INATT makes sense because most of us realise that people make things happen, not technology. It’s not about the technology is a rallying cry amongst many in education or in fields that are being disrupted by information technology. Perhaps INATT, but: Imagine organising an international group of collaborators without access to Voice over IP (costs increase) or without presence monitoring (who’s available in what time zone) or without shared documents online (what’s the latest version?). Try to understand a different geographic market with no travel budget.

eLearn Magazine offers predictions for 2009 and Editor Lisa Neal Gualtieri says that the people polled “ unanimously agree the global economic downturn is the overwhelming factor coloring their forecasts, [however] they do see a great array of opportunities and challenges in the coming 12 months. &#. Here are the predictions from my TogetherLearn colleagues: Jane Hart : As the recession bites and training budgets are slashed, organizations will no longer be able to afford the production of sophisticated courseware. You can find my predictions in with the rest as well.

TechCrunch has just announced the winners of the 2nd annual Crunchies competition "to recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year", and some of my predictions for top tools in 2009 have done well: Cooliris is the winner of the Best Design category. Other nominees included Friendfeed and Sliderocket ). Evernote is the winner of the Best Mobile Startup category.  Other nominees included Qik and Posterous ). Friendfeed is the winner of the Best New Startup of 2008 category. iPhone 3G (for Best New Gadget/Device).

You can find the 30 or so predictions (including my own) in the current edition of eLearn magazine: Predictions for 2009. Lisa Neal Gualtieri has again this year gathered predictions on what lies ahead for the e-learning community. She summarises the results as follows: "While our colleagues here unanimously agree the global economic downturn is the overwhelming factor coloring their forecasts, they do see a great array of opportunities and challenges in the coming 12 months. Their insights never fail to inspire further discussion and hope."

think I’ll shoot for a dozen unworkshops in 2009. An unworkshop is composed of small pieces, loosely joined. always reserve the right to hop around based on my reading of the participants. Every unworkshop is unique unto itself.) Sometimes I get so worked up that I feel that I am channeling the material rather than presenting it. Unlike traditional workshops, nothing in one of these sessions is for sure. That’s the “un&# part. And it’s there because uncertainty engages the mind. The supporting presentation slides are all available on SlideShare. overview.

plan to devote more energy in 2009 to exploring social learning. The dictionary defines competence as the ability to do something well. In business-speak, Bloomberg defines competence as “Sufficient ability or fitness for one’s needs. The necessary abilities to be qualified to achieve a certain goal or complete a project.&#. These definitions describe being able to do something. None of them address having the motivation to actually do something. Business progress is measured in accomplishment, not potential. Being able doesn’t mean anything is going to get done. Ah ha!

I am putting an electric fence around my stuff. See you in a day or two

On January 30th, there will be an online conference, costing only $65, hosted in Second Life (so you can learn about Second Life as well), and it sounds intriguing with some solid speakers/hosts. Check it out. It's called Stepping Into Virtual Worlds.

It’s Friday yay! That means it’s time to feature another LMS that kicks ass! This is the seventh featured system in my Friday series highlighting LMSs that are doing innovative, kick-ass things with social media. Mzinga is the result of a merger between KnowledgePlanet and Shared Insights at the end of 2007. My first encounter with them was when they were still known as KnowledgePlanet. was at a demo of their system at a company near where I live - an area that is not an easy destination to fly to. Anyway, the rep I was working with at the time was Jen Chambers. Thanks Dave!

Forrester released a report today about the 'community platforms' market. They evaluated nine vendors, concluding that Jive Software and Telligent Systems "lead the pack because of their strong administrative and platform features." " KickApps and Pluck were also commended, for enabling large Web sites to scale quickly with social features. Awareness, Lithium Technologies, and Mzinga were other products that Forrester liked, for enabling companies to build branded communities. We summarize the report below and highlight our own past coverage of Jive Software and Telligent.

Lunchtime webinosh with Will Thalheimer, PhD (president of Work-Learning Research, Inc. Help organizations to bridge the gap between research on learning and reality.) Brown Bag Learning follows subscription learning approach: Repeats key concepts over time: Spacing Enables you to get reminders and deepen your understanding Enables you to remember over time Learning News Big topic this week -- Neon Elephant Award to Robert Brinkerhoff for developing case success method evaluation of learning and his new book. Next event: Fri. What will happen? We'll come back to that in a minute. They do.

The eLearning Guild's January Online Forum is the best of DevLearn08 as voted by YOU, the audience.  Register NOW , here. Yes, I'm biased, I know, but these sessions really were VERY good.  There's a little in the mix for everyone, no matter what type of training project you are currently working on.  I would highly encourage you to set aside these 2 days as career development for yourself and participate with your eLearning colleagues in these conversations. Learning by Doing Ruth Clark, Clark Training & Consulting DevLearn 2008 Conference & Expo - November 10-14 - San Jose, CA

Changing jobs, 1 in 5 say they will in 2009 - JobRadio.fm. Twenty-three percent of workers are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with training and learning opportunities provided by their current employers. Training isn't a luxury -- it's a necessity - The Wichita Eagle. Decision makers often view employee learning and development as a cost center rather than a profit center. Areas not directly linked to revenue generation are typically easier to whittle away. What is the TRUE cost Rapid eLearning? Weiterbildungsblog. This is a horrible example of rapid eLearning! Developing Inteligence.

I'm absolutely astonished that our national leaders are contemplating an extension of the TV-signal switch-date from analog to digital. See the AP article on how Obama has asked Congress to extend the deadline. Or this NY Times article explaining the thinking. First, let me say that I live in an analog-only TV house that doesn't have a convertor box. We've been thinking of buying a new TV, but we're also thinking maybe the price of TV's will come down after the switch, especially as the economy deteriorates (in which case we might rather have the money for food). Here's my counter-proposal.

PodCampHalifax2009 seems like a great mid-Winter activity. Time to get away from my computer screen and meet some folks. This year’s event is the Aldernay Gate Public Library on 25 January, from 9 to 5. This is an unconference , focused on social media (blogs, wikis, podcasts, video, etc). The goal is to have an open, participatory, user-generated series of workshops and the people who attend are the presenters. There are several folks from New Brunswick listed to attend, so sign up and come on out. If you plan on staying overnight, you may want to put yourself up for adoption.

This time of year makes me want to. Leave me something in comments or feel free to blog about it and then leave the link.  Maybe we'll have a contest for the most creative or amusing response. I'll even go first: This time of year makes me want to crawl into bed with several books, a year's supply of chocolate chip cookies, a thermos of milk, and all 5 seasons of The Wire on DVD (with my laptop), not to emerge until spring when I can once again sip margaritas or drink morning coffee on my tiny, but wonderful patio built by my large and wonderful husband. Your turn

PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords in order to inspire. The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and. meaning of the picture. PicLits.

Report Date: January 8, 2009. Two days ago I was feeling sorry for myself. New Year's Eve day cross-country ski injury had left me with a broken bone in my thumb and a torn ligament. had planned to ski three long distance ski races this Winter (25k to 52k) to finish raising the money for a dorm my wife Molly and I are trying to build in the mountains of southern China near Vietnam (LingYun). Instead I was taught a lesson in humility when by chance yesterday photographs of the dorm's construction process arrived. thought. who cares how fast I ski. then donate. Goal - $7,500.

In a two for one deal.this Sunday's edition of the Washington Post also had an article showcasing Arlington County's new virtual presence. The Arlington County Government has a cyber-office where visitors can read promotional posters, meet with economic development officials, gather market research, and conduct presentations and brainstorming sesssions with the intent of promoting economic development. As the article notes, the hope is to give visitors an idea of where the county is going in the future and let the visitors be a part of it.

This is Mike playing Top Golf. He doesn't know I took this picture (or posted it). He may kill me if he reads this blog. BTW - by the time you read this - I should be on a beach, umbrella drink in hand. -- Game: Top Golf Platform: The Top Golf facility in Alexandria, VA Price: Varies. Imagine a really tricked out practice range. Or a live version of a golf simulator. That's this place. The game is played with the following: - 20 balls with a chip inside that has your name registered in it. A large field with flags and holes. Golf clubs. Try to aim the ball at the holes. Is the game fun?

Articulate has releases some great updates to for Studio '09. Along with some bug fixes there are 3 new interactions available for use. The new activities are Flipbook, Flashcards and Stairstep. More information including how to upgrade your version can be found at Articulate - Word of Mouth blog. Also tomorrow Microsoft is offering the new Windows 7 beta and with that Internet Explorer 8. Rumour is to get in early to get this new upgrade. I'm not sure whether it is a good change or not, but many of the reviews I read seem to promote it as "exciting".

It's Next Week January 15 & 16, 2009. The eLearning Guild is reprising the 10 most FAVORITE sessions from DevLearn, their recent conference. And OMG I'm a favorite. Better yet there is a whole group of fantastic folks including Ruth Clark and Clark Quinn. I'm going to be leading the Opening Session at 11:30 Eastern Time on Giving Learners Feedback, and the Research thereof. Check it out

Okay, so Drupal was not specifically created to support education and e-Learning.  However, its a powerful open source web framework that has grown a supportive developer base over the years and is getting much more user-friendly.  I'll be posting my review of the new book:  Drupal for Education and E-Learning soon.  But for now this post is about e-Learning Open Source Projects.  The TechWorld blog has a great post listing 10 of the most popular projects. MOODLE gets a lot of press but the others are fairly under-represented in the blogosphere.  Have you heard of Fle3 , Dokeos , or eFront ? 

am at the Winter 2009 ICT Educator conference. Yes, I am in San Francisco and yes I am at a conference where a representative from Apple is the Keynote speaker but no.it's s not Macworld. The ICT organization is an expanding group of academic professionals and industry experts who share a common goal or ensuring a quality and industry-relevant education for all Information and Communication Technology (ICT)students. Jon Burgess of Apple presenting to ICT Educators. So the keynote was by Jon Burgess of Apple who did an excellent job outlining what educators should focus on for the future.

  Below I offer my Top 10 List for 2008, reprising my best work from the previous year. Honorable Mentions Before I get to the Top 10, there are some honorable mentions. -- Brown-Bag Learning Events. These are short webinars that I started running once or twice a month or so on various topics. started these up this year as an experiment and they seem to be going really well. Come join me sometime! -- Graduate School Advice. offered my advice on how to choose a graduate school and how to approach graduate school once you get in. link]. -- Neon Elephant Award to Robert Brinkerhoff. link]. link].

Yikes. Today Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate, worried in his NY Times column about the United States sinking into another Great Depression. Here are some other recent articles/blog posts suggesting coming economic ruin. link]. link]. Until recently the message from economists in the media was that it was unlikely that we would fall into another great depression. link]. Here are some interesting articles on the Great Depression, historically. link]. From Hale Stewart: Part 1: [link]. Part 2: [link]. Part 3: [link

This Friday January 9 th , 2009, I will talk about Instructional Objectives, and some research, thereof. FREE Webinosh on Instructional Objectives. Instructional Objectives: Do they produce learning results? Are they all the same? Do we have to use them? Do prequestions work just as well? How specifically do they have to be worded? Can I use the word "Understand"? Answer: In some of them, but not others. Hey Will, do you have a new taxonomy for us? Click to Sign Up: Friday January 9th -- Noon -- US East Coast Time https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/247154110

This Friday January 9th, I will talk about Instructional Objectives, and some research, thereof. Instructional Objectives: Do they produce learning results? Are they all the same? Do we have to use them? Do prequestions work just as well? How specifically do they have to be worded? Can I use the word "Understand"? Answer: In some of them, but not others. Hey Will, do you have a new taxonomy for us? Click to Sign Up: Friday January 9th -- Noon -- US East Coast Time https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/247154110. Authenticity of presenter and passion for the subject matter was apparent.

I found my first surprisingly intelligent use of Twitter: [link] It scans tweets, analyzes word stream, and reviews movies!! And the really cool thing is that people aren't intentionally rating a movie. They're just flinging their opinions to the masses. This, it seems to me, is a fundamentally different data stream than an intentional rating function. Some academic ought to study this. The language-processing capability has loads of applications. What could us learning-and-performance people do with this? Keep this one top of mind so you can look for opportunities

This is huge.

I was in high school when Spandex really took off in popularity.  It was not a pretty time of life. The memories of boys and girls running around school in shorts and leggings make me cringe.  And, no, I was not among spandex fans.)  Thankfully it didn’t last long.  6) It is effectively blended with other similar material. Sure, there will always be abusers which remind us of the ‘good-ol-days’ but they are few and far between (and for the most part we can ignore them). Web 2.0 is maturing.  The best uses are now in stage 4. Twitter is in stage 3. Be patient. 

Harold Jarche, Michele Martin and I are pleased to announce a new workshop offering that relates to the recent posts on Tool Set 2009 and to the issues of Work Literacy. Work Literacy Skills Workshop Was the last formal training you had on knowledge work skills the use of a card catalog and microfiche reader? You aren't alone in that. While there has been incredible innovation in tools and methods that support personal work and learning over the past 10 years, most of us have had a hard time with our Work Skills Keeping Up. It will focus on what is important to learning professionals.

I was delighted to come back after my holiday break to an invitation from Tony Karrer to get involved in his eLearning Learning website. For those of you who have never visited it’s a great community portal for anyone interested in e-learning, providing wide ranging sources of information from different organisations involved in the industry. It offers easy access to topics via keywords for specific content or simply check in when you can for the latest posts. Check it out today!

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

REFLECTIVE DIARY TOOL - Get more Business Plans. Here's a neat little tool to support your reflective practice , especially useful for those of you who like a more structured approach. It could be an alternative (or a complement) to the "debriefing" I talked about a few months ago.

Do you give PowerPoint presentations and would like to use your iPhone/iPod Touch as your remote clicker! Then you'll love this! Features include: Complete control of your PowerPoint slides. including animations. Help you track your presentation time. Make and show annotations directly on your iPhone/iPod. Windows only). Alert you with silent buzz before your. time runs out. View your slides and your slide notes on your handset. Support all versions of. PowerPoint from Office XP to the latest PowerPoint 2007 on. Windows. Support Office Mac 2008 on. Mac OS X Leopard. Take a look at the video.

Join team "Shift Happens" on Kiva - 5th January 2009 Copyright-friendly image source websites posted in digitalstorytelling , intellectualproperty | One of our “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices&# digital storytelling project participants asked a good question today on our learning community forum: Does anyone have any suggestions for websites to safely download pictures off the internet? On January 6th, 2009, Judy OConnell said: I get asked this a lot, specially when I was doing PD sessions with teachers. Check the link to my collection at [link] 2 On January 6th, 2009, Gary s.

Classes started for the Spring semester. One of the classes I am taking is Inquiry and Measurement. Its about the research methods & resources used to conduct good scientific investigations, and how to measure those findings (broadly paraphrasing the syllabus). One of the books for the project is Researching Real-World Problems: A Guide to Methods of [.].

Game: World of Goo Platform: PC/Mac. Also available in Wii - but I can't play it on that platform right now because my SO has commandeered it. Price: $20.00 for the full version This game combines a building puzzle with a story. Really entertaining. Especially if you like cartoon blobs. demo version (a healthy-sized one at that) is available at the 2D Boy website. Is the game fun? The animation really makes this game. The developers have planted a backstory amongst what is essentially a puzzle game. find myself becoming a huge fan of physics puzzle games. Do I want to play this repeatedly?

A dear friend of mine has been on a journey for quite a long time now going out there and inspiring the best in others, getting people to find the humour in their daily lives, and just overall lightening up. It's no wonder then that Jacquie Hermans has called her company Light'N UP (.Laugh Laugh and Be You). In another life, a few moons ago, I learned from her and then performed with her improv. It was such a fabulous experience that I recommend it to anyone who wants or needs that little boost of confidence to go out there and "just be" in front of others.

So you've got some great ideas on how to make your content more engaging , how to get the learner into the flow. But what do you do when the content itself is just plain boring? You can't just send in the clowns. You can't put lipstick on that pig. Sometimes you have to get in and out as quickly as you can, minimizing everyone's pain. Admit to the learner upfront that the content may be dry. Set the expectation. And then remind them why they still have to learn this stuff. Michael Allen urges designers to provide "meaningful and memorable learning experiences." Sell the course to the learner.

e-Learning 2009 US Salary and Compensation Report - eLearning Guild. The Average Salary is Less: Time Period - Average Salary. May-05 - $67,347. Nov-06 - $74,623. Dec-07 - $78,723. Dec-08 - $78,436. In addition, there appears to be Gender Bias - the salaries for men working in e-Learning have increased, the salaries for women have decreased. Air Force Releases 'Counter-Blog' Marching Orders - Wired. Bloggers: If you suddenly find Air Force officers leaving barbed comments after one of your posts, don't be surprised. They're just following the service's new "counter-blogging" flow chart.

becomes more of a reality in 2009, according to Mike Gott a : the volume of information is growing exponentially, the velocity of business is increasing, the virtualization of the workplace continues. There are four V’s that should be kept in focus as Enterprise 2.0 the variability of roles an employee may be expected to take on will become more diverse. What I like about Gotta’s post is that many of his comments are based on observations of real clients and workplaces. There is a lot to consider and I’m glad that Jon Husband pointed out this blog to me.

Check out the 2009 salary report from the eLearning Guild. Brent Schlenker asks, " Are you making over $78k as an elearning professional?" Want more? Here's an older post of mine on salaries for instructional designers.

Other Posts in the Series Tool Set 2009 Work Skills Keeping Up Top-Down Strategy Better Memory Information Radar Networks and Learning Communities Collaborate Twitter as Personal Work and Learning Tool Search Browser Short Cuts Browse eLearning Content at www.elearninglearning.com.Most descriptions of tool sets start with the tools and proceed to describe the features of the tools. Starting with the tools is what I consider to be a bottom-up approach. It's left to the reader to interpret where they fit into their day-to-day concept work. understand why most authors start with the tool.

 Yesterday's p ost on reducing my personal mental clutter apparently struck a chord with a lot of people. Farhan and Steve Bridger are with me on the whole multiple open tabs thing. So is Talia. And Sarah Stewar t apparently distracts herself with Twitter, while Christine Martell shares my angst about needing to get clearer about her big goals. This is good. At least I know I'm not alone. promised to share some of what I'm trying to do to deal with the problem in today's post. To get others to commiserate and share their ideas? So this is what I've been doing: 1. Minimize multi-tasking.

One area of the United States economy that is hiring is the FBI. In fact, due to retirments of the boomers and attrition.they need more than a few good men/women. They need a lot! This is just the first of many agencies in the Government that are going to need a lot more people because of retirements. The FBI posted openings for 850 special agents and more than 2,100 professional support personnel. So if you are a trainer or instructional designer who would be interested in an exciting career.the FBI might just be your answer.

Jing is now available in a Pro version for both Mac and Pc.  Pro features let you: Record full-motion video from your screen. Share faster with smaller video files. Upload straight to YouTube (or upload manually elsewhere). Strip Jing logos & links from your videos. There is still a free version, of course, but the Pro version won't break the bank at $14.95 a year Jing Pro.

This Sunday's edition of the Washington Post had a very good article on the role of serious games in schools. It mostly had a very positive spin on the role games can play in education. don't think the article will be particularly "enlightening" to anyone that has been tracking the emergence of serious games, but it is good to see the article made the front page (granted it was the front page of the "Metro" section which is the third section.but still, it's progress; two years ago the article probably would've been buried in "Lifestyles" section).

I had hoped to get all 12 posts done by this time. There are 2 more games in the queue for the next couple of days. But as you can see, I am a bit stuck. want to do a Massive Multi-Player Online Game as my 12th game. Something with real game structure. But they scare me. New territory. And games, for me, have always been something of a solitary pursuit. The exception being when I am hanging with friends, in person. And, as many of you may have noticed, I am not a natural gamer. So does anyone have any recommendations for a game to try? No Twitter, no Facebook, no phone, no computer, no blog.

The genesis of the WHYs started with a webinar I did for the e-Learning Guild.  When I was first creating it, I was going to explain the characteristics of social learning.  Then I found that instead of explaining WHAT it is, I needed to explain how the participants would sell it - because that is what they really needed.  I am finding that most people are having a difficult time selling it to those who make the decisions. From that webinar I created these series of blog posts. So, why use social learning? Why #1 - Focusing on People: Barcamp (Part 2). Why #1: Focusing on People (Part 1).

Dave Wilkins and I have teamed up to create a podcast on Social Learning.  Right now it is only on our blogs but will be on iTunes in the next couple days. Please listen and give us your feedback.  We would love to hear what you think and what you would like us to discuss.  Let us know - the lines are now open… Tags: Social Learning SIG

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. Hard Fun The activities are fun, but not necessarily easy.

I was just reading the posts on the MacWorld Keynote by Phil Shiller, and saw some interesting themes in comments: empowering users, and learning as a key selling item.  These are certainly worth expl0ring. On the TUAW coverage , they made the comment “Y’know, it seems like iMovie and iPhoto are now designed to repair human failings.&#   They were referring to how iMovie could remove any handheld jitters in your movies, and how iPhoto could do some autotagging both geographically and based upon face recognition.  I hope it’s in your repertoire. they didn’t consult me :).

In yet another Economist article with an angle on Gen Y, The Rypple Effect reveals another way in which enterprises can adapt Web 2.0 ideas to resolve old problems: The creators of a new, web-based service called Rypple claim that it can satisfy Net Geners’ desire for frequent assessments while easing the burden on their supervisors. The service requires employees to establish a network of trusted peers, mentors and managers whose opinions they value. The responses are kept anonymous so that, at least in theory, employees cannot tell who has made them.

In November 2008, I made my CoComment Co.mments Switch and now just received a notice that Co.mments is shutting down. Given that the reason for the switch is that I wasn't happy with CoComment, what should I use now? Browse eLearning Content at www.elearninglearning.com.

It’s that time of year again, we should be winding down to Christmas, ticking off the to do lists, closing last minute sales and dreaming of mulled wine and mince pies, but instead we are frantically winding up to 2009 which begins with a big bang in the form of BETT. BETT is the world’s largest educational technology event and runs for four days in the Olympia , London from the 14th to 17th of January. However, we know from experience, try to have everything prepared before heading home for the festive season, the freebies firmly packed and the boxes labelled, all ready to go.

Whilst it’s clear that the economy is going to dominate the news for at least most of 2009, if not the whole year, there will be plenty of other newsworthy items that will hopefully take the edge off the doom and gloom. After conversations with our R&D team we have listed seven technologies that we think are sure to have a big impact in the e-learning sector in 2009. The year saw a dramatic evolution in online video, making good on a year old promise and taking it to the masses, 2009 will bring even more success to this industry. learning Technology in 2009.

Everyone at ThirdForce would like to wish our readers a very happy festive season with family and friends and best wishes for a prosperous 2009. Click here to view our Season’s Greetings e-card. This year instead of sending printed cards and as part of our environmental strategy, ThirdForce is providing funding directly to a school in Namibia for materials and resources to help local children gain an education. Friends from Ireland - “Helping to build a future through the support of community development in Africa.&#. Season’s Greetings from ThirdForce.

Believe me I’ve come a long way on my 2008 journey and I hope and look forward to another one in 2009. The Big Question is a monthly feature on the Learning Circuits blog. December asks What did you learn in 2008 ? Looking back over the last 12 months, another year which has gone by in a flash, my learning journey has brought me to where I am right now - writing this blog post. In 2008 I took on the role of managing the creation and launch of a brand new website for ThirdForce. Up until recently though, I would have considered myself a fairly basic Web 1.0

ThirdForce’s Head of Instructional Design, Lynda Donovan, introduces us to the Millenials - a new breed of employee… Who are the Millenials? new breed of employee has been steadily hitting the workplace over the last decade. In relation to their use of technology, they are known as the Millennials or Generation Y. Having grown up with computers, the Internet and mobile phones, they view technology as an integral part of their everyday lives. Technology permeates every aspect of their lives. Unless the information is highly engaging they will move on quickly. in Ed., ICT in Ed.

ASTD's Big Question for January is, again, a series of questions. What are your biggest challenges for this upcoming year? What are your major plans for the year? What predictions do you have for the year? First a little reflection. This year has been a busy year as my consulting has been more active than any previous year. 1: Bored?-Try Try Dissecting a Frog #2: Top 5 Funny and Semi-Learning Related Videos (My favorite) #3: Help, I have an Instructional Design Master's Degree and I Can't Create E-Learning What are your biggest challenges for this upcoming year? with time management.

Michele Martin tagged me on this meme- so I shall make good. My first car was a yellow, Levi edition AMC Gremlin that my dad bought for $350.  Boy was I the talk of the town.  Yah, baby! There are so many things in life that I want to do that I will NEVER be able to do them all (like learn all about string theory & light, compose and arrange music, participate in an Iron Man , be a skillful woodworker…).  It makes me cry.  YET, those important things (like my family) will give me the most satisfaction. Wonder Woman is my wife.  I know all you guys are all jealous - too bad.  How fun! 

What will 2009 give us? And I imagine 2009 will give us: content, social media, educational policies and. So let me give you my predictions for 2009. The world is evolving from an industrial age into a knowledge age, so content will become key in 2009. wish you all a fantastic 2009 in which you will see your wishes come true. Whatever we want it to give us, I imagine. mobile learning. First of all why should any of us learn? No matter how restricted your life has become, if you study you increase your chances to pick-up life once chances come along.

Being away from my computer for much of the past few weeks really showed me how much mental clutter I've been accumulating as a result of my bad digital habits. Over the past several months, I've taken multi-tasking to new and dangerous levels and had noticed a precipitous drop in productivity that seemed like it was spiraling out of control. literally felt like my brain might explode. One good thing about time away from my computer was that I used it to think and write in my journal, trying to figure out what was wrong. Procrastination , even when there was no good reason to put something off.

In fact, I'm going to make just one, as I believe it ties together a number of threads that other commentators have already: 2009 will see a rise in consumer e-learning. Precisely because there is this confluence of themes that others have been supporting and engaging with - mobile technology, cloud computing, ever easier to use devices, openness to gaming - coinciding with the ongoing spate of "unpredictable moments of opportunity" that is the net result of global turmoil that will be the steady background hum for 2009. Such examples are not rare.

Voila is an image Capturing and Annotating tool on the Mac platform. It allows you to capture anything or everything on your desktop, and in the way you decide! Shape your imagination by annotating and adding effects to the image. Share your creative output for productivity or for fun Shareware: $39.99 per copy, educational, volume and government discounts available. 30 days trial - no feature locks Voila.

In my last post, I gave my review of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. Craig Randall, one of EMC’s Distinguished Engineers and fellow EMC blogger, asked a lot of thoughtful questions about my reaction to the book. decided to just write another post answer all his questions. Craig is actually who got me interested in [.].

I’ve been blogging for just over 2 years now; my first posts were on December 26, 2008. Like many bloggers, I definitely had a slow start: only 44 views in all of January 2007. Now I’m averaging over five times that every day. My numbers aren’t nearly as impressive as someone like Stephen Downes , but I’m not doing this to set records. I’m still quite pleased with the growth I saw in 2008 over my first year of blogging. Views and Subscribers. Take a look at these comparisons: Total number of views for the year. 2007: 16799. 2008: 61062. That’s 3.6 2007: 46.

Well exactly as I wanted, I learned something new tonight just by reading my feeds and looking deeper into various bits of content. came across Joe McNally's blog and a few of his video posts on YouTube about how to be a better photographer. Joe McNally shoots assignments for magazines, ad agencies, & graphic design firms. Clients include Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine, National Geographic, Life, Time, Fortune, New York Magazine, GEO, Golf Digest, Discover, Men's Journal, Business Week, Rolling Stone, New York Stock Exchange, Target, Sony, GE, Nikon, Lehman Brothers, & PNC Bank.)

Earlier today I created about twelve "table of contents" RSS feeds for different technical journals and magazines. Via RSS I will now receive notification of each new issue with links to abstracts describing each article. Some of the content to which I subscribed includes the IEEE Spectrum, PC World, Wireless Today, MIT Technology Review, KM World and LINUX Today. One of the services I used is a great (and did I mention free?) service from a United Kingdom based academic consortium. This new service is named ticTOCS , and contains a huge amount of academic and research journals. 

I've done one more conversion of my Google Metadata Search Tutorial, which demonstrates how Google indexes Powerpoint, Excel, HTML and Adobe content. You really shown see my full post on this subject with all the example files and source code, but sometimes it's just easier to click and view! See all my BlipTV videos on Northstar Nerd TV

Back in April last year, I asked the question Can Gen Y handle the Downturn ? Perhaps at the time I was getting a little tired of hearing about how employers had to go through hoops to meet the rather excessive expectations of new workers and some readers may have felt I was sounding rather too excited at the thought of the discomfiture that a serious downturn could bring to those used to getting what they want. This was far from the truth. ’ to ‘Here’s what I can do for you.' Now their prospects are grimmer. Net Geners are finding it harder to hop to new jobs.

OK - so it is more of an e-pamphlet.  I took all of the questions and repsonses from December’s @slqotd and put them into an e-book. One downer of Twitter is that it is difficult to go back and see or archive the tweets.  This will help us to have a reference.  I hope you find it useful! If you have not joined us on the SLQOTD, please follow, we will follow you back and then join the discussion.  See you there! LINK TO SLQOTD’s E-BOOK for DECEMBER.

2007 was tremendous, 2008 was okay, 2009 will be GIANORMOUS. came across this great post today about the trends and changes seen for 2009 or 2.009 as it was labled. Here's to a prosperous 2009 everyone. Tags: Anne Derrybery David Metcalf Eva Kaplan-Leiserson Anders Gronstedt 2009 Tony Karrer Clark Quinn Judy Brown I'm off to a great start for this new year. By now you've seen that this year for me has started on January 5 th (Monday - back to work day). Again.it's s only 3:10 in the afternoon and the boss isn't in the office to interrupt. HUGE INCREASE IN LEARNING.

Home About Michael Hanley & this e-learning blog Pages About Michael Hanley & this e-learning blog Archives January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 Meta Log in Entries RSS Comments RSS WordPress.org ← A Christmas Message from the E-Learning Curve Blog Capture that E-learning Demo 1: Camtasia January 5th, 2009 · No Comments e-learning Getting right back to basics here, but what a good way to start the new year!

I've talked about this before and want to add a new voice to the choir. get two kinds of calls from people wanting to "do" e-learning. The first come form those who are interested in expanding their scope to include more learners, to reduce travel and other costs, or to otherwise solve a business problem. The other calls come from those who want to know how to track and monitor and measure completions. They are always more interested in buying an LMS they don't yet need (and often don't even really know what it does) than in designing anything resembling effective online training.

Clark Quinn in Learning Predictions for 2009 : I continue to see interest in games, and naturally I’m excited. As eLearning designers, your goal is (hopefully) to make the learning experience engaging. Realistically, sometimes all you can do is build the sucker in order to meet some crazy deadline.) It's easy to equate engaging with fun. Fun is a funny word.) So then it's really easy to think that the best way to make a course more engaging is to make it fun. And the best way to make it fun is to make it a game. Right? Maybe. Still, the awareness is growing, and that’s a good thing.

Malcolm Gladwell ’s Outliers has brought about an outpouring of interesting reviews. Some are lucid, some are not so; some are supportive and some are emotional. Some show distrust for the claims he makes. wonder why there is such emotional feeling in so many of the reviews I’ve recently come across. The 10,000-hour principle is one particular aspect that seems to be taking a bit of a thump from some reviewers. Yet the evidence Gladwell provides, and let’s not deny it, the past support for this not-new principle, clearly points to its validity.

I was flipping through a video game magazine that came as a free subscription after getting a Wii for Christmas, and I came across an interesting article on how to do "achievement" right. Achievement in a game is critical to game flow (i.e. that "magical" state where gamers can't put the game down because they need to beat the next level, unlock the next secret, etc.). was struck by how the learning community can learn a lot about how to build achievement into our simulations and games. The "Dos" Use achievements to lure players into checking out a game's entire feature set.

I met with an individual today who is creating a virtual world for young teens. The project is conceived as serving a niche market. Of course, we all feel our ideas are unique or our particular circumstance is different from others. left the meeting with a sense of “why are people still building these things? why not take advantage of infrastructure that is already in place?&#. Operating systems and platforms that are used as the base of innovation are increasingly free. The value is in the creativity and innovation unleashed by many contributors. Google gets this. And Android.

I'm currently suffering through the worst part of any vacation: The return leg with all the lines and waiting for taxis, buses and airplanes. I'm taking this opportunity to get caught up on all my accounts, re-reading Waldo's blog posts on my behalf over the last week and responding to tweets, texts, voicemails and emails. And while I still have a relatively fresh glow from my "cruise aura," I wanted to share some of these no-kidding-I-sh#$-you-not questions from cruise passengers. These were shared with us by our cruise director: Top 10 Favorite Cruise Questions 10. Ha ha. your timezone.)

This post is an excellent way to ease into the new work year. If you want to keep current on the world of technology, subscribe via RSS to Google Tech Talks. However, for those of you with kids involved with First Lego League (or the big kid in you who still loves to program and create robots), link to this recent Google seminar: LEGO Engineering: From Kindergarten to College. Google TechTalks are already indexed in my engineering seminar search engine, and you may browse /search via the Engineering Learning Wiki

Reflect on that for a moment. The 123rd annual meeting. 123 years. Impressive. The program itself is also impressive. Thanks to Twitter pal @nwjerseyliz who is attending the conference and who reminded me that the whole program is online. started digging through the program and I must say, having not been a grad student in a history program for a while or a practicing historian, the sessions make me miss it. should also say that I think from a conference standpoint, its a remarkably well done and well organized schedule - conference organizers take note!

Here are a few of the recent items from my LearnTech news feed. SocialToo - Your Companion to the Social Web! Snapter - "Goodbye, scanner. Hello, digital camera.". twtpoll - Poll your Twitter friends! Twitter Means Business - a new book. Zigtag - social bookmarking tool. Tweetree - puts your Twitter stream in a tree so you can see the posts people are replying to in context. LearnTech News is an add-on to Jane's E-Learning. Pick of the Dayand provides you with a continuous stream of news. about learning tools and technologies as well as related. resources, events, etc.  All achieved through a.

I just finished reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The book looks at how individuals or people from certain cultures become successful. He rightly attributes success to community - but I have a really hard time getting a fix on just what his community lens is. For example, there is a section about geniouses. Gladwell talks (almost [.].

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. While Mel's away, Waldo will be guest-blogging on his behalf. -- I can't believe those two (Mel and Tobi) were ready to just walk around the main drag near the pier terminal in Cozumel and leave it at that. Had I not taken the bull by the horns and rented a motor scooter, I'm afraid I would've been doomed to simply tag along with Laurel and Hardy walking the same piece of concrete everyone else does when they get off the cruise boat. It's an education process with Mel but he catches on. Get yourself a motor scooter and get outta town!

Thanks to Techpower's Tony Karrer for including the Bozarthzone blog on his list of sources for eLearning Learning It's "a community that tries to collect and organize the best information on the web that will help you learn and stay current on eLearning." Be sure to check it out, and while you're at it be sure to also take a look at Tony's elearning tech blog. And for you Twitterers/Tweeters/Twitterpeeps types, he's well worth following there, too.) And PS: Happy New Year

It’s traditional in Scotland to tidy the home before New Year comes in. At the end of last year, I decided to follow this tradition on my blog. Come Hogmanay, otherwise known as Auld Year’s Nicht, I’d tidied up newmiddle-earth.blogspot.com. brought all my post-labels up to date and created new ones that were relevant to topics covered in each post. updated the alt tag attributes on each image and removed the link-to-image that’s automatically added when it's uploaded into Blogger. Some months ago, I started taking these measures with all new postings. have 131 posts dated 2008 on my blog.

ASTD’s Learning Cirtuits Blog Big Question for January is What are your Challenges, Plans and Predictions for 2009? I’m looking forward to 2009. Tags: 2009 predictions big question plans influence challenges grad school Since I haven’t done my New Year’s post yet, I’ll just talk to this question. Challenges. I’ll talk about the challenges from a personal level. How do I incorporate what I am learning about connected learning into my “day job&# ? How do I weave more of the connected learning concepts into my graduate studies? Plans.

Disclosure: Saba’s Centra was recently named the Webcast platform for Brandon Hall Research’s Webinars and virtual workshops in 2009. The sixth LMS in the LMSs that kick ass Friday series is Saba. Saba’s primary market is corporate learning with just more than half of all implementations installed behind-the-firewall (largest implementation 2,000,000 learners). Their total number of registered users/learners worldwide is 17,000,000 at over 1300 organizations. Saba is a major player among corporate LMSs -you can say it’s a benchmark system. suite. Thanks Ben.

End of the year/start of the new year reflections always seem to centre on meaning and depth. We desire to eliminate meaningless and shallow pursuits in favor of more substantial ones. John Connell asks how to best move to greater depth : “Do we need the bloggers’ equivalent of the Slow Movement? Authentic blogging? Critical blogging? Reflective blogging? Blogging09?&# Will Richardson picks up on a similar theme : “I did some counting yesterday. Totalled up all of the blog posts and comments on those posts for the last three years, and found a pretty interesting relationship.

Every year, The Edge asks prominent individuals a big question. This year, with the humble introduction of “New tools equal new perceptions. Through science we create technology and in using our new tools we recreate ourselves&# (sounds like McLuhan’s “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us&# ), The Edge asks : What will change everything? Responses cover enormous territory, including the mind, human nature, technology, biology, and more. bit of skepticism is found as well - nothing will change everything.

First post - Year of the Cloud : “My goal: to be device neutral by the end of 2009. Cloud computing has been a common, but somewhat subdued, topic on technology sites. The cloud metaphor is appealing, though what it exactly means is still somewhat unsettled. In a technological sense, cloud computing refers to a service-view of computing, where technical details are largely hidden from end users. Which means, it is driven by financial considerations , as companies can extend their infrastructure without heavy investments in personnel or technology.

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. While Mel's away, Waldo will be guest-blogging on his behalf. -- Backing up a bit to our day in Santo Tomas, Guatemala the other day (Dec. 31st, Cruise Day 4), it's fair to say we had a fairly uneventful port call. It was raining when we pulled in. About the most active we got was when Tobi and I tried getting a reaction from a local burro. What's the difference again? Not surprisingly, he wasn't a talky fellow. We took our cue from him and accepted the downtime as an opportunity to hang out on the deck and read books all day. Until next time.

15 ways to improve your presentations in 2009 : Great list. Jane Knight's Predicitions for Top Tools in 2009 : Jane is the Queen of updating all of us on what is the latest tool/capability available so when she makes predicitions about which ones will hit in '09, might be worth a listen.  Yes, there is some self-evident stuff but that's not shocking - more of us just need to apply these principles. would also add, read Slide:ology.  Time's 50 Best Websites of 2008 : Yeah, I know, MSM rating the online world right? Instructify has a couple of great, list-laden post. Enjoy

You may not know this fact (or care), but the Northstar Nerd attended Dartmouth. Even after having spent four years on the Hanover plain, I can still appreciate the Harvard Hooligans ! These guys have some great humor, I highly recommend these two particular videos: Harvard Homework Helper Hotline! I now know how my brother made it through Harvard B school). iPod Makes Me So Cool! my first computer was a slide rule. perhaps that's my problem).   Still on holiday today. back to the real work on Monday. Oh yes, I still don't own an iPod

Game: Well its really a whole bunch of games. Platform: Online - Kongregate. Price: Free! While I was searching for games for this series, Christy reminded me of Kongregate. Remember yesterday when I talked about recognizing and finding motivation for pushing past the frustration point. think Kongregate has an interesting model. Kongregate has a system of badges. The activities for obtaining the badges range from easily achievable to impossible. This approach does 2 things. I've currently got 4 easy ones. There is also an online card game as well. don't understand this nearly as well.

Confusing Word s is a collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers. Words are grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused. Some of these words are homonyms (words that sound alike but are spelled differently like "principle" and "principal") and some are just commonly confused (like "aetheist" and "agnostic"). There are a number of ways to use Confusing Words to find the word you are looking for Confusing Words.

It's been a turbulent ride in 2008, hasn't it? But I suspect that we've seen nothing yet as our world economies struggle to transition into an era that can no longer ignore big changes in climate, fossil fuel availability and global populations demanding more active economic involvement. As learning and development professionals, we all know how procrastination and inertia puts the brakes  on.