How students can learn and serve the community at the same time?

Service Learning Education

What type of education with which the students can learn and help in solving the community problems as well? The answer could be found in Service Learning.

Service Learning based on Bringle & Hatcher, (1995,p112) is an educational experience in which the students would engage in an organized service activity that meets the community requirements which results in gaining a broader and deeper understanding of the course content, a broader obligation to the system and fostering a deeper sense of civic responsibility (Averett & Arnd-Caddigan, 2014).  

It is a flexible way of education, which can use variety of classroom and community settings. In addition to the students and the instructors, community partners will also be key players in developing an efficient service learning activities that will address real community needs and provides opportunities for the students to learn from experience, serve the community, and at the same time, reflect upon their experience and they will also have a deeper understanding for themselves. Eyler & Giles, (1999).

Please share your experience / new ideas about Service Learning education by comment here or using

Twitter: @Adel4A61W #WUInnCurr
              @Adel4A61W #SLearning

*More information about Service-Learning could be found at the Starting Point website Link; https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/service/what.html

Different Service-Learning Examples could be viewed using the following link: https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/service/examples.html

References:

Averett, P. E., & Arnd-Caddigan, M. (2014). Preparing BSW students for service-learning: Enhancing epistemological reflection. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 34(3), 316–331.

Eyler, J., D. Giles, C. Stenson, and C. Gray. (2001). At a Glance: What We Know about the Effects of Service Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions, and Communities. Vanderbilt University.

Self Motivation – Thoughts about how to stay motivated

It is a struggle for everyone to stay motivated. Both negative thoughts and anxiety about the future are always present to put down our motivation. How many times was each one of us faced with doubt and depression?

However, what separates the highly successful person is the ability to keep moving forward.  Andrew Carnegie stated that "People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents."

To be honest with you there is no simple solution for the lack of motivation. The key is to understand your thoughts and how they drive your emotions. By learning how to raise motivating ideas, neutralizing negative ones, and focus on the task at hand, you can push yourself through a motivational momentum, and then you will need to keep this drive going.

I’m not telling a secret saying that if you want to do extremely well in life, self-motivation is essential. You need to believe in yourself, you must know how to motivate yourself, and you must be able to keep your spirit high no matter how discouraging a situation is. The only way to get the power you need is to overcome difficulties, those who are discouraged in difficult times are sure to lose even before the battle is over.

Now, to our most important question:  How do you motivate yourself? The following are several tips I've found to be effective to build self-motivation:

     Have a cause that you care about; this is one powerful source of motivation that will inspire you to give your best even in the face of difficulties. It can make you do the seemingly impossible things.

   Have a dream. A big dream. You need to make your cause sold by putting it in the form of an idea that must be big enough to inspire you. It must be realistic but challenging. It must stretch your ability beyond your comfort zone.

  Be hungry for success.  To be truly motivated, you must have hunger and not just desire.   As Les Brown stated Les Brown "Wanting something is not enough. You must have a hunger for it. Your motivation must be compelling to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way".

Run your race. When you have your race, wondering how other people perform is irrelevant. Comparing yourself to others is not effective, it will only demotivate you. The only competitor you have is yourself, and the only one you need to beat is you.  

Take one more step. The courage to continue is what makes a difference between the winners and the losers. Winston Churchill said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."  Don’t think about how to complete the race and don’t think about how many more obstacles are waiting for you. Just focus on taking the next step.

 Let go of the past. Today is a new day, and you have the chance to start again. No matter how bad your past might be, you still have a bright future ahead waiting for you. Just don't let the burden of the past demotivate you. Listen to Ralph Waldo Emerson saying "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could".

Always try to apply it to motivate yourself, don't settle for weakness and let your self-motivation take you to excellence.

However,  this is not all; you need to believe in yourself and follow your gut instinct. Having confidence in your feelings and if something feels right then, you should go for it.

Surround yourself with like-minded and positive people. Talk to individuals whose mindset is similar to yours; this helps you sustain and motivate you to continue.
Continually challenge yourself to do better.  Try to set yourself short, medium and long term goals to work towards and make a point of looking at them every day and use steps to chart your progress.
Stop talking and do it! Turn your To Do lists into Done lists. Make your best-laid plans happen.
Stay focused! It’s easy to say but can be very hard to do. Concentrate on one goal at a time, and make a point of rewarding yourself when you achieve your goals.
Manage your time wisely and don’t overburden your workload with too many tasks.
To close, I would like to tell you that: from problems come solutions! Learning how to motivate yourself can take time, but if you keep at it, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
I hope these tools may help you to pursue a bright future and a preferred carrier.

References

Image 1, retrieved (2017) from https://pixabay.com/en/motivation-heart-suggestion-361782/

Image 2, retrieved (2017) from 2https://pixabay.com/en/motivation-success-thumb-successful-721827/

Image 3, retrieved (2017) from  https://pixabay.com/en/happiness-positive-emotions-ball-2411764/
Latumahina, D. (2008). Self Motivation: How to Motivate Yourself.

Turner, S. (2010). How to motivate yourself “ My top 10 motivational Tips”.

The Essential Motivation Handbook by Leo Babauta.

Networking for Innovation

Innovative curriculum is an interesting course that I am currently studying among the courses required for my Ph.D. in Education Learning, Instruction, and Innovation.

In the coming days, I will share interesting articles that are related to this course,
talk to you soon.

Development Plan

Company's Workforce Development Plan

Employees' Development Plan Presentation

Personal Development Plan

After 30 years of experience working at different areas around the world and serving different positions including ; field, supervisory and managerial in both technical and training specialities with the company.


I’m looking forward to having the chance to develop and leverage my leadership skills to the executive managerial level by pursuing the following development plan:

1- Attend the Business Leadership Development Courses 

These are three advanced business training courses for non financial managers that are offered through a partnership between Halliburton and the Center for Executive Development in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. Duration of each class varies from one to three weeks, and the classes prepare the participants from all corners of the globe for executive-level decision-making positions.

2- Join the President’s Leadership Excellence Program

One year long development program that is usually offered for high potential employees. Participants work on project teams addressing specific company-related business challenges such as performance improvement initiative, alternating energy, branding, technology, sustainability and many other topics based on each year’s hot issues. Each team work on its assigned project all year under the supervision of one of the Company’s vice presidents. The teams work on analyzing the situation, researching for alternatives and formulating a workable solution, which is then presented to an audience comprising the Executive Committee and all the Company’s vice presidents. The best solutions are usually pursued for possible implementation by the company.

3- Coaching Relationship

Before pursing the chance for higher managerial job, I would like to have the opportunity for a one-on-one coaching program or to shadow one of the company executive managers for shot period of time, in order to develop, practice and enforce all the managerial skills that I have been acquired going through the last two programs.

4- Assessment 

I will be using the company’s People, Performance, Results annual appraisal report to agree with my managers to specific goals and objectives on a range of topics including ethics, financial, accountability, health, safety and environment as well as diversity and inclusion. I will also work with my manager on how to pursue my competency development plans based on my current position and the possible future positions. My manager will assess my measurable progress against the agreed-upon determined goals and results should be linked to my compensation.

References

Halliburton (2012). 2011 Corporate Sustainability Report. Retrieved on April 14, 2012 from http://www.halliburton.com/public/about_us/pubsdata/sd/CSR2011.pdf

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Stolovitch, H. (n.d.). Employee development. Walden University Video Resources

High -Tech Training

A modern workplace requires flexibility even with training programs. Currently many organizations are seeing a reduction in training funds and less time for employees to receive training. This is why technology would be a wonderful solution to increase the variety of ways an employee can be trained (Lovig, 2011). 

Today’s students /learners, (and tomorrow’s workers) have grown up around technology. They are so comfortable with it that they expect it to be part of how they learn. So the question is not “should we use technology to teach?” but “how can we use technology to teach well?” ( Stolovitch & Keeps, 2011). This is why a good trainer would strive to apply technological components to enhance the impact and/or measurability of training solutions. 

For this week’s assignment, I will explain the impact that five of these technological components have and will continue to have on how people learn and interact, and the implications of this for training.

Online learning

It is also known as E-learning, and it is the delivery of training or instructions by computer on line through the Internet or the Web. Online learning includes Web-based training, distance learning and virtual classrooms. 

E-learning allows training to be delivered faster to more employees in a shorter time at any place and any time.  It supports the companies’ business strategy and objective, and training can be delivered to geographically dispersed and through a wide variety of employees.  It’s easy to update while learning is enhanced through use of multiple media (sound, text, video, graphics) and trainee interaction in order eliminate the training management paperwork.  It can also link learners to other content, experts and peers (Noe, 2010).

Simulations

Simulators replicate the physical equipment that employees use on the job.  It represents a real-life situation, with trainees’ decisions resulting in outcomes that mirror what would happen if they were on the job. The simulator also tracks the trainees’ performance and alters the instructors if a trainee is falling behind.  It also records and evaluates participants’ behavior and interactions in solving the problems.  It allows trainees to practice in a safe environment and given a feedback regarding their performance and it is may also used to develop managerial skills (Noe, 2010).

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality uses technology to stimulate multiple senses of the trainee.  Devices usually relay information from the environment to the senses.  It is a computer-based technology that provides trainees with a three-dimensional learning experience and allows simulations to become even more realistic. Trainees usually move through the simulated environment and interact with its components by using specialized equipment or viewing the virtual model on the computer screen. The main advantage of virtual reality is that it allows trainees to practice dangerous tasks without putting themselves or others in danger.  It is likely to have the greatest impact on complex tasks or tasks that involve extensive use of visual cues and it reduces the learner cognitive load for data processing by making more memory available for learning (Noe, 2010).

Learning Management Systems ( LMS)

LMS is a technology platform that can be used to automate the administration, development and delivery of all of a company’s training programs. LMSs can provide employees, managers, and trainers with the ability to manage, deliver, and track learning activities. New developments in LMSs include providing the ability for users to simultaneously search the database as well as their company’s intranet for information on training courses, contact topic experts, enroll in courses, and use simulations to determine whether employees are complying with ethical standards and skills they have been trained in using by the LMS. It can help in reducing the travel and other costs related to training, reduce time for program completion, increase employees’ accessibility to training across the business, and provide administrative capabilities to track program completion and course enrollments. LMSs also allow companies to track all learning activity in the business (Noe, 2010).

iPads

iPads are part of the mobile technology devices that allow learning to occur anywhere at anytime through almost limitless number of uses. iPads have a wide array of applications that can enhance the training experience for the user even for the trainers without programming knowledge. One application can provide a video conference and presentation tools that people can join across multiple platforms. Also, a trainer can  give a presentation, or use the iPad as a controller for a presentation on a computer. With the advanced iPad, training can include anything that can be displayed on the iPad due to it's mirror imaging feature. The iPad can also give the instructional designer the ability to record and edit podcasts without ever leaving the device and they can be recorded as audio-only or as video podcasts. The iPad could become an even more powerful device should an organization have capable programmers. Applications that serve a particular training purpose could be designed and pushed to the device using the company's exchange server (Lovig, 2011).

References

Lovig, J. (2011). Training With Technology: The many uses of the iPad. Hartford Workplace Issues. Retrieved on April 5 from www.examiner.com/workplace-issues-in-hartford/hey-trainers-time-to-tech-up-vol-1

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Stolovitch, H. D., & Keeps, E. J. (2011). Telling ain’t training. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Planning for a Needs Assessment

Before we determine that a training need exist and choose a training method, it is important to determine what type of training is necessary and whether trainees are willing to learn (Noe, 2010) This will be determined through a process known as needs assessments.

To complete this week’s blog post about how to perform needs assessment plan I have chosen Halliburton organization which is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry.With nearly 70,000 employees in approximately 80 countries, the company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the lifecycle of the reservoir – from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production through the life of the field ( Halliburton, 2011).

Halliburton management in one of the countries decided to initiate an ambitious nationalization program by doubling the number of local employees through hiring around 300 engineer of different specialities with different levels of experience. 

The company needed to prepare a well designed training program in order to cover the knowledge and skills required for each job duties as well as the troubleshooting procedures to ensure that the newly hired engineers will be competent to meet the high level demands of the company services. A needs assessment was necessary to determine what type of training is required and how the trainees will be handled. Needs assessment typically involves organizational analysis, person analysis, and task analysis.

Getting the buy-in from the organization stakeholders as well as involving them in the needs assessment is very important to identify the role of training in relation to the company’s business strategy and the human resource practices in the company, and how the training may affect the attainment of financial goals for the different product-line services (Noe, 2010). The stakeholders in our process will be the Area vice president, the Business development manager, the country Product-lines service managers, the departments managers, supervisors and coordinators, the training manager, the instructors and SME’s , as well as the trainees.

The organization analysis will focus on identifying how the training program will be aligned the company strategic direction, what do we need from  the managers, peers, and employees for this training to succeed, what organizational resources should be devoted to this program, do we have enough experts to help in developing this program content while understanding the business needs, will the trainees perceive the training program as an Opportunity, what might the customer need to know about the training program. As time is an important concern within the company fast past operating environment, the answers would be collected from a combination of short interviews, instructors and individuals focus groups meetings,along with already available data  that are collected for other purposes such as inventory sheets, daily reports, and operation meetings records ( Noe, 2010).  

Person Analysis focuses on identifying whether there is evidence that training is the solution, who needs training, and wether the trainees are ready for training, do they have the prerequisite skills, attitudes and beliefs needed to ensure they will master the content of training programs. It is important during this process to evaluate the person characteristics, input, output, consequences and feedback. Competency Model approach will be of great help as it is already used by the company to identify personal capabilities, including knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and personal characteristics ( Noe, 2010). The training staff and direct supervisors will have enough time to collect all the required information about the new employees during the orientation period ( sixty days) by using face to face interviews, observation, questionnaires, hands on practices and written tests.

Task analysis involves identifying the different tasks and the training that new employees will require in terms of knowledge, skills and abilities, this will be based on their distribution within the different company’s product-lines. The references for different required tasks will be mainly based on Halliburton Management System, that is very well established and includes a wide range all the tasks for each job category / family. 

The analysis phase is considered to be the building block for designing the training program, It defines the program objectives, contents, needs, methods, development phases, how to deliver the learning and ways to measure its success. 

References

Halliburton, (2011). Corporate Profile. Retrieved on March 8, 2012 from http://www.halliburton.com/AboutUs/default.aspx?navid=966&pageid=2458

Halliburton, (2011). Carriers website images. Retrieved on March 8, 2012 from http://www.halliburton.com/public/careers/pubsdata/related_docs/EVP_brochure_final.pdf

Stolovitch, H. D., & Keeps, E. J. (2011). Telling ain’t training. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.