Week 9, August 14-20



This week I kept working on the the two main assignments I had, cleaning up a previously created course and porting a class from being live to online. I also conducted a study meeting by phone for our team. They wanted me to give an overview of the latest advances in EdTec. Additionally, I made a new friend in the office. The enigmatic man in the corner office who never said hi.

The Assignments

There’s not much more to report about the assignments I was given. I tried to use the interactive features of Lectora and Captivate to emphasize certain information in the courses so the learners would be able to do more than simply read information or look at charts. It’s a baby step toward interactivity.

The Conference Call

On Thursday our team held it’s monthly study meeting. Usually I've been on the receiving end of a conference call. This time I was on the giving end. It's a mixed bag. Since you can’t see who you're talking to, and those attending use their mute buttons a lot, you can’t tell if they are really paying attention or even in the same room as the phone. It’s a little disconcerting and takes some getting used to. Despite the sense of speaking to an empty room, I plunged on.

Since they wanted me to give an overview of the latest developments in Educational Technology I decided to talk about what I had learned in some of my courses at SDSU and my experience teaching mulitmedia and video production in high school. First I talked about podcasting and pointed out that on the subway most people are listening to music using iPods or something similar. Since this is how people are starting to get their media now, this is a method they may have to use in the near future to do their training.

I then shared one of the videos my students made and had uploaded to the Web. They use a site called YouTube, a kind of video MySpace. People from all over the world see them and comment and my students comment back. I emphasized this is how the next generation of bank customers get their entertainment. I also did a search on YouTube for Bank of America. Most of the videos were of skateboarders. There seems to be a whole genre of skateboard videos involving doing tricks on the metal rails and steps in front of Bank of America branches. They had no idea. I also found a bank-produced video that showed how to do online banking (see above). This was an example of an educational video that can now be shown not only on the Web, but also on iPods and cell phones.

Additionally shared some things about GPS and Geotools. I had them do a Zee Map with me. In real time they could show on a map everywhere they were located in the US, or anywhere in the world. They could see a good application for this as an icebreaker when doing meetings. I told them they could also use things like this to show branch locations, ATM locations or whatever, and associate information or even Web sites with the locations. We also talked about the use of GPS with cell phones and how things like GoogleEarth and other Geotools have potential as instructional aids.

I ended with a discussion of gaming and showed them the role playing game that Wells Fargo had created to teach teens how to do banking and handle money. The fact that a competitor had already created something like that really caught their interest. Even though these things may not have an immediate application for Bank of America, they all agreed as the current “digital” generation ages and becomes employees and customers instructional design will need to start using these tools extensively.

The Mystery Man in the Corner Office

Across from my cube is a glass enclosed “private” office. To rate one of these spaces you need to be an upper manager; a manager of managers. For eight weeks the man who worked there never said a word to me. I figured he was really busy. The nights I worked late he worked late, too. Usually he was still there when I left. This week we were both there on Friday until after 8pm. I was trying to get my projects done before I left and was wondering if it were ok to come in over the weekend. Remembering the “Reach out” company mantra, I knocked on his door and asked. He was more than happy to answer. He asked what I do and said he was very impressed with the long hours I worked. He then talked to me for about an hour about what he does and what’s happening at BAC.

His job is compensation. He decides what to offer people to encourage them to join the company or to stay. He’s only been with BAC a few months. He worked long hours in part because his family is still in Virginia and he needs something to occupy his time. He also loves his work and new company. We commiserated about missing our families. He explained to me what the “organic” growth of the company really means. Essentially BAC has bought nearly all the major banking companies that it can in the US. Currently 1 out of every 3 people in North America has a relation with Bank of America, usually through a bank account or a loan. What they are focusing on now is hiring thousands of new employees who’s job will be to increase existing business. He said this will amount to what is essentially an acquisition without an acquisition (a stealth acquisition?). They are in the process of re-examining the traditional way the sales force has done business and are creating a new role that’s more service oriented, less commission driven.

He said that nowdays fewer people are getting into the banking field and the competition for good employees between the major players is now fierce. He himself was lured to BAC from another firm. Now he helps lure others. He mentioned that the coming 5-10 years will be an exciting time for BAC and the need for trainers and instructional design for the new hires is going to be great. Just like financial service people the pool of qualified instructional designers is shrinking, which means they will be able to command higher compensation. Maybe this will be a new golden age for Educational Technologist?

He then gave me some great career advice about how to increase my chances for a job offer for any company I may want to be an employee. Since that conversation we now talk a lot. He’s been nothing but encouraging and very friendly. You never know what surprises await behind those glass walls.