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What is an AAR? Why do an AAR?

An AAR, aka After Action Review or hotwash.


“The Army's After Action Review (AAR) is arguably one of the most successful organizational learning methods yet devised. Yet, most every corporate effort to graft this truly innovative practices into their culture has failed because, again and again, people reduce the living practice of AAR's to a sterile technique.” Peter Senge


I learned to facilitate and participate in AARs while in the military but the process meets the requirement for formal or informal assessments, with yourself, one on one, or in a collaborative environment. I use it in assessments in my roles as a parent, student, employee, community member, with HS students, military students, peers, supervisors, and other participants after all types of events.


Some key points to remember if you decide to conduct an AAR with yourself, learners, family members, advocacy groups, and/or community groups:



Determine what participants have learned from the experience, exercise, event --
a. Solicit questions and explanations.
b. Ask questions and receive answers from the participants to encourage self actualization/awareness and identify other methods of doing things.
c. Provide immediate feedback in context to the material and correct misunderstandings.
d. Remain unbiased in the facilitator role.
e. Focus on learning and improvement.
f.  Document recommendations, solutions, lessons learned and connect to next steps of learning, exercise, events and/or self improvement.
g. Follow through.



Wikipedia entry for after action reviews. 


The US Army published a training circular (TC 25-20) in September 1993, A Leader's Guide to After Action Reviews.


Big Dog & Little Dog's Performance Juxtaposition AAR page. Provides definitions, diagram, steps to conduct, strategies, and references.


After Action Review Appendix G, FM 25-101, Battle Focused Training, 30 September 1990 (FM 25-101 superseded by FM 7-1)


The Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program provides links for references to AARs.


Do you conduct AARs? What do you learn from an AAR? Have you facilitated/participated in an event like an AAR with a different title or label?


Comments, recommendations, and feedback are always welcome.

Don't forget to check yourself!

What? Check myself?


This post is not necessarily ed techie related...but a reminder to take a day or two to check your self...your basic health stats, a tune up for your body, a self reality check...so you can continue to share your knowledge, skills, and abilities with the rest of us.  In the military, birth month checks were the reminder to make all of your required medical appointments in your birth month.  So every January I make those appointments required to do the basic checks...except for last January because I was in transition.  This year I picked it back up again...everything is good except for that annual head to toe skin review.


I understand that health care has the attention of many people this year, but in reality, everyone has a personal responsibility to their own health.  In the long run, it is better to be proactive and educated about yourself, your family history, and lifestyle changes.


I have just had my 10th mole removed from my body. I have had this type of procedure in 4 different states, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina.  I will patiently await the results that will hopefully come back negative and return in 6 months for a follow up to review the annotated areas tagged for review.  There is nothing like the question, "How long have you had this one?", when someone is looking at your backside from the top of your head to between your toes and you wonder when have I even looked for a mole there. So take the time to check yourself, if needed, take a picture and conduct a monthly check.


While we associate melanoma with skin checks, it can occur in the eye. This happened to the father of a friend of mine, who recovered with radiation.


Here is the ABCD reminder when checking your skin for possible features that might be symptoms of melanoma:



Asymmetry:  One half of the abnormal area is different from the other half.
Borders:  The lesion or growth has irregular edges.
Color:  Changes from one area to another, with shades of tan, brown, or black or sometimes white, red, or blue. A mixture of colors may appear within one spot.
Diameter: The trouble spot is usually, but not always, larger than 6 mm in diameter-about the size of a pencil eraser.

So take a moment for yourself...for your health...and check yourself and your family history.  Without your health...your unique ed technieness will depart before you have the time to share your knowledge, skills, and abilities with the rest of us.


As always, comments and recommendations are welcome or you can click on one of the reaction buttons below this post.


Links of interest:
Google Health:  Melanoma
US National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute - Melanoma
Mayo Clinic - Melanoma

Implicit Association Test

Don't let the word test scare you...
How aware are you of your unconscious biases? When is the last time you assessed your biases?

The Implicit Association Test offers one way to probe unconscious biases.

UnderstandingPrejudice.org, is a web site for students, teachers, and other individuals interested in the causes and consequences of prejudice. This is one of many resources available in the supplements to the syllabus for the current course I am enrolled in for research methods.

This warning is posted on the website before you select the option to move forward:
Warning: This test has been taken more than one million times, and the results usually reveal some degree of bias. Your test results will include interpretations based on research done with more elaborate versions of this test. However, the parties who have contributed to this site make no claim regarding the validity of suggested interpretations. If you would rather not read these interpretations or risk discovering hidden biases, please do not continue.

Your results are for your knowledge, there isn't an option to send the results to a social media site or post to your blog...it is just you, your Internet connected device and the 2 fingers you use to respond. Depending on where you are in life the results may or may not surprise you. I shared this link with a few people who vocally claim they have no biases and could use a technological assessment.

So whether you take the Implicit Association Test or explore the Understanding Prejudice website, there are more than 2,000 links to prejudice-related resources, as well as searchable databases with hundreds of prejudice researchers and social justice organizations.

Comments are welcome...or just click one of the Reaction buttons.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts - Creating Google Alerts was something we did during the computer scholarship workshops with high school students. Creating Google Alerts made them self aware of their web presence, whether they put it out there or another source was responsible. Parents found themselves in mentions from newspapers and church notices.

The students also created Google Alerts about their favorite topics, homework assignments, or personal interests.

As a student, Google Alerts is a great way to receive notifications about your research topic, whether you are a K-12 student, a freshman in a F2F college, a non traditional student in a graduate course, or a lifelong learner pursuing an interest of choice. So what are Google Alerts and how does one get started?

From Google Alerts FAQ:

1. What are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts are emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for your search terms. You can also choose to have your alerts delivered via feed to the feedreader of your choice (e.g., Google Reader or add the feed to your iGoogle page). We currently offer alerts with results from News, Web, Blogs, Video and Groups.

2. What are the different types of alerts I can sign up for?

Google Alerts currently offers 6 variations of alerts - 'News', 'Web', 'Blogs', 'Comprehensive', 'Video' and 'Groups'.
Click this link for the rest of the Google Alert FAQs

So go ahead, create a Google Alert, learn about yourself or a query of your choice.

Do you already use Google Alerts? Leave a comment and share your Google Alert story.