Linden Labs has created the next Big Thing in its creation of a virtual reality in Second Life. Nearly 8.5 million people have created alter egos on this site. So how can you do some training and development research on this site while discovering what the hype is all about? Follow these simple steps to create your own account. When you join, you create your own first name and choose a last name from a long list.

Best Blended Learning Mixes Chief Learning Officer magazine recaps responses from 574 CLOs who gave their opinions on the best mix of blended learning techniques. More than half of the respondents said the lead trainer or learning department chose the blended methods. Only 14 percent said students entirely or mostly prescribed learning methods. Delivery methods were 36 percent classroom-based, 18 percent formal on-the-job training, and 15 percent asynchronous e-learning. Other methods available included synchronous e-learning, portable technology, satellite video broadcast, text-based training and other. Expected investment increases in e-learning and portable technology are planned by many in the next 12 to 18 months. The story also compares results to 2006 responses.

With the advent of Nintendo’s Wii and the sports simulations (including sports training modules included in various games), it’s no surprise that Wii is being utilized for business training and education. David E. Stone, a research fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has adapted Wii for business training by combining it with Second Life, a virtual reality on the Internet.

Asked and Answered When someone asks if you have experience in instructional design, what is it that they are looking for? I've written a lot of training documentation, but I'm not sure this qualifies as instructional design. Thanks for regarding the Bob Pike Group as your partner and resource. When someone asks of your experience in Instructional Design, I believe in addition to documentation they are looking for ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) or a related model. Our model of Participant-Centered/Instructor-Led Training is an eight-step model and taught in our Train-the-Trainer Boot Camp.

Getting Manager Buy-In Managers before training have the number one responsibility for making sure training sticks; however, getting manager buy-in can be difficult. What ways have you found to effectively get managers enthusiastic about sending staff to training and becoming involved in making sure training transfers? I always have the key management personnel participate in the original "Performance Analysis." Second, I invite them to an "executive briefing" of 1 to 2 hours. In this briefing

Motivating Employees: Great Managers are Experts on Human Nature What elements in the workplace motivate employees? Jim Harter of the Gallup Organization answered this by looking at the 12 key elements of great managing. However, he said, if you don’t have the first six, the last six are pointless. Here is a crash course on becoming a great manager. The first six elements of great managing are having employees who: 1. Know what’s expected; 2. Have the materials and equipment to do the job; 3. Have the opportunity to do what they do best every day; 4. Receive recognition and praise; 5. Have someone at work that cares about them as a person; 6. Have someone at work who encourages their development. Gallup Organization, although known for its polls, focuses on business consulting. They begin some of that consulting with extensive employee surveys—to date, about ten million employee interviews were used to compile these 12 elements. Information gleaned from that data

In designing participant-centered training, many instructors use questions to help process information. In addition to process-type questions, we may want to ask questions that focus on specific thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We as instructors have to remember the old adage in education, “Training is not about the instructor; it is about the student.” The training purpose is about what participants learned from the experience - not what the instructor knew about the subject matter. Perhaps if we used participation more in training and asked some of the following questions, more might be learned. Here are 10 questions to consider the next time you use participation in your training:

Adapt this puzzler to your content. Once the puzzle has been worked out, use the activity to start a discussion on attention to detail, creative thinking or problem solving. Set-up Script Pretend you are training pharmaceutical representatives or medical professionals of any kind. Once they have the puzzle (either projected or on chart paper), ask which Margaret likes doing: writing scripts or giving samples and why? Hint: Where are the silent letters?

Sometimes showing is much more effective than telling. Almost every teacher or trainer has at some time thought a particular scene would make a great learning point in a program. Over the years, I’ve used a number of movie clips in a variety of training programs. Why? Because Hollywood has more money to spend on movies and usually has better actors than we can afford in corporate training videos. When I was doing a program for the Defense Security Institute, I used a clip from Beverly Hills Cop where Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) climbs the fence of a bonded warehouse. When accosted, Axel turns the situation around and soon has everyone opening doors, files, and just about everything else.

Lora Haasl, Supervisor of Instructional Innovation & Technology Lab, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, put together a variety of optical illusions and graphics in PowerPoint to get discussion going as participants first enter the room. “Most of these are set to run continuously and to loop until you stop the slideshow,” Haasl explained. “I play music in the background.” You’ll see two of her chosen illusions here. One is a chalk drawing—to make this truly an opener, ask how this artist has challenged perspective, or what it means to create something larger than one’s self. Or perhaps ask how one can truly interact with one’s work or be truly involved in the process.