Section 4: Human Performance Technology

On problem I have is that the student workers in the High School library are often unwilling to clean-up the books and resources. However, this is not an instructional issue, instead it is a performance problem. One way to handle the situation would be incentives, all of the workers want to be able to get a meal off campus, or they want to leave campus for errands and our librarian has legitimate responsibilities at other campuses. One incentive would be that no one leaves unless the book carts are empty and returned.

From a business perspective, a former Nortel Networks executive, William Bezanson (2002) provides a definition linked to application usability and organizational results:
“A performance support system provides just-in-time, just enough training, information, tools, and help for users of a product or work environment, to enable optimum performance by those users when and where needed, thereby also enhancing the performance of the overall business.”

In Electronic Performance Support Systems, published in 1991, Gloria Gery defined EPSS as:
“an integrated electronic environment that is available to and easily accessible by each employee and is structured to provide immediate, individualized on-line access to the full range of information, software, guidance, advice and assistance, data, images, tools, and assessment and monitoring systems to permit job performance with minimal support and intervention by others.”

I like the William Bezanson definition, I like it most because he talks about “Just in time” training and information and I think that we could all use a lot more computer programs that helped us look like experts and produce expert products just in time. On problem that people have with EPSS is that they have little faith that a computer can teach you how to use the computer. They see the machine as daunting and fragile; however, when you use a EPSS it almost implies trial and error activities that have been terrifying for teachers and managers alike. You can definitely see more EPSS in the future, younger generations will equate them to video games and vReaders.

One problem is that students move from class to class and they are not approached holisticly, I might have a student that receives bad news in first period, but this does not reach the second period teacher and they treat the outbursts of behavior as “emerging.” It would be better if we had training on how to see students’ behaviors as cumulative and progressing; and included we could collaborate in teams for a certain set of students, we would all share the same students and we could discuss progressing problems, emerging positive changes, and patterns in learning. Also, the teachers all could look for ways to connect to the students and parents in a more effective and sincere way.

My grandmother taught me how to make “Aunt Nell’s Homemade Ketsup” and I have saught out my mom to get her to teach me how to make jelly and can. I wanted to learn these things because I knew that if I did not learn they would be lost to our family along with the family stories that are tied to these experiences. With my grandmother, it was a wonderful experience, she is a capable teacher and she wants to have the learner, grandchildren, participate as much as possible. Grandmother is slow, steady and intense, so I can still write about the experience and the recipe even three years later with vivid language and great detail. Mom does not like to share her kitchen space, so she has to not watch. Instead, she explains the recipe in detail oversees preparation and then leaves you to “independent study. She comes back to evaluate the finished product or answer a question, but it means that she will take back over and you must watch. Oddly both experiences were engaging, one left a clear memory of a collaborative effort and the other taught me the muscle memory of the activity. What I found in both cases was that the fact that my products were needed by the family and immediately relevant made the learning easier to assimilate; where as I have read and listened to lectures and not been able to apply the information a month, a week, even a day later.