Templating also nice - can provide form element. Presentation: No Compromises Rapid eLearning Presenter: Tom Kuhlmann Rapid eLearning tools have democratized learning. Everyone is an expert at "something." - Empowers people to share their expertise. Ultimately Communities of Practice center around expertise. Before - to build, it was a hassle (Authorware anyone?) + If you don't have connection to "Training" - you need to do something, right? types of tool - Form or freeform - Form - software does stuff for you - you dump in content. millions of people use it. It's easy. Looks great.

What is being provided to me to help me do this? Presentation: Work Literacy 2.0 Presenter: Tony Karrer -- What's changed in knowledge work and learning? How does this relate to eLearning, eLearning 2.0 Implications of these changes on learning professionals. Specific actions to build competence. Note to self - take another look at del.i.cious. Need to do more with social bookmarks) (Tony showed how his son performed historical research on Google. Boy, my experience would have been soooo much different today. AND his 11 year old son edited the wikipedia article on the CA Gold Rush.)

Moodle provides a couple of different options for managing users in bulk (at least I am only aware of 2). This week I was able to overcome what I thought would be one of the most difficult hurdles in a Moodle implementation. was having nightmares about setting up and maintaining over 1000 user accounts. knew that Moodle had some options to make this easier but didn't realize just how easy it would be. You can connect to an existing database which is ideal in most circumstances but takes a little more knowledge of databases then I currently have.

Factors that affect Game-based learning Case Study - Investor Education, JP Morgan Did "Jargon Buster: (I hope they provide the slides / presentation material) Issue - range of audience Need - ID existing Knowledge level of learner to create adaptive tracks Approach - Play a game and score points to cross threshholds. Presentation: Designing and Rolling Out Games for eLearning Outcomes Presenter: Ravi Ramakrishman (This session will give a European / Indian perspective on this topic) HSBC Ad Campaign at Global Airports How do you make learning fun? Fun = more real learning.

Provide self-starters with access to the best resources. At the Tim O'Reilly keynote at the DevLearn conference. His outline is very interesting in that he's promising to talk about the "new literacies." I'm hoping this is going to be similar to Work Literacy. He uses the same quote I often use from William Gibson - The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed. Pattern recognition is key. What do these companies have in common: Google eBay Yahoo Amazon MapQuest Craigslist Wikipedia YouTube Built on top of Linux (open source). Services. Not packaged apps. Hadoop. Design.

Then you might be interested in this widget that can be embedded on any web page and provides a summary of your personal profile, as presented in your LinkedIn account.  Do you have a LinkedIn account?  You can choose the atrributes to display. inkedInABox

In this post I'm going to attempt to list the pros and cons of learner self-assessment with a view to providing possible insight into ways of improving its design. Many successful distance students have discovered what I did - immediate feedback of knowledge gain, or skill attainment, can provide powerful encouragement for further learning. For those learners who can provide this for themselves, it can bring a new self-confidence. In this respect the digital resource may provide some relief. The practice may not always be looked on as a laudable, useful activity.

After all, haven’t we got enough pressures on ourselves to deliver on the promises we have made to our employers and our clients, without pitching ourselves into the heat of battle with our peers in other training departments or with other providers? Seeing this pic on the Thinking Worlds Blog of the team at Caspian Learning celebrating their award for best game or simulation at last Thursday's E-Learning Awards in London (and yes that's Donald Clark there on the left, joining in) reinforced for me just how much fun these events can be, particularly when you're a winner.

Scott has a theatre background and a great deal of experience presenting in front of groups and he provides great advice and ideas to students as they prepare for their major presentation to our Corporate Advisory Council. Scott then proceeded to provide his presentation. Scott provided his content and interacted with the students through the classroom mic (students came up and asked questions) and from time-to-time Scott would ask them to raise their hands in agreement or to check understanding. far pretty normal stuff. So first, here is the set up. Everybody stand up.

The goal was to identify a qualified service provider to perform the installation, customization and content / data migration. The process identified a capable service provider. But, here we are in November, further in the revenue hole than the organization was at the beginning of summer, and I find myself still pulling teeth to get the service provider's Letter of Agreement signed by the executive sponsor.One Step Back. Answer that question for me and you'll have your answer. Analysis Paralysis. One Step Forward. As a matter of fact, it was complete by mid-summer.

Last week I was invited to speak to all the teaching staff at City College, a higher education institution in Brighton, UK, which in its own words: Each year over 2,000 full-time learners, 13,000 part-time learners as well as many international and European students choose City College as their education provider. The main thrust of my presentation was to stimulate a recognition that the

The movie trailer provided mystery and intrigue that attracted learners. Cliff showed some examples of the work his company does to help clients meet their performance needs. Cliff gave examples of how his company designed a postcard telling the learners about a learning event that was going to happen, then they sent out an email and then they sent out a "movie trailer" to link the learner into the educational site. The learning center has "Easter eggs" all over the place to keep the learners interested in the learning that is happening.

Often a short audio narration provides the information and coaching needed to help an employee solve a problem or deal with a customer issue. The wide spread adoption of MP3 Players like Apple's iPod products has lead to an entire ecosystem of tools, accessories and content providers. strong advantage of audio is that it provides the proper tone of voice, inflection and other information necessary to assist sales representatives, doctors or others. Audio can provide information with relatively little bandwidth requirements as opposed to video.

What level commitment will the IT department provide to you when course scores are not being properly reported? The hours spent learning how to administer the server, optimize performance and troubleshoot can easily be saved through the use of an externally provided solution. There always seems to be a debate about whether or not an organization should host a Learning Management System (LMS) application internally or externally. There are arguments on both sides. An informed client needs to consider costs as well as some questions about the ability to host internally.

The article, Learning to Blog, Blogging to Learn , describes how a formal structure can facilitate informal learning and provides guidelines to any person who is suddenly asked to "blog" their expertise. There is an interest question on the Learning Circuits blog that asks whether or not it is appropriate to write a book about informal learning. The argument goes "if informal learning is so important, why use a formal structure, like a book, to describe its value?" Thus an article I co-wrote with the editor of eLearn Magazine Lisa Neal.

Using a first person genre, the game provides a graphically high-quality adventure where the learner travels from one location to another solving multiplication problems. There are video game based learning tools for a variety of topics including Algebra and Spanish. Here is one for multiplication tools. Timez Attack is a new video game instructionally designed exclusively for learning multiplication tables. The game uses drill and practice disguised as a video game (as we know Drill and practice is an effective strategy for teaching facts, like the multiplication tables).

We must provide examples of the types of tricks they will actually encounter. No matter what industry you work in…banking, manufacturing, insurance, retail.there is compliance training that must be developed by instructional designers and taken by employees. Typically compliance training involves the following design: page-of-text, page-of-text, page-of-text, painfully-obvious multiple choice question (repeat). Additionally, most compliance-based e-learning courses (or even classroom instruction) are typically a series of DON'Ts. Which of the following actions should you take?

Get all of the training related folks together and provide them with an opportunity to get to know each other and to understand all of the training requirements of the organization. Ideally, the SLC should meet monthly to discuss issues related to the learning services provided, to share best practices and to remain focused on becoming a world class learning organization. I am continually amazed by large organizations that do not have a handle on all of the training that occurs within the organization. Each group or division is doing it own thing.

Consider checking out the book Ender's Game which provides a compelling and, sometimes scary look at learning and gaming in the future. If you are looking for a glimpse into the mentality of the upcoming gamer generation and the future of e-learning but also want to be entertained. Ender's Game written by Orson Scott Card is a scary look into a future in which the Earth finds itself preparing for a battle against an alien race. The main teaching tool throughout the entire book is the use of games both virtual and physical.

The document, LMS Selection Template , provides several templates to help you develop a consistent approach to your LMS or LCMS selection process from the RFP outline to checklists for evaluating vendor demonstrations. The selection of a Learning Management and/or a Learning Content Management System is an important decision for any organization. Unfortunately, there are not many playbooks for this process. However, here is one that is very helpful. Sherry, also an alumni of Bloomsburg University, has put together document containing helpful and targeted information.

I'll give you one, short, small educational pieces provided in an entertaining manner. There is a lot going on in terms of educating kids through the Internet, this same enthusiasm will be coming to an online training classes design for employees in the near future. As these "gamers" enter the workforce, they will want educational opportunities in the same vain as their educational games with which they are growing up. One site that is combining entertaining games with education is BrainPOP. Check out the science section and the piece on Kinetic Energy.

First, thanks to Wendy Wickham for inviting me (or pulling me) into this exercise…I think:) Actually, Wendy provides really great insights into the field, you need to go check out her blog if you haven't already. Ok, so I have been tagged in a blog exercise called a “Meme” which is much like a chain letter…always fun before computers, loved handwriting fourteen letters to avoid my impending doom or bring about incredible luck…the idea of this meme is to write 5 things that you may not know about me and then tag five other people to do the same. So now the next question is ….Were

Even individually measuring each possible behavioral outcome might not provide the Gestalt that is needed to determine the overall “winner.” My point is that there is a time and place for measurable behavior-based objectives. Stephen Downes in his response to my post titled Definitions: ABCD Objectives writes It remains puzzling that so much of the instructional design community remains rooted in behaviorism - this more than 30 years after the theory was abandoned everywhere else I am not sure behaviorism has been abandoned everywhere else. You see the product, you make the purchase.

The article does a great job of defining avatars and describing the different types of avatars and provides examples of how they are used in a variety of settings. Here is a great article from the eLearning Guild on avatars. If you are not familiar with the potential of avatars for e-learning check out this article by Raj Sheth titled Avatar Technology: Giving a Face to the e-Learning Interface. Raj describes an avatar as: An avatar, in the broadest sense, is an image that represents one party in an interactive exchange.

Quality: Your client (internal or external) must feel that you are providing a high quality product. If you are going to manage an e-learning project, you must manage the following elements. Scope: This includes proper identification of the tasks that need to be accomplished for the project. It should also take into consideration what happens when the scope of the project changes (it will change). Instructional Design: The Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process is a methodology for developing instruction. Not everyone understands the ISD process or sees its value.

Arguing about whether or not these platforms are "learning platforms" is less relevant than figuring out how to provide learning experiences within these worlds.teachable moments. Traveling to Calypso is similar to traveling to any foreign country. You exchange your currency for the currency of Calypso and, when you return home, you can exchange left over Calypso currency back to your currency. The only difference? Calypso is not a physical place—not a Caribbean island. Calypso has its own virtual economy which works almost seamlessly with physical economies. Cash is King.

We often remove context such as the use of scenarios or case studies, we often reduce the amount of feedback provided to the learner, we reduce the amount of analysis we do to make sure we are even creating instructional that is valuable in the first place. This month the Big Question on the Learning Circuit's blog has to do with rapid e-learning. œWhat are the trade offs between quality learning programs and rapid e-learning and how do you decide?” So you can read more of my thoughts on rapid e-learning in the magazine. In the meantime, here is a sneak preview. Check the Clock.

The organization is a National Science Foundation (NFS) center that is focused on providing technology education to faculty of community colleges in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). serve as the external evaluator helping the group to reach its goals by providing formative evaluation information during the life of the grant. Just returned from a conference sponsored by the National Center for Telecommunication Technologies (NCTT ) held in San Francisco, CA. San Francisco, CA. is a lovely place. Estimated 1.5 million that's 1.7 No talent.no

Over at Wired Blogs , they have posted predications for 2007 for business and industry as well as providing an opportunity for others to add their predictions, it is worth a read to see what is on the minds of non-learning and development folks and to read what they think about the future of technology and it's input on our lives. As many people in an organization provide knowledge that learners need to do their job, we need to help them develop the proper format and structure. Also, the Open Source for software and even training will have a big impact in the near future.

Please rate the product/service/attention provided by organizations XYZ? To answer the question at ASTD's Learning Circuits Blog , I am going to try to stick to Tony's initial thought of specific questions and dive very deep into the technique I use when consulting for a needs assessment or evaluation. use a technique I call the 360 Needs Assessment. This process involves asking questions at several levels within an organization. The idea is to separate the facts from the opinions. Or I know that the information is a minority opinion. Have you every tried to solve it before?

The article, The Second Life Census provides a link to a spreadsheet showing some interesting SL numbers. Here is an article brought to my attention by one of my students Jason Kojtek. For example, the number of non-repeat credit card accounts is 2 million and the number of people online at any time is between 10,000 and 30,000. But the most interesting part of the article are the comments posted afterward. The vast majority blasting Second Life because it is not a "game" and there is nothing to do in Second Life except walk around.

The level that provides face validity to the content and measures customer satisfaction. Rarely are e-learning courses evaluated at the reaction level (level 1). have created a short list of questions related to level 1 e-learning evaluations but would really like some input on other questions that might be appropriate at the end of an e-learning class. Please feel free to add some of those questions as a comment to this blog or write a posting on your own blog and I'll link. Here is what I have so far: How relevant was the course content to your job?

The SL environment provides a great opportunity to immerse the learner in the language and the situation. This weekend I attended an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. It was a surreal experience for two reasons. 1) I already speak English (unfortunately, the only language I do speak except for a little French which I continually butcher, oui) 2) the class was in Second Life (SL). The instructor, Kip, separated the attendees into two groups and then asked a series of questions in English using slides and then the participants answered with written English sentences.

one of the world's leading providers of educational services, has signed an agreement to acquire EduNeering Holdings, Inc., a top provider of knowledge management solutions that assure regulatory compliance and improve business performance. Here is the big announcement: Kaplan, Inc., EduNeering designs and deploys knowledge management solutions for organizations in the pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare, energy and manufacturing sectors. The transaction is awaiting clearance by the Federal Trade Commission.

You are patiently provided instruction on how to mark the leg, clean the area, make the incision and repair the damage. Ever wonder how they perform knee or hip surgery, find out for yourself at EdHeads. Actually, you get to perform the surgery with a little guidance. Even though the surgery was 2D, I still got a little sqeamish. The site also has a virtual hip replacement surgery simulation as well as other interesting educational games. Compare the interaction of these educational modules with what you are designing.

She provided wonderful examples of blending learning into the workflow for rapid learning on the job. Thank you to everyone who attended ASTD's Rapid E-Learning Seminar. The desire to learn more about rapid e-learning is obvious, we had the largest ASTD Webinar attendance to date, over 650 individuals. Allison Rossett did a wonderful job of talking about the Big Tent of e-learning and how we need to expand our thinking beyond courses to performance support systems. She also made an excellent point that some things cannot be taught rapidly.

It has engaging activities and characters that provide an exciting learner experience and has built in motivation. Learning to spell in elementary school can be a drag, it is all rote memorization. Writing the words over and over again so you can learn them for the test. web-site named Spelling Time has developed a fun an interactive method to teach kids in grades 1-5 spelling in an engaging manner. The process involves multiple steps, first an animated character speaks a word and then you type the word. It also works blended learning right into the learning process.

This article, written by Ms Abbey Stahl from Shikellamy High School, provides insight into the thinking of current high school students. The article provides great information about what the upcoming gamer generation is going to demand in terms of learning. Anyone responsible for providing learning opportunities for these gamers better be ready. Tonight's supplement to my daily newspaper is a paper within a paper called All the Rage, For Teens! By Teens! About Teens! Typical teen stuff, what to wear to the prom, choosing a college and so forth. Not obsolete but impractical.

Games Provide Feedback to the Learner. Games provide Feedback to the Trainer. Games provide a practice field where learners interact with the topic, demonstrating their knowledge and ability to apply the information. Games provide an environment that transforms the passive student into an active part of the learning process, connecting her own dots and experiencing her own ideas. Games Provide a Less Threatening Learning Environment. So the discussion will be interesting to see how the prinicples discussed by Steve Sugar will translate into online games.

To faciliate this process, I have created wiki (at the suggestion of Barton )to provide information and to answer student questions. The wiki is called MSIT Second Life and is designed to provide information to students. If you want to stop by and provide some assistance or help, feel free to do so. This semester as part of a larger class project where students are required to respond to an e-learning Request for Proposal (RFP), my students are going to need to create some spaces and areas in Second Life.

The big contribution of Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning to the field is that it provides direct linkages between the brain drain of the on-rushing boomer retirement and the range of technologies, tools and methodologies required to combat it. Founder, e-LearningGuru.com President, AXIOM Professional Health Learning Kapp's book provides insights into an employee population that is not as well understood as the baby boomer generation. am very excited about its impending release in April of this year. is much appreciated. Donald A. Deiesco, Ph.d., Gordon Snyder, Jr.

These virtual tours can provide some type of insight into the environments in which students may consider working. One effective method of using 3D worlds like Second Life , Active Worlds , ProtoSphere and others for education is to build environments and 3D models for the students to learn about places they could not otherwise visit or inhabit. Build a dangerous or deadly environment and let them freely explore to learn in a realistic manner just how dangerous the particular environment can be. Create a mock airport terminal and let the employees identify suspicious people and items.

It really provides an excellent glimpse into the future of computer/user interfaces. This video comes courtesy of Mike Qaissaunee's blog Frequently Asked Q. When the interface is this simple and intuitive.what will happen to software training courses? I've always said that one of the reasons instructional designers have a job is because programmers create such HORRIBLE user interfaces that employees need training just to figure out what is going on. However, if Jeff Han's work takes off.no more horrible interfaces. __ Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content Guide

provided a provocative glimpse into the future but.it Interfaces, or the lack of interfaces seems to be a theme lately. thought the posting, What Interface? was nothing compared to the concept of a helmet that reads your thoughts and then controls images on the screen to help you play video games without a controller. No joystick or controller, just put the helmut on your head and begin playing.with your mind. Emotiv System, Inc., The technology will distinguish between patterns of brain activity in order to correspond with specific commands in video games.

The tennis, baseball and bowling are highly realistic and provide a great deal of fun and interesting game play.It When I was in graduate school many moons ago, the big thing was virtual reality. The concept was that the learner would immerse him or herself into an environment and then interact with the environment. It was really over-hyped and never went anywhere. It appears to me from recent events that virtual reality is back.in a big way. First I run into the idea of a helmut that reads your mind and sends commands to the video game you are playing, Interface Be Gone.

My printer would instantly provide turn-by-turn directions and even small pictures of the route highlighted in purple. Whenever I traveled, the electronic directions provided pinpoint accuracy for about 99% of the trip. This receiver, no bigger than six inches, displays a map showing the route I need to follow and providing a visual image of my car on the highway. The Learning Circuit's Blog question for this month is " ILT and Off-The-Shelf Vendors, What Should they Do ?" I am going to answer that question by recanting a story from Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning.

Or imagine a sensor built into the gloves of an employees that can sense if a process is being done incorrectly and then provide audio feeback in the form of instructions or training to the employee after it wirelessly downloads the instructions from a server. Rumor has it that Apple is in the process of creating Wi-Fi enabled iPods. via Gizmodo via digitimes via AppleInsider. This coupled with Nike's iPod enabled shoe, once again show how gadgets can be used to transfer knowledge from one place to another.wi-fi fi allows for easy transfer.

The training provided a lot to the salesforce in terms of helping them to understand how to configure a solution and then present that solution to the client. __ Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content GuideCliff Sobel from The Phoenix Group and James Knittel from Xerox presented a solution they jointly created and how they developed entertaining ways to get across information about their new products. Transferring knowledge that the sales reps from Xerox could use. Cliff mentioned that there were four key issues with existing training that needed to be addressed.

The company focuses on the Federal government and providing learning solutions to those agencies. they specialize in traning technology and management and they have international expertise providing services in over 50 countries. Andy Pasternak from Pal-Tech presented on the topic of Learning Management Systems. Create and support training in multiple languages. He discussed how they helped the State Department choose a Learning Management System.

There theme was focused on quickly providing a solution. __ Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content Guide tw Here is Vince Basile discussing internship opportunities for companies to hire our graduates as interns. Two teams have competed so far in the CAC presentations, very professional presentations. One team mentioned the use of Second Life and the other using a different type of software solution. The teams were "A New Day" and Elan. Here are some photographs of the third team's presentation. This an image of a mnemonic to help you remember the colors of the rainbow.

This approach will eliminate problems associated with Second Life, such as hacking and griefing, and additionally provide improved graphics and controls. Instead we will provide additional practice sessions for those who need more instruction. This team won the "Best Written" award and consists of Robert (Spyke) Krepshaw, Jared Kishbaugh, Bianca Pichardo, Jason Kojteck and Matt Milgram. The solution was: A New Day proposes to develop a two-phased training program with the third-phased in mind. Each learner is required to spend one hour in each module according to PDFRS.

In Phase Three, a checklist will be provided to the PDFRS official that will be training security personnel. This team won the "Best Presentation" and "Best Overall" award. It consisted of Ashley Kreischer, Yan Zhang, Marnie Welliver and Brian Seely. Our solution focuses on the S.T.A.R. procedure based upon the results of the Wonderlic IQ test. In Phase One, we will develop 3 online courses which each consist of four components based on the S.T.A.R. procedure with focus on transitions from each phase to the real world.

The board game provides a nice storyline, multiple choice questions, interactivity and the "thrill" of being chased by the police. Did your mom always try to get you to drink your milk? She probably told you that drinking milk will help you grow up to be big and strong. If she was like my mom, she tried really hard but it was never any fun to drink my milk. always wanted chocolate or even Pink Quick to make my milk taste better. actually I only wanted the Pink Quick once.until I actually tasted it.not good.) Anyway, the " Got Milk?" It is a 3D online, interactive, board game.

He talks a bit about the presentation on his blog and provides a Link. Pictured from Left to Right are Karl Kapp, Greg Walsh and Steve Sugar. Three guys talking about games (apparently arranged by height). Recently I had the pleasure of presenting on the topic of games with two interesting and exciting gentleman. One was Steve Sugar who has written a half-a-dozen books on what he calls "19th century games." Steve has developed board games, games where you toss koosh balls, bingo games and just about any other type of fun, educational game you can think of. Mission accomplished.

Imagine a few modifications to create a heads-up display of a piece of machinary and then provide video-based instructions on how to repair the equipment or make adjustments. Let's continue the iPod discussion. While schools are banning iPods as fast as they can (see Hire that Kid!), several companies I work with have placed Standard Work Instructions onto iPods. Actually onto video iPods. The idea is that a worker, away from his or her computer, can quickly look up a specific work task and view a 30 second video of how to perform that task. He then teaches the moves to the students.

As developers and designers of learning events, we should have our learner "fast forward" to specific tasks they need to complete to be successful on the job and then provide specific, guided practice to them in a virtual environment. One trick he has adopted is providing his quarterbacks and receivers with copies of the Penn State Playbook on PlayStation 2 memory card. Use the parameters of actual situations to provide guidance and instruction to learners. Here are three reality-based video games.what can they teach us about creating effective learning events? was hooked.

At Bloomsburg University, the commencement address is provided by a member of the faculty instead of hiring an outside speaker. Bloomsburg University Students in Line to Receive Diplomas. This means the presentation is more focused on Bloomsburg and the faculty member is someone that many of the students know. This year, I had the honor of speaking at the morning ceremony to the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science and Technology. spoke to over 500 graduates and twice as many parents, friends and relatives. Here is the transcript of my speech. Thank you.

I am attempting to define the term " 3D Synchronous Learning Environment " Here is what I have so far: Being immersed into a 3D environment as an avatar for the purpose of learning while being guided by another person who, in the form of an avatar, is providing instructions and/or guidance. Any input you can provide will be helpful. Please comment, critque, add/change or modify. Use the comment function below (you know how this works). __ Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content Guide

Nothing provides faster, more constructive feedback than a video game. Sometimes, things just all seem to come together at once. number of alumni and friends of Bloomsburg University's Instructional Technology program have sent me some great links and they are all about wildly different things but all are related to the gamer generation. Check them out. Here is one titled Most-Praised Generation Craves Kudos at the Office from Alison Stone. It talks about the gamer generation and their desire for feedback and praise.a You know instantly if you are on target or wrong. Are you ready?

It just provides a demonstration of how to navigate the e-learning modules. This month the question is "Where are the Examples of eLearning?" and we are supposed to consider both good and bad examples as well as give some thoughts on why the example should get some attention. I've decided to look at several different types of "e-learning." Traditional Here is some learning sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency. It is called the EPA Watershed Academy. It is a web site that has a number of e-learning courses which are very text focused. Learning Tutorial for PA DEP. Wikis Explained.

If you are looking for some summer reading, you might want to pick up the book or the article and provide your own review. This morning I opened up the July 2007 issue of ASTD's Magazine, T&D and found that Paula Ketter has just reviewed Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning. Here is some of what she had to say: [This book, like others, talks about] the impending retirement of baby boomers and how companies are dealing with the critical knowledge transfer that needs to take place. Knowledge transfer is one of the most critical issues facing organizations today.

It guides learners through the first few lessons for the first class and provides them with some resources. A good number of hours today are going toward my preparation for my upcoming class called "Learning in 3D." Today I focus on preparing the MSIT Second Life wiki for the class. also spent a lot of time this morning trying to set up a travel itinerary for new avatars to get a feel of the Second Life universe and what can be accomplished from an educational perspective. Feel free to check out the wiki and add any resources or other items that would be helpful.

These are people that are on the front lines of dealing with the techno-natives and are constantly looking for new ways to provide learning opportunities for these kids who have grown up playing video games, surfing the web and creating content on sites like MySpace and YouTube. Every summer the NCTT organization does a great summer workshop for educators in 2-year, high school, vocational schools and other schools about technology in the area of Information and Communication Technologies. This year the workshop was kicked off by Gordon Snyder Jr. per year. The Gamer Generation." Tools.

My work with games, gadgets and gizmos provides me with the perfect opportunity for connecting with my oldest son (now a teenager.it is everything they say it is) In fact, tomorrow he and I are co-presenting a workshop about Second Life at Bucknell University to a group of high school, middle school and elementary school teachers. My son is going to show them how to edit the appearance of their avatars, how to build items and add textures, how to navigate the world and how to chat and communicate. We have co-presented twice before and he does a great job.

We had the privilege of providing some information and education about Second Life. My son did an awesome job explaining how to navigate and build in Second Life but did an even better job answering questions and providing a student's perspective on how he interacts and reacts to SL. Yesterday, my 13 yr old son and I presented a workshop sponsored by the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit to help teachers integrate technology into the schools. It was a great group of teachers who have been designated, through a grant, as master technology educators. They are being worked really hard.up

can be appreciative of the fact that the eLearning Guild is doing our industry a great service and giving away an awful lot of free information as well as providing additional information at a relatively small price. As an academic and a person who values research, I think it is critically important to our industry to back research and to use it to make sound judgments regarding the design, development and delivery of e-learning. One site I especially like is No Significant Difference. It seems so easy, just ask some questions, record the answers and you are done.

First he created a very helpful link on this blog providing a number of SLURLs which are worth visiting. The second "Learning in 3D" class had a few technical difficulties. Second Life was slow and not everyone could log in. And our other 3D space was not accessible either. Our goal of this class was to view a number of educational locations to see what types of educational environments are being created within Second Life. We had a great guest speaker, one of our graduates, Bart Pursel. Bart did a great job with his presentation in spite of the technical difficulties.

It is not a matter of choosing the right "tool" but choosing the right vehicle within the tool to provide the desired learning effect. I left a comment on Tony Karrer's blog about creating a "Design Day" so that everyone in the blogosphere adds a comment about the importance of instructional design as opposed to focusing on technology. And then Dennis Coxe over at Sailing by Sound picked up on my comment and posted an entry called "I Declare 'Design Day'". It is a great entry outlining 3 elements of good design. How does the tool selection process need to change?

In SL, provide a SURL to transport students to place for instruction Regardless of the instructional exercise/archetype, create a gathering place for learners for pre or post briefings. During the Class Activity Make instructions are clear (vague instructions are hard to follow, provide them in written format if possible…in SL, use a note card.) Provide a time limit for the instructional exercise. If the setting is more classroom-oriented, provide a mechanism for hand raising and for developing an orderly method of call on students.

No internet.the local provider COMCAST wasn't providing signal to the store.nice. So if you can't facilitate the class, you can at least provide some instruction. Ok, so one assumes that technology is easy to use and that it is everywhere. was going to Maine for a few days, check out internet cafe's and places to get online. found one, scouted it out the day before, scouted it our 2 hours before class in teh parking lot to make sure it would work. Then went in right before class, it worked for the first 1/2 hour and then.it 1) Always have a back up plan.

It provides information and some facts about the boomer/gamer knowledge gap and what can be done to bridge that gap. Here is the video of my Keynote address from the 2007 NCTT Annual Summer Conference. The topic is Games and the Gamer Generation. It is conveniently broken into four learning chunks for your viewing enjoyment. Part One: Part Two: Part Three: Part Four: __ Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content Guide

Ann (SL Name) also described how she and her group created the Info-Fez that provides factual data to anyone wearing the Fez as they walk around. So, I thought only technical problems could occur in Maine ( see week five post ). Not true. Here in my hometown the internet failed me. Luckily after some frantic struggling I was able to get online. No wonder they call it the "bleeding edge." After the technical difficulties, the class took a wonderful tour of Virtual Morocco led by none other than Ann Enigma (AKA Hilary Mason). great tour and a wonderful learning experience.

She provided some straight forward advice and ideas about how to improve the presentation, I've incorporated her suggestions into the presentation and it is now much stronger because of it. One of the great things about being involved in the training/education blogosphere is the great interactions you get to have with people that you've never meet or that you only see once or twice a year or that you've only been introduced to once but now stay in touch due to blogging. He explains how it works and even timelined (is that a word) my blog. It's good to keep in touch via blogs. Thanks.

He showed how the Army game Project office is implementing a live-fire virtual training program that combines projector hardware, video game screens and heat sensitive walls to provide a simulated urban combat environment that combines elements of live fire practice with virtual targets that are fully engage-able (they move and react to the soldier.) This past week, I had the good fortune to be able to present at the SALT conference. SALT is the Society for Applied Learning Technology. presented on Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning (of course). As designers we need to combine tools.

Content is provided in a formal context with introductions, carefully parsed lessons and all encompassing summaries. Many e-learning courses are as long as four hours, require the learner to progress screen-by-screen and provide little interactivity. If, while playing a video game, the player waits for instructions or information, he or she will fail. Decisive action must be taken immediately. The gamer generation has learned this and expects speed in answers and learning. They seek rather than wait for information. Books are divided into sections, chapters and sub-chapters.

As professionals, we always need to keep learning and the posting provides "homework" to help with the learning process. In keeping with the Back to School theme, his week over at the TrainingDay blog , my post is called Back to School Special. The post discusses what learning professionals should be thinking about as students head back to classes. Stop by the site and leave a comment, you could win a free book. __ Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content Guide

Then on day two Tom King over at Mobilemind posted a great piece which provide a quick, high level view of the book and then provided a great strategy for reading the book if you only have a little bit of time (ok, ok it did get long) Check out his laugh-out-loud post. She provides a great perspective and indicates that learning is successful only when the learner is engaged.I Also, check out his stop on the tour Blog Book Tour Stop: Gadgets, Games and Gizmos talks about how kids provide great insight into new learning technologies and techniques. Have a listen.

Day Six: 09/17/07 - Enspire Learning's Corporate Blog This entry was great because it provided an opportunity to play a simulation. He provided over 18 pages of comments that really fueled alot of the ideas and insights into the book. If you haven't seen the postings on the blog book tour for this week, you need to check them out. hope you took advantage of that offer. Day Seven: 09/18/07 -Mark Oehlert's e-clippings(Learning as Art). Mark's stop was week 2, stop 2 a high pressure stop. Mark gave some insights into his review of the book before it was even published. Thanks Mark.

Joe and Mark provided great commentary, questions and insights plus they did their home work digging up some articles about the "evils" of video games and well as some articles about the benefits. Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Lawrence and Joe McGranaghan on their radio talk show On the Mark on News Radio 1070 WKOK. Mark was across the table and Joe sat beside me. The topic was "video games are good for kids?" A controversial spin on the book and a good approach for a general talk show. And don't let Joe fool you, he is totally into Sid Meier's Civilization.

The best part is that Since the River City Project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, access to the simulation, curricular materials, professional development, and just-in-time assistance are provided free of charge to schools So, if you are a teacher in middle or high school, check out The River City Project and go to the MUVEES. __ Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content GuideChris Dede giving the group a tour of The River City Project. was joined on the tour by Gordon Snyder of NCTT , Scott St.

Then on day two Tom King over at Mobilemind posted a great piece which provide a quick, high level view of the book and then provided a great strategy for reading the book if you only have a little bit of time (ok, ok it did get long) Check out his laugh-out-loud post. She provided a great perspective on the book. Before it was even published, he provided over 18 pages of comments that really fueled alot of the ideas and insights into the book. Well the Blog Book Tour is finally over and what a great experience. Here is a recap of all the stops. Thanks Mark.

continental breakfast, lunch, and snacks will also be provided. If you are in the Philadelphia, New Jersey or Delaware area, you may want to stop by to hear my Keynote address to the 5th Annual PA/DE/NJDLA Conference & Expo held by the PA/DE/NJ Distance Learning Association. Learn more by clicking here and then click here to register. Details below. These sessions will feature "real world" case studies, proven best practices, and "state-of-the-art" solutions. Come and discover what drives and motivates gamers and how to create engaging learning experiences to appeal to their gamer ethos.

Students were placed into rows of seats and the teacher in the front of the room held all of the knowledge and presented to students who were assigned to memorize and repeat the information provided to them by their teachers. Teachers, trainers and other educators tend to teach in the same style and format in which they have been taught. For the Greatest Generation, the Boomer generation and much of Generation X, this included a linear step-by-step approach with little technology in the classroom or room for discussion. The goal was to be the first country to put a man on the moon.

We provided a little tour with Brent Schlenker discussing the uses of Second Life for providing learning solutions. Yesterday, I presented with Tony O'Driscoll at the DevLearn event virtually. Assisting us expertly was Matt Monahan my graduate assistant who has been helping me with many Second life tasks. Neither Tony or I could make it in person so we presented virtually. Which, of course, was a perfect use of Second Life. also kicked off my Basics of Second Life workshop as part of the Live and Online Learning series. It was a great class.

In the spirit of broadening my keynote address and in providing a dialogue with audience members of the 5th Annual PA/DE/NJDLA Conference & Expo. This post also provides a place where attendees can feel free to comment and add to the discussion Defining a "Gamer" Cheat Codes: Friend or Foe? have pulled together a number of posts that may be of interest to attendees at the keynote who are looking for additional information. Teaching Facts with Fun, Online Games Graphical Music Database: Liveplasma.

Technology providing the opportunity for growth not possible with other means. In an effort to eliminate the "digital divide" between wealthy and poor students, Maine public schools in 2002 and 2003 distributed 36,000 laptops to seventh- and eighth-graders across the state. Many critics wondered if this was just technology in search of a problem or if the kids would actually benefit from the use of technology. Some of the results are in and.they look good for the advocates of giving every child a laptop. Check out the article School laptop program begets writing gains for more details.

Expand the classroom, provide opportunities for the generations to mix and mingle in a less focused forced environment. Recently, in two different contexts, I've been asked about some methods for teaching when the audience is comprised of different generations who have different preferences for learning. Here are somethings you can do to work across the generations. Acknowledge to the class that their are multiple generations within the class and that each generation may have a different preference for learning and different expectations. Mix up your own approach.

Bart gave a list of different 3D worlds and provided a great comparison between a Internet Service Provider and Linden Labs (the company behind Second Life.) Bart Pursel of Virtual Learning Worlds and an alumni of our program presented on Virtual Worlds. He defined a Virtual World as a computer-based environment intended for users to inhabit and interact via avatars in a 3D represented world. For example an island is analogous to a server.

The learning modules provide different examples of a difficult conversation and provides people the chance to focus on practicing skills like empathy, dealing with negative emotions and other things that can't be automated or outsourced. We needed an ad hoc presentation and Louis Biggie stepped up to the plate and gave a great presentation on teaching conversational modeling which tells people not what to do.but how to do it. One question asked was "How do you teach someone to deal with "curve balls?"

The talk provided a good overview of certification programs for training and the various elements that an organization would need to consider prior to undertaking a certification process. Steven is owner and president of the well-known on-line testing provider Pedagogue Solutions. Greg and Steven present general industry information about assessment and certification to students and CAC members. He holds a Master's degree in computer science and a Doctorate in educational psychology, and has been active in the field of learning and measurement for over 20 years.

Their solution had the benefits of high interactivity between the user and a virtual doctor, instant proof of certification of new employees to sell products, the assessments were self-paced and the solution was provided by experienced experts in the field. They don't always enjoy the feedback at the time but, in the long term, the feedback and insight provided to them by the professionals helps make them stronger professionals in the field.It This year we had over 35 corporate professionals and at the end of the week, we have 11 companies interviewing 16 students for jobs.

EyeToy: Kineticâ„¢ is an innovative fitness product that provides players with an authentic personalized exercise program all in the comfort of their own home Utilizing the revolutionary EyeToy® USB Camera technology and developed in association with Nike Motionworks (experts in fitness, motion and body movement) players will experience a more effective workout inspired by activities such as Tai Chi, Kick Boxing, Aerobics, Yoga, Modern Dance and more. One of the main complaints about video games are that they encourage obesity and inactivity.that's not always the case.

still get emails about the piece and when we switched servers, got a lot of emails asking me to re-instate the link or provide a new one. tools provides learners an opportunity to learn from each other and learn from the larger professional community. The ASTD Big question this month is What did you learn about learning in 2007? learn so much all the time from students, clients and colleagues, it is hard to narrow it down to just one or two things, but I'll try. Here are a few of the lessons I have learned. Mostly about the power of the network and Web 2.0 tools. Lessons Learned.

hired a pro who has done a number of on television documentaries to provide assistance (he's also an alum of our program.) Currently, I am involved in creating an educational corporate video. I've worked on a script, helped to develop the treatment and vision for the shoot, coordinated dates and talent with the client and helped with the talent while on location.corporate executives. So here are some resources that can help you think about creating videos for educational uses. If you have any good sites or tips, please feel free to add.

provides viewers with quick, easy-to-understand videos with just the right amount of information about the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos. The host is Cali Lewis and she provides an energetic look at all the latest gadgets and gizmos in quick, easy-to-understand videos in many different formats so they are easily compatible with almost any video device. The site, the format and the delivery can all serve as a great model for providing educational videos to your learners. I am sure you've tuned into GeekBrief.TV before. you haven't.you you should. GeekBrief.TV

am within him for most of the grades but the one thing that bothers me a little is that he graded himself and, subsequently provided himself with the second highest grade. Stephen Downes has upped the ante on predictions for 2008 by creating a report card on predictions of 2007. Here is his post. Half an Hour: Last Year's eLearn Magazine Predictions If you want to see most of the blogs referenced, see Darren Draper's Bloggers Make Better Predictions. am uncomfortable with Stephen grading himself. tried to be more specific.

This morning I am giving an opening address the the National Center for Telecommunications Technologies Information and Communications/Convergence Conference at the Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA on the topic of Second Life so I wanted to provide some resources: Second Life (the web site) Second Life Wiki (a wiki with "how to" information and other links.)

These postings and links support the presentation and provide additional information on the topic of "Tools for Transferring Know How." So last week I was speaking at Huntington Beach , CA (and it was cold) on the topic of "Learning in 3D" and this week I am in New York City (and it is warm) talking about Tools and Techniques for Transferring Know How from the Boomers to the Gamers to a group from various companies all struggling with the knowledge transfer issue. Here are some links to blog postings I've done related to the topic and other related links.

This process provides three opportunities for the leaner to engage and interact with the model and the content surrounding the model. Lately, I've done a few instructor-led seminars and wanted to share a technique I use. I've also use this technique in a virtual classroom with the breakout room features (you can break students into private sessions) and whiteboard functionality. This method, I call it the “re-teach” method, involves engaging the learner by having them “re-teach” content to their fellow learners. Something with defined steps.

Games can create a virtual memory and provide real-life practice of real-life skills which can be applied outside of the game. Screen Capture from America's Army Game which Helped Save a Life. The power of games for learning is that they can teach lessons that the learner doesn't even realized she or he has learned until the time comes to apply those skills. player of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Game( MMORPG) American's Army was able to aid a victim because knowledge he learned from the game. His medical background? Thanks to K.R.