Teaching English Through Video - The Children of SEAM

I wrote previously about my friend who volunteered 8 weeks of her summer in 2007 and 2008 in India. During her time there she was assisting at an orphanage. The first time some of her time went to teaching English to the children and women. The second summer she continued that task, but also assisted in the building of the foundation for a sleeping complex for the children.

She just shared this video with me where another recent volunteers "taught the kids at SEAM orphanage how to make a movie. He gave them 3 cameras and they did this film. She is so proud of the film and they even edited in a short clip of her from summertime, which was a complete surprise! She worked on the construction at this orphanage 9am to 1pm then taught English to 4 adult women in afternoon. At 5:30pm she would go back to the orphanage for the evening. There are 38 kids here in the orphanage. Giving them access to what we see as such a simple tool in our culture has been an incredible way to help teach the children English, but even more importantly it has allowed them to share their story with the rest of the world.

Tweets Back on for Bell Subscribers

I'm excited to learn that Bell has worked out a plan with Twitter to re-continue SMS feeds/sends to subscribers. This may be a bit to my family's dismay as they were getting a little annoyed by the constant beeps of my phone, but was starting to feel cut off. (Chronic...perhaps).

It's interesting to see a Canadian company actually be one of the first to "jump back on". It didn't surprise me that our carriers stopped the feeds early last year. It did take us well over a year to get iPhone's available to the masses. However, to find a way to get back into the action is exciting.

To read more take a look at Twitter's update here.

Still Don't Know What Twitter Is or What You Can Do With It?

If you haven't yet discovered Twitter and what it can do for you as a blogger, student, politician, entrepreneur, or anything else then take a few minutes to look at this video.

Here is quick 8 minute video of Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, at this year's TED talk. It's a great way to see how Twitter came to be, how users changed the way it works, how users are using it to their benefit, and how other "gadgets" are finding ways to tweet you.

Communication with your provider is the key

I called a meeting with our LMS provider on Friday. It felt as if we had come to a stand still again with the entire project. Some of that was on our part some on the part of the vendor.

Year end is never great time in any organization for true productivity. Top that off with our organization going through the Accreditation process. "Participating in accreditation demonstrates an organizations commitment to quality health care to its staff, patients, clients, and community. In the pursuit of excellence, thousands of health organizations voluntarily participate in Accreditation Canada's accreditation program each year." Getting down to serious LMS work really didn't fall high on my list of priority to-dos.

Once I had finished the majority of my accreditation tasks I got back into the fine details of the LMS. For a week (at least when I could) I looked at as many components of the system as I could. Looking for items I wanted changed, items I needed change, and components that just weren't functioning. Compiling a long list of these into a table, I sent them off to the vendor, our project lead, and our purchasing contract negotiator.

Our negotiator called a meeting with the vendor and to my surprise (and I use that loosely) I began to get a few more emails. Responded to my email queries were more timely. What had happened? We called. That's it.

Wrapping this little episode up....what I want to highlight again is the truly important need of communication from you to the vendor and from the vendor back to you. Both need to know where the other is in the the implementation process. I was being side tracked by other priorities, they were as well, but in doing so they have created some upgrades that I didn't know about and would have solved many sleepless nights and countless meetings I was having with my users. More regular discussions and open communication could bring your project to a conclusion much more quickly, with less complications and head aches.

Guild Looking for Tips for Getting Started With eLearning

Oh how great will this installment be from the eLearning Guild. They are currently compliling a list of the best tips for getting started with elearning. I know we all have some, so please share your thoughts. This will be invaluable to those newly entering this "world" and I have found that the rest of us can always benefit from tips we didn't think of before approaching our next project.

"Most eLearning Guild members work in organizations that have been engaged in e-Learning for some time. In some cases for many years. But there are many organizations out there that are just getting started with e-Learning. Let’s help those organizations get started – and avoid the pit-falls and costly mistakes we made – by giving them our top tips for getting started with e-Learning. To submit your tips, click HERE. " - The eLearning Guild: eLearning Insider

Why is it they only want to teach how to write an outline?

I'm taking yet another course in online design and delivery. I think I'm a glutton for punishment, but the trouble is I have yet to find a great course that really satisfies my craving for learning or meets my needs.

I did take a certificate with Bill and Kit Horton through Training Live and Online and I will say it was really good. I walked away with a ton of great tips, tricks and resources that I could use right then and there.

However, each of the university and college courses I've participated in spend so much time on creating an outline and objectives and blah, blah, blah that there is very little practical learnings that can be taken away an applied.

If you are like me you probably have little time to be wasting learning how to write an outline for the 10th time. You want solid tools, examples, and tips you can use to really create some fantastic learning experiences. I'm curious if others have experienced this and if not who do you truly recommend for solid learning and getting exactly what you needed?

Listing the Steps of the LMS is Difficult

I'm working on my performance plan of the last year and I'm finding it surprising that the area that has occupied the most of my work life, the LMS implementation, is proving to be the most difficult to map out.

I'm having little difficulty in listing all the steps for issuing our core training packages. I very quickly mapped out the process I followed to host our annual spring gathering for all staff. I even was able to list a few other major projects, but the LMS.....wow that is much more difficult.

Now I must find out why that is proving so hard. My best guess is that is has been a real trial and error from day one. There has been gains and set backs since the beginning and set backs seem to last so long that you forget where you last left off. I'm at that point currently. I last had a meeting with one of my end users in November. Once we met again last week we had a difficult time in trying to remember what we had first discussed and agreed upon. Basically we had to start over. Relook at the issues we "thought" we had previously, were they still the same, and did we have new ideas which with to rectify.

Now that I'm being forced (almost against my will) to list out the steps I'v currently followed and those that I plan to follow I'm having some trouble working through them. For the most part I believe it is avoidance, but I would suggest at this point to others to document your steps as you meet/pass them. I have an email trail, but if I could do things differently this would be one item I would have done much more in depth from the start.

Proving My Worth & Explaining Why I Need Less Interuptions

It's been almost 3 weeks since I returned from my vacation and the 3 solid days of LMS work I had scheduled for myself still has not occurred. It's amazing how many "this is number one" priorities come up in a single day. I came back to having to create org. charts, produce yet another paper version of curriculum, general document creation, meetings, budget concerns, binder stuffing, a/v equipment malfunctions, coordinating of orientation, and it goes on and on and on.

I am finally (I think) at almost a point where I can get back to "the number one priority" (for the moment) of going through the LMS step-by-step looking for bugs, issues, and general strangeness. However, there is another priority that I believe for a change may actually be something I should concentrate on first and stop looking at as an annoyance; My Performance Development Plan. Makes me shiver just to say the words.

I've never had to do one before...ever. However, my department is responsible for creating the document and is requiring the entire management team have them completed. So, as a FINE EXAMPLE, our department has been "strongly recommended" to complete ours as well. I am not a list person by any sense of the imagination and having to list out my priorities and objectives for the year is very painful. Listing further all the implementation steps is driving me to pull my hair out and my eyes to cross.

However.....

I now realize that my supervisors seem to have little understanding in how much is needed to be done to get the LMS working and continue to have it function. I've been working on it in bits and pieces now for such a long time that it seems to be one of those things that will never get done and therefore is moving lower on their priority list. This isn't true of others in the organization that are asking me where it stands and will it be ready soon. Yes and no....depending on if I get to actually concentrate more then 10 minutes at a time on the tasks needed for it to succeed.

I'm beginning to understand myself that I need to make my Performance Plan my first priority. This is not only because I have a meeting about it next week, but also because it will allow me to show clearly everything that I have done up until this point. More importantly it will help me to demonstrate all the tasks that will be needed to get the system functioning. I'm expecting that once they see how much is truly involved they will perhaps back off the "this is number one priority now" mentality and maybe even help me to protect my time from others in the organization as well.

I'll certainly post the results of my plan and meeting after they occur next week and hope that they are greatly positive.

Posting from my cell phone text message.
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This is a test post from my email

Just testing out posting directly from my email.

Looking Back at My Own Blog

I was trying desperately today to remember something I had posted a long time ago about grading your website. That turned out to be Website Grader, surprise, surprise. What really surprised me was some of the things I have posted about and completely forgot I had written down.

Searching somewhat randomly to what I could only remember as "grade", I came upon so many different topics that I've covered over the last two years. My task or challenge for you today is to take a look back as well at some of your earlier posts. Take a trip down your own memory lane and visit your own consciousness for a while. I'm positive you'll enjoy the journey and surprise yourself with your own writings.

How Old is Too Old to be Relevant?

This is going to be a short post, but I just wanted to comment on my astonishment at how much info is out on the web about blogging. Most of it is posted on blogs...go figure. I've search "components of blogs", "how to start a blog", "blog tools", "how many blogs exist" and that's just a starting point. It's overwhelming and difficult to grasp was parts are really relevant.

Something that struck me though is how relevant and up-to-date with current trends can some of these posts be when many are a few years old. How old is now too old when it comes being relevant? I know the lady that works in the resource library in our facility does not keep any journals on the shelf that are more than a year old.

I can barely keep up with the constants streaming of information I receive daily through Twitter and these are just the select few people I have decided to follow. What about the thousands of others out there that are posting, tweeting, sharing their information, thoughts and ideas.

Is there a point in time that you don't reference back past? Do you give yourself a limit as to what you pay attention too? Is there a standard that we all should be following and if so does that mean the past is irrelevant? (I dare not ask that question).

Is the simple to you, complex to your students?

I'm taking yet another online course in designing online courses. So far I'm not learning anything, I'm just going through the motions.

What struck me tonight though, is this about the 10th course I've taken using the Blackboard system. So you can imagine my familiarity with it. Last semester I actually got to create and teach a short course through it to my fellow students. Again, you can see it's not my first time using the platform. YOU'D THINK THOUGH..... the way I have had to ask for clarification again and again about submitting assignments that I'm completely NEW. I can't figure it out to save my life....and maybe my grade.

So that brings me to thinking about designing and clarifying those instructions you present to your students/learners/users. Make them as clear and fool proof as possible. Yes I realize I'm labelling myself the fool here because I'm just not following the teacher in my own course. Just because you have hit the the "submit" button on the screen 1 billion times, do not assume your students/learners/users can figure out where the submit button even is, let alone know how to hit it.

Do they say hit or click? Do you need to be specific and say click twice? Do you need to say it is blue? Do you need to show a small picture of it? I'm not saying I'm that lost right now, but there could very well be learners right now in one of your classes lost wondering what to do next.

My computer science teacher in grade ten always had us write our programs as dummy proof as possible. If we put a yes/no question on the screen he would inevitably type - maybe. If we asked him to type in his name he would type - why do you ask? We had to make sure that regardless of the answer typed in, the program would redirected unexpected answers into a loop of "feedback" or gentle nudging for a proper response (or acceptable yes/no).

Just a little something to keep in mind as I struggle through tonight's lesson in my own school work. On the other hand maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment and should find something else to do with my time.

Cheers.

I Can't Believe I Have to Use Paper Again

This year my Core Curriculum learning packages are going to finally be online. Fully accessible by all staff. Automatically marked by the LMS. Easy to determine completion rates. Simple to distribute to every department.


AND THEN I WOKE UP!!!

I can't believe I'm being forced against my will to set up and print out 500 learning packages. 2700 tests with student names/numbers already entered. The very worse part of the entire process is the marking and recording of completion of 2700 test.

Now can you understand why I desperately want to get my learning system up and running.

Looking at Blogs to Share About Blogs (which do you use?)

I'm currently preparing for a presentation on learning how to blog and learning from other's blogs and so that is exactly what I'm doing. I'm surfing around looking at blogs that I've only been reading in the past to dive a little deeper into some of the tools/widgets that seem most common. Looking to see if there is a standard length of a post....doesn't appear so. Looking at the use of colour and fonts. Has the blogger modified the standard template to their own or are they content with the format offered?

Another big thing I'm trying out is to see how different Blogger is from WordPress. To me they seem quite similar in what they offer. Each has it's merits though and I can see quite easily why someone might choose one over the other. Blogger seems a little more streamline to me and I haven't yet been dissatisfied with it as a tool. However, I can see how someone that prefers more of a standard webpage feel might like WordPress with its tabs and embedded pages.

I'm curious to know, if anyone would like to share, why they may have changed from one tool to another. If so where you happy with the change? Did you stick with the change or go back? I'm very curious about this last question as I have tried setting up a mirror blog on WordPress and it's okay, but I think I'm going to stick to my Blogger version.

Back to the grind stone, almost!

Well my first day back from vacation did not disappoint. I tried extremely hard while away to never think of work; I think I succeeded about 98% of the trip. I had planned to come back and even had blocked off 3 solid days to just click through every single screen of my LMS.

I'm now at the MAKE IT HAPPEN OR ELSE stage of the implementation project. Now realizing I have little choice (economically) for any change to a new system and now need to focus in on every detailed aspect of the system from both a user perspective and an administrative perspective. My goal is to create a list of everything I want to change and prioritize the changes needed with respect to being able to launch the LMS. Is the change a must have, nice to have, can make do with out if necessary? This list of changes will then be presented to the vendor along with my posse (the initial project lead, representative from purchasing - we're still in RPF, and perhaps my director) for discussion on whether any of the requests are possible.

At first I was getting responses from my vendor rep. "yes we can look into that", then it turned to "I'll see what the IT guy suggests", to finally "no". I didn't like the no's and so the new strategy of a list and meeting with the CEO of the company will be our next step. I believe most of my ideas won't require too much change, but I know this is the way every end user thinks.

So my first day back, as I said, was to be the launch of the great little new plan. Of course the "work gods" had different ideas for me and of course our Organization Chart needed to be produced instead. I'm not sure why suddenly so many people want this particular document. I'm also not sure why I'm the one creating it....oh yes, let's thank my former boss for that one (she's lucky I like her so much or I would track her down). One full day of work was all it took me to produce half of the chart. Yes one full day = half an org. chart. I'm hoping a have system down now and the second half will come more quickly so that I can move forward with my LMS must haves.

Great to be back.

Vacation time and I'm still drawn to looking at this screen

I'm happily on vacation. Loving the warm air. Falling head over heels in the waves. Seen puffer fish, 2 eels, a sea snake, urchins, coral, tons of fish, pelicans feeding, an iguana, seagulls (why are they everywhere!?!), I think I might have had a minor sting by a jelly-fish, 3 sting rays, and far too many people wearing bikinis that shouldn't and speedos (no one should wear these).

We upgraded to a fancier room. Love the king bed and the view is spectacularñ oh the plasma tv´s not bad either. Learning many phrases via HBO and subtitling. The upgrade came with unlimited internet. Which brings me here.....Hubby's checking the Leafs' score to see if they are losing (not yet!?! - how are we going to get better picks - don't they get it). Spent the afternoon on Saturday reading play-by-plays of the latest UFC results. But also, try as I might, I've been trying very hard not to think of work and of elearning, or blogging, or anything electronic, but I admit it.....Hello, My Name is Tracy and I'm Addicted to the Computer.

So there we go....a brief check in....no I haven't completely broken my resolution of blogging, it's just really hard to pay attention to it while on vacation. I hope I'll be excused. Just when I figure out this crazy mexican key board I'll be ready to leave.

Cheers everyone!!!!

Potential Questions to Ask When Having an LMS Demo'd

I've been having other LMS vendors contact me wanting me to see demonstrations of their systems several times over the last year. A situation arose recently that made my department seriously question the system we had in place and should we switch to another vendor. I made arrangements to visit a colleague at another hospital to see their system first hand from a user's perspective rather than the sales pitch that provided by vendor demos.

I can not begin to tell you how invaluable this visit turned out to be for my learning. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I actually had some features that she didn't have offered on her system. I was able to ask what the best features were from her perspective and which ones she never bothered to use. This was such a great comparison and was quite relevant as we both work in health care, I with 2700 employees, her with 10,000 employees and 4 sites.

I thought I'd share some of the questions I took with me on my visit as they might come in handy for you should you be on the LMS shopping journey. I highly recommend seeking out someone else in a similar industry to you and seeing first hand how the user is using the product. If you can do it with out the vendor's assistance I believe you'll get an even greater unbiased opinion from the user. The questions are in a particular order and some may seem like they have obvious answers, but I've learned that you can't be so sure of what is exactly included in a system.

1. How does the system import user ID information? (Active Directory, or what every system your HR team uses)


2. How responsive is the vendor to your inquiries, troubleshooting, etc.


3. Can users access the system from home? (Is this important to your organization? - probably)


4. Is there a yearly licence or a one time fee, per user or for the whole system?


5. How often are upgrades issued? Are they part of the fee?


6. How long did the user take to pilot the system? How did they run their pilot?


7. Does the system track external credits?


8. What kind of comments have you heard from learners using the system?


9. How intuitive is the system for learners and users(admin)?


10. Does the system allow for email notification to learners?


11. How many years has the person being using the system? How much longer do they plan to continue using the system?


12. Does it integrate with Outlook or what ever mail/calendar system you use?


13. Can you display course thumbnails or other images?


14. Can course due dates be assigned or does a learner have to manually adjust?


15. Is there space for News, Updates, Info text to be displayed on homepage of system?


16. Is it searchable? How so? Might you need to purchase a mini-search engine?


17. Can you administer practical, hands-on tests/assignments to users?


18. Are evaluations attached or part of courses?


19. Does it have discussion boards, wikis, etc? Are these important to your org.?


20. What kind of reporting does it allow? Can it be exported? In what kind of formats? Is it customizable - can you report on anything/everything?


21. Is it SCORM compliant? What version?


22. How robust is the support documentation for the user? For the learners?


23. Can you set up course/info that online one particular set of learners can access?

I'm sure there are a million other questions that could be asked, but I hope these at least arm you with the option to seek out greater knowledge of a system before you commit to purchasing. Please feel free to respond with additional questions someone buying a system might want to have answered.

Does it have to be timely to be relevant?

I saw a very interesting online conference come across my email the other day. It's for "Stepping into Virtual Worlds" which happens January 30th, completely virtually through Second Life. How incredibly neat is that?

I did see this posted last year, but I was too late to attend at when I found the conference. So when I saw this the other day I was excited that perhaps I could attend this year and experience some true learning through Second Life. I've sat in on some concerts, movies, and even a few comedy shows. I've visited some sandboxes where I could read text and learn how to perform some tasks. I haven't yet experienced a learning scenario.

I mentioned this to my boss and thought what a great opportunity to see some of the potential opportunities for this type of training. I can imagine how wonderfully it could possibly work with a hospital facility's training needs. Best yet, is I could use it as a work at home day and stay in my pajamas.

Unfortunately the feedback I received from my supervisor, who by the way is supportive about my elearning initiatives, question the relevancy of such a seminar at this point in "our" elearning journey. "If something like this is years down the road of time from where we (our organization and learner) then should I be wasting time exploring this option now."

My answer is yes. I think it's quite important to be exploring all learning/networking options out there within reason. When I say within reason I mean within money constraints and time constraints. I've found that you never know where the next great idea is going to come from that you can apply to your/work learning environment. Being on the forefront of many of these tips, tricks, and techniques is very much intriguing and exciting.

I'm curious if others have come across this "road block" within their personal learning initiatives. Do you believe that there is a proper time for seeking out new learning techniques or should one explore them as they present themselves?

Disneynature Earth to be Release Earth Day 2009

One of my favourite things about going to the movies is acutally watching the previews of movies yet to be released. This weekend I was pleasantly surprised to see the trailer for EARTH from Disneynature.

The movie is to be released this upcoming Earth Day, April 22, 2009. I'm a sucker for nature shows, but to combine it with Disney too....I'm there, get me my ticket. On a slightly more serious note the trailer looked fantastic. The cinematography looked as if we will get an extraordinary look into a year in the life of many creatures from around the globe.

If you go to Disneynature website there are actually several other movies listed to be coming out over the next several years. As per their website, "Disneynature it The Walt Disney Studios' label dedicated to working with leading filmmakers to produce one cutting-edge theatrical release each year celebrating the wonders of the world in which we live."

I look forward to this year's Earth Day and hope this film is yet another great way that we will all continue to be inspired and become increasing aware of the world that we share with so many others.

2 New Upgrades You May Want

Articulate has releases some great updates to for Studio '09. Along with some bug fixes there are 3 new interactions available for use. The new activities are Flipbook, Flashcards and Stairstep. More information including how to upgrade your version can be found at Articulate - Word of Mouth blog.

Also tomorrow Microsoft is offering the new Windows 7 beta and with that Internet Explorer 8. Rumour is to get in early to get this new upgrade. I'm not sure whether it is a good change or not, but many of the reviews I read seem to promote it as "exciting". More info on this can be found on Microsoft's website and all sorts of techy blogs. Give it a Google and you'll find it for sure.

Try a Different Thought Pattern, It Just Might Change Your Life

A dear friend of mine has been on a journey for quite a long time now going out there and inspiring the best in others, getting people to find the humour in their daily lives, and just overall lightening up. It's no wonder then that Jacquie Hermans has called her company Light'N UP (...Laugh and Be You).
In another life, a few moons ago, I learned from her and then performed with her improv. It was such a fabulous experience that I recommend it to anyone who wants or needs that little boost of confidence to go out there and "just be" in front of others. There were many of us in the class that were looking to be able to present, teach or speak better in front of crowds. This method of learning and performing improv was incredible. Not only did you learn to almost not care how you looked in front of other, most of us got up on stage and performed routinely some of the silliest skits you could ever imagine. (Some how I manifested a redneck mechanic, angry/bitter teenage girls, and a little old women with a bit of a Polish accent ....don't even ask.)

What I wanted to draw a little attention to today was Jacquie's inspirational short video blogs. Each is about 2-3 minutes long and touch on topics from Death to Self-Worthiness. Jacquie still runs her Light'NUp workshops, but she also wears many other hats as well. She's a laughter coach and a personal growth trainer and that is where her video blogs have begun, personal growth.

I love the whole concept of video blogs, but haven't gone there yet myself. So, when I saw Jacquie's and watched a few I once again was inspired by her down to earth nature. She is one of those people that was truly put here to make the world a better place.

Jacquie didn't ask me to write any of this and in fact doesn't know I have yet, but I did want to capture a bit here about what she means to me and how she's touched my life. I hope you'll take a moment to check her video blog out when you need a little boost of energy in your day.

Extra Learning Through the Web - Photography Lessons

Well exactly as I wanted, I learned something new tonight just by reading my feeds and looking deeper into various bits of content.

I came across Joe McNally's blog and a few of his video posts on YouTube about how to be a better photographer. (Joe McNally shoots assignments for magazines, ad agencies, & graphic design firms. Clients include Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine, National Geographic, Life, Time, Fortune, New York Magazine, GEO, Golf Digest, Discover, Men's Journal, Business Week, Rolling Stone, New York Stock Exchange, Target, Sony, GE, Nikon, Lehman Brothers, & PNC Bank.) He presents simple tips and tricks that any average photo shooting lover can use the next time they are out snapping shots. What's great is he presents them in such a way that the learner/watcher knows that they too can use this techniques the very next time they pick up their camera. What's more it's very candid and includes a few moments of hilarity without being fancily edited; i.e. his wife in the kitchen whipping up a gourmet meal for their 19lb cat.

I hope you'll take a moment to watch at least this clip on steadying your shot and if so interested you might move on to some of his other points to ponder. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share these tips Joe!

2.009 - The Start of Another Great Year

I'm off to a great start for this new year. By now you've seen that this year for me has started on January 5th (Monday - back to work day). So far I've already blown the "getting up at 5:00am with hubby and start working out first thing," instead I opted for sleeping in 10 minutes too late and rushing to work. I've stuck to the "let's eat healthier", but then again it's only 3:10 in the afternoon so we'll have to see if this lasts the week.

I also have stuck to the 1 hour a day set aside for me to catch up on my RSS feeds and commit to writing a posting here. Again....it's only 3:10 in the afternoon and the boss isn't in the office to interrupt. Let's see if this lasts the week.

I had great comments from Dave Ferguson in regards to my post "A New Year, A Chance to Start Fresh." He really put improvement, regardless of the task, into great perspective:

As for the coming year, one of the quotes in my collection is, "There's always room for improvement. It's the biggest room in the house." I can get dismayed or discouraged by the improvement that's always lying around, waiting to happen, but this is a reminder that there ain't no time machines. You can't go back and do things differently.

From this I take away - do not get discouraged or afraid of improvement as it will always be there, and you may as well try to improve as best you can, any change however small is good in that it will either make the situation better or teach you that it was find from the start. Every attempt at improvement is another opportunity to learn and that's really what I'm striving for this year. A HUGE INCREASE IN LEARNING. 2007 was tremendous, 2008 was okay, 2009 will be GIANORMOUS.

I came across this great post today about the trends and changes seen for 2009 or 2.009 as it was labled. I really like that so 2.009 it is, seems so trendy. E-Learning 2.009, by Eva Kaplan-Leiserson. She speaks to the likes of Tony Karrer, Anders Gronstedt, Judy Brown, David Metcalf, Anne Derryberry, and Clark Quinn. Addressed are trends and obstacles we will all face in the coming year surrounding Web 2.0 learning, Mobile Learning, and Simulations and Games. I look forward to seeing where all these land over the next year.

Here's to a prosperous 2009 everyone. Keep up the great work; together we'll continue to learn, develop, and expand our minds together..

Some Great Posts Finishing Off The Year & Predictions for 2009

I saw some great posts from the last couple of days with great summaries of 2008 and 2009 and I'd like to capture them here as well.

Jane Hart's prediction for top tools of 2009. I've used a few of these and agree with Jane that they are wonderful tools and simple to use.

Robin Good led a group of 130+ through an online live mind mapping exercise creating an amazing picture of 2008's collaboration tools. This was incredible to watch it coming together live.

15 ways to improve your presentations in 2009 by Olivia Mitchell. Everyone can always use more tips or at least reminders on upgrading our presentations.

15 Useful Tools for WordPress Bloggers by Jacob Gube. I don't use WordPress, but many do and the options here are impressive.

I'm sure over the next several days the wrap ups of 2008 and predictions for 2009 will start flooding in and I look forward to reading all of them.

A New Year, A Chance to Start Fresh

I was a little disappointed with my self and my postings over the last year, mostly the last half of the year. They became fewer and fewer as I became more consumed with work. It's nice to be really busy, especially with the outlook of economic lows ahead. However, being too distracted with work hindered my learning from and networking with others. My reading of other blogs dwindled and with that my learning decreased which ultimately lead to me posting fewer items to my blog.
I am looking forward to a new year with my RSS reader cleaned out and ready for a whole new load of information ready for my eager eyes to scan through. There is one catch however, it's nice to start fresh but one must develop a plan for actually keeping up with the growing or over-growing amount of information that gets passed through the reader.

My plan is to learn from others and dump out those feeds that I truly only scan the headlines of and rarely look deeper into, this should hopefully make my inbox a little leaner. Second, I have set aside an hour at the end of each day (I find there are more posts then) to read through feeds and post my own thoughts. When I first started blogging I was writing once a day. I would like to get back to that habit, but we'll see if 3 times a work week is more feasible.

I'm hoping that this will work well for the upcoming year. I'll need to revisit "the plan" in a month to see if it is actually working. A little more than an hour may be necessary or work might be all consuming still and not allow me any time. Fingers crossed on this resolution.

Cheers to All for the New Year!

Ever want to just escape it all? (Two LMS's? Are they trying to kill me?)

Ever just want to run away and escape from it all?

I just came from a meeting from our Emergency Planning dept. and have been so graciously informed that they are purchasing a system to ensure or emergency readiness. Great, sounds wonderful. I think we need that. The catch....it has an LMS built into it and they want to run it for just those courses. Ugg Why would we want 2 LMSs running in the organization?

One of the main reasons we even started on this journey was that our educators were getting concerned that they were each tracking the learning of their staff in a billion different ways. Know one knew what anyone was taking or had taken. This is especially a problem with several hundred transfers a month around the organization.

On that note...I don't know how some of my peers cope with more than 3000 staff and multiple facilities. They should be praised.

I'm now in need of a desperate talk with my CIO to see what we can do, what we should do, where we should proceed. I'm quite concerned that when staff see/use this new LMS (it will be their first LMS experience and is scheduled to be up in several weeks) and then need to use my original LMS (yes they have yet to actually see it) they will be very confused and will be drawn to the new system as it is (as my IT buddy calls it) a much "sexier" system.

I'm confused already and neither system has launched. I'm also quite concerned about the potential of having two areas of administration. Historically our department (or I should say me) has been responsible for the administration of our Core Curriculum (6 mandatory courses that must be sent out to all staff each year). This new system would be responsible for only 2-3 of those courses. That makes little sense as well and would only duplicate much of my work.

I now need to desperately have a meeting with my director and my CIO to get these concerns on the table asap as this new system seems to be a go whether I like it or not.

I want to Blog...Where to Start?

I'm curious to find out a few things from bloggers who have been posting for more than a year:

1. What is your blogging tool of choice (blogger, wordpress, etc)?
2. Have you always used the same tool? If you switched why?
3. How often to you post?
4. Does traffic to your blog matter to you?
5. Do you try to stick to one topic/theme or are you generalized?
6. How many other blogs do you follow?
7. Have you kept your blog in the standard templates offered, have you tweaked it, or have you designed your own fully?
8. Do you blog internally for a company/organization or is it out there for the world to see?
9. Do you try to promote your blog (increase its searchablility - is that a word)?

Trouble Concentrating on One Task at a Time

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on one task at a time, let alone complete one and before I move onto the next. Am I normal for my generation; a product of my environment; has work forced be to be this way; is it just too much info all at once? I'm just not sure any more.

I certainly know, as it seems to be discussed more and more that information overload is bogging us down. I never believed that it was really happening. I felt like I was thriving learning more and more. I was excited to read, hear, see the next big thing or learn more about a topic I that found really interesting. I also never believed that I couldn't multitask and still get everything done that needed to be finished.

I now think, as 2008 is coming to a close, that I feel more drained then I have in a very long time. I feel that little has been accomplished. I've started a lot of projects, but have I really completed them to my full potential. I'm not sure. Even when I think of housework, something simple, something just for me....I fly around the house from one bit to another....clean a sink, wait spot on the mirror, do that....do another mirror, do another mirror....lint on the floor, better vacuum...back to sinks.... Eventually it gets done, but the process is crazy.

How did I get this way? It may be a bit because of my work. Rarely does a day go by where I can sit there an concentrate on just one task. There are phone and email interruptions both of which must be answered immediately. For some reason a culture has developed at my work where if a call/email is not answered immediately the person will try another method to reach you. I've even had people come to my office if I don't answer them within 30 minutes. There are the constant drop ins asking questions and usually they are about something irrelevant to the task at hand. I sit an area of the hospital where there are frequent visitors and patients that often need assistance with just logging on the computer. You can not tell them to wait, that is not an option.

And so wrapping up 2008 I seem to have my LMS at least in my grubby hands, but not yet functioning at a level that will make my users or instructors completely happy. I have started to create 2 different elearning courses, but haven't completed either. In case the LMS isn't a go in Jan. '09 then I've started creating 5 other courses for paper distribution. Oh and even if the LMS does work who's to stay everyone is going to access it anyway....the paper distribution better be ready any way. I've hosted 6 orientation sessions over the year. I did run a conference for our staff in April, but I'm back planning (in bits and pieces) the one for next April.

I'm feeling a bit like I'm running in a hamster wheel right now. Once in a while I get out and breath for a moment, but then I'm right back in running my little feet off.....and my brain.

An Interpretation of Training in the 21st Century

I love Harold Jarche's SlideShare here explaining many of the ideas and concepts we need to think about as we move forward in this web 2.0 world and the ways that we are going to continue to foster learning.

I find it very important, yet very difficult still to get managment to understand the greater need for collaboration regarding learning and producing, really anything. I'm fond of his slide representing Supporting Work in Complex Environments. I wonder how many of us are truly adopting this or are we still trying to pursuade our "power's that be" that we need to go this route and go now.

Training 21 C

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: complexity wirearchy)

LMS Is Not Managing Classroom Based Training

My days and nights are still consumed with the issue that our LMS does not manage classroom based courses well at all. I can not find a work around for our courses that run over many different days. The vendor gave me a solution if they are all in the same week, but that doesn't solve it.

• I tried making session 2 a whole new course and that session 1 is a prerequisite, but they can't register for number 2 until they pass number 1.
• I tried about putting all the sessions under one certificate, but they can't register for a certificate only an individual course.
• I tired making one course and just putting all the dates in the details, but that doesn't help the instructor keep track of everyone showing up for all sessions.
• I tried letting the learner registering for the first session and the instructor registering them for all the other sessions (hidden from public view). Nice idea however the instructor is never notified if a new student registers, they would have to go into the course, see who is new, go the the learner management screen add the other sessions (of which they can't see entirely because the window is too small), and then go back and look up the next new learner. Too much for an instructor that may have 6 sessions and 30 learners.

I'm at a brain freeze trying to work around this issue and about 60% of our in class teachings are like this. I'm ready to scrap the whole think and become a shepperd.

An LMS Rant to No One in Particular

I'm working on the "1 course, many classes" issue.

I've got it now that the learner registers for module 1 of 6.

If the learner clicks "my courses" they see module 1 that they registered for (there is no date of the course for them though. (It can't added to Outlook either like it should).

I've kind of got a solution to my "1 course many day" issue, but I've also got some concerns over ease and efficiency of this process. What I worked out is I "display and allow registration" of module 1 (noting to learner they will be registered for the other modules).
Module 2-6 are hidden (do not display).

As an instructor....currently I have to go into the "course manager", & "edit the session" to see if anyone has registered (there are no prompts to the instructor, no emails, this would be great every time a registrant signs up). Then I have to go into "manager learners". Then I have to export or note all the students (I wouldn't really know who is new and who isn't).

I then have to go to "learner manager", find the student, look at their courses, edit their courses, add in the other modules that they need to take.

The learner now does have the next module added to their "my courses" roster.

However they don't get any other notification that it has been added for them (and email to them would be helpful).

Oh and I guess if I wanted to add one course that has more than 1 session......I wouldn't be able to, because I can't see which session is which.

LMS what does it stand for?

This is a really quick post, but after my day yesterday struggling with my LMS, my computer that sounds as if it is taking off like a 747, and the constant screen freezes, I've come up with a new accronym for my LMS.

LMS = Losing My Sanity

When is the content enough? LMS Pilot has become too intense

I'm working on a school project where I get to use Blackboard as a teacher. I have an assignment worth 30% of my overall class mark, but the actual content of the course material I put into the system is only worth 1/3rd of the mark. I've been working at it and working at it creating this in depth learning course on using myUdutu.com to create online courses. I'm at the fifth page (.doc) of my course material and I haven't even gotten past the templates that are available to you as an author.

I'm now mulling over where do I "stop" the course so that it ends at an appropriate place (end of topic). When can I say I've done enough that's about 1/3rd's worth. I think I may be creating the supreme version of the course as opposed to the first chapter.

I've realized today that I'm doing the same thing with my LMS pilot or preparation for the pilot. I've been killing myself mentally and physically (okay only my fingers are cramping up, but it does hurt). I've been working endlessly to get all my physical course catalogue inputted into the LMS catalogue. I've been trying to create 2 elearning courses for the learners to try. I've also been trying to make sure the system works flawlessly from a student perspective, author, manager, and administrator.

A friend was kind enough to slap some reality into me today and allowed me to step back and look at it for what it is....a pilot. Not everything is going to work right away and it probably should not work perfectly. It should be expected that there will be things you'll want to tweak and fix so that it better matches your learners expectations. It doesn't need to have the entire course catalogue created. It just needs a sampling of classroom courses and online courses for them to register for and take. I have 2 SCORM courses from the Ontario Health Association that will make good test courses. One has sound and video. I would love to have one or two of our own courses in there, but it's not a necessity.

My LMS Tips for today is to take it easy on yourself, remember your pilot is only a pilot. It is simply there for you to test out the functionality of your system for you as an administrator and for your learners for ease and simplicity. Can they navigate their way around the system easily? Step back, simplify it for yourself, get the main components in that you require, it does not have to be at the 100% GO LIVE stage. Another really big big tip I got today as well is....you don't have to turn every part of the system on. Our system has the ability for the manager to approve a staff member taking a course. I've been going nuts trying to make sure this works....but why? Mangers don't do this right now in our learning environment, why do they need to do it online. Myself and my colleague aren't convinced it works the way we would want to any way. So we'll leave it be for now. Pretend it doesn't exist and deal with it later if we see it as a necessary tool.

Hope this too helps you sleep a little better my LMS friends.

eLearning Learning - Now Launched

Tony Karrer graciously asked me to participate in the launch of a new tool called eLearning Learning. I've added to my blog sidebar and you will be able to use it to see the most common terms, tools, and concepts that I blog about. Each of those links within the tool (widget) can then be break down further in to more specific content. As you follow a link you will first come to the content that was created by myself, or fed into the eLearning Learning site. As you scroll through that you will come to content created by others. If you use one of the links available to you now on the eLearning Learning site you will be able to further into the first topic link (i.e. Learning > Learning-Blogging, or Learning-Technology, etc.). The break down goes on and on.

"This is the beginning of a community portal where the community will help to collect and organize the best content from blogs and web sites. The goal is to create a place where it's relatively easy to find current content and highly relevant content surrounding eLearning." - Tony Karrer

Currently the content is mostly feed in through blogs, but will be expanded in the future.

If you want to try out the tool on some live blogs there are a few launch sites you can take a look through and play with:


Tracy Hamilton - Discovery through eLearning (mine)

Collin Kromke - Web 2.0 Work

Kevin Jones - Engaged Learning

Wendy Wickham - In The Middle of the Curve

Tony Karrer - eLearning Technology

Educational Videos Online and Other Great Stuff

I saw this linked passed through Twitter from Dennis Callahan, it's 10 Free Online Educational Video Options. The list was compiled by Ace Online Schools blog.

"Ace Online Schools is a guide to useful online resources for students and professionals. In addition to our own tips and tutorials, we recommend websites and applications that help you work and live more productively."

I was aware of the first few as they are quite mainstream but am grateful to see the remaining fantastic options. I'm not a school teacher, but there definitely appears to be some great resources here for instructors in general.

LMS Big Dreaming...Darn

I was so close to being happy....they almost had it. Update to my earlier post (moments ago). Further investigation by me is they haven't quite got it yet. They have grasped the concept that a course may take place over many days with in a week and that each day the time may be different, but what if it is over several months. Giving me the option to enter in a class that happens Monday at 2:00 and Wednesday at 3:00 doesn't quite solve my problem.

Mine is I have 1 course that runs twice a year (2 sessions). Each session has 6 modules (full days). Due to the lack of rooms available to us they are not always every other Thursday or follow any pattern for that matter. I have one schedule Feb. 12, Feb. 26, Mar. 19, Mar. 26, Apr. 9, Apr. 30 2009. Take a look at a calendar and see how scattered these are, at least they are all Thursdays. Luckily they are all in the same room, but this is a fluke.

My vendor is close to solving it, but not quite there yet. I've taken their screen shots and with some graphic editing resent back to them what I was hoping for instead. Fingers crossed I'm not dreaming to large.

Big Changes in My LMS World Today

A couple of key things have begun to happen today. One I attended a meeting with my key IT people and the HR manager. Our HR system is a little old (okay very old) and has not really been updated for the size of staff we have currently. It was a great little system 10-15 years ago, but now that we have tripled in size it doesn't really meet our needs. One of them being who reports to whom. We have been existing with who is paid by which budget line. Not great for accountability, performance support, or my LMS.

The good news today is that the HR system is now approximately 10% away from being complete to function the way we need it to for the current situation. We of course have larger, grander schemes in mind, but it will (should) suffice for now.

Secondly, I began to panic this afternoon as simple procedures within the LMS as an administrator seemed to have disappeared. So I fired off an email to the vendor, stated they must be up to something as everything was crashing on my end and I went to lunch.

To my surprise upon my return; nothing was fixed. I then decided forget it I'll work around the errors and keep doing what I'm doing. A bit more typing, a few more screens and suddenly I have new fields available to me for creating courses. My biggest excitement is they may have, just may have, found a way for me to input courses that run over multiple days. Yippee!!!!

My LMS tip for the day: create really strong communication connections with your vendor. Make sure that you each know what the other is doing, when, and for how long. We have run into several issues like this where suddenly nothing is working. We panic on our end, only to find out that they are fixing bugs that we requested be fixed. Unless you each know what the other is working on ill relationships and understanding develop very quickly.

Latest LMS Implementation Issue - External Access

So one (of the many) things to keep me awake at night right now, in regards to my LMS implementation is the whole issue around access. Currently our intranet is not accessible externally. Our LMS portal runs through our intranet.

Management and physicians have access to the network from home or external offices. The issue now is the 2600 other staff that don't. The several issues I have with this are how do we expect staff do complete mandatory education that will be provided as elearning packages if we 1) don't have enough computer stations for them to use, and 2) have limited amount of free time we can give them on the job to do the packages. The logical choice then appears to let them work on it at home through the elearning system.

Hense my dilemma.....that does not exist. Please tell me these issue begin to dwindle at some point.

Corporate Learning Trends & Innovations 2008 - Have You Signed Up

I'm working through all the incredible events that are offered through Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations 2008 site. I'm surprised there are so few members currently, considering it will run from Nov. 17th until the 21st.

"Join us to explore new developments, track emerging opportunities, network with other learning pioneers, and deal with topics you don’t find at the conferences you have to travel to. Come online the week of November 17 for a different kind of conference experience. Mark your calendar now. The event is free. Events are live and online. Hook up with fellow innovative thinkers and international visionaries to gain insight into what’s going on, swap opinions, and shape the future of learning. Share your suggestions with the organizers at learntrends.com"

Did you see that word FREE in that quote? How can you pass up joining in the discussion? Not enough for you, then how about the speakers scheduled to share on their insights....

Nov. 17
Jane Hart - 25 Free Tools Every Learning Professional Should Have in their Toolbox
Robin Good - Best Online Collaboration Tools for Learning
Learning Technology Strategy in Climates of Change (organized by George Siemens)
Q&A with David Weinberger

Nov. 18
Tools, the Discussion (organized by Tony Karrer, Robin Good, Jane Hart)
Tony Karrer - Work Literacy - Implications for Learning Professionals
Dave Pollard - Working Smarter

Nov. 19
Nancy White - Online social architectures - Networks & communities
Marcia Connor - Learning When the Money Runs Out
Jay Cross, Jane Hart, Harold Jarche, Clark Quink - Learnscape Sandbox

Nov. 20
Alvaro Fernandez - Key research behing cognitive & emotianl training

Nov. 21
Kevin Wheeler - Future of Work
Allison Anderson - Enterprise Learning
Jay Cross - What's it all about?
Dave Gray - Visual Literacy

EnglishCafe - helping each other to learn English

I had this interesting site sent to me today; http://www.englishcafe.com/.

"Like the best Cafés around the world, EnglishCafé is an enclave for vibrant and respectful exchange of knowledge, ideas and entertainment. We value the diversity of people, the unique experiences they bring, and the cultures from which their voices rise.

English does not belong to any group of people. English is a language that is malleable enough for the entire world to use. For this reason, we can learn from each other and about each other through this language. We can indeed advance our careers with English knowledge and make ourselves more marketable in the global economy. It is with a spirit of openness and desire to understand that we built EnglishCafé. We invite you to come in, gain or share knowledge, and join in a world-wide conversation about words and culture."

They asked me to look at it as it is in beta stage currently. I immediately was drawn to how easily I could navigate around the site looking for the answers I might need to find as a user. Also I got drawn in through out the day looking at places where I could contribute answers to other users that were asking questions.

There is an area where any registered user can post a question such as "what is the difference between Miss and Ms." This might seem a simple question to first-language English speakers, but for those learning it is confusing. As our organization becomes more diversity aware we realize more and more how difficult it might be to explain how so many English words, such as "fare" & "fair", may sound the same but are spelt so differently and mean vary different things as well.

My colleague who is getting her certificate as an English as a Second Language instructor said there are many sites out there that do assist with this, but her first reaction was very positive as well.

Another aspect I liked about the site was it's collaborative nature in posting a question to the community and the community responding back with answers. Each new member responding often elaborates on the previous answer and so the user posing the question get's quite in depth responses.

I look forward to seeing how well this site is received by users and how it progresses into the future.

eLearning & LMS Implementation Mentor Needed

Driving for 3 days at 8 hours at a shot gave me lots of time to think, ponder, and worry more and more about the LMS implementation that is a few weeks away. I reach out to my peers quite often through this and am so grateful for all the help I continue to receive. I know now I really need your assistance again or even a mentor that I can ask questions of and bounce ideas off as I move forward over the next few months.

I am a department of one and I am only a subsection of our Organization Development department. My project is of course then not the priority of the department, but one of several priorities (yes, an oxy-moron for sure). I made the mistake of looking a my email the last night of my vacation and that threw lots of questions and worry my way.

Please assist/answer any of these if you can either through this blog or through my direct email. Any advice is sincerely appreciated.

1) I have many depts in my organization that are all wanting to develop self-learning packages (everyone is sick of doing training for 2600 people 10 students at a time).

• Do I let them each develop their own training and leave it at that?
• Do I let them do the developing and then assist with giving suggestions where it can be improved?
• Do I develop guidelines/procedures that they have to follow when creating their own training packages? (Does anyone have an example?)
• I've had recent questions about getting Articulate. I know Articulate and Captivate each have their own merits. Wondering if someone that has used both can give me some background on their preference?
• Do I let them produce their packages in PowerPoint and then have them give the material to me to convert into elearning courses?

Any suggestions.......(whew)....I'm ready for vacation again and haven't even stepped foot back in the office yet.

Clark Aldrich was the last 2 questions on my mid-term last night.

I wrote (or clicked) my way through a mid-term last night for a Online Technology course, and yes I passed with flying colours Mom.

I was pleasantly surprised for 2 reasons. I was interesting to work through a multiple choice test that actually covered everything taught so far, and was challenging at the same time. I haven't had a real thought provoking multiple choice test since University Biology classes (those are NOT pleasant by any sense of the imagination).

The second surprise was that the last 2 questions on the exam were "According to Clark Aldrich....."

Care to have a go at them?

True or False: According to Clark Aldrich in Learning Circuits, he predicts that immersive simulations will short-cut the experiential learning process to become the dominant form of high-end pre-packaged management training for the Play Station 2 generation.

True or False: According to Clark Aldrich in Learning Circuits learning experiences such as mentoring, apprenticeships, and group projects can lead to the kind of profound experiences that fundamentally grow people that can be orchestrated and captured by LMSs.

Blog Action Day - Poverty (Tsunamika Dolls)

My friend at work that volunteered in India this past summer and the summer before brought me back a precious little gift. A Tsunamika doll. A symbol of living hope.


"This project is conceived and executed by Upasana Design Studio of Auroville in the seaside villages of Auroville's bioregion. Nearly 480 fisherwomen from 6 villages are trained and from them around 180 ladies are now creating these little dolls called Tsunamika. She has been hand-made from fabrics left over from other creative works in Upasana. The project team, who trained the ladies, now supplies them with raw materials to continue producing the dolls. All dolls produced are bought from them in bulk and are gifted unconditionally worldwide by Upasana."

What strikes me here is that these women are being empowered to make life a little better for themselves. Many, if not all, were left with very little after the Tsunami. These ladies now have a job they can do daily. "When they earn money through work, there is dignity, pride and self respect in them, they know the value of what they receive, they learn new skills, they learn to discipline and channelize their energies. These are the real but intangible assets they receive, money is only a means to brings this out."

Ending poverty is not purely giving out money to those in need. It is helping those that need it to find that dignity, pride, and self respect that we each strive for regardless of our situation. It is a fundamental need we each have.

I proudly wear my Tsunamaki doll each day, pinned to my name badge at work. It reminds me of many things of which I am thankful and grateful.

Simple Clean Learning Example on BBC News

I just wanted to make note of this simple interactive bit of learning that was on the BBC News Science & Environment page from Friday. The title first caught my eye "Alien species are a problem in the UK - and invasive plants are causing some of the worst damage." So I took a quick look.

Without reading anything I was drawn into the simple, yet colourful illustration of a garden with labels scattered around it. Little arrow symbols for "PLAY" immediately made me know there was more to the diagram. As I clicked through each of them up came a quick 2-3 minute video about the Alien Plant, when it arrived in the UK, and the damage it was causing being alien to the UK environment.


The topic might not intrigue everyone, but the simplicity of the way the lectures were delivered would probably draw your students into any lesson you might want to share. A good idea/model to follow.

LMS Name & Logo Created, If I Could Just Get the LMS to Look as Nice

I think I've got it. With a little more brainstorming with a different colleague we decided we liked SOL. So we added an S on the end and now have SOLS, the Southlake Online Learning System. Ooooh sounds so fancy you say.

Then I played with some logo designs I'm sure Corporate Communications will never approve.

Well here's hoping they do. I think they're kind of neat and it was a nice distraction for the last 1/2 hour of my day. Now all I need is to get the LMS running and looking just as good.

I did get a new version of the system loaded up today. Some good new fixes were added. Some old bugs were removed. There are still a few things I'd love them to change, but I'm not sure how much further to press my luck. I've got 5 more working days to get some content loaded onto the silly thing. Then a week vacation - Yeah!!!! Then I'm suppose to being piloting it with users at the end of the month.

Where ever will I find the time to make cool t-shirts, hats, and any other swag I think will sell this to the masses.

Careful what you name your LMS

I was just brainstorming with a friend from our Corp. Communications on a name for our LMS. I've been looking into this for a bit, but it slipped my mind and now I need to come up with something.

So we threw around the words "university", "college", "academy", "elearning", "online", "intranet". Finally we came up with Southlake Online Learning. Sounds plain. Sounds simple. SOL is catchy. It's "brightening our Stars for tomorrow.

Oh ya, in case you missed it the acronym is S. O. L. If you don't know what else that stands for....give me an email.

Back I go to brainstorming.

Dear Boss: Let me tell you what I really think....whoops

I saw this post today via LifeHacker and them in turn from The Official Gmail Blog. Google labs is working on a feature, Mail Goggles, that once set will give you a series of math questions to test your own level of consciousness on whether sending that late Saturday night email is such a good idea.

If you're one of those people that decides at 1:00am you've waited long enough to tell someone exactly what you think of them, then it sounds like this feature might be for you. On the other hand if you often find the need to self-edit, then perhaps this tool is just pointing to something greater....step away from the computer....go to bed.

I'll admit it...I've made a few phone calls that way in college, but no emails...yet :)

Getting addicted to Tweets? Maybe.

Last year at the Annual Gathering someone asked if I was hooked into Twitter that they would send me a message that way about where to meet up later during the event. I wasn't but quickly did to give it a try and check it out.

It did take me a little getting use to setting up and using as I still have an old regular cell phone. (hmm no iphone, instinct, or other yet) I'm also in Canada so it took a few more screens to get it going, but it wasn't overly frustrating. Soon I started finding a few key people who I follow on blogs to follow on Twitter. Messages started to come in about what project they were working on. What articles people were reading. Blogs they were posting. So on and so on the work related info came to me.

My hubby kept wondering why my phone was going off all the time. So I tried to explain how it was a connection to peers and I was learning from them some of the latest and greatest of what they were learning. Then came in the messages on the weekend...kids just won a swim meet, flying my kite at the park, sitting at the ball game, watching a race, meeting with other Twits (lol....is that right...perhaps not...but I kind of like it).

So many months later I now have a few more people following me, I'm following a few more people, and the messages are coming in more and more and more. And frankly I really like it. Now I'm wondering hmmmmm am I getting addicted to knowing what others are doing. At first I wondered why would someone tell me that their kids just won a race, now I've changed my thoughts and am thinking I'm really happy they are sharing this with me. Not only is the work stuff important to share, but the personal stuff is as well.

It's strange how the little bits of personal messages that flow in after the work hours and on the weekends help you to learn more about the people with whom you are connecting. It takes the "coldness" (if there was any to begin with) and turns a bunch of stranger peers into friend peers.

It's much like coming into work, going to the coffee break table and asking what people did on the weekend. I'm thrilled to know that someone and thier wife just tried cooking lobster for the first time. I'm happy to find out that someone is in downtown Omaha. I'm estatic to find a new free video capturing tool. It's all good.

Check with me in another 6 months to see if I still like it....lol.

Internet and Email Use at Work - Study Findings

PEW Internet and American Life Project have a great paper out right now with some interesting stats on use of the internet and email and how it effects workers. It is from September 24, 2008 and the data seems to have been collected earlier in the year.

It caught my attention in relation to the Work Literacy Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals workshop/class/network (it's a bit of all of these). Someone was wondering if the tasks people are doing in relation to age have shifted over the last year or so. It seems that the older boomers maybe even seniors (in terms of generations) are more 2.0 savvy than ever. I'm not sure to be honest, but this report has some interesting information on how email (personal and work related) and the internet effect workers at home and in the "office". I know the eLearning Guild is also doing a free webinar today on their eLearning 2.0 360 findings as well and may address some of this - who is doing what and where idea.

Some of the PEW/Internet findings:

Working men and women are equally as likely to blog, but young adults far outpace older workers in their engagement with blogging. Employed internet users ages 18-29 are more than twice as likely to blog when compared with 30-49 year olds (20% vs. 9%). However, young adults are no more likely to report at-work tending to their blog; just 2% say they blog from work.

Blog reading is also most prevalent among younger generations of employed internet
users. One in three internet-using employees (33%) say they have read someone else’s blog or online journal, and 11% report at least some at-work reading. However, among young working adults, 46% are blog readers, compared with 33% of 30-49 year olds and 25% of employed internet users ages 50-64. At-work blog reading is equally prevalent among all of these groups.

Starting to be a Collector (comment from Work Literacy Ning)

Susan Neva commented today, after seeing a graph (What People are Doing) that I shared, that they would like to become more of a collector and wants to learn how to accomplish this task starting with RSS feeds.

I responded (and decided to share here) with a comment.

Week 4 of Work Literacy seems to be when we get into RSS feeds a bit more, but if you want a place to start try Google Reader. It's quite simple to use and navigate though and a great place to start collecting feeds. They don't have to be just on the topic you are interested in (ie: elearning) but can be space, news, cooking, it's endless. Word to the wise, don't collect too many or you end up not having time to read them all.

I'd start with Tony Karrer's blog, Brent Schlenker's, or mine. Tony and Brent have amazing content, but the reason I listed all three is they have great blog lists of others we follow and might be of interest to you. Tony suggested at one session to keep a feed for 30-60 days (I think) and then determine if you are getting much from the content. If it isn't of much interest to you after that, then clear it away. This way you don't end up with 1000+ rss posting a day.

Brent has just changed his reader to no feeds at all. If someone has a blog that he is following, he hopes they have now got Twitter Feeds coming from it as well and he relies on the blog headings that come through twitter. Not sure how this is working yet for him, but it's an interested way to keep up with all the info we share with one another. I use the Twitter Feeds myself through out the day to check those topics that pop up and are intriguing to me at the moment.

Feeling behind, overwhelmed, leading to discouragement - LMS blues

So I guess I have the LMS blues. I'm coming to what should be the final stretch of getting the LMS functioning. I should have access to a new version of the system. I should have several courses on it for users to try out. I should have our HR system talking to our Active Directory system, talking to the LMS and functioning. I should have a pilot group all set ready to give it all a try. I should feel like things are coming together.

BUT I DON'T.

I, like most of you, feel completely swamped by the every day tasks that come my way. The barrage of emails, the phone calls, and the drop-ins. They are all taking their toll and time away from me being able to concentrate on the tasks at hand. Getting the LMS running.

I'm in a bit of a panic there in that I'm not convinced the people that can (IT) have been able to get the HR system to have all the fields populated that should be populated so that we know who reports to whom instead of who gets paid by whom. Even if that is completed, I'm not sure our Active Directory is picking it up yet. However, as B.J. Schone has told me many times....always have an IT buddy and I think Ryan is mine. I gave him some blank discs today...he said he can get the AD up to speed in no time. So I hope it works, I just have no control or authority to say "make it happen".

As I said the drop-ins have been a bit overwhelming so I don't know if the new system is ready for me to try out or not. When I say new I mean a few tweaks here and there. But the vendor's idea of a pilot group and my idea are off by about 60 people. I don't want to test the system and see if it works and functions. It should upon purchase. I do want to have a small representation of various users give it a go and tell me if they can easily navigate and find what they need, register, take a course. If they can't then perhaps some tweaks, but more likely change the training to address the gap.

Finally the time line. According to the vendor I should have everything in place, oh let me see, yesterday. Doesn't work like that. Most of the elearning people I have connected with are departments of one. How many of us have time to concentrate on one thing either? Don't get me started if you are in health care. My colleagues here in Ontario would definitely know that most of us wear 2, 3, and sometimes 4 different hats. Each of those have their own priorities as well and let's not talk about where our bosses think our priorities should start.

Okay. I feel better, well at least feel it's off my chest. Thanks for the rant. I think I've covered a few concerns I hope you'll concern if you go through an implementation.