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Need to Combine E-Learning with Mentoring? Here’s a Simple Solution. 10 January, 2012, 1:54 am
Recently someone asked how to combine their mentoring program with elearning courses. This is something I’ve worked on a few times over the years. It usually involved a production environment where peer coaches were tasked with training new employees on the floor. But the ideas in this post could work in any type of training program that includes some sort of mentoring or peer coaching. A Common Case A person’s hired to a new position and often assigned a peer coach who walks beside him until he’s up-to-speed. Not only is this an effective way to teach new employees, it’s also a great way to help build a social connection to the work and organization. However, there are a few challenges with this type of training and many are overcome by blending elearning content with the peer coaching. Here are a few of the challenges I’ve encountered: Pulling people from real production. The peer coach also has her own job to do. So there’s pressure to help the new person but then get back to work. Because of this, the peer coach may take short cuts, not present complete information, or neglect the needs of the new person. Inconsistent training process. Much of the new person’s learning is dictated by the peer coach’s own work flow. This can make it a challenge if the new person doesn’t fully understand what’s going on and jumps from one thing to the next without understanding the proper context or work process. Assign the wrong tasks to new learners. It’s common to pawn off the easiest or less desired tasks to the new person. Sometimes there’s too much focus on putting people on the simplest work until “they get it” and then advance them to more challenging work later on. Learning can be intimidating. People can be intimidated by new tasks, especially in a real work environment where mistakes impact production. The Value of E-Learning There should be some consistency in the training process. However, peer coaching programs are notorious for inconsistency. Even if the peer coach is really good, things like work requirements or personal areas of emphasis tend to make each training event a bit different. That’s where elearning proves valuable. E-learning courses are effective in dealing with these challenges. Elearning courses allow you to remove the person from the time and resource pressures of the real world. This can ensure consistent delivery of critical information as well as compress the time to learn. Doesn’t interfere with production: the learner is not constrained by real work processes. Asynchronous access: The information can be accessed anywhere and at any time. Less demand on peer coach: The peer coach can spend less time with the learner for some of the training. Consistent messaging & delivery: Information structure and delivery is consistent regardless of peer coach’s personal style or emphasis. Intentional training design: Allows you to present a more holistic and complete training program rather than sticking people on the easy tasks or boring work until some later date. Elearning modules are excellent for delivering key information that may missed during on-the-job training that’s focused on very specific tasks. For example, in a real production environment while showing someone how to use a machine you may focus on the actual steps required for performance but lose out on explaining the upstream and downstream effects of the workflow. In addition, production environments tend to be loud, which makes it difficult to have good conversation. This can be solved with a simple orientation module where you provide a brief overview of the production process and workflow. This allows you to maintain consistent messaging and it frees the peer coach from that part of the training. You can also structure the module to review and assess the learner’s understanding, something that may be missed on the floor. I worked on a production course once where we found the new hires were intimidated by the large machines. So instead of putting them to work right away, we spend time teaching them the parts of the machine and how to do preventive maintenance. We used a series of small elearning courses to go through the technical information and combined them with hands-on preventive maintenance. By the time they started working on the machine they were very familiar and comfortable with what was going on. We cut the training time dramatically. The elearning courses also allowed us to control the information and practice activities. Something that may have varied based on the peer coach. The Learning Journal Part of the training happens during the elearning module and part during the face-to-face time. To create a bridge, I like to add a learning journal. I see it as a way to instigate some note-taking and create a resource that becomes personal and something the learner always has access to. The note-taking in the learning also helps with knowledge transfer. What’s included in the learning journal? Training calendar. Give the person a schedule that lets them know what they will be learning. They can check off what they’ve learned as they advance. This provides a progress report to the learner, the peer coach, and supervisor. Self-assessment. List the things they need to know or do to be proficient. They can review it and determine how well they’re doing. Include information on finding additional resources. I like this approach because it gives the learner some freedom and confidence as they assess their skills. Peer coach guides. Each elearning module should be coupled with a real-world activity. The peer coach guide tells the learner and peer coach what that is. This helps move the training forward. The peer coach is obligated to this process so they take fewer short cuts. And the learner is able to determine if something’s been skipped. I also include some quick review questions that cover the essential points of the module. After each module, the peer coach uses the questions as a way to review what was learned and assess the new person’s understanding. The Peer Coach A mentored training program is an effective way to train new employees. But it’s also a great way train existing employees who are being groomed for greater management responsibilities. You can use the peer coaching process as a way to teach giving feedback and supervising others. It’s a great way to model the expectations you would have for supervisors or managers. The key to success is consistency and commitment to the process. At the same time, the peer coaching needs to work in a real environment. Get peer coaches involved. When building this type of training it’s critical to connect with the peer coaches to craft the right types of activities and how to schedule them. Otherwise the training program becomes burdensome and creates extra work as people circumvent the official training to get things done quickly. Teach them how to review progress and fill gaps. We combined the elearning module with a real-world activity. The peer coaches reviews what’s learned online to get a sense of how the person is progressing and to fill any gaps. The learning journal’s structure facilitates assessing the learner’s understanding. Empower the peer coach. The objective is to create a good training program. People learn in different ways so the peer coach has to have some flexibility in how they work through the training with the new employee. Break the content into smaller modules so that you have more freedom to work with them. Beware of Bureaucracy The training program is a solution that helps meet your objective of training people. The goal is that people are able to meet a specific level of proficiency. It’s not that they go through training. Often we focus too intently on the process that we lose sight of the real objectives. While you want to design a good training program that is consistent and effective, it has to include a way to work with the learner as an individual and how she learns. The last thing you want is a burdensome process that is also so rigid that doesn’t account for how the trainee is actually doing and able to demonstrate understanding. The peer coach plays a critical role in assessing the person’s progress and understanding of the key points of the training. You can alleviate the bureaucratic elements by having clear metrics for proficiency. To sum it all up: Determine what content can be taught electronically and what needs to be done in the real world. Break the content into smaller modules with each module combining elearning and real world learning. Use a learning journal as a means to bridge the two parts of the module and facilitate the conversation between learner and peer coach. Get the peer coach involved in the training design. Use the peer coaching experience as a way to develop that person’s management skills. Avoid bureaucracy. Have you ever combined elearning with a mentored training program? If so, what are some things you’d advise? Feel free to share your thoughts via the comments link. Tidbits I’m working on two workshops for the Pacific Northwest—Portland in March and Seattle in October. I’ll have details soon. Upcoming Events January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar): Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. January 17: eLearning Guild (webinar): The Secrets to Rapid eLearning Success January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. This is a great deal for a full-day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Will follow the presentation with a free Articulate jam session. March: Portland, OR…details coming March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference) April 10: Jacksonville, FL (ASTD). Details coming. April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD). Details coming. May 17: Orange County California. Details coming. May 24: Articulate Conference hosted by Leeds. May 21-25: Somewhere in the UK. While in the UK I’ll try to visit a few other cities. Details coming. July: Knoxville, TN (Smokey Mountain ASTD) August: Australia…would be great. Let me know if you’re interested. October: Seattle, WA…still working on details. Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
A Year’s Worth of Free E-Learning Assets 3 January, 2012, 1:30 am
It’s hard to believe but another year’s come and gone. The good thing is that it looks like 2012 will be a good year. Although sometime in June, you may want to break out the DVD player and watch 2012. Then practice your survival skills because come December, things may change. But until then, just put your feet up and enjoy the year. To ease your burden, I put together a list of all of the posts from 2011 where I shared free elearning assets. They’re yours to enjoy and use as you wish. Free E-Learning Templates Here’s a Noteworthy PowerPoint Template (and It’s Free!) Here’s a Free PowerPoint Template & Font Use This Free E-Learning Template to Inspire Your Next M-Learning Course 5 Free PowerPoint E-Learning Templates Check Out This Free PowerPoint Template & Tutorial Free fonts Over 150 Free Fonts to Use in Your E-Learning Courses Miscellaneous Free Tools A Free Tool & Free Graphics to Simplify Your E-Learning Course Design Here’s a Simple Way to Save Time When Working with Graphics in PowerPoint 5 Time-saving Tips from the E-learning Community Tips on Managing All of Those Free Fonts You May Already Own the Tools to Create Simple E-Learning Avatars Free graphics Over 45 Free Speech Bubbles to Make Your E-Learning Courses Talk Dozens of Page Curl Graphics Here’s a Free PowerPoint Template & Laptop Illustration 15 Free Display Graphics to Use with Your E-Learning Courses 25 More Free Display Graphics for Your E-Learning Courses Free Expert Advice 3 Things You Can Only Learn from a Real E-Learning Expert Don’t forget to take advantage of all of the free downloads available in the elearning community and next time you’re stuck on a course, feel free to post a question. You’ll get plenty of help. I hope you have a great 2012. Thank you for reading the blog, sharing your own expertise in the comments and emails. I hope to see many of you during my travels this year. Tidbits I’ll be in St. Louis for two days; make sure to check out the sessions below. I’m also thinking about doing some workshops in Australia in August. If you’re interested, let me know. Upcoming Events January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar): Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. January 17: eLearning Guild (webinar): The Secrets to Rapid eLearning Success January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). I’ll be doing a session on PowerPointand we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. Details coming. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. This is a great deal for a full-day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Will follow the presentation with a free Articulate jam session. March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference) March: Knoxville, TN (Smokey Mountain ASTD) April 10: Jacksonville, FL (ASTD). Details coming. April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD). Details coming. May 17: Orange County California. Details coming. May 24: Articulate Conference hosted by Leeds. May 21-25: Somewhere in the UK. While in the UK I’ll try to visit a few other cities. Details coming. August: Australia…would be great. Let me know if you’re interested. Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Check Out This Free PowerPoint Template & Tutorial 27 December, 2011, 1:30 am
It’s that time of year to share gifts, so here’s an elearning template that you’re free to use as you wish. It’s inspired by a Christmas tree with the green background and colored bulbs. The template comes with a few layouts and they’re easy enough to modify, which you’ll see in the tutorials. I see the color bulbs as a way to feature different sections. If you want additional layouts to accommodate the different colors, just go into the slide master, duplicate the layout and change the color of the bulb. As always, I use the default template colors, so you’re free to easily modify the colors using PowerPoint’s color themes. Click here to view the template in action. You’ll notice in the demo above that I added characters to the bulbs. This is a simple way to create a more human looking course. It’s also a neat way to transition to scenarios. Another thing you’ll notice is the cutout character. It’s kind of trendy right now and pretty easy to do. I like this look because it helps get away from the PowerPoint look and it adds a sense of informality to the course which may help make the content seem less rigid. If you want to learn more about using the template and how to create the cutouts and character fills, be sure to check out the tutorials below. Click here to view the tutorials. Here’s a link to the free PowerPoint template. Feel free to use it as you wish. Also, take advantage of the other free downloads in the elearning community. PowerPoint Template Hope you enjoy the template and have a great 2012! Tidbits I’ll be in St. Louis for two days; make sure to check out the sessions below. I’m also thinking about doing some workshops in Australia in August. If you’re interested, let me know. Upcoming Events January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar): Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. January 17: eLearning Guild (webinar): The Secrets to Rapid eLearning Success January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. Details coming. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. This is a great deal for a full-day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Will follow the presentation with a free Articulate jam session. March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference) March: Knoxville, TN (Smokey Mountain ASTD) April 10: Jacksonville, FL (ASTD). Details coming. April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD). Details coming. May 17: Orange County California. Details coming. May 24: Articulate Conference hosted by Leeds. May 21-25: Somewhere in the UK. While in the UK I’ll try to visit a few other cities. Details coming. August: Australia…would be great. Let me know if you’re interested. Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Want a Great Looking E-Learning Course? Here’s a Simple Way to Get It. 20 December, 2011, 1:30 am
There are three core questions that help guide the development of an elearning course. I discussed this a bit in the post on building a roadmap for elearning. What is the look and feel of the course? What information needs to be in the course? What will the learner do with the information? For many rapid elearning developers the most challenging part is the first question because it requires a skill set different than training or instructional design. So what typically happens is that we create elearning courses that either all look the same or have a discordant look where the images and typography are a hodgepodge of whatever we have available. In today’s post I’ll share a simple way to get a nice look for your course that will give it a rich feel. It’s not a substitute for good instructional design, but it is a simple way to make your course look good and take the pressure off of the rapid elearning developer who has limited access to graphic designers. In a recent post I shared some ideas on how to craft more engaging objectives. For the demo, I wanted my earthquake intro to feature a family huddled in the dark. And as the information was shared a family member would disappear. Like most of you, I am pressed for time. Since I had no time to build the graphics I wanted, I decided to change the huddled family image to a framed photo of a family. This would be a lot easier to do since all I needed was an image of a picture frame and a family. As I was looking for picture frames on iStockphoto I saw a few Polaroid-like images. So I decided to switch from a single picture frame to Polaroid photos of each family member. Doing a search for “Polaroid” revealed a lot of cool layouts. What I like about them is that they offer some structure that I could easily use in my elearning course. Searching through the Polaroid images lead me to an artist who had a series of images that I could use. The artist provided a background, title and section screens, and then various layout options. The added bonus is that since they came from the same artist they all looked like they belonged together. Here’s a quick demo of these images used in an elearning course. As you can see, I didn’t have to do much work because I used the default layouts for my slide backgrounds. Click here to view the demo. I look for images that come from the same style so I can get a consistent look and avoid a discordant style. And then I look for “buckets” where I can add content. In this case the Polaroid images are perfect. I can use them to add pictures, as menu choices, or even as a way to display text that may have previously been a bullet point. The secret is to find an artist who provides a lot of images that come from the same style. This way you have a lot to work with. Here are a few sets that I think would work well in an elearning course: Grungy Photos (set used in this demo) Education theme Desktop themes (same artist): Brown wood Black desk Office folder Open notebook This isn’t a replacement for good instructional design. You’ll still need to do that. But for the elearning developer who has no graphic design background and wants to create a visually appealing course, it’s an easy and simple solution. Are there any similar styles in the stock image sites that you like? Feel free to share them in the comments link. Tidbits: I’ll be in St. Louis for two days; make sure to check out the sessions below. I’m also thinking about doing some workshops in Australia in August. If you’re interested, let me know. Upcoming Events January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar): Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. January 17: eLearning Guild (webinar): The Secrets to Rapid eLearning Success January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. Details coming. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. This is a great deal for a full-day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Will follow the presentation with a free Articulate jam session. March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference) March: Knoxville, TN (Smokey Mountain ASTD) April 10: Jacksonville, FL (ASTD). Details coming. April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD). Details coming. May 17: Orange County California. Details coming. May 21-25: Somewhere in the UK. Details coming. August: Australia…would be great. Let me know if you’re interested. Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Here’s a Way to Make Your E-Learning Course Objectives Interesting 13 December, 2011, 1:16 am
I’ve been working on a few demos for some upcoming blog posts and conference presentations. One demo is a module on having an emergency preparedness kit in case of a disaster. In the past I’ve built similar elearning courses for organizations that taught their employees about having these disaster kits. In most cases they started the courses with the standard objectives screen like the image below. While there’s nothing wrong with creating a list to state learning objectives, there’s probably a better way to engage the learner emotionally. And this is important if you want to connect with the learner and motivate them to change their behavior. Understanding Objectives When I first learned to build elearning courses the rule was that you HAD to have a page that stated the learning objectives. Today that still seems to be standard. On top of that many organizations require that each course have an objective screen that has an explicit list of learning objectives. If that’s the case, then that’s what you have to do. But let’s step away from that for a second. In a simple sense the purpose of the objective is to communicate why the learner needs the course and what they’ll learn or be able to do afterwards. We start at point A and at the end of the course want to be at point B. The easiest thing to do is create an objectives screen like one above where you tell the learner what the objective is and what they should learn. But that’s not the only way to present the objectives of the course. It also may not be the most effective way. And, it’s definitely not the most interesting way. Crafting a Meaningful Objective It doesn’t matter where you live; odds are that you’re in an area that at some point during your lifetime will experience a disaster. In the Pacific Northwest the most likely disaster that I’ll experience is a major earthquake. I say this because everywhere I’ve worked part of our annual safety training was the need to have an emergency kit. We were told that it was just a matter of time before we had an emergency and to plan on being on our own for a while. They said we needed an emergency kit that could sustain us for at least 72 hours. Know what? I always passed the safety training; yet I never had an emergency kit. Why is that? While I KNEW that the kit was important, I was never MOTIVATED to actually have a kit. Outside of my natural proclivity to procrastinate, I think the elearning course was positioned as just one of many boring elearning courses that I had to take every year. All the organization cared about was making sure I had a check mark next to my name come December 31. Essentially they did a poor job convincing me that the kit was essential. They could have done a better job by appealing to my emotions rather than provide a bunch of information. Often we focus on the cognitive part of learning which is all about the knowing. But we don’t focus enough on the affective part which is more about the emotions. What motivates someone is subjective and tied to their emotional awareness. So creating an emotional connection to the content may be better than just a cognitive connection, especially at the forefront where we want to hook them. Reworked Learning Objective In the demo below I want to get away from the standard list of objectives. Instead I want something more emotional that matters to the person taking the course. I want them to know that this isn’t just information; instead it’s a matter of life and death. Instead of creating the standard list of what you’ll learn I ask them to consider the ramifications of not having a kit. I also stepped away from work and made it more personal. This isn’t about some check mark to indicate completion. This is about taking care of your family. Click here to view the demo. There’s a lot more I could have done to flesh out the scenario, but I kept it simple on purpose. I want to show that even if you have limited resources and time you can build something like this. As you can see the demo is not very interactive—just a few images, text, and some audio. Learning is a complex process and part of it is to connect with the learners in a meaningful way. Appealing to them emotionally is one way to do that. So the next time you build an elearning course, see if you can replace the bullet point objective screen with something different. Even if you can’t replace it, you can still do something like this to capture their attention. Have some creative ideas? Share them by clicking on the comments link. Not sure how to rework the learning objectives in the elearning course you’re building? Jump into this forum thread that I started in the elearning community to get some feedback from others. Tidbits: Lots of good book recommendations from blog readers in the comments section of the recent post, Are These the Three E-Learning Books You’d Recommend. Some of them I haven’t read yet. Upcoming Events December 13: UMBC (free webinar)—Simplifying Interactive E-Learning. We’ll look at ways to move past click-and-read content. January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar)—Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. I’ll share some ways to get more out of PowerPoint. You’ll wow your friends and be the life of the party. January 17: eLearning Guild (webinar): The Secrets to Rapid eLearning Success January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). Featuring three Articulate creation stations that cover Articulate Studio and the soon-to-be released Storyline. February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. Details coming. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). Join me for a two-day event: 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. Great deal for a full day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. Register before February 10 for an early bird discount. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Also working on an informal Articulate jam session. Details to follow. March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference) March: Knoxville, TN (Smokey Mountain ASTD) April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD) May: Orange County California May: somewhere in the UK *Title graphic from Arrested Development. Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Here’s an Inexpensive Way to Build a Library of E-Learning Assets 6 December, 2011, 1:44 am
Over the years elearning software has become easier to use. But with that comes some challenges. In the past you had an instructional designer who designed the course. Then there was a programmer who did the programming of the course. And a graphics designer built the course’s graphics. Today, things have changed a bit. With the ease of authoring, it’s placed the burden to do all of it on the shoulders of the rapid elearning developer. This can be a challenge because the skills to design graphics are different than the ones required to design instruction. In an ideal world you’d have all the resources you need to build your elearning courses, but for many of you that’s not going to happen. So anything you can do to find inexpensive assets that you can be used for elearning helps. Here’s a Simple Solution Most people have heard of sites like Groupon or Living Social. They’re social buying sites that have some sort of “deal of the day” where you can make discounted purchases as you recommend them to others. It’s really not much different than the desert island disks I mentioned in last week’s post. Did you know that there are similar sites for technology and web design? And many of them offer low cost or even free access to the types of assets you can use in your elearning courses. The Way It Works Here are a couple of the sites I subscribe to. I’m sure there are others. AppSumo MightyDeals Subscribe to the site and then you’ll get an email with the daily deals. I find that most of them are not relevant to my needs so I just delete them. But many times there are some good deals that would work great for elearning, similar to the images below. What I Find Valuable I’m not interested in most of what these services offer. I don’t care that much about the tutorials or SEO type solutions. I’m looking for tangible media assets, things I can use in my elearning courses. Here’s a list of what I’ve found in previous offers that I believe have value: Icons Fonts Backgrounds Textures Templates (usually WordPress) Audio & video assets Look for any type of multimedia asset that you think could be used in an elearning course. They may not always fill an immediate need, but if the assets look good, get them. Over time, you’ll build a large portfolio of assets. Take a close look at the blog templates even if you don’t need them for blogging. What I like about them is that they come with a “look” and all of the graphics to get it. Instead of using the template for a blog site, pull out all of the graphics and use them to build your own elearning template. I have no vested interest in any of these sites so I can freely share the pros as well as cons. The pros: Good value: The daily deals usually offer an abundance of resources at a very good price. Most of them will save you time and money as you develop your elearning courses. Free stuff: It’s a cost-effective way to build a portfolio of resources. Sometimes you’ll even get free stuff. The cons: Email Noise: If you’ve ever subscribed to these types of sites then you know there’s a certain type of spaminess that goes with them. Not bad spam, but just lots of noise. Stuff you don’t need: You’ll get daily deals, but most of them probably aren’t relevant to your needs. Odds are you’ll be enticed to buy stuff because of the deal it offers and not the value you’ll get out of it. So beware! Having assets that you can use for elearning courses is a challenge when you don’t have access to a graphics designer. Using sites like these where you can take advantage of the daily deals is a good way to get the assets you need. You just have to be patient and wiling to click the delete button every day until you get an offer that makes sense for you. Clicking delete’s not a bad price to pay for inexpensive assets. Have you ever used any of the assets from these offers for your course design? If so, which ones? Feel free to share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link. Tidbits: December 8: Charlotte, NC (ASTD)—Rapid E-Learning Design. I’ll also be doing a free Articulate jam session while in town…click here for details. The jam sessions are informal and a great way to connect with others in your area; plus I’ll be demoing the new Storyline product. December 13: UMBC (free webinar)—Simplifying Interactive E-Learning. We’ll look at ways to move past click-and-read content. January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar)—Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. I’ll share some ways to get more out of PowerPoint. You’ll wow your friends and be the life of the party. January 17: eLearning Guild (webinar): The Secrets to Rapid eLearning Success January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). Featuring three Articulate creation stations that cover Articulate Studio and the soon-to-be released Storyline. February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. Details coming. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). Join me for a two-day event: 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. Great deal for a full day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. Register before February 10 for an early bird discount. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Also working on an informal Articulate jam session. Details to follow. March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference) March: Knoxville, TN (Smokey Mountain ASTD) April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD) May: Orange County California May: somewhere in the UK Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Are These the Three E-Learning Books You Would Recommend? 29 November, 2011, 1:50 am
Back in the ‘80s there was a music magazine that published a list of desert island discs. People would write in and share the ten records they’d bring if they were stranded on an island. I used that list to find people who had similar tastes and then checked out the bands they’d recommend. That’s how found a lot of new bands like Milli Vanilli. I get a lot of questions about book recommendations from people just getting started with elearning. So for today’s post I’d like to do something similar to the desert island discs. Let’s suppose you are on a desert island and in between catching fish and talking to volleyballs you have a deep desire to learn more about elearning. You can only bring three books. Which books are they and why? I’ll get it started. Elearning 101 Here is what I see as the three core elements of a successful elearning course. I shared a little about this in this post on mapping out elearning courses. Visual design: Is the course visually appealing and use effective visual communication? Content: What content needs to be in the course? Learning activities: What will the learner do with the content? If we broke those into three areas of expertise they would probably be something like this: Visual design & communication Instructional design Interaction design Here are the books I’d recommend to those stranded elearning developers who are just getting started and want to build their elearning skills so they’ll be prepared when rescued from the island. Design for How People Learn. It’s important to understand how people learn because it will help you build better learning experiences. Unfortunately most people I talk to don’t have a formal education in instructional design. This book is probably the single best book for the person who’s just getting started and wants to know more about instructional design and how people learn. White Space is Not Your Enemy: A Beginner’s Guide to Communicating Visually through Graphic, Web and Multimedia Design. Good visual design combines courses that look great with good visual communication. Unfortunately there’s not enough focus on that for elearning. Anything you can do to help you get there is a win. This book is a good start. Beyond Bullet Points. Many elearning developers overlook this book because it’s about presentations. But here’s why I think it’s a must-have elearning book. Most elearning courses are closer to online presentations than structured learning activities. This book is great at helping you craft a message that has meaning and impact. In addition, it also introduces the same cognitive load stuff that you’d find in Multimedia Learning and E-Learning & the Science of Instruction (both good books, by the way). Obviously there are many good books from which to choose, but for now, these are the three I’d recommend. Which three books would you take and why? Feel free to share your recommendations in the comments section. Tidbits: 2011 is winding down. I’ve got two sessions left, which you can see below. Also, if you want to learn more about the new Storyline product, swing by the jam session in Charlotte. December 8: Charlotte, NC (ASTD)—Rapid E-Learning Design. I’ll also be doing a free Articulate jam session while in town. The jam sessions are informal and a great way to connect with others in your area. Click here for details. December 13: UMBC (free webinar)—Simplifying Interactive E-Learning. We’ll look at ways to move past click-and-read content. 2012 January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar)—Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. I’ll share some ways to get more out of PowerPoint. You’ll wow your friends and be the life of the party. January 17: eLearning Guild (webinar): The Secrets to Rapid eLearning Success January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). Featuring three Articulate creation stations that cover Articulate Studio and the soon-to-be released Storyline. February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. Details coming. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). Join me for a two-day event: 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. Great deal for a full day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. Register before February 10 for an early bird discount. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Also working on an informal Articulate jam session. Details to follow. March: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference) March: Knoxville, TN (Smokey Mountain ASTD) April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD) May: Orange County California May: somewhere in the UK Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
3 E-Learning Lessons Learned on the Road 22 November, 2011, 1:17 am
I’m coming off of back-to-back-to-back conference sessions and elearning workshops. While the travel gets old, I really enjoy getting to connect with so many of the blog readers. What I like best is that I run across so many different questions and elearning use cases and examples. I’m always amazed at the creativity in our industry. In addition, I get lots of time to reflect on things as I fly across the country. Following are three things that stood out to me during my recent travels. It’s important to connect with people. I stopped in one of those airport shops to pick up a couple of knickknacks for my kids. The young woman who processed my sale really stood out. It was one of the best customer service experiences that I‘ve had in recent years. As I was sitting in the lobby I thought more about it. What’s funny is that she really didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. As a matter of fact she did exactly what others would have done when it comes to processing the purchase. Yet, the experience with her really stood out. Why? It’s because she connected with me in a real way. She had a welcoming disposition, warm smile, and actually engaged me. As a busy traveler, I felt less like a sales order being processed and more like a real person. What she did was connect with me as a person and not as a requirement to complete her job. And it stood out. There’s a lesson here for those of us who build courses. Learning is a very personal experience. Yet so often, we’re treat those who take the courses like cattle being processed rather than real learners. Here are a few ways that we make elearning impersonal: Content is irrelevant with no connection to real world solutions Course navigation is locked so the learner has no control More focus on corporate branding than crafting a great learning experience Things to ponder: What’s the equivalent to a warm smile and personal greeting in your course? Are your elearning courses lacking personality? Are there better ways for you to connect with those who have to take the course? Where am I and where am I going? Maps and traveling go hand in hand. A map lets you chart where you need to go and then provides a way for you to assess how far you’ve gone and where you’re currently at. In the same sense, your course needs a map. When I do workshops on interactive elearning, one of the first points I make about engaging people is that they need to know what’s expected and how long it will take. People want to know what type of commitment they have to make before starting a course. When someone sends me a YouTube video link, the first thing I do is look at how long it is. If it’s 90 seconds, I’ll probably watch it. But if it’s 6 minutes long, odds are that I won’t. Knowing the requirements to view the video plays a role in how engaged I’ll be in the process. The same can be said of your elearning courses. When you deliver an elearning course, the expectations of the learner should be clear. They need to know how long it is. Also, during the course they should be able to assess their progress and how well they’re doing. Things to ponder: Are you making the expectations clear in your course? And are you providing a way for them to assess their progress? Engage learners by letting them create content Whenever I travel I try to set some time aside for informal Articulate jam sessions. It’s a great way to connect with blog readers and answer questions. The most recent jam session was hosted by the Cheesecake Factory at their headquarters location. You can’t go wrong when you mix elearning chit chat with delicious Cheesecake. During the jam session, they shared one way they use videos in their training program. In a recent activity, they had all of the restaurant greeters videotape their best customer greeting and then upload the videos to their internal video site. The videos were made available to others in the organization and they ran a contest to go with them. Here’s the value in this approach to training: The goal is to get the employees to learn the proper way to greet. Normally, we’d push out a ten slide elearning course that shows how to greet. With the videotape challenge, you get the learners focused on the best approach to greeting. How many times do you think they’d practice the right type of greeting before they submitted their tape? So you get the learner engaged and practicing real activities in a fun way. The employee videos were highlighted creating an environment where people were looking for videos and the recognition their team or site would get. It’s a great way to build a motivating and engaging training program. Instead of the elearning team having to create greeting videos, they were created by people who actually do the greeting. It’s a time saver and authentic for the others who will learn from them. Things to ponder: Is there a way for you to integrate user content with your more formal elearning development? Perhaps you can have someone create Screenr videos where they show how to do something. This lets them demonstrate their understanding and also gives you content to use to teach others. There are all sorts of sites where your learners can create content and then provide you with an embed link that you can insert it into your elearning courses using the web object feature. What all three of these points have in common is that in some way the approach is learner-centric. Most elearning courses I see are focused on the content and how to deliver it. Unfortunately, many times the learner is lost in the process. One of the best things you can do to make your elearning courses effective is to shift the focus away from content delivery and place it on how the learner will use the content. This lets you deliver a course that is engaging and relevant to the learner’s needs. Tidbits: What’s left for 2011 December 8: Charlotte, NC (ASTD)—Rapid E-Learning Design. I’ll also be doing a free Articulate jam session while in town. The jam sessions are informal and a great way to connect with others in your area. Click here for details. December 13: UMBC (free webinar)—Simplifying Interactive E-Learning. We’ll look at ways to move past click-and-read content. 2012….coming soon January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar)—Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. I’ll share some ways to get more out of PowerPoint. You’ll wow your friends and be the life of the party. January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). Featuring three Articulate creation stations that cover Articulate Studio and the soon-to-be released Storyline. February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). Details coming. February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). Join me for a two-day event: 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop. Great deal for a full day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. Register before February 10 for an early bird discount. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. Also working on an informal Articulate jam session. Details to follow. More being added by the minute! Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Are You Asking These Questions to Build Effective E-Learning? 15 November, 2011, 1:24 am
How we view effective elearning is somewhat subjective. For some it requires that all elearning center on performance. If it’s not, then how can it be effective? However, many elearning courses are less “learning” and more marketing. They’re about sharing information using elearning tools. I see those more as multimedia marketing campaigns than traditional training programs. For example, the human resources department is introducing a new bonus program and they want to have an “elearning course.” While they may call it elearning, it’s really more about creating awareness and not setting performance goals. At least not immediately. Ultimately the efficacy of elearning centers on the original course objectives and whether or not the course meets them. Performance-based courses need to prove that the learner can meet the performance goals. Information-based courses need to demonstrate a greater awareness of the content. Both types of courses have their place in the elearning landscape. Following are some keys to effective elearning. Is the course building greater awareness? I worked on a project once where it was taking too long for new hires to get up-to-speed in a production environment. The training program successfully taught the new hires everything they needed to DO. But after doing some analysis, we recognized that it wasn’t that they didn’t know how to do the work, it was that they weren’t completely aware of how their work fit in the grand scheme of things. So we added a few modules that taught them more about the overall production process and how they supported the organization. There were no performance goals in these modules other than to share additional information. Once they were made aware of this, the teams started meeting their production goals. Our initial mistake was that we only focused on the performance goals. They were able to perform their tasks. But because they were new, they lacked awareness of the bigger picture. While we want to focus on performance, there’s always a place for building context and framing the learning activities around that. Is the course causing the learners to think? Elearning should promote thinking. Find ways to challenge their assumptions or their existing understanding of the content. This can be wrapped in activities that mimic the learner’s world or information that causes reflection. In either case, step away from an information dump and let the learner process the information. Create activities or scenarios that offer contrast to the way they may normally see the content. Provide fresh perspective. I had a project once where the client wouldn’t budge from doing an information dump…and it was a lot of information. Our solution was to build a learning journal to go with the information. Then we presented a few case studies for the person to reflect on and document in the journal. This allowed them to wade through the information and identify the content relevant to them and their reflections. With today’s social media, it’s easy enough to transition the learning journal concept to a wiki or other collaborative forum. Is the course giving them opportunities to practice? Ultimately elearning courses exist to change understanding that impacts behavior. Knowing the right information is proven in relevant activities. We don’t just share information. We share information that allows someone to assess a situation and make appropriate decisions that produce real consequences. Are you building activities in your courses that allow the learners to practice making the types of decisions they need to make in the real world? Or the types of decisions that let them build competencies that they may need? Is the course allowing the learners to demonstrate their understanding? Decision-making activities let the learners practice and build on existing knowledge. They find ways to integrate what they’re learning in the course with what they already know. Somewhere in the process you get to the point where you need to assess their understanding. Are they able to meet the course’s objectives? Typically we use simple multiple choice or true false type questions; probably because it’s what we’re used to and because they’re easy to create. However that type of assessment only demonstrates whether a person knows the facts or not. Measuring understanding is more about how they apply those facts to make decisions. As you determine your course objectives, also determine how to assess them. Then build your course around that. We used to ask “What will it look like when I see it?” This helped us focus on tangible results. If this is new to you, I like the book Understanding by Design. The author does a good job of helping walk through the process of building objectives framed around understanding. It’s worth adding to your bookshelf. Obviously there’s a lot more to building effective elearning than these four questions. But asking these questions is a good start and hopefully they help transition your course development away from information dumps to meaningful and effective learning. What questions would you ask? Feel free to leave a comment by clicking on the comments link. Tidbits: If you like the torn paper graphics, David made those and you can download them for free in the elearning community. December 8: Charlotte, NC (ASTD)—Rapid E-Learning Design. I’ll also be doing a free Articulate jam session while in town. Click here for details. December 13: UMBC (free webinar)—Simplifying Interactive E-Learning. We’ll look at ways to move past click-and-read content. 2012….coming soon January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar)—Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. I’ll share some ways to get more out of PowerPoint. You’ll wow your friends and be the life of the party. January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). Featuring three Articulate creation stations that cover Articulate Studio and soon to be released Storyline. February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). Details coming. February: St. Louis (ASTD). Details coming. More being added by the minute! Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
Here’s a Free PowerPoint Template & Font 8 November, 2011, 12:30 am
The other day I ran across the website of How It Works Media. They produce those clever marketing videos. What caught my eye was the way they used their vector character with the projection screen especially since I had just done a couple of posts on display graphics which included some some projection screens. The general layout of their site would make a great elearning template. Here’s why: Simple, but rich background. Bold title colors. Lots of white space. Dedicated content areas. As you know, I like to use sites like this as inspiration to show how easy it is to create PowerPoint elearning templates. So I thought I’d make a template inspired by their site and then share a few tips. Free PowerPoint Template The template has six different layouts. I tried to cover the most common layout types. I also included a projection screen layout based on their screen design. Of course, you may want to add some of the free displays from the previous post. As far as the text placement, you can move it anywhere you want. Also, feel free to modify the template as you wish. Here are a few tips: I liked the blue mesh gradient on the website. To create it in PowerPoint I combined two shapes. The first shape is filled with cross pattern. The second shape is filled with the color gradients. I set the gradients to 10% transparent and placed the shape on top of the pattern shape. I always use the generic “office” color scheme in PowerPoint. This way I can quickly apply a new theme and not have to do a lot of tweaking. Below are three examples of how the different colors schemes look with the template. I like the bold font that How it Works Media used on their site. For this template I used Bevan which is a free font available via the Google Web Fonts site. You can learn more about the site and get more free fonts via this post. Here’s the link to download the free PowerPoint template. Feel free to take it apart to see how it was constructed. I hope you enjoy the free template. If you use it in a course let me know. I’d like see how it turns out. Tidbits: I’ll be in Los Angeles on November 12 doing an Articulate workshop. The price is pretty good for an all-day event. Check it out. I’ll also be hosting a free Articulate Jam Session while in town at the Cheesecake Factory HQ. Here are the details. November 14: Minneapolis, MN (ASTD)—Articulate Workshop: Build Interactive E-Learning…Rapidly. Click here for updates. December 8: Charlotte, NC (ASTD)—Rapid E-Learning Design. I’ll also be doing a free Articulate jam session while in town. Click here for details. December 13: UMBC (free webinar)—Simplifying Interactive E-Learning. We’ll look at ways to move past click-and-read content. 2012….coming soon January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar)—Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. I’ll share some ways to get more out of PowerPoint. You’ll wow your friends and be the life of the party. January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012). Featuring three Articulate creation stations. Feb 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine). Details coming. Feb: St. Louis (ASTD). Details coming. More being added by the minute! I’ve gotten a tremendous response for the Pacific Northwest session. I’ll probably do something in Seattle and Portland. If you’re interested in attending let me know. Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro

About.com

How to Be a Stand Out Student in a Class Chat 14 January, 2012, 6:15 pm
If your online class is holding a live chat session, it's important to be prepared. Knowing what to study and how to contribute your ideas can help you make the discussion more meaningful (and, perhaps, earn extra points with your professor). Take a look at this article to learn how to stand out in class chat room discussions.
Readers Respond: How Did You Find Your Online High School Teaching Job? 13 January, 2012, 6:08 pm
With more high schools offering advanced, remedial, and summer classes over the internet, now is a smart time to look for an online high school teaching job. Online high school teachers hold message board discussions, grade papers, and teach students all from home. Generally, online high school teachers follow a set curriculum rather than creating their own. Think this might be the right job for you? See how these online high school teachers found their jobs....Read Full Post
Make Your First Week a Success 7 January, 2012, 8:33 pm
Are you just starting a new online class? Now is the time to plan your schedule, develop good rapport with your professor, and determine if you're in over your head on any of the semester's assignments. Check out this article to learn about the 10 Most Important Things You Can Do in Your First Week in an Online Class.
Find Spring Semester's Textbooks for Cheap (Or Even Free) 4 January, 2012, 8:30 pm
Textbooks don't have to drain your wallet if you know how to shop. By buying online, locating rental resources, and being a savvy shopper, you could save hundreds on this semester's books. Take a look at Get Your Textbooks for Cheap or Free for tips on how smart students save big.
2012 New Years Resolutions for Online Students 31 December, 2011, 2:16 pm
Want to make 2012 the best year yet? Take a look at these 10 new years resolutions for making the most of your time as an online student. From getting organized to building contacts for your future career, these resolutions will help you start the year in style (and hopefully finish it that way too)!
New: 5 Online Professor Pet Peeves 31 December, 2011, 1:59 pm
Almost every online class has that one person: the chatter that won't quit dominating the conversation, the complainer that makes a big deal out of nothing, or the attention-seeker that takes up all of the teacher's time. But, what do online professors hate the most? Find out in this new article that focuses on the 5 poisonous personality types that online professors love to hate. If you've been an online student long enough, you're sure to find this list familiar.
Is Online Law School Right for You? 28 December, 2011, 2:11 pm
If you're thinking about enrolling in an online law school, be particularly vigilant. Many so-called online law schools are actually diploma mills that won't help students qualify to practice. While it's true that no online law schools have accreditation from the American Bar Association, it is possible for online students to take the bar if they follow a very detailed path. Take a look at this article to find out how to choose an online law school and become a practicing attorney....Read Full Post
New: Earning a Teaching Credential Online 27 December, 2011, 7:35 pm
If you're interested in teaching at a K-12 school, you may be able to earn
10 Ways to Get Help From Your Online Professors 18 December, 2011, 7:55 pm
As the end of the semester nears, many students are struggling to catch up and succeed in their final exams. Online students face unique challenges at this time of year, particularly when it comes to getting one-on-one help from professors they've never met in person. If you have a pressing question or a concern about a class, don't let it go unanswered. Take a look at this article to learn how to deal with and get help from your online professors.
Is Now the Time to Convince Your Boss to Pay Your Tuition? 16 December, 2011, 7:45 pm
Is your employer feeling particularly generous around the holidays? Perhaps this month is the right time to ask your boss to help you further your education by taking part in an employee tuition assistance program. You win by avoiding big tuition bills and looming loans. Your employer wins by having a more dedicated, educated, and competent employee. Take a look at this article to find out how to convince your boss and earn an online degree without the costs.

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Elearningpost

Can Technology Transform Education Before It’s Too Late? 16 January, 2012, 7:07 am
Another TechCrunch article on Education: We are in a time of convergence: teachers are incorporating technology from their everyday lives to increase student engagement, while visionary administrators are using the momentum of grassroots digital learning movements to move our institutions forward. Hopefully education will catch up before the Singularity arrives.
Vinod Khosla on Education 15 January, 2012, 7:47 am
Vinod Khosla on Will we need teachers or algorithms? We have focused so much of our education system on children attending primary school, then middle school, then high school, all with the objective of attending university. This is a progression that still remains unchanged and largely unchallenged. Yet, this system is completely linear and, most tragically, unwaveringly standardized not only through instruction methods, but also through testing. Worse, it is mostly what I call “fixed time, variable learning” (the four-year high school) instead of “fixed learning, variable time” to account for individual students’ capabilities and status. Vinod goes on to discuss decentralization and gamification as two trends to watch out for.
Richard Feynman - No Ordinary Genius (full version) 13 January, 2012, 5:38 pm
Full documentary on this amazing person.
Recoding the Classroom 9 January, 2012, 4:07 pm
Nice article from ThinkGoogle on what is going to bring about change in the classroom. “Though our world is changing, the spaces in which we teach are stuck in a time warp. According to some forward-thinking experts, only by embracing new technology and ideas can twenty-first-century schooling stay up to speed with the kids.”
Steve Jobs on Higher Education 7 January, 2012, 7:24 pm
Interesting to see what Steve had in mind for higher education when making plans for NeXT Computer. Simulations and the learning experience were high on his agenda.
Observations on use of mobile devices at airports and train stations 4 January, 2012, 3:46 pm
We just published a new post titled “Observations on use of mobile devices at airports and train stations”. We visited airports and train stations and sketched out how people interact with their phones and tablets. We learnt a few things in the process.
Manager’s guidebook on intranet redesign projects 16 July, 2011, 4:34 pm
When consulting on intranet projects we often found ourselves having long discussions with intranet managers on the many things that would unfold in such projects and how they could be better prepared for the long journey. These discussions would give them the confidence and the time needed to get things in order inside their organisations. Today, we release the Manager’s guidebook on intranet redesign projects— the result of those discussions with intranet managers. This 64-page guidebook (free download) takes the manager through eight stages of a typical intranet design project. Each stage has many activities that go under it. We’ve described the activities and included the insights we’ve gathered over the years. Enjoy!
Using tag bundles in intranets 26 June, 2011, 6:01 pm
Our new article on tag bundles is up. Here’s the summary: It’s common for enterprises to have a document library in their intranets that houses all types of administrative and operational content. Such a document library usually has a taxonomy to improve the discoverability and findability of content. However, there is one problem: documents need to get into the library first! Submitting a document to the library involves filing or tagging the document with the right taxonomic terms, a procedure that can make people see red if not done properly. Tag bundles can help simplify this procedure and also improve the use of such document libraries.
Learning Styles: The Cognitive Side of Content 16 June, 2011, 2:36 pm
Nice post by Tyler Tate on how to approach content from the perspective of “learning styles”. We learn through our verbal, visual, and kinesthetic senses, and our memories are encoded in these different formats. Each of us likely favors one style of learning over the others, but pithy, concrete text coupled with informative images is a potent content cocktail for people of all learning styles.
Developing a UX Practice of Practicing 15 June, 2011, 4:12 pm
A very nice piece by Jared Spool on the art of practicing. Practice is different. Good practice focuses on the process, while work focuses on the outcome. When doctors, musicians, and pilots are practicing, they are not doing the entire job. They are looking at the process of the work, often repeating the same step multiple times. For example, when a surgeon practices their suture techniques, they'll use butcher shop animal scraps to practice sewing up incisions. They don't perform the rest of the surgical procedure, because they aren't interested in the outcomes. They just quickly and cleanly close the incision and do it again.

Elearnspace

Lots of free learnin’ going on 11 January, 2012, 2:16 pm
2012 is shaping up to be a good year for open online learning experiences (Sanford is actively promoting open courses, David Wiley is running an openness in education course, Alec Couros will likely be doing his EC&I831 again, etc.). I’m involved in several open online learning projects this year: 1. Ongoing from 2011: Change MOOC 2. Learning Analytics Open Course (sign up here) – Starts January 23. 3. Stephen Downes and I will be offering Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2012 starting January 23. More info soon on sign up 4. I’m helping to organize an online conference – Follow the Sun – a multi-day, 24 hour per day, online conference with keynotes addressing various aspects of how technology is influencing various knowledge domains.
Right to know versus the nature of digital information 27 December, 2011, 11:25 am
In eras of dramatic change – such as militarization in ancient Rome and the French Revolution/Industrial Revolution – existing mindsets and institutions are, in Schumpeter’s words, creatively destroyed. The newspaper, recording, and TV industries have experienced this recently as digital information comes into its own and sheds legacy structures (such as the “album” or the “newspaper”). Politicians have certainly felt the inability to control narratives and restrict information flow in 2011. An interesting case symbolizes the balance between control and the attributes of digital information: whether or not to publish the results of engineered bird flu. The short version: “Inside a Dutch medical facility is a potentially devastating weapon that could kill millions: A genetically modified version of the H5N1 bird flu, engineered to be easily transmitted among ferrets. And the researchers who figured out how to do it would like to share their work with the world.” The challenge in this instance goes beyond ethics. Can scientists reasonably expect to keep digital information secure, especially when it is part of a scientific community and requires peer review? Wikileaks has made it difficult for the US Military to keep secrets. Digital information, held in social networks, can’t be regulated and controlled.
Khan and AI: Open Online Courses 15 December, 2011, 4:02 pm
I just listened to a great video discussion – Khan Academy and Stanford AI Class: Reinventing Education – with Peter Norvig, Sebastian Thrun, and Sal Khan. It’s a candid discussion of what each of these educators wanted to achieve with opening up their courses and content and some of the challenges they faced in the process. Most importantly, they (particularly Sebastian) discuss where they were wrong in their previous assumptions about learning. I’ve been a bit frustrated in the past (actually, I still am) that the history of open courses has not been fully reflected in conversation about the Stanford AI class. People like David Wiley, Alec Couros, Stephen Downes and others have been running open courses since 2007 (this insidehighered article does touch on the history). Audrey Watters captures my thinking when she states: “What does it mean — culturally, pedagogically, politically, financially — that Stanford garners so much buzz for its free online courses while other MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) go unheralded?”. However, I’m sure there are educators pre-2007 who are saying “hey, we’re not getting credit for our work with open courses!”. But that’s a personal ego gripe. It’s encouraging to see educators and trainers exploring the scaling capacity of learning through the use of technology. I enjoyed listening to the reflections of Sal, Sebastian, and Peter. They are excited, as many of us teaching open online courses are, about the capacity for accessible learning opportunities to increase student control and empowerment. Many of their proclamations (decoupling assessment from teaching, the creativity of learners when they don’t face organizational barriers, the power of the online experience) will be familiar to many who have followed our open courses. Interestingly, Thrun stated that online learners did better (by a factor of 2 with those making top grades) than in class learners. It’s good to have growing diversity in researchers and educators offering alternative course models. As more people experiment with open online course, new tools will be developed and recognition of the value of open learning will also (hopefully) increase.
Open Learning Analytics: A proposal 10 December, 2011, 12:04 pm
Learning analytics are increasingly relevant, and prominent, in education. Startups and established software vendors are targeting learning analytics in their product offerings for the education and training and development sector. Many of the companies that serve the higher education market– including Sungard, Blackboard, and Pearson – are already heavily committed to analytics. Analytics is quickly becoming a term that gets slapped onto any existing product (remember social media from a few years ago? Suddenly, everything was “social”. In education, everything is becoming “data” and “analytics”). Fortunately, analytics can be much more than a software marketing value-added term. To some degree, all educators are involved in analytics. It might be as basic as being the end-user of a recommender system when buying a book online or as complex as using curriculum pathways to determine the prospect of student success. And, when we’re not the ones analyzing data, our digital data trails are fodder for others who are. I don’t think I’m over speaking when I state that in five years, analytics tools and suites will be as central in higher education learning management and enterprise resource management systems are today. The reason is simple: learning analytics provide insight into what is happening in the learning process and how teaching and learning strategies impact learner success. Of course, analytics in education go beyond only learner success and can provide insight into the outcome of systemic reform initiatives as well as general resource allocation (I have a short post on my learning analytics site on the topic). Given the importance of analytics in education, we need to have an early discussion on openness. Why not start with an open system rather than adding openness on as an afterthought once systems are already established? Why not learn from the experiences of previous system-wide software development processes (i.e. LMS) and apply those lessons right up front in the planning process? To address the need for openness of platforms, algorithms and ensure that the learning process remains a key focus, a group of us have proposed the development of an open learning analytics architecture/platform. We’ve posted our (beta) vision online: Open Learning Analytics: an integrated & modularized platform (.pdf). We are interested in hearing from, and partnering with, others – researchers, educators, universities, schools, startups, and corporate partners (learning and development departments). We have submitted several grant applications and have a few more that will be submitted in the next six months (one early response chastised us for being “too ambitious”. I solidly reject that assertion. Why is it that corporate entities can have ambitious plans but researchers are expected to think in isolated minutiae? Researchers need to think in systems and platforms in order to have an impact). Additionally, we (Simon Buckingham Shum, Shane Dawson, Erik Duval, Dragan Gasevic, and myself) are offering an open online course on learning analytics starting January 2012. Sign up is available here. Finally, if you’re interested, we are hosting our 2nd conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge in Vancouver at the end of April. I’ve embedded a presentation below I did at IADIS conference at East China Normal University in Shanghai this past week on Envisioning a System Wide Learning Analytics Platform (slide 31 details some of the principles behind the project): IADIS: Shanghai View more presentations from gsiemens
A few thoughts on China and education 9 December, 2011, 2:42 pm
I just landed in Vancouver after a short trip to Shanghai to present at the IADIS conference hosted by East China Normal University. One of the faculty members (Ren Youqun, I believe) from this university translated Knowing Knowledge into Chinese. This is my second trip in the last three weeks – I was in Guangzhou at the end of November visiting South China Normal University and Sun Yatsen University. So, other than being rather irritable and jet lagged, I have a few quick reactions to share about my experiences in Guangzhou and Shanghai. 1. I’ve never been in a country with the optimism I found in China – the students I spoke with had a strong sense of China coming into its own. We are entering Chinese century (or several). By 2020, their economy (gdp) is expected to be about $20 trillion annually. This forecast seems to vary a fair bit, depending on how much the speaker or organization is trying to scare listeners with the west to east power shift. The faculty, students, and government officials that I spoke with are well aware that they are entering their destiny as a superpower. I met a few western researchers – who have worked in China for over a decade – and they described how China is becoming more assertive with partnerships and joint ventures. China is not willing to simply have their students poached by higher education systems around the world. China is experiencing rapid growth in the numbers of international students studying for a degree (rather than only spending a year for the “Chinese experience”). 2. My hosts were exceptionally courteous. I spoke at a K-12 conference in Nanhai District (just outside of Guangzhou). The program to kick off the conference included about 1 1/2 hours of greetings from various levels of government. Dinners and lunches included a stream of dishes that I simply couldn’t keep up with. The key, apparently, is to taste, not eat everything. Chinese visitors to other countries must feel like we’re a bunch of slouches – we simply don’t honour our guests the way they do. 3. The construction is astonishing. So is the smog. I’ve seen documentaries and read articles about both, but until you experience it in person, it’s not real. The construction in particular is mind boggling. Roads, buildings, railways, and airports are being built on a scale that I don’t think has ever happened in human history. 4. Social spaces are impressive. In Guangzhou, my hosts took me down to the Pearl River late one evening. The walkway and park areas were packed – people were dancing, performing, singing, or just randomly hanging out. The energy was contagious. I felt the urge to take up Thai Chi. Or singing. Or something artistic and social. 5. The internet in China is unusable. At least for me. Diigo didn’t work. Gmail was hit and miss. Twitter didn’t work. Niether did Facebook (but that’s not a loss for me, I’m rarely there anymore). My daily information habits (google reader, tag in diigo, tweet, etc) simply didn’t work. I do a fair bit of traveling and I’ve never felt as disconnected as I did in China. However, this doesn’t mean that they don’t use twitter-like tools. I came across this presentation – Social Media In China – that provides a good overview of the tools and technologies available. I’m starting to think that China blocks services less for censorship and more for giving their software companies an opportunity to gain traction. 6. I should learn Mandarin. So should my kids. 7. As polite, courteous, and attentive as my hosts were, they work their speakers like rented mules . Their culture is very much one of learning and wanting to glean what they can from others. The passion for learning is something I haven’t experienced as intensely elsewhere as I did in China. The day would start with a breakfast meeting, followed by two hour presentations, working lunch, afternoon sessions, travel to evening presentation, social dinner, presentations until late in the evening. At least this was the pace in Guangzhou. I’m told Shanghai has a less hectic pace. I was disoriented most of the time – English road signs are common – but I really was at the mercy of my hosts. There is very little I could do on my own. In Europe, I can get by with English. In China, I very rapidly discovered I needed translators. I couldn’t order a coffee (tea) or beverage on my own. Even hand gestures were futile. It’s quite a fatiquing process. Finally, a few quick notes from the IADIS conference, particularly Prof Gao Hong Qing: Dean of Network Center, He Nan Normal University, China. He spoke on the topic of Cloud computing in China Education Internet Stats in China: 457 million online 34.4% penetration Over 300 million mobile internet users 73 million new users in last year alone (2009 to 2010) 78% access internet via desktop 66.2% mobile 45.7% laptop (but fastest growing segment (2010) Time online: 18.3 hours per week (2010). Slight decrease from 2009. Ages 10-29 largest users of internet Learning online: Growing rapidly (no stats given) Open University of China – largest online university in the world Modern distance education project in rural primary/secondary schools (all classrooms can connect to the internet). Currently 2429 university/colleges linked to china education and research network. 64, 797 middle/primary schools. IT needs to help universities address their “business challenges” of doing more with less, reduced risk, etc. Cloud computing in China: 660 million yuan ($103 million) has been allocated for cloud computing research The prominence of US-based tech firms was significant: Microsoft has a huge footprint. As does Cisco. The language of the presentations (especially on cloud computing) was indistinguishable from what I hear at western conferences.
Emergent learning, connections, design for learning 27 November, 2011, 2:49 am
IRRODL continues to solidify its reputation as the leading journal in the educational technology field that balances thoughtful research with very timely and relevant journal themes, as indicated by the latest special issue – Emergent Learning, Connections, Design for Learning. IRRODL seems to capture the zeitgeist of online learning more rapidly than others. Congrats to Terry Anderson (editor) and Rod Sims & Elena Kays (editors of this special issue) for an outstanding publication. Not sure if a disclaimer is necessary, as I’m sure readers will make up their own minds and I wasn’t involved with this IRRODL issue. However, just in case, several of the articles reference open online courses that I’ve helped to organize.
Complexity, Information, and Education 14 November, 2011, 10:20 pm
I’m in Rijeka, Croatia. It’s my first visit hear and it’s a beautiful country. The scenery is spectacular. Unfortunately, most of my time has been spent in a hotel room writing and getting caught up on email/work, etc. Wasn’t traveling fun *before* we could take our work with us?! I’ve uploaded the slides from my presentation this morning: Croatia: CARNET View more presentations from gsiemens
Starling Murmuration 10 November, 2011, 2:13 pm
Have a look at this video (a few static images kick off the video, but the fun stuff begins shortly after): Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo. I’m always looking for metaphors, models, and analogies that can tease out learning and knowledge, and the social connective actions that give rise to both. This week, for example, in #change11, Dave Cormier is discussing rhizomes as a metaphor or way to think about learning. Similarly, starling murmurations provide a brilliant example of how systems, comprised of individual agents, can synchronize to produce fascinating activity.
7 Things you should know about MOOCs 10 November, 2011, 1:13 pm
EDUCAUSE publishes short papers on 7 things you should know about… that provide an overview of emerging topics and trends. Their most recent publication is on 7 things your should know about MOOCs (.pdf). From the paper: “But perhaps the most significant contribution is the MOOC’s potential to alter the relationship between learner and instructor and between academe and the wider community by potentially providing a very large and diverse forum and meeting place for ideas. Those enrolling in a MOOC are likely to discover learning at its most open on a platform that invites the world not only to see and hear but also to participate and collaborate.” Great stuff!! I would have liked to see the inclusion of more open courses (those offered by Alec Couros, Ray Schroeder, David Wiley, mobiMOOC, Wendy Drexler, Chis Sessums, etc) as well as the growing amount of “mooc support resources” such as Dave Cormier’s What is a MOOC video (with almost 20k views).
Why #Occupy will fail 1 November, 2011, 11:20 am
Anytime individuals get together to reclaim social justice and fairness or to empower themselves in the light of gross inequalities, I’m heartened and encouraged. I’ve been following the #Occupy movement with tremendous interest. The inequalities in society are increasing. The small % control the majority. The movement is now 6 weeks old, and with that small amount of maturity, comes new models of organization and structure. News coverage of the #occupy has critiqued its lack of central leadership. That’s actually a positive, I think. Let ideas emerge, experiment with new models of democracy, and take advantage of self-organization and the passion of connected individuals. However, the #occupy movement will fail unless it changes how it structures and scales its message to draw in the next wave of participants. Failure is a relative term, of course. #Occupy members could say “we’re successful because we’ve raised the profile of the injustices of the banking system and inequality of society”. And, of course, they have. They might even be responsible for getting Bank of America to drop it’s $5 monthly debit fee. But, if the intent of #occupy is to reduce inequality – particularly at a systemic level – what it mosts needs is scale. By scale, I mean a critical mass of people. And that’s not happening. There are a few bright spots (Zuccotti park), but the movement has started to specialize too soon. At this point, I would expect to see numerous Zuccotti’s. It’s becoming a clique, an “in-club” with special language and symbols. I saw a few #occupy members on Colbert Report yesterday. They may not be representative, but I was left with a sense of “wow, I don’t speak their language…I have ZERO interest in being a part of what they are talking about”. I’m concerned about economic inequality. #occupy has collected an eclectic mix of fragmented messages and specialized languages. As such, it is concerned with, well, everything: female-bodied persons, autonomous action and identity, empowered people, rights of all sorts, economics, racism, social injustice, and so on. Each draws from its parent discipline (often in academia) with special language and special processes of communicating. Unless #occupy is able to communicate 1) in a manner, 2) about topics, and 3) in a language that resonates with broader society their ideological fragmentation will be a liability. I see this from a learning perspective: Learning is about coherence-forming…we connect concepts into some type of structure and coherent whole that enables action and guidance in our thinking. When language isn’t clear or when concepts can’t be cognitively apprehended because of too much specialization of language and protocol, coherence is simply not possible. #Occupy can be leaderless and diverse and still succeed. It can be distributed and networked and still succeed. However, if its message doesn’t resonate with a significant portion of society, due to lack of coherence or limited capability of individuals to form personal coherence around numerous voices, it will fail. Over the last few days, for me at least, the message has stopped to resonate.

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Top Four HOT Concepts in Distance Learning 11 January, 2012, 6:33 am
Distance Learning itself. At my institution, we are scratching our heads a little bit wondering why we have an above average number of enrollments in our distance learning courses. However, if you do a quick Google search and read a few reports it is clear that the pundits have been predicting that distance learning enrollments will rise. Student seem to be gravitating towards learning opportunities that are not tied to them having to be in any particular location at a prescribed time during the day or week. So called ‘anytime, anywhere’ learning. They enjoy the flexibility of distance learning away from the traditional 1-hour (or 3-hour) face-to-face lecture format. So Distance Learning itself is a really hot concept. Be sure your institution plays into the needs and wants of today’s students. When you design your distance learning courses, lean towards asynchronous models that do not prescribe the students to assemble (even virtually) at any particular time during the week. These synchronous models can be less attractive to students especially if they reside in a different time zone that the host institution. If you cannot avoid some synchronous activities in your distance courses, then be sure to be up front with your students and clearly state the degree of synchronous commitment expected of students before they register in the course. Mobile learning. With each passing set of Christmas holidays, more students find themselves joyful recipients of an iPad, iPhone or other fancy tech thingy under the tree. The number of students that come equipped with tablets, smartphones, e-readers and other gadgets is increasing quickly. They are using these gadgets daily for numerous activities and the mobility affordances provided by these items is very attractive to users. Leverage this trend and be sure that your course materials are mobile friendly. PDF files can help but if you want to go one step further, try ePub and Kindle-specific MOBI files. With just a little more effort on your part (more info here), you can provide students with choices in the file formats for their course materials. Choices usually equate in the short run to student satisfaction. Satisfy your students’ desire for mobile learning by making your course materials mobile friendly. eTextbooks. The tide is turning (albeit slowly) in the publishing industry. Attention is slowly drifting away from the model of having a hardcopy textbook with associated electronic resources online towards a more student-centered model of have an integrated electronic textbook that students can either rent or buy, and store on their own electronic devices. With each passing semester I learn from my students that they are interested in these digital versions of textbooks. For example, I just received an email last week from a student expressing great joy because the publisher of the textbook for my course was providing a Kindle version for sale. The idea of keeping all his textbooks assembled into his tiny Kindle was a BIG advantage for this student. This reinforces the previous point above Mobile Learning. The penetration of mobile devices into the student body is now driving textbook publishers to devote more resources to eTextbooks. So what can you do about this? If you are a textbook author, then encourage your publisher to make eTextbook versions of your book. If you are in the process of selecting a book for your course, then take the extra moment to compare if each of the titles you are considering has an eTextbook format. Making wise choices that facilitate students to learn “anytime, anywhere” will prove to be a win:win for both the students and the educational institutions involved. Free Resources. Ask any student and she will tell you “Free is King”. Whether you are an instructional designer or a professor, challenge yourself to scour the Internet to look for freely available resources that relate to the topic of your course. Critically evaluate each one and choose the best ones to integrate into your course. Yes – this takes time. However, if you do just a little bit every semester, you’ll soon have course chock-full of fantastically freely available resources that will make your course better. Better courses without increasing cost equals more satisfied students. That logic is easy to understand. Want an even better idea? Design a non-traditional assignment where you ask your students to scour the net and evaluate resources for quality. Let them do the legwork of finding the material and then you can integrate the best of found treasures into future iterations of the course. Brilliant! Do you have a comment about these Top 4 concepts or do you have a HOT concept for distance learning that didn’t make it into my Top 4, if so, please leave a comment below.
Must Watch: The best Prezi of the Year! 9 December, 2011, 12:26 pm
A colleague of mine, Dr. Jean-Marie Muhirwa, recently returned back from the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) E-Learn 2011 World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare & Higher Education held in Honolulu, Hawaii on 18-21 October 2011. He told me about one keynote presentation that had a very high impact on the audience and after seeing it myself, I have to agree that it's one of the best prezi-type presentations I have ever seen. If you are new to Prezi, then check their website out. I asked Jean-Marie to give us a little summary of the morning of this presentation, and this is what he wrote. The Techno Troubadour and Teacherpreneur by Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona was undoubtedly the most popular keynote presentation of the conference. The big Hawaii Ballroom at the Royal Sheraton was packed despite the fact that it was schedule at 8:30-9:30 am, a bit early by Waikiki standards where there is so much to do and even more to see 24/7. Most of the attendees grabbed a muffin or a croissant and a hot drink form the tables at the huge entrance hall and rushed in the room. Everyone was eager to secure a good spot, close to the stage and to the big screen. Because of their creative work, the presenters have arguably become superstars in the field of EdTech. They were featured in a Washington Post article and are regularly interviewed scores of by mainstream and specialized publications, mostly in North America and in Europe. No small accomplishment for what started as a collaborative effort from a World History teacher (Burvall) and a technology specialist (Mahelona), both from Hawaii. The result was the successful History for Music Lovers to teach history online through music parody. Over the last few years this partnership took the initial project to new heights by addressing some of the most fundamental and complex issues related to online learning, creativity, copy rights, social justice, etc. No wonder the resulting prezi made Educational Technology scholars, academics and practitioners from around the world rub elbows that early in the morning on October 19 2011. Although there were a few glitches during the playback, especially since it had to be fast-forwarded to selected videos due to time constraints, it looked like the engaging prezi stole the show to its creators’ live presentation. However, the packed conference room shrunk to less than 20 attendees during the Keynote conversation with Burvall and Mahelona, scheduled 10:00 – 11:00 am the same day. Not blessed with the gift of being everywhere at once, I had to follow the crowd to equally inviting concurrent sessions. The one I was heading to was entitled’ A Novel Pedagogical Evaluation Model for Educational Digital Storytelling Environments by colleagues from Greece. Gosh, I wonder how much time they spent putting together the whole thing, one attendee asked me unexpectedly while we were exiting the room. A lot, I bet!... That’s all I had the time to reply before our paths diverged. On my way to the next presentation, I overheard another attendee mentioning to his friends that he was impressed by the engaging prezi but couldn’t quite see how he could possibly harness its potential to benefit his online students. There you go! Even the prezi of the year didn’t escape the rule: there is no meeting of academics and professional s without hard questions. Assuming the technical skills and the subject matter expertise are warranted as it was the case in the Burvall-Mahelona partnership, where do you find time and pedagogical skills to design a prezi that is worthwhile to your students? A good question to ponder during the upcoming holidays while enjoying the best prezi of the year. So after seeing the prezi, what do you think? Any juicy tidbits in there that are interesting to you? If so, leave a comment below.
Don’t use Facebook for teaching your class – use Edmodo! 8 December, 2011, 5:21 am
If you are like me, you probably had not heard about Edmodo until right now. I had never heard of it until it flew across my twitter stream in a posting from a colleague. So what is it? It’s a web-based social network space for teachers and students. Its safe and easy Facebook-like interface allows the class to collaborate, connect, share content, access homework, etc. It’s free for both students and teachers. To appeal to today’s mobile generation it also has both iPhone and Android apps. So the idea of anywhere, any place, any device learning can be truly experienced using Edmodo. Here’s the Edmodo at a glance video. Have a look at it and let us know if you think this would be good for your students by leaving a comment below.Afterwards, check out the Edmodo in Action page that showcases several examples on how Edmodo can be useful in Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Math clashttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifses. There are also examples of how Edmodo can be good for teacher professional development and for parents to http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giffeel connected to their children’s learning. There has been a lot of controversy about the appropriateness of teachers 'friending' their students on Facebook ... Edmodo eliminates all this. It's task specific; it's for school. No more blurry lines between personal life and school life. It's simple, it works, and it's easy. Edmodo is like a learning management system but with all the boring linear structure taken out and all the fun of community building injected into it. I like that shift. So will your students.Note: In Dec 2011, it was reported that Edmodo raised 15 million dollars in funding to expand their operation. Interesting.
Should I buy books about technology in education? Answer: NO! 28 November, 2011, 11:10 am
This post is not intended to offend Barnes & Noble or any other book seller. I received a great question over the weekend asking if I could “help finding a good book about technology in post secondary education” and I had to take a couple of days to think about it. I have some fantastic books on the shelf about Instructional Design but I have very few about Educational Technology. Why? Well, I think it is difficult to find a one-stop resource book that describes the best practices in using technology in post-secondary education. There are a few factors that come into play that make this challenging:Technology is an enabler, not a driver when it comes to sound instructional design and course delivery. So the front end design analysis must be done to identify the objectives that you want to accomplish in your course. Once the objectives are clearly articulated then the best pedagogical tool and strategies can be selected to meet the specific objective. So you see the selection of pedagogical tools/strategies (including technological tools) comes second – not first. So it’s challenging to write a book with a chapter called ‘Virtual Worlds’ because in my view that’s putting technological tools first!Pedagogical/technological tools and strategies can be used in the classroom and out of the classroom, and the same tool and strategy may not produce the same results under those two different conditions. Approaches need to be customized according to the setting and also according to the types of students involved.Technological tools and strategies change faster than print. So the large majority of information and knowledge about this topic is not found in books – it’s found on the Internet in Personal Learning Networks (PLNs).So the permutations provided by combining the three points above together contribute to why a good comprehensive book on the subject is difficult to find. If you are a teacher, where does that leave you? How are you supposed to learn about how to select pedagogical tools to meet the needs of you course and your students? Do you just give up? No you don’t give up silly. You work smarter and you make a commitment to go and learn about what’s out there, and more importantly, you find out how it's being used effectively and in what contexts. Here are some strategies that you can personally adopt:Examine your PLN and make sure it is working well for you. The goal of the PLN is to provide you with a support system of like-minded people asking like-minded questions and together you can act as a large professional development resource for each other. Invest time to perfect your PLN - the return on the investment will be measurable. If you need more info about PLNs, I’ve written about them before.There’s an implication in point 1 above: that you do not have to re-invent the wheel. Just use someone else’s wheel IF it meets the needs of the course and the needs of the students. So the challenge is in sharing ideas with your PLN. There are some very effective ‘tricks’ for sharring ideas on the Internet. For example, Twitter has this thing called hashtags which allow users to tag their postings using keywords. For example, the hashtag “#edtech” is a key word that you can imagine might be useful to follow to learn about the topic of educational technology. Well, you can follow it directly using your favourite twitter client (like Tweetdeck for example), or you can follow it indirectly by using a hashtag aggregating service like paper.li. This service can display a selection of Twitter postings from the last 24 hours having any specific hashtag and as a bonus the postings are presented in a nice tabloid newspaper style. Check out the paper.li newspaper for the hashtag #edtech. This link refreshes with all new content filtered off the Twitter stream every 24 hours. Other hashtags like #elearning, #education, #teaching may also be interesting to look at regularly. Points 1 and 2 above are great but there is a critical piece missing: you need to give back. Start telling the world (i.e. your PLN) about your successes and your failures in your teaching. By taking the time to articulate your experiences you will be amazed at what benefits can come to you directly. In my view, being reflective of your practice as a teacher is a requirements for growth in your proficiency. So write a blog, contribute to a wiki, post to twitter or update your status on Facebook. It doesn’t matter how you do it – it just matters that you DO it. If you have any other strategies for learning about best practices in educational technology, feel free to share them by clicking the comment link below.
Educate the Mobile Generation: Convert WORD documents to ePub and MOBI 17 October, 2011, 11:00 am
You’ve seen the headlines and heard the buzz as much as I have: smartphones are taking over the planet, e-books are selling like hotcakes, and, tablets like the iPad are cannibalizing laptop and desktop computer sales. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to conclude that Mobile computing in the hottest trend in technology since electricity was invented. With this fact in mind, I asked myself this question – are my course materials mobile-friendly? Can my students easily get the materials in my course onto their mobile device be it an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android Smartphone, Sony eBook Reader, Amazon Kindle, or Barnes & Noble Nook, etc.Well, I was a bit embarrassed by my answer. My answer was ‘sort-of’. I was providing nice printer-friendly PDF files as one format and PDF does work on most mobile devices but it’s not optimized for mobile delivery. So I decided to try something new. I am converting my WORD documents to ePub and MOBI (for Kindle) formats. So I Googled around to get some help and found this very useful posting by Jeremy Reimer dated March 24th, 2010. It really guided me in the right direction. This is what I did:I took my WORD source documents (*.doc) and ‘Saved As HTML’ (or “Save as Web Page” for the Mac version of WORD) using the built in function in WORD.Then I opened the HTML file up in Dreamweaver. I then used the fantastically useful feature in Dreamweaver of Commands < Clean Up WORD HTML. Then I used the second most fantastical feature in Adobe Dreamweaver: Commands > Clean Up HTML.Then I applied a unique class attribute to each Lesson Title in my HTML document so that I could use this unique class attribute to generate a Table of Contents for the ePub and MODI files later. I did it really simply. I found the lesson title in the HTML code and then noticed right before it was a paragraph code () so I changed that to for every lesson title or section title of my document that I wanted to show up in the Table of Contents.I then downloaded a free copy of Calibre. It’s an eBook reader software for computers. In addition, it also converts from one eBook format to another. So I loaded the HTML version of my document into Calibre. Next, using Calibre I chose to convert this HTML version of my document into an ePub format. There are some settings you can play around with; however, I generally stayed to the default settings with one exception: the Table of Contents. I specified that I only wanted items in the Level 1 of table of contents that had a paragraph code with class = “TableOfContents”. Finally, I repeated step 6 while choosing MOBI as my output file format instead of ePub. Done. I emailed myself these two files and tested them on my iPhone. They both work well. Links are active, footnotes work, Table of Contents is exactly how I wanted it, and images look fine.Now I am going to put up the ePub and MOBI versions of the course materials on the Learning Management System for students to have access to if they want to optimize the experience for mobile devices. At the end of the semester, I’ll survey them to see which file formats they used and when, etc.If you have developed any other useful methods for converting WORD documents to ePub and MOBI format then please leave a comment below.
Controversy: Letting students run their own school within a school! 3 October, 2011, 6:03 am
Have you heard of the Independent Project? It’s controversial. If you haven’t heard about it than take a moment to watch this video:Along with the link to this video, I posted this question on my twitter feed last month: “Do you agree or disagree with students running their own school within a school?” An old friend of mine, Dave Kirk, wrote a very thought-provoking email to me about how this subject touched him personally as a young student. He has allowed me to share it with you here:“This is very cool. I love the idea behind this project and applaud those who helped to make it happen. I would like to see more young people take such responsibility for their learning and view their teachers, schools, and textbooks merely as one set of many resources and one possible structure for learning rather than "the way to learn". The earlier in life one discovers that they can direct their own learning the better off they will be.I had a few teachers in my education who understood that sitting in a classroom listening to them was just one way to learn and not necessarily the best way to learn - certainly not for everyone. I got along well with these teachers as they allowed me to take control of my learning (which often involved poor attendance in their class) and gave me the support to learn in other ways and trusted in me to do so. My parents were also quite supportive of this approach. I remember my dad saying to me one day when reviewing my report card "I will ignore the numbers I see in this column (attendance) provided you continue to achieve numbers like the ones in this column (marks)". I remember that moment very clearly standing in my parents' kitchen, what I heard my dad say to me that day was "I trust you to be responsible for your learning and to have the discipline and good judgement to choose for yourself the resources and methods which will enable you to succeed." I continued to post excellent marks and my father kept good on his promise to let me have complete responsibility and authority to direct my own learning. He never asked where I was during class or how I managed to learn the material and to me this was the ultimate expression of his trust and faith in me.I consider that short conversation in my parents' kitchen to be the most powerful conversation my father and I ever had.I thoroughly enjoyed viewing this documentary...thanks!”After reading Dave's email – does it reinforce or challenge your initial thoughts about the Independent Project? Let us know by writing a comment below.
Don’t police plagiarism! Instead design assignments that cannot be plagiarized. 22 July, 2011, 7:35 am
Who says Facebook is a useless waste of time? This morning on my ride to work I was checking my Facebook on my iPhone (don’t worry - I was not driving!). I saw a post by a friend of mine on my news feed who was sharing a post by a friend of his entitled “NYU Prof Vows Never to Probe Cheating Again – and Faces a Backlash.” The link brought me to the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that instantly riveted me to its text. It is a fantastic story of the real life struggles of university teachers in the war against plagiarism. You just have to read it before you continue on with this post. So take a break right now, go read that article and then come back here.OK – so now that you’ve read the article I hope you agree with me that it is definitely interesting. What intrigues me about it is the last paragraph that provides some options on a different approach: designing assignments that cannot be plagiarized. Realistically, I think it is difficult to design assignments that are completely void of any risk of plagiarism; however, assignments can be designed that minimize the risk considerably (i.e. they provide disincentives to plagiarism). I’ve got a few ideas (most are applicable to the online classroom as well as the face-to-face classroom) and many of them involve student-to-student interaction, which is a bonus to those instructors that are seeking to make their courses more interactive:Group work. In my experience as a student, instructor and instructional designer, group work places additional pressures on students to avoid plagiarism. It is probably because the risk is greater. Should plagiarism be detected then the entire group risks sharing the same consequence. By using this student-to-student collaborative approach you also put additional responsibilities on students to develop their intra-group communication and teamwork skills. Skills that are required in every workplace! Bonus!Discussion. When it comes to expressing one’s idea in a discussion forum posting online that might be about 100-250 words in length or in a structured discussion in the face-to-face classroom, plagiaristic behaviours do not seem to immediately rise to the surface in most students. Most students can manage well in this form of cooperative student-to-student participatory activity. Therefore, designing a component of your assessment scheme devoted to discussion will be wise choice.Presentations. Once a students, has the additional pressure of having to share their ideas to the class in public, then the desires to plagiarize the work may be quenched to some degree. Public display is the driving factor here. Combine this presentation approach with the group work approach and then there could be a synergistic effect to the plagiarism disincentive. Peer review. In some courses it is difficult to avoid having a term paper in the assessment scheme – so plagiarism can become attractive to students in this scenario. So what strategy can be employed to discourage plagiarism in this setting? I can think of two ideas. The first is to have the first draft of the paper be subjected to peer review. Build into your assessment scheme that each student will select one first draft from a classmate and perform a critique on it. Give them a structure and a rubric for their critical feedback. Have items on the critique rubric represent anti-plagiaristic characteristics such as proper citation format, original work, consistency in voice and style across the paper. Of course, associate grades with this critique exercise so that people have an incentive to do a good job. There’s a chance that this peer feedback could set the student on the right track early in the process should any weaknesses be present. 2) Require that the students post the first draft, the associated critique and then the final paper electronically into an online discussion forum for all class members to see. This public display of one’s work at every stage adds the disincentive to plagiarize because the term paper may be exposed to more eyes than simply the instructor’s.Retain and display past student work for future classes in the form of a public wiki. Frame the term paper assignment in the context of building a repository of knowledge in the field to be shared publicly with the world using a wiki. Each time the course is taught the wiki expands with new student-generated work. The fact that the student term paper will be shared with people outside the classroom may provide additional disincentive to plagiarize. Have student’s build/create something that isn’t a term paper. In physics class have them make a rubber band racecar, test it, calibrate it, document the entire process and then have them race it against classmates at the end of the semester. In biology class, have go out into nature and photograph something themselves, repeatedly over time so as to observe developmental changes, and have them document their findings. In math class, have them go out in the world and collect real life data to use in the assignments. In English class, have them write original short stories and then practice their literary criticism skills by formally commenting on the original work of one of their peers. In history or journalism class, have them go out and interview people as sources for the material in their papers. In any class, have them make a movie or a digital story. By creating something they are working on something new - something different. It is more difficult to plagiarize when the subject matter is ‘new and different’. For most students, it will be more fun to unleash their creativity on the subject then to invest hours trying to devise plagiarisms schemes that will result in an equally creative product. There are many more ways to design assignments to include disincentives to plagiarism. If you have a good idea, please share it with us below as a comment.Bonus Tip: Don't do away with proctored final exams. There are already well-established plagiarism protections in these environments. Just avoid making exams worth 60% of the final grade, etc. The pressure to score well on such a high stake assessment can be crushing for many students.
Three ‘MUST HAVE” best practices in teaching online courses 19 July, 2011, 11:37 am
If you came to read this posting to find a definitive list of best practices in teaching online courses, then please accept my apology. I will not be compiling the large golden list of best practices in online teaching. Why you might ask? Well – because there is no definitive list. There are far too many variables in play in the online classroom (or any classroom really) to be able to represent all the best practices in online teaching in a short list. However, I do want to take a moment to discuss some findings by a research team who studied groups of online students at South Texas College and West Virginia University’s College of Human Resources and Education. What they focused their research upon was asking students in online courses very simple questions about the instructor behaviour:Please describe one thing the instructor did that helped you to succeed in this course. Please describe one thing the instructor did that hindered your success in this course.The results are fascinating and you can read them all in detail in the original publication (pdf). However, summarized briefly are the four major perceived instructor actions that were responsible for course success:Providing feedback that helped students understand their strengths and weaknesses.Focusing discussions on relevant issuesEncouraging students to explore new conceptsHelping students clarify their thinkingNow, summarized briefly are the three major perceived instructor actions that hindered course success:lack of feedback that helped students understand their strengths and weaknessespoor communication of the important course topics (i.e. lack of course and lesson objectives, and lack of clear links between course material and the course description)* poor instructions on how to participate in course activities/assignments*If you examine these two lists you can make some additional observations which distil down to the three ‘MUST HAVE’ best practices:The topic of ‘feedback’ appears on both the positive and the negative list. That demonstrates how critical this item is to students. It’s a must. The distance instructor must be highly skilled in providing timely and detailed feedback. Furthermore, I will argue that this feedback has to be perceived by the student as being customized/personalized feedback for them. It’s not enough for the distance instructor to mark all the assignments with a simple number grade and then to broadcast to the class a message with the general strengths and weaknesses found in the assignments. Each student’s assignment must have specific and detailed feedback on it for the feedback to be perceived as positive success factor by students.The remaining ‘course delivery’-type points are focusing discussions, encouraging students and helping students clarify thinking. This type of feedback can be more class-based in nature. Well placed messages in the discussion forum guiding the discussion, introducing a relevant current event or highlighting the merits of a particular discussion point can go a long way. All these items can be done publicly for the entire class to see and benefit from. So the instructor must have a public presence in the online class.Note that the last two items marked with the asterix (*) in the negative list are instructional design weaknesses. They can be easily corrected with some additional up-front effort refining of the course materials prior to the delivery of the course. As an instructional designer I have experienced some instructors groaning when I have suggested to them that they formulate course objectives and lesson objectives. I’ve also heard similar groaning when I have provided feedback stating that the course assignment materials are not detailed enough, that a rubric would help or that a model solution might be useful to students. It’s true that formulating these support components of the course take time and that for some instructors the task is onerous because they are content-experts not instructional design experts; however, the findings in this paper clearly show that lack of attention to the instructional design components can be directly detrimental to perceived student success.So despite this not being the definitive list, I certainly feel that these three findings that I have grouped together above are valuable best practices for the distance instructor in online courses. What do you think?
Why are you re-inventing the wheel? Use these education videos! 14 July, 2011, 7:08 am
Almost every day something comes across your Twitter feed which is a golden nugget. A perfect little resource, tool or story that can help you in your practice of being an educator. However, once in awhile you hit the mother lode. Such is the case today with a blog called Open Culture: the best free cultural & educational media on the web. I was compelled to visit the site with their recent posting entitled 125 Science Videos: Our Greatest Hits. Wow – it’s a very appropriately titled post. There’s some great free videos on this list that touch on subjects relating to Astronomy, Space Travel, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Neuroscience, etc. Some of these videos could be used to augment a distance learning class or they could be shown directly in a face-to-face classroom setting. I took the opportunity to view a few of them. Some particularly interesting ones from my perspective were the Physics of the Bike, the Periodic Table of Videos project, and of course the very funny bit that Technology is Awesome but Nobody is Happy. There’s a lot more interesting posts on this great Open Culture blog. So quit making plans to re-inventing the wheel by mounting your own video production company. Instead take the time to peruse all these free media objects. There will certainly be some appropriate ones for almost any course topic.
Student-to-student interaction in small distance courses 8 July, 2011, 8:03 am
I have been asked several times about ideas for injecting student-to-student interaction into distance courses when the enrolment numbers are likely to be low. Some instructors feel that with low enrollment numbers that it might be better to design an assessment scheme that contains only individual work. However, I feel differently. I think that one of the factors that determines the satisfaction level of a student with a particular course is the community of learning that was present during the semester. To have a community student-to-student interaction is required. So despite a very short class list, you can still form an effective learning community. Some things you could consider include:Discussion. It’s the gold standard in cooperative student-to-student interaction. The deliverables are still individual but the students need each other in order to complete the tasks. There are many different ways you can build a discussion activity. Probably the most common way is for the instructor to post a few questions in the discussion forum at the beginning of the week and then ask students to answer a question in a reply post and then to comment on the answer to another student’s reply post. There are other ideas too. Select one student per week to write a summary or critique about the week’s required readings and then ask the other students to comment on their summary/critique in reply postings. There are many different models you can choose. You are only limited by your creativity here. And be sure to set clear guidelines about the quality and quantity of postings required to earn grades in this activity. These types of activities could work with as few as two or three students.Peer feedback. In courses where there is a major paper or a project, you can inject cooperative student-to-student interaction by assigning students the tasks of reviewing the first draft of a classmate’s final paper/project. Provide them structure/guidance on what the feedback should be like and then have them submit their feedback to both the student and to you. You of course will grade the quality of their feedback. One idea to push the envelope further on this type of assignment is to conduct the entire exercise out in the open in a discussion forum. Have students post their 1st drafts to the discussion forum and assign classmates to post their feedback/reviews of the 1st draft also to the discussion forum. Students can benefit by seeing 1st drafts of papers/projects of others as well as the feedback each person received. Of course, the graded piece at the end conducted by the instructor should be kept confidential and not be placed into the discussion forum. Group work. Cooperative student-to-student interaction is not the only type; there is also collaborative student-to-student interaction. That’s when you assemble a small team of students and assign them to produce a single group deliverable. In a small class – that equates to one team. It can be a paper, a Powerpoint presentation with speaker notes, a video, a podcast, a project, etc. It doesn’t matter – be as creative as you wish in choosing a deliverable that relates directly back to the learning objectives you are trying to serve. The key to conducting this type of activity is providing supports to help students accomplish this task at a distance. Almost all students will know how to work in a group in a face-to-face setting; however, in distance courses many students have far less experience. So I suggest the instructor prepare three supports: 1) a handout that explains some tips and tricks to effective teamwork at a distance. The handout should be tailored to match the deliverable in the specific course. In addition to discussing the deliverable, it should also discuss basic team functions such as the concept of needing a team leader, the importance of defining expectations between team members and role definition of members to facilitate task assignment, etc. This handout should include a standard team dynamic description (Bruce Tuckman’s model is the standard). 2) A mandatory Learning Team Charter. This requires students to create a document that contains all their contact information (including skype/twitter/facebook/IMs/TextMsgs), their expectations for the project, their personal strengths, weaknesses and interests. This document is central to starting the team off on the right foot with their communication strategy, and 3) Advice on tools. Create a private discussion forum for them where they can communicate, advise them that they can use brainstorming tools (like WallWisher - see this post) to generate ideas for their group paper/projects, advise them that they can use a wiki to collaboratively author a single document without emailing multiple versions of the document over and over, advise them that they can use a file repository service (like dropbox) to share centrally resources they collect while conducting research on their paper/project. One other important aspects of group work at a distance is that a component of the final grade MUST include peer evaluation. I suggest the component be fairly large – like 20%. 20% of the grade for this assignment should be based on a confidential evaluation of their group members that students submit only to the instructor at the end of the course. This gives incentives to students to perform at a high level in the team activity. Let’s face it – group work at a distance is an important skill to develop because it is increasingly present in almost every workplace. So giving students the opportunity to develop these skills in university courses is very worthwhile.The above three categories of ideas are not exhaustive. There are many more ways in which you can inject student-to-student interaction into a web-enabled distance course even if the enrollment numbers are low. What are your ideas? Leave a comment below.

Jarche

Red or Blue? 27 January, 2012, 1:30 am
TweetHere are some of the insights and observations that were shared via Twitter this past week. “If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed. ~ Paulo Freire” – via @surreallyno “Learning is the human activity which least needs manipulation by others. ~ Ivan Illich” – via @IvanIllich2 @flowchainsensei – “Any organisation is screwed when it believes only certain privileged individuals can lead and/or manage.” @melissapierce – “If you were a real rebel, you’d realize that anger is the trendiest emotion of all and you’d buck that trend with lusty immutable joy.” @doctorjeff – “Next time a child comes at you with question after question – embrace it with a smile, for they chose … you.” @umairh – “It’s no coincidence that “Davos” rhymes with “McFuture”.” Yochai Benkler: Seven Lessons from SOPA/PIPA/Megauplaod and Four Proposals on Where We Go From Here – via @hreingold Lesson 3: As the networked environment resists control, more of the flow of networked economy has to be sucked in to the enforcement vortex. The Net is proving much harder to control than the industries anticipated when they got the Digital Millennium Copyright Act DMCA passed in 1998. In order to actually control materials on the Net, SOPA and PIPA tried to harness a range of technical, economic, and bureaucratic platforms, aimed to impede the functions of an ever-more-vaguely defined set of targets. Technical platforms included most prominently the DNS service and registrars and the search engines. Business platforms included payment systems and advertising systems. In order to achieve effective enforcement in a global digitally networked environment, Hollywood seems destined to try to draw an ever-larger set of platforms and actors into the risk of potential copyright and near-copyright liability. When an enterprise moves to an organic, value-creating, diverse network, the training department has to join the fray. – by @jaycross What did CLOs do with the insight that informal learning matters? Next to nothing. They left informal learning to chance. Even now, with the cost-effectiveness and responsiveness of informal learning pushing it to the top of CLO’s priority lists, most are taking baby steps if any steps at all. This is extremely disappointing. We who understand how people learn need to be at the vanguard of establishing social networks, expertise location, online communities, information streams, agile instructional design, help desks, federated content management, continuing reinforcement, peer development, and so on. Homework: To Flip or to Toss? we read homework in class, discuss it in class, clarify and debate it in class — then briefly write about it at home – by @cburell My current experiment involves not so much flipping homework as (almost) ending it. I’m using document-based lessons in which all reading and discussion is done in class, and the only homework is a reflective blog post about the day’s content on a team blog — which student team-members read and comment on with corrections, extensions, challenges, etc. I like this so far, for several reasons … Sebastian Thrun: you can take the blue pill and go back to your classroom and lecture your 20 students, but I’ve taken the red pill (video) – via @downes
Confused or Strong Beliefs? 26 January, 2012, 6:47 am
TweetMuch of my work is in helping organizations prepare for increasingly creative and complex work because this is where the business value is, whether in offering differentiated services in a competitive or in advancing scientific R&D. I have found that Dave Snowden’s Cynefyn framework has been helpful in my sense-making around this and Dave has recently advanced this model with a Work in Progress (WIP). Complex, as defined by Cynefyn is a state in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance. The approach is to Probe – Sense – Respond in order to sense emergent practice.This is essentially the notion of perpetual Beta; constantly making probes of the environment, sensing what happens and developing next practices in view of the evidence. One cannot understand the environment until one probes it. Analysis is not enough. Dave identifies two danger areas in the complex domain, both of which I have seen in organizations: SB & C0: Strong belief [SB] – Low/Medium convergence, low coherence I’m not sure of the name here, but this is the domain of different factions with similar power resulted in a fractured and disjoined position. This is one of the issues that techniques such as SNS are designed to resolve; by allowing different groups to work in parallel with interaction, conflict can be resolved through action not dialogue. Confused [Co] – Low convergence, low/medium coherence We’ve got some structure in the need but we don’t even have factions fighting between the options. Individuals have needs but there is no clumping or links between those individuals. It’s a mess with few patterns or structures that we can do anything with. When I was talking to HR Executives last year, the consensus around social media was that they knew their companies had to change but they did not know where to start: Confused. Many seemed to be waiting for a list of Best Practices, but we know from Cynefin that these are only suitable for the Simple domain. Conversely I have seen requests for proposals developed by one or two departments in an organizations, usually Purchasing & IT, for a workplace collaboration product/service that is highly detailed and constrained but does not reflect the real needs of the workers. Just ask an L&D department if they are satisfied with the technology that was ‘given’ to them to do their jobs: Strong Belief. So how could you balance convergence and coherence in the complex domain in order to make decisions? Adopting three principles for working smarter in networked organizations might be a start: Transparency Narration of Work Distribution of Power I have found Value Network Analysis a good exercise to break down beliefs in the embedded hierarchy and visualize how value actually flows. This helps with transparency, as people can see the organization through a new lens. The narration of work can bridge beliefs by exposing people daily to what other people are doing. It’s like walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, but often on 140 characters at a time. Finally, if power is held by one group, let’s say Purchasing & IT, for all software acquisitions, then the end-users won’t even try to get involved in the process. I have seen many such departments resigned to the fact they will have to deal with another enterprise software implementation having had no say in the matter. Understanding the environment and building consensus are the real work of leaders in networks.
Internet Time Alliance Insights 25 January, 2012, 6:18 am
TweetWe can learn a lot from open conversations with trusted colleagues who want to improve their professional expertise. My colleagues have these conversations regularly and I have learned a lot over the past two years that we’ve been together. A professional is anyone who does work that cannot be standardized easily and who continuously welcomes challenges at the cutting edge of his or her expertise. ~ David Shaffer When we updated the Internet Time Alliance website last month, a major component that Paul designed was the integration of our best articles into a single database, called Insights. Every page now dynamically generates recommended readings and we keep adding articles, so that we now have over one hundred. We have also just curated a number of our thoughts into a single presentation that shows our perspectives on workplace transformation. It’s like an extended business card from all of us. ITA Insights 2012 View more presentations from Harold Jarche
Do you need to be managed? 23 January, 2012, 7:59 am
TweetThese days it’s more productive to think of organizations as organisms. Managers become stewards of the living. Their role is to energize people, empower teams, foster continuous improvement, develop competence, leverage collective knowledge, coach workers, encourage collaboration, remove barriers to progress, and get rid of obsolete practices. Living systems thrive on values that go far beyond the machine era’s dogged pursuit of efficiency through control. Living systems are networks. Optimal networks run on such values as respect for people, trust, continuous learning, transparency, openness, engagement, integrity, and meaning. ~ Jay Cross Do we really need managers? Is management as we currently practise it out of date for the networked era? Flipping management View more presentations from Harold Jarche
Thoughts on public education 22 January, 2012, 9:19 am
TweetEverything I know, I did not learn in kindergarten. I didn’t go to kindergarten. Perhaps that was good, as that was the year that my father died, and I still did not speak much English anyway. It could have made for a stressful year. No kindergarten meant I could start school a bit later and I think I was really ready when I entered that one-room schoolhouse which was probably the best learning environment I ever had. There were only three of us in Grade One, so I was also able to listen to what was going on in the Second Grade, in the same row, just ahead of me. Recess and lunch were usually fun, with all ages playing games together. There were not enough students in any one grade to form a dominant group. I was later home-schooled by my mother who never had any formal education in English. This was my introduction to public education. I went to university straight out of high school and did a standard four-year degree. I got a gentleman’s pass from the Royal Military College and then put my books away. What remains of my undergraduate education is not so much my knowledge of History as my fluency in French. It wasn’t the classes that helped me master the language, but the girl I met in Québec between first and second year. That was real informal learning, watching morning TV cartoons with her young niece, whose French wasn’t too much more advanced than mine. I was one of only a few of my classmates who achieved fluency from no ability at all on entry. Motivation was the critical part of my learning. Thirteen years later I went to graduate school part-time, with a full-time job and a young family. I could not have done it without the support of my wife. I received a graduate degree in Education but my real education has been in the 14 years since. I have been learning mostly online, first by accessing all of the information available on the web that interested me and more recently by connecting to a worldwide network of people, most of whom I have not met face-to-face. This network now numbers in the thousands. I have learned that it was a shotgun wedding between robber baron capitalists and progressives, who at the turn of the last century helped to create our public education system, with age-based cohorts, classrooms, bells and a standardized curriculum. The capitalists needed workers who could read instructions, while progressives, like Moses Coady, founder of the Antigonish movement, felt it their mission to help society. I have noticed with our boys now finishing up at school, that for the most part, the current system does not help them learn. If anything, it stops them from learning. One-size fits nobody, I call it. We were lucky, in that one or both of us parents could be at home during the day. Our boys could stay at home from time to time, such as the year one was frequently bullied – by the teacher. They knew they always had an option not to go to school. If I had to do it over again, I would pull our kids out of the system during middle school and let them become self-directed learners, later having them rejoin their friends in high school. Middle school was a needlessly stressful time for our family. When I went to school, if a book was not available in the library system, in reality, it did not exist. Now my children can find and read most of what they need. The shift from scarcity to abundance of information is one of the many reasons we need educational reform. There can be no standard curriculum when everything is miscellaneous, as Cluetrain.com co-author Dave Weinberger says. Courses are artifacts of a time when information was scarce and connections were few. With ubiquitous computing, that time is over. Our children know that. I watch how our kids learn to play computer games. There is no rule book. The fun of the game is in figuring it out. This is always done collaboratively. Collaboration seems natural to this generation. While studying, Facebook is usually open and classmates send messages back and forth as they share in their learning. The whole notion of cheating may be gone in a generation. I think this generation will be one of the last in the current system. I hope the next public education system is not another shotgun wedding, or a reaction to change, like charter schools can be. Actually, I hope that it’s not a system at all. It should be a network, like the Internet – open, with no centre, using only basic protocols and allowing for innovation at the edges. If we let our children design it, that is most likely what it would be like. It might look like Stockholm’s school without classrooms or something even more radical.
Walled Gardens 20 January, 2012, 1:30 am
TweetHere are some of the insights and observations that were shared via Twitter this past week. Quotable Moments: “The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change. ~ Carl Rogers” – via @timbuckteeth “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. ~ Coco Chanel” – via @transarchitect @flowchainsensei – “Projects” are no way to run a railway – or any other kind of business, for that matter.” Audience question about IBM Connect during Lotusphere 2012 “Did you evaluate enterprise LMS [learning management systems] before you built this?” A, “No, we began with how people learn.” – via @marciamarcia Maps only get you so far: @upriver_ca - If you were going to be thrown into a fast-moving river, would you rather have a map or a canoe? Much of the world of management is built around drawing maps. And maps are wonderful things if the things that the map represents are manageable. All too often we confuse the map with the terrain, though, and we imagine that while many leaders would like the map, many of those in the water would prefer the canoe. Walled Gardens: @MarkFederman – “re: Apple/iTunes becoming de facto textbook gatekeeper. Given their walled garden/control mentality, this is very concerning.” Jaron Lanier: The False Ideals of the Web – via @jhagel The obvious strategy in the fight for a piece of the advertising pie is to close off substantial parts of the Internet so Google doesn’t see it all anymore. That’s how Facebook hopes to make money, by sealing off a huge amount of user-generated information into a separate, non-Google world. Networks lock in their users, whether it is Facebook’s members or Google’s advertisers. Wired – Dirty Little Secrets: The Trouble With Social Search Still, this potentially marks a real transformation to the way we have looked for information on the web, one with real winners and losers. It also signals a real danger to the balance of power between users and megacompanies. We are increasingly moving from a bottom-up web, where users vote with their links, keyboards and their clicks to show what’s relevant to them, to a top-down web where that’s doubly or triply mediated by browsers, search engines and social networks. Oopsie! The Audacious iBooks Author EULA - via @nwinton Apple, in this EULA [end user license agreement], is claiming a right not just to its software, but to its software’s output. It’s akin to Microsoft trying to restrict what people can do with Word documents, or Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it to Getty. As far as I know, in the consumer software industry, this practice is unprecedented. I’m sure it’s commonplace with enterprise software, but the difference is that those contracts are negotiated by corporate legal departments and signed the old-fashioned way, with pen and ink and penalties and termination clauses. A by-using-you-agree-to license that oh by the way asserts rights over a file format? Unheard of, in my experience.
Modelling, not shaping 19 January, 2012, 7:31 am
TweetIn social networks we can learn from each other; modelling behaviours, telling stories, and sharing what we know. This may not be highly efficient, but it it can be very effective. You will know you’re in a real community of practice if it changes your practices. Education and training are shaping technologies. They reward successive approximations of the desired behaviour. Modelling, on the other hand, is the foundation of social learning: Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation. If we look at how organizational training & development has functioned, it has been separate from the work being done and focused on shaping behaviours. There is strong evidence that we need to integrate learning into our work in order to deal with the increasing complexity of knowledge work. The valued work in the enterprise is increasing in variety and decreasing in standardization. I have suggested that communities of practice are the bridge between work teams and open social networks, with narration of work an enabler of knowledge-sharing, and of course, modelling behaviour. The way that Triple Creek [I have no relationship with this company] positions its Open Mentoring platform is a current example of a tool that could enhance social learning (modelling) in the bridging area that communities of practice can offer. As long as this type of tool is not tied to any team, project or supervisor, it could help connect members of a community of practice. The challenge would be in finding a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Too much shaping and not enough modelling could turn this into one more thing that has to be done (like annual performance reviews). Communities are more like dance halls than factories. Platforms that have too much control will not be adopted on a community level. As a consultant, I would like to be able to recommend a variety of these platforms, that can inter-operate on some level, so that enterprise communities can choose the most suitable ones for their stage of development. All communities of practice are unique and will grow, mature and often die over time. No single platform will meet all community needs, but if it supports one of these principles for working smarter - Transparency, Narration of Work or Distribution of Power – it would be worth checking out.
There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in 18 January, 2012, 2:02 pm
TweetThis site was offline from sunrise to sunset today [yes, I missed you, too], in support of the anti-SOPA/PIPA protests. One factor that influenced my decision was this article (and several others) by Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet Law: Some of the Internet’s leading websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, WordPress, and BoingBoing, will go dark today to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The U.S. bills have generated massive public protest over proposed provisions that could cause enormous harm to the Internet and freedom of speech. My blog will join the protest by going dark tomorrow. While there is little that Canadians can do to influence U.S. legislation, there are many reasons why I think it is important for Canadians to participate. Here is the Wikipedia article on SOPA/PIPA, the only page available on that site today: What are SOPA and PIPA? SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” and PIPA is an acronym for the “Protect IP Act.” (“IP” stands for “intellectual property.”) In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process : SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the public interest in the digital realm, has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet.
Narration of Work 17 January, 2012, 4:44 pm
TweetI see three major principles for working smarter in networked organizations: Transparency Narration of Work Distribution of Power I spoke about the distribution of power in my last post on the democratization of the workplace. The narration of one’s work is an essential practice that enables this. Hans de Zwart discusses a narrating-your-work experiment that had a 17 member team use Yammer to share daily experiences with colleagues. He talks about the barriers to narration as well as the perceived benefits of this two-month experiment. His conclusions and recommendations: Don’t formalize narrating your work and don’t make it mandatory. Many people commented that this is one aspect that they didn’t like about the experiment. Focus on helping each other to turn narrating your work into a habit. I think it is important to set behavioural expectations about the amount of narrating that somebody does. I imagine a future in which it is considered out of the norm if you don’t share what you are up to. The formal documentation and stream of private emails that is the current output of most knowledge workers in virtual teams is not going to cut it going forward. We need to think about how we can move towards that culture. We should have both a private group for the intimate team (in which we can be ourselves as much as possible) as well as have a set of open topic based groups that we can share our work in. So if I want to post about an interesting meeting I had with some learning technology provider with a new product I should post that in a group about “Learning Innovation”. If have worked on a further rationalization of our learning portfolio I should post this in a group about the “Learning Application Portfolio” and so on. The recommendation of both private and public narration components aligns with the need to support both strong and weak social ties. Covering the public/private spectrum can promote social learning, increase collaboration, and nurture an environment for cross-disciplinary innovation – and bridge the gap to working smarter.
Democratization of the workplace 15 January, 2012, 5:37 pm
TweetThere was a most interesting thread on Twitter today. Bert van Lamoen (@transarchitect) in a series of tweets, said [paraphrasing several]: “Senge’s five disciplines provided instant utility for learning to organizations in 1990, yet learning organizations remain rare to this day. Hierarchy kills all learning. Our social systems are not designed to cope with complexity. Organizational learning is fundamental change. Today’s organization is not fit for organizational learning. Therefore, we need total redesign. Social and transformational architecture encompasses complexity and emergent change.” In wither the learning organization, I linked to a paper on Why aren’t we all working for Learning Organisations? [PDF]. The authors, John Seddon and Brendan O’Donovan, open with a reference to W. Edwards Deming’s commentary on Peter Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline (1990). “Our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people. People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning. The forces of destruction begin with toddlers – a prize for the best Halloween costume, grades in school, gold stars – and on up through the university. On the job people, teams, and divisions are ranked, reward for the top, punishment for the bottom. Management by Objectives, quotas, incentive pay, business plans, put together separately, division by division, cause further loss, unknown and unknowable.” After explaining how double-loop learning gets managers to focus on the system and away from controlling people, the authors conclude: Our argument is that Deming’s statements in his 1990 review of Senge’s work continue to hold true: it is the dominance of the command and control management thinking which, 20 years on, still prevails and prevents the development of more generative learning. It is only by studying an organisation as a system and creating double-loop learning that we might finally see Senge’s ‘learning organizations’ stop being the exceptional and instead become the norm. Double-loop learning requires an understanding, and a constant questioning, of the governing variables and of course this is where learning abruptly comes up against command & control. Flattening the organization is one way to open communications and delegate responsibility, but asking employees to engage in real critical thinking [double-loop learning], and accepting the resulting actions, will not work unless there is a multi-way flow of power and authority. Critical thinking is not just thinking more deeply but also asking difficult and discomfiting questions. Without power and authority, these become meaningless. The BetaCodex Network advocates first reducing hierarchy, and then making work independent of the formal structure, in order to increase the value creation structure. This makes sense, but who other than an enlightened CEO is going to make these changes? People like Semler are still outliers in the business world – “On his first day as CEO, Ricardo Semler fired sixty percent of all top managers.” According to Charles Green this is how large-scale change happens: Ideas lead technology. Technology leads organizations. Organizations lead institutions. Then ideology brings up the rear, lagging all the rest—that’s when things really get set in concrete. We have the ideas (and some examples) on the great work that needs to be done at the beginning of this century – create new organizational models that reflect (and actually capitalize on) our humanity. We also have technologies that enable and support collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and connecting on a human level. The major obstacles seem to be that there are not enough good examples and that these organizations are not influential enough to change the dominant business ideologies. To spread these ideas may require more than just mavens, connectors and salespeople to reach a tipping point. We may also need to identify the “Doer”s inside more organizations and find ways to help them become double-loop learners. We should engage the trustworthy, those people with strong intimacy skills who get things done. Perhaps we have been focused at the wrong level. I know that my most successful consulting engagements have not been at the very top, but with people who are doing the work. If we can create a mid-level groundswell, without giving up on finding enlightened executives, we may get somewhere. Unless the dominant command & control management ideology is replaced, then most organizational change initiatives will just be tinkering at the edges. I can see why some people could become jaded over time with every successive new management system that still does not produce real change. The democratization of the workplace has been my guiding mission for the past decade. Democracy is the foundation upon which the likes of Enterprise 2.0 or the Social Business need to build, in order to foster double-loop learning organizations that can thrive in complexity.

elearningtech

eLearning Learning Adds Personalized Subscriptions 2 January, 2012, 4:23 pm
Aggregage, the platform that powers eLearning Learning has added a powerful personalization engine. That means that eLearning Learning now allows users to sign-up and have their content personalized based on their interests. You can sign-up via the "Personalize Your Content" button on the right side of the interface shown to the right of the red arrow below. Or put another way, just above and right of the picture of Justin Bieber. By the way, I should point out that the four top articles on the site when I took the screen shot were all great: 5 E-Learning Forecasts for 2012 The Flipped Learning Revolution — Coming to a Brain Near You? Failing to Learn Creating an online learning personality It's what I love about the site. It always has great, fresh content from a wide variety of industry professionals. Every time I visit it, I find something that I missed that was really good content. Now with personalization it's even better. The picture below gives a sense of what's happening: Curators handle finding the best sources of content. The system then uses social signals such as those coming from Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, delicious as well as clicks and views. These are compared to averages for the source and also looks at who is providing the signal, how often they signal things, how often they signal for that particular source, etc. Those aspects existed before and it does a good job of finding great content. You can read a bit more about these aspects in eLearning Learning Launches New Features. What's new now is that the site allows you to sign up and provide your Twitter and LinkedIn information. The site will look at your activity on these sites and the content of what you share. It will use that to find interests as well as to cluster you with other users who are like you based on interests and sharing. You can partially control your interests via the Subscription page as shown below: This will change over time based on your LinkedIn and twitter activity. You can always visit and manually select interests as well. You can read a bit more here: Personalization Explained. The system then can combine three pieces of information to figure out what will be most interesting to you: Social signal score – are people in the audience finding it interesting Topic match – does it match up with your interests Like sharing – are individuals who are like you sharing this The system uses these to both rank things on the site and to generate Daily and Weekly newsletters. The reason that I'm most exited about this is that I partly use eLearning Learning to make sure I don't miss things that is good content that is relevant to me. Now with personalization, it is even less likely that something will sneak by. I also personally like the format of the new newsletter. Give it a try and let me know what you think. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.
eLearning Conferences 2012 17 November, 2011, 3:29 pm
Clayton R. Wright has done his 26th version of his amazing list of conferences again this year. Past years eLearning Conferences 2011, eLearning Conferences 2010, eLearning Conferences 2009. You can contact him at: crwr77 [@] gmail.com. It covers events from four continents. The list focuses primarily on the use of eLearning, technology in educational settings and on teaching, learning, and educational administration. Please note that events, dates, titles, and locations may change; thus, CHECK the specific conference website. Note also that some events will be cancelled at a later date, such as those in Tunisia and Egypt in early 2011. All Internet addresses were verified at the time of publication. No liability is assumed for any errors that may have been introduced inadvertently during the assembly of this free conference list. Kindly retain the contact information when you re-distribute the list or mount it on the web as that is how I receive updates. December 2011 November 27-December 1, 2011 Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE): Reaching Across Boundaries, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. http://www.aare.edu.au/live/ November 27-December 1, 2011 Learning in Higher Education: Transforming University Teaching into Learning via Simulations and Games, 6th international symposium, sponsored by the International Academic Association for the Enhancement of Learning in Higher Education, Sydney, Australia. http://lihe.wordpress.com/future-events/lihe11-australia/ November 28-December 1, 2011 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Multimedia Conference, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. http://www.acmmm11.org/ November 28-December 2, 2011 International Conference on Computers in Education,19th, organized by the Asia Pacific Society for Computers in Education, Chiang Mai, Thailand. http://www.nectec.or.th/icce2011/ November 29-December 1, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science, 3rd, Athens, Greece. http://2010.cloudcom.org/ November 29-December 1, 2011 Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference (CMTC), Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. http://www.nhcmtc.org/ November 29-December 2, 2011 New Zealand Association for Research in Education, Tauranga, New Zealand. http://www.nzare.org.nz/ November 30-December 1, 2011 AfriHealth: Using IT to Establish Health Care Information Systems, Nairobi, Kenya. http://www.aitecafrica.com/event/view/74 November 30-December 2, 2011, Online Educa Berlin 2011: International Conference on Technology Supported Learning and Training for Corporate, Education and Public Service Sectors, 17th, Hotel InterContinental Berlin, Berlin, Germany. http://www.online-educa.com November 30-December 2, 2011 Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture: The Effects of Global Learning – Teaching the World about the World, Rome, Italy. http://www.theworldwideforum.org/1.html November 30-December 2, 2011 National Conference Every Child Has Talent, 19th, sponsored by The Schools Network, Birmingham, The United Kingdom. https://registration.livegroup.co.uk/ssatnationalconference/ November 30-December 2, 2011 Crossing Borders for Change in Southern African Higher Education, sponsored by the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA), hosted by the Nelson Mandel Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. http://www.nmmu.ac.za/default.asp?id=11610&bhcp=1 November 30-December 2, 2011 International Conference on eLearning Futures 2011, 1st, hosted by the Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. http://www.icelf.org/welcome.php November 30-December 3, 2011 Learning Resources Network (LERN) Annual Conference: Mobiles – The New Frontier, Sheraton New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://www.lern.org/conference/ December 1-3, 2011 E-Activities (e-Learning, e-Communities, e-Commerce, e-Management, e-Marketing, e-Governance and Tele-working), 10th, sponsored by World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS), Bina Nusantara University, Island of Java, Indonesia. http://www.wseas.us/conferences/2011/jakarta/e-activities/ December 2, 2011 Getting Research to Researchers in Developing Countries: Examples from East and Southern Africa, sponsored by Publishers for Development, Charles Darwin House, London, The United Kingdom. http://www.pubs-for-dev.info/2011-conference/ December 3, 2011 One Voice Atlanta International Conference and Forum for Educators: Educators United for Positive Change in Education, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/ December 3-7, 2011 National Staff Development Council (NSDC): Capture the Magic, Anaheim, California, USA. http://www.nsdc.org December 4, 2011 One Voice Miami International Conference and Forum for Educators: Educators United for Positive Change in Education, Miami, Florida, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/ December 4-5, 2011 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. http://chimit.acm.org/ December 4-7, 2011 International Australasian Conference on Enabling Access to Higher Education, 1st, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. http://www.plevin.com.au/ncee2011/ December 4-7, 2011 Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2011): Changing Demands, Changing Directions, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/hobart11/index.htm December 4-7, 2011 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS): East Meets West – Connectivity and Collaboration through Effective Information, Shanghai, China. http://icis2011.aisnet.org/ December 4-7, 2011 Big Ideas Fest, 3rd, conference focused on innovation in education, Half Moon Bay, California, USA. http://www.bigideasfest.org/ December 4-9, 2011 Executive Leadership Institute, sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. http://www.league.org/eli/ December 5-6, 2011 Managing Quality Teaching in Higher Education, Mexicali, Mexico. http://www.oecd.org/document/14/0,3746,en_2649_35961291_48740558_1_1_1_1,00.html December 5-6, 2011 Academic Medical and Health Science Centers: Integrated Plans for Integrated Programs, 5th annual, San Diego, California, USA. http://www.tradelineinc.com/conferences/ December 5-6, 2011 Computer Science Education: Innovation and Technology, 2nd annual, Singapore, Singapore. http://cseducation.org/ December 5-6, 2011 Learning Space Design Summit, 2nd, Melbourne, Australia. http://www.informa.com.au/conferences/education/learning-space-design-summit December 5-7, 2011 International Digital Curation Conference: Public? Private? Personal? – Navigating the Open Data Landscape, Bristol, The United Kingdom. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/idcc11/call-papers December 5-7, 2011 International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing and Multimedia (MoMM2010), 9th, Hue City, Vietnam. http://www.iiwas.org/conferences/momm2011/ December 5-7, 2011 International Workshop on Multimedia Technologies for E-Learning (MTEL), 6th, sponsored by IEEE, Dana Point, California, USA. http://www.virtuos.uni-osnabrueck.de/pub/conferences/mtel-2011/cfp.html December 5-7, 2011 Workshop on Multimedia for Cooking and Eating Activities (CEA), 3rd, Laguna Cliffs Marriott, Dana Point, California, USA. http://www.ccm.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp/CEA2011/cfp.html December 5-8, 2011 Australasian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 24th, Murdoch University, Melbourne, Western Australia, Australia. http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/AI2011/ December 5-9, 2011 Computer Security Applications Conference, 27th, Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www.acsac.org December 6-8, 2011 UNESCO-APEID International Conference: Inspiring Education – Creativity and Entrepreneurship, 15th, Jakarta, Indonesia. http://www.unescobkk.org/education/apeid/apeid-international-conference/apeidconf11/ December 6-8, 2011 Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services (MOBIQUITOUS), 8th annual, Copenhagen, Denmark. http://www.mobiquitous.org/ December 6-9, 2011 International Conference on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Sustaining Student-Centric Higher Education – Embracing Diversity and Empowering GEN Y Learners, organized by the National University of Singapore, Singapore. http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/tlhe/ December 7, 2011 Best Practices for Tutoring and Learning Centers. Series of four webinars offered online. http://www.innovativeeducators.org/product_p/349.htm December 7-9, 2011 Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Conference, Celtic Manor, Newport, South Wales, The United Kingdom. http://www.srhe.ac.uk/conference2011/index.asp December 7-9, 2011 Office of Women in Higher Education National Leadership Forum, 78th, sponsored by the American Council on Education (ACE), Washington, DC, USA. http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=ACE_Events_Calendar&CFID=4193562&CFTOKEN=59476110&jsessionid=16306c674910$C2C$3F$ December 8-9, 2011 Lessons and Insights from Ten eLearning Masters, offered by the eLearning Guild, online. http://www.elearningguild.com/online-forums/content/1855/2011-olf---dec-8--9 December 8-9, 2011 The Future of Higher Education, New York City, New York, USA. http://www.newschool.edu/cps/future-higher-ed/ December 8-9, 2011 Learning Design for a Changing World: International LAMS and Learning Design Conference, 6th, Sydney, Australia. http://lams2011sydney.lamsfoundation.org/ December 8-10, 2011 International Conference on Web-based Learning (ICWL), 10th, Hong Kong, China. http://www.hkws.org/conference/icwl2011/index.html December 8-10, 2011 International Conference on International Higher Education, sponsored by the International Association for Development of the Information Society, Shanghai, China. http://www.ihe-conf.org/ December 8-10, 2011 International Conference on Internet Technologies and Society, sponsored by the International Association for Development of the Information Society, Shanghai, China. http://www.its-conf.org/ December 9-10, 2011 Effective Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, American University of Beirut, Lebanon. http://www.aub.edu.lb/conferences/etlhe/Pages/index.aspx December 10, 2011 International Workshop on Knowledge Discovery Using Cloud and Distributed Computing Platforms, 2nd, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://www.ornl.gov/sci/knowledgediscovery/CloudComputing/KDCloud-11/ December 10-13, 2011 Technology Information Education Services (TIES) Educational Technology Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. http://www.ties.k12.mn.us/Conferences.html December 11-14, 2011 International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2011), 6th, hosted by Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. http://www.icitst.org/ December 11-14, 2011 World Congress on Information and Communication Technologies, Mumbai, India. http://www.mirlabs.org/wict11/index.php-c=main&a=index.htm December 12-13, 2011 Computer Science Education: Innovation and Technology (CSEIT), 2nd annual, Singapore, Singapore. http://cseducation.org/ December 12-14, 2011 Kaleidoscope: The Fully Networked Human? – Innovations for Future Networks and Services, sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union, Cape Town, South Africa. http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/uni/kaleidoscope/2011/index.html December 12-15, 2011 ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH Asia 2011, 4th, Hong Kong, China. http://www.siggraph.org/asia2011/ December 14-16, 2011 Technology for Education, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Dallas, Texas, USA. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/ December 15-16, 2011 The Strategic Management of Internationalisation in Higher Education, Lund, Sweden. http://congresslund.com/smoi December 15-16, 2011 Hong Kong Educational Research Association (HKERA) Annual Conference, Hong Kong, China. http://www.hkera.edu.hk/eng/index.html December 21-23, 2011 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) Winter Congress, Phuket, Thailand. http://www.waset.org/ December 25-27, 2011 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) Winter Conference, Bangkok, Thailand. http://www.waset.org/ December 28-30, 2011 International Conference on Information and Multimedia Technology (ICIMT),3rd, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. http://www.icimt.org/ January 2012 January 2-4, 2012 College Teaching and Learning Conference, sponsored by the Clute Institute for Academic Research, Orlando, California, USA. http://www.cluteinstitute.com January 3-6, 2012 National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NIToP), 34th, annual, The TradeWinds Island Grand Hotel, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, USA. http://nitop.org January 3-6, 2012 International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking (ICDCN), 13th, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China. http://icdcn2012.comp.polyu.edu.hk/ January 4-6, 2012 International Conference on Multimedia Modeling, 18th, Klagenfurt, Austria, http://mmm2012.org/ January 4-6, 2012 Academic Boot Camp, sponsored by the International Alliance of Teacher Scholars, Pomona, California, USA. http://www.iats.com/academic-boot-camp/ January 4-7, 2012 Presidents Institute, sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges, Marco Island, Florida, USA. http://www.cic.edu/conferences_events/index.asp January 4-7, 2012 Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) International Conference, Clearwater Beach, Florida, USA. http://theaste.org/meetings/2012conference/ January 4-7, 2012 American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.ams.org/meetings/national/national or http://www.maa.org/meetings/jmm.html January 4-7, 2012 The Association for Science Education Annual Conference, University of Liverpool, The United Kingdom. http://www.ase.org.uk/conferences/annual-conference/ January 5-6, 2012 ICT Educator Conference: ICT Education for ICT Employment – Even Now, 4th, San Francisco, California, USA. http://www.ictcenter.org/ January 5-7, 2012 International Conference on e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning (IC4E), 3rd, Mumbai, India. http://www.iacsit.org/ic4e/ January 5-8, 2012 International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement Conference (ICSEI 2012), 25th, Malmö, Sweden. http://www.icsei.net/ January 5-8, 2012 Hawaii International Conference on Education, 10th, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. http://www.hiceducation.org/ January 5-8, 2012 Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention, 127th, Seattle, Washington, USA. http://www.mla.org/convention January 8-10, 2012 World Universities Forum, 5th, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece. http://www.universitiesforum.com or http://ontheuniversity.com/conference-2012/ January 10-11, 2012 First Nations TeleHealth and TeleEducation Conference, 1st, annual, Inn at Laurel Point, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. http://www.firstnationsteleservicesconference.ca/ January 10-13, 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://www.cesweb.org/ January 10-13, 2012 Higher Ed Tech Summit, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://higheredtechsummit.com/ January 10-13, 2012 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, 10th annual, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. http://www.hichumanities.org/ January 11-12, 2012 Committee on College Teaching and Learning (CCTL) Conference on Teaching and Learning, 11th annual, Niagara University, Niagara, New York, USA. http://www.niagara.edu/conference-information/ January 11-13, 2012 EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference: Reimaging IT in a Changing Landscape, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. http://www.educause.edu/MARC12 January 11-14, 2012 British Educational Technology Show (BETT), London, The United Kingdom. http://www.bettshow.com/ January 12-13, 2012 Institute for New Chief Academic Officers, sponsored by the American Council on Education (ACE), Florida, USA. http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CAOS1 January 12-13, 2012 Leading Your Technical Team, organized by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, York, The United Kingdom. http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/evt-crs-prog/calendar/lyttjuly2012.html January 14-15, 2012 International Conference on Information and Education Technology (ICIET), Mumbai, India. http://www.iciet.org/ January 15-17, 2012 International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), Zurich, Switzerland. http://www.waset.org/conferences/2012/zurich/iccit/ January 15-17, 2012 International Conference on Innovation, Management and Technology (ICIMT), Zurich, Switzerland. http://www.waset.org/conferences/2012/zurich/icimt/ January 15-18, 2012 Pacific Telecommunications Council (PC’12): Harnessing Disruption – Global, Mobile, Social, Local, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. http://www.ptc.org/ January 15-19, 2012 Lotusphere, 19th annual, sponsored by IBM, Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/events/conference/ January 16-18, 2012 Technology, Knowledge and Society, 8th international conference, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA. http://technology-conference.com/ or http://techandsoc.com/conference-2012/ January 16-20, 2012 Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN (LION 5), Paris, France. http://www.intelligent-optimization.org/LION6/ January 16-20, 2012 Linux.Conf.Au: Free and Open Source Conference, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. http://lcaunderthestars.org.au/ January 18, 2012 Using Social Media to Communicate, Birmingham, The United Kingdom. http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/en/events/2012.aspx January 18-20, 2012 International Conference on Creating, Connecting and Collaborating through Computing, 10th, Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Playa Vista, California, USA. http://www.cm.is.ritsumei.ac.jp/c5-12/ or http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid=17922©ownerid=2394 January 18-20, 2012 Wisconsin State Education and Convention and Exhibit Show, 91st, Frontier, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. http://www.wasb.org/ January 20-22, 2012 Design Principles and Practices, 6th international conference, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA. http://designprinciplesandpractices.com/conference/ January 20-24, 2012 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, Dallas, Texas, USA. http://www.ala.org/ January 21-27, 2012 International Conference on Current Trends in Theory and Practice of Computer Science, 38th, Špindlerův Mlýn, Czech Republic. http://www.sofsem.cz/sofsem12/index.php January 22-25, 2012 Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA) Winter Seminar, Renaissance Esmeralda Resort, Palm Springs, California, USA. http://www.acuta.org/ January 23-25, 2012 Digital Book World Conference and Expo: When Change Is the Only Constant, It’s Time to Get with the Program, New York City, New York, USA. http://www.digitalbookworldconference.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=24240&tabid=36957&&et_mid=513651&rid=77305995 January 23-26, 2012 Florida Educational Technology (FETC) Conference, Orange Country Convention Center, Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www.fetc.org/ January 23-26, 2012 Emerging Media Conference (EmMeCon), San Francisco, California, USA. http://wappow.com/emerging-media/ January 23-26, 2012 Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA): Accreditation and the Future – What’s Known? What’s Next?, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.chea.org/default.asp January 24-27, 2012 International Conference on Information Technology and Travel Tourism (ENTER): eTourism Present and Future Services and Applications organized by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel and Tourism (IFITT), 18th, Helsingborg, Sweden. http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2012/ January 25-26, 2012 Learning Technologies 2012, Olympia 2, London, The United Kingdom. http://www.learningtechnologies.co.uk/ January 25-26, 2012 Learning Without Frontiers Conference, London, The United Kingdom. http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/ January 25-27, 2012 American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) TechKnowledge, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://www.astd.org/content/conferences/ January 25-28, 2012 Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Annual Meeting: Shared Futures/Difficult Choices – Reclaiming a Democratic Vision for College Learning, Global Engagement and Success, 68th, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.aacu.org/meetings/annualmeeting/index.cfm January 26-27, 2012 e-Learning Symposium, 7th annual, University of Southampton, Southampton, The United Kingdom. http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/ January 26-27, 2012 The Southern African ICT for Education Summit 2012, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. http://africanbrains.net/edusa/ January 26-28, 2012 Macworld Conference and Expo, Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA. http://www.macworldexpo.com/ January 26-28, 2012 Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) Conference, Orlando, California, USA. http://www.atia.org/ January 26-28, 2012 Educators’ Symposium on Accelerating Learning, San Antonio, Texas, USA. http://www.renlearn.com/Symposiums/default.aspx January 27-28, 2012 Educa: National Training Event for Educators, Helsinki, Finland. http://web.finnexpo.fi/Sites1/Educa/en/Pages/default.aspx January 27-29, 2012 Educon 2.4, EduCon is both a conversation and a conference about education and technology. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. http://educon24.org/ January 28-30, 2012 International Health Informatics Symposium, Miami, Florida, USA. https://sites.google.com/site/web2011ihi/ January 29-February 1, 2012 National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) Annual Conference, Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., USA. http://www.naicu.edu/events/ January 30-February 2, 2012 Conference on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East: Sustainable Innovation in Education – Capacity-building, blended learning and beyond, 5th, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. http://congress.hbmeu.ac.ae/learning/call-paper-2012 January 30-February 2, 2012 Quality Conference in the Middle East: Innovation Based Competitiveness and Business Excellence, 6th, United Arab Emirates. http://congress.hbmeu.ac.ae/qc/call-paper-2012 January 30-February 2, 2012 e-Health and Environment Conference in the Middle East: Building an Innovative and Competitive Vision for e-Health and Environment in the 21st Century, http://congress.hbmeu.ac.ae/ehealth/conference-overview January 30-February 3, 2012 Australasian Computing Education (ACE) Conference, 14th, Melbourne, Australia. http://www.sci.usq.edu.au/conferences/ace2012/ January 30-February 3, 2012 Australasian Computer Science Week (ACSW), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/acsw2012/ January 30-February 3, 2012 EDUCAUSE Management Program, Miami, Florida, USA. http://net.educause.edu/TheEDUCAUSEInstituteManagementProgram/1734 January 30-February 4, 2012 Digital World 2012 including International Conferences on Digital Society (ICDS), 6th; Advances in Computer-Human Interactions (ACHI), 5th; Information, Process, and Knowledge Management (eKNOW), 4th; Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services, (GEOProcessing), 4th; eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine (eTELEMED), 4th; Mobile, Hybrid, and Online Learning (eL&mL), 4th; Technical and Legal Aspects of the e-Society (CYBERLAWS), 3rd; Telemedicine on Obesity, Overweight, and Eating Disorders (TELEMEDOB), 1st, sponsored by the International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA), Valencia, Spain. http://www.iaria.org/conferences2012/DigitalWorld12.html January 31-February 1, 2012 iLearning Paris Forum 2011, 7th, Espace Champerret, Paris, France. http://www.ilearningforum.org/ January 31-February 2, 2012 LearnTec 2012 International Convention and Trade Fair for Educational and Information Technology, 20th, Karlsruhe, Germany. http://www.learntec.de/ February 2012 February 1-3, 2012 Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP): Prospering with Digital – Making Investments Pay, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.publishers.org/psp/2012annualconferenceprogram/ February 1-3, 2012 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration (CIEC), sponsored by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www.asee.org/conferences-and-events/conferences February 1-4, 2012 Ontario Library Association Super Conference, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. http://www.accessola.com/ February 2-4, 2012 Georgia Conference on College and University Teaching, 19th, presented by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA. http://www.kennesaw.edu/cetl/conferences/gaconf/2012.html February 2-5, 2012 World Conference on Educational Sciences, 4th, Barcelona, Spain. http://www.wces.info/ February 3-5, 2012 Good Teaching Conference North, sponsored by the California Teachers’ Association, Marriott Hotel, San Jose, California, USA. http://www.cta.org/Professional-Development/Events/Conferences/index.aspx February 3-5, 2012 Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. http://www.lillyconferences.com/ February 4-7, 2012 Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia Summit, biennial, Sydney, Australia. http://www.odlaa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=109 February 5-7, 2012 CASE-NAIS Independent Schools Conference, 42nd annual, sponsored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), San Francisco, California, USA. http://www.case.org/Conferences_and_Training/CASE-NAIS12.html February 6-8, 2012 International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART), 4th, Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal. http://www.icaart.org February 6-10, 2012 Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) Convention and Exposition: Embark, Engage, Energize, Empower, Educate, 32nd annual, Austin, Texas, USA. http://www.tcea2012.org/ February 7-8, 2012 International Conference of Advanced Information System, E-Education and Development (ICAISED), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. http://www.icaised.com/ February 7-8, 2012 Management World 2012, Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore, Singapore. http://www.tmforum.org/Conferences/734/Home.html February 7-9, 2012 Global TIME: Global Conference on Technology, Innovation, Media and Education Online Conference, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), http://aace.org/conf/gtime/ February 7-9, 2012 Australian eLearning Congress, Sydney, Australia. http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/Events-D097TheAustralianeLearningCongress.htm February 7-10, 2012 iConference 2013: Culture, Design, Society, hosted by the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. http://www.ischools.org/iConference12/2012index/ February 8-10, 2012 Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, 4th annual, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. http://www.cider.vt.edu/conference/ February 8-11, 2012 International Self-Directed Learning Symposium, 26th, sponsored by the International Society for Self-Directed Learning, Courtyard by Marriott, Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA. http://www.oltraining.com/SDLwebsite/indexSDL.php February 8-12, 2012 eLearning, organized by the Instructional Technology Council (ITC), Long Beach California, USA. http://www.itcnetwork.org/ February 8-12, 2012 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Conference on Web Search and Web Data Mining, 5th, Seattle, Washington, USA. http://www.wsdm2012.org/ February 9-10, 2012 Academic Chairperson Conference: Transforming Higher Education – The Department Chair’s Role, 29th, Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/academicchairpersons/29th/ February 9-11, 2012 American Association of Colleges of Nursing Faculty Development Conference, Westin Peachtree Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Conferences/12FacDev.htm February 9-11, 2012 Association of Mathematics Teacher Education (AMTE), 16th, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. http://www.amte.net/conferences February 11, 2012 One Voice Las Vegas International Conference and Forum for Educators: Educators United for Positive Change in Education, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/ February 11-15, 2012 Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) Annual Meeting, Gran Hyatt San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA. http://www.ate1.org/pubs/home.cfm February 11-15, 2012 Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Seattle, Washington, USA. http://cscw2012.org/ February 12, 2012 One Voice Phoenix International Conference and Forum for Educators: Educators United for Positive Change in Education, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/ February 12-15, 2012 Winter Senior Executive Management Seminar, sponsored by the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, Ritz Carlton, Lake Tahoe, Truckee, California, USA. http://www.career.org/iMISPublic/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Upcoming_Events&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=43&ContentID=17332 February 12-15, 2012 Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) National Legislative Summit, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.acct.org/events/legislativesummit/ February 12-15, 2012 Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference (PETE & C), Hershey Lodge and Conventions Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA. http://www.peteandc.org/ February 13-14, 2012 Training 2012 Conference and Expo, sponsored by Training Magazine, 35th annual, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. http://www.trainingconference.com or www.trainingmagevents.com February 13-15, 2012 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) 2012: Taking the Pulse – Connecting, Assessing, and Innovating, Austin, Texas, USA. http://www.educause.edu/ELIEventsCalendar February 13-15, 2012 Midwest Education Technology Conference (METC), St. Louis, Missouri, USA. http://metcconference.org/moodle2011/ February 13-15, 2012 O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, 6th annual, produced by O’Reilly Media, New York City, New York, USA. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/ February 14-17, 2012 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), Lisbon, Portugal, USA. http://www.iuiconf.org/ February 14-18, 2012 Didacta Trade Fair for Education and Training, Stuttgart, Germany. http://www.didacta.de/ February 15-17, 2012 New Learning Technologies Conference, hosted by the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT), Caribe Royale Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www.salt.org/ February 15-17, 2012 Telehealth, 5th, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Innsbruck, Austria. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/ February 15-17, 2012 Assistive Technologies (AT 2012), 2nd, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Innsbruck, Austria. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/ February 15-17, 2012 National Association for Bilingual Education: Celebrating our Multicultural Nation through Bilingual Education, 41st annual, Dallas, Texas, USA. http://www.nabe.org/conference.html February 15-17, 2012 National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Assessment Institute, 12th, San Diego, California, USA. http://assessment.tamu.edu/ February 15-19, 2012 Music Library Association, 81st annual, Dallas, Texas, USA. http://program.musiclibraryassoc.org/ February 16-17, 2012, Phi Delta Kappa International Conference on Innovations in Teaching and Learning, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. http://www.pdkintl.org/member/summit.htm February 16-17, 2012 African and Mediterranean Universities Exhibition, Lagos, Nigeria. http://www.aau.org/?q=content/african-mediterranean-universities-exhibition-be-held-lagos-nigeria-february-16-17-2012 or http://www.seventhsemester.com/ February 16-18, 2012 Educators’ Symposium on Accelerating Learning, Sacramento, California, USA. http://www.renlearn.com/Symposiums/default.aspx February 16-18, 2012 Educating the Whole Student, San Francisco, California, USA. http://www.learningandthebrain.com/ February 16-18, 2012 International Conference on Information Systems and Economic Intelligence (SIIE), 5th, Djerba, Tunisia. http://www.siie.fr/index.php?dims_url=YXJ0aWNsZWlkPTEm February 16-19, 2012 American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Conference on Education, 144th, Houston, Texas, USA. http://www.aasa.org/ February 16-20, 2012 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, 178th, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://www.aaas.org/meetings/ February 17-18, 2012 International Conference on Information and Computer Applications (ICICA), Hong Kong, China. http://www.icica.org/ February 17-19, 2012 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), 64th, Hyatt Regency Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. http://aacte.org/ February 17-19, 2012 Spring Workshop in Critical Thinking, Berkeley, California, USA. http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/spring-workshop-2012/992/ February 17-19, 2012 American Political Science Association Teaching and Learning Conference, Grant Hyatt Washington, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.apsanet.org/content_31632.cfm February 17-21, 2012 Conference on the First-Year Experience, 31st annual, Grant Hyatt, San Antonio, Texas, USA. http://www.sc.edu/fye/annual/index.html February 18-21, 2012 eLearning 2012, sponsored by the Instructional Technology Council, Westin Long Beach, Long Beach, California, USA. http://www.itcnetwork.org/elearning-conference.html February 19-21, 2012 Instructional Technologies Strategies Conference (ITSC), Sheraton Hotel, Portland, Oregon, USA. http://itsc.oetc.org/index.php February 19-21, 2012 Texas A & M Assessment Conference: Making an Impact, 12th annual, College Station Hilton Hotel, College Station, Texas, USA. http://assessment.tamu.edu/conference/index.html February 19-21, 2012 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. http://www.waset.org/ February 19-22, 2012 Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) Annual Conference, Building a Secure World Through International Education, 30th, Marriott Hotel, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.aieaworld.org/events/conf2012.htm February 19-23, 2012 Academic Conference, sponsored by the International Journal of Arts and Sciences, Gozo, Malta. http://www.internationaljournal.org/ February 20-21, 2012 Green Universities Forum, 3rd annual, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia. http://www.informa.com.au/conferences/education/green-universities-conference February 20-22, 2012 Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA), J. W. Marriott Hotel, Washington DC, USA. http://www.aieaworld.org/ February 20-24, 2012 International Wireless Communications Expo (ICWE 2012) Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://www.iwceexpo.com/iwce2012/public/enter.aspx February 21-23, 2012 Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. http://www.portical.org/ar_conference/index.html February 22-23, 2012 Japan MoodleMoot: Moodle Teachers, Administrators and Developers Conference, 4th, Mie University, Tsu, Mie, Japan. http://moodlejapan.org/home/ February 22-24, 2012 Global Learning Summit, 5th, annual, Singapore, Singapore. http://www.globallearningsummit.com February 22-24, 2012 International Conference on Open and Distance e-Learning: Creating Spaces and Possibilities, 1st, Manila, Philippines. http://icodel.upou.edu.ph/ February 22-24, 2012 Educational Developers Caucus Conference: Learning From and In Educational Development Practice, organized by Dalhousie University and Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. http://learningandteaching.dal.ca/ February 22-24, 2012 Multimedia Systems 2012, sponsored by ACM SIGMM, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. http://www.mmsys.org/ February 22-24, 2012 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) Winter Conference, Penang, Malaysia. http://www.waset.org/ February 22-24, 2012 International Conference on Information Management and Engineering, sponsored by the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET), Penang, Malaysia. http://www.waset.org/conferences/2012/penang/icime/ February 22-24, 2012 EDUCAUSE West/Southwest Regional Conference: Engaging Everyone Effectively, Portland, Oregon, USA. http://www.educause.edu/WSWRC12 February 22-25, 2012 Learning Disabilities Association of America International Conference, 49th annual, Chicago, Illinois, USA. http://www.ldanatl.org/conference/index.asp February 23-24, 2012 MoodleMoot Austria, Linz, Austria. http://www.edaktik.at/moodle/course/view.php?id=33 February 23-25, 2012 General Education and Assessment: New Contexts, New Cultures, sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA., http://www.aacu.org/meetings/NetworkforAcademicRenewal.cfm February 24-26, 2012 International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (GRAPP 2012), Rome, Italy. http://www.grapp.visigrapp.org/ February 24-27, 2012 Community Colleges for International Development (CCID): Currents of Change, 36th, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://ccid.cc/programs/annual_conference/index.htm February 25-16, 2012 ICT and Languages Conference, University of Southampton, Southampton, The United Kingdom. http://www.languagessoutheast.ac.uk/events/ict-and-languages-conference-ililc-2012 February 26-28, 2012 International Conference on Education and Management Innovation (ICEMI), Singapore, Singapore. http://www.icemi.org/index.htm February 26-28, 2012 National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS), 54th annual, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. http://www.nfais.org/ February 27-28, 2012 E-Learning Summit, 2nd, Sydney, Australia. http://www.informa.com.au/conferences/education/e-learning-summit February 27-28, 2012 FITC Design and Technology Conference (focuses on Flash, graphic and digital design), Amsterdam, the Netherlands. http://www.fitc.ca/ February 27-28, 2012 Gartner CIO Leadership Forum, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. http://www.gartner.com/EventsCal February 27- March 1, 2012 Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain. http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/ February 27-March 3, 3012 International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, 27th annual, Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, San Diego, California, USA. http://www.csunconference.org/index.cfm?EID=80000300 February 28-29, 2012 International Conference on Mobile Communication for Development (M4D), 3rd, New Delhi, India. http://www.m4d2012.com/ February 28-March 1, 2012 Applied Research Symposium, sponsored by the Association of Canadian Community College, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. http://accc.ca/ February 28-March 2, 2012 Illinois Computing Educators' (ICE) Technology Conference: Innovate, Collaborate, Educate, St. Charles, Illinois, USA. http://www.iceberg.org/ice_conference February 29-March 2, 2012 Information Communication Technology 2012, Kiev, Ukraine. http://www.ictexpo.info/en/ February 29-March 2, 2012 National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Annual Conference, Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, Washington, USA. http://www.nais.org/ February 29-March 3, 2012 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2012), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. http://www.sigcse.org/sigcse2012/ February 29-March 5, 2012 International Workshop on Computer Vision and Computer Graphics, 1st, Saint Gilles, Reunion Island. http://www.iaria.org/conferences2012/VisGra.html February ?, 2012 Canada MoodleMoot, BCcampus, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://moodlemoot.ca or CanadaMoot@knowplace.ca March 2012 March 1-2, 2012 International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www.theisss.org/ March 1-3, 2012 American Association of Colleges Master’s Education Conference, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Conferences/12Masters.htm March 1-3, 2012 Digital Media and Learning (DML) Conference: Beyond Educational Technology, San Francisco, California, USA. http://dml2012.dmlcentral.net/ March 1-4, 2012 National Art Education Association (NAEA) Annual Convention, New York, New York, USA. http://www.arteducators.org/ March 2-3, 2012 Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC), 11th annual, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. http://tblc.roundtablelive.org/ March 2-4, 2012 T3 – Teachers Teaching with Technology International Conference, Hyatt Regency Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. http://www.t3ww.org/ or http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/nonProductSingle/pd_internationalconferences.html March 2-4, 2012 National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP): Leading the Way, 10th annual, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. http://www.nacctep.com/ March 3-4, 2012 Ed Tech Teacher (ETT) Winter Conference: Leading Change in Changing Times, hosted by Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/professional-development/winter-conference March 4-7, 2012 Innovations Conference, sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. http://www.league.org/#Inn2011 March 4-8, 2012 Virtual Reality (VR 2012), Costa Mesa, California, USA. http://conferences.computer.org/vr/2012/ March 5-7, 2012 Consortium for School Networking Initiative (CoSN) International Symposium: Reimagine Learning - Leading in a Time of Constant Change, 11th, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.cosn.org/Default.aspx?TabId=4188 March 5-7, 2012 Education and Development Conference, 7th annual, Bangkok, Thailand. http://www.tomorrowpeople.org/?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=93 March 5-7, 2012 International Technology, Education and Development (INTED) Conference, 6th annual, Valencia, Spain. http://www.iated.org/inted2012/ March 5-7, 2012 Analytics Symposium: Engaging Executives with World-Class Reporting, Intercontinental Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://www.knowledgeadvisors.com/events/symposium/ March 5-7, 2012 e-Gov Africa Forum: Connecting Commonwealth Cultures, 6th annual, Gaborone, Botswana. http://www.events.cto.int/default.aspx?event=e-Gov%202012 March 5-7, 2012 Gartner CIO Leadership Forum, London, The United Kingdom. http://www.gartner.com/EventsCal March 5-9, 2012 Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE): Teaching in Exponential Times!, 23rd, Sheraton Austin Hotel, Austin, Texas, USA. http://site.aace.org/conf/ March 6-8, 2012 Critical Women: Women as Agents of Change through Higher Education, co-organized by the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the University of Kelaniya, Colombo, Sri Lanka. http://www.acu.ac.uk/conferences/gender_2012/ March 7-9, 2012 International Problem-based Learning Symposium: PBL and the Problematization of Teaching and Learning, 3rd, Singapore, Singapore. http://www.rp.sg/symposium/2012/ March 7-9, 2012 The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Commons, 4th, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA. http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference/ March 7-9, 2012 Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. http://www.macul.org/ March 7-9, 2012 Universities Australia Higher Education Conference, Canberra, Australia. http://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/conference March 7-9, 2012 Communications and Information Technology (CIT), 6th, co-organized by The World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS) and the North Atlantic University Union (NAUN), Athens, Greece. http://www.naun.org/conferences/2012/cit/index.html March 7-9, 2012 World Conference on Education and Educational Technologies (WORLD-EDU’12), Athens, Greece. http://www.naun.org/conferences/2012/edu/index.html March 7-9, 2012 Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), sponsored by the University of the West Indies and UNESCO, Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Flash Dead for eLearning 14 November, 2011, 8:06 am
I've been warning about this since January 2010 in Still No Flash, and called it out further as the signs became more serious in May 2010 with Beginning of Long Slow Death of Flash. My words then: We are hitting a tipping point where you have to question building anything that uses Flash as the delivery mechanism. In February of 2011, Mobile Learning and the Continuing Death of Flash, I pointed to the smart moves by Rapid Intake to work around this problem. And said, The death of Flash is continuing. Well, I believe we've seen continuing signs of this with Adobe moving its tools towards HTML 5. And now, Adobe Admits: Apple Won, Flash For Mobile is Done, HTML5 is the Future. What does all of this mean? No More Fence Sitting! Content Creators => you can no longer build content in Flash as a delivery vehicle. You must adopt tools that do not rely on Flash as a delivery mechanism or at least delivery solutions to Flash and HTML 5. Authoring Tool Companies => you must immediately talk to your product roadmap and how you will be able to deliver HTML 5 content. You must look at how media will be handled going forward. This may seem like a shock, but we've gone through this transition before as we move from desktop to web-based delivery. Really Flash was part of that last wave. It won't be part of the next wave. Of course, that still leaves some really hard questions about how you design for all the different mobile platforms with widely different screen sizes and their non-standard inputs and widely varying connection speeds. This is a great opportunity for mobile authoring tools to take a bite out of a much larger market much like the Director to Flash transition did back in the day. I'll be curious to hear comments on this. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.
LMS Low-Cost Webinars Hosted eCommerce Subscriptions 17 October, 2011, 8:27 am
I was talking with a startup that has an existing audience and now want to provide a monthly subscription for access to training to this audience. They will only convert a portion of the audience to the new service. The learners will get access to webinars, recorded webinars, videos, and other online content that they will author separately. They don't really have a tech team, so going with a hosted solution that would live at a subdomain would be best, i.e., subscribers would go to: learn.company.com in order to sign up, pay, and get access to webinars, content, etc. They are early stage, so low-cost would be good. And it would be nice if it was a Rapid LMS. I'm a little concerned how well LMS solutions will handle the webinar integration and the subscriptions. What would you recommend they research as possible options? Here are some resources that I found that may help: LMS eCommerce Solution Product Review: Litmos LMS LMS For SMBs And Training Companies – A Year On, Is It Still The Same? A Defense of the LMS (and a case for the future of Social Learning) LMS Spotlight: Litmos Wait. What? I can buy an LMS with a credit card? Why Do We Have an LMS? Why are So Many LMS Buyers Dissatisfied? What’s hurting the LMS market 2010 LMS Products of the Year LMS Satisfaction Features and Barriers Low Cost LMS - Help Needed Why it’s hard to find an LMS LMS Spotlight: Topyx LMS vendors: R u hearing us? Training Companies and LMS More LMS Options for Associations on a Budget And some of the resulting choices based on these resources: Coggno LearnHub Litmos Odijoo Learn.com Personal Edition Articulate Online CourseMill CourseMax Xerceo TrainingAtom Geo On-Demand Upside Learning Upside LMS Ultralearn TOPYX Sclipo CoursePark JoomlaLMS Intellum Ziiva Training Partner Syberworks Enlightus Rainmaker SimplyDigi Classrunner Hosted Moodle Totara LM LESS Feathercap LMS Cornerstone OnDemand SimplyDigiEDU 2.0 More: Absorb LMS (Blatant Media e-Learning) Acadia HCS (Acadia HCS) Allen Communication Learning Portal Avilar WebMentor Course-Source (Course-Source Limited) CourseMill LMS (Trivantis) DOTS (WebRaven) ED Training Platform (Strategia) Generation 21 Enterprise InforSource (InfoSource) Inquisiq EX (ICS Learning Group Inc.) IntraLearn XE (IntraLearn Software) Isoph Blue (Learn Something) Kallidus LMS (e2train) LearnerWeb (MaxIT) LearningServer IntraLearn LearnShare LMS (Learnshare) LMS Live (Wizdom Systems) MindFlash E-Learning System NetDimensions EKP Bronze OnPoint Learning & Performance Suite On-Tracker LMS (Interactive Solutions) OutStart Evolution LMS (OutStart) SSElearn Portal (SSE) Syntrio Enterprise (Syntrio) TeraLearn LMS (Teralearn.com) The Learning Manager (Worldwide Interactive) Tracker.Net (Platte Canyon) TrainingPartner (Geometrix) TrainingMine (Frontline Data Solutions) Upside LMS (Upside Learning Solutions) Virtual Training Assistant (RISC) And if you want a MUCH longer list, go download the 475+ LMS names from here: LMS and Learning Platforms eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

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The Pitfalls and Promises of Mobile Learning 3 April, 2011, 8:45 am
If you are in any way connected with the fields of training, learning and development, or eLearning, you are probably regularly inundated with messages about the wonders of mobile learning. Mobile devices, such as smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and tablet computers are becoming ubiquitous and increasingly powerful with respect to their range of functionality. Just about anything you can do on a desktop or laptop can now be accomplished via much smaller and more portable mobile devices. This is why many organizations are now looking to make learning materials available via these devices. They offer the possibility of reaching your learners wherever they happen to be in a very portable, flexible and convenient manner.However, all this fanfare about mobile learning - or mLearning - must be taken with a grain of salt.Firstly, unlike traditional eLearning, which relies on fairly common web standards to make things work correctly (no matter the learner’s computer operating system), there is a wide range of very different and distinct mobile operating systems. You will have a real challenge on your hands if your learners are using different smartphones with different operating systems (e.g. Google Android, Nokia Symbian, RIM BlackBerry OS, Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows CE, HP Palm WebOS, etc.). Mobile content must be developed in different ways to work on all of these competing mobile platforms. This can add greatly to the complexity and expense of developing and delivering mLearning. Secondly, the small screen size of most mobile devices, particularly most smartphones, is a limiting factor with respect to the type and extent of learning content that can be successfully delivered via these devices. Here are some tips about mLearning. Only Do mLearning When Your Learners are Truly Mobile It makes no sense doing mLearning just because you can. However, if the learners you are trying to reach are truly mobile, then mLearning makes sense. It can be a way of reaching “road warriors” with the training and support they need when they need it. Here are two of the best examples of mLearning I have come across:On the first day of the launch of a new product, sales reps communicate with each other via their smartphones. They share information about what benefits and features of the product are getting the best response, and what are the best approaches to countering objections. The organization was able to adjust and refine its sales approach for this new product by the first afternoon of its launch.A technician on a service call comes across an older model furnace with which he is not that familiar. He is able to access a knowledge database via his smartphone and successfully trouble-shoot the problem and fix it. Keep it Short and Sweet Most mobile devices are not well suited for delivering large amounts of learning content. Therefore, delivering a traditional “course” via smartphones is not practical or effective. However, for small “nuggets” of learning, or as an adjunct or follow up to other types of learning (i.e. in-person or eLearning courses), or as a just-in-time performance support tool, mLearning does have its place. On the Good News Front… The emergence of tablet computers (e.g. Apple iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, Samsung Galaxy Tab, etc.) may be a good compromise between robustness and mobility. Tablets will be able to facilitate much more in-depth learning experiences (because of more expansive screen real estate), while maintaining fairly good portability. Also, there are many software applications on the market that make it easier for you to author learning content and make it accessible to mobile devices, including: OnPoint CellCastwww.mlearning.com OutStart Hot Lava Mobile www.outstart.com/about-hot-lava-mobile.htm Intuition Mobile Learning www.intuition.com/solutions/mobile-learning/ Chalk Pushcast Software www.chalk.com/Home.aspx If you do venture into mLearning, make sure it is for all the right reasons, and that you start with a pilot to work out all the bugs before scaling up to a large roll out. Site Feed
Why Aren't Online Training Supports the Norm? 18 March, 2011, 11:55 am
A little while ago I was interested in a rapid eLearning authoring tool, and a sales rep did a web presentation for me, showing how it worked. He then encouraged me to download this software for a trial period. His demo was 20 - 30 minutes long, and only provided a very quick overview. I was concerned about how much time I would need to get to know the software in order to give it a really good test. So I asked if there were any online tutorials that could walk me through things as I familiarized myself with the product. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, the answer was "no."The sales rep pointed to product manuals in PDF format that could be downloaded and read. And the company did offer webinars on their product (for which they charge a fee). I wasn't interested in the PDF option because of the amount of time I calculated it would take, and I wasn't interested in the webinar option because I didn't want to spend money to decide if I wanted to spend money on the product (if you get what I mean).I don't want to call out this particular software company. It would be unfair to do so, as it seems to be the norm these days that companies offer amazing and feature-rich products, but then do so little to help people learn how to use them. It is also rather ironic that a company can offer a tool that allows the user to create highly engaging and interactive online learning, yet they rely on static print to teach people how to use their tool. It is like the apocryphal tale of the shoemaker's children going barefoot.I really wish that more software companies would provide always-available online multimedia "how to" tutorials on the use of their products. I realize that most of what we learn about software is via trial and error, but I still feel that there is a need for a "head start" at the beginning to get going, and then specific guidance on specific problems on an on-going basis as you get to know the software better, or need to perform a specific task with it.Even when software companies do go beyond the PDF manual approach to client education, they tend to fall back on some fairly traditional approaches - in-person classroom sessions, or scheduled webinars. However, self-study online tutorials have advantages over these methods, as illustrated in the following chart. Traditional Approach to Software Training Support (e.g. In-person Class or Webinar) Online “How To” Tutorials Timeliness / Convenience Rigid, scheduled for a specific time, relies on having all the right people in the right place at the right time / set time for everyone Available 24/7 from anywhere with an Internet connection, and learner devotes as much time as is necessary Focus Course-based, follows a set curriculum Solution-focused, learner finds the answer to a specific question when needed Depth One size fits all Learner delves into training only as deeply as is required Pace One size fits all Learner moves through training materials at own pace Relevance Information dump, hope it is all relevant Learner focuses in on what is relevant to him/her Retention Difficult, too much covered all at once More retained, as learning is accessed in bite-sized chunks and applied as needed Review Difficult, have to wade through course manual or replay an entire webinar Easy access to exactly what is required Cost High and on-going (e.g. trainers, materials, travel, out-of-pockets, etc.) After start up costs for developing tutorials, marginal costs are extremely low for supporting an almost infinite number of learners Although addressing software training here, the same principle can apply to any sort of product or service. An educated client is likely to make better use of your product or service, get better value from it, and, therefore, be a more satisfied client. Our firm is finding that more and more of our work is centred on helping organizations use online education to provide better client service.And I say put such online training supports right on your website and freely available to all. That way these resources can serve two purposes - added support for your existing clients, and an excellent marketing vehicle for your prospective clients. Smart companies are also posting such training resources to YouTube, for even wider distribution.Don't treat training supports as an afterthought. By putting them online and available 24 x 7 x 352, you are making it easier for clients to use your product and for prospects to understand it, and by doing so, to purchase it.Site Feed
Lessons Learned from the Past Year 14 January, 2011, 10:42 am
The ASTD Learning Circuits Blog (moderated by Tony Karrer) poses a monthly "Big Question" and asks learning professionals to share their insights on key topics. The Big Question for this past December was "What did you learn about learning in 2010?" Two of the contributions really resonated with me. Ryan Tracey's polemic against online courses and Jason McDonald's advocacy of slowing down for deeper learning hit home for me as I have been coming to similar insights myself lately.Why Must So Much Learning Be Force Fed Via Courses?Online courses must die! This is the deliberately provocative title of Ryan Tracey's submission to the Big Question conversation. His thesis, in a nutshell, is that not all eLearning in an organization needs to be experienced via courses. It is inefficient, not always effective, and wasteful of developers' and learners' time to have courses on every conceivable topic. Just because we have easy-to-use rapid course authoring tools for eLearning does not mean we have to use these in every instance. Most learning of simple content, processes or tasks can better be handled via easily-accessible job aids or focused learning objects/applets.Tracey calls for the creation of Informal Learning Environments (ILEs), that are essentially searchable knowledge repositories of PDFs, audio clips, videos, slideshows, case studies, etc. Learners pull what they need from this repository as and when they need it, and also have access to experts and peers via blogs, wikis, discussion forums and social bookmarks.Tracey also advocates for a separation of content (whether in the form of courses or other types of supports / resources) and assessment. His mantra is to "informalise learning, formalize assessment." The idea is that learners can access learning any way they choose, and, when ready, complete a formal assessment exercise to prove their competence in various areas.Let's Slow DownJason McDonald's big insight in 2010 was that to accomplish any kind of deep and meaningful learning we need to slow down. Multi-tasking and being constantly hyper-connected via email, texting, tweeting, Skyping, Facebooking, etc., is not conducive to deep, reflective learning. Modern life has left us too scattered and our attention torn in 10 different directions. It is not surprising that we sometimes find it hard to internalize new learning (whether from a course or in the ways noted by Ryan Tracey above).This is why McDonald urges everyone to try, every once in a while, to be consciously in the moment, and focused on one thing to try to fully comprehend it and to apply this learning in your life and/or work. The key is to tear yourself away from your laptop, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, etc. once in a while and to think about one thing at one time. Go off to a quiet corner and read that book, research report, user manual, job aid, etc. Some of my best insights come to me when I am out walking, bike riding or cross-country skiing (sans Blackberry). I will subconsciously process something I learned earlier that day / week / month, and come up with a new way of looking at a particular challenge. The mind is clear and can work efficiently when off the "grid" for a bit.LessonsSo if you are a learner yourself, or organizing learning for others, remember that not all learning need come packaged in a course, and give yourself and your learners the space and time to process and internalize that learning.Site Feed
Instructional Design Malpractice 29 October, 2010, 7:34 am
I recently came across an interesting online conversational podcast with Clark Quinn (Quinnovation) and Cammy Bean (Kineo) on the topic of "instructional design malpractice." Of course there is no such crime on the books, but perhaps there should be.The upshot of the admittedly tongue-in-cheek conversation was that there is too much boring eLearning out there that is overly long, overly detailed, and just not focused on what counts - namely, changing behaviour. Quinn, an expert on the use of games in learning, says much of existing eLearning is an "unemotional knowledge dump." Learners must read through or listen to loads of often irrelevant subject matter content, and then do an often insulting multiple choice test. Is it any wonder that many learners dread eLearning more than root canals?Ouch, this really hits home. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has been guilty of such crimes in the past, or has some embarrassing examples of "unemotional knowledge dumps" in my portfolio. But what brings it on? There are the usual excuses: no time; no budget; client wants a knowledge dump, etc. But if we as eLearning developers were to be honest with ourselves, we are often the problem because we do not fight hard enough for what we know to be the right approach.Quinn contends that instructional designers need to take a more active role in educating subject matter experts and fighting for what they know works best for eLearners. He says we have a responsibility to keep digging for what is important. Instead of just blindly accepting droves of content from subject matter experts, we need to get to the gist of what the targeted learners will need to be able to do. What cognitive decisions will they need to make? This is what should inform the learning, not memorizing a wad of useless facts.For Quinn, good eLearning:Is centred on skills (doing vs. knowing)Is lean (focused on what is important, to-the-point, less-is-more)Is emotionally engaging (hooks the learner with clear WIIFM - What's In It For Me - statements)Provides mental models for learners (greater context for new skills that are being developed)Uses examples (makes the learning real)Provides opportunities for practice (learners apply new concepts, make decisions, see results)Provides opportunities for reflection (providing a closure to the learning experience, reflecting on what the learning means in the learner's own context)We should keep Quinn's seven-step model for good instructional design in mind when developing eLearning. Clients rarely hire us for any particular subject matter expertise we may have. They hire us because we know how learning best happens and what type of learning will have real impact where it counts - in changing behaviours. So it behooves us to take an activist role and fight for what we know works best. Otherwise, we may be rightly charged with "instructional design malpractice."Site Feed
Work = Learning 20 October, 2010, 7:59 am
"Change is so fast and furious that work and learning blur into one activity."Jay Cross, et. al., Working Smarter in Terra Nova Circa 2015Jay Cross and his colleagues at Internet Time Group have recently published an interesting article on the evolution of work. Noting the major shifts in human history, from the Agricultural Age, to the Industrial Age, to the Information Age, they now say we are on the verge of "Terra Nova," a new age characterized by "creative collaboration in networks." Their thesis is that Terra Nova will supplant traditional top-down hierarchies with networks of people working collaboratively, sharing information in real time, to solve problems. To quote:"Terra Nova screams out for a never-ending process of applying learning while working, not apart from it, predicated on:1. Learning what you need to know, when you need to know it2. Reinforcing the lesson by applying3. Knowing where to find relevant information in lieu of memorizing it4. Learning from your peers and on your own rather than from instructors following a set curriculum"We are seeing this shift occurring in our own work for clients recently. Many of the projects that we have worked on lately have been less about creating online courses, and more about creating the means for individuals to learn collaboratively (e.g. learning communities, wikis, etc.), and to learn at the point of need (e.g. searchable knowledge repositories, embedded electronic supports, etc.). Sometimes courses do not meet the learning need because they take too long to develop, their lessons can be forgotten over time, and they are often too long and detailed to meet specific learning needs effectively or efficiently.This trend suggests that we should worry less about teaching people about specific subject matter content, which can change rapidly in the context of a job, and help them develop competencies in searching, sharing, critical thinking, analysis, networking and collaborating.I have seen this shift myself for the last few years in watching colleagues who work in IT. Developments in this field change rapidly and regularly. When something goes wrong - such as a system going down - IT personnel do not have time to take a course to figure things out. They need a solution ASAP, so they do Google searches and scan various online IT community of practice discussion boards or help boards, as well as tapping into their network of contacts, for immediate answers. They are learning about the intricacies of their field each and every day in this way. As the pace of change in all fields starts to match that in IT, we are all now having to learn quickly and on the fly.This does not mean that the course is dead, or that there is no need for the course. There is still a place for the course in developing more complex competencies over time, and for various forms of compliance training. However, organizations have to decide what kind of learning is best suited to a course and what types of learning are best suited for "quick hit" approaches such as knowledge databases, online communities, and live webinars, versus formally-structured courses. To help clients determine what approaches work best for which training challenges, we often provide a decision-making matrix that maps training mode against the complexity of desired learning objectives, degree of feedback required, content stability, timeliness and need for evaluation and tracking.In short, the pace of change is too rapid, learning needs too immense and immediate, and time is too precious to force fit all required learning in an organization through courses. Learning can no longer be thought of as something apart from work, it needs to be integrated into the daily fabric of work life. We need to create work environments that facilitate learning at all times.Site Feed
Demonstrate Your Value 18 January, 2009, 5:49 pm
The training blogosphere has been buzzing lately with a great deal of agonizing, soul-searching and prognosticating about what the recession means for the industry. As with recessions that have come before, there are concerns about huge cuts to training budgets, loss of training staff through down-sizing, and a general retrenchment in training operations.Many point to eLearning as a possible saving grace among all the doom and gloom. They rightly note that eLearning provides many savings and efficiencies over traditional training methodologies in terms of reduced travel costs, reduced back-fill costs to cover for the physical absence of trainees, and increased reach by being able to train large numbers of people in a short time frame.For many executives and senior managers, however, a more efficient and cost-effective training function may not be enough to save the training area from serious down-sizing in tough economic times. In good times, they may give the training operation the benefit of the doubt that training interventions are having positive impacts on the organization. Bad times require proof. If, as a training manager, all you can offer is savings over the way you did things before, senior management may decide that the greatest savings would be to cut your operation all together.So, by all means, do all you can to streamline your training efforts. Use eLearning wisely to reach more and more learners for less and less money expended per learner over time. But you need to go beyond this to demonstrate training's value to the organization. You need to address some pain the organization is experiencing and make a positive contribution to alleviating this through training.Whether this pain is a need to increase sales, improve customer retention rates, or decrease defect rates, you need to position your eLearning efforts as part of the solution to this problem. You need to work with the relevant business unit to devise a training program that addresses the pain, and to collect metrics that demonstrate the intervention is working.This is how you can move the training function from an expense line that is easy to cut, to a valued contributor to solutions. Of course, you should be doing this in good times as well as bad.Site Feed
Lessons from Wii Fit 6 January, 2009, 1:52 pm
We visited some friends over the holidays and they were lucky enough to secure the Wii Fit balance board. Nintendo, the makers of this device, have been having difficulties keeping up with the demand for this nifty game. It plays with the Wii console, hooks up to a TV, and allows users to perform various physical exercises on it (e.g. balance games, yoga, aerobic, and strength training) and see their results on the screen.Six adults managed to spend an entire afternoon engaged in various activities on this device. Instead of the usual holiday pursuits of over eating and imbibing, we were exercising and having a ball. As we headed home later that night, I started thinking about the genius that lies behind Wii Fit and the lessons it can teach those of us in the business of eLearning.Personalized and Goal-BasedYou enter in your own personal information (apparently I am a little short for my weight), set your own goals around fitness, and can monitor your progress over time.There is built in motivation as you can earn "Fit Credits" which allow you access to even more activities as you progress.You can compete against yourself (trying to meet your own goals) and/or compete against others for added motivation.Coaching and Immediate FeedbackThere are virtual coaches who explain how everything works and provide immediate feedback on your performance, along with some encouragement along the way.FlexibilityYou can spend as much or as little time as you would like on the various exercises, investing time as you have it.Simple, Intuitive NavigationSix adults in their 40s and 50s did not have to once ask a child how the system works. A simple screen layout, along with helpful audio and visual prompts throughout, made for an easily-understood interface.Hard FunThe activities are fun, but not necessarily easy. They push you to perform. In fact, as you progress and earn more points, the activities become more challenging. This is as it should be as you begin mastering any task.Of course, most of us do not have millions of dollars in development money to spend on our eLearning projects. However, that is not the point. You may not be able to equal the production value of the Wii Fit, but there are real lessons to be taken away regarding how to make learning personalized, motivational, supported, flexible, intuitive, fun and challenging.Site Feed
Focus on Action in eLearning Design 14 July, 2008, 4:34 pm
My job involves coaching and mentoring a great many instructional designers - both within our own eLearning development projects and as a service for many of our clients. One of the biggest challenges I face in this regard is getting designers to get to the essence of a training challenge and cut out all extraneous content that detracts from the main learning objectives. Less is indeed more when we can get from A to B in a short, straight line. I recently came across an excellent technique called "action mapping" that I will start using to help focus eLearning on intended outcomes based on desired actions. Cathy Moore, in her very informative blog (Ideas for Lively eLearning), lays out succinctly how action mapping can work in this slideshow: SlideShare"> | View | Upload your own Moore advocates an approach to eLearning design that works backward from the intended business goal (expressed as an action). This avoids the trap of a linear information content dump and piling up irrelevant information that does not really help learners get to the desired goal. Action mapping is a four-step process as follows: 1. Identify the business goal. 2. Identify what people need to do to reach that goal. 3. Design activities that help people practice each behaviour (the "to do's" noted in #2). 4. Identify the minimum information people need to complete each activity. By starting with a clear goal and focusing on required actions to reach that goal, we can provide a great deal more focus to our learning design and avoid the information dump that unfortunately characterizes much of eLearning today. Site Feed
Rule #1: Respect the Learner 11 May, 2008, 12:47 pm
Our Certificate in eLearning Management is based on principles of experiential learning. In other words, instead of just learning about eLearning, we have learners doing various facets of eLearning to demonstrate competency attainment. The last competency deliverable in our Engaging Your eLearners course is for learners to actually facilitate on online session, receive feedback from participants, reflect on their experience, and produce a list of facilitation best practice principles.One program participant recently lead a 10-day asynchronous online discussion as her facilitation competency exercise on the topic of "What advice would you provide for a novice learning designer?" The topic really forced me to think about what I considered to be the most important thing to keep in mind when designing learning experiences, especially with respect to designing eLearning.The conclusion I came to was that it was most important to respect the learner. Learning Designers should:Respect the Learner's NeedsWe too often cram way too much content into eLearning experiences, not all of it immediately relevant to what targeted learners need to know and need to do. We have to be the filters / editors between what subject matter experts (SMEs) think is important and what is most important to learners.Respect the Learner's TimeThis is closely related to the first point. Adult learners are time-starved. You need to get to the point quickly, divide learning into digestible "chunks," and create intuitive and easy-to-navigate learning experiences.Respect the Learner's IntelligenceAcknowledge that learners have brains and are willing to use them. Do not make tasks / assessments so mind-numbingly obvious or easy that they insult the learner's intelligence. Challenge them, make them stretch, and let them fail if need be. The best lessons are hard-won.Just like Aretha Franklin, all that learners want is a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.Update on eLearning is Green (March 2nd Posting)My last posting on the green benefits of eLearning generated a lot of response, including these resource links from reader Andy Lang:http://www.terrapass.com/buy-carbon-offsets/http://www.footprintnetwork.org/Site Feed
eLearning is Green 3 March, 2008, 8:11 am
In the course of helping a company devise an eLearning strategy, we were interviewing a number of key stakeholders in the organization. These interviews are an important part of the process of gathering information on the best ways of better integrating eLearning into the organization's training mix.When we asked interviewees why the company wanted to better utilize eLearning, we heard many of the usual and quite predictable answers: they need learning on demand and at the point of need; they need to reach a highly dispersed workforce; they need to keep up with the rapid pace of change; they need a consistent approach to training across the organization, etc. However, we also heard from two Vice-Presidents who said that replacing a lot of classroom-based training with various eLearning approaches (e.g. online courses, webinars, knowledge repositories, online communities, etc.) will help them meet their strategic focus of becoming an environmentally sustainable company.This was something of an "aha" moment for me. It is so obvious now, but I never really stopped to consider it before. eLearning is a green industry! They talked about reducing their "training footprint." These two VPs could see how more eLearning meant less carbon expended on planes, cars, taxis, training rooms (to ferry and house trainers and trainees across the country) and fewer trees expended on three-inch thick training manuals (which seem to be de rigueur for in-person training sessions).I'm not the expert on environmental questions, but I am sure there must be some formula out there for calculating an organization's carbon footprint, and the amount that their current training efforts contribute to this. If anyone has seen any literature out there on this question, please pass it on.So, if you are looking for more potential benefits to list when convincing decision-makers to invest in eLearning, be sure to mention its green nature. This, however, cannot be the only reason for doing eLearning, or the only measure of success. If you reduce your organization's training footprint, but fail to provide training that is focused on real value creation for the organization, you are not really any farther ahead. You may end up helping save the planet a little in the short-run, but lose the company in the long-run.Site Feed

trends.masie

706 - CES Show Impacts for Learning? Gesture & Reaction-Based Controls? 12 January, 2012, 7:38 am
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - January 12, 2012.#706 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,579 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Host of Learning 2012 - Oct 21 to 24 - Orlando, FL, USA. 1. CES Gadget Show - Impacts for Learning?2. Gesture Based/Reaction Based Content Response.3. So Many Thanks for Your Kind and Warm Personal Notes! 1. CES Gadget Show - Impacts for Learning?: I have 8 colleagues who are attending the CES/Gadget Technology Show in Las Vegas this week, reporting on the implications of the announcements for our world of learning. In a nutshell, there really were very few major announcements at CES that would shock or rock your budgets for the coming year. But, there are some trends that we should be tracking that may have implications for our field. Here are a few of the comments from our “reporters” in Las Vegas: A- Monitors, Screens and Interactions: “The city is packed with hundreds of new larger and more interactive screens. The size, brightness, thinness and the affordability of screens are rapidly increasing. In fact, soon it will be difficult to choose a projector if we can get a 70+ inch screen with more interactivity that can be seen in most classrooms. 3D, while interesting to watch, still is ahead of a real ability to leverage it in a face- to-face setting. Keep an eye on upcoming announcements from Apple, Google and others extending the Screen/TV/Internet connections.”B- Skype/Video for the Room: “There are several new and highly affordable camera/microphone connections being displayed. From $80 to $300, you can turn a plasma/LCD screen into an interactive video conference. Watch for more integration with Skype, Microsoft Lync and other video/communication platforms.”C- Ultrabook Confusion: “While there was a lot of hype about the role of the Ultrabook, as an alternative to the tablet, no one was seeing these hitting the jackpot. Perhaps most missing, was the lack of Apps, that would give the Ultrabook more a tablet + PC capability.”D- Gaming Moving to Next: “Some of the most interesting announcements were done off the main stage, as Gaming companies were showing simpler App-like functions that organizations could leverage as part of their content. Stay tuned!” We will do a more comprehensive review this weekend, after all of the reports are in. Thanks to our Vegas spotters. 2. Gesture-Based/Reaction-Based Content Response: One other “aha” from CES was the announcement that Microsoft is shifting the Kinect, which was a gesture-based extension of XBOX, to a Windows environment on Feb 1st. This weekend, Microsoft made the Kinect system available to each of the high schools in the FIRST Robotics competition as another way in which devices could be controlled by human interaction. The MASIE Center will be doing some lab experiments in in the next month to look at how gestures and even reactions of learners could shift how content is displayed. The Kinect will be one system, but we will also experiment with laptop and tablet-based systems. Stay tuned. 3. So Many Thanks for Your Kind and Warm Personal Notes! I was flooded with over 900 notes from TRENDS readers after sharing the news of my head injury and fall in Bali during our Asian trip in December. Your comments and prayers have been so warmly received. I started to answer each one, but I’ll rely on a TRENDS note to say thanks. I am feeling much better. My brain is functioning at almost full level (95%) and I am getting my back into better shape. It was a scary moment and I feel very blessed to be fully recovering. But, most importantly, the trust and thanks from learning colleagues around the world has been inspiring. Thanks again! Yours in learning,Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2012 - Oct 21 - 24, 2012 - Orlando, Florida.* Video for Learning LAB - January in Saratoga Springs* Performance Support LAB - January in Saratoga Springs* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
Back from Asia, 2012 Seminars and Elliott Falls & Heals 4 January, 2012, 2:12 pm
TO: Learning, Training & Performance ColleaguesFROM: Elliott MasieDATE: January 4, 2012 1. Starting 2012 With Learning Labs for Learning Professionals!2. Asia Trip was Awesome - And, Elliott Heals After Bali Fall. 1. Starting 2012 With Learning Labs for Learning Professionals: After a month in Asia, I am pleased to be back in Saratoga Springs, NY! We have two in-depth labs for learning professionals in the coming weeks. There are a few seats left in each of these programs. Consider joining us: * Video for Learning LAB & Seminar!Led by Elliott MasieJanuary 23-25, 2012 - Saratoga Springs, NYInfo & Registration: http://www.masie.com * Performance Support & Workplace GPS!Led by Bob Mosher, Conrad GottfredsonJanuary 18 to 20, 2012 - Saratoga SpringsInfo & Registration: http://www.masie.com 2. Asia Trip was Awesome - And, Elliott Heals After Bali Fall: Our 26 day learning trip to Asia was awesome. We visited learning colleagues in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries where we learned about the rapid growth of Starbucks, the plans for Disney English, the work at Shanghai General Motors and many other organizations. Our Chinese, American and global learning colleagues were so gracious to us. Everywhere we went, the learning conversation rapidly evolved to Learning Globally. In the coming weeks, watch for new programs from The MASIE Center on this key topic! Elliott Falls and Heals: Well, sometimes accidents happen. One morning in Bali, on the path to an outdoor massage, something happened and I ended up falling 9 feet, gashing my head and ending up pretty rattled. The good news is that I got great care. When I returned to Saratoga, a CT scan showed that I had 2 small brain bleeds, but my brain is alive, active and will be deeply involved in learning issues in the coming weeks. A bit of rest and loads of great support are helping me to heal. I will be fine and really appreciate the notes from colleagues around the world. Yours in learning,Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2012 - Oct 21 - 24, 2012 - Orlando, Florida.* Video for Learning LAB & Seminar - Jan 23-25 - Saratoga Springs.* Performance Support/Workplace GPS - Jan 18-20 - Saratoga Springs.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUM.Info and Registration: http://www.masie.com
2012 Seminars: Video for Learning and Performance Support/GPS 28 November, 2011, 3:24 pm
TO: Learning, Training & Performance Colleagues.FROM: Elliott Masie.DATE: November 28, 2011. Start 2012 with a hands-on, deep dive Lab & Seminar designed for Learning Professionals. The MASIE Center invites you and your colleagues to participate in one of our unique programs: * Performance Support & Workplace GPS!Led by Bob Mosher & Conrad Gottredson. Host: Bob Baker, MASIE Center CLO.January 18-20, 2012 - Saratoga Springs, NY Info & Registration: http://www.masie.com * Video for Learning LAB & Seminar!Led by Elliott Masie.January 23-25, 2012 - Saratoga Springs, NY Info & Registration: http://www.masie.com Each of these programs is a roll-up-your-sleeves experience in our 10,000 square foot MASIE Center Learning LAB in Saratoga Springs, NY. Space is limited - register early! Yours in learning,Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2012 - Oct 21 - 24, 2012 - Orlando, Florida.* Video for Learning LAB & Seminar - Jan 23-25 - Saratoga Springs.* Performance Support/Workplace GPS - Jan 18-20 - Saratoga Springs.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
703 - Learning Videos Posted; Cool CLO Job, Happy Thanksgiving 23 November, 2011, 8:34 am
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - November 23. 2011.#703 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,577 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Use 2011 Funds for Learning 2012: http://www.learning2011.com/planahead . 1. Learning Video Clips & Interviews Galore.2. Cool CLO Position Posted.3. Happy Thanksgiving to TRENDS Readers. 1. Learning Video Clips & Interviews Galore: We are pleased to announce the posting of over 12 hours of video from keynotes and interviews at Learning 2011. Watch interviews with Inventor Dean Kamen, learning leaders from Walmart and Starbucks, and much more. Our producer Lauren has broken these interviews into segments focused on key questions; you can use them or pass them along. Stay tuned for some segments from my interviews with President Clinton and John Lithgow, to be posted in a few weeks. Go to http://www.learningtalks.com for the videos from Learning 2011. Great job, Lauren! 2. Cool CLO Position Posted: There is a very interesting and important job opening as the new Chief Learning Officer of the Veterans Health Administration, a part of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. This is a critical role in one of the most important government agencies in the United States. If you are interested in this opportunity or know of an appropriate candidate, please point them to this URL: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/302349300 3. Happy Thanksgiving to TRENDS Readers: May our Learning TRENDS readers have a safe and healthy Thanksgiving holiday. Friends, family, good food and thoughts about all that we have to be thankful for are so key, especially at a time of change and uncertainty. Here is a Mohawk Native American Prayer of Thanksgiving - from four hundred years ago: Oh Great Spirit, Creator of all things;Human Beings, trees, grass, berries.Help us, be kind to us.Let us be happy on earth.Let us lead our childrenTo a good life and old age.These our people; give them good minds.To love one another.Oh Great Spirit,Be kind to us.Give these people the favor.To see green trees,Green grass, flowers, and berries.This next spring;So we all meet again.Oh Great Spirit,We ask of you. Thanksgiving greetings to our Learning Trends colleagues around the world. Yours in learning,Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2012 - Oct 21 - 14, 2012 - Orlando, Florida.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
702 - Masie Trip to Asia; Learning 2011 Wrap-Up 15 November, 2011, 3:12 pm
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - November 15, 2011.#702 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,568 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Host of Learning 2012 - Oct 21 to 24 - Orlando, Florida! 1. Learning 2011 Learnings.2. Masie Trip to Asia Set for December. 1. Learning 2011 Learnings: We are in the debrief and “recovery” stage after Learning 2011, which took place last week in Orlando with 2,046 colleagues participating. From 90 minutes with President Clinton to a storytelling extravaganza with John Lithgow, from keynote presentations about “Transactive Memory” to Undercover Boss Experiences and the over 240 seminars, there is much to process, publish and reflect upon. Over the next 2 weeks, we will release dozens of hours of video and other content. But, here are some resources for your learning pleasure: * Learning Wiki: We have placed content, video and participant perspectives on the seminars and keynotes at http://www.learningwiki.com Visit the CONTENT section and you will see this grow in the days ahead.* Learning 2012 Dates: October 21 to 24, 2012 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Early Registration will open next week for those who want to use 2011 funds for next year’s event.* Video Segments Posted: Starting later this week, we will publish most of the keynote presentations in full and small segment lengths. These will be linked from our sites and we will make an announcement in Learning TRENDS. Thanks to Team MASIE for their energetic work on this incredible conference and I am deeply honored by the participation of such a diverse set of global learning colleagues. 2. Masie Trip to Asia Set for December: We will be going to parts of Asia for one month, in December, focusing on Learning Changes in that region. I would love to meet any of our Learning TRENDS readers and colleagues - or colleagues of colleagues - in these regions: - Shanghai, China: December 3 to 6th- Beijing, China: December 8 to 11th- Hong Kong, China: December 12 to 14- Bangkok, Thailand: December 15 to 19 If you are located in this region, would you send me a note to emasie@masie.com and let me know. We will also be blogging about Learning in Asia during this trip and these will be linked from Learning TRENDS.Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2011 - Nov 6 to 9, 2011 - Orlando, Florida.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
701 - eBook Released: Learning Perspectives, CNN Video Experience Grows 3 November, 2011, 7:40 am
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - November 3. 2011.#701 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,565 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Host of Learning 2011 - Over 2,047 Colleagues Registered! 1. eBook Released: Learning Perspectives 2011.2. CNN Video for Learning Experience - More Segments.3. Design Model - Welcoming & “Anticipatory Set”.4. Last Minute Registrations Coming In. 1. eBook Released: Learning Perspectives 2011: We are pleased to announce this year’s Learning Perspectives 2011 e-Book was just released in open source for your download and reading. We have articles from several dozen “30 Under 30” learning professionals, with their views on the changing nature of our field. In addition, Bob Baker, CLO of the MASIE Center, has a detailed perspective on the role of “Checklists” for the learning world. And, Nigel Paine and I have added articles about challenges in the field. Download it at http://learning2011.com/ebook 2. CNN Video for Learning Experience - More Segments: CNN is leading a fascinating activity at our upcoming event. It’s called the CNN Video for Learning Experience and 2,000 people will practice gathering and editing stories using their mobile devices. To prepare for this, CNN has made several short video clips about producing simple story segments on a phone: http://www.learning2011.com/cnnvideo 3. Design Model - Welcoming & “Anticipatory Set”: How learners come to a learning experience has an enormous impact on the outcomes. I learned that from the work of Madeline Hunter, who called it “Anticipatory Set”. In our design model, we have been working intentionally on getting people ready for our Learning 2011 event. Here is another example: we produced a quick video yesterday from the lobby of our hotel, setting “anticipation” and framing the upcoming experience: http://www.learning2011.com/welcomevid 4. Last Minute Registrations Coming In: Believe it or not, we are getting a slew of last minute registrations for Learning 2011, which starts on Sunday, and we are ready and able to accommodate you. Disney has rooms on property and we have added a few extra bags, guides and meals. Just go to http://www.learning2011.com and register, or even join us on site and we will handle it when you get here. Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2011 - Nov 6 to 9, 2011 - Orlando, Florida.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
700 - Taking the Train to Learning 31 October, 2011, 6:36 am
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - October 31, 2011.#700 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,559 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Host of Learning 2011 - Over 1,998 Colleagues Registered! Taking the Train to Learning :) Yes, Learning TRENDS readers, I am about to get on the Amtrak overnight train on Tuesday morning in New York City for the trip to Learning 2011 in Orlando. This is a yearly ritual. First, it is sort of funny to take the train to Learning, but, it really does work for me. I get a chance to look out the window, reflect on the field, prepare for 2,000 colleagues at Learning 2011 and enjoy a change of scenery. By time I arrive on Wednesday morning at 10:00 am, I feel as though I’m refreshed and in a new mode. Design, teaching and facilitating is in large part mental: we have to get our heads in the right place and nurture a sense of readiness. The train does that for me. I get a small bedroom, facing the backyard of America as I rock and roll down to Florida. There is a diverse mixture of folks on board and I can even stay connected on bandwidth from either Amtrak or my iPad. To check out our latest Design Blog, including last minute design decisions and plans for the train trip, please visit: http://www.learning2011.com/512-Content-Train-to-Orlando.htm If you want to try Skyping to the “Training Elliott”, send me a note to emasie@masie.com There are still spaces and we have just gone over the 2,000 mark of participants. Last minute registrations available at: http://www.learning2011.com Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2011 - Nov 6 to 9, 2011 - Orlando, Florida.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
Quick Poll on Your Learning Preferences 29 October, 2011, 7:59 am
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - October 29, 2011.#700 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,559 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Host of Learning 2011 - Over 1,998 Colleagues Registered! Quick Poll on Your Learning Preferences: Please take 3 minutes to RANK ORDER your preferences for learning a major new Process or Product at work (eg. classroom, eLearning, webinar, OJT). http://www.learning2011.com/511-Learning-Preferences-Poll.htm Yours in Learning, Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2011 - Nov 6 to 9, 2011 - Orlando, Florida.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
699 - President Clinton's New Book Released During Learning 2011 28 October, 2011, 2:10 pm
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - October 28. 2011.#699 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,552 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Host of Learning 2011 - Over 1,998 Colleagues Registered! Update: We got exciting news today. President Bill Clinton, our keynoter at Learning 2011, will be releasing his new book “Back to Work” on the morning after his appearance at Learning 2011. His book details a perspective of how to re-charge the economy with an emphasis on job creation and expansion. In addition to his speech, I will be interviewing President Clinton for 30 minutes on this and other topics. Read the blog entry at: http://www.learning2011.com/510-President-Clinton-Book-Nov-8-Release.htm And, if you can still make last minute plans, we would love to have you join 2,000 global learning colleagues at Learning 2011: http://www.learning2011.com Yours in Learning, Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2011 - Nov 6 to 9, 2011 - Orlando, Florida.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com
698 - Buttons, Skins, Keynoters and News 27 October, 2011, 2:29 pm
Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - October 27, 2011.#698 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.55,543 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.Host of Learning 2011 - Over 1,967 Colleagues Registered! 1. Buttons and Skins: Small Design Details.2. Dean Kamen on Education Changes – Business Week.3. Betsy Myers on Leadership - ABCNews.4. Peter Capelli on Skills - Wall Street Journal. 1. Buttons and Skins - Small Design Details: As TRENDS readers know, we are now 10 days away from Learning 2011 and I am obsessing over final design details. Here are two fun design decisions that we made: * Buttons: We just received 21,280 Buttons for the 2,000 participants - a form of wearable Social Networking. From “Mentor Wanted” to “Aging LMS” to “Dexter Fan”, these buttons are just one way for our colleagues to have fun and connect with each other. Check out the photo at http://learning2011.com/506-21-280-Buttons-Made.htm* iPad Skin? Yup, got to dress up your iPad if it is going high definition on huge screens. So, one of the design decisions was to create a “skin” for my tablet. Picture at http://learning2011.com/508-Tablet-Skin-10-Days.htm Our Learning 2011 Keynoters have been in the news a lot this week. Here is a sample: 2. Dean Kamen on Education Changes - Business Week: Dean, who is the inventor of the Segway, founder of FIRST® Robotics and a colleague of mine, is interviewed in Business Week on what we should do with education: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/how-to-fix-the-education-crisis-10132011.html 3. Betsy Myers on Leadership - ABCNews: Betsy, another close friend and the author of “Take The Lead”, was interviewed by ABC News on how to think differently about leadership development - http://abcnews.go.com/Business/video/lead-leadership-advice-14528705 4. Peter Cappelli on Skills - Wall Street Journal: Peter, one of the leading experts on workforce demographics and skills, wrote a provocative article in the Wall Street Journal on Why Companies Can’t Find the Employees They Need: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576596630897409182.html We are about to take our 2,000th registration and there are still rooms for last minute sign-ups. Go to http://www.learning2011.com Yours in Learning, Elliott Masie.email: emasie@masie.com MASIE Center Seminars, Events and Services:* Learning 2011 - Nov 6 to 9, 2011 - Orlando, Florida.* Membership in The Learning CONSORTIUMInfo and Registration: http://www.masie.com

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