Things I learned before 9:00am today from Twitter

One of the first things I like to do in the morning is check the most recent tweets I've had pop in since the evening before. Since I'm connected to people around the world I do get quite a few.

I'm not a teacher, but this online course for K-12 educators is great resource for online educators of any sense. 21 things for the 21st Century Educator has just what it says. 21 quick topics with everything from Digital Citizenship to various online tools to your own professional development.

I also was shown through tweets, a link to How to activate tethering on any iPhone without jailbreaking. I was interested to see this because I didn't know what tethering meant but knew it could be exciting. I'm now a little less excited because it appears I need a Mac to utilize the steps here. Maybe after I update my software and read this a bit more I'll figure it out. I'd love to be able to use my iPod Touch more at work.

I also was put onto this great article and great web/iPhone application that allows consumers to be more aware of what they are purchasing as they purchase it. GoodGuide is an application "that lets consumers dig past the package's marketing spiel by entering a product's name and discovering its health, environmental and social impacts."

This site I can't wait to try later this evening when I upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0. It describes How to Use the Best 40 Features of iPhone 3.0. I'm sure this will take up most of my evening.

The final thing that caught my attention before 9:00 this morning was a blog posting - Web 3.0 explained....again! This posting is great because it links you directly to two SlideShare presentations 1: Web 3.0 explained with a stamp (pt I: the basics) and 2: Web 3.0 explain with a stamp (pt II: techniques). Don't let the slide count of each of the presentations scare you away. Both are simple, clean presentations that you can read through in about 5-10 minutes each. They get the point across quickly describing to the reader exactly what web 3.0 is, how we can utilize it and how benefit from out own expanding knowledge of technology can work for us.

Kids and Thier Very Public Digital Rants

I was talking to a colleague at work today who's son was upset with her because she wasn't going to allow him to have something that he wanted because of misbehavior. It was something very mild along the lines that he was not to have a friend over after school.

The son, not being too happy with the answer immediately went to facebook and updated his status to say just that. There was no foul language in the status update, but clearly there was a bit a a virtual tantrum displayed.

I'm curious how other's have handled this kind of situation with their children. There are very few that are not more technically savvy then us now so we are all aware that they know how to use the tools. Of course not every "tween" has a facebook account, nor children younger than that. I can not even begin to imagine how often teachers may have to face these kinds of comments, especially those that have more digitally adapted classes.

I'm not a teacher, and I am not a parent, but I am very curious to know how do we teach "our children" who are only beginning to grow and develop their own online identities to remain digitally respectful of others.

All comments are welcome on this topic as a general discussion.

Proper Language Can Be Confusing

Recently we had a team meeting discussing the scope of practice that we offer through our combined offices of Organization Development and Health Sciences Resource Centre. My colleague upon expanding on some of her duties that are offered through the library inserted this:

"Assistance with capture, transfer, scanning, manipulation & output of
information."

When I confronted her about which of her duties she was referring to; even she was confused by her own words. I jokingly asked if this referred to her having to help staff constantly figure out how to use the photocopier.

Today I modified the sentence slightly and did indeed post it above the photocopier in our office.

MOBILE LEARNING - eLearning Tour Part 1 - Hosted by Corporate Learning Trends and Innovation

One of the hardest things to find are real-life examples of different kinds of eLearning solutions. On May 21, Learn Trends will be hosting a free online
event where the people who have developed interesting eLearning solutions will
demonstrate and briefly discuss what they've done.

Moderators:

Judy Brown - Mobile Learning Solutions
Bob Mosher - Performance Support Tools
Karl Kapp - Games and Simulations
Tony Karrer - Self-Paced eLearning Solutions

Demonstrations will showcase a variety of different kinds of eLearning. We hope they will vary from practical solutions to common problems to leading edge solutions.

Mobile Learning
Everyone should begin to think about mobile learning, not as a replacement, but as an extra choice for the learner.

Many people seem to think that mobile learning is elearning lite, but it is much more than that and there is some much more that can be done with it. This will be our primary device for connectivity in the years to come.

Ideas:

• field guide
• alerts
• geo-blogging
• survey
• audio recordings
• on-demand access
• reporting
• reference
• simulation
• conferencing
• job aid
• check list
• decision support
• polls
• assignments
• presentations
• quiz
• just-in-time
• feedback
• note taking
• test
• reminders
• updates
• game-based learning
• augment reality
• transcription
• geo-exploration
• procedures
• coaching/mentoring
• translation
• capture/share/document

Podcasting

Try a two-person/interview-style podcast. You can even use a computer generated voice (text to speak technology) to ask you the questions you want to answer yourself within the interview.

http://mlearnopedia.com & http://cc.mlearnopedia.com

Opportunities

-good for downtime/deadtime we all have as we travel

-don't always have to be made by a real person

-auto generate podcasts with each new story or posting (use latest versions of text to speech TTS)

More info/discussion forum: http://learntrends.ning.com/forum/topics/innovative-approaches-to?xgs=1 or contact vonkosch@comcast.net

Abilene Christian University - George Saltsman & Bill Rankin

appx. 5000 students (total)

Gave all first year students iPod phones or touches (their choice).

Reasoning - everything is moving mobile very quickly and student value mobility. Looking for something that they could do a variety of things with, need low power resources, and could be used easily during personal downtime.

Started by creating a video and a day in the life. How would everything look differently if every student had an iPod. (VIDEO www.acu.edu/connected)

Portal m.acu.edu (doesn't work as well on Internet explore, but well on Safari & Macs)

Has news, events, campus maps (buildings & maps) {built whole campus in Google 3d}, guide about campus, then my mobile - classes, campus balances -meals, books, etc, files can be sent to students or classes, grades, polling of students)

Also have a live word cloud tool (using the polling) - from the web. Attendance.

Goals:

• Increase student learning
• Increase student engagement
• Increase university awarement
• Advance undergraduate enrollment (and faculty)
• foster a culture of innovation on campus

2/3rds selected phones 1/3rd selected touch (usually because too difficult to switch out of current contracts)

Positives students believe

• increase in their grade, attention, involvement, interest
• increased active learning, contact with professor and teacher, overall class experience

Faculty feedback

• success
• communication
• easy
• regularly

is generally happy of performance (not yet perfected).

Not based on a particular device, but more so what they are offering on the device. Brings the info to them instead of having to find it. Situational learning.

What does it require?

• space for lots of data
• redesign campus facilities for mobility & collaboration
• infrastructure for synchronous and asynchronous access by all
• infrastructure for creation and participation by all
• etc.

saltsman@acu.edu and rankinw@acu.edu

LMS pilot is coming to a close

Well my pilot for my LMS is coming to an end this Friday. I had about 20 participants and at this time only 4 Evaluations have been returned. I don't like those odds too much, however I do know that last minute seems to be a way of life where I work. Granted everyone is over worked, but I had hoped for a larger response without having to remind everyone to submit their thoughts to me regarding the system.

I'll have the results of my pilot here early next week.

Happy May 2-4 to all my Canadian friends!

Waiting for the Results

I'm still anxiously awaiting the results from my pilot launch of the LMS. I set my SME's and a few others loose on it last Friday and surprisingly have not heard much back yet. During the meeting where I gave them all the information and tasks list for the pilot there was a great amount of feedback and questions of does the system do this and that. I'm hoping that they will bring these questions and concerns through to the end of the pilot where I will share the results with the vendor.

I'd like to see that my concerns are mirrored in the needs that they will have for tracking and teaching of our staff. My department believes, and they might be justified, that I'm looking at the entire system to closely and have skewed values for a better system than what truly exists out there at all for our needs. I'm almost sure I'm not mistaken, but we'll see as the pilot progresses.

In the meantime I've gone forward with trying to create templates that my SME's will be able to use to start creating some content for the system. However, this is one of those things that I'm having a little difficulty with finding information on how to best accomplish this kind of process. I'm just "winging it" for now. If anyone has some example templates or good web resources I'd be excited to see them

LMS Pilot Launch is Official

Well it took forever to get my LMS launched and the pilot finally happened last Friday. Once I had an actual launch date I was completely consumed trying to get the system ready to show my pilot team.

I'll add this tip to my list of things of things to think about when implementing an LMS....pick a date any date and stick to it. It took a long time to get to the point that I felt 75% comfortable with the product I had, but once I was there I finally (got the nerve) chose a date and shared it with the vendor and pilot participants. This put great pressure on the vendor and myself to MAKE SURE that it was ready to go and was actually launched. There was no holding back and perhaps I should have done this step sooner to push the vendor and even myself into completion.

I've had great feedback so far from about half of the group, which is great. There are many issues that they are coming across which I knew about but weren't sure how they would play out live. There are also many that they are sharing back to me that I did know about but have no idea how to "fix". Then, there are the several interesting ideas about tracking and managing the learners through the system that I never even considered.

I'm quite excited to be at this stage to actually see if the system is actually going to launch live in the hospital. There is a chance it won't measure up to my educators' needs, but there's a chance as well that it will meet what we need for this point in time.

The pilot runs for the next 3 weeks and it will be interesting to see if the big issues to me are big issues to the pilot group or if perhaps I'm being to critical. I'll continue to post regarding this latest process of the LMS implementation.

Take a Test, Any Test...and PASS

Ready for tonight's rant..... (Are you sure? This is a good one...you'll laugh at my woes.)

I'm madly going through the LMS getting it ready for the pilot. Fixing and adding everything I can think of to launch the pilot tomorrow at 2:oo pm.

One of the tasks I had was to create a sample course and get it set up just right so that the pilot group could see the potential of the system and the courses we can develop. I could also can insight into how the system will report on staff taking the course. Sounds great right.....WRONG!!!!

First issue I came across was that I set the course up for 3 attempts at the quiz. So I took the quiz, failed, and exited the course. The course remained in my "active courses". This makes sense. I went back in and the system let me take the quiz 3 more times.....not 2 more. I failed 3 more times, exited the course. The course remained in my "active courses". I, essentially can go in as many times as I want and take the course.

So then....I took out the option of 3 attempts at the quiz. Still no change. I can take the test forever until I pass.

My next brainstorm was changing the tracking from PASS/INCOMPLETE to PASS/FAILED . Could it be that simple? That literal?

YES.

So then....I took the test. Failed. Low and behold the course moved from "active courses" to "completed courses".

NOW HERE IS THE KICKER.
When I looked at my course history it shows that I PASSED THE COURSE AND GOT WHOPPING 40%. Interesting since a pass is at least 80% - and that's being generous on this particular quiz.

Did I mention the pilot launches tomorrow afternoon? I now wonder if there is a high correlation between elearning and drinking. ARGGGG!

LMS Pilot is Launching Friday

All I can say right now is I'm losing my mind. See previous post.

Details to follow regarding this adventure very soon......

Laughing at my own memory lost - Use it or Lose it

Once a month I run two 3 hour computer sessions. They cover the general office productivity software you would expect. Each month I have a good little chuckle at the staff that are taking the course for the second and sometimes third time. They keep taking it, not because the course isn't well received, but because they can't remember what they learned.

The reviews of the course are excellent, but the staff walks away and then doesn't use what they learn right away. By the time they do get to learn the new skills taught in the course they've forgotten what they were in the first place.

Tonight I had to laugh at myself because I've done exactly the same thing. I participated in a workshop at the eLearning Guild Annual Gathering but haven't applied any of that knowledge until the last few days. Now I'm trying madly to remember what I had learned. Was it apply A, B and then C or A, C and then B....uggg. A bit of time has now passed since then and I'm struggling to find notes, demos, and handouts. I've found everything except the handouts and the examples that were shared.

Just one more thing to consider I suppose when creating lessons and workshops for your users. Do you allow them to re-take a course? How many times? Do you have provisions for addressing learners that have misplaced their material weeks, months later? What kind of additional support do you offer once the course has ended?

LMS has brought new stress; therefore new toys

(A few general ramblings below.)

My LMS is hopefully piloting on Tuesday of next week. I've got a couple of things I want tweaked before I send it out, but am getting very hopeful. Not to mention I can feel the fire of many dragons just at the nape of my neck to get it out.

All is very stressful when you have so many tasks before you to complete and your work computer is twice as slow as your home computer. That doesn't seem quite right, however, it may push me towards working in my pjs more often. I'm not sure that's a horrible idea. (It is hard not to picture anyone who says they work at home sitting in front of their computer in flannel pajamas, bunny slippers and coffee right?...mine aren't bunny shaped though).

It's also hard to keep motivated to come into work when the weather has taken a turn for the better. It's been a long, long, cold winter....this proves I'm getting old; I never use to complain about the snow. Seeing the sun com back was invigorating. The weather also then got warmer and many of us Ontario folks have been in shorts this week. This makes it all very hard to want to stay behind the computer instead of getting up and going.

I have for some bizarre reason decided to really get moving and have taken up running (I don't advise this....every time I go out I wonder what the heck I was thinking). I've also started walking every day there has been sun. So far that's been for a few weeks. I'm guessing on of my new toys to purchase is going to be a new umbrella and rubber boots for the rainy days.

Another sign I've been stressed is I went out and got an iPod Touch instead of buying things that I really need (like bunny slippers to work in). Hense the NikeWomen widget at the side of my blog. I'll leave it there for a bit - I know it stretches the blog and I apologize for that to those that need to scroll left/right now. Seems like a neat little workout tool, tracker, etc. gadget to add to my Touch and I'm happy to find/join anyone else who wants a "buddy" using this app. It looks like you can utilize this directly through your computer as well. Give me a shout through twitter and I'd be happy to link up with you and get moving together. Oh an it says NikeWomen, but you can make your avatar look boyish too.

This has been a strange rambling post, but to summarize I'm looking forward to (in no particular order):

• more sun
• more warm weather
• camping
• biking in the woods
• swimming
• campfires
• holidays
• LMS finally working so I can move on to something else

Too Busy To Keep In Touch

I haven't posted much lately because I've been swamped with so many tasks at my office. The entire department seems very overwhelmed lately. For those curious, I am madly working away at my pilot launch. I'm convinced that it will be a go for next Monday. Whether it is at 100% ready to go or not. Those items not working should be noted by my pilot group and their extra input should hopefully reinforce the necessity of these items to work before the go live date to the organization.

I sent a list into the vendor of what needed to be "corrected" and that contained well over 30 items. I've yet to see many of them fixed yet. Again, I'm going into a slight panic mode. I'm very unsure of why they say "Sure, Yes, We'll concentrate on you and get this going in a few weeks." What actually happens is you don't hear from them for a few weeks wondering all the while what is going on and where your project stands.

It's sad that I'm already wishing for the next LMS before this one has even launched. (Dan: you'll be the first one I call as soon as I ever get a budget... :)

We'll this all being said has left me with the urge to write a nasty email to the vendor...again. I get to wishy-washy on the phone and less demanding as I need to be with them.

Wish me luck!

A New Blog is Born

I've mentioned before that I presented at the eLearning Guild's 2009 Annual Gathering on how to create and start your own blog.

Well I'm happy to announce that since that presentation I have been notified of a great new blog that has (so to speak) just "hit the stands".

Please feel free to take a visit by Treehouse Views and read/comment on Michele Stouffer's brand new blog. Michele is an elearning instructional designer at Ford Motor Company and I'm sure we'll all gain much knowledge from her and her experiences in elearning as she moves forward with her blog postings.

If you've started a new blog since the Annual Gathering, drop me a line and I'll be happy to list yours here as well.

Earth Hour 2009 Before and After Pictures

The National Geographic News website has some great pictures of city scapes before and after (or during) Earth Hour. I'm happy to see the Toronto skyline is captured in the pictures.












Photograph by Dick Hemingway via WWF-Canada, retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/photogalleries/earth-hour-before-after/photo4.html, 04/01/09

My Slideshare Presentations Hit 10,000 Views (April fools on me)

(UPDATED: 04/01/09 11:40am... to good to be true.....http://blog.slideshare.net/2009/04/01/happy-april-fools-day/)

I was pleasantly surprised today to get an email from Slideshare notifying me that one of my presentations has had a dramatic increase in views in the last 24 hours. So I went to look and wow, I've had just over 10,000 views of each of the 2 presentations I have up.

One is my slides used during my presentation at the eLearning Annual Gathering this past March. It's topic was Learning From Blogging: Creating your own and Learning from Others'. The other one I have posted was for the GTA Training & Organization Development Network and it's purpose was to introduce the members to some of the new web 2.0 tools being used. Although they don't seem so new a year later.

Such an overwhelming response has piqued me to go back an see if I have others to share. There is at least one that I know I will add: eCollaboration Tools.

Something I face every day with my supervisors is there lack of understanding and slight intimidation of the tools I use daily. They are trying very hard to keep up with my thirst for technology, social networking and everything else 2.0ish. They also appreciate my enthusiasm for using and seeking out new tools, but at the same time are intimidated by anything not on paper. I'm extremely happy that people are looking at these presentations and truly hope that they help others understand some of the web 2.0 tools a little more, but more importantly make them seem less intimidating.

LMS Pilot is Looming Near

Oh this is getting scary. My LMS pilot is scheduled to occur in a few weeks and I'm getting very nervous. There is so much about the system I don't like that I'm now getting very discouraged about the entire thing. Having the fear that it's going to drastically fail is not a good feeling. It certainly is not one I can project to others.

I suppose I need to act as if I'm 100% behind the project, but what if I am not. How do you, on one hand, encourage others to use it and be excited that we now have an LMS, and on the other hand hate the whole thing and wish you could start it all over.

Oh my dilemma is drawing more and more near. I feel a bit like one of those screaming girls in a horror movie that's is running through the woods, in the dark, it's raining, I'm wearing 4 inch stilettos, a heel breaks, and the killer is behind the tree. You just kind of know how it's going to turn out don't you?

Well here's hoping it's actually Bambi behind the tree and not Jason.

(Thanks for listening to the rantings of a sick person implementing an LMS)

Honoured by a reposting of "LMS Pitfalls" to Spanish site

I was honoured earlier this week by a fellow blogger requesting if he could re-post my post on LMS Pitfalls. Anthony Montalvo of Buenos Aires, Argentina pens the blog 34.35°S, 58.24°W - Navegando el aprendizaje 2.0.

I really agree with one the comments of his re-posted version and that is that many on the list should very much be part of our common sense when implementing an LMS. The reality though is that some of these we take for granted and just assume the system will work or function as we expect. What seems natural and second hand to you may not have crossed the LMS vendor's mind.

Anthony's blog includes other topics such as collaboration, implementation, Moodle, and answers to The Big Question among many other things. Take some time to stop by his blog to read and comment on a few posts. He does offer translation of his blog, so everyone is welcome.

Reflecting on "My Big Find" of the eLearning Guild Annual Gathering '09

It dawned on me today that I've been able to come away with one truly "Big Find" from my attendance at each of the last three Annual Gatherings. There are many, many finds to be had but, I think the "Big Find" is that one new person that amazes, inspires, and teaches you something you didn't know before. Meeting this person makes you want to learn all their tips and tricks, and keeps you driven to keep learning more about the elearning field in general. They are much like that latest television show you always watch or tape so you never miss a single episode.

For the first of my attendance that was Brent Schlenker. His presentations inspired me to begin blogging. My second year of attendance was B.J. Schone, his blog and his knowledge about mobile learning kept me reading each an every one of his posts. I'll admit I've also sent him many questions over the past two years about elearning and LMSs.

This year I think the "Big Find" was Tom Kuhlmann. I happen to come across a flyer in the lobby and after reading it walked into the expo to see if I could get my hands on a Captain Smiley from the Articulate booth. Not only did I add to my little collection for squeezey characters, but to my surprised I learned so many neat Articulate tricks from him in just 30 minutes.

I'm sorry to admit here, that it wasn't until I walked away that I realized why his name was so familiar. Tom is the author of The Rapid eLearning Blog. What I love about his postings is that they may come from the Articulate camp, but you need not have the tool to find his postings useful. Each week there are simple and practical tips, tricks, and demos that anyone can incorporate into any of their training. The past few weeks have included:
Mar. 24, 2009 3 Easy Ways to Create Silhouette Characters
Mar. 17, 2009 Here’s Why PowerPoint 2007 Helps You Build Better E-Learning
Mar. 10, 2009 50 Practical Tips & Tricks to Build Better E-Learning
Mar. 03, 2009 3 Proven Techniques to Add Creativity to Your E-Learning Courses

This gentleman was truly a great find of this year's Annual Gathering. Thanks Tom for the continued inspiration to make my learning more engaging for my audience.

Earth Hour March 28, 2009 - (8:30pm - 9:30pm)

What are you planning to do this year for Earth Hour? If you haven't yet thought about it, now is the time. Cities, Towns, and Villages around the world are choosing to help save our planet from global warming with one simple act...turning their lights off for one hour. Wherever they are in the world they are clicking the switch and saving energy for one hour, that's it! Seems simple right? It is. If you have other power appliances you can turn off for one hour too, then great the more we save the better. But just turning off our lights around the world will save tens of thousands of Kilowatts of energy and help in stopping global warming. It's not the cure all for this issue, but it is a start in the right direction and something that we all can easily to in our own homes and places of work.

So take part and do your part to help save our planet...we all know it's the only one we have.

eLearning Course or Online Demo - which is better?

My co-worker and had a discussion today about what will come into our area over the next year and one of them was my goal to create several courses to go onto our LMS (once it's up of course). As the discussion went along she mentioned that she would like to do something where she could demonstrate how to do certain searches using her literature databases to employees. I responded with how easily that could be done by screen capturing her movements on the screen and adding voice over of how/what she is doing.

She responded in turn that she prefers to have them sit at one computer and her at another then she can take control of their screen and show them where to click and move throughout the program. They could then (through microphone/headset) ask her any questions as they come up. I thought these could be addressed through an FAQ section of an e-course.

So the big question arises. Is one format better than another? Would you rather sit in on a demo with many other people or take a course online by yourself? Does one format fit better for certain training than another? Do you have a personal preference on which you'd rather teach through and even learn through?

I actually suppose this is one of those "great debate" topics that never truly gets answered, but I'm still curious to any responses you'd like to share.