So I'm going to try this live blogging thing again as I am listening/participating in the second day of this month's Online Forum hosted by the eLearning Guild. I'm going to capture my notes this time using my Google Notebook. I found yesterday that during the first session (and the second and third...interupted..don't ask) as I was writing using my blog tool often extra line spaces are put in where I didn't want them and other mysterious editings were happening. This distracted me more then anything and I wanted to fix them right away instead of waiting until the end....So today I use Google Notebook. So far...so good.
For today's first session I picked:
Shifting from Content-centered to Activity-centered Instructional Design by Cynthia Russell, University of Tennessee Health Science Center & Allan Carrington, University of Adelaide & Tim Neumann, Institute of Education - University of London.
First: Kudos to Allan for staying up to 1AM to present to us from Adelaide, South Austraila.
Initial poll of group participants: The discussion will centre around LAMS and 95% of participants had never heard of it. 69% of participants were from the corporate world, 16% were from higher education. 80% of the group considered themselves instructional designers, 71% have taken online courses, and 48% have facilitated online courses.
Alvin Toffler: The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
Activity Centred is focused on the learning
-active engagement
-many ways of knowing the material
Content Centred is focused on the teaching
-learner memorizes
-one way of knowing the material
-information equals knowledge
Activity Centred Instructor
-activities are there to support the learning
-helps students to develop their own ideas
-frames material to support the learners
Content Centred Instructor
-transmits information
-teacher gives the knowledge to students
-very theoretical
Activity Centred Learner
-learn through doing
-participatory
-problem solving
Content Centred Learner
-learn by reading
-individual focus
-learn now use later
Activity Centred Material Flow
-experiential
-cyclic
-negotiated
Content Centred Material Flow
-linear
-sequential
-directed
Activity Centred Assessment
-deep learning
-many perspectives on solution
-peer or self-evaluation, portfolios, projects
Content Centred Assessment
-surface learning
-solutions right or wrong
-multiple choice examinations
The need for the shift comes from having to accommodate a variety of delivery modes and addressing learner's needs (styles, literacy, etc).
LAMS - Learning Activity Management System - Video helps/forces you to shift to an activity base.
What can students do? How can they work together? Etc.
Teachers can put tasks together that students can do.
Collaborating with teachers and peers.
Capturing lesson plans to store and resuse and share with other teachers.
Teachers usually start with the content and then wonder how do we get the students into the content and comprehend it.
LAMS instead starts with the activities. It's a tool to help build curriculum.
The Gates feature lets you monitor the progress of students and help those that are behind, move activities around, etc.
The Branching feature will help teachers created scenarios.
Thanks to Brent Schlenker who found out during the session (thanks for chatting) that for 6 months hosting the cost is $595 for 200 users, 12 months is $995. It is open source software thought.
http://del.icio.us/AllanADL/elearningguild170807
Friday, 17 August 2007
Have you looked at eLearningPulse.com
I took at look at eLearningPulse.com through advisement from Cammy Bean. It is indeed a great little hot spot for:
Great work Cammy, B.J. and Ben!
"Your daily source for all things eLearning". This site provides free resourcesI agree with Cammy that there are several blogs on their news list that I do already subscribe to and a few I haven't looked into yet. Hopefully through "word of posts" B.J. and Ben will get more and more to create a great resource list. As Cammy also said the job list is really a neat feature.
to the eLearning development community, including news, discussion forums, job
postings, and more.
Great work Cammy, B.J. and Ben!
Thursday, 16 August 2007
Tracking Myself
After my posting the other day about how to track comments that I might leave or respond to, I was wondering how do I track if I myself get mentioned somewhere.
Thanks to some help from Brent Schlenker, I set up (extremely easily) Google Alerts for my
blog url, blog name, and Me. Brent also suggested the use of Technerati for some of it as well.
Now I get email messages delivered whenever my name appears on the web. Which is often since when I post something it says "Posted by Tracy Hamilton."
I feel like Mr. Bean when he sends himself Christmas cards.
Thanks to some help from Brent Schlenker, I set up (extremely easily) Google Alerts for my
blog url, blog name, and Me. Brent also suggested the use of Technerati for some of it as well.Now I get email messages delivered whenever my name appears on the web. Which is often since when I post something it says "Posted by Tracy Hamilton."
I feel like Mr. Bean when he sends himself Christmas cards.
Confronting Instructional Design Myths (Online Forum eLearning Guild)
This was the opening session for this month's online forum Advanced e-Learning Instructional Design: New Techniques and Strategies (or WWKBD - what would Kevin Bacon Do a great joke if you were part of the session). Our presenter was Frank Nguyen, PhD. It was a really great presentation. Most participants knew if the myths were fact or fiction, but there was lots of great bits of information shared and was a good kick off to the day.
I'm going to try something new here (for me) and blog as the forum progresses, trying to capture interesting points of the talk.
Instructional design tends to be passed down from one practitioner to another. Key to design is evidence-based practices: Case studies, evaluation studies, empirical research,and meta analyses.
Myth 1:
Using technology for training can significantly increase learning (participants voted 50:50 fact/fiction)
Research Says:
All types of instructional media (cbt, film, radio, virtual, etc) no significant difference from a learning stand point. However, instructional methods can have a significant effect on the learning of the student. Instructional Media means less then the methods we use (see Christy Tucker's post on Online Networking in Courses) Point from participant "methods can be increased my the media available."
FICTION
Myth 2 (Field of Dreams - if we build it will they come):
When provided with information sharing technology, learners will naturally contribute (participants voted 92% Fiction)
Research Says(based on learning 2.o):
Little solid research here.
In regards to Distance Learning: Poll to participants: What do you think of discussion boards? Participants voted: 66% Tolerate them, 27% Love them, rest hate them
Research Says: Learners post no more then needed, participation declined on boards Success comes from managing class discussions, and keeping the discussions focused.
In regards to Knowledge Management side:
Challenges with KM tend to be...
Cultural - convincing people to volunteer knowledge, and share.
Managerial - change management, metrics of value.
Information -avoid overloading users, ensure data is correct.
FICTION
Myth 3:
Creating a learning environment that closely mimics a real work environment promotes performance (participants voted 86% Fact 9% Fiction)
comes from Adult Learning theory.Practice of this has effecting medical schools greatly. Two types of training here, one is traditional medical school and another following a problem based learning style. 35 different studies across 19 institutions. traditional vs pbl environments. With factual knowledge and exams the traditional method came out higher. As far as student attitudes towards training and on the job training, the PBL students were significantly higher (Veron & Blake 1993)
FACT
Myth 4: Developing training to cater to individual learning styles (poll stats, missed)
Research says:
Research is scatted here.There are so many different types of learning styles covered through many different theories ie: dunn and dunn, gardner, hill, kolb, etc.
FICTION
Myth 5:
Developing training to cater to different age groups can significantly increase learning (participants voted 73% Fact, 17% Fiction, 11% Don't know)
Mostly in the work force now Baby Boomers and Generations X & Y.Little research here in this space. (I would like to reference a great chart here on What People Are Doing?
DON'T KNOW
Myth 6:
Developing training to cater to different levels of expertise can significantly increase learning. (Participants voted 94% Fact)
Research Says:
Australia Unv of New South Wales (2003) Kalyuga et al, as you increase the instructional methods and material the novice gets better learning, the expert has a learning reversal effect. If instructing to a novice user, new to a certain piece of content, we should expend more effort on the content/invested time in ID. Expert users of the same material may only need a resource tool from the instructor/training.
FACT
Myth 7:
By providing learners with more on-the-job performance support, upfront training can be reduced (Participants voted 75% Fact, 22% Fiction)
Research says:
Gloria Gery (1995) states if the performance support is really well done then the employee can often begin performing really well on day one of a new job.Nguyen & Klein (2007) - Used 3 groups of people those that were trained, those that had Employee Support Systems, and those that had both. Those that had both had better attitudes and performance. Those with EPSS were slightly higher then those that only had training.
*FACT (somewhat true)
I'm going to try something new here (for me) and blog as the forum progresses, trying to capture interesting points of the talk.
Instructional design tends to be passed down from one practitioner to another. Key to design is evidence-based practices: Case studies, evaluation studies, empirical research,and meta analyses.
Myth 1:
Using technology for training can significantly increase learning (participants voted 50:50 fact/fiction)
Research Says:
All types of instructional media (cbt, film, radio, virtual, etc) no significant difference from a learning stand point. However, instructional methods can have a significant effect on the learning of the student. Instructional Media means less then the methods we use (see Christy Tucker's post on Online Networking in Courses) Point from participant "methods can be increased my the media available."
FICTION
Myth 2 (Field of Dreams - if we build it will they come):
When provided with information sharing technology, learners will naturally contribute (participants voted 92% Fiction)
Research Says(based on learning 2.o):
Little solid research here.
In regards to Distance Learning: Poll to participants: What do you think of discussion boards? Participants voted: 66% Tolerate them, 27% Love them, rest hate them
Research Says: Learners post no more then needed, participation declined on boards Success comes from managing class discussions, and keeping the discussions focused.
In regards to Knowledge Management side:
Challenges with KM tend to be...
Cultural - convincing people to volunteer knowledge, and share.
Managerial - change management, metrics of value.
Information -avoid overloading users, ensure data is correct.
FICTION
Myth 3:
Creating a learning environment that closely mimics a real work environment promotes performance (participants voted 86% Fact 9% Fiction)
comes from Adult Learning theory.Practice of this has effecting medical schools greatly. Two types of training here, one is traditional medical school and another following a problem based learning style. 35 different studies across 19 institutions. traditional vs pbl environments. With factual knowledge and exams the traditional method came out higher. As far as student attitudes towards training and on the job training, the PBL students were significantly higher (Veron & Blake 1993)
FACT
Myth 4: Developing training to cater to individual learning styles (poll stats, missed)
Research says:
Research is scatted here.There are so many different types of learning styles covered through many different theories ie: dunn and dunn, gardner, hill, kolb, etc.
FICTION
Myth 5:
Developing training to cater to different age groups can significantly increase learning (participants voted 73% Fact, 17% Fiction, 11% Don't know)
Mostly in the work force now Baby Boomers and Generations X & Y.Little research here in this space. (I would like to reference a great chart here on What People Are Doing?
DON'T KNOW
Myth 6:
Developing training to cater to different levels of expertise can significantly increase learning. (Participants voted 94% Fact)
Research Says:
Australia Unv of New South Wales (2003) Kalyuga et al, as you increase the instructional methods and material the novice gets better learning, the expert has a learning reversal effect. If instructing to a novice user, new to a certain piece of content, we should expend more effort on the content/invested time in ID. Expert users of the same material may only need a resource tool from the instructor/training.
FACT
Myth 7:
By providing learners with more on-the-job performance support, upfront training can be reduced (Participants voted 75% Fact, 22% Fiction)
Research says:
Gloria Gery (1995) states if the performance support is really well done then the employee can often begin performing really well on day one of a new job.Nguyen & Klein (2007) - Used 3 groups of people those that were trained, those that had Employee Support Systems, and those that had both. Those that had both had better attitudes and performance. Those with EPSS were slightly higher then those that only had training.
*FACT (somewhat true)
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Paper Batteries The Way of the Future
This is just a really neat invention and the enviromental implications are wonderful. Professor Robert Linhardt, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his team have developed batteries made of paper. Although currently samples of the paper batteries are small, postage stamp size, they do produce enough power to illuminate a small light.
A great article about the batteries, their applications, and how they work can be found here through the BBC News.
A great article about the batteries, their applications, and how they work can be found here through the BBC News.
Collaborative Presentations - Preezo
Our IT is kind enough to keep our internet channels running smooth all the time. One way they do this is to limit the size of attached files that we send out through email. Ah how nice of them....but last week when a particular presentation we had needed to be sent to someone outside of the organization...oh what can I do? Split it into 3 PowerPoint files. Ugg. How unprofessional does that look. "I'd love to send you that file Bill, but you'll have to splice it back together after you receive all the parts." (okay...granted the presentation did have a million photos in it, but still you get my point).
Or......"I was off to do a presentation downtown yesterday and I forgot my flashdrive with my slides on it. What ever will I do?" (wow, I am truly sarcastic today, apologies to all)
Or......"I was off to do a presentation downtown yesterday and I forgot my flashdrive with my slides on it. What ever will I do?" (wow, I am truly sarcastic today, apologies to all)
Preezo is a great little online tool that can help with both of these situations and more. It's a slightly less robust form of PowerPoint, but allows you to create your presentations online and collaborate with others through it's site. No need to worry about forgetting to take your flashdrive to a presentation. All that is needed is an internet connection. Rumour is that Google will have a similar application as well soon featured in their line of web office products.
Just What Is An Unconference & How Do I Host One?
I have yet to attend one of these, but I really would love to see one in action. (Still need to find that $million I misplaced so I can fly around to all the events I'd like to attend) Anyway...I followed this link via Stephen Downs of Ewan McIntosh's 10 Top Tips for Unplanning the Perfect Unconference. It's a great posting with great tips about hosting an unconference, but what I also like about it is that the tips are ones we can/should all follow for any event we are hosting.
The very first one is so simple and easy to accomplish. It's one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?" I recently just had a management retreat here at work and the feedback about playing music over the lunch hour was incredible. "It created such a fun and lively environment." "It felt like a real break in the day and like I truly was away from the office." Honestly, can you imagine how hard was it for me to put a cd on during lunch.
I love #6 too. It's like a (what we call here) a "parking lot" of ideas. Why not let people play with their Blackberries during these conference and add thoughts, ideas, questions to the topic at hand.
The whole thing is just a great little read.
The very first one is so simple and easy to accomplish. It's one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?" I recently just had a management retreat here at work and the feedback about playing music over the lunch hour was incredible. "It created such a fun and lively environment." "It felt like a real break in the day and like I truly was away from the office." Honestly, can you imagine how hard was it for me to put a cd on during lunch.
I love #6 too. It's like a (what we call here) a "parking lot" of ideas. Why not let people play with their Blackberries during these conference and add thoughts, ideas, questions to the topic at hand.
The whole thing is just a great little read.
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Tracking Converstations/Comments
I think it's important in a learning, historical and social sense to keep track of comments or questions that I have posted on other blogs. I think this is the thinking for many bloggers and for me more so in the last few days as I have had several comments on my blog. My concern is that often there is no direct line of communication (no return email) to make sure the commenter knows that I have responded to them. I certainly hope they look back at the blog to see if I do respond though.
So with that I've been trying to get the hang of these comment trackers for a while and haven't seem to have a lot of luck with them. I tried CoComment a few times and just don't get the hang of how to set it up properly. I seem to be tracking threads of conversations that I never recall participating in previously.
After doing a brief search I came across a posting from Andreas Gohr and his blog splitbrain.org. His posting on Tracking Your Blog Comments recommend looking at co.mments.com. So I've given it a try.
I really like it. I have found it easy to use to capture my comments (I only have 2 currently, but gave it a couple of tests). My only issue is getting the html code that they provide for their widget into my blog. I can not seem to get it to work. So I have resorted to placing a link to my public comment tracking page. It actually might turn out to be a better idea instead of cluttering up the side of my blog with another tool.
So with that I've been trying to get the hang of these comment trackers for a while and haven't seem to have a lot of luck with them. I tried CoComment a few times and just don't get the hang of how to set it up properly. I seem to be tracking threads of conversations that I never recall participating in previously.
After doing a brief search I came across a posting from Andreas Gohr and his blog splitbrain.org. His posting on Tracking Your Blog Comments recommend looking at co.mments.com. So I've given it a try.
I really like it. I have found it easy to use to capture my comments (I only have 2 currently, but gave it a couple of tests). My only issue is getting the html code that they provide for their widget into my blog. I can not seem to get it to work. So I have resorted to placing a link to my public comment tracking page. It actually might turn out to be a better idea instead of cluttering up the side of my blog with another tool.
Monday, 13 August 2007
Yuxt - Video Bookmarking
Okay, maybe you've seen this, but I thought it was cool. I came across today via David Airey's blog. I was looking at an example of typography videos that he was sharing. Then my train of thought went to what is there on elearning. Saw Mr. Stephen Downs. Then I tried Tony Karrer (no videos there yet of him). Tried Web 2.0. Then for some reason I went to Star Wars. That got me a great little Lego piece and a Monty Python meshed with Star Wars. And then I stopped as my train of thought was just getting weird.If you want to see the bookmarking tool in action here is the link to this small collection O created today. It took me literally only 3 or 4 minutes to setup and create. Seems like a great resource tool to collect and share clips of with others. The key here though is the collecting.
http://yuxt.com/hamtra/hamt
Orientation Day at Work
Today I am stuck with preparing, organizing and facilitating orientation for new hires. The reason I say stuck is twofold. One, everyone else in my office is conveniently on holidays (I need to better plan my holidays). Two, we do the same old routine month after month, PowerPoint presentation after PowerPoint presentation, and paper copy after paper copy. Oh it is so dull. We are amazed time and time again that the staff that attend think it's great. They actually like it and say it is quite informative. We know it's boring. We know you want to fall asleep during the day. Please someone tell us so we can make a case to change the whole day!?!
Okay...well know one is saying it, but we're going to do it anyways. Our day consists of one speaker after another showing nothing but PowerPoint slides mixed with an occasional video now and then. HO-HUM. We know that the content is necessary, but we also know that the format is unexciting.
My team is going to have a brain storming session text week on how we can spice the day up and make it more interactive rather than such a classroom base format. One suggestion we've already bounced around is turning some of the content into a scavenger hunt. New hires will have info they need to find and clues about where to find it within the hospital. One idea I posed was to purchase (and we have a very limited budget) cheap digital cameras that the groups could take and go and find selected info, but take pictures as they find it. They could then come back and present their findings and photos to the rest of the orientation group. Another idea finds our new hires going to our intranet and conducting an electronic scavenger hunt of particular items we would like to teach them about.
We have seen examples in other facilities where participants play games, use scanners, ipods, etc. All in an attempt to make the sessions more exciting, engaging and interactive. We believe that this will become and increasingly important line to follow as more and more of our new hires are of the X, Y, Z generations. People that are more technically adept and less intriged when spending an entire day in a classroom based training environment.
I'll let you know what we come up with. Hopefully it will be something that is even more exciting for the presenters as well.
Okay...well know one is saying it, but we're going to do it anyways. Our day consists of one speaker after another showing nothing but PowerPoint slides mixed with an occasional video now and then. HO-HUM. We know that the content is necessary, but we also know that the format is unexciting.
My team is going to have a brain storming session text week on how we can spice the day up and make it more interactive rather than such a classroom base format. One suggestion we've already bounced around is turning some of the content into a scavenger hunt. New hires will have info they need to find and clues about where to find it within the hospital. One idea I posed was to purchase (and we have a very limited budget) cheap digital cameras that the groups could take and go and find selected info, but take pictures as they find it. They could then come back and present their findings and photos to the rest of the orientation group. Another idea finds our new hires going to our intranet and conducting an electronic scavenger hunt of particular items we would like to teach them about.
We have seen examples in other facilities where participants play games, use scanners, ipods, etc. All in an attempt to make the sessions more exciting, engaging and interactive. We believe that this will become and increasingly important line to follow as more and more of our new hires are of the X, Y, Z generations. People that are more technically adept and less intriged when spending an entire day in a classroom based training environment.
I'll let you know what we come up with. Hopefully it will be something that is even more exciting for the presenters as well.
Saturday, 11 August 2007
8 Things About Me Meme - My Turn
Thanks Angela White for the tag...it appears several people have been tagged for this particular meme.
First, the Rules:
1) Post these rules before you give your facts
2) List 8 random facts about yourself
3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged
Now, the facts:
- I've never known what I want to be when I grow up.
- I love biking, but rough mountain biking where the trails I find are just slightly wider then my tires (hense all the bruises...lol).
- A fairly new passion of mine is improv. I belong to the Light'n Up Improv Troupe and we do shows monthly.
- I have 9,556 photos on my computer...figured it was time to start a photo blog "Discovery Through Photography"
- I first went to university for computer science, changed majors to biology, took a year off, got an diploma in accounting, quit account nonsense after several years, worked in the ICU at the hospital for a year and now am in the Organization Development Dept in same hospital. That job has allowed me to get new training, certificates and move me towards an elearning career....of some sort...see POINT 1.
- I love camping....I could go for weeks. Rough backpacking or just in a tent in a provincal park.
- I love to craft. I can't draw or paint to save my life, but ask me to create something...ta da Booster Rocket, okay maybe that is a stretch.
- I have a musical talent that I never tapped into or used. I should have taken guitar lessons when my mom wanted me to years and years ago. Could have been a rock star...see Point 1.
I'll opt out of tagging people as well as I think that several people who's blogs I read have already been tagged. Thanks for including me though!
New Photo Blog
After reading someone's goal of a photo a day, seeing some friends' photo pages (Angela White), and someone's photo blog (Bruce Kirkby), I wanted to create a collection of my own work. I love taking photos when I travel, on day trips, and of friends and family. I recently found out I have taken over 9,200 which currently only live on my computer. I want to keep collecting images that I find inspiring and share them with others, so I have created my own Discovery Through Photography. I hope you'll take a peek at it now and again.
Headlines That Got Me To Read More
Well a week off for me a short bit ago and catching up on emails, voicemail, meetings and life has put me a bit behind with reading my feeds. I thought since I am behind and some items I'll just post some of the headlines/links that I found interesting from the last 2 weeks.
Laser Printers a Health Risk? - Discovery
Finding a Use for Facebook - Wendy Wickham
Free eSeminar: eLearning and the Science of Instruction - B. J. Shone
In Box Zero - 43 Folders - Increase your personal productivity - Brent Schlenker
31 Days to A Better Blog - Cammy Bean
Booos and Yeahs - Coming Back By Popular Demand - Common Craft (made me laugh - yeah!)
Bebo helps student bloggers! - Judy O'Connell
Memes - why do we do them? - Karen Romeis
Search Mash-Ups - Mike Qaissaunee
Email a New Reader of Your Blog - Nancy White
Study: Food in McDonald's Wrapper Tastes Better to Kids - Stephen Downs (I heard this on the radio and thought - yep, makes sense)
LEGO turns 75 - MAKE Magazine
Egypt's Largest Pharaoh-Era Fortress Discovered, Experts Announce - National Geographic
Laser Printers a Health Risk? - Discovery
Finding a Use for Facebook - Wendy Wickham
Free eSeminar: eLearning and the Science of Instruction - B. J. Shone
In Box Zero - 43 Folders - Increase your personal productivity - Brent Schlenker
31 Days to A Better Blog - Cammy Bean
Booos and Yeahs - Coming Back By Popular Demand - Common Craft (made me laugh - yeah!)
Bebo helps student bloggers! - Judy O'Connell
Memes - why do we do them? - Karen Romeis
Search Mash-Ups - Mike Qaissaunee
Email a New Reader of Your Blog - Nancy White
Study: Food in McDonald's Wrapper Tastes Better to Kids - Stephen Downs (I heard this on the radio and thought - yep, makes sense)
LEGO turns 75 - MAKE Magazine
Egypt's Largest Pharaoh-Era Fortress Discovered, Experts Announce - National Geographic
Thursday, 9 August 2007
LMS Project Finally Begins - LMS (Day 1 part 4)
The final piece of our kick off meeting for the day was the LMS. Yeah!!!!!! Can you see my happy dance!!!!
We didn't go into as much detail for our piece yet as it will be the final phase of the whole over all system. The intranet will go up as the main portal to all, then the documents is a huge issue and just has to be up next, and we will tie it all together. (They promise me NOVEMBER).
One of our biggest barriers to begin with is going to be importing all our staff's details. You would think this would be simple. The system that our HR department uses can easily make up an excel file with the name and employee number. Our issue comes from how we categorize staff. The only way we can sort staff is by pay code. The problem here is not everyone is directly paid by the manager they work under. Managers and staff relate to one another by reporting structure. For an example: Nurse Betty Smith is listed in the current system as: Smith/Betty/RN-Oncology, Nurse Sandra Jones is listed as: Jones/Sandra/Cardiac-Registered Nurse. If that doesn't make sense.....the real issue is I can't pull out all the nurses (they are labelled differently), I can't pull out all the oncology staff (they aren't always position/dept they maybe dept/position).
I recommend if you are going to get into something like this (even not, on a paper system it is still an issue) create an inputting guideline for your employees. Keep it consistent. Make it make sense.
We're now waiting for IT/HR to figure out how we are going to get the students (staff) entered in, my dept to figure out the roles of various staff (who will be our contributors), some material to start with (sample courses)....and then we go from there.
A very scary and daunting task, but I'm extremely excited none the less. One of my next roles is to sit down with my supervisor and figure out exactly what my role in all of this will be. Any advice here is greatly appreciated as I'll be a dept of one. Shall I concentrate mainly on the administration of the system, the creation of content and courses, or some of both.
Stay tuned for this continuing saga....
We didn't go into as much detail for our piece yet as it will be the final phase of the whole over all system. The intranet will go up as the main portal to all, then the documents is a huge issue and just has to be up next, and we will tie it all together. (They promise me NOVEMBER).
One of our biggest barriers to begin with is going to be importing all our staff's details. You would think this would be simple. The system that our HR department uses can easily make up an excel file with the name and employee number. Our issue comes from how we categorize staff. The only way we can sort staff is by pay code. The problem here is not everyone is directly paid by the manager they work under. Managers and staff relate to one another by reporting structure. For an example: Nurse Betty Smith is listed in the current system as: Smith/Betty/RN-Oncology, Nurse Sandra Jones is listed as: Jones/Sandra/Cardiac-Registered Nurse. If that doesn't make sense.....the real issue is I can't pull out all the nurses (they are labelled differently), I can't pull out all the oncology staff (they aren't always position/dept they maybe dept/position).
I recommend if you are going to get into something like this (even not, on a paper system it is still an issue) create an inputting guideline for your employees. Keep it consistent. Make it make sense.
We're now waiting for IT/HR to figure out how we are going to get the students (staff) entered in, my dept to figure out the roles of various staff (who will be our contributors), some material to start with (sample courses)....and then we go from there.
A very scary and daunting task, but I'm extremely excited none the less. One of my next roles is to sit down with my supervisor and figure out exactly what my role in all of this will be. Any advice here is greatly appreciated as I'll be a dept of one. Shall I concentrate mainly on the administration of the system, the creation of content and courses, or some of both.
Stay tuned for this continuing saga....
LMS Project Finally Begins - Doc Management (Day 1 part 3)
The second set of meetings for the project centred around the component piece that will manage our policies and procedures. Currently we have approximately 5000+ pieces of paper (I think) that represent our P & P within the hospital.
This has little focus within my position (nor do I want it to) but I did want to sit on the meeting to see what our LMS vendor was going to do for us and how the new document management system will help our organization's processes.
The process for implementation of this system will begin with the importing of all the current documents we have. The plan is to use text recognition software to scan in and capture the policies and procedures. If that does not work someone will have to manually recreate them (NOT ME!).
The system, once we get using it and set up our lines of policy approval, will then track a new policy, procedure, form, or other document from Author, to a DMS (document management specialist), to several committees and their members for consultation, then different approving bodies for final publishing. Documents online will be the current version while printed copies will have water marks on them notifying the user that is it not a current/working version. The system will also notify users of up coming documents that are up for review.
We are greatly aspiring that this new tool will allow us to have only the most current of documentation "floating around", will essentially eliminate the "floating around" notion and there will be one central location to find the files, that anyone can access them at any time, and that new policies or procedures do not take months/years to get approved.
Once again it will be great to see how this truly works in action.
This has little focus within my position (nor do I want it to) but I did want to sit on the meeting to see what our LMS vendor was going to do for us and how the new document management system will help our organization's processes.
The process for implementation of this system will begin with the importing of all the current documents we have. The plan is to use text recognition software to scan in and capture the policies and procedures. If that does not work someone will have to manually recreate them (NOT ME!).
The system, once we get using it and set up our lines of policy approval, will then track a new policy, procedure, form, or other document from Author, to a DMS (document management specialist), to several committees and their members for consultation, then different approving bodies for final publishing. Documents online will be the current version while printed copies will have water marks on them notifying the user that is it not a current/working version. The system will also notify users of up coming documents that are up for review.
We are greatly aspiring that this new tool will allow us to have only the most current of documentation "floating around", will essentially eliminate the "floating around" notion and there will be one central location to find the files, that anyone can access them at any time, and that new policies or procedures do not take months/years to get approved.
Once again it will be great to see how this truly works in action.
LMS Project Finally Begins - Intranet (Day 1 part 2)
We have been using an intranet system that is loosely a bunch of word documents converted into html and posted up on one server. A few people have gone to the extreme of using Publisher so as to make the "pages" a little more exciting, but that is the extent of our current intranet.
Our new fancy intranet will more closely resemble a regular web page which is more familiar to everyone. Our vendor offers standard elements such as calendar tools, classified ads, employee directories, news and events, and quick polls. Adding many of these elements, some pictures, and allowing users (staff) to enter their own info into many of these tools will create a greater sense of community. We are also hoping that along with the 'sense of community', we will create better communication to everyone....and I'll digress here....we were a hospital of 750 about 7 years ago, we are now at 2400 staff and growing as a new cancer centre is built as well. One of our biggest complaints from staff is the loss of the small community hospital feel and the lost/miscommunication that goes along with a larger facility. We hope that their will be better communication from the top down and amongst departments individually. The ability of the staff to enter in their own classifieds (based on acceptable standards) and upcoming events will create a great sense of buy in from our staff. Time will tell for sure for all of these "hopefuls".
One of the first things though that our vendor will help us with before we even get adding content is to do the 80/20 rule with our Structural Site Map. This is basically the layout of our top tier categories that will be seen on the home page (i.e. HR, Directory, Education, Programs & Services, etc). Then the tiers that go under each of these are the components of these categories (HR - careers, employee wellness, benefits, etc) then so on and so on. Basically it covers all the category pages a user could navigate through.
What is nice here is that our support at our vendor LMS company will take our existing internet, and some other places to help set up this site map initially. This will then give us something to work from to build where we hope to go with the new intranet.
Our new fancy intranet will more closely resemble a regular web page which is more familiar to everyone. Our vendor offers standard elements such as calendar tools, classified ads, employee directories, news and events, and quick polls. Adding many of these elements, some pictures, and allowing users (staff) to enter their own info into many of these tools will create a greater sense of community. We are also hoping that along with the 'sense of community', we will create better communication to everyone....and I'll digress here....we were a hospital of 750 about 7 years ago, we are now at 2400 staff and growing as a new cancer centre is built as well. One of our biggest complaints from staff is the loss of the small community hospital feel and the lost/miscommunication that goes along with a larger facility. We hope that their will be better communication from the top down and amongst departments individually. The ability of the staff to enter in their own classifieds (based on acceptable standards) and upcoming events will create a great sense of buy in from our staff. Time will tell for sure for all of these "hopefuls".
One of the first things though that our vendor will help us with before we even get adding content is to do the 80/20 rule with our Structural Site Map. This is basically the layout of our top tier categories that will be seen on the home page (i.e. HR, Directory, Education, Programs & Services, etc). Then the tiers that go under each of these are the components of these categories (HR - careers, employee wellness, benefits, etc) then so on and so on. Basically it covers all the category pages a user could navigate through.
What is nice here is that our support at our vendor LMS company will take our existing internet, and some other places to help set up this site map initially. This will then give us something to work from to build where we hope to go with the new intranet.
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
LMS Project Finally Begins (Day 1 part 1)
Tuesday was our first meeting with our LMS vendor regarding how we as an organization are going to develop and rollout our new intranet, content management system and LMS. Several key project leads from each of the three components were present and the fact that we will be the core group through out the entire project is apparently a key success factor. If the people at the first meeting are also the key representatives that will be there for the entire project process then this will ensure motivation among members, approval point people don't change, and synergy will continue through to completion.
The first part of our day consisted of going over a bit of a timeline that we hope will work out for the project. We are working with a guide of a 16 week rollout. Wow! That's great....(let's see what happens).
Content Management - The Intranet
Document Management - our Policies and Procedures
LMS - our elearning management system
The first part of our day consisted of going over a bit of a timeline that we hope will work out for the project. We are working with a guide of a 16 week rollout. Wow! That's great....(let's see what happens).
- Weeks 1-4 site structure development, staff databases created, some training
- Weeks 5-8 will see interface development/layout and beginning configuration
- Weeks 8-9 will have train the trainer and deployment to admin users
- Weeks 10-12 data migration will begin (docs, policies, etc)
- Weeks 13-14 final testing and Q&A
- Weeks 15-16 sign off by admin users and roll out to staff
Content Management - The Intranet
Document Management - our Policies and Procedures
LMS - our elearning management system
Monday, 6 August 2007
Environment Friendly Applications Hit Facebook - Zimride
I saw this fairly new application for Facebook featured in an article in the Toronto Sun today. It is called Zimride and is the product of 2 gentlemen (Rajat Suri - a local and Logan Green - New York) that met over the internet and became business partners. That alone is pretty neat right there, but what they have created is an application where you can meet and get to know others that may want to carpool with you within your driving area. That's a great idea considering one trip down the 404 from one end to the other (Newmarket, Ontario to Toronto, Ontario) and seeing countless single drivers all heading to the city for work. We just recently adopted carpool lanes on the highway....let's get using them!!!!
My LMS Journey Begins Tomorrow
So I go back to work tomorrow with the fear that I think I will have several hundred emails. I left in a rush and did not put on my out of office notice....uggg.
Mike Harttrup emailed me during the week to ask about my LMS adventure, how it will form, what it will entail, what issues, etc. will be encountered. I fully expect to be blogging much over the next several months in regards to the new system. I know that I have 3 or 4 meetings tomorrow. One will be our first meeting with our winning vendor. A panel decided on the product after several demonstrations over the course of (far too much) time. We had 2 products narrowed down by a core group committee based on needs identified by the hospital (where I work). These included a package that could deliver an LMS, Content Management (Intranet) and a Document Management System. I will have to refresh my memory at work to let you know who gave the second product demonstration. I was equally impressed by their product as well and think I was leaning my vote towards them (I love all the bells and whistles of things I may never need or use), however, our vendor was picked for ease of use by those that will me managing the components of the systems and for the users themselves. We have a high late-career population and want to make sure that they will be as comfortable going to the system for information and utilizing it as much as our new out-of-college hires. Money of course is always a factor in determining what a company picks and I believe both companies came in well within budgets, but it was the little add-ins that helped as well (doc conversions, etc).
So once my initial introductions begin for MY LMS (yes I want to believe it is all mine - insert evil laughter, lightening, thunder) I will be more then happy to share it all here for my continued learning and hopefully some of yours as well.
Let the games begin.
Mike Harttrup emailed me during the week to ask about my LMS adventure, how it will form, what it will entail, what issues, etc. will be encountered. I fully expect to be blogging much over the next several months in regards to the new system. I know that I have 3 or 4 meetings tomorrow. One will be our first meeting with our winning vendor. A panel decided on the product after several demonstrations over the course of (far too much) time. We had 2 products narrowed down by a core group committee based on needs identified by the hospital (where I work). These included a package that could deliver an LMS, Content Management (Intranet) and a Document Management System. I will have to refresh my memory at work to let you know who gave the second product demonstration. I was equally impressed by their product as well and think I was leaning my vote towards them (I love all the bells and whistles of things I may never need or use), however, our vendor was picked for ease of use by those that will me managing the components of the systems and for the users themselves. We have a high late-career population and want to make sure that they will be as comfortable going to the system for information and utilizing it as much as our new out-of-college hires. Money of course is always a factor in determining what a company picks and I believe both companies came in well within budgets, but it was the little add-ins that helped as well (doc conversions, etc).
So once my initial introductions begin for MY LMS (yes I want to believe it is all mine - insert evil laughter, lightening, thunder) I will be more then happy to share it all here for my continued learning and hopefully some of yours as well.
Let the games begin.
Holidays are wrapping up.
Well one of the hottest weeks of the summer is wrapping up here in Ontario and so are my holidays.
Some time at a near by provincial park (gov't camp ground) I and my friends were introduced to swimmer's itch. 
That was not fun. Because of the extreme heat around here for the last while the pollution levels in the lakes has risen and when the heat get's high and there is a lack of rain to move water around the lakes can be unsafe to swim in. An hour after getting out of what seemed like a wonderful day at the beach my friends and I all started commenting on how itchy we were. 5 Days later I have finally stopped itching but look like I have a small case of chicken pox because of all the little marks on myself.
That was not fun. Because of the extreme heat around here for the last while the pollution levels in the lakes has risen and when the heat get's high and there is a lack of rain to move water around the lakes can be unsafe to swim in. An hour after getting out of what seemed like a wonderful day at the beach my friends and I all started commenting on how itchy we were. 5 Days later I have finally stopped itching but look like I have a small case of chicken pox because of all the little marks on myself.
Another day was filled with some friends at Canada's Wonderland. A near by amusement park. Let's just say a whole day of roller coasters and dropping 237 feet in free all are not what they use to be when I was a teenager. But it didn't stop me from going on all of the rides.
So a visit with family and an all nighter at the drive-in (okay 3 movies) finished off some summer holidays nicely. Now I can get back to blogging elearning stuff again.
Thanks all for baring with some personal details of my summer fun.
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
It's Hot Hot Hot
Well holidays are underway are they are none to exciting with this little heat wave that is going on here in Central Ontario. Hot, Hazy, Humid and 33C for the next several days (humidity is at 36C that's 100F for my ferenheit friends.)
So far holidays have consisted of a day of renting movies. "Keeping Mum" a british comedy, very funny, lots of surprises. "Astronaught Farmer" I enjoyed it a lot, but my family was so so on this one. "Little Miss Sunshine" hilarious well worth its nominations. "Letters from Iwo Jima" I really enjoyed this as well after seeing "Flags of Our Fathers" interesting 
to see the "same" movie from the other side.
to see the "same" movie from the other side. An impromtu bowling tournament. Not one of us didn't complain of some body part hurting before the night was over.
I also went to a surprise party, however, we didn't want to scare the guy and all stood in the drive way so as not to "surprise" him too much. He's not that old, but doesn't need any sudden jumps.A day at the beach was on the bill yesterday and was quite lovely. Not a lot of people there, the water was really warm, lots of sun. Dinner with a friend on a restaurant patio, followed my a visit to see an old high school mate, topped off with Harry Potter at 11:00.
Today consisted of some erronds, some driving aimlessly through the country side and a mountain bike ride through a local forest. Mental note: ....shiny new metal pedals with sharp bits might be good to keep your feet where they are suppose to be, but love to bite flesh off of shins. Good news though, I found wild blackberry and raspberry patches. Yum.
Well there's my excitement so far. Hope you are all doing well too.
Friday, 27 July 2007
Facebook Mistaken Identity is a Big Problem
True to form I found something to write about already.
The Toronto Star today is reporting about a young graduate student from Ryerson who has been come the centre of a mistaken identity problem through Facebook. It seems that an Ontario cabinet staff member was reported to make an unfavourable comment this week in an email. That person has since left her position (reasons not completely known). However, poor Aileen Siu, the graduate student, has had to bare all the backlash from that comment. She is receiving hate emails and slanderous comments through Facebook. Someone(s) have taken it upon themselves to track down a woman who happens to have the same name, is appx. the same age, and lives in the same town as the staff member.
I'm so surprised that anyone would go to this length to intimidate someone first of all, secondly that they don't make sure they are addressing the right person is completely irresponsible. The people that are writing to to Aileen (the graduate) should be ashamed of themselves as they are now no better then the original person that allegedly made the improper comment.
The Toronto Star today is reporting about a young graduate student from Ryerson who has been come the centre of a mistaken identity problem through Facebook. It seems that an Ontario cabinet staff member was reported to make an unfavourable comment this week in an email. That person has since left her position (reasons not completely known). However, poor Aileen Siu, the graduate student, has had to bare all the backlash from that comment. She is receiving hate emails and slanderous comments through Facebook. Someone(s) have taken it upon themselves to track down a woman who happens to have the same name, is appx. the same age, and lives in the same town as the staff member.
I'm so surprised that anyone would go to this length to intimidate someone first of all, secondly that they don't make sure they are addressing the right person is completely irresponsible. The people that are writing to to Aileen (the graduate) should be ashamed of themselves as they are now no better then the original person that allegedly made the improper comment.
Holiday Time
Well I'm just getting ready to begin some summer holidays. I'm not going too far from home as this particular time I'm spending much of my holidays alone. I may get up a post or 2 in the next week before I set out on daily adventures. I'm kind of looking forward to being able to go to some local spots that's I've always wanted to see but never seem to get the chance to get there.
When I return to work however the new LMS will be waiting. We have our first meeting with the vendor when I get back. We're starting with an overall meeting and then each of the three component groups will meet. The system we are getting will give us a document management system for our 5000+ pieces of paper covering policies and procedures. There will be a content management system to bring us into the 90's with our intranet. Currently we have a separate server that houses a bunch of docs, pdfs, and some Publisher makeshift htm files. Finally there will be an LMS for me!!!! I know you're probably saying don't get too excited, do you know what is in store for you. Well no. But it's got to be better then marking 2500 tests by hand.
Have a great week everyone, but I will try to keep this up here and there too. I'm addicted I admit it.
When I return to work however the new LMS will be waiting. We have our first meeting with the vendor when I get back. We're starting with an overall meeting and then each of the three component groups will meet. The system we are getting will give us a document management system for our 5000+ pieces of paper covering policies and procedures. There will be a content management system to bring us into the 90's with our intranet. Currently we have a separate server that houses a bunch of docs, pdfs, and some Publisher makeshift htm files. Finally there will be an LMS for me!!!! I know you're probably saying don't get too excited, do you know what is in store for you. Well no. But it's got to be better then marking 2500 tests by hand.
Have a great week everyone, but I will try to keep this up here and there too. I'm addicted I admit it.
Thursday, 26 July 2007
How to Hide Files inside JPGs
This is a simple little trick to hide files by compressing them with compression software and then using a small simple code you enter into the dos window. The video by JimmyR.com is a little hard to watch because it jumps around, but that is only because the filming size of the window is small. JimmyR does a great job of explaining the steps in a very simple and straight forward manner that I think most would be able to understand.
10 Ways to Creatively use Wikipedia
I came across Top 20 Creative Ways to Use Wikipedia (Part 1) today from Friedbeef's Tech blog. He's posted 10 of the 20 so far.
Take a look at the first one closely. It is really interesting how Greg Williams' WikiWorld takes wiki articles and turns them into small cartoons. Visually they become more stimulating.
Print a Camera Lens Hood
I was reading through some feeds this morning and came across Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out. Well I've used all but one and thought this one was just kind of neat. Printing out a Camera Lens Hood. I always find it fascinating when someone has the ingenuity to "craft" something up rather then spend $$$ buying a product. Thrifty!
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
BlogOrlando
I've never been to an unconference before. I only just recently have seen the term mentioned. Apparently an unconference is one where the content of the conference is generated day-by-day by the participants and their overall interests instead of predetermined ahead of time by an organizing group.
I came across this unconference BlogOrlando coming up in September in Orlando. Seems interesting and is focused on bloggers and some of the tools they use when blogging.
It's a free event so if you are in the area, it might be worth stopping by. If nothing else to see an unconference first hand.
PS...this is my 100th post....whooo hoooo. I'm having an unparty.
I came across this unconference BlogOrlando coming up in September in Orlando. Seems interesting and is focused on bloggers and some of the tools they use when blogging.
It's a free event so if you are in the area, it might be worth stopping by. If nothing else to see an unconference first hand.
2007 Event:Hyku, in partnership with Rollins College will host the second edition of this FREE event that is open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike from Florida and anywhere else. We hope to bring together a good cross-section of folks to discuss blogging, podcasting, public relations, social media, citizen's journalism and other related topics. In addition to the Friday event we planned some outings at the local theme parks over the weekend. The event was as much a social/family gathering as it is a 'work' gathering.
PS...this is my 100th post....whooo hoooo. I'm having an unparty.
Tokyo Subway Map vs. Web Trends 2007 Diagram
I showed a friend tonight, who taught in Japan for 11 years, the Web Trends 2007 Diagram and she asked why I had a picture of the Tokyo subway. So I had to look up for myself the subway map.
Ha. Now I'm even more amused at the Trends Diagram.
Ha. Now I'm even more amused at the Trends Diagram.
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2.0 - Confusing Diagram
I saw this via George Siemens today. All I can say when I looked at is was WOW. My colleage that shares my office just wants to know....who creates these and where do they find the time.
Well this one is brought to you by Information Architects Japan (click diagram for link)
Well this one is brought to you by Information Architects Japan (click diagram for link)
Interesting Links and Some Free CD Resources
Scanning my feeds today one from ALA struck me when I saw free elearning cd resources were available from The Australian Flexible Learning Framework.
I then started looking through their site and found lots of interesting links filled with all sorts of ideas.
These 3 links came from a presentation that was available for viewing from their Workshop Resources page.
e-paper - the world's largest flexible organic active matrix display.
http://www.epaper.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=2
Grafedia (US based) - Here users create real graffiti in the real world but when they write it they underscore a word. Another person walking by that sees this can text the "word"@grafedia.net to see additional images, video, or audio from the "artist". Seems to be an interesting idea, but it does promote graffiti.
http://www.grafedia.net/
Yellow Arrow - This is similar to the Grafedia idea but this time users get a little yellow arrow sticker and place it somewhere in the world. When you see one of these arrows you text the number you see on it to a phone number on your cellphone and you will now see extra information about that spot as provided by the user. (They do mention on this site to ask permission to place an arrow somewhere and to not vandilize.)
http://yellowarrow.net/index2.php
The site explains that it can be used in an educational manner:
Here is a Word document on tips for creating mobile learning with PowerPoint (basically for Pocket PC)
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/webdav/site/flxsite/shared/New%20Practices/v3%20Simple%20mobile%20resource%20design%20with%20MS%20PowerPoint_t.doc
I then started looking through their site and found lots of interesting links filled with all sorts of ideas.
These 3 links came from a presentation that was available for viewing from their Workshop Resources page.
e-paper - the world's largest flexible organic active matrix display.
http://www.epaper.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=2
Grafedia (US based) - Here users create real graffiti in the real world but when they write it they underscore a word. Another person walking by that sees this can text the "word"@grafedia.net to see additional images, video, or audio from the "artist". Seems to be an interesting idea, but it does promote graffiti.
http://www.grafedia.net/
Yellow Arrow - This is similar to the Grafedia idea but this time users get a little yellow arrow sticker and place it somewhere in the world. When you see one of these arrows you text the number you see on it to a phone number on your cellphone and you will now see extra information about that spot as provided by the user. (They do mention on this site to ask permission to place an arrow somewhere and to not vandilize.)
http://yellowarrow.net/index2.php
The site explains that it can be used in an educational manner:
Yellow Arrow has proven to be a very valuable tool in an educational
environtment. It is a great tool for engaging students to think critically about
the places they live and frequent, and to have a concrete forum to express their
creativity. Yellow Arrow has been successfully showcased and used at such
institutions as M.I.T., Pratt Institute, Central Connecticut State University,
ITU-Technical University Copenhagen, among others. (I'm not sure I quite get
this one though).
Here is a Word document on tips for creating mobile learning with PowerPoint (basically for Pocket PC)
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/webdav/site/flxsite/shared/New%20Practices/v3%20Simple%20mobile%20resource%20design%20with%20MS%20PowerPoint_t.doc
If you're from Austraila you can get the free CD resources on mobile learning by going to:
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/projects/2006/newpractices2006/pid/200
- Virtual Worlds- Real Learning -
- Media on the Move - online casting such as podcasts, audio and video files, RSS and playback on mobile devices ARED (Applications for Rapid E-learning Development)
A big hello to all my visitors
Flags from 25 Country VisitorsI use Blogcounter to see how many total visits I get to my blog and one of the features that I really like is that is shows the top 30 domains that have visited.
I've had people from at least 25 different countries take a peek at my blog and I just wanted to give a hello and a thank you to everyone for stoping by and reading. Your visits and feedback are always welcome.
Monday, 23 July 2007
Empowerment of Women through Adult Education Conference
If I had money/time to get to a conference.....(http://www.chmwsc-inconf.org/index.htm)
The Objectives of the two-day Conference are as follows :
- To explore the phenomenon of dropouts/exclusion of large sections of the population from education systems in spite of the universal acceptance of the significance of education by developed and developing countries.
- To explore the impact of Gandhian thought and practice on Adult Education for women.
- To understand and evaluate various Adult Education/Adult Literacy Programmes and global experiments in the field.
- To study how adult education leads to the empowerment of women and how empowerment of women leads to the enhancement of adult education programmes.
- To initiate dialogue into various aspects of Adult Education Programmes for Women and to test their efficiency in actual situations.
Does m-learning have to involve course material?
I was just considering this question this weekend after pulling out my phone for the 6th or 7th time to look something up. Looking at the wikipedia it appears that maybe I was learning throughout the weekend.
The scope of mobile learning includes:
The scope of mobile learning includes:
- Children and students using handheld computers, PDAs or handheld voting systems in a classroom or lecture room.
- Students using mobile devices in the classroom to enhance group collaboration among students and instructors using a Pocket PC.
- On the job training for someone who accesses training on a mobile device "just in time" to solve a problem or gain an update.
- Learning in museums or galleries with handheld or wearable technologies
- Learning outdoors, for example on field trips.
- The use of personal technology to support informal or lifelong learning, such as using handheld dictionaries and other devices for language learning.
So finding my way to that party, looking up a phone number, checking the movie listings, peeking in on facebook. Are those actions considered m-learning? Was looking at a blog or seeing when the next meteor shower was to occur? Maybe. Perhaps m-learning is a much smaller scope then I originally thought and can be facilitated with just small chunks of info. Something to keep a course intriguing, interesting, and a new venue for engagement.
(uh-oh is it mlearning or m-learning....lol....let's not get started)
Friday, 20 July 2007
Strategies & Techniques for Building ILS (eLearning Guild Online Forum)
Okay, well as another session wraps to a close....
This session was also extremely interesting and had some great point to think of when creating/thinking of ILS (immersive learning simulations), but in the end was a commercial. The software tool being toted here by Chris Crawford was Storytron. It does seem promising but is still being developed. It is centred around social interaction but is text based with no graphics.
Interesting points that were mentioned is that social interaction software should include:
This session was also extremely interesting and had some great point to think of when creating/thinking of ILS (immersive learning simulations), but in the end was a commercial. The software tool being toted here by Chris Crawford was Storytron. It does seem promising but is still being developed. It is centred around social interaction but is text based with no graphics.
Interesting points that were mentioned is that social interaction software should include:
- a personality model - this should be simplified personalities ie:nasty_nice
- an interaction engine - this is basically the what happens ie: person A bumps into person B
- "artificial personality" - estimates human behaviour
- language of interaction - this is the programs part of it all
Through several examples it was neat to see that a program can be described by the verbs it uses. First example was a word processor. It copies, saves, edits, deletes, etc. A web browser jumps to a hyperlink, go back to previous, jump to bookmark. The relation to the social interaction topic was that Microsoft Word has about 350 verbs and social interaction software has 100++++ verbs.
The last thing that I noted was the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that was mentioned. It had to deal with the fact that language mirrors perceptual reality. An example for this is read these two statements:
- You don't know!
- You don't know?
The both have the same words but as you read them the first feels like a yell or surprise, the second can conjure up feelings of empathy or even pity. This hypothesis was pointed out to show how natural language in a computing world is virtually impossible. Reality is too big.
I don't think I have any use now or in the near future for this, but it was an interesting topic and Chris certainly was an extremely enthusiastic speaker.
Using Avatars to Enhance Learning Comprehension - (eLearning Guild Online Forum)
Just finishing up another online forum through the eLearning Guild. This one was presented by Jennifer Hoch & Dan Karwoski from Intuit. They were explaining and demonstrating how they use avatars for training with their employees. There was information on the impact on students including increased engagement and intrinsic motivation. Also that learners tend to respond better to interaction that are more similar to real life.
I wasn't completely sold on this particular session. It was by no means a commercial, but it just seemed to have that feel to me. Perhaps I got biased from the beginning expecting something different. Although, I can't really say exactly why. Maybe it's because so far my experience with avatars has felt something along the lines of automated phone calls. Not the ones where you press 1 for yes, 2 for no. More like say English if you want your call in English and say French if you want it in French. Then no matter how slow or clear you try to say English you end up with Spanish!?!
I can't give a great review on this session, but I can't completely discount the material. It just wasn't for me at this point in time.
I wasn't completely sold on this particular session. It was by no means a commercial, but it just seemed to have that feel to me. Perhaps I got biased from the beginning expecting something different. Although, I can't really say exactly why. Maybe it's because so far my experience with avatars has felt something along the lines of automated phone calls. Not the ones where you press 1 for yes, 2 for no. More like say English if you want your call in English and say French if you want it in French. Then no matter how slow or clear you try to say English you end up with Spanish!?!
I can't give a great review on this session, but I can't completely discount the material. It just wasn't for me at this point in time.
LOMAK - Hands free light operated mouse and keyboard
Having a disabled person within my family, I think this is a wonderful idea and apparently so does the 2007 International Design Excellence Awards. Lomak created a hands free keyboard and mouse that tracks a small light device that is mounted on to the users' head. Importantly each entry (keystroke) is confirmed before being inputted.
Creating a List of Things to Do
I keep having a post that Wendy Wickham wrote this week pop into my head. It referred to several things she wanted to try to attempt over the coming year. At eLearnDevCon she came up with wanting to:
- Build an educational game.
- Seriously upgrade my Flash and ActionScript chops.
- Figure out how to build Google Gadgets from scratch with feeds from my Moodle tutorials or some other source.
- Figure out how to build learning for mobile phones.
What I found great about this post was that having not attended the conference I was able to read Wendy's ideas and think...hmmm....maybe that is something I can try too. I could maybe apply that here. I could try that there. I haven't been able yet to explore these ideas she suggested, but something about #3 has been haunting me all week. It's great to read what inspires others and through their excitement become also inspired.
Checkers has 500 trillion play positions, but ends perfectly with a draw.
I found this interesting today. The University of Alberta has used dozens of computers for 18 years to compute every possible position play for checkers. Yep...checkers. In the end they computationally proved that there are 500 trillion (that's 500,000,000,000,000,000,000) play positions and if each player makes no mistakes throughout a game it ends in a draw. Asked if they will try to determine chess, Jonathan Schaeffer computer scientist at the university, said he didn't think so without new technology. Chess is guessed to have billion-trillion-trillion-trillion positions (1 followed by 45 zeroes).
Seems kind of deflating.
Seems kind of deflating.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Southpark & Simpsons Me
ILS - Immersive Learning Simulations Genesis (eLearning Guild online forum)
Just sat through the opening session for this month's eLearning Guild Online Forum for Strategies and Techniques for Building Immersive Learning Simulations . Jeff Johannigman was the opening speaker and did a fabulous job defining ILS, testing participants if certain items were ILS, and explained many of the elements needed to create ILS. (The more I say ILS the more I will remember what it means - sorry.) Jeff also incorporated some interesting results from Guild's 360 Study Survey.
Some of the descriptive words that "Learning" conjured up from the participants:
Some of the descriptive words that "Learning" conjured up from the participants:
- grueling
- curiosity
- focus
- fun
- drudgery
- boring
- formal
- valuable
- serious
- important
- empowering
Some of the words "Games" inspired from the participants:
- social
- engaging
- distractions
- childish
- frivolous
- addictive
- fun
- exciting
Results from the survey suggested that most that answered thought ILS were better then other forms of skill practice, but that determining if there was good ROI from them was too hard to tell so early on. It was also clear that there are two large barriers to instructors/designers using ILS in there courses and they were the fact that the word "game" was seen as a problem corporately and that management is the biggest hindrance to utilization. Overwhelming the survey pointed out that changing the terminology from "game" to "immersive learning" was very poignant. Jeff then pointed out that several companies are already starting to adopt the newer phrasing of ILS.
Some great points for the use of ILS over traditional elearning were that it is:
- cyclical
- good for problem-solving and decision making skills
- mostly interactive
- principles are discovered
- challenges user before hand
- failure is not necessarily bad with proper feedback
Points to consider when designing simulations are:
- role of the user
- tasks you are to do
- resources and tools at user's disposal
- values that may impact choices
- factors (internal/external) to consider before making choices
- measure the resources
- consider tradeoffs between various resources
- effect on resources and environmental variables by actions
Overall the forum was really well done and I believe well received if the chat in the room was an indication. If you are a member of the guild I would recommend taking a look at the archive of this session.
I loved this quote that Jeff used as well.
"Anyone who makes a distinction between games and elarning clearly does not
know the first thing about either one." - Marshal McLuhan
Would your training keep a child interested?
I saw something in the morning news that reminded me about some basic principles I should keep in mind when developing new courses for staff. Leapfrog was having a toy testing lab today at the Delta Chelsea in Toronto. Basically they bring 50 kids a day (for the week I believe), babies to 6 years old, and let them test out all the new toys they are thinking of developing and marketing.
The key thing that the spokes person said for me is that the toys that did the best were the ones that were brightly colours, lots of interaction, and had immediate feed back. They pressed something, something else lit up or made a noise.
Seems simple, but I think it's something to keep in mind for adults training and especially when developing courses for the up-and-coming workers. They are even more hardwired to expect immediate results to their actions. Think of the connections they demand to have with their friends (Facebook, Twitter, etc). Course material must have that same instant gratification to keep them intrigued and interested enough to continue through.
The key thing that the spokes person said for me is that the toys that did the best were the ones that were brightly colours, lots of interaction, and had immediate feed back. They pressed something, something else lit up or made a noise.
Seems simple, but I think it's something to keep in mind for adults training and especially when developing courses for the up-and-coming workers. They are even more hardwired to expect immediate results to their actions. Think of the connections they demand to have with their friends (Facebook, Twitter, etc). Course material must have that same instant gratification to keep them intrigued and interested enough to continue through.
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Using a Wiki for Conference Info
It's not the prettiest wiki I've ever seen, but it's a great idea of how to use a wiki. Jason Plunkett created this wiki for the Computers in Education Group of South Australia conference that is happening July 19-20.
It's a great idea in that it has a page for the keynotes, speakers, session topics, presentations, workshops and all sorts of links.
I'm going to have to borrow this idea for my next in-house retreat.
It's a great idea in that it has a page for the keynotes, speakers, session topics, presentations, workshops and all sorts of links.
I'm going to have to borrow this idea for my next in-house retreat.
Be Careful How You Use Facebook
I recently had some friends concerned about photos they had posted of them from other friends. The issue was around the fact that although the photos may have been just showing a fun weekend, coworkers of the concerned friend may see them on Facebook and not interpret them in the light manner they were intended.
Facebook is just like any other internet tool . One, regardless of their age, should take careful consideration as to what you "put out there" for the cyberworld to see and who you allow access to see it.
CBC News was reporting yesterday that Oxford is using Facebook as a way to discipline students. It seems that after exams there is sometimes the unsanctioned custom of "trashings". This involves dousing classmates in foam, eggs, and flour. A campus misdemeanor that is drawing fines to the students. Officials are searching through Facebook for photos that capture any of the activities and emailing students with the fines.
As if often the case, the tool is not the problem, but how we sometimes utilize them becomes an issue. Some schools have completely banned Facebook on the basis that threats and derogatory remarks have been made against fellow students and teachers. This Oxford case seems like some harmless fun, but does go against the rules of the university. It helps to point out to the masses again the need to protect your privacy. Make sure you use the features established within the tools to allow only your friends to see your information. Sometimes a better rule to live by is not to post info/photos/comments that can put yourself or others into harm or offend.
Facebook is just like any other internet tool . One, regardless of their age, should take careful consideration as to what you "put out there" for the cyberworld to see and who you allow access to see it.
CBC News was reporting yesterday that Oxford is using Facebook as a way to discipline students. It seems that after exams there is sometimes the unsanctioned custom of "trashings". This involves dousing classmates in foam, eggs, and flour. A campus misdemeanor that is drawing fines to the students. Officials are searching through Facebook for photos that capture any of the activities and emailing students with the fines.
As if often the case, the tool is not the problem, but how we sometimes utilize them becomes an issue. Some schools have completely banned Facebook on the basis that threats and derogatory remarks have been made against fellow students and teachers. This Oxford case seems like some harmless fun, but does go against the rules of the university. It helps to point out to the masses again the need to protect your privacy. Make sure you use the features established within the tools to allow only your friends to see your information. Sometimes a better rule to live by is not to post info/photos/comments that can put yourself or others into harm or offend.
All That Blogging Has to Offer
I was just asked to provide some information on what blogging has done for me in terms of how it has impacted my learning and social networking.
I started blogging the day after the eLearning Guild Conference in Boston. So April 14th and have since written 82 postings to my blog (not including today). That's a little less then an average of one a day, but in reality it's about 3 a day with weekends off. I'm not sure if that qualifies as perhaps a little addicted to blogging. I think so, because I am finding myself reading more about events that happen and if they are blog worthy.
I find blogging to be currently my main and most important source of learning. I recently took a course that was necessary as part of the core curriculum for a certificate and can honestly say I learned nothing new during the semester. It was titled Facilitating Online Learning and was anything but that. The course and my blogging started at roughly the same time. During time I was blogging I learned some of the better open source wikis to use, how to engage staff to participate with the wiki, ideas to help motivate staff to be excited to use web 2.o tools, and I was even able to use some of the knowledge I had now collected to do my own presentation on these tools to a network of colleagues. At the end of my presentation there was a scheduled discussion time to go over the ideas I presented and make a decision. It turned out that the group liked my own recommendations so much that the discussion was dropped entirely and they went to a unanimous vote to go with the tools I had picked. Had I not the knowledge behind me that I had gained over the past several months this would not have been possible.
My social network has begun to grow. This I find is a little slower a process because I feel a little as if one has to prove themselves a bit more in online environments. One does have to work at communicating with other people, asking questions, and responding to questions (directly asked of you or as comment responses). It takes some work and dedication to "put yourself out there", but is very much worth the effort. I think I may now have a few people that recognize my name/face popping up here and there on various postings and network sites. I have begun talking with a few people I think are "key" and feel that I can at least go to them for guidance and advice on various topics or ideas that come into play in my environment. The one thing I have really noticed and experienced about the elearning/technology blogging community is that everyone is extremely friendly, open and willing to share ideas and be mentors to one another.
Other than the fact that I feel I'm always looking for the next thing to write about, I have no negatives to think of in regards to blogging. In fact this drive to find the next thing to post had kept me up-to-date and current in the happenings of elearning, technology and the news. I feel more a part of the "current" world then perhaps ever. I also apparently like to write. I never ever considered that to be something I was capable of, but it appears to happen day after day. So, I've also been able to learned and develop a new skill.
I can't see myself stoping this learning any time soon.
I started blogging the day after the eLearning Guild Conference in Boston. So April 14th and have since written 82 postings to my blog (not including today). That's a little less then an average of one a day, but in reality it's about 3 a day with weekends off. I'm not sure if that qualifies as perhaps a little addicted to blogging. I think so, because I am finding myself reading more about events that happen and if they are blog worthy.
I find blogging to be currently my main and most important source of learning. I recently took a course that was necessary as part of the core curriculum for a certificate and can honestly say I learned nothing new during the semester. It was titled Facilitating Online Learning and was anything but that. The course and my blogging started at roughly the same time. During time I was blogging I learned some of the better open source wikis to use, how to engage staff to participate with the wiki, ideas to help motivate staff to be excited to use web 2.o tools, and I was even able to use some of the knowledge I had now collected to do my own presentation on these tools to a network of colleagues. At the end of my presentation there was a scheduled discussion time to go over the ideas I presented and make a decision. It turned out that the group liked my own recommendations so much that the discussion was dropped entirely and they went to a unanimous vote to go with the tools I had picked. Had I not the knowledge behind me that I had gained over the past several months this would not have been possible.
My social network has begun to grow. This I find is a little slower a process because I feel a little as if one has to prove themselves a bit more in online environments. One does have to work at communicating with other people, asking questions, and responding to questions (directly asked of you or as comment responses). It takes some work and dedication to "put yourself out there", but is very much worth the effort. I think I may now have a few people that recognize my name/face popping up here and there on various postings and network sites. I have begun talking with a few people I think are "key" and feel that I can at least go to them for guidance and advice on various topics or ideas that come into play in my environment. The one thing I have really noticed and experienced about the elearning/technology blogging community is that everyone is extremely friendly, open and willing to share ideas and be mentors to one another.
Other than the fact that I feel I'm always looking for the next thing to write about, I have no negatives to think of in regards to blogging. In fact this drive to find the next thing to post had kept me up-to-date and current in the happenings of elearning, technology and the news. I feel more a part of the "current" world then perhaps ever. I also apparently like to write. I never ever considered that to be something I was capable of, but it appears to happen day after day. So, I've also been able to learned and develop a new skill.
I can't see myself stoping this learning any time soon.
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
ToonDoo
I tried out ToonDoo today after seeing it on the EduBloggerWorld site. Kind of a neat little tool you can use to create little cartoon scenes for your blog, training sessions, or just for fun. I created this little one about my new LMS that's coming in about 5 minutes. There is lots of customization, but easy enough too with many drag and drop backgrounds, characters, items, etc.
Quote of the Week
After reading a few posts and comments about It's Time to Drop E-Learning this week, I just found this quote in my inbox this morning that makes it all clear to me now.
"When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest." ~ William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)
Monday, 16 July 2007
MindMeister - Mind Mapping Tool
Thanks to Brent Schlenker for posting about this wonderful, neat tool MindMeister. It's a mind mapping tool that you can use and then share with colleagues to collaborate on projects.
I gave it a try today and tried to map out some of the thinking of revamping our orientation to become more engaging and interactive.
Pay Attention - Transforming Teaching Through Technology
Scanning through the EduBloggerWorld site I came across and quoted recently Darren Draper who referred to a video Pay Attention. This video is presented on the T4-Jordan School District website Transforming Teaching Through Technology.
The video is definitely worth watching and has some great stats (US 2001-2004) about why students are so technologically savvy.
The video is definitely worth watching and has some great stats (US 2001-2004) about why students are so technologically savvy.
- Average college students have spent 10000 hours playing video games, 10000 hours using cell phones, 20000 watching TV
- Today's children and teens spend an average 2.7 hours at a computer a week
- 70% of 4-6 year olds have used a computer
- 65% of children under 2 will use a screen media for just over 2 hours
I don't work in an environment with children, but these ideas and statistics are things that we take very seriously. We are dealing with (as is much of North America) a nursing shortage. Our late career nurses are ending their careers, there are few mid-career nurses around, and our next great hope is a much younger generation. We realize within our department that our training methods must change greatly to appeal to this generation of people that know how to use all sorts of technology. More so they expect to have it readily available to them regardless of where they might be at any given time.
It's amazing to see that in our organization we have 6 computers (I know that's not very many) that staff can use on their free time (lunch, breaks). We try to encourage their use for educational advancement. We do have a lot of continuing students employed. But what we see day in and day out is Facebook on the computers. I sat down at one on Friday to work on our payroll. The girl beside me must have thought I was spying on what she was doing, and I guess I was since I can recall her actions. She opened another screen full of something medical and then minimized Facebook down to the corner so she could read a message that had been sent to her. I guess she doesn't know that, hey that's okay. We actually don't mind you using the program here, but on your free time.
Back to the video though, it did tweak my thoughts to a discussion we had in our department last week. We do orientation every month here for new hires. We get great compliments on how informative it is and how much they like the session. However, as a trainer standing at the front of the room watching the doodling and eyes rolling into the back of their heads, we have to wonder how engaging is it really.
We hope to revamp it before the end of the summer and instead of having a bunch of talking heads at the front of the room drone on about WHMIS, occupational health, infection control, fire safety (I'm getting bored just listing the topics) we want to change it into an entirely interactive day. We have considered inserting games, scavenger hunts where they must find the main points of topics we normally cover, their own presentations, etc. If we can find some budget money to make it more techno-interesting too I'll bet we'll get great reviews from our new staff.
I just joined EduBloggerWorld
I just found this via a post from Julie Lindsay. It's a fairly new social network set up through Ning by Darren Draper, Steve Hargadon and inspired by conversations with Vicki Davis.
Its intent is to be a place for connections and community geared towards education bloggers WORLDWIDE. It's also a step towards future virtual events. As Darren states "We think this is an important step in embracing the international culture of a flattening world and an excellent way to pay attention to the world around us."
Friday, 13 July 2007
Online games good for teens, says study - BCS (rebuttal to myself)
Well in response to myself....I found this via Ray Schroeder's Online Learning Update
Online games good for teens, says study - BCS
Teenagers who regularly play online multiplayer games could be benefiting from personal development that does not occur in the 'real' world, according to a new sudy. Researchers at Brunel University in London conducted a three-year experiment where they examined the impact of the popular online game Runescape on teenagers aged between 13 and 16. They found that the game allowed players to try out different identities and find out more about other cultures, races and classes than they would through everyday physical interaction with the people around them.
BarbieGirls.com @ 3 million users, but what about the kids?
Still in beta, Matels' BarbieGirls.com has 3 million users (since April 2007) with 50,000 signing up every day. As I have read it took SecondLife 3 years to reach that many users. On BarbieGirls you can create yourself a virtual-self in a "Fashion, Fun, Friendship" world. Yay! Of course as you want to wander around and buy your little virtual-self new clothes or adopt a pet for a fee.What becomes interesting here is that according to Reuters SecondLife News Centre (Feb. 2007) "The average Second Life user is 33, according to self-reported data, with 27.5 percent of active users 18-25, 38.8 percent 25-34, 21 percent 35-44, and 11.5 percent older than 45." The average age of users on BarbieGirls....well I'm not sure, but I'm guessing their under 18. There is not only BarbieGirls.com, there is a whole collection of interactive sites that expand the brand usages and immerse kids into virtual toy worlds. There is LEGO.com, AmericanGirl.com, Crayola.com, HotWheels.com and Tamagotchi.com.
Our kids are becoming more and more technology savvy, understand and can use it better then most of their parents, but what happens to them. There is already a growing concern that young girls have poor self-esteem comparing themselves to images they see in various magazines. So now I begin to wonder that if I can go online and walk around and talk to others as a 6', 120lb Amazonian Goddess what does that actually do to my true self-image and esteem? Does it make me more confident? Maybe virtually, but if I have to speak to someone in person who can see that I haven't stepped off a rain forest cloud can I cope socially. What about a child/teen? I know nothing about psychology, but it did cross my mind today that is so many kids are only exploring virtual worlds, does it help or hinder them in interacting in their true worlds. Will any of this come to haunt them in the future if they can't cope, interact, speak to others in a social setting? Picture it....100 years from now and the only form of speech is virtual.
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