kind of American version of Cabaret. We enjoyed Hairspray more, though Chicago will probably be remembered as a greater achievement.

Lastly we went to Trump Tower, because my wife and son had gotten addicted to the first season of the Apprentice and that's where they shot much of it. My son, who’s named Donald, said he wanted to be and entrepreneur like Donald Trump. We took a picture of him in front with a sign that said, “Hired.” Then we went home. I barely made it back in time to get ready for work that morning.

Whew!!

Week 3, July 3-9, 2006:

This week was short since we had the 4th of July off and I took Friday off to be with my family. They surprised me July 1 with the happy announcement of a two-week visit. More later.

This week I also became an integral member of the team creating the training for the rollout of the Client Connections Integrated Desktop, a new application to help our division’s sales force. I started off as a debugger. Then I was given the task of creating a short Captivate movie to explain how to use Captivate.

This is the first time the bank has used Captivate simulations in its training. I eventually became the “Lectora Guy,” the person who made all the final adjustments using the course authoring software called Lectora (very similar to Authorware). Apparently these are common applications used to create online learning in corporate settings. I wasn’t exposed to either at SDSU so perhaps they should be considered for inclusion in the EdTec mix.

In this segment I want to discuss the case for internships and the art of debugging, plus report on the Boston Pops 4th of July concert and our weekend trip to Cape Cod and Maine.

The Case for Internships

Initially, I was a little miffed we didn’t get both Monday and Tuesday off for the 4th of July. However, they generously give me two days off of my choice WITH pay during my 2.5 month stay, so I have nothing to complain about. In fact, as internships go this is an extremely generous one, especially when you compare it to the one my roommate, Jonghyup Lee, had last summer.

Mr. Lee, works for the Korean Foreign Service. The Korean government is supporting him while he gets his masters at the Fletcher School of International Relations at Tufts University, which is a short distance from our apartment. The Fletcher School is one of the top three schools in the nation for the training of diplomats. He’s finished his coursework and just has his dissertation to do.

I was envious of his internship with the United Nations in New Yourd last summer, until I found out he wasn’t paid a cent and had to beg the university to help him with living expenses. However, he does have an autographed picture of himself with Kofi Annan. More than that, he found out how the UN really works while making very important contacts with people who he will be dealing with throughout his career.

Internships, even unpaid ones, are the most valuable learning experiences of all since they bring into focus what we learn in class in the real-world. They help students make the leap from theory to practice and, especially, from paying to learn, to being paid for what they learned.

The Art of Debugging

Debugging. It sounds like a form a pest control. In a way it is. It’s the elimination pesky errors. Since I started my internship, I spent much of my time “debugging” training modules.

Basically it’s editing, but editing more than just spelling and grammar. We also check for errors in graphics, hyperlinks, and now, with Captivate, segment timing, transitions and interactivity. It’s tedious, but crucial work.

I learned a new efficient technique to document and communicate errors to those who do the fixing. It combines screen captures with PowerPoint. When we encounter an error we push the PrintScreen button, or use a screen capture application to copy the screen image. We then paste into PowerPoint and use it’s graphics and text functions to highlight the error and explain the fix.

By the time we finished the project I had scores of these PowerPoints. They also serve as documentation for the process used in creating the training. This is probably an old technique, but it's new to me.

What is most impressive is the amount of effort put into making everything right. There was round after round of corrections. Every word, image and action of the training was gone over with a fine-tooth-comb, not just by one person. Usually three to five people, team members and non-team members looked at things. Then there were also the separate departments that checked the material and had to approve it, most prominently the Compliance and Marketing Departments.

Compliance checks that all material complies with the dizzying myriad of banking laws, especially insider trading, money laundering (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) and The Patriot Act. Not only do they need to check Federal laws they also need to know the rules of various countries, and individual states. California is the main state that is dealt with separately in the training because its rules are often more stringant than federal ones.

Without realizing it those who create the banking products, and consequently instructional designers who create the training, can include things that run afoul of these regulations. For instance, in the case of our training in was discovered late in the process that there was a problem with something called “attachments.” We had to go back and eliminate all reference to attachments in over 100 pages of training that had been created and all the Captivate simulations.

Marketing makes sure the training includes approved language and graphics that coincide with the bank’s branding and marketing campaigns. For instance they had to make sure it was OK to include an ampersand in the name of division of the bank. Memos were flying about the ampersand.

They had us eliminate some of our graphics because the bank’s flag logo could only be used in certain ways. They made sure we always used the approved colors and type styles. They were also concerned about a photo of a top executive that showed him in a shirt and tie instead of a coat and tie.

It can all seem very nit-picky, but there’s a lot at stake. I was recently speaking with some employees at lunch. One said I wouldn’t believe the amount of money the company has had to pay in fines because a client was laundering money and the Financial Advisor (sales rep) didn’t catch it. Another co-worker who used to work for Suisse Bank recounted a $40 million fine for something that was essentially not wrongdoing by the bank but by their customer. However, the government expects the bank to be vigilant. Ignorance is no defense. I had no idea.

As learning professionals their challenge is to protect the bank by creating training that helps the sales people understand this. They also strive to create systems of learning that instill the desire to not cut corners for the quick buck. Their goal it to create a culture of compliance with the law, not just teach employees how to use a new application or sell a new product.

The task is daunting. The Financial Advisors’ income is based on commission. It’s understandable they could be so anxious to make a sale that not that every t is crossed or i dotted. Plus, we all hate paperwork.

Personal Notes

4th of July Concert

My wife, Patty, and 13 year-old-son, Donald decided to visit in time to see the Boston Pops perform their annual 4th of July concert and fireworks display on the Esplanade next to the Charles River. Their flight arrived at 6am and I got to the Esplanade about 6:30 am to save us place in line. The concert started at 8:30 pm.

The scene was a much tamer version of the rock concerts I attended as a younger man. Envision a family-oriented, well-mannered, patriotic Woodstock, without mind-altering substances and with hot dog stands.

This illustrates how things were different from my rock concert days. While eating a sandwich I got a mustard stain on my shirt. This wonderful lady behind us just happened to have one of those individually wrapped Shout wet-towel stain removers. She saw what happened and gave it to me to clean my shirt. It worked! Can you imagine at a rock concert saying, "Hey, pass me that Shout, I have a stain?" We were passing other things then. But the spirit of being kind to your neighbor hasn't changed.

We had some rock and roll, too. The big guest stars this time were the two main members of Boston’s own Arrowsmith. It's the first time they appeared at the Pops. Arrowsmith songs sounded great with the orchestral back-up. I didn’t think the Pops could play “Walk This Way”, but they had fun with it. The real draw was, of course, the 1812 Overture performed with real cannons, the patriotic pieces and the spectacular fireworks. We had long, but fantastic day!

Visit to Cape Cod, Salem and Maine

I took one of my two vacation days on Friday and we drove to Provincetown on Cape Cod. Since I was a Visual Arts major in college I was aware of some of the art history of New England, but I never realized what a major role Provincetown (called P-Town by locals) played. Everyone from Winslow Homer to Hans Hoffman and John Singer Sargeant to Robert Motherwell have been here and created, primarily in the summer. We toured the many art galleries and I talked to some of the artists. One recommended I go to the Painting Summer exhibition in Salem to see some of the greatest examples of art produced in P-Town and to learn about the special place summer has in the hearts of New Englanders.

One of the things you see everywhere in P-Town are rainbows. The rainbow flags of the gay movement, that is. This place has always been a refuge for artists and eccentrics who lived beside the tolerant Yankee and Potuguese fishermen, but now it’s also predominantly gay -- at least during the summer when the population grows from 3,000 to 30,000. My son wants one of those flags.

One negative thing that’s starting to happen in Provincetown is reverse discrimination. In Massachusettes, the only state that’s legalized gay marriage, many are trying to get a referendum on the ballot take away those marriage rights. An article I recently read in a local paper said the names of people who signed that petition were published on a gay rights Web site. A few signers were from the straight minority in P-Town. Some have started harassing these people and doing nasty things like yelling at them in public restaurants or littering their yards with dog feces.

If this is true it seems the old pattern of the oppressed becoming the oppressors when they are in a position of power and feel threatened is being repeated again. The Puritan settlers left England because they were oppressed. When they came here they in turn became oppressors. The witch trials of Salem are a sad reminder. Then, there's the fallout from 9-11, such as the secret prisons, torture, domestic spying, and the Patriot Act, which has made many things, including banking regulations, more onerous.

Preciousness of Summer

The next day we took the artist’s advice and drove to Salem on the way to visit my brother’s Parent-in-law who live in Kennebunkport, Maine. The Peabody-Essex Museum housing the collection of New England summer paintings is a brand-new huge structure, a work of art itself.

One of the things that struck me while viewing the exhibition was how much of it was painted on Cape Cod in general and specifically in or near Provincetown. Even Mojo’s, the fast-food fish stand we ate at the day before in P-Town, was featured in a painting showing how it looked in the 1970’s. It didn’t look much different than today. Later I found out the painting was by Scott Prior, a famous contemporary realist who's Kurt Vonnegut's son-in-law. I had visited his wife's art gallery the day before. She's a painter, too. Kurt Vonnegut, himself, a former Cape Cod resident, has also turned from writing to art.

The other thing that struck me is how the paintings express the deep love New Englanders have for summer. The bleak harshness of their winters make them long for this time of year. When I arrived in Boston several co-workers told me the first day, “You are lucky, you’ve come here at the best time of year.” I can’t fully appreciate this, since I come from the land of endless summer. But it did make me appreciate living in San Diego more. Many who live here would like to move there.

The city of Salem has embraced its witch trial heritage and become a kind of Wicca Theme Park. Everywhere you go in the main part of town are places that feature Witch-inspired souvenirs, toys and t-shirts. Signs advertising Palm reading and all things “new age” are on every corner.

Hidden behind this cheerful exterior is the intolerance and ignorance that resulted in the wrongful torture and death of innocents. To its credit, after the trial and execution the people of Salem did a lot of soul-searching and realized what they did was wrong. This haunting sense of guilt was the basis for Hawthorn’s ghost story, The House of the Seven Gables. His childhood home in Salem that was the inspiration for the house in the book, is now also a tourist attraction.

This sanitizing of the past to create tourist attractions seems to be a trend not just here, but everywhere in the US. Our country is transitioning from a manufacturing economy to a service-based and tourism economy. It’s part of what Alan Bryman calls the Disneyization and McDonalization of America. I also saw this trend in New York city when we visited the following weekend. This is something that has a direct effect on the need for instructional designers and the kinds of training they create.

Kennebunkport

To get to my brother’s parents-in-law’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine we had to drive by the Bush Compound. The coast of Maine is gorgeous in general and this collection of the Bush family homes overlooking the ocean is beautiful. The Bushes have been a part of Kennebunkport for over 100 years. They also claim to have one foot in Texas, but that’s another story.

I went to high school with the daughters of family we visited and my brother married one of them. They used to live in Coronado and own a home there still. Their youngest daughter who lives south of Boston, near Plymouth, was also visiting with her family. Her husband, who is a corporate headhunter in Boston, asked me where the office I work is located. It turns out he works in the building next to mine. As they say in Disneyland, “It’s a small world after all.”

On Sunday we were able to spend time paddling a canoe in the beautiful tidal marsh islands of Kennebunkport and of course had a Lobster dinner. On the way home we took the scenic costal route through New Hamshire. We enjoyed a couple of lovely, lazy New England summer days.

Next installment: Birth of the “Lectora Guy” and Giving Regards to Broadway

Week 2, June 26 – July 2, 2006:

It took me a while to write this next entry because my family unexpectedly came to visit me and we were busy seeing the sights and visiting relatives. I’ll write about that in my next posts.

This week I kept improving my Captivate and Lectora skills and started mastering Fireworks (similar to Photoshop, but more Web and Flash oriented). I had an interesting conversation with Kevin Thompson, Vice President for Learning, and attended a more than 3-hour orientation meeting with the other interns in Charlotte – by phone. Lastly, I actually started working on the Client Connections Integrated Desktop course, one of the major projects I’ll help produce over the summer.

The Case for Templates

In my last report I wrote how templates seem to suck the creative life out of everything, unless you are the template creator, that is. However, I do understand the need for them.

The Bank of America is now a multinational company and the largest nationwide bank in terms of customers. One in three people in the US have an account with B of A. Their customers can travel nearly anywhere in the nation and use an ATM at no charge or step into a bank to talk to a teller. It’s important that someone in San Diego, Boston, Charlotte or St. Louis all think they are dealing with the same bank.

The same is true of the learning materials we produce. Until recently different learning production teams were producing materials in different ways. These are trainings with assessments that the employees must pass to obtain certificates that allow them to sell certain financial products. They need to have the certificates to advance in position and pay. If someone fails a test because its look and feel is different it would be a shame.

The creativity of our assignments is expressed in how we work within the constrictions to produce training that’s useful, compelling and achieves its objectives. The famous New England poet, Robert Frost, said he still preferred meter and rhyme because to not use them is like playing tennis without a net. Templates can be the meter and rhyme that gives our educational creations a creative structure. I'm glad I was exposed to using them in a professional manner in some of my EdTech courses, such as 561 and 541.

A Conversation with Kevin Thompson

Kevin Thompson is the Vice-President for Learning of our division, Wealth & Investment Management (WIM). His original goal was to become a president of a company that specialized in Mergers and Acquisitions. He eventually became the COO (Chief Operating Officer) of a company like that, but when he saw what presidents do he decided he would rather work in the area of corporate learning. His current goal is to become a CLO (Chief Learning Officer), an interesting title – and nice goal for EdTec graduates.

When asked about opportunities in the field of corporate training he said they were unlimited, especially for those who understand the importance of showing the value of the training. He explained that every department of a company now comes under close scrutiny. They need to show their value with numbers. That is, every department except learning. It’s always been difficult to come up with ways to measure how learning improves the bottom line. Now learning is starting to come under the same spotlight. Those who embrace this and can show how learning creates real value are the ones who now have unlimited futures.

Wisdom from a conference call

On June 30 I participated in a long conference call. It was a meeting of all summer interns. Apparently there’s 13 of us, 11 in Charlotte, 1 in New York City doing research at home and myself in Boston. They had distributed a Power Point in advance that I could use to follow along with the presentations. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time hearing what they were saying since many of the participants were not close to the microphone. Remembering the Breeze sessions we’ve had at SDSU using video cameras, I felt that was a more engaging way to conduct these kinds of meetings.

They basically went over the corporate structure and talked about the opportunities within B of A. They did emphasize that pay is based on your value to the company and not limited by strict guidelines like we are at city schools. They seemed to suggest there is a high earning potential without any specifics. They also mentioned the tremendous recent growth of the company through aggressive acquisition. Since 1990 there has been a 4490% increase in revenues. Bank of America was the first truly national bank in the US and now has offices in 35 countries and 176,638 employees. Their goal is “To become the most admired company in the world.”

One thing they are concerned about is maintaining their competitive edge. It’s not enough to simply be big. They are striving to be a Universal Bank by growing organically through increasing the business they do with the customers they now have. The era of growth through acquisition is nearly at an end. They are also worried about WalMart’s recent announcement that they plan to offer banking services, too.

The other thing was staying on top of banking regulations. Recently other companies have been assessed multimillion dollar fines and had officers sent to jail. They don’t want that to happen. The strategy is not only to keep up with legislation, but to also do their best to influence it, not just in the U.S., but internationally.

Another concern is that America is losing its edge in the area of education. In low wage countries there were 33 million college graduates last year, but only 7.7 million in the U.S.

A bit of wisdom came from one of the panelists who was discussing about how precious our time in school is. He said this is only moment in our lives where we can spend a lot of time just thinking about things and reading about them. Once we begin our careers it’s more a matter of applying what we learned. Our time to ponder or read at length becomes very limited.

He also mentioned the importance of accumulating knowledge and wisdom by not zoning out at meetings. He said he learned this from one of the top executives at Bank of America who seems to have unlimited knowledge on most any topic. This top executive said no matter how boring a meeting is he stays engaged by note taking. If there was something he didn’t understand he would ask questions during the meeting. After the meeting he would talk to people individually about the things he still didn’t fully grasp. In this manner he not only deepened his understanding he was able to create a network of people he could call upon whenever he had questions about anything. Later many of these people really helped him advance his career.

Feeling Dilbertized

This week I started feeling a bit like a character in Dilbert. This is the first time I've ever worked in cubicles, affectionally called "cubes." Our office is a sea of cubes broken up by glass-enclosed executive suites. The other day I took a wrong turn and was completely disoriented. It was like one of those dreams where you are trapped in an Escher-like maze. It looked just like my office, but it wasn’t my office. Everything looked the same, but the people were different and, horror of horrors, the coffee pot wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

In the cubes there is nearly no privacy. Anyone can look in to see what others are doing. You can hear what anyone says in the nearby cubes. After a while people forget or simply don’t care that they can be overheard. The man kitty-corner from me has phones conversations with relatives where personal problems are discussed. I’ve had a couple personal conversations as well and wonder what those who overheard think.

In my team everyone seems to brown-bag lunch and no one seems gets together after work. This could be because I’ve only been there a short time or because everyone takes public transit. Not having this kind of social interaction naturally leads to a sense of isolation.

This really hit home when I attended the phone conference on Friday with the other 11 interns in Charlotte. There, before the orientation, all the interns were treated to breakfast and in the course of the meeting executives there repeated invited them to stop by their office to talk, or have lunch or meet for drinks after work. Initially I felt a little left out.

Reaching out

However, I do need to make more effort to reach out to others. Whenever I have, people have been more than nice. They want to have a happy workplace and make new friends, too. For those who have trouble reaching out to others there must be a crushing sense of loneliness even when surrounded by others.

In fact, “reach out” is a major buzzword in the B of A culture. Employees are encouraged to reach out to fellow employees constantly, or to whoever can help them with their task. Their slogan is “reaching out passes learning.” I know we are also encouraged to do this at SDSU. There were a few times I wish I had reached out to my fellow students and instructors for help, but instead suffered alone. Nearly every time I made the effort to ask for help I got a more than positive response. In some cases I even made a new friend. It seems we all fight the phantom – fear of rejection. Plus, I'm a bit lonely being away from my family.

I’m not being left out of the actual work, though. I’m starting to be an integral part of our team and feel as if I’m actually contributing. This is a great source of satisfaction. I now have my own name plaque for my cube and an official name badge to wear when I go to meetings. My official employee badge is coming soon.