In light of Super Bowl XLVI airing this weekend and it being held in my home state of Indiana (at least we have one meaningful game with a Manning this season) – I thought it would be fun to have a little Super Bowl Trivia for all of you football fans!

I found this list on Yahoo and have included a few of my favorites, but you can see the list in its entirety here.

Q: Where was the first Super Bowl held?

A: Super Bowl I was held in Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 1967. The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

Q: Which NFL team has played in the most Super Bowls?

A: The Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys have each played in 8 of them. The Steelers have won six of those games (also a Super Bowl record). The Cowboys have a 5-3 record.

Q: Which NFL teams have never played in the Super Bowl?

A: The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans.

Q: How many Super Bowls have the Patriots been in, including Super Bowl XLVI? How about the Giants?

A: This is New England’s 7th trip to the Super Bowl. It’s New York’s 5th trip.

Q: Super Bowl XLVI is a rematch of Super Bowl XLII between the Patriots and the Giants. Can you name the other Super Bowl rematches (hint: there are four other sets of teams)?

A: The Cowboys and the Steelers collided in Super Bowls X, XIII, and XXX. The Steelers won the first two; Dallas won Super Bowl XXX.

The Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills played in consecutive years in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII. Dallas won both games.

The San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals met in Super Bowls XVI and XXIII. The 49ers won both games.

The Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins tangled in Super Bowls VII and XVII. They split the series.

Good luck to both teams and everyone have a great Super Bowl weekend!

The Jan-Feb 2012 edition of the Harvard Business Review contains an article that details how medical schools are setting the precedent for training. We are accustomed to seeing interns in hospitals. It isn’t surprising when a medical student greets you and gathers information to give the first phase of an examination or consultation. Although oftentimes a little nerve-wracking, we can understand the necessity for this stage in their education. There’s simply nothing like learning in the field.

It is in this idea of apprenticeship, HBR explains, that business educators should find inspiration. Business schools’ current methods of preparing students include tactics like using case studies, memorizing interventions, and discussing the history and trends of the business world. As effective as these tools can be, nothing replaces contextual experience. Young business professionals inevitably find themselves thrown into the field and attempting to bridge the “knowing-doing” gap.

By utilizing internships, etc., students can improve their management skills and abilities. I encourage those of you lovely readers with the resources to provide internships or shadowing opportunities to consider mentoring through these methods. As a new intern, I can honestly say that I’m already miles ahead of my classmates. I’ve already learned more than what they may study this entire semester. Moreover, the exposure is simply invaluable.

Source:

“What Business Schools Can Learn from the Medical Profession” – by: Nitin Nohria

This week’s blog entry is a little introspective as I recently caught an interview on the Fox News Channel with Lauren Berger, the author of a new book called “All Work and No Pay: Finding an Internship, Building Your Resume, Making Connections and Gaining Job Experience” (Ten Speed Press, 2012).  Though I have yet to read the book, I plan to pick it up as I recently started as an intern at Monar Consulting.

But in the news segment, Berger says studies show that students with internship experience on their resumes are landing jobs faster than those without internships and at a higher starting salary. So she maintains that it’s so important to get that practical workplace experience on your resume before you graduate.

Berger says many students view internships as “slave labor,” but she says that’s a mistake. Personally, she’s had a total of 15 internships, which she admits was more than necessary. However, she suggests that students do two internships before they graduate. She says each one will help them decide what they want to do with their lives.

The book takes readers through the entire process: 1) how to find the right internships; 2) deciding on how many internships to apply to; and 3) how to make the most of the situation and use it to leverage a job after graduation.

The book also focuses on time management, since many students have difficulty prioritizing and juggling school work with the responsibilities of an internship.

To further dispel the slave labor stereotype of internships and illustrate how they have value, the author likes to told a story about when she was assigned to make coffee, that famous job of interns, at her first internship. She said she pushed a button and thought the machine was going to blow up, but added she now knows how to make a great cup of coffee.

It can happen to the best of us. You find yourself at work running through tasks and suddenly a feeling of complete boredom creeps up on you. Although common, a study by ABC News has shown that chronic boredom at work can be just as hazardous as continual stress.

Unfortunately, the economy is definitely contributing to the boredom predicament. Since more and more people are forced to take jobs that may not exactly align with their skill set and interests, it is up to the employer to find inventive ways to keep every staff member engaged.

There is a difficult balance that must be upheld in a workplace. A happy medium between being bored and challenged – but not overwhelmed – must be found. “Being chronically bored means being unhappy and stressed,” the article explains. This perpetual disinterest can lead to feeling despondent. At this point an employer needs to intervene in a big way.

I would encourage workplace leadership to consider trying new ways to keep employees engaged at work. The article mentions that this can take the form of constructive breaks. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to make tasks and duties any less monotonous. But perhaps management can create and facilitate constructive break activities that keep the brain working but allow the feeling of relief. Maybe with frequent and fun outlets, the long-term strain of boredom can be alleviated.

“Boredom, Constant Cheer, Cynicism, and Other Job Hazards” – ABC News

For my birthday this year I received an online bookstore gift card from my sister, which I used to buy a title to augment my knowledge of instructional design. I was just finishing my certificate in ID at Western Illinois University and was looking for something that covered more practical techniques in e-learning than the more theory-based books that I had read in school.

I had been aware of William Horton since the late ’90s when I purchased his book “Writing Online Documentation” while flirting with the idea of getting into technical writing. (At the time I was working in journalism, and technical writing was hot and appeared to be more lucrative.) Though at the time I opted to go into library science instead, I had observed that over the past decade computer-based training had grown and appeared to displace technical writing to an extent, with many technical writers moving into that emerging field. So on a whim I looked to see if Mr. Horton had done the same, and sure enough, the technical writing guru had since moved into writing books on e-learning.

In fact, he had just published a 2012 edition of his book, E-Learning by Design, first published in 2006. So I ordered it and still had to fork over some of my own money after redeeming the gift card since this relatively specialized small-press book has a cover price of $65. At least its 640 pages give it a little more bang for the buck.

The book did not disappoint, as it’s loaded with practical e-learning activities and strategies. The first chapter even provides an easy-to-follow crash course in the instructional design process, and another focuses on assessment for e-learning. Essentially, the author says that all e-learning activities can be classified as “Absorb,” “Do,” or “Connect” activities, and spends three chapters overviewing each of them with examples. The remaining chapters deal with specific types of activities in these larger classifications, such as games and simulations, social learning and mobile-learning.

In the games and simulations chapter, Horton covers a variety of examples of this type of Do learning activity , such as quiz shows, branching, task simulations, role-playing games and micro worlds. In the social learning chapter, the author discusses where and when to use social learning, the social capabilities of software (such as the need to discuss asynchronously and collaboratively create documents), using proven social activities such as brainstorming and group-critiques and promoting team learning.

The mobile learning chapter discusses topics such as enabling virtual attendance, teaching “outdoor” subjects and making social learning mobile. Among other topics, it also deals with adapting existing learning for mobile learners, using the capabilities of the device, and visual design issues such as designing for easy reading and following established user-interface guidelines.

Lastly, Horton discusses designing for the virtual classroom, covering topics such as online meetings, Webinars, and course design.

This book was exactly what I was looking for in that it was clear and practical without being oversimplified; and the 2012 copyright date assures me that the activities are the latest and greatest. The book is also lavishly illustrated with screen shots of real world e-learning products, making it even more useful and easy-to-understand.

And perhaps what makes the book most valuable is its overriding premise that the success of any of these strategies relies on sound instructional design. Essentially, I agreed with e-learning strategist Marc Rosenberg’s observation in his plug for the book, which he writes “brings together the latest strategies for learning without losing its critical premise–technology enables e-learning, but great design makes it work.”