When it comes to learning, adults are not over sized children. Maturity brings unique characteristics that affect how adults are motivated to learn. By appealing to the unique qualities of adult learners, we can design more effective and motivating online courses. Here’s a list of generalized characteristics common to many but not all adult learners. Autonomy. Adults typically prefer a sense of control and self-direction. They like options and choice in their learning environment. Goal-oriented. Many adults have specific goals they are trying to achieve. Practical. Competence and mastery.

I would therefore like to pay my own tribute to the following 20 people, who either in their blogs and/or in their tweets have provided me with inspiration in their thoughts about workplace learning in 2009. . These people all appear in my 100 Learning Professionals to follow in 2009 - bloggers and/or tweeters who I consider provide information, inspiration and/or interaction on a range of. In an earlier posting on the Edublog Awards I said that I was disappointed to see only a few workplace bloggers shortlisted in the Corporate Education category.  Blogs : Informal Learning and.

So at last I have reached the conclusion of this E-Learning Curve Blog series of posts about Using Open Source and Free-to-Use software for E-Learning. Learning Development Toolkit: A Complete List of OSS and FTU Applications is a post from: E-Learning Curve Blog.

Following my last post on " Getting started with social software for learning ", I've had a number of conversations about how social learning fits into a more formalised training environment. Clive Shepherd's recent post on " Elearning in all its forms " gives an overview of the three main facets of elearning and how they can each be used across the spectrum of informal to formal learning. I've repackaged Clive's ideas into a table which tries to show the full spectrum: Formal Non-formal Informal. Online content. Self-study courses. Rapid e-learning content, podcasts, demos, presentations.

Cath Ellis recently set out her ten commandments of e-learning and this prompted me to try and articulate my own. Now e-learning's a big subject if you include all its many variants - formal and informal, synchronous and asynchronous and so on - and if you take into account all the issues relating to its management and marketing. So, what I've done is restrict my thoughts to the design of interactive, e-learning content, drawing heavily from the 60-minute masters : Structure into modules. Keep each module to one main idea. That's enough for most learners to cope with in one session.

E-Learning authoring tools are part of a larger organizational infrastructure and learning ecosystem which typically includes hardware, software, content delivery mechanisms, and processes that support the delivery and management of learning programs. This includes everything from hardware such as servers and workers’ desktop computers, software such as learning management systems (LMSs) and authoring applications, delivery mechanisms such as routers and network wiring, and services and processes such as systems administration and the help desk. Web 2.0 tools category to their list. 2003).

Sumeet Moghe, 2009. Today is Teacher's Day -- as a coach, trainer and learning professional I feel really proud every day this year. This is a career I'm deeply passionate about and each time I think of it, I strongly feel that I wouldn't have traded this for anything else! In the recent past, Patricia Carlin has taken charge of ThoughtWorks Bangalore and her evangelist leadership where she's actually spending time training consultants, strongly reinforces my belief in the mantra of Leaders as Teachers. More on that later! Today's post however is about one of my pet-peeves.

I’ve been occupied with writing a paper to promote the adoption of mobile learning amongst corporates and enterprises. While trawling through multiple web-links, a pattern of myths about mobile learning emerges. Quite a bit of back and forth about these myths - I’m taking the liberty of listing and describing the five that struck me as odd, and am attempting to debunk them to an extent. While mobile devices’ still don’t match personal computers interface capabilities, they’ve come a long way in a very short time. Mobile content is expensive! How do you respond?

On the SLQOTD on Twitter today, I am asking “What is the difference between a Web 1.0, CMS, Web 2.0 and Social Media.” Here is my take: Web 1.0 is a push from one ‘person’ to many people. To make a change or add, it often has to go through a process if internal to an organization or the person needs to know HTML (I am making some generalizations here, but go with me…) There is one person who owns the content and who is the authority. It is focused on the information or document and the user cannot customize what they want to see. Others can go get it. call it a 1:portal:1 model. Web 2.0

Presentation: Blogs in Education - Don't Waste Your Time , May 22, 2009 Implementing New Learning Technology? Choose the Right Pilot Group - Kapp Notes , May 22, 2009 Capture Examples - eLearning Technology , May 29, 2009 Twitter: The #1 Tool for Learning - Upside Learning Blog , May 26, 2009 Adobe eLearning Suite: is it worth it? Clive on Learning , May 29, 2009 Text to Speech - eLearning Technology , May 28, 2009 Poll:What is your favourite eLearning software? Browse eLearning Content

Fixed some typos, added the idea that you should have a profile before you follow someone (thanks Dave), and added the author info (who knew people would actually like this!). Twitter Cheat Sheet 1.1. Authored by gminks. Hosted by Edublogs.

The Instructional Designers Community of India  is hosting yet another free  learning session on September 19, 2009. This time the session is about Learner Centric Methodology used in E-learning. The session coverage would be: 1. What is LCM? How does LCM help design effective learning? What are the key principles of LCM? How does LCM benefit stakeholders? case study based on LCM. LCM methodology will be explained using use cases/case studies. Audience Level : Advance. About the Speaker : Geeta  Bose heads a learning innovations and design company, Kern Learning Solutions. PLEASE NOTE.

Sumeet Moghe, 2009. In recent months I've met over 50 elearning practitioners and evaluated at least 6 elearning firms. My inspiration for this series of posts has been what I've learnt about their style of learning design and how approaches we've tried internally at ThoughtWorks compare as a stark contrast. In today's post I want to outline the current state of elearning content development in the industry. Understanding the pains of this current state will help us explore the virtues of Agile Thinking in future posts. The need for a change So without further ado, lets get going.

Via Jane Hart. George Siemens is discussing whether the future of learning is in Learning Management Systems (LMS) or Social Networking Systems. In his post, George describes Moodle as being one of many "content-centric" systems. Martin Dougiamas (founder of Moodle) then comments: Moodle itself is actually activity-centric. Facilitators using Moodle start with an empty course container and use a handy collection of tools/apps/modules to build a collection or series of focussed collaborative activities for a group of people. Both have their place. But there are often very good reasons.

Learning Technologists are not always involved in purely online, distance, eLearning or mLearning, we are used to help improve and update face-to-face materials to either introduce a new technique or just to update a presentation, make it more 2009 and less 1999. The question "what is a Learning Technologist", I've finally realised, can be answerd differently based on who you ask, where they work, and what day of the week it is. We are also sometimes referred to as an Educational Technologist, but never as a Demonstrator. Does that make it any easier? No, how about this.

As a user of Blackboard at Bournemouth University I have been involved in various discussion about it’s merit or lack of). These are usually started by someone who doesn’t like Blackboard, and probably hasn’t used it much either (or even tried?). They are usually fans of Moodle, even if they’ve not used it (but have talked [.]. Blackboard Moodle myBU PLN Technology University 2.0 VLE Web 2.0

RealPlayer YouTube Video Wizard Format Factory Today we basically have FREE access to millions (if not billions) of videos on the Internet ( my personal favorites! ) , and surely among them you are going to find some mind stimulating videos that you would like to infuse into your face-to-face learning sessions (like this amazingly funny video: Learning English Pronunciation ). Now, I am going to share with you two (2) juicy ways to insert your favorite YouTube videos (or videos from other sites) into your PowerPoint presentations. Personally, I prefer the second (2) option.

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 Work Literacy Workshop Browse eLearning Content at www.elearninglearning.comMy primary interest here are the methods and tools that allow us to work better as part of remote work teams. In other words - How do we collaborate together in remote work teams to be as effective or even more effective than a team that works down the hall? It's truly a thing of beauty.

In the last post of the Project Based Learning series, I introduced what project based learning is and the benefits of using Project Based Learning in corporate environments. Now that we know what PBL is and have seen an example of it's use in a corporate environment, let's dive into developing Project Based Lessons for corporate training. Project Based Lessons begin with what I believe to be the most critical aspect of the instructional design process, the Driving Question. A great way to stay focused on authentic concerns is to enroll the help of learners in the brainstorming process.

At DevLearn, many people lamented the difficulty of explaining the benefits of social media to their managers and peers. We talked about building a repository of web 2.0 learning applications. It turns out that my pal Jane Hart has already done it for us! Jane mined the submissions of her delightful tools database and came up with 100+ ways to use social media for learning. Each entry is tied to a tool and a description of how it’s used. Don’t go yet: there’s more. Next, Jane details using social media for different types of learning. This is awesome.

For this month it's asking " What Did You Learn About Learning In 2009? In thinking about my response, I found it helpful to dig through my articles this year and see what some of the "Best Of" highlights were through 2009. My top 5 "aha" moments from 2009. This past year (2009) I ran.zero (0) races. Most read articles in 2009. review of my queries from eLearningLearning.com suggest the following top 5 articles to date from my blog in 2009. ASTD's The Learning Circuits Blog posted it's question of the month the other day.

Moodle does a lot of things great, but site wide reporting and bulk user management are definitely not included in those great things. If you are a Moodle administrator for an organization I am sure you know the pain of having to go into each course site to produce grade reports for multiple courses. In my case, I have to send out a weekly report listing every users grades in every course they have taken on Moodle. This means I have to go into each course site and export a grade report to an excel spreadsheet and then merge all of those separate spreadsheets into one big grade report.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela FUTURE LEARNING FINLAND A couple of weeks back (16th September), I attended a Future Learning Finland one-day seminar & networking session. Finpro had invited a few dozen people from Malaysia for this session. Their goal was basically to share and market their world class Finnish education system and related educational products and services, and also gain more insight into the current and future learning trends and needs in Malaysia. Though, how come they invited me of all people? NOKIA!

Wiki-version - A Growing List of Free Learning Tutorial Sites I was thinking the other day, why not create a simple raw list of links to EXCELLENT SITES (with short descriptions) that have or link to tutorials that explore learning tools and online learning. Here is my initial list, but I am quite sure there are many more great resource sites out there. So, if you have anyone to share, please post them in the comments section and I will add them. Ops, shouldn't we be using a Wiki for this kind of activity (Collaborative list creation)? Click here , if you want to add using the wiki-version.

I read this interesting post on Have you thought of Character Driven Stories for Your eLearning? by Rupa (@ruparajgo). was tempted to blog about it myself (thanks for the inspiration, Rupa). What role can a character(s) play in your eLearning porgram? Expert: This is probably the most common use of a character in eLearning. Type 1: This type takes you through the course and is a constant feature. You can design an expert who will take the learner through the course. This expert simplifies information or provides useful tips drawing from his experience. It is a little freaky.)

Audio is a powerful and impactful tool, but it is often used incorrectly within e-learning courses. recently had a discussion with Dan Bliton in his role at the Metro DC ASTD chapter about this topic, here is a small part of the interview. common question is "Should we have audio in the e-learning module that exactly matches the text on the screen?" The general answer is no. It’s not that you can’t learn from audio and text, it is just that the learning is more productive if the two are separate (audio that enhances what is on the screen not repeats it word-for-word). Here are some reasons why.

E-learning in the workplace used to be the preserve of the large corporate or public body. Only they were able to afford the necessarily substantial investments in learning platforms and content development and had the large audiences against which these investments could be amortised. And only these major employers had the specialist technical skills and large l&d departments needed to support these investments. Smaller organisations were essentially priced out. But this year we have seen a major shift. Many of my colleagues are doing the same.

I have been getting a lot of Twitter newbie followers, some folks who I am inducting to Twitter and others who read my blog, or have worked me at some point of time. try to get them started by giving them tips and introducing them to people they can follow. So what’s my advice to get started on Twitter? Well Twitter is different things depending on how you use it and you need to experiment to figure out what works for you. Here are 10 tips to get you started with Twitter. The second is to upload your photo or an avatar. personally prefer a photo. am okay with the term ‘following’ though.).

You wouldn't hire an interior designer only to inform.them that you've already chosen all the colour schemes and furnishings; you wouldn't engage an accountant and then explain to them the way you wanted them to process your figures; you wouldn't employ a fitness trainer and then tell them what to include in your workout; you wouldn't buy a dog and then insist on doing all the barking. You'd like a 6-hour e-learning package to train customer service staff to sell over the telephone? one-hour podcast to teach manual handling skills? No problem. Hang on a minute.

I’ve been thinking about fresh approaches to instructional design. Instructional design was invented around the time of World War II. Starting virtually from scratch, America had to train millions of men to be soldiers and millions of civilians to make ships and armaments. The training film was born, soon to be followed with the ADDIE model. ADDIE (analyze, design, develop, implement & evaluate) made it possible to manage the process of creating useful training programs systematically. Instructional purists still revere the logic of ADDIE. Training is generally imposed on people.

Here’s a personal look back at e-learning in 2009 (I will do another blog on priorities for Canadian e-learning in 2010 , and a third blog on international trends to watch in 2010). have very mixed feelings about e-learning in 2009. Good developments in 2009 The technology gets better First, the developments in technology are very exciting. Disappointments in 2009 Then we look at the public sector, and in particular the big research universities, and what do we see? wouldn’t write them off, but I had hoped for more developments in 2009. Thank you.

Today, two more tools that just missed being placed on the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 list: PhotoPeach. Tags: Top Tools 2009 The idea of Photopeach is to help you. tell better stories online using photos.  You can create a rich slideshow in seconds to engage your friends or family in a natural way. This is done by allowing two-way commenting right at each photo in the show and automatically pausing so you have time to express yourself before continuing.". They also support zooming comments, sound-effect smilies, and music so you can elaborate on your story further. Toondoo.

Recently I’ve been consulting with a customer on the design of a series of digital learning games for sales training. Most clients have done their research online about serious games, and find the whole gamut of samples, demos, etc. Clients typically have some thoughts about what they feel are serious games and whose game-play and mechanics they intended to emulate. Just one look at their collated ‘portfolio’ was enough to tell me that none of the content in the portfolio was really a serious game. So what really makes a ’serious’ game? Are they? Environment.

Ah, the final day of DevLearn 2009. It’s been so much fun! But all good things must come to an end… If you haven’t caught up yet, be sure to read recaps of Day 1 and Day 2. And don’t forget: You can view photos from DevLearn , too! Keynote: Why New Media Matters – Leo Laporte. Leo gave a great keynote without using any slides at all. How refreshing is that?! His stories were engaging, and it’s clear why he’s been so successful as a radio/technology personality for so many years. You can see her notes here. Thanks again, Cammy! Be sure to take a look.

The last few online webinars I've attended there's been an interesting issue. Many of the participants are Twitter users who are becoming used to chatting via twitter. So, both the webinar tool (Elluminate, WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc.) have a chat stream happening and there's one going on via twitter. Presentation Mastery: Twitter as a Presentation Resource There are lots of good suggestions in these, but they don't really address the issue of how to present when the audience may be splitting their chat between the webinar tool and twitter. Twitter Chat Annoying? Short Term Right Answer?

In the global game of Corporate Bingo, the term “adult learning principles&# must be one of the most abused. It’s a convenient abstract that can whitewash a range of unsubstantiated claims and half-truths. But what exactly are adult learning principles? The theory. Malcolm Knowles is widely regarded as the father of adult learning. Since the 1960s, he articulated a distinction between pedagogy (the teaching of children) and andragogy (the teaching of adults). In a nutshell, andragogy boils down to 5 key assumptions: 1. Adult learners are self directed. Adults are problem oriented.

So being a Learning Technologist in Higher Education in 2009 is all about challenging the status quo. I've just read an interesting post which has helped move my thinking on a bit. It's " Training" faculty to teach online by Lisa Lane and is about the nature of the usual offerings of "training" on teaching online. She distinguishes between Technical training, which is the mechanics of how to work and navigate a particular tool/artefact, and professional development for effective online teaching where the pedagogies behind them are explored. Neither of these is true. Where do you start?

One aspect of learning online is that the students will feel distant and isolated from not only you (the Institution and staff facilitator) but also from each other. So, what can you do to make them feel included and valued? Firstly, use the induction period to get them used to not only working and talking in the online environment, but also engaging online (collaboration, tests, discussions, etc). My personal favourite is to get the students doing something that uses a piece of technology they're not familiar with, but in a way that they don't realise their using or doing something new.

I can remember a project a few years ago where the subject matter expert (SME) fought and fought to include his 20-step process (complete with details and charts) in the course we were developing. He eventually persuaded his boss and won out, so we built the process into the course. Feedback from the learners was not positive and ranged from comments like "what is this and why in the world would I need to know it" on down to, shall we say, less positive remarks. Obviously a better needs analysis should have been conducted. I'm sure that most of you have encountered the same SME.

Wikis in plain English, another very good resource I found thanks to Frank Bradley. The video explains the use of a wiki in a very simple day to day real-life scenario.I'm m currently working on how we can use the wiki in my team to leverage on and share product knowledge. We have a sizable team that is distributed across various locations, and I think it would be valuable if my team members could.

Of Project Spaces and Project Managers The Role of Social Media © Sumeet Moghe, 2009. At the very outset, let me apologise for being late on this post. My dog went through surgery this weekend, my wife's had exams and life's been incredibly hectic as a consequence. As I wrote earlier, if you're a service provider, then people matter most in your business. I've worked forever in the services industry and as an in-house consultant, I've realised that people like working with other people. That's the reason social media has taken off in this age. So what's the solution?

Google Wave's Best Use Cases , Lifehacker, 14 October 2009. To Teach, 30 September 2009. Google Wave: a complete guide , Mashable, 29 September 2009. Learning Waves from Google , Donald Clark, 6 June 2009. ways that Wave is going to change your business, career and life , thinkVitamin, June 2009. Have you got your Google Wave invite yet?  Even if you haven't, you can find out more about it in these articles and postings, and what it can do for education and training. Google Wave will revolutionise online classroom instruction , So You Want.

Photograph in this post taken from cocomo7's Flickr stream ) © Sumeet Moghe, 2009. Have you ever had a time when you got slammed in the face with a huge plate of food which you just couldn't say no to? Picture the above meal -- for some it might just be the tastiest thing they could imagine. For me, while I find it difficult to say no sometimes and even if I only want a little, I have to labour through the entire meal. just got off a five hour flight to Hong Kong, and I've had a bit of an epiphany. Let me tell you the story first. So what I really wanted on this flight was some sleep.

This morning I presented on ‘the e-learning skills gap’ for a webinar run by the Learning and Skills Group (LSG). The LSG webinars are always well attended (this one attracted 120) and ably hosted by Don Taylor. recording of the webinar will be available here in due course, although there’s also a SlideShare version if you just want to flip through the slides. was asked by Don at the end to identify three skills which all l&d professionals need to beef up on if they are to bridge the skills gap. Facilitation: the skills needed to run successful live online learning events.

The world of social software is large, diverse and complex. There are a multitude of applications that sit within this space. Some of these are single purpose applications, such as Twitter, Wordpress, Google Docs, Google Reader etc. Some are multi-purpose, such as Facebook, Elgg and Moodle. This post is not about how to choose the right application. wrote about that earlier this year ( Top tips for choosing and using social software ), and Jane Hart's directory of software is probably the most useful starting place. You've recognised the value that the social element brings to learning.

Site Map My ASTD Membership Store Home > Learning Circuits > 2009 > Twitter As a Learning Tool. Reprinted from the March 2009 issue of T+D. Request more information or give feedback close Request Information close Name: Email: Comments: 2009 Home American Society for Training & Development About Us Contact Us Terms & Privacy Jobs at ASTD © 2008 ASTD All Rights Reserved 1640 King Street, Box 1443 Alexandria, VA 22313-1443, USA Phone: 703.683.8100 Fax: 703.683.8103. Really. Twitter As a Learning Tool. Really. Here’s a scenario to give trainers pause. It can be Googled.

Interesting post by Jane Bozarth - The Myth of "Best Practices" A "best practice" is best only in the precise, specific context in which it exists. What works in my marriage won't necessarily work in -- and may even damage -- yours. Even if moved from one situation to another very close one, the odds of transfer being made with practice intact is nil. How do we address those who pressure us to produce a list of, or abide by, "best" practices? As an individual encounters a situation he/she makes sense of the issue. This really rings true to me. eLearning Technology.

Below are the top picks for the Boggs e-Learning Chronicle's September '09 posts: e-Learning Lingo Podcast: SyberWorks e-Learning Lingo Podcast #107: Object-Oriented Programming SyberWorks LMS e-Learning Implementation Series: SyberWorks LMS e-Learning Implementation Podcast Discusses CMS, CDC and OSHA Training Requirements SyberWorks e-Learning Podcast Series: SyberWorks e-Learning Podcast #35: Interview with Steve Pena, Senior Instructional Designer and Implementation Consultant at SyberWorks, Inc. elearning. learning management systems. elearning podcasts. Competency Management.

As most of my posts these days are based on resources and my readings, I thought I’d continue with this I found (again) on Twitter: A Collection of PLE diagrams. Please look through all the ones listed (the list is growing daily so what I see now and, say, next month is going to be different) [.]. Blogging Facebook Generation Y mLearning PLE PLN Social Media Social Network Technology Twitter Web 3.0

A couple of weeks back we posted about Silverlight posing some (at this time, actually little) competition to Flash. Now we have HTML 5 coming up – this makes the race hotter. Or does it? Those of you have heard of HTML 5 will know it’s a new version of HTML and XHTML being promoted by Google and Apple in a bid to move the web away from proprietary technologies like Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX. It makes HTML more powerful by adding new elements like video and audio. list of new elements in HTML 5 can be found here at IBM’s site and the draft specification is available here at W3C’s site.

elearning design instructionaldesign development

We’ve all seen the presentation “Death by PowerPoint&#. if you haven’t, shame on you and go and see it now – “Death by PowerPoint / SlideShare“ This isn’t to say that using PowerPoint is wrong, or should be stopped. It highlights the techniques that are used over and over again to bore the audience, and should [.]. Technology Academia 2.0 eDelivery eLearning eResources PowerPoint pptPlex Presentation Prezi University 2.0 Web 2.0

OK, apparently I have been oblivious in the last few months, because I didn’t even realize that Google had added a whole new set of search options. Click “Show options&# on any Google search results page to see what’s there. Google Wonder Wheel. The “Wonder Wheel&# is an interactive map with related searches. For “instructional design,&# the related searches shown include “instructional design models,&# “addie,&# and “instructional design courses.&# It might even be a way to help teach people how to come up with better search terms.

Very much like platforms like Moodle and Joomla!, Drupal is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) freely available under the GPL. Open Source E-Learning Development 9: Drupal CMS is a post from: E-Learning Curve Blog.

I see lots of good-presentations-gone bad, often due to the speaker trying to put too much information into the available time. The result: Critical points are lost in the mass of content, or the speaker is rushing at the end to get to what s/he really wanted to say. Often in coaching presenters I watch them approach their content as if they were 8th graders assigned to give a report on their "topic". They visit Wikipedia and Google and clip art galleries to amass piles of information, factoids, job aids, video clips, and PowerPoint shows, then try to compress it into a 75-minute session.

Here is a companion post to two previous posts on the topic: Alternatives to Second Life Alternatives to Second Life Continued If you know of more, please feel free to add in the comments section. web.alive Short "flyby" of Nortel's web.alive. This is Nortel's entry into the 3D space. web.alive is an enterprise ready, network secured virtual world platform designed to solve business problems of working together over distances in real time and the costs associated with travel and training on complex equipment or in hazardous areas. Look for it to break out in the near future.

I received an inquiry from a reader and I'm hoping that people can chime in on their thoughts. It relates to my post about eLearning Costs , which bases cost estimates on seat time of the eLearning course. So, the basic question is: We current provide a two day (16 hour) classroom training course for our employees. We are planning to prepare an e-learning course based on this classroom course. How should we estimate the e-learning course duration for this lesson? What are the important criteria in estimating eLearning duration when its based on a classroom course? Is it feasible to do so?

Overcoming Top 10 Objections to Social Learning - Social Enterprise Blog , April 24, 2009 Ten commandments of e-learning (content design) - Clive on Learning , April 30, 2009 Twitter Learning - eLearning Technology , April 30, 2009 Learning Goals - eLearning Technology , April 29, 2009 An eight-step process using Post-it notes to gain meeting consensus. Business Casual , April 25, 2009 Fantastic File Converter - eLearning Acupuncture , April 24, 2009 Call for eLearning Demonstrations - eLearning Technology , May 1, 2009 When should you use Informal Learning?

Creating original graphics for an e-learning course can be a challenging task, particularly when anything that’s created has to comply with strict branding guidelines. An engaging graphic environment is essential for an interesting and successful learning experience. Read on for our top five tips for achieving this. Work on the concept. strong concept is a must for any design. An interesting theme that runs throughout the course can help keep learners focused and engaged in the content. Explore different technologies. Never stop experimenting. Do not decorate - communicate.

I am just home from Training 2009 where, among other things, I offered sessions on "Better than Bullet Points" and "Instructional Design for the Real World". With both these topics I always manage to tip a few sacred cows. While I hope the presentations provoke thought more than ire, I know that I sometimes ruffle feathers -- often, I suspect, by hitting too close to home. Here are some of the sacred training cows I tipped in Atlanta: --Much of what we call 'e-learning' would be much more useful if distributed as text documents. Good e-learning is about design, not software.

There is growing excitement with a new class of mobile device hitting the streets over the next few months – the electronic tablet. Most of the buzz is about Apple coming out with what’s dubbed the “iTablet” that essentially would be a larger screened iPhone or iPod Touch. Some enterprising people have mocked up images of what it could look like:   But several other vendors are beating Apple

At its heart, learning is about growth. The single, central reason for learning, training, and education is to facilitate peoples' need to acquire and develop new skills, knowledge and expertise. The E-learning Curve blog shares thought-provoking commentary and practical knowledge for e-learning professionals. Find out more.

To get to the main point quickly, let's do what few people offering thoughts about collaboration actually do. Let's explicitly discuss what it is. First off, collaboration isn't just about people sharing information to achieve common goals. Collaboration is about people working with other people to achieve common goals. Advocates of Enterprise 2.0 sometimes make the fundamental mistake of arguing that collaboration is really only about achieving goals, leaving the implication that incorporating social software into the workflow of organizations is sufficient. It requires shared experience.

Two months ago, September 2009, she essentially blogged the same thing I’m blogging about here. When I was a kid, I had a dream that I’d have a Bachelors by 20, Masters by 30 and Doctorate by 40. Given life’s development with our household having a six, four and two year old, the doctorate by 40 is just not going to happen. Unless, there is another way. Peter Rawsthorne got me thinking in a recent Twitter post. Drive this into the open and see what happens. Walk the talk when it comes to my Learning and Collaboration theorem/lifestyle, and go through a PhD 2.0

This week's Economist carried an interesting article about the use of video games at school. The article, Games Lessons , describes how Katie Salen, a games designer and professor of design and technology at Parsons The New School for Design, in New York, has taken the initiative in setting up Quest to Learn , "a new, taxpayer-funded school which is about to open its doors to pupils who will never suffer the indignity of snoring through double French but will, rather, spend their entire days playing games." It will be extremely interesting to see how they get on.

I’ve used Ning, I’ve read and talked about Ning, but I haven’t’ actually put any thought to what it is or how I can get the most out of it. Ning is “a platform for creating your own social network&# , and leaving you in control of all aspects of it (public/private, tools, etc). You start by working [.]. Academia 2.0 Blogging Collaboration Ning PLE PLN Social Media Social Network Technology Wiki

recently had the honor to participate as a panelist in the July 27, 2009 online discussion sponsored by Learning Trends, ISA, and Training Magazine Network. Many of us cut our professional learning design teeth using the long-held tradition of the ADDIE instructional design (ISD) model. In our blogosphere I have heard how “old school”, and in some cases, how obsolete this foundational design model from the 1960s has become. If age denotes obsolescence, then I am in trouble for sure. Insightful words to be sure, certainly not an overt indictment of ADDIE. training. So what do we do?

If you are intrigued by the future of learning design, you won’t want to miss the second half of this interview with Karl Kapp. In case you missed the first half, see Games and Simulations. Coach: What types of challenges do newer technologies, such as mobile and podcast, present to the instructional designer? Karl: The biggest problem is that in the learning field we sometimes get seduced by the technology and forget the underlying learning need and, even more importantly, the underlying business need. Learning initiatives are not altruistic for companies. Wrong format. Thanks, Karl!

How would you answer this question? How do I communicate the value of social media as a learning tool to my organization? Individuals and organizations gave their responses around the web this month. In case you missed it, here is a roundup of some valuable recommendations. Use Unique Strategies for Different Groups. At Minute Bio, Jeff Goldman advises taking a unique approach for each group in an organization. For example, for the Management group focus on ROI and case studies. For getting Staff buy-in, make a prototype and keep the content relevant to their work. Show Examples. question.

I am delighted to announce that I have been shortlisted as a finalist for two categories in the 2009 Irish Web Awards sponsored by Realex Payments. ve been nominated for the following categories: Best Education and Third Level Website The E-Learning Curve Blog (you’re reading it now) Best Podcaster E-Learning Curve’s Other Podcasts The awards ceremony takes place in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin on just under two weeks from now on Friday October 10th 2009. Tags: IWA09 best podcaster education irish ireland irish web awards 2009 web awards IWA

Study after study tells us that our corporate training investment budget ratio is backwards. Most of the dollars are spent on formal events such as ILT classroom and eLearning rather than informal and social learning concepts or initiatives. Ironically, the real benefit is felt moreso during informal and/or social learning exchanges. Which brings me to Learnerprise 2.0. Andrew McAfee has coined the term Enterprise 2.0 as: the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers&#. Learnerprise 2.0 it won’t happen).

I recently attended the SLOAN-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning in San Francisco. It was an intense conference with many fantastic talks. One particularly interesting talk was done by Mary Anne Clark , a Professor of Biology at Wesleyan University in Texas. She started her talk by telling us a story. As an aside, I personally love talks that start with a story because I really value the learning that can come from storytelling.) Mary Anne’s husband would constantly try to convince her to play WoW with her. Student feedback clearly supports this.

My good pal Jay Cross asked me to do a provocative session on the Future of Learning and the pending Immernet Singularity. As with most cognitive excursions that involve Jay, we had a BLAST! mean where else could you come up with the concept of an “Empathic Electronic Exoskeleton&# that swaddles our planet in less than an hour. good number of you have asked for charts… here you go. If you like the charts, you will no doubt enjoy the presentation and discussion. You can view the hour long back and forth here. Enjoy!

I’ve written previously on using mobile devices in class, and have made reference to quite a few excellent resources in my re-Tweets on Twitter. thought I’d bring some of the best together in one post as I often find myself forgetting where I put them. Screen-grab For those times when you want to display what is [.]. mLearning Echo360 eLearning iPod iTunes Presentation Technology Web 2.0

RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline Written by Richard MacManus / December 20, 2009 8:04 PM / 74 Comments « Prior Post One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. 2009 Update on RSS Reader Market Well, unfortunately Feedburner no longer publishes any useful data about RSS Readers. Pheedo also has gone quiet from a blogging perspective - its last blog post was January 2009. 2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009. bookmarklet.

Transfer of learning is the goal of all training and learning interventions. We know that the often the learning context is different from the context of real-life application. However, the training objective is not achieved until the learning transfers from one to context to another. So, what is it that makes learning 'stick' and allows learners to use the learning immediately and in the future? The Theoretical View: Understanding Transfer of Learning Before I reflect on the strategies that aid transfer of learning, it is important to discuss some theoretical views on learning transfer.

I use Powerpoint in some of the workshops I run, not all, but when it suits the audience, venue and most importantly learning objectives. have, on the other hand, been a participant where slides have been the 'star'! Slides that contained too much text in colours and sizes that were too hard to read and more bullets than Ned Kelly's last stand! That said, Powerpoint can have its place. So I've put together a list of 10(+1) tips for using Powerpoint more effectively. Plan your workshop. Ask yourself what is the best way to get the message/learning across. Story before slides. How much text?

I created this tutorial video in 2007 when i was exploring Photoshop myself. had real difficulty understanding the concept of layers. That’s when I thought I must create this video which might be of help to many other beginners like me. Some people found this video useful and have left their comments.  A few found the quality of video quite poor. see a better quality video now. Thanks to YouTube for enhancements. This video also has about 10k hits, which excites me, though this was achieved over 2 years. So here I repost my video again for all those who have not seen this before.  .

Here a quick list that I came up with:ID Theory and Concept: Understand and apply ID concepts, theories and models based on relevance.ADDIE Process: Understand and implement the ADDIE process.Business Requirement and Problem: Understand the business requirement that led to the demand for the training, and the business problem that the training is intended to be solved.Suggest appropriate.

Looking at Capital City Bank from the outside, I wouldn’t have expected to find a great example of social learning inside. They are a solid, conservative bank. They have more than 1,100 associates spread out across Florida, Georgia and Alabama. recently had a great conversation with Becky Barch, a performance consultant at the Bank, about her smart application of discussion forum software from ElementK. The forum is targeted to a small group – loan/lending assistants. There are roughly 22 people in that role in at Capital City Bank. One person had become the “defacto associate help desk”.

Are you developing online training content (eLearning)? Do you want to save money and time? Are there multiple members on your team and you need everything to be consistent? Are there varying levels of technical expertise on the team? These are just a few questions that we come across while building online training content. Using templates to build eLearning can address many of the questions above. Before discussing a few points let me describe what I mean by eLearning templates. Templates can include many different assets. Basically they can be used over and over in different projects. Games.

What categories of content can you deliver to your audience via m-learning? We can all appreciate the potential of m-learning as a component of an integrated online educational strategy in the. The E-learning Curve blog shares thought-provoking commentary and practical knowledge for e-learning professionals. Find out more.

Link to Stephen Downes Homepage All His Papers All His Presentation Slides + KL Workshop Slides Blogs - OLDaily & Half an Hour Web 1.0 = Read Web 2.0 = Read -Write Web 3.0 = Read -Write - Research Web 4.0 = Read -Write - Research - Rambo! At last I got to meet Stephen Downes in person and attend one of his workshops. Better yet, due to a secret arrangement (Not telling!) I got to become his personal bodyguard (I mean assistant) during this 2-day workshop in Kuala Lumpur (14th - 15th January). You can see me on the picture happily holding tightly to the handheld laser gun (I mean camera!).

July 1, 2009 to July 30, 2009. An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day - HarvardBusiness.org , July 20, 2009. Transparency is the new objectivity - Joho the Blog , July 19, 2009. Blog – Why Incompetence Spreads Through Big Organisations - Technology Review Feed – Tech Review Top Stories , July 5, 2009. The Healthiest Foods On Earth - Forbes.com: News , July 11, 2009. How NPR is Embracing Open Source and Open APIs - OReilly Radar , July 16, 2009. The Generation M Manifesto - HarvardBusiness.org , July 8, 2009. July 7, 2009.

Screencasting can be useful in distance education. Recently, I met with colleagues who are designing a distance course in physics. In this particular course, the emphasis is on mathematical problem solving. When they deliver the course in class, they spent the first 15-20 minutes of each lecture thoroughly going over solutions from previously assigned homework problems. Students report that this investment of time in problem solving in the classroom really helps them master the subject matter. Remote screencasting was the front runner in the discussion. Create a storyboard. Image credit here.

Day 2 of DevLearn kicked off with a keynote from Eric Zimmerman on Serious Game Design. Cammy Bean did a fantastic job of taking notes during the keynote, so I’ll defer to her on this. You can see her notes here. Thank you, Cammy!). Session 401: Overview of Latest Learning Trends: What’s Hot, What’s Not, and Why. This session was presented by Lance Dublin. In Lance’s typical style, it was full of interesting discussion and TONS of open (and often uncomfortable) questions. He covered everything from eLearning basics to all of the new “2.0″ Does it really help?

I want to thank Jeff Goldman - Minute Bio for his great response last month. He suggested that we focus the Big Question on specific issues and then suggested four questions. So, let's start with his first suggestion: Working effectively with subject matter experts There's a lot to this topic, and certainly it's an on-going challenge. Some specific questions that are raised in this area: What should all IDs know about working with a SME? What can you and can't you expect a SME to do? Does it work to have SMEs create rapid eLearning? What's your favorite instructive story of working with a SME?

There are many dynamics that ultimately impact the quality, cost and effectiveness of a learning solution. Whether it be eLearning, blended or in-person training, a learning initiative, product, course, application or event, all of these solutions have one undeniable MUST HAVE: a leader. How do the actions of a learning leader impact design, costs and [.].

Now only $750. Flash games AND over 30 Flash interactions included in this bundle! These are Flash based templates that are super easy to update. Each template is fully customizable in Flash (we give you the.fla Flash source file). Made to work within most rapid elearning software (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Rapid Intake, Adobe Presenter, PowerPoint and more). BONUS: Reuse the templates over and over again in multiple courses…or even other websites and presentations. Specs: Files included: Fla and.swf. Requirements: Flash 8 or newer (CS, CS2, CS3, CS4). Flash Player 8 or newer.

Sumeet Moghe, 2009. Putting together an e-learning/ presentation template in Powerpoint or Keynote can be quite easy. What most of us struggle with is color combinations. There are a couple of tricks I like to use, to build my designs. a) Use a color schemer : Color schemers are easily available for all platforms and generally make decisions around color combinations an absolute no brainer. use Color Schemer on my Mac and the way I use it, is to specify a starting color and then I just let it tell me what colors will go well with it. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I’ve often been asked how I embedded a video from YouTube in my presentations, so I thought I’d put a simple guide together, based on one I found a while back but can’t find now!! Typical, Typical, huh? So, let’s begin … Find the YouTube clip you want to use before doing anything else. I’m going to use this [.].

JANUARY 2009 January 3-4, 2009 New Presidents Program , sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges, Hyatt Regency Coconut Point, Bonita Springs, Florida, USA. January 4-7, 2009 Presidents Institute : Investing in the Future – Students, Institutions, and the Public Good sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges, Hyatt Regency Cocomut Point, Bonita Springs, Florida, USA. link] conferences_events/presidents/ 2009.asp January 4-7, 2009 Hawaii International Conference on Education , 7 th annual, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. link] index.php January 18-22, 2009.

From Jay Cross' Informal Learning Flow Hot List for August , fantastic video with Seth Godin and Tom Peters discussing the value of blogging. They sound a lot like what I say about blogging and learning. This is going to be pretty good for an upcoming presentation to professional speakers about the use of social media. Seth Godin Doesn't matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the metacognition of thinking about what you are going to say. How do you force yourself to describe in three paragraphs why you did something. It has changed my life. It has changed my perspective. Both And it's free.

Did you ever spend an hour writing a four or five word phrase or short instruction? During that time, you probably felt like an obsessive perfectionist—hunched over the computer trying to get it just right. Now that there’s a term for this type of writing and recognition of how important it is, we can all feel a little more normal. I’m talking about microcopy , and it refers to the little instructions and phrases that we use in eLearning and web page interfaces to guide and assure users. Importance of Microcopy. Microcopy can make or break your product. Was I frustrated? Seriously.

Mercenary Rationale for Network Work & Learning As I discussed in Evaluating Performance of Concept Workers , evaluating the performance of a concept worker is difficult because there's no right answer and most often the evaluator knows less about the subject than the worker. Thus, the bottom line in evaluating a concept workers performance is by looking at: Was a reasonable process used? Are the conclusions reasonable? How would this compare to results from other concept workers? To make sure you pass this test - I suggest cheating. They said I've gone through the right steps.

social_systems elearning2.0

Since the beginning of last year a Tibotec mobile project has been running. There are two partners in this project the Institute of Tropical Medicine and the esteemed Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt. The complete overview of the mobile learning project was given by my wonderful colleague Carlos, you can look at the presentation here if you like. wrote about the technical parts of the project a couple of months ago on how we would put all the pieces of the mobile learning puzzle together to get the most accessible mobile learning project on the rails using different media.

Widely-held misunderstandings about LMSs in a learning ecosystem and SCORM have conspired to create confusion about the nature of each and how they interoperate.

My previous blog posts on podcasting have focused the human side of podcasting: narration, story-telling, communicating with your audience. I've looked at what you say, and how you say it, dipping liberally into the eighty or so years of accumulated skills and knowledge from radio broadcasting to reinforce my arguments - after all, content is king, and radio is still the place where people talk. Now, it's time to spend a little time understanding the technical aspects of podcasting. Don't worry if you've never so much as looked at a sound file before. How is that musical piece orchestrated?