Instructional Design and an Aging Workforce

Further to a previous post.

As instructional designers we need to consider that we are experiencing that a large section of the workforce is an aging population. While “Age is not a disability” – AgelessinAmerica[i]; we still need to be considerate of the material we create and maintain not only accessibility but usability for this important part of our labour market.

When we create learning material we typically strive for a “package” that each of our employees/students will be able to participate fully in and be able to walk away with a new skill or further knowledge. When we do this we use universal design. “Universal design is the principle that guides the process to integrate all elements required to ensure facilities, technology, information, programs, products, and services meet the diverse requirements of today's society. The usability of what we create may be far more important when considering a workforce of Boomers. Usability is determined by user satisfaction, east of learning, ability to remember organizational structure and functionality, user effectiveness, and efficiency.”[ii]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 53 percent of the U.S. workforce will be 40 years old or older by 2010.[iii] It is also predicted that this percentage will continue if not increase into the coming years. Necessity will force us consider the various accessibility needs that will arise from an aging workforce and how computer use might be affected by these limitations.

Some limitations that may be experience (and this is certainly would not be the case for all in this workforce category) are decreased vision, decreased hearing, and decreased mobility or dexterity. Microsoft has several articles on “Aging Workforce and Accessible Technology”. They cite that in 2001 the U.S. percentage of population 45-54 had incidences of vision disabilities at .6%, hearing at .6% and typing at .6%. Compare this to the aged population of 25-34 where the incidences were only .4%, .3% and .4% respectively.[iv]

Changes in vision as one ages can range from very mild symptoms to quite serious diseases. These changes may include[v]:

• Difficulty reading small print
• Difficulty adjusting from light to dark
• Sensitivity to glare
• Loss of depth perception
• Difficulty seeing contrasts and colour
• Dry eyes
• Teary or watery eyes

Heather Ferguson, President of the Hearing Foundation of Canada states “People are starting to lose their hearing 20 years earlier than in the past.” “A Canadian Hearing Society Awareness survey indicated five years ago that 25 per cent of people with hearing loss are under 40, and 70 per cent are under 60.”[vi]

Presbycusis is the most common form of hearing loss as a person ages. Sound generally seems less clear and lower in volume. Many with prebycusis will experience:[vii]

• The speech from others may seem mumbled or slurred
• High-pitched sounds such as “s” and “th” are difficult to hear and tell apart
• When there is background noise, conversations are more difficult to understand
• Men’s vocal tones are easier to hear than the higher pitches of a woman’s vocal tones
• Certain sounds can seem overly annoying or loud
• Tinnitus (a ringing, roaring, or hissing sound in one or both ears) may also be heard

As one grows older there are various elements that play on the body that can limit ones dexterity. Arthritis is one such common problem that can cause a stiffening of the joints that makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to utilize your hands as you once did. Arthritis not only effects the hands though, it can seriously effect any joint within the body and long periods of immobility Strokes which typically only occur over the age of 65 can cause loss of physical and mental functions and can include motor function disabilities.

It is well known that life long learning is a much desired necessity not only for corporations to succeed but for adults to continue to grow and develop. There is an increasing need that employees be flexible and adaptable and this ability to continually learn helps these individuals not only be able to improve their skills but apply them to various contexts as well.

We need to understand that research has shown “that those over the age of 45 years are often adventurous and keen to do new things in both work and life. They are willing to augment their skills through training, including their capacity and competence in using new technology.”[viii] With this in mind we can take their enthusiasm to learn, use common instructional design practices, and available accessibility technology minimize any awkwardness yet increase the usability of courses we create.

No longer should we only think that audio should be included for those learners who are auditory learners. It should also be included for those who have difficulty reading small print. Similarly the ability to increase font size seems to be a norm, but needs to be added every time to a program. The option to read text instead of hearing it needs to be included for our learners that are not only visual but are perhaps experiencing some hearing loss. More images while wonderful for visual learners will also assist those that are having trouble seeing the small print or hearing the audio that has been inserted.

Microsoft has full set of tips that an aging population can use to increase the usability of computers in general. These items can be included by instructional designers directly into their course material or as tip sheets. The tips are simple items that we as designers sometimes take for granted that our users will know them and apply themselves to their learning environments. Items include[ix]:

• Enlarging fonts, icons, changing screen resolution,
• Using Microsoft Magnifier to open a floating window that enlarges parts of the screen
• Install speech recognition for voice commands instead of typing or using a mouse
• Use SoundSentry to cue visual notifications for sounds
• Use Narrator to read text aloud
• Change the appearance of the mouse so that it is more recognizable on the screen or it’s
• speed is slower, colour is brighter, etc.
• MouseKeys can change control of the mouse to the keyboard
• Use StickyKeys to press keyboard shortcuts one key at a time
• Filter Keys can be used to minimize repeated keystrokes by anyone with mild tremors
• Changing the contrast on the screen can make the text easier to read

What is wonderful for instructional designers is that more and more accessibility functions are being developed daily as we become more socially responsible and aware that everyone needs to have access to information and learning. As more of these technologies become available for people that may have limiting disabilities they can also be included and should be considered to be a normal inclusion into training materials that are created for the aging population. This portion of our workforce may not have disabilities, as such, but they will experience more and more issues with visual, hearing, and dexterity tasks. These technologies can assist us in creating not only accessible but useable learning.

__________________________________________
[i] Hamilton, T., Discovery Through eLearning (2008, June 26). Seeking ID Techniques to Use with an Aging Workforce. Message posted to http://discovery-thru-elearning.blogspot.com/2008/06/seeking-id-techiques-to-use-with-aging.html
[ii] Canadian Heritage, Creating and Managing Digital Content: Tip Sheets – Internet Accessibility, Retrieved July 10, 2008, from website: http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Digital_Content/Tip_Sheets/Accessibility_CHIN/definition.html
[iii] U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Projected Labor Force Data: Civilian Labor Force, 2006-2016 [Data file].
Retrieved from ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ep/labor.force/clfa0616.txt
[iv] Microsoft Corporation, Aging Workforce and Accessible Technology: Physiological Changes and Aging, Retrieved July 09, 2008 from website: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/aging/physiological.aspx
[v] Health Canada, Healthy Living: Seniors and Aging – Vision Care, Retrieved July 11, 2008, from website: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/life-vie/seniors-aines_vc-sv-eng.php
[vi] Bio-Medicine, Hearing Loss Becoming an Epidemic in Canada, Retrieved July 16, 2008, from website: http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Hearing-Loss-Becoming-an-Epidemic-in-Canada-21234-1/
[vii] National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Presbycusis, Retrieved July 16, 2008, from website: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/presbycusis.asp
[viii] Bowman, K & Kearns, P 2007, E-learning for the mature age worker: Final report, Dept of Education, Science and Training, Canberra. Retrieved July 16, 2008 from website: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/webdav/site/flxsite/shared/Research%20and%20Policy%20Advice/Report_Mature_Aged_Workers.pdf (p. 21)
[ix] Microsoft Corporation, Aging Workforce and Accessible Technology: Physiological Changes and Aging, Retrieved July 09, 2008 from website: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/aging/tips.aspx

Whole Brain Design (Notes from ELG Online Forum)

Whole Brain Design: Engage and Retain your Learners by Ann Herrmann, Herrmann International

(brief notes - I started multitasking and got distracted)

as we give people challenges our brains kick into action solving the challenge before we even realize it

Poll - for participants: What is most important in learning for you?
- 44% Engaging learning and development for individuals, teams and the organization. (red)
- 28% Effective transfer of knowledge and information linked to performance objectives. (blue)

Poll - for participants: What is most important in learning for your org?
- 55% Effective transfer of knowledge and information linked to performance objectives. (blue)
- 31% A structured way for learners to practically develop the competencies they need. (green)

Poll - for participants: What percentage of the brain power is actually used in your org?
- most entered into 10-70%, most of us think 50% or below


Learning is a brain based mental process.
We often know more about our pda's and cell phones more than our own internal computers (brains).

We almost never see another person that looks just like us, why do we assume they will think like us.

We are all unique learners.

Your brain craves patters and searches for them endlessly. - Thomas Czerner, 2001

ie: it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.

JGF GPFAM JS GQQB - If you block out the bottom half of these letters it will appear to be the word ICE CREAM IS GOOD - our brain fills in the letters we believe the phrase to be

Test for understanding, not existing patterns that they have created.

*Use patterning to your advantage as a foundation for learning, but beware of the learning traps it creates.

B.J. Schone is a Twitter Star!!!

Well if you haven't heard of Twitter yet you should maybe take a look at it. If you use Facebook already, it's an application just like the status updates you enter on Facebook. The term is microblogging. It's a quick 160 character message about what you are doing now.

The messages can be as simple as "I'm eating toast" or pointing others to something they may be interested in quickly "more tickets were just released get yours at www.blahblah".

Once you set yourself up you can follow others that are using the application and friends that are signed in can follow you as well.

B.J. (brown shirt) who got be into using the tool (and yes you can use it in Canada, I've got it on my Bell cell phone - no special blackberry or pda) was just recently at a Tweetup (a meeting of Twitters) and had his picture placed into the article.

Here is the article for more information about Twitter and this particular tweetup.

Where the Hell is Matt? - Video you have to see

If you haven't yet taken a look at Where the Hell is Matt? , please do. His video is simple yet complex, fun, inspirational, and guaranteed to make you smile (MORE THAN ONCE)!!!


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

I love it. Great job Matt Harding

My 300th post is a call for LMS Help

Yippee I'm at my 300th post, but yet again I'm shouting out for some help and of course it's about the LMS. I have the system we are using, and access to a second system that is on my wish list.

I'm having problems loading in classroom based classes. Both systems have features for in class teaching, however neither is meeting our needs. I'm curious to know how others have handled this as I can't believe we are the only organization that operates in such a manner.

We have many, many courses that run over consecutive days or even just over many different days. They also tend to occur in many different rooms around our organization. Neither system seems to be able to accommodate this style.

As an example: Intro to Project Management. Runs 8:30am - 12:30 pm on Wed. July 30 and then again Thurs. July 31 at the same time. In the same room. Students must go to both sessions.

Each LMS that I am trying only has a Start date and End Date for the over all program. One system does allow for recurring days of the event, but they must be the standard (one a week, ever day of the week, every other week, every other specific day of the week). On this system the first day is the start date, the end date needs to be the same date (to capture the 4 hour window of the course) and the recurring can go on for as many days as you need. But the over all screen users would see is cumbersome.

Another example is: Frontline Leaders, runs 8:00am - 4:00pm on this Thursday, 2 Thursdays from that date, then 2 Thursdays from that date, then 3 Thursdays from that, and back to 2 Thursdays from that. (not a consistent pattern). The course is held in the same room for 5 of the sessions but not for the sixth.

Again, neither system seems to allow for room changes, or many modules of a course, various instructors, various times.

I know LMS's are primarily for online learning and these typically are start date - end date, open 24/7 with no physical location to speak of. However, most LMS's I've heard of are "all about thier registration and tracking" and classroom based is usually a part of that.

I've tried on both system to set up the various "days" of the class as individual sessions. These look prettier in the systems, however when I register into the first module as a student....then I can't register into any of the other modules.

Even if this did work.....then ever occurrence of this course would have to be individual in the system course calendar.

i.e. Intro to Proj. Mgt June Mod 1 & Mod 2, then Intro to Proj. Mgt July Mod 1 & Mod 2.

I'm curious to know has no one else in the eLearning World had to deal with this?!? I'm sure you have, so how did you get around this issue of:

• 1 program
• various dates
• various times
• various locations
• (maybe various instructors)

As always I truly appreciate any feedback and help I can get. Learning as I go.

Trouble remembering all those "strong" passwords

I came across this handy little Password Chart today. It's a decoder for strong passwords into simple ones. Actually it is kind of the opposite of that.

You enter into a field on the site a phrase or word and a matrix of random letters (Caps and lower case) and numbers appears. You can then use these the matrix to code out your simple password.

If I use the phrase "I can never remember my password" then I get this matrix:

I can then use the chart to take a simple password and convert it to a strong password.

Example: "password" gets converted to "gvaGwtJJimmgSFysb"

I don't even have to use the matrix to match up letters to the new code (p = gva); there is a field on the same page for me to enter in my simple password to convert it to the strong password.

The site can then be accessed where ever I go or I can print out the page and carry the matrix with me. What could be "JNqmgvaREicYcgSF" than that?

The Simple Features of an LMS Should be There, Right???

Warning - this is a rant. As previously mentioned I've been cursed with making our LMS work. One of my first tasks is to populate 10 courses that we will run here at the hospital. 3 hours later I still can't figure out how to get the first one set up. Seems odd right?

Here's some of my issues for Class A that has part 1 & part 2, reoccurring every month

1. Since when does a course only start on the hour?
2. Even though my login has admin privileges I can't do all of the admin tasks.
3. Creating an instructor - logout as self, login as grand-poo-ba of admin, create a user, go into manage a student, manage an instructor, now assign that person the label instructor
4. Cut off date for registering for a course has to be on or after the course start date? Wouldn't you normally want to know how many are registered for your class in advance of the start date. For CBT how would you know how much material to prepare? Better yet, why would you let people register for a class that has already started?
5. A course can have a prerequisite but a session can not
6. Why would they assume a classroom course would run the same as an online course? You have weeks to complete an online course, but a classroom course you (probably) go to once or several times over the course of a period of time

This is going to be a long long long implementation. I wonder if I can get sponsored by JD!!!

Follow-up on "ID Techniques for Aging Workforce"

Thank you very much for your post AgelessAmerica. I certainly meant no offence with my post yesterday and I agree with you that age is definitely not a disability. My organization is looking to comply with the new accessibility laws and regulations that will be mandatory throughout Canada in the next year or so. One of the comments that came out the other day at a meeting was that our mid-career to late-career nurses have more of a fear of using computers. I actually thought that this wasn't really a valid reason not to use or try computers especially as they are an intricate part of everyday life. Even more so as so much equipment and documentation is now electronic in hospitals.

The point was then more clarified in that we need to admit that as we age (and we all hate to admit this) our bodies don't do quite want we want any more. Eyesight does get weaker; in fact both my manager and director ask me to increase the font size on my screen when they need to look at a document. Fingers might not be as fast with arthritis, hearing isn't quite as sharp, and their may be more and more aspects to our lives that Mother-Nature likes to "play with" and tweak.

I was curious if colleagues are thinking about these things as they design learning. I know font size altering seems to be a given on more and more computers, but I think audio is added more for learning styles rather than sight impairment. I was wondering if there are other considerations that people are focusing on as well.

Thank you for your comment it's extremely valid and something we must all remember - Age is not a disability, but perhaps aging can create some barriers.

Seeking ID Techiques to Use with an Aging Workforce

As instructional designers we need to consider the aging workforce population and the accessibility of the material we create.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 53 percent of the U.S. workforce will be 40 years old or older by 2010.[1] It is also predicted that this percentage will continue if not increase into the coming years. Necessity will force us consider the various accessibility needs that will arise from an aging workforce and how computer use might be affected by these disabilities.

One issue however is that the very definition of disability can be confusing and in-depth depending on the model of thought one chooses. The United Nations uses “The term persons with disabilities to apply to all persons with disabilities including those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various attitudinal and environmental barriers, hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”[2] As we become and more socially conscious society we also become more sensitive to these issues. Keeping this workforce population dynamic in mind, we as instructional designers will need to place our efforts to accommodate these needs.

Another thought that often comes out when speaking about the Boomers generation is that they are afraid to use the computer. If this is indeed a real fact can this fear be used as an accessibility issue? Could we as instructional designers instead focus in on the primary internet uses of users in this age category and use this as a means to entice others in the same range to be less fearful.

I'm curious to hear about any tips, tricks, techniques you may have when considering teaching/educating an aging workforce population. Have you run into "computer fear"? Have you found ways to over come this fear?

[1] U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Projected Labor Force Data: Civilian Labor Force, 2006-2016 [Data file].
Retrieved from ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ep/labor.force/clfa0616.txt

[2] United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Social Policy and Development (2008). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved June 22, 2008, from United Nations, EnableWeb site: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/faqs.htm

Make it Work! (LMS must go forward)

Well I really wish right now that I had Tim Gunn over my shoulder mentoring me and telling me his Project Runway catch phrase "Make it Work" over and over. At least then I might feel more keen about it all or at least laugh a bit more.

The LMS project that I have been working on since gosh knows when is now finally picking up speed. I am now at the forefront of the entire intranet/document management/LMS project. Having the other 2 systems up and running now for almost a month has put the LMS onto the top of the list.

Of course we are already having communication issues, but director and I are determined to stop this before it gets out of hand. I have been waiting for the company to call me and they were waiting for me to call them. Another issue is that they have one idea of where we want to start on the project (uploading all our online courses - which we have none yet) and we want to just start tracking employees and their education registrations. Clearly some discussion needs to be had so that we can get more in sync.

I'm not entirely keen on the system we have acquired and I've voiced my opinion about this very clearly. I did however, finally get a clear answer on Tuesday that this is what we have, this is all we are going to have (current budget constraints). If I can pull it off to get the system to function as I wish it would and more importantly that our users (educators and staff) can understand how to use the system then I'm going to look pretty good.

In other words I've been told "Make it Work".

Have you created life yet? Have you SPOREd?

I was excited to see Brent Schlenker share the link to the trial version of SPORE's Creature Creator. I saw SPORE demonstrated, I through one of the TED talks. Since then I have been anxiously waiting to give it a try. I'm intersted to also see what training/education/ and pure fun we colaboratively we come up with together playing this game and networking.

So now I have and I proudly introduce my first creature Phyl. He's just looking for a little love an affection.

Does there really need to be an App for everything?

Okay so I just posted a message about 1001 apps creatively arranged into a mosaic of the world. I just wonder sometimes....as I dive deeper into sites....do you really need a web app for every aspect of your life. Maybe? Maybe not?

I'm going to say that one I found that lets you count your alcohol consumption is a Maybe Not.

I'm sure it works lovely and does exactly as it predicts what it says accomplishes. However, I'm guessing that if you are someone who needs to count your consumption or wants you...after 2 or 3 your not going to want to anymore. Let alone want to go to the computer, sign in, pull up your screen, type in beer number 4 and wait excitedly until you get to put in number 5. Maybe it's just me, but this one seems a little far fetched.

Map of the World 2.0

This is a pretty interactive map of the logos from 1001 different companies offering web 2.0 applications. As you roll your mouse over the various logos they pop-up larger. You can then click these to be taken to the site of the application. There are so many to go through that you can go directly to the company that sponsors the map - AppAppeal. If you go into the main site then all of these "colourful" logos are categorized into the function they will provide for you. Every thing from games, to social-networking, to dating. It's certainly a tool we've seen before, but the delivery catches your eye and the interactivity gets you exploring.

Quick and Simple mLearning Tips (thanks BJ)

I was so happy to find this post by BJ Schone on starting small with mLearning. I used his tips and tricks and in 5 minutes created a quick tool that my management team could use for conducting 30 Day interviews with their staff. BJ has a great point, that your learning does not have to be 45 minute, interactive, "flash"y, and scenario based. Your mLearning can be quick guides, handy tools, brief instructions and other similar content.

What I did here (since I don't have access to throw up pages on the web) was create myself a new Google account. Gave it a "work-like" id. Then used Google Pages to post my content. The first page is a small home page with a link to the quick tool. The quick tool is another page that is purely content copied and pasted from a Word Document. It is literally 5 questions that we have our managers ask our staff after their first 30 days of employment.

That's it. How quick and simple is that. If you go on the web it looks simple but has a colourful background. If you look at it on your phone it is black text on white background. I'm sure with practice and skill I can get it to look nicer, but for 5 minutes of work, I'm satisfied with the results.

Thanks BJ for the great hints.

Manipulating my boss's photo with a free web app

Wow I haven't been here in a while. I just moved into a new house and that has been more time consuming then I ever imagined. The LMS project is still (and I now believe will always be) in the development/implement stage. So what's a girl to do to amuse herself? How about manipulating a few photos of your boss and her husband into something more interesting.

I actually had a real reason for doing this. My Director is retiring in a few weeks and we needed to put out a flyer for the party we will be having for her. Being that I am at work with limiting program options, I googled (still love that this is an adjective) "I need to put a head on a photo". I know silly thing to search for, but it pulled up a great program called FotoFlexer.

After a few tries (once because my computer crashed) I was able to manipulate the 3 photos together in a matter of minutes. I really liked that the option to cut out just a small section of the photo was under the tab option of GEEK. There are the basic photo editing features you would expect and some standard effect features (film grain, sepia, sketch). Under the Decorate tab there is glitter, text, boarders, cards, etc. There are also options to add a few animated items and remove blemishes. Then the geek feature is more of the manipulating, distorting, and cutting of pictures.

It also will work with photos off your computer or from some of your favourite photo sites ie: Flikr, Facebook, Picasa, MySpace. If you are looking for a fairly robust and simple tool to use, including tutorials as you work, then this is a great site to give a look to and try out.

Twitter and Second Life - 2 things I'm still figuring out

Just a quick note on some things I still haven't got the whole point of yet. Twitter - so I'm signed up and I'm following a few people. It took me some time to get connected to updates through my phone. I found out that it was a Canadian thing related to the number I post to for Twitter. Since then I've started getting little messages from this person and that person. Over the last few days several of the "Twitts" or is it "Tweets" have been pointing me to some interesting information. I think to myself this is actually kind of neat.

Today Brent Schlenker threw out a call for others to respond so he could demo it in a presentation. What a great way to collaboratively help someone in 160 characters or less. So I get these messages from my "eLearning Friends" but for my "Personal Friends" they stick to the tried and true Facebook and I mobile into that every day to see what everyone is up to. Both are like the one person you can always go to in the office because they know the gossip on everyone. I'm definitely going to give this a little more time before I turn it off from my phone.

The second thing I keep playing with is Second Life. It really can suck you in dramatically as you search around for the perfect shoes, pants, accessories, and most importantly just the right hair. It seems to me until you figure this part all out then there is little sense wandering around searching for anything else.

I am struggling to find some legitimate learning activities through SL. I was really hoping to sit in on a bunch of different topics, but this appears to be hard to find. Perhaps I am unassociated with the proper schools to participate. The only one I have sat in on was a discussion on NASA related topics, but it was above my knowledge. That and I found the guy with bat wings sitting behind be distracting.

I've tried to find some places where I have visited to see if they are true to life or close to real layouts. This too has proven unsuccessful. I guess this is part of the whole experience any way. It's not suppose to be real it's suppose to be a second life. I have been able to find a place that resembles Rome, another that looks similar to the Duomo in Florence, and Capri was laid out a little the same. If anyone has suggestions for more academic/learning type locations I would love to wander and explore.

Again with this, I haven't quite decided not to "play" anymore as I am having fun walking around in purple, pink, or blue hair and occasionally finding a place to dance. (I know sounds ridiculous).

How many social networks does one need?

Every other day it seems another social network has popped onto the scene that is suppose to be bigger, better, more connected than the last one. True enough many of the features of those coming out are indeed very intriguing. Sure I may try one out and think it's wonderful and far surpasses any that I have previously been using. But....then what?

So now I love this new tool. All my contacts are on the old one. Now I have to somehow convert my 200+ friends to drop the one they are on for the new one. Now I'm a "sales rep" for the new network. Some how I need to now convince all my friends that their old tool, that probably took them ages to get use too, is missing some great new features. Most of my friends aren't too technically inclined. They like using the tools, but haven't got time to be trying out everything to find the best one out there. On another hand, what might be a great set of features for me might be useless for my friend "Joe".

I do seem to find that my "Blogging Friends" tend to move around from tool to tool. There are the early adapters that find the tools, there's bunch of us that read about them on their blogs, then we try them out, start talking about them on our blogs, and then one of us inevitably presents on them at a conference. Finally, the rest of the e-learning community gets on board and someone then decides to write about another new tool they have found and we start all over again. My "Personal Friends" on the other hand...stick with the tools they know, that they have used for quite some time now, and are frankly quite happy with regardless of the silly videos, pictures, and chain messages that fly around.

I now have come to the realization that I am one of many that are trying everything out in the hopes that I can keep up with the latest trend regardless if it only lasts a day.

Well I haven't been here in a while. (LMS, Intranet, New House, Oh my)

So much is going on right now I haven't been around here in quite some time. Work has me so frazzled that my moment, today I think will have to be a bit of a rant.

The small team I've been working on has been madly trying to find all the bugs, kinks and errors that are ever present in our new intranet and document management system. Of course just as we think we've identified one problem and sent it to the vendor to fix, we find another. We're really close though and have married ourselves to going live June 3rd. Matt, Sandra and I have our fingers very tightly crossed and a bottle of vodka near by just in case of an emergency.

I've been going crazy trying to populate not only my department's pages for the intranet, but also all the material for the education section. One day the education section will be the LMS, but until I get that sorted out I've been forced to put every education event I could get my hands on in as an individual page. I sent out a mass email to the organization asking them to fill out a spread sheet with information on the courses/training they provide. I want the intranet to be a one-stop shop for finding all education opportunities the hospital offers. However, I guess the spread sheet (driven directly from fields in the LMS) was too complicated. Go Figure!

I then set a second mass email telling staff to send me the flyers they've already created for training events. What do you know....a better response. So my education catalogue slightly resembles something that a staff member may search through to find a training event. I think it will take them a great deal of time to search through, but at least it is a start.

As for the LMS. Where do I start!?! I've had a meeting with the company that they want to start planning exactly how we are going to roll out the product, populate it with data, etc. etc. That was suppose to be last week. The intranet, not yet being live, has set me back a bit again with even starting the project. My supervisor flip-flops each day in support of ditching the LMS and finding another (my preferred choice, but now feel every choice is doomed).

I've started yet another college course. Back to the beginning of a certificate. I'm hoping this school doesn't drop the certificate before I finish as did the last institution.

Finally, life has been wonderful in giving me a new house in 10 more sleeps. It's about 20 minutes from where I currently live, but it's one of those "if you live in this town, you don't want to move to that town, it's not nearly as good" situations. I've been jaded since a teenager and need to get rid of the bias of the new town. Funny how these thoughts get implanted into us when we are young.

I'm sure there's much more since the last time I wrote however, all of this has kept me from writing here as I should and from sleeping at night.

My First Second Life Education Experience

I've been experimenting more and more with Second Life and now have my character looking more and more like a real person and less like the initial choices offered to first time users. I'm hooked on this silly thing. I explore all over the place and just this weekend was riding and Orca Whale, Parachuting, and Surfing. Wow I'm so virtually exciting.

I've been searching around for something educational to do though and hadn't yet found anything that really piqued my interest or was like a virtual classroom/discussion. That was where I had set my sights to start. Well today I finally found something.

I'm currently sitting in with NASA leadership, astronauts, scientists, and engineers along with local business, technology and academic leaders and local, state and federal officials discuss the role of space exploration in advancing science, engineering, technology, education and the economy that benefits your community and the nation. Sounds pretty cool.

(If you can see me, I'm in the second row of chairs to the left of centre, behind the guy with the red shirt. I'm the one with blue hair.)

Well it turned out it wasn't a presentation or lecture, but was an open forum. I can't say I understood or could follow all the lines of thinking that we going on as the discussion continued in just text form. Each person who wanted to join in the discussion would just type freely and their thoughts would display in the "chat" area.

It was certainly a neat place to start off to see the some of the potentials of learning in this manner. It was certainly an extremely more interesting and attending keeping method of group discussion than many of the chart rooms and discussion boards I've had to participate in for online college classes.

I shall continue my quest to find a "conference" kind of learning event.

We're Sticking With the LMS....So What Now?

I know a few have been following my LMS journey regarding trying to get it up and running and functioning. Last week I put a call out looking for any help I could in figuring out exactly what pieces I need to look for in an LMS as I wasn't sure mine has what I need. (Thanks again to all who helped).

Well, after a meeting on Monday (which I lost much sleep over) we've decided to continue down the current LMS road. I was really hoping to go with another system, but working in an Ontario Hospital we are limited, as most would be, to a certain amount of funding. If we decide to choose a different product 1) we'd have to find the funds somewhere in the budget [good luck], 2) we'd have to start the whole RFP process all over again [must follow politics], 3) it would take months to accomplish.

So, the vendor came in on Monday and demonstrated version 4 of the LMS....nice I've only been able to see version 1. There are some nice tweaks to the system, however there some significant reporting options that still need to be implemented. I'm happy that they are willing to run with any suggestions I put forward.

I think I've come to a comfortable place (or a delusional place - depends on your perspective) where I'm ready to push forward and make it work one way or another. At the least we have a fairly robust system, considering it's price, that the vendor is willing to work with us to make even better. The system may or may not meet our needs after a few years, but at least we have something that we can utilize, get our staff comfortable with the idea of an LMS, and see how well it is adopted by all before we go to something more expensive. It may actually work out to be the perfect solution and we never have to go to something else. (Wow did I just look at the cup half full????? That's a first).

I Love My Blog Community

I just wanted to give a thanks out to everyone who contacted me an offered their help over the last day. I was fortunate enough to get responses from a few people I have "worked" with in the past. Even more so, I was greatly surprised to have so many new people contact me and offer their expertise.

I love my blog and all that it has given me over the past year. It's amazing how sharing a little knowledge with others builds such a great virtual community and support network among peers.

If you haven't yet begun your own blog, I really suggest you start giving it a try.

Thanks very much to B.J., Christy, Mike, Ena, John, Terry.

LMS Assistance Needed if You Can Spare Some Time

I have these 2 checklists that were given to me of certain aspects to look for in an LMS. There is a column for required, optional, not required. I'm pretty sure I can go through the list and figure out what I truly need and what I can live without, but as peers that have actually lived with and worked with LMS's I was hoping you could take a look through the lists and perhaps give me hand as to what you think should/could/doesn't need to be there in order for me to really have it function. This way I will know much more soundly if I am on track requesting the pieces I think I should have.

Our background is:

• 2500 staff - growing to 2600 probably in 2-3 years
• 10-15 different job types (nurses, admin, physiotherapists, pharmacists, cleaners, etc) - actually captured as 700 difffernt roles within the hospital
• 15 Nurse Educators (probably will manage the LMS for thier staff) - eventual SMEs80
• Mangers (doing the same for staff)
• 1 Admin (me)
• Primary focus is for tracking enrollment, certifications, recertifications, what they are taking classroom, online, external (colleges)
• Online courses will be a secondary phase and we may create internally, maybe outsource courses

If you have anytime to take a look at the checklists I would greatly appreciate the help as there is not really anyone here I can turn to for assistance. Ideally I need them back by the end of tomorrow (Wednesday, May 7th) - any time tomorrow though. I have a meeting with my manager on Thursday. But even before Monday, May 12th would be appreciated as well.

I'm truly sorry to ask as I'm sure everyone has a ton of work on your plates already...doesn't everyone. However, I greatly appreciate anything you can do for me. If you can help please contact me and I will forward the checklists to you.

Sharing web tools with colleagues

I'm doing another short presentation to a network group I belong whose members are primarily in training and development. This group, however, does not have a large knowledge base of many of the web 2.o tools that are out there or some of the ways in which they can be used within organizations for simple collaboration and sharing of ideas.

I'm going to reintroduce them to wikis and blogs and I have discussed these before with them. I am also going to show a few mind mapping tools, social booking marking, and a few survey tools.

I've tried using each of these in various ways, attempting to get my supervisor and other management team members more intrigued by the value that they can bring to the organization. For the most part they are receptive at first, but then do not continue to utilize the tools. Unfortunately this is huge, if not the largest means by which these tools succeed. Web 2.0 tools appear to work the best when people use them and expand the "knowledge" that is with in the tool. This can be files, photos, music, data, and more.

I'm going to show and example of a wiki being used to gather survey data prior to a management retreat. I just set up last week a wiki for sharing files for our retreats to the management team. These would include agendas, location maps, photos, evaluations, and any handouts for team retreats that we may not necessarily want the general staff to view. Finally, I'll be sharing the use of a wiki for collecting knowledge into a form similar to a database. I blogged earlier in the year about trying to find something similar to KBpublisher. Instead I used a wiki with a password (wik.is) to recreate the same database that the customer has set up on their website. I could add answers to group posted questions at any time and the advantage with the new knowledge database being a wiki was that all the users could continue to expand on the data that was stored.

I'm also going to show a blog being used as a newsletter. This is not a new concept for anyone in the blogging world, but may be for my audience. As well as just explaining how it is a great way to capture your own personal knowledge as you work through a project (ie: my LMS journey).

I'm going to show event planning using a mind mapping tool. One that I am fond of is mindomo.com. I'm not a fan of checklists but in creating a mind map of all the items that we needed for an event we hosted last month it didn't seem like such a challenge. My colleagues could also go in at any time and expand upon the items I had captures. I also created one of these late last year to capture new ideas for running our orientation sessions.

I'm going to touch on social book marking as I'm still new to all of it myself. I love being able to get my bookmarks from any computer in the world, but I am still learning more about sharing with others and collecting bookmarks from others. I'm really interested in getting our management team to use Diigo. Christy Tucker got me into using it and I really like the fact that you can create a group of users that can collect bookmarks together. I just need to get this project started at work.

Finally I am going to remind them of survey tools such as SurveyMonkey.com and Zoomerang.com. We use these quite frequently at work to gather data. Usually they are for facilitation evaluations, but occasionally the are used for more intense data collecting as well.

I'll be happy to share my slides on slideshare.net as soon as it is finished and presented this Friday. The slides are mostly just screen shots so that I don't have to rely on making sure I have a great internet connection at the presenting facility.

Where does the time go? Ever thought of tracking it?

I've convinced my Director that we need to dedicate some of my time to be more concentrated soley on the LMS implementation and development. Now that the big projects for the year have either happened or are well under way, my time now is a little more free for flexibility.

The question came up though, once we do decide how much time to dedicate, what do we take away to release some time. So I was asked, "What does my day consist of?" Ever try to answer a question like that when you have a job that would give most butterflies a nervous breakdown. My work day consists of 3 minutes on this task, 2 on this one, 10 on this one, 3 on this one....etc, etc, etc. I don't really remember ever in 8 years having a solid half day, let alone hour to work on something. It just never seems to be that way.

So today I found a simple online timer that I am using to track my tasks. I'm using Work Timer. It has the ability for me to create multiple projects and clock in and out for each of them. There is then an archive button that will record all the in's and out's for a day for the various projects. There is also a task's lists and Today's Projects functions as well. All items can have a cost per hour calculated for them as well.

Here's an example of a piece of my day:
Intranet maintenance -> 0:29:10
Helping with excel, -> 0:24:05
Misc Brenda help -> 0:14:09
Answering phone call -> 0:06:44
AV Trouble Shooting -> 0:02:19
Answering Emails -> 0:02:01
Misc. Walk Ins -> 0:01:16

It's a neat tool for a very nasty task - the dreaded time tracking.

Understanding Generational Differences

I attended a session today on understanding our own generational biases and in turn being able to better relate to working and integrating with other generations. Here are some of the notes I took today.

There are often 5-6 different generations working in any given environment. By the time many of us (30s-40s years old) retire there will be 7 generations.

You can never change your generation, but understanding yours can help you to communicate with the others.

Boomers came to be 9mths after WW2, some say a year after.
- changed health care
- maternity wards needed to be created
- then school systems were changed to cope with the number of children
- universities were created when they were ready to go to grad school
- jobs were created when they were ready to work
- RRSPs are being restructured for when they want to retire
* everything has always been there for them waiting so they expect the world to unfold for them

1 person turns 60 every 7 seconds

Trailing boomers came after wards (got mostly nothing)

Gen X & Y as big as Boomers group

Gen I or Z as big if not bigger than Boomers

2 largest issues always in politics - health care and education
now environmental is eclipsing as top issue because of Gen X, Nexus

185,000 Centenarians in the world - most women
by 2020 there will be 2.2 million - 1/3 will be men - W.H.O stats

Soviet Union has a stat holiday called Conception Day to improve fertility rates - but we are only 7 months out from this initiative

Some see 20 somethings as cocky and arrogant, this is often because they have been a generation that is over praised by parents

Each generation thinks it is the best and knows more than the previous. They also assume the next generation will want to be just like them.

Deloitte is marketing for Gen I's using the new "txt language", ie: Dbriefs U - new tax course at university - making it fun and exciting,
-even marketing to younger generations by having pre-college outreach programs to grades 6 and 7

Most US research is say that Boombers are staying in the work force longer to pay for incurred health care costs or expected costs.

Canada's average age to retire 58-63.

People who use their bodies constantly more like 55-58.

Women are retiring in huge numbers and earlier then men. Many women Boomers are married to men 3 years older. As the man retires at 63, the women is retiring at 60.

Women tend to work longer because it took longer to get their careers started. They also often took 10 years off for raising children and now need to earn back pension money.

30 years and under we need to take great care of because they are the ones to replace our Boomers.

40s are over worked, over looked, ignored, stretched thin and disgruntle.
They continue to work because they were taught "hard work gets you ahead, don't get ahead, work harder, still don't get ahead, work longer".

Generations can be grouped together by those things that bond them, parenting styles, historic moments, pop culture, mass media, and technological advances.

50s+ think younger generations have not respect, not on time, argue, talk back
30s- think they get no respect, bosses don't think they have a life outside of work, think you need to earn your title every day, you don't get respect just because you have a title

US Canada Age
Traditionalists Traditionalists 60s
Boomers Boomers 50s
Trailing Boomers 40s
X Nexus, X 30s
Y, Millennials Y, Millennials, Net, Velos 20s
Z I 10 - late teens
? Wee under 10

X's are adaptive to change and have had to be. They have grown up with 50% their families ending in divorce. They saw that no work was gender specific (laundry, lawn cutting). They lived through co-parenting. Were often the Latch-Key kids. One consistent was always friends. They spent lots of time communicating with their friends by phone because they were latch-key kids (come home, use key, get dinner ready, have no friends over, wait for parent to come home). They are often more comfortable communicating by phone or email (not face to face). We then tried to through them into work environments full of team work and they have grown up more being alone then in groups.

Boomers often came home and then were sent out to play until dark came. They learned to negotiate with one another, life isn't fair, we settle our own differences, more self-sufficient.

Y - some times refer ed to as "why" because people stereotype that they ask this.
Feel they are all unique, all individuals, fast, adaptive, smart.
Velos - they grew up in classes with many different ethnicity in them and often take the best word from many different languages to come up with the word that suits them best. This comes from Velocity.

Y, I, Wee are all working after school on skill development. After school programs (music, sports, etc), then dinner, then internet. We have told them to "use their words", "tell us how you feel", "don't hit". Can you imagine a Gen Y asking a Traditionalist CEO how they feel?

To understand the generations we need to understand:
-demographics (not the same N. America, S. America, to Europe)
-social, political (abundance vs scarcity)
-social and historical perspectives
-human development

(where you fit in a family of 5 siblings may determine where in a generation you feel you fall)

To understand adults we need to examine their childhoods, specifically at age 10 when our minds our at their pique.
-shared significant experiences
-parenting styles
-key messages
-cultural norms and behaviours
-trends and fads
-social values, structures
-roles, responsibilities

At 10 we:
-create filing systems for our thoughts and memories
-what you want to be develops
-more independent (wash, feed, dress your self, can have full conversations)

-important state for them to combing observations with abstract thoughts

Generation X will quit when not being treated fairly.
Generation Y will quite when friends, family, clients, vendors are not treated fairly. Often work in groups and if one quits they all will.

Phrases to Sum up:
in the.....
50s - save now, pay cash
60s - buy now, pay later
70s - spend cautiously, save for retirement
80s - buy now, pay much later, recycle, reduce, reuse
90s - spend fast, spend lots
2000s - first to see stress management introduced in schools (kindergarten deep breathing exercises), info overload, global knowledge, "war against everything" - don't' think this will have big impact though, will be more tolerant of difference (culturally)

Gen I - won't trust big companies, only buy local, eat local (ie: because of toxins in foreign goods, toys, etc.) Will be large germaphobes.

notes taken during a presentation by worklifeharmony.ca

Pangea Day is 14 Days Away

I'm really excited about Panega Day which is happening on May 10th. If you haven't heard of it yet...

"Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast
– in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person's eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.

The program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part."

Just as an update the Event Guide is now located here. I also received a link today to get a free t-shirt (+shipping) from this site. Tickets for various live events Rwanda, Brazil, India, Egypt, LA) can be found by clicking each of the links.

I signed up to host an event, however, unfortunately I don't believe I'm going to be able to pull it off. My brother is having his 30th birthday the same day. He has cerebral palsy and would not understand if I did not come to his birthday party because a world event that I also don't want to miss. However, because it means the world to him; it means the world to me. He's also been counting down the days to his birthday since December 26th - he was a little pre-occupied up until the 25th and I bet you can guess why.

At the least if I still can not find a way to attend both, I will wear my shirt proudly (I hope I get it in time) and I will advertise out to my organization to watch it on their internet, tvs, mobiles. Where ever and how ever they can. I really hope you will too.

Have you searched Simple Spark today?

I'm not sure how often you may have looked through this catalogue of web applications, but I think that about once a month I'm looking for something new for one project or another. Simple Spark has updated their look and features in what appears to be a great new format.

They offer over 8500 different applications that are themed by Date, Category, Subcategory, Devices and Icons. A neat feature I think is the ability to organize your favourite apps into groups as well. I've found a few I've like and then struggled to find them again (if I didn't' think to blog them). Drop by and look at some of the other new updates they have added.

Second Try at Second Life

So I was convinced by my friend Angela and by a presentation that I went to by Alan Levine ("I'm busy enough...What do I need Second Life for?") that I should maybe give this Second Life thing a second chance.

I found it hysterical that Angela and Alan had both said that they love to dance in SL. Alan describe that just creating your avatar can take hours to prefect if you really want to test it all out. Creating an object like a coffee cup can apparently take just as long. A good real life reference to this is that I couldn't just go into my kitchen and make a mug. It would take me hours as well to get the clay and mold it and fire it, glaze it, etc., etc. So why would we expect it to take minutes in SL.

One of the issues I had mentioned to Angela and in a previous post was my propensity to get motion sick when game screen spin around a lot. After the presentation and the fun notion of dancing when no one is looking or when I don't have that half-a-drink too many in me, made it all sound a little more intriguing. So I've given it another try and I hope to Angela's much happiness I capture myself dancing. I have no idea where I (Sessifet Fittinger) am, but I figured out how to do it.



I'm not completely happy yet with my appearance, but it's getting there, and no it's not the pink hair I'm unhappy about. It's the silly flip-flops.

I am hoping to walk around more and explore some of the more intriguing learning aspects that Second Life has to offer. However, for my first trip of Orientation Island I'm happy to wander and dance.

One year later and I'm at 275 posts...oh this makes it 276

I was really hoping that by the end of the AG08 I would be at 275 posts and this I achieved. I started blogging when I returned from last year's conference (my first) and since then I've tried to keep most of my posts about elearning. Occasionally I throw in some items that are just interesting to me that I've read about or learned.

I tried to make a "cloud" for what I've posted about over the last year, but the various ones I tried were really messy. So, tip for me to learn from and try for in the next year - be more concise in my tagging. I'm at the airport, passing time, and my battery is about to die so I'll leave this as my last post of year 1.

AGO8 - Wrap UP (Wow Moments, and more)

My Moments
- edit videos into chunks, make interactive with questions (for classroom, but like an elearning course)
- check out udutu, BJs LMS , PLEs, VLEs
- get over SL motion sickness, learn to dance, learn to fly with jet pack
- use QR codes some where at work and see if anyone know what they are

BJ's Moments
-Mlearning
-courses - not everything has to be a course
-scorm is heavy for everyone

Luis Moments
-many still not moving into elearning
-social networking concepts still hard

Angela's Moments
-Education sites in SL
-moving more into elearning

Learner Creation of Content - give points to learners to create more content that they can then use towards other things

Heidi tip
come in one day early to read an article, email a colleague, share some info with someone

2009 Elearing Gathering - back in Orlando March 10

Things I've Learned in My Life So Far - Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan's involvement - design for music, socially responsible design, corporate design, authors

Design for music:
Casa da Musica (sp?) - building is a logo itself, looking at it from various angles. Using software to capture the colour from any image they use these colours plotted on to one of the "various angle shots" and use these as logos for the music, the corp, the president, etc. From Chopin concerts to clubing events to parking garage designs.

Socially responsible design
A group wanting to cut defence budget to education budget. Group is run by corporate presidents.
-inflatable bar charts
-commercial TrueMajortiy.org - pen is mightier than the sword
- cars looking like piggy banks - largest one is the military budget, smallest trailer being towed is education, cost the same as one page add in paper
-"topsy-turvy" bus, similar to the budget
-blimp shopping - still in the works

Corporate design
-heated molded cover that allowed them to show the "power of light" - shot under various lighting conditions


Things I've learned so far.....
- a different quality to ideas that you explore with no pressure
- this must apply to many different roles where creativity exists and needs to exist
(9-3 is client work - the rest is experimental work [ie: google])

- realization that all that a design studio does is about promoting and developing, but that ratio is not right

- clients were willing to allow them to "just be creative", some sense of unlimited freedom. Given the task to design anything for a 6 page spread in magazine.

Designers can just solve a problem from more subjective views, but more and more is becoming boring.

Keeping a diary since he was 12, all of these statements he scribed and took out of it. Then used many of these to create powerful images, billboards, and videos that various places/industries have acquired that match the statements they need to express.

He shared these statements and accompanying images with us:

"Everything I do comes back to me" - other designers tool this and redesigned it as well for other functions.

- second task was a billboard that they could do anything with
"Trying to look good limits my life."

"Everybody thinks they are right." - magazine cover (dueling men peeing into the air to write these words....yes you read that right"

Bali - after the bombing in the night club where 200 people lost their lives, was more than that because most people lost their jobs as well because the tourism was completely stopped and gone. Their response was no retaliation, however all responsible for the act have been arrested.

"Helping other people helps me"

"Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted."

"Complaining is silly. Either act or forget." - as billboard faded and there was nothing left, No more complaining.

"Worrying solves nothing"

"Everybody who is honest is interesting."

"Keeping a diary supports personal development"

"If I want to explore a new direction professionally it is helpful to try it out for myself first." - a year of discovery without clients

"Assuming is stifling"

"Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses"

"Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid I have to live now"

"Starting a charity is surprisingly easy"

"Being not truthful works against me" - spider web

"Low expectations are a good strategy" - Miami beach

"Money does not make me happy" - wrapped a casino linz with this,

"Self confidence produces fine results"

Website - Things I've Learned in my Life .com

"Having guts always works out for me." - I always have to talk my self into having the never to do stuff.

My Favourite Part of the AG08

Okay...go on....guess....

For a bunch of people immersed in doing everything and all online, digitally, and virtually the one thing I kept hearing over and over (and reading on blogs) was how great it was to meet face-to-face. This too was my favourite part of the whole experience.

The conference generates a billion ideas. Some to implement right away. Some that will take a while. Some that will never see the light of day. A few that will remain dreams for many of us to attain. It's amazing to wonder what the collective genius of the 700 (or so) participants will dream up and create within the next year.

However, as I said above, there is still something unique and special about connect with people one-on-one. It's different then reading their thoughts on blogs. I also find it solidifies and brings greater trust and meaning into the words you read from their posts.

I met a few new people this year, but more so connected with people I have been reading, following, and e-connecting. Some great people I suggest you too tap into for knowledge, guidance, and wisdom are B.J. Shone (eLearning Weekly), Gary Hegenbart (eLearning Development News), Angela White (A Nice Cup of Lizard), Melissa Chiaramonti (elearningguild-ru), and as always Brent Schlenker (Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development). As I said before, with 700 participants here I'd love to list them all, but these are these people I interacted with the most.

Brent's last presentation today started off interesting in that he "knew" everyone in the room (mostly virtually). He joked that he didn't need to do the presentation because we all already new about his topic. Funny thing is for as much as we all know; we continue to learn from one another even on topics in which we are quite skilled. This is the beauty of these conferences and the virtual networking that we do outside of the conference. We feed each other's knowledge continuously and thereby grow and develop our collective genius. How fun is that?!?

I'm here until the end of the conference, but wanted to take this time to thank all the people (Bob Wood, Sandra Sousa, Richard Wilkinson, and the other Bob [sorry I missed your card during the exchange]) that took the time to teach me more this year. It's been another invaluable experience. Hope to see you all again online and in the future at more conferences.

Scanning the Globe, Connecting your Digital World to the World Around You - Brent Schlenker

Using QR Codes, semacode, shotcode, colorcode

Will take off in North America more so once we have more apps & phones using them - but still waiting to learn applications for elearning. This is new, up & coming. There are many different types of codes and not one yet is the fore runner to what will come forward as the best or most useful one.

These codes are quite prevalent in Japan.

QR - Quick Respone Codes
cellphone uses the camera that is has built in. Any size. Centre within screen. The QR code may take you to a web site, send you a text message, many different things.

The QRcode holds much more information because it is 2D

Here is a QR code for my site:

Here is a data code (Nokia) for my site:

Scanlife - is a free download application or Kawya.

Something else in the cluster of tools that we can begin to utilize more and more often for elearning or for further information. (wine labels, food wrappers - contests, nutritional information)

Qrcode.org - standards on how to create, original intent was for shipping and handling in that they can be partially destroyed (on labels for example) yet the data will still come through as opposed to bar codes.

Also called 2d codes, QRcodes are one example of these standards.

Brent's 2d Barcode Manifesto

2d barcodes potential limited only by imagination
mobile devices will define the game
readers integrated into the device
free barcode generators
avoiding fragmentation: emergence of global de-fracto standards
avoiding patent wars
avoiding the "tragedy of anticommons" (too many out there becomes too much of a good thing)
Data Matrix & QR Code emerge as standars (so far..)
unleashing user-driven innovation
enabling 3rd party innovation

Sometimes you should be able to hold up a code to your webcam and scan the code as well.

Wanting eLearning to be more on the fore front of many of these technologies and this could possibly be one of these tools that we need to explore and start learning and developing.

These can greatly lower the barriers to gathering more information - (having to type urls on phones, small buttons, double pressing, everyone all ready has a phone - no need to buy more equipment)

Second Life - Alan Levine

hetemeel.com - Einstein image with any text on chalk board behind him

Presentation will be in slideshare


Virtual worlds - been around for a while, graphics better, virtual worlds are international, video better, computer better, critical mass of people now doing it more and more, more games, more collaboration

Habbo Hotel - Had 7.5 million active users in 2000, Second Life 500,000 in 2003

Many more now in based on tons of children products.

Federation of American Scientists are trying to learn, track, list features of these various virtual wolds

Gartner Groups - says by 2011 80 percent of active internet users will have a Second Life

Levine's Law
START WITH THE &*#& DEMO

Demo:
his org. built on a 64x64 land, a virtual class room. Query in SL do we build real life items or fantasy. Hold a class on a cloud.

You can walk around for hours in SL and not actual run into anyone.

People spend much time and money setting up their avatars. Important though in that it identifies you and what you like.

250 Lindens = 1 real dollar

Use your Lindens to buy real things. Creates a virtual economy as well. Those that can build well can sell their items.

3d shapes are primitive shapes. Apply graphics to these to make them look like other items. All building tools are within the world. Their are free class to learn how to build and scripts that you can apply to them so they become interactive when you interact with them.

10% of people tend to represent them selves as a different gender. Lots of non-human avatars are created. Appreciate it more by getting in, trying, and learning.

"Get a First Life" - parody on this

FoDS - Field of Dream Syndrome - building something nice doesn't' necessarily mean people will access it. It is more then just creating. You can have rich interactions/learning/social interactions without owning any land/items.

Where do people have the time to interact/do this?
Henry Jenkins - South By SouthWest Conference 2008
- what's wrong with America? Bright articulate people are going in creating this content. What can we do to harness the creative & talent energy that these people have. As we grow into greater knowledge collectives we need to grow and adapt to these more. You don't get a user's manual in SL, you need to go in learn on your own, get feedback from a community. They don't get this opportunity at work, but use work so that they can afford to be creative outside in their private lives.

The Skeptics
The Gamer - the graphics suck (okay, but not like new PS3 kind of games), there's nothing to do (no goals, no tasks, the things that happen in SL are because of what you find around to do)
The Fearful - there are strange things that happen in there, you need a good computer, a good internet connection, you need to learn how to walk, talk, dress. It took you 18 years to really become a person in real life, but want it to happen in 18 seconds online
The Boss - How do I make money? - not the place for every type of training, but maybe for simulations and virtual collaboration.
The Traditionalist - I can do that in a chat room? - need to find out more what their interests are

http://www.nmc.org/horizon - looking at 1-2 year horizon, 3-4 years, 5 an beyond (2006 report) Launched and exploration into SL. http://sl.nmc.org/2006/06/12/seriously-engaging-movie

http://sl.mmc.org/2006/07/04/third-time-charm (NASA - lift over, people in room you are now sharing the experience with, remembering old launches, learning from one another, being in a social environment with other people that share a similar interest)

NMC Campus Observer
- have hosted 4 conferences in the virtual world.

You can hire people to go out to design your islands/areas for your space that you wish to design. NMC Virtual Worlds creates these for others. Professional networks can go through this.

"Second Life for Dummies"

Behind every avatar is a real person. During a survey of educators - there is a real feel of embarrassment. People have real reactions to cartoon images of themselves.

couple thousand to invest in you own island. Some places will rent out their space to you.

It is a cartoon world, but in the same sense we react to what we seen within the SL in a very real way (ie: fear snakes).

There is a voice client within SL with no lag time or delay.

Landmarks act as book marks.

Do you need to go to specific places at specific times to get to educational opportunities out of it?
-currently yes, but is is growing and becoming more and more diverse each month.

Many activities are scheduled and are rescheduled to explore. It is all still relatively "Brand New".

Virtual Hallucinations - designed to give you the sense of what it is like to have a mental illness

How do you find out what events are happening and occuring? - Second Life.com has an events calendar.
in the eduation realm - secondlife educator listserv

ie: Daden.co.uk (shows real planes coming into LAX) NOAA
interactive weather maps
second earth - explore earth
Rumsey map collection

You can set up you islands to limit you can come in to your island. You can not really set them up to leave your islands.

Note - I still got motion sick watching the presentation (the spinning of the screen gets to me).