The academic argument to employ instructional designers

Adult learning institutions such as state government training providers suffer from a lack of professionalism due to their cumbersome academic structures. 

According to their job descriptions, lecturing staff are training facilitators - that is exactly their role and most perform it well given their lack of professional training. A Certificate IV in Training and Assessment is more than often awarded over the course of a weekend and does not constitute a professional qualification in any way shape or form. 

Advanced Skills Lecturers are tertiary qualified academic leaders supporting rank and file lecturers; they undertake standard full-time facilitation roles as well as part-time academic leadership duties - a dual role.

Likewise, Principal Lecturers advise full-time lecturers on academic matters undertaking part-time curriculum development and part-time training delivery. The Head of Programs is a part-time academic role and part-time administrative role managing enrollments, student issues and timetabling.

A Head of Programs requires no academic qualifications and is essentially a supporting role as they hold no decision making capabilities whatsoever.

The Advanced Skills Lecturer, Head of Programs and Principal Lecturer are academic roles with both the Head of Programs and Principal Lecturer requiring reduced teaching times to perform their role, the Advanced Skills Lecturer is a full-time teaching role with extra duties attached.

All three positions require written applications meeting selection criteria adjudicated by an independent selection panel, should the applicant be successful in the written application process, they are invited to a face-to-face panel interview where they are required to perform a project to prove their suitability. 

Naturally, should the selection panel not perform its role correctly, the process may be questioned and formal grievances lodged.

The pseudo promotion of people willing to perform these roles under the guise of mates promotions when selected staff fail to perform the roles what they are paid to do. This is an internal process that reaches far outside the formal structures in place - this is a stunning example of state government nepotism and wastage.

Furthermore, as these roles already have reduced teaching hours to perform the job, what are the incumbents doing? The unlikely scenario of the Head of Programs not performing any teaching duties now exists where they hand their timetabling duties off to lecturing staff.

These staff  have been selected by virtue of friendship instead of competency who are supposed to be undertaking full-time teaching loads must stop. Naturally, they then receive reduced teaching loads to perform the duties essentially double dipping.

This all sounds good in a perfect academic world and is enshrined in formal job descriptions. At a strategic portfolio level this structure falls apart due to poor management practices that sees nobody performing their role as per their job description - this is where the nepotism creeps in.

Although a defined job structure is in place, many unscrupulous team leaders create special roles for the favoured few bypassing independent selection processes.

What really happens in an environment swimming with nepotism and dysfunction; the art of delegation sees everybody handing their paid role off to the next poor sap in the hope that someday they might get paid for their work so they can hand it off to the next unsuspecting fool.

In comparison, universities and private tertiary colleges employ instructional designers to develop in-house cutting edge learning materials. They fully understand their competitive advantage relies on top quality delivery via a variety of methodologies supported by top notch resource materials.

Naturally they invest in learning management systems and charge a premium for quality tuition. Universities and private tertiary colleges fully understand the ramifications of strategic planning and management and the need for differentiation in a highly competitive and increasingly global educational market.

In a contrasting style, the ramshackle approach of state government colleges sees untrained facilitators throw together a course that has not been professionally designed packed with resources littered with inaccuracies not tied to individual learning styles, adult learning strategies and are unfortunately of marginal educational value. 

This is due to no one performing their roles as set out in formal processes agreed under formal enterprise bargaining agreements lodged with the industrial relations commission.

The assessments are now so dumbed down and not aligned to course outcomes that are thrown together by people who are neither trained or experienced in such professional skills. They do not hold any academic value whatsoever - this is such a tragedy for the students and the industries they serve.

Japanese atomic bomb target selection

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb detonations, the term anniversary is a bit of a misdemeanor as most people celebrate an anniversary; this is a week of reflection of the enormous human toll extracted by a single weapon.   

Upon reflection, I am looking at the selected sites for targeting for maximum effect, one has to remember, sites were chosen not for revenge for Japanese military atrocities in Nanking, Singapore, the Philippines or their treatment of POWs, comfort women (which is a sanitised word for government organised wholesale rape); but for military impart to bring a cessation to hostilities to the greatest conflict and loss of life in the 20th century as quickly as possible.

During mid May 1945, Physicist Robert Oppenheimer led a committee to select a list of cities most potentially suitable as targets of atomic attacks. The Oppenheimer led committee arrived at four target the recommendations of Hiroshima, Yokohama, Kyoto and Kokura. Importantly, Tokyo was not selected due to the extensive damage already inflicted during fire-bombing already undertaken.

The city of Hiroshima was selected as the primary target by the Oppenheimer team due to its military and industrial importance to Japan's war effort. Hiroshima was the site of a major army base housing the headquarters of the 2nd Army and the 5th Division; as such, Hiroshima was an important port in southern Japan and strategic communications centre. 

The surrounding mountains of Hiroshima contributed to the city being a first choice target of already short listed targets. It was hypothesized by the Oppenheimer committee that the mountains would contain the destructive forces of the blast in the selected target area increasing the level of destruction.

Worth noting was US Secretary of War Henry Stimson campaigning against the city of Kyoto as a target; he argued that the city held cultural importance to not just Japan but the world. Also worth noting was that Stimson had an endearing attachment to the city after he and his wife had spent their honeymoon in Kyoto.

After the Hiroshima bombing, the B-29 with the already primed Fat Boy flew from the airfield of Tinian to the primary target of Kokura; however, poor weather conditions in the form of dense cloud cover saw the bombardier unable to successfully sight the target and the B-29 flew on to Nagasaki already low of fuel, a strategic target due to the industrial base and port facilities to deliver the destructive payload and end the second world war.  

70th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb

As the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb passes; the question is still being asked, did Hiroshima really need to happen?

There is no question of the total destruction the atomic bomb caused on the inhabitants of Hiroshima, but were any other options available to the American political leadership? It is also argued that Hiroshima was not a military target; however, as a military target, Hiroshima housed a major army base that were the headquarters of the Japanese 5th Division and the 2nd Army Headquarters. Furthermore, Hiroshima was an important port and communications centre in southern Honsu.

The Japanese political leadership was so frightened the divine emperor Hirohito would be tried as a war criminal, they were unwilling to accept an unconditional surrender. The Japanese political leadership were more than willing to sacrifice the people of Japan to shore up their personal political ambitions and power base.

We need to remember the D-day amphibious landings occurred on the 6th of June 1944; Germany refused to surrender even as the feared Russian forces entered Berlin. The German forces fought hand to hand the whole way against the allied forces on their western flank and the Russian army approaching from the east, the casualties were extraordinarily high. The German surrender finally came on the 8th of May 1945, 11 months after the Normandy landings after Hitler committed suicide in his heavily fortified Berlin bunker. 

How much death and destruction occurred across Europe between the time on the D-Day landings and the German surrender? There was nothing to indicate that anything but a full scale invasion of the heavily defended island of Honshu would yield surrender and the end of World War II. The experiences of the marine landings on Okinawa and Iwo Jima indicated that a determined and heavily fortified enemy were more than willing to fight to the last man with estimated casualties exceeding a combined one million people with the Pacific theatre of war extending into 1947. It is difficult to fathom that the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki actually saved lives given the terrible deaths the inhabitants had to endure. 

The need for learning organisational behaviour

I didn't need this unit to complete my leadership degree, I chose this unit purely for the insights that undertaking organisational behaviour affords me, this was an extra unit and just means I undertook for this personal knowledge. The unit will count towards my GPA but not for the minimum number of units, this is just extra work and extra money, but why?

I unfortunately deal with a manager in title only, he is nothing more than an overpaid bookkeeper; in a drive to increase efficiency, they should pay a junior to do his bookkeeping job and restructure the strategic portfolio as a self-managed team. If my manager had undertaken organisational behaviour, the organisational culture issues we now face would have never manifest themselves in such a manner. How could one person be so inept at managing a bunch of decent, motivated, knowledgeable and performing people?

He needs to take a contemporary management unit, then a human resources unit, but, one step at a time. I may never know, how could this person firstly get this job but more importantly, how does he keep it? There have been rumours circulating of him holding polaroid pictures of the director and a goat; that's probably not true, it's more likely to be a married woman with excessive facial hair growth.

The fact is, the strategic portfolio is very successful from the hard and dedicated work of the team, well before he came on the scene. It does gall me that he is now taking credit for its success; he has no shame whatsoever. The fact that this fool does very little is actually a bonus, the more he touches, the more he messes up. So his hands off lassiz faire mode of operation, although not planned actually works in our favour. I have named him lassiz faire Larry, the admin staff know him eloquently as lay down Larry.

I work in the government now after twenty years in private enterprise, I am still amazed that these people can luck out in a management position, don't try to pull stunts like that in private enterprise. Every government manager should be qualified to management level with organisational behaviour forming a mandatory unit of the qualification - they still might be useless, but now they might understand why.

Swings & Roundabouts chardonnay

I purchased a case of Swings & Roundabouts chardonnay, for the price, this chards is drinking well now. The current style is less oak, more fruit and a lighter finish - I think they pull it off. For about $18 a bottle, this Margaret River offering is pretty competitively priced.

The crisp lightly oak style has taken hold for a number of years now, a positive maybe is that it could cut into unwooded chardonnay market; the domain of the professional woman grabbing a bottle on the way home from work to drink over dinner. What it isn't is a big kick arse chardy with big oak flavours ready to lay down for a decade to increase complexity with layer upon layer of fruit, wood and developing in the malolactic process. Just enjoy this easy drinking style now for what it is.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms

In Australia, we view the American love of firearms with much trepidation. We understand that the constitution of the United States of America specifically states the needs of the age required an armed militia. I would not as an Australian attempt to lecture Americans on gun laws, I do ask the simple question, why are such powerful weapons found on the streets these days?    

The rifle of the age was a single shot musket; people just didn't walk into public areas and start shooting up. If the authors of the constitution foresaw such events, surely they would acted differently to protect the people from needless violence. 

The second amendment to the American constitution was adapted in 1791 and influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689. The second amendment reads A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

The last time I checked, the US no longer requires a militia; instead a professional military complete with aircraft carriers, ballistic missile submarines, F-22 fighter jets, B-52 bombers and armed drones among other hardware - what would a handful of people running around with rifles do really? 

The United States constitution was written after the War of Independence of 1775 to 1783 when the United States did not have such a mighty military for self defense; in such a case, a militia was justified. If you want to overthrow the government, why not head off to the polling booth? 

The constitution may be amended if the will of the people is strong enough. I am glad the Port Arthur massacre allowed a strong government fed up with Hoddle Street, Surry Hills, Strathfield and Queen Street mass shootings to act decisively removing unnecessary firearms from the community in Australia.   

The PADI educational design process

As a college lecturer and instructional designer, I view the PADI educational system as actually pretty good. As the college system is competency-based and not time-based, I see many similarities in the concepts and application. 

PADI has expelled considerable time and effort to design functional dive courses based on contemporary learning theories, their learning materials are linked to course objectives and are naturally of a high quality.

As an instructor, you don't need to qualify to become an instructional designer; you just need to qualify to become an instructor in the world of PADI. This will not allow you to teach at college, it won't even allow you to teach scuba programs from other scuba certification agencies. 

At the end of your seven day instructor course, you must attend a two day instructor evaluation run by PADI and you are off and running, your career as a recreational dive instructor just hit hyperdrive.

Armed with slightly below a rudimentary level of teaching knowledge, you are now slightly more knowledgeable than a layman and able to earn a living as a dive instructor.

Naturally the hours are long and the pay is low, but hey, you can't complain, in seven days you went from a novice diver to a certified and qualified professional. Try doing that with a law, engineering or medical degree.

But in all fairness, most instructors already have a profession such as a marine biologist, retail assistant, boat skipper or trade. What you are purchasing from PADI is a lifestyle change and the former occupations of dive instructors are pretty diverse.

I do feel for the young guys straight out of school who have no other background to fall back on when they burnout - you certainly do burnout.

Stuff up and injure or kill someone, you will be deemed and held accountable just as any other professional, don't expect PADI to come running to your rescue, they will throw you under a bus at first opportunity.

As a PADI instructor for 15 years, I may not teach dive courses anymore as time constraints required to undertake further study now are just too great. Just finding the time to go and dive is difficult enough.

Committing to teaching people to dive is unfortunately unattainable for the next couple of years at least. I went from a part-time instructor to a full-time instructor right back to a part-time instructor again.

During my time as a full-time instructor, I was a dive centre manager, tour guide and retail salesperson. Actually, I wasn't a full-time instructor for all that long, six months actually.

After I resigned my full time dive centre manager position, I went on holiday for half a year before going and working for a rival full-time for six months before heading back overseas again for another six months. I then returned and started my own dive business that was ironically part-time too.

I maintain a degree of isolation from the recreational dive industry now; I do view courses and programs from afar these days. PADI courses offer college level credits in the United States and other nations for a reason.

They had to be evaluated to qualify for the program and their eligibility has to be renewed every couple of years. This can only be a positive, as you will never hear a PADI instructor reciting educational theory and application unless they are a qualified teacher that is burnt out and seeking a lifestyle change.