1st Webinar a Success

I hosted our first webinar yesterday and it seems to have been quite successful. I didn't have a huge participation level, but I think that is a good thing for the first time. Had it failed miserably it would have been very embarrassing if there were tens of participants trying to get in.

We used GoToMeeting as it gave us room for 15 people during the trial phase. Although we were not collaborating during the webinar those features seemed decent and my trials with friends and functioned very well. I've participated in many different webinars and I would say the only thing I wasn't really keen on is that the chat area seemed "thin" and I could not expand it horizontally so that I could see more responses. It could be a few lines thicker.

As an organizer it seemed to function well. I was able to give controls to the presenter and them use them seamlessly to present their slides. I had 2 PowerPoint screens open on one of my monitors and the actual slide show opened on my other monitor. I flipped from my opening slides to the presenter's slides, previously gave them mouse control and she began immediately. I may try this slightly different the next time, but it seemed to work well.

Since the presenter was my supervisor, when she started referencing other documents I was able to open them up and drag them onto the screen for the participants to see as well. That was a great feature. Instead of her just walking through it on her side and the participants looking at the document on their side, I brought it up and continued to point to the items she was addressing. (This is the entire point of being able to do a webinar obviously.) It was simple to be able to share other documents other than just a slide show.

I had tried DimDim also as a trial with a colleague, but she could not hear my mic for some reason. I thought thought that it's interface was really nice, simple and user friendly. I may retry it again in the future. I also sat in on a WebEx webinar today and really liked it's platform as well. I guess it comes down to budget and which one falls within yours.

A few comments to remember when hosting. We started of the session with me explaining that we would be communicating through the chat, but because some people joined late and had dialed in they assumed that they could talk over the phone to the group. I'm not sure how to avoid this confusion as the presented did ask the participants during her presentation to type their answers in to the chat area. One person emailed us today and was wondering why no one was answer her when she talked. (Important for participants to show up early to webinar and make sure they get the instructions and can connect.)

I had one person have trouble dialling in to the conference number. She called my phone directly and told me that it kept telling her the line was disconnected. I didn't' know how to respond to her because I could see that others had been able to dial in to the session. I could only tell her to continue to try. She did eventually get connected. (Important for participants to show up early to webinar and make sure they get the instructions and can connect.)

I'm doing another session on July 14th so I'll see if any other developments come out of that one. For now we are thrilled with the results and believe we will try to host several others for our teams.

Learning Management Systems - Trends and Issues (Brandon Hall Research) Webinar

My notes taken during today's webinar.

Presented by Tom Werner & Richard Nantel

What do they do?

Automate the administration of training.

What do they contain?

Databases: learners, course offerings, content, progress.

Quick History:

1980 - paper age

• catalog, approvals, registrations, class info (all manually)
• attendance, evaluations, tests (all manually)
• count, charge-backs, reporting (all manually)
• process is dependent on people (admin staff)
• trainer dependent (collect and hand out materials)
• supervisor depended (boss had to tell you of courses available)
• measured by productivity or # of hours of training
• training very decentralized

1984 - Training Management Systems

1990 - Internet

1990s - Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay, Google

• online training started being just courses posted on line, then moved to tracking who was taking them

2001 - Learning Management Systems (term coined)

7 Trends

1. Still many different LMS vendors (Brandon Hall tracks 92 of them, adding appx 15-20 each year since 5 years ago when they began. To be in the Brandon Hall report systems do not pay to be in it, but do have to answer an extremely detailed questionnaire. Updated every 12 -18 months.)

• consolidate? No it does not appear to be occurring, but is a continuing rumour.
• why so many? Good customer service generally. Once they have a customer they often don't lose them. Continue to innovate. There has not been a "Microsoft" or "Google" type of enterprise to buy up smaller companies.

2. So many features

• 88% have built in test systems
• 80% offer more than just English
• 80% offer many portals
• 78% offer classroom management
• 74% track certificate deadlines
• 64% have built in authoring
• 60% have LCMS features
• 50% handle e-Commerce

3. Interoperability with content (how lms and content within talk to one another)

• early standards were AICC
• standard now is SCORM (military pushed), This is a collection of standards including AICC. This is important to look for in a system.
• 87% are compliant,
• 86% are SCORM 1.2 (look for this as a minimum)
• 48% SCORM 2004 compliant (most recent version of SCORM).
• Just because it is compliant does not mean it will definitely run perfectly in your LMS. LMSs will tell you if they have tested with interoperability. (eg. tested with a vitural classroom, or with a SkillSoft course)

4. Integration with other large systems

• 43% have connected with PeopleSoft
• 40% with SAP (both of these are large HR employee tracking systems)
• 34% with Oracle

5. Software Hosting (SaaS)

• 68% of vendors say that more then 50% of their implementations are hosted
• hosting used to seem as an unsecure way to go, but not so much now as more banks and governments have gone to hosted solutions.

6. Talent Management

• many systems call themselves "Talent Development Systems" now
• (paper age - people issues were in silos e.g. career path, separate from training, separate from goals, etc) Now these can all be melded together.
• 60% of LMS they are tracking ..... (item missed)
• 38% offer feedback
• 38% offer succession planning

7. Web 2.0

• 2 way training, not just the trainer creating content but learners are too (Facebook, blogs, twitter, etc)
• Need to understand that there is learning then as a designed activity and that there is just generally keeping up with subjects (newspaper, rss, tv, blogs, journals) keeping up with information sources
• People are now learning on Google - search, amazon - recommendations, cnn - snippets, youtube - sharing, facebook/twitter - belonging
• (debate is this learning or not continues)
• 42% of systems allow searches
• 40% ... slide 116 (item missed)
• 26% peer ratings
• 20% blogs
• 17% wikis

Three Current Issues

1. LMSs for small and medium businesses

• needed affordable, minimal IT, limited training staff

2. Open source systems

• most know - Moodle, Sakai, Claroline, dokeos, OLAT, ilias, eFront

3. LMS's place in the "ecosystem"

• LMS as a piece of a larger system or collaborative learning environment
• Does it contain all the stuf, or is it a piece of a bigger environment

What's New for July 2009

Well frankly, not much is new at all, hence my reasoning for not posting anything in quite some time. My LMS pilot came and went. I'm now waiting for the vendor to complete the second phase of changes to the system. I was given a first set to review, did so and gave more feedback. As soon as the next set comes then we'll be very close to being able to launch the system for real onto the organization.

That is a very frightening thought. This has been one of my key areas of focus for the last 2 years and now it's finally coming to and end. Launching the LMS is going to be an entirely new problem. So many of our staff are not very computer savvy. There is a large lack of computers in the organization for staff to use so we're going to have to rely on them using them at home. However, the LMS isn't precisely available that way so a band aid solution of some sort will need to be created. Oh my head is spinning already.

To divert myself from this headache I've taken on hosting 2 webinars from our office. We've never done this before so I find it quite exciting. The only issue I see so far though is lack of registration. Only 16 staff were invited from a satellite area and out of those 16 only 3 have signed up. I guess that may be a good selling point though to the presenters. If they were to do the presentations in person it would have been a one hour drive to the facility to present to 3 people. At least by doing this as a webinar we've cut down on travel, gas, and time. All three of those factors more then "triple-negate" (if I can say that) the cost for one month of purchasing the webinar platform.

Today I have test runs with each presenter so it should be interesting. I'm hoping for a big success here as I would love to continue to run more. I'd love to hear from anyone that perhaps ran a webinar of a live event that was happening within there facility. I'm curious how or even if this is a good idea. I'm unsure as I've only ever sat in on webinars that were just that; schedule to only be a webinar and not a "broadcast" of another event.

Cheers everyone to a long and sunny July.

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.