Best of eLearning Learning February 14, 2010 to February 28, 2010Some really great stuff from the second half of February as found based on social signals. And not much surprise about the hot topics this month - although a bit surprising that LCMS cropped up?

1. How professionals learn- Clive on Learning, February 23, 2010
   Great summary from Clive about key factors in adult/professional learning.
2. Elearning on a Shoestring - Produce content in 10 hours, and a budget of $ 0.0- Free as in Freedom, February 27, 2010
   Really great example of quickly pulling together a course!!!
3. Yes, mobile moodle for iPhone is eminent, we will release open source code soon- Ignatia Webs, February 25, 2010
   Exactly what it says - Mobile Moodle coming soon.
4. Presentation: Email is so 1973 (Google Wave) #Wave- Dont Waste Your Time, February 24, 2010
   Good video on Google Wave.
5. The Ability to Lead Remote Employees Will Become the Next 2.0 Skill- trainingwreck, February 22, 2010
   Whether small, medium or large in size, organizations have been or are set to grapple with remote based leadership issues.
6. Formalizing informal learning?- Learnlets, February 16, 2010
   The Entreprise Collaborative has a new question , asking whether we can formalize informal learning.
7. Online Success - a recipe for learners and facilitators- Designed for Learning, February 14, 2010
   The benefits of online learning have been long established in the learning industry. To add to the changing learning landscape, technology has helped support and develop online learning environments in ways that were not possible in the past. While changes are happening rapidly, the skills needed to leverage online learning - as learners and instructional designers - are not developing at the same speed.
8. Emotions And Learning: Part I- The eLearning Coach, February 21, 2010
   I’ve never done a formal survey, but I’m going to guess that the majority of online courses don’t have a strong emotional impact on their audience. This is true even though it’s been known for some time that appealing to the emotions is one of the keys to motivating people, attracting their attention and facilitating memory.
9. E-Learning along the curve: adapting to knowledge workers learning needs- The E-Learning Curve, February 18, 2010
   Formally-structured approaches to learning are best deployed to novices in the relevant discipline or skill area.
10. Coping with Twitter- Learning Conversations, February 26, 2010
    #yam Twitter is a great tool for spreading messages and ideas through your network. It also devours time. Not every Twitter message posted by the people you follow will be relevant to you. It's a bit like being in a big hall with a large group of people shouting at you, and then you shouting out anything that comes into your head.
11. Seven (Possible) Ways to Use Google Buzz for Education by Jeremy Vest- Learning Solutions Magazine, February 17, 2010
    Google’s entry into social networking, Buzz, created quite a bit of buzz last week after its launch. While the service is not necessarily in its final form yet, and certainly not everyone who has tried it likes it, it certainly is not too early to start looking at Buzz as a potential learning environment. ...
12. A Roadmap for Building an E-Learning Course- Rapid eLearning Blog, February 16, 2010
    When we’re new and just getting started with elearning, we need templates and project plans to guide us. On the other hand, experienced developers rely less on those resources because they have more experience and a deeper understanding of what it takes to create an elearning course. Think of it like driving around town.
13. Why serious games work - an over-simplified view- Networked Learning Design, February 18, 2010
    I've just been working on a presentation for a client about what serious games are and how they work. It's been really fun. One thing that I think confuses people, or perhaps overwhelms them, are the large number of ways in which games appear to support learning. For example, James Paul Gee lists no less than 36 learning principles.
14. Predictors of Success for Adult Online Learners: A Review of the Literature- , February 16, 2010
    As an adjunct professor for an online-only graduate school course, I have found myself contemplating the retention rate of adult e-learners. What are the predictors of adult students success in online learning environments?
15. Creating a good elearning or ILT course: Getting SMEs to think about outcomes- Bottom-Line Performance, February 16, 2010
    So…anyone can create a course, right? But…very few people actually create GOOD courses that truly train people to do something. If you are tasked with creating a course on a technical topic…and you have to rely on a subject matter expert (SME) to help you create this course, you need to get your SME to think in terms of outcomes as opposed to content.
16. Sensing and Thinking- Learning and Working on the Web, February 16, 2010
    Tim Kastelle (a great source of knowledge on innovation) discusses how it’s better to have a good idea than a large network to fire off any old idea. Good ideas have better acceleration. This is an important innovation lesson as well.
17. E-learning design for social emotions- Janet Clarey, February 27, 2010
    After spending so much time investigating the positive aspects of learning through social media, I wanted to start looking at the possible negative aspects. Here’s one that’s possibly problematic: Our ability to show admiration and compassion may be declining due to our fast-paced digital culture.
18. Why is e-learning just plain wrong?- eLearning NOT As Usual, February 22, 2010
    After the short video introduction, please consider this post and leave your comments... We aren’t taught to learn. We grow up doing it naturally: through exploration, example, and experimentation.
19. Forming and norming groups online- Onlignment, February 27, 2010
    I am not a great reader of manuals and operating procedures. Nor am I a great fan of pseudo-psychology or simple models, even though the world of L&D is littered with them. My personality leads me more to the “suck it and see” approach which, technically, is known as heuristic – finding out for myself, learning by discovery.
20. Thinking Out of the Box: How the University of British Columbia School of Nursing Created a Practice e-Portfolio by Fareed Teja- Learning Solutions Magazine, February 23, 2010
    Faculty and staff at the University of British Columbia’s School of Nursing (UBC SoN) worked together to create an open source e-Portfolio system for students in the BSN and Master of Nursing – Nurse Practitioner programs. The result is a perfect fit to these unique competency-based programs, one that also supports the students after graduation. Read about it here!
21. Here’s Why Contrast is an Essential Part of E-Learning Design- Rapid eLearning Blog, February 23, 2010
    Contrast is a key part of your course design. In fact, it’s one of the foundational principles in visual design. Many people know the acronym, CRAP (or CARP if you’re an ichthyolatrist) which stands for: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. They are the four essential design elements.
22. Culture eats strategy for breakfast - yes! But let's be clear what culture is.- Networked Learning Design, February 17, 2010
    One of my favourite quotes of all time is "culture eats strategy for breakfast"; I think it originated from Ford Motor Co. I elaborate a bit on this in my presentation on how to create engaging e-learning .
23. Selecting an Open-Source Online Course Development and Delivery Platform, February 16, 2010
    Clayton R. Wright paper on how to select an open source LMS.
24. Helping Your SMEs Help You- Bottom-Line Performance, February 19, 2010
    How to work with SMEs.
25. New Technology Supporting Informal Learning- elearnspace, February 19, 2010
    Want to get a good sense of emerging technologies available for learning and training? New Technology Supporting Informal Learning offers a great “state of the field” analysis of change pressures and tools/methods available as a response.
26. Blending Formal and Informal Learning at EMC- Janet Clarey, February 18, 2010
    I just quick wanted to share this blended learning graphic from EMC , a provider of information infrastructure systems (and thanks for letting me use it!).
27. Eight Tips for LMS Implementation- Upside Learning Blog, February 17, 2010
    In the past I have written a few posts mainly focused on making the process of selecting the right LMS for your business need – be it internal training management or selling training as a business. We looked at a series of things focusing on the right way to go about open source LMS , in case you are switching to a new LMS system , the critical consideration on how to decide between hosted and behind-the-firewall option , and even a few tips on what not to do while selecting an LMS .
28. Seven Tips for Bringing the Rapid Back to Rapid eLearning- Leveraging Learning, February 17, 2010
    My colleague Jon continues to tally up the hits for his tell-it-like-it-is blog post There’s Nothing Rapid About Rapid eLearning . While he does a great job laying out the realities and timelines of “rapid” eLearning development, I thought a follow-up offering some tips and tricks for rediscovering the rapid might be in order. So here’s a starter list.
29. The Forgotten Step in eLearning Design- eLearning Brothers, February 17, 2010
    There is a step in the design process that seems to be rushed-over at times: Brainstorming. Many times we are presented with information that needs to be trained. We’ve probably done a similar course in the past and/or covered a similar topic.
30. Blooms taxonomy for a digital world, including mobile learning- Ignatia Webs, February 15, 2010
    Andrew Churches is curriculum manager of computer studies and teaching and Learning technologies at the Kristin school in Albany Auckland, New Zeeland. His educational wiki, called educational origami , was voted as the best wiki in 2008 and in 2009 he was again nominated for best educational wiki. What makes his wiki so interesting is that it focuses on the core of TELearning, the learning itself.
31. Augmented Reality: does it have a place/future in education?- Dont Waste Your Time, February 23, 2010
    Augmented Reality (AR) is still in its infancy, but as people like me look further afield to find interesting technology to use in (and out of) the classroom, it has been on my radar a bit recently. So, what is it? “Unlike Virtual Reality (VR) that aims at replacing the perception of the world with an artificial one, Augmented Reality (AR) has the goal of enhancing a person’s perception of the surrounding world.
32. Creating a "Story" as the Foundation for Virtual World Learning Events- Kapp Notes, February 26, 2010
    Good stories shouldn't be relegate to only reading a novel on the beach, use them to promote learning! Storytelling is a powerful instructional tool, stories help learners contextualize information and gives them an experience-base from which they can recall techniques and actions when encountering the same situation at work. With virtual worlds, we can expand the use of storytelling.
33. Enterprise 2.0 is the Same Old Same Old – Yet it is Drastically New- Engaged Learning, February 26, 2010
    Is Enterprise 2.0 is the same old same old repackaged?
34. Audio in eLearning...What Is Your Vote?- Integrated Learnings, February 24, 2010
    Do you include audio narration in the eLearning lessons you develop? Why? Or why not?
35. Emotions and Learning: Part II- The eLearning Coach, February 25, 2010
    Over the past few decades, research has shown that emotions have an effect on many of the processes involved in learning. It’s safe to say that emotions are an influence on perception, attention, motivation, and the encoding and retrieval of information. What follows is a synopsis of some of the many ways emotions affect these various processes.
36. Social Media & Learning: Hello. We’re Way Past Fad- Designing Impact, February 17, 2010
    The other day I attended a seminar filled with learning professionals. Someone wondered if social media is just a fad.
37. Interactive Writer for Teen Audience- eLearning Technology, February 25, 2010
    Most of my experience has been in adult learning and performance. Recently I’ve been working with a startup that provides content and tools to teens and is sold through high schools. The first course is fairly well defined and is based on a couple of books/workbooks that have been used offline. What’s been interesting to me is that it’s been hard to find just the right person to help them with designing interactive exercises and writing content in order to bring this to life online.
38. Top five tips for measuring the value of learning- Spicy Learning, February 24, 2010
    Evaluating the effectiveness of a learning intervention is often where projects fall down - it can be hard to know how to prove a return on investment. But isn’t it about time we had some common methods to evaluate and measure the value of learning? Here are Saffron’s top five tips for measuring that all important ROI.
39. Mobile E-learning Publishing: iPad, iPhone, or Kindle – Which do iChoose?- Electronic Papyrus, February 22, 2010
    While it was enlightening to see Steve Jobs demonstrate what the iPad can do, I found it more interesting to see what the iPad cannot do. Tablet-like in size only, the iPad’s conformity to the iPhone OS, features and ergonomics suggest that we’re seeing Apple promote a renewed focus on empowering crowdsourced content creation over significant platform enhancements—perhaps in a way we have not seen before.
40. My Learning Tools- ID Reflections, February 20, 2010
    I just finished reading Harold Jarche’s post: Seek, Sense, Share In the post, he talks about how seeking information, then applying our personal sense-making filters to it, and finally sharing it helps us to see the interconnections, patterns and the larger whole. This is why the process of “seek, sense, share” becomes so important in one’s personal learning and knowledge management.
41. M-Learning: Landscape Changer: E-Reader- eLearning 24-7, February 19, 2010
    I know that there are quite a few out there right now going HUH?? What about the smart phone, I mean they have been pitching the smart phone. Yeah, I am well aware of it. But while the smart phone will be involved and be utilized in the mobile lea rning scene, IMO the e-reader will become more of a beneficial partner with m-learning because it offers soooo many more capabilities.
42. First Impressions of TelePresence- Experiencing eLearning, February 16, 2010
    I recently participated in my first TelePresence meeting. If you haven’t seen this technology, imagine videoconferencing, but life-size and set up so it feels more like you’re physically in the same room. In the US, you may have seen Cisco’s commercials with Ellen Page where she visits a classroom that is taking a “field trip” to China .
43. Swapping Bullet Pts for a HotSpot Series of Questions (#Articulate)- Discovery Through eLearning, February 16, 2010
    I'm going nuts lately trying to take 6 topics of core training that we have to give to staff and turn it all into elearing in a matter of a month. Currently the material is all in Word format and has been presented, tested, and marked that way for 6 years. I'm so grateful that it's going online, but if the staff think it's nuts to complete they should trying seeing what it is like to create the content.

Hot Topics Google Buzz (7)

1. Google Buzz: an update, February 15, 2010
2. Seven (Possible) Ways to Use Google Buzz for Education by Jeremy Vest, February 17, 2010
3. Adding Twitter to PowerPoint, Keynote and now - Sliderocket, February 19, 2010
4. Guide to 140 Learning: From interactivity to social activity #140learning, February 16, 2010

iPad (9)

1. The iPad and its impact on m-learning., February 22, 2010
2. Mobile E-learning Publishing: iPad, iPhone, or Kindle – Which do iChoose?, February 22, 2010
3. Adobe AIR & Flash Player 10.1– How it Can Benefit Mobile Learning, February 18, 2010
4. Blooms taxonomy for a digital world, including mobile learning, February 15, 2010

LCMS (12)

1. OLAT: Swiss Quality Open Source LMS by Joël Fisler, February 24, 2010
2. Thinking Out of the Box: How the University of British Columbia School of Nursing Created a Practice e-Portfolio by Fareed Teja, February 23, 2010
3. M-Learning: Landscape Changer: E-Reader, February 19, 2010
4. The Ideal LMS for Associations (and Probably All Training Depts Everywhere), February 16, 2010

Asynchronous (12)

1. Tool Overview: Questionmark Perception by Joe Ganci, February 22, 2010
2. The Ideal LMS for Associations (and Probably All Training Depts Everywhere), February 16, 2010
3. More Than One LMS Option, February 14, 2010
4. Predictors of Success for Adult Online Learners: A Review of the Literature, February 16, 2010

Apple (16)

1. The iPad and its impact on m-learning., February 22, 2010
2. Adobe AIR & Flash Player 10.1– How it Can Benefit Mobile Learning, February 18, 2010
3. Adobe Releases Connect Pro Mobile for iPhone by Anne Derryberry, February 25, 2010
4. Creative constraints, February 21, 2010