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Bottom-Line Performance
I can take absolutely no credit for this. I have a printed copy taped up near my desk, and I think clearly shows the number one conflict between SMEs and IDs. SMEs want to pass on all knowledge immediately because it is all important and necessary. IDs want to organize...
Managing Subject Matter Experts and Using Them as Learning Developers
I have a colleague who once created a presentation called “Herding Cats: Working with SMEs.” Needless to say, her viewpoint on the value of SMEs was influenced by some negative experiences. Can subject matter experts (aka SMEs) make good developers? How do you manage them and keep them focused? Can you...
Are your competencies too much of a good thing?
I love a good competency model. I’ve previously written about the value of using competencies for improved performance outcomes in the recruiting process, succession planning, and learning and development. The competencies model is a road map for success giving us the criteria of which to measure by, improve on, and...
Social Media - What’s the Impact
We’ve been talking all month about Web 2.0 - but we haven’t talked all that much about social media. Gayle is out in Vegas right now, speaking at Tech Knowledge (go Gayle!). During the Keynote, she saw some videos she thought we’d like, so she used her new Droid to...
As we near the end of January’s focus on web 2.0, for your listening pleasure, here’s an audio podcast of a roundtable discussion I recently had with two fellow BLPers, Lisa and Kristen. Web 2.0 Roundtable In it, we discuss: Does web 2.0 allow for more actual learning, or is it just another...
All month we’ve been talking about new technologies for learning and teaching. But, particularly in the world of technology, what’s new today will be out of date sooner than we want to admit. So I thought I’d use my last post on new technology to talk about what’s coming down...
elearningpost
From Kristiana Halvorson: “The most important thing to understand is this: Content strategy isn’t a bunch of tactics. It’s a plan.” “It’s a well-founded plan, fueled by your business objectives and user goals. An achievable plan, created with your current business reality, content assets, and limited resources in mind. A future...
Better User Experience With Storytelling – Part One
A good read on how storytelling can unite the different aspects of the user experience such as brining different perspectives together, defining the goal or defining the user (personas). However, there is another benefit that the article briefly touches upon and that is defining the journey (scenarios). It’s one thing...
Lessig Calls Google Book Settlement A “Path To Insanity”
Interesting post on Lawrence Lessig’s views on the Google book deal. “By breaking up books into different licensable parts, Lessig fears that we are going to encounter the same problem with books that we do today with film. He gives the example of documentary films which are sometimes nearly impossible to...
A Better Way to Manage Knowledge
John Hagel and John Seely Brown talk about Creation Spaces - “places where individuals and teams interact and collaborate within a broader learning ecology so that performance accelerates.” They go on to discuss how these spaces are different from the traditional KM systems: “Knowledge management traditionally has focused on capturing...
Fantastic Information Architecture and Data Visualization Resources
From Noupe. Good starting points to get more on IA and infographics. (via Infodesign)...
Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge
When will this infection catch on worldwide? These are the small pockets of hope that we have left. Brilliant stuff Kiran!...
About.com Distance Learning
Tax Breaks for Online Students
Tax season is coming up. But, you may not have to pay as much as expected. Online students enrolled in accredited programs often qualify for tax breaks to the tune of several thousand dollars. Take a look at this article to see how much you can save before April 15. See...
Earn an Online Degree in Less Time
Think you don't have time to earn an online degree? Think again. By requesting transfer equivalencies, earning credit for work experience, and planning ahead, many students can earn an online degree in just two or three years. Check out this article to learn how to speed up your studies. See Also: 4...
Everything You Need to Know About Online MBA Degrees
Online MBA degrees are becoming a popular choice for young professionals seeking advancement and mature adults looking for a career change. Many reputable colleges now offer accredited online MBA programs tailored to students that need to continue full time employment while completing their coursework. Want to learn more? Check out...
How to Earn an Online Certificate from Stanford, Cornell, or Harvard
Want to earn a prestigious certificate from home? Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard offer online certificate programs to students everywhere. Most of the required courses are open to all students and do not require a competitive application process. Check out this article to learn how to enroll in one of these...
Whether you need a quick refresher or are desperate for some problem-solving assistance, free online math classes can help. I've scoured the web for the best free online math classes available to the public. Take a look at these ten high-quality options offering video instruction, no-cost math manuals, credentialed instructors...
Facing tough competition in the job market, many older teens and adults are now interested in earning a GED. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get a GED online. The only way to earn this certificate is to pass a test in person. However, many websites do offer study guides and...
The End in Mind
There has been lots of great discussion at ELI 2010 about openness–what it means, why it’s a value we should embrace, and what it means for institutions. As I’ve contemplated all of this, I was reminded of Whitman poem: “I Hear It Was Charged Against Me” by Walt Whitman I HEAR it was charged...
It’s a been a long time since I blogged. Between sending my son off on a mission to Brazil, celebrating my 20th anniversary with my sweetheart, working on some offline writing projects, taking some time off for the holidays, getting back into the swing of things with the New Year...
Tinkering, Playing, and Learning
John Seely Brown is visited the BYU Campus today and gave a compelling talk about Homo sapiens, Homo faber, and Homo ludens. Essentially, he argues that the formal education focuses almost exclusively on the Homo sapiens notion of “man as knowledge,” attempting to fill students with information and facts. This is...
Why Wave Won’t Replace the CMS
Last week, Jeff Young added to the Wave hype with his frequently Tweeted and Re-Tweeted post “Could Google Wave Replace Course-Management Systems?” From what I’ve seen of Wave so far (I got my invite this week), I’d have to say, “No chance.” I have three reasons for making this conclusion: 1....
Gaming, Social Learning & Authenticity
James Paul Gee argues that gaming, particularly role-playing gaming, is providing young people with precisely the skills they need to be effective and productive in our new mediated culture and highly networked workplaces. Gee’s positive view on the impact of gaming confirms what I’ve concluded about the video game “races”...
Just discovered the free WordPress iPhone app. Great way to write short posts on the go. This post is mostly to see how it works … and to note that technology never ceases to amaze me. Why is it that with such amazing technological affordances available to us we haven’t...
Learnlets
At the Upside Learning Blog, this post (which I found through the CLO group on LinkedIn) proclaims that the elearning industry is down on the iPad. I saw several flaws in the argument and had to write this response: I have to say I think this is partly or completely wrong....
Yesterday, in case you’ve been living under a rock, Apple released their take on the tablet computer, the iPad. Steve Jobs has been quoted as saying it’s “the most important thing I’ve ever done.” And that’s saying a lot. Like him or not, he’s changed the face of our digital...
It flashed on me last night. Jeopardy-style, the answer to the question is the answer to the question “why do/will smartphones rule” is “because ‘there’s an app for that’”. Let me explain. First, you have to be clear on what a smartphone is. David Pogue has tried to call the converged...
How I became a learning experience designer
Not meaning this to be a sudden spate of reflectiveness, given my last post on my experience with the web, but Cammy Bean has asked when folks became instructional designers, and it occurs to me to capture my rather twisted path with a hope of clarifying the filters I bring...
What does the 20th year of the web mean?
Gina Minks, who I know only through Twitter (@gminks), tho’ hope to meet someday, tagged me for the following Questions from On. Her post was immensely personal, and I have no such deeply significant experience, but I have been on the internet since before there was one, so I reckon...
There is a lot of concern about incorporating social learning into organizations centering on the organizational and culture issues. I gave my “Blowing up the training department” presentation last nite for Massachusetts ISPI chapter, and a number of the questions were on getting the executives to buy in to the...
BusinessCasualBlog.com
"What got you started with social media?"
I had a great meeting with the principles of a social media-related startup company yesterday about the prospect of MindBridj providing the social media training content to help service their customers. I'll likely have more to say about this downstream as it evolves, but needless to say, I'm excited. Interestingly......
I love the iPad! Though maybe not for the reasons you'd think...
By now you've heard all the hubbub about Apple's iPad launch last week. You know me, Mr. gadget freak. But, on "version 1.0 products" I tend to be a little more circumspect. And as much as I love Apple's products, I'm probably gonna hold off myself and see what new......
January's vBook open registration window has now closed.
Shyooh... What a week. Launching a new site always kicks my butt. ;) Was it Dorothy Parker who said, "I hate writing, but love having written." (?) Well, to paraphrase: "I hate launching a new site, but love having launched it." (Not as eloquent--nor original--as Ms. Parker, perhaps. But you......
I'm counting down to releasing the vBook. Finished rendering the last chapter yesterday.
Yesterday, I finally finished shooting, editing and rendering the last chapter of the Social Media vBook. (Based on the text we published last Fall.) Later this morning, I'll be going out with a message to the folks who signed up previously to be notifed about the date and time of......
How To Get Access To the Online Social Media Field Guide -- Free
A couple of months ago I announced a videoBook (vBook) project I was working on. It's the online video version of the social media field guide I had written with Stefan last summer, The Swanepoel Social Media Report: A Field Guide For Real Estate Professionals. I'm getting ready to release......
Below is an excerpt from one of the recent "manifestos" from the ChangeThis site. This one by Seth Godin, Author of Linchpin: Are You Indepsensable? Years ago, when you were about four years old, the system set out to persuade you of something that isn’t true. Not just persuade, but......
Julie Lindsay's Blogs
This blog is designed to reach out to school communities and educate them about the guidelines and rules of online digital citizenship. This is done through the use of real-life stories and experiences that are used to have a greater impact on the online community....
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An open blog for participants at the ECIS IT Conference 2007 - http://it07.isdedu.de/...
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A blog dedicated to discussion about the concept and practice of podcasting in education...
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The Rapid eLearning Blog
Why E-Learning is So Effective
E-learning is hot. And for good reason. If done right, it can produce great results by decreasing costs and improving performance. Also, unlike a one time classroom session, the elearning course is available for others. This includes the static elearning course as well as any ongoing conversations in networked...
How to Navigate Social Media (and Avoid Information Overload)
There’s a lot of conversation about social media. And for good reason. The tools let you connect with peers who share common interests. It’s also a great way to build a personal learning network. For example, if you build rapid elearning courses with Articulate products there are all sorts of...
Here’s a Quick Way to Create Your Next E-Learning Template in PowerPoint
In a previous post, I showed you how to design your own PowerPoint templates. In other posts, I’ve talked about how to use PowerPoint’s drawing features to build the envelope icon and television monitor. These are all intended to help you become more proficient with PowerPoint and your graphic design...
How Fonts Take a Starring Role in Your E-Learning Courses
The video below shows how graphic designer, Brian Hoff, selected the right font for one of his projects. There are many points in the video where he probably could have stopped, but didn’t. No one would have known the difference. But something kept him going until he found just...
Here’s How to Be an E-Learning Superstar in 2010
I find that most rapid elearning developers are working by themselves or with very small teams. In those situations, their organizations don’t offer a lot of support to learn more about elearning. Typically, there’s no access to more experienced developers or others who can help them grow as an elearning...
Your Favorite Rapid E-Learning Posts of 2009
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost 2010. I think the emergency supplies in my Y2K kit have finally gone bad. 2009 zipped by so fast, that I’m still writing 2008 on my checks. Do people still write checks? It was a busy year. Most of my highlights were from...
EPS411 ELearning Design and Production
Content: Wilderness First Responder Course
I am a lead instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates. Since 2001 I have taught 2, 4, 5, and 8 day wilderness medicine courses to outdoor enthusiasts, trip leaders, and remote area workers. WMA training is designed to help students assess a patient’s problems, anticipate how those problems may change over...
Connections: Camp Manito-wish YMCA Video
I was a camper and staff member at Camp Manito-wish YMCA. I am still an active volunteer and share my passion and experience for social media with the full-time camp staff. What organizations are you passionate about that might benefit from your experience as an online and classroom educator?...
I wrote and posted a review of Linchpin: are you indispensable? by Seth Godin at EverydayEMSTips.com. I think you are indispensable so take a few minutes to read why....
Idea: Collaborative Test Taking
This month I have been working my way through the Paramedic alphabet courses – ACLS, BLS, PALS, and ITLS. Next month I will add GEMS and a special training on STEMI. I also have a day with Bob Page scheduled for next week on 12 Lead ECG. Lots of training. While...
Content: Recent Posts at EverydayEMSTips.com
Once a day I add a new post to EverydayEMSTips.com by me or a guest blogger. These are recent posts from EverydayEMSTips.com. Book Review: Saber’s Edge – a combat medic in Ramadi Iraq. Saber’s Edge: A Combat Medic in Ramadi, Iraq is Tom Middleton’s chronicle of his experiences as a Firefighter/Paramedic/Nurse...
Idea: Smartphone Apps Review Team
More and more EMS professionals are carrying a Smartphone – like an iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre, or Google Droid – on duty and during training. There are tens of thousands of Smartphone applications available across the various platforms. While only a few are EMS specific many others are applicable and...
The Bamboo Project Blog
What I've Been Up To: Some Social Media Training Resources
For the past few months, I've definitely been blogging less, in part because I've been doing training on social media for several clients. I thought it made sense to share some of what I've been working on, so here are......
Borrowing from the Library to Support Workplace Learning
Joyce Valenza is a librarian rockstar who also happens to be the head librarian at my daughter's high school. A recent post she wrote for the School Library Journal on strategies for teaching and using social media showed up in......
It's Not the Tool That's Boring. It's You.
Great post from Sarah Horrigan on a training she did with University staff on using virtual learning environments (VLE's). Apparently there were complaints prior to the session about VLEs being "boring," that Sarah decided to face head on, pointing out......
Augmented Reality and the Future of Learning & Work
A few weeks ago I was doing a social media training and a couple of participants started talking to me about "augmented reality" and how it was going to change learning and work. I'd never heard of the concept and......
Will Richardson has an excellent post, Don't, Don't, Don't vs. Do, Do, Do, in which he muses on "acceptable use" policies of social media in schools and how restrictive and anti-learning they can be. Having spent the past several months......
I'm currently at the USBLN Conference in Maryland, where we're exploring various "business to business strategies to promote the business imperative of including people with disabilities in the workforce." Yesterday I attended a great session co-facilitated by Manpower, Inc. where......
Clive on Learning
Learning in 3D: a stop on the world blog book tour
I have been asked by Karl M. Kapp and Tony O’Driscoll to participate in the Blog Book Tour for their new book Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration. I’m actually stop #19 on the tour and the show is not expected in town until...
Is it time for Learning Technologies to use learning technologies?
In one of many lively discussions with conference participants at Learning Technologies 2010 today, that most obvious of questions arose once again: why should you have to be at Olympia in London, live and in person, in chilly January, to participate in the event. Surely for every one of the...
British Telecom Dare2Share case study
Here at Learning Technologies 2010 I chaired a fascinating session looking at the learning applications of social media, presented by Jane Hart and British Telecom’s Peter Butler. There was a lot of interest in the BT case study and we ran out of question time, but luckily there are plenty...
In the past ten years I have spent a great deal of time looking at the skills and competencies required to create good quality web content, including four years participating in European projects and defining role profiles, competency frameworks and curricula for a mysterious new profession that we called 'web...
In a special feature on newspapers and technology in The Economist of December 19th, the following caught my eye: "The internet may kill newspapers; but it is not clear if that matters. For society, what matters is that people should have access to news, not that...
It’s not a surprise when change comes slowly
There was some consternation on Twitter about the results of the survey that Alison Rossett and James Marshall conducted with 968 ASTD and eLearning Guild members in mid 2009. As the authors point out, if you went by the themes of most l&d conferences, blogs and magazines, then you’d believe...
Betchablog
This is the first time I’ve ever done this, but I’d like to welcome a guest writer to Betchablog. This post was written by one of my work colleagues, Pam Nutt, and was actually the first part of her welcoming address to staff for the start of the 2010 school...
There always seems to be a lot of talk about the need for more teachers to embrace “21st Century skills”. Of course, there’s a lot of discussion about what these “21st Century skills” actually are. Many people have debated and discussed this issue, asking the question of what exactly...
So What Should We Be Amazed By?
I wrote a blog post a little while back called This is Not Amazing, and the basic thrust of it was that, after more than 30 years since “the personal computer revolution”, more than 10 years of living in a post-Google World, and now almost a full decade into the...
Earlier this year, I had a visitor from South Africa contact me to ask if they could drop into the school at which I work while they were visiting Australia. She was were here as part of a study tour, and had heard some good things about PLC Sydney. In...
A Fascination with Migration Information
Warning! Geek talk ahead. If you aren’t into the techie stuff, you may want to skip this post… A few people asked me about what themes, widgets and plugins I decided to use on the new blog site, so I thought I’d just give a quick rundown of what I’m using,...
Sometimes it’s good to stop and take stock. To think about getting rid of some of the clutter that we allow to build up. You may recall that I was thinking about shifting my blog to a new server and running a self hosted Wordpress blog. Well, I had intended to...
E-learning Curve Blog at Edublogs
The E-Learning Curve Blog Has Moved!
The E-Learning Curve Blog now lives at my domain michaelhanley.ie. Click here to access the blog. Click here to subscribe to the E-Learning Curve Blog via RSS. Please update your links and bookmarks. I look forward to welcoming you to my new home. Michael Hanley, September 2009 –...
Goodbye to the Edublogs mirror of the E-Learning Curve Blog
The E-Learning Curve Blog will no longer be updated here on Edublogs.org....
Moodle 1.9 Multimedia – Book Review
Review of Packt Publishing's Moodle 1.9 Multimedia by João Pedro Soares Fernandes....
Podcasting for E-Learning: Benefits of Digital Audio
Today, I want to talk about how digital audio technology benefits podcasters. What are its advantages over an analog system of recording?...
Some interesting Moodle audio visual plugins just released
I've been discussing podcasting in some depth recently: today I've decided to take a break from the topic, and tell you about a related subject. Now read on......
Podcasting for E-Learning: Critically Analyzing Podcasts
Recording and producing your own content is great fun, and I hope you'll find that there's great satisfaction in crafting your own little corner of the internet....
Derek's Blog
What children think of the media
The researchers at Intuitive Media have produced some thought provoking stuff over recent years, and their latest report on ‘children, TV and the internet’ is no exception. Surveying a sample of 4347 children, aged 6-14 who are users of their SuperClubsPLUS & GoldStarCafe projects, the researchers asked a range of...
Having spent quite a bit of time in schools at the beginning of this year talking and thinking about educational futures, I was interested this morning to view this new video from FutureLab titled ‘Make the Future‘, which looks at ideas drawn from research commissioned under the Beyond Current Horizons...
I spent the day today with teachers from seven Nelson schools that are in their second year now of an ICT PD cluster programme, and then this evening, participated in the executive meeting of a professional organisation I belong to (the Distance Educational Association of NZ – DEANZ). The cluster meeting...
Came across this interesting slideshow today titled 21 things that became obsolete this decade. Makes for an interesting browse – several of the things mentioned I’m sure will provoke responses like “but I still use that regularly!’, while others are things that I think there’d be common agreement are definitely...
Source: Education Futures I’m always interested in what others have to say about the future of education, and enjoy pondering the future predictions made by various commentators. So it was with interest that I browsed the Education Futures Timeline today. According to the blurb, this timeline… “provides not only a...
I had the privilege of speaking to the staff at Lindisfarne College at their teacher only day yesterday as they were working to prepare for the return of their students next week. While I was there they were also hosting the NZ Secondary School’s Choir, who provided some entertainment for...
elearnspace
Time to Know: Changing classrooms
Right after I posted a rant on how systems reduce innovation, I came across this article on an a start up called Time to Know. If you’re ever asked to criticize today’s education system, say something like “industrial paradigm” or “if you took a teacher from 100 years ago, he/she...
The Economist’s article on Privacy 2.0 (Woo hoo! Someone has come up with the brilliant idea of adding “2.0″ to privacy! This is terrific. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2.0 meme spread to enterprise, the web, learning, etc. What revolutionary times), argues that privacy could stop the spread of...
About five years ago, if you wanted to get attention for consulting or speaking engagements, frequent use of “web 2.0″ was required. Today, you can get the same mileage from “social media”. In fact, add “social” to anything and you’ll get attention. But language is like that – we sacrifice...
The iPad: Content lives to see another day
The real story of Apple’s iPad is not the device itself. Rather, the long-term impact is that many of the information structures of the physical world – books and newspapers – now have a place in the digital world, as well as a revenue model online. Apple possesses the mystical...
I signed up for Twitter in November 2006 (I think). And did nothing with it for a fairly long time. Alan “so cool that I’m coming to a conference near you soon” Levine posted his Twitter life cycle, capturing perfectly my experience with the service. From “this is dumb” to...
Social media is changing the Grammys: “Social media introduces an entire paradigm shift into how the Academy can both connect with music lovers and with how its message is consumed and presented.” Hardly a surprise. Any field that is concerned with a) information creation and sharing and/or b) connecting people to...