I'm happy to say that thanks to several fellow bloggers, this blog - eLearning Technology - is one of the finalists for the 2008 Edublog Awards under the category Best elearning / corporate education blog . You can click the badge below to see the other finalists and to vote on your favorites ... hopefully that's me ... :) It was a bit surprising that I didn't even know a few of the fellow finalists. One of them has not posted since August? What is Britannica's blog doing there? Actually, Presentation Zen is a bit of a surprise too. Great blog. But not sure I get that as ...

It's always interesting to look back at the past year - 2008, think about what has changed for me during the year, and think about what that means for the next year - 2009. My blog is really the hub of my thinking and activity, so by going back through posts for the 2008, it gives me a pretty good perspective on what's been happening inside my head during 2008. To do my review, I first looked at what I was writing about and what people were reading on my blog in 2008. Top 2008 Posts based on Read Counts: 100 eLearning Articles and White Papers Free - Web 2.0 for Learning ...

Supporting, accelerating and directing learning from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) brings together the conclusions and insights from the CIPD's Helping People Learn project'. It also brings together much of the work that Martyn Sloman has carried out as Learning, Training and Development Adviser at the CIPD as he moves on to pastures new. Now I haven't seen eye to eye with Martyn completely on the subjects of e-learning (see CIPD gives e-learning a mixed report ) or evaluation (see ROE, sorry but no thanks ), but this paper highlights that we have much more ...

Jay is a wise man using humor to spice up any workshop and at this occasion he was wearing a yellow tie and suspenders. The audience was very diverse but all with an eLearning perspective and their social media background as well. The workshop is taken a complete day, but unfortunately I had a deadline to meet in the afternoon, so what follows is only on the first part of the day (before lunch). Jay Cross had asked me to be one of the 'guides' during the workshop. A guide is someone who is into informal learning and/or using social media and willing to share information on it. I am always ...

Create a Jog (a mnemonic device or memorable phrase) to help remember your stuff. Memory experts learn this way; it's as easy as 1,2,3.. Watch the video here: ...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog for this important message: I was talking with one of the bright and lively people at DevLearn 08 (the conference * rocked *), and we started talking about different folks’ ’styles’. She was opining about a couple of well known consultants and their credibility. I naturally asked about her perception of mine, and she was surprised to find out I was an independent consultant, thinking I was some sort of academic. That’s not an insult, as I have been an academic and I believe that the deep background I bring to bear is ...

Whenever people are able to connect and collaborate, engage in conversations, share expertise, and access information, the impact on a society (or quality of life to individuals) can be enormous. This is obviously true for developed countries. But can the same be said about developing countries? Does giving internet access to a poor farmer in South America, Africa, or in poorer regions of Canada, US, or Europe, benefit? Don’t people need the basics of life first? Yes. And no. Web 2.0 in Africa (via Elearning Africa blog) suggests web 2.0 tools can assist farmers in regions such as ...

It is the 5th year of the Edublog Awards, an awards program for bloggers who use blogs and social media to support education (so it’s a practitioner focus). The program is managed by Josie Fraser and founded by James Farmer. while the focus on the “Eddies,” as they are called, is the K-12 and higher ed sector, there is a category for “Best elearning/corporate education blog.” I make a point to read blogs that do not focus on elearning and corporate education exclusively because many are just good reading and contain a great deal of information that is easily ...

Mark Bullen writes an important blog - netgen nonsense - that I encourage educators to follow. He takes a critical look at evidence (or lack of it) that supports the concept of net generation learners. His blog title is obviously intended to be controversial, but his views are well considered. His main message: evidence to date does not support broad assumptions about different traits/characteristics of learners who have been raised in a technologically rich environment. From a recent post (he is quoting a research report from UK): “The findings show that many young students are ...

Here is another web-based app for sharing ppt files.  It looks very interesting. Presenting LIVE is cool feature that I want to test at some point.  This is still in beta, but if anyone out there has tried it already please let me know what you're impressions are. How could elearning developers take advantage of apps like this?  Do you already?  Do we encourage our learners to share using these tools?  If you already have a course online how might you incorporate something like this on your next rev.? I'm very curious to hear ideas. DevLearn 2008 Conference & Expo - November 10-14 - ...

Apparently, by 2017 , personal networks will consist of over 1000 devices. I’m not sure how they came up with that number, but it seems realistic. Most of us already deal with hundreds of devices on a daily basis. They’re not all networked yet…but they will be. The key to effective functioning with these multiple devices will be in how they are connected and in how we can use that connectedness in making decisions. Obviously, we need something more than just tying these devices together. We need new approach to managing the overwhelming information they will produce.

Image via Wikipedia My brain has made a strange transition and it is continuing to mold. @KevinDJones has been active for some months now with 350 updates and 112 followers - neither of which even compare to many. It wasn’t until DevLearn, however, that I really started using it. Sure, every now and then, but that conference planted a twitter seed that started my brain reformation. Now, unconsciously, my brain is starting to think in “twitter-bytes”. With every (OK - EVERY is too much, but you get the idea…) experience I have my mind goes into twitter ...

Just getting ready. My workshop on Social Learning and the Web is tomorrow. Unfortunately, the German Embassy in London denied a visa to the Oxford student who was going to assist me because (1) she’s Chinese and (2) they are officious bureaucrats. Furthermore, the books I spent $2,000+ to ship here are nowhere in sight. And so it goes. It’s great to be back in Berlin. Tis the season: ...

As I mentioned in Real-Time Collaborative Editing , I had a fantastic experience participating in group editing of a Mind Map of collaborative tools during a session at Learn Trends. You can see the result below. But it was interesting to see the results exported which I've embedded below. I would expect the document to continue to grow and change, but thought it would be worth having it available in a text format as well (so I can find it when I need it). Screen-Sharing GoToMeeting ( link ) eBLVD ( link ) ConnectNow ( link ) ...

Several people have asked for some clarification on my definition of Concept Work and Concept Workers . To help clarify this and to begin thinking through implications for Work Literacy Skills , I went back through a couple of different sources. Thomas Davenport classifies Knowledge Work Types in Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances And Results from Knowledge Workers using a variety of classifications. One was based on the complexity of the work. Work that requires greater interpretation/judgment vs. work that is relatively routine. He also classified these ...

Well commercialization has finally impacted something as neutral and seemingly advertisement free as a student's math test. A calculus teacher in San Diego, California sells ads on his test papers: $10 for a quiz, $20 for a chapter test and $30 for a semester final. Check out the USA Today article Ads on tests add up for teacher for more price quotes and information. But why stop at tests? Imagine for a moment, negotiating with a business minded educator such as myself... If you are curious, yes, I will accept advertisement payment for tests, homework assignments, quizzes, even space on ...

WiZiQ is a web-based platform for anyone and everyone who wants to teach and learn live, online.  If you want to give a public or private WiZiQ session you can now embed the code right into your own blog.  Here's an example of a public session to be given by Nellie Deutsch: ...

Several Web 2.0 entities (YouTube, Facebook, Howcast, Google) plus some academics and the Department of State will be gathering next week to kickoff the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit . The goal is to find ways to use media to counter the messages of violence, extremism, and oppression. It will be very interesting to track the progress of this movement on the "areas of interest". There is a lot of potential to make some serious changes in the quality of the message being delivered to young people in different countries.

In the process of thinking through how to support informal learning, I was reminded of a diagram I created several years ago.  I started from an approach based upon philosophy that talked about acting in the world: you act in the world when you can, and when you have a breakdown you need to solve it, so you repair, and then reflect and learn so you can act more competently the next time (Ok, so it’s an idealized model). What it led me to think was that when we have a need, we first try to find the answer. If we don’t, then we have to do more extreme steps of actively trying to ...

I needed to figure out how to download YouTube videos for an upcoming conference presentation where I wasn't confident that I would be able to have a good enough connection to play the video. I found that there was a very nice bookmarklet to Download as MP4 Files : One way is to save the following link as a bookmarklet by dragging it to your Links bar (in Firefox, Safari) or right-clicking and adding it to your favorites (in Internet Explorer, Opera): Get YouTube video When you want to download a YouTube video, just click on the bookmarklet. KeepVid offered both (save as FLV ...

Estimating Training Design and Developing Time and Costs Contents Budgeting Training Cost Guidelines Estimating Development Hours eLearning Development Time Instructor Preparation Time Seat Time Interactive Multimedia Instruction Case Study Tools Reference Budgeting Learning activities are budgeted in a wide variety of ways, so the degree of estimating the costs will depend upon the organization you are working for. Generally speaking, the closer you are to your clients, the less you have to estimate. For example, a small ...

In my continuing quest to change hearts and minds about the use of social media, I think it's important to communicate not only the mechanics about getting around social media platforms but, perhaps more importantly, communicating cultural dynamics . But therein lies the rub. Whom should you trust for information about social media protocol? Who's Your Trust Agent? I s'pose much influence can be had by those you hit up first. If, for example, you happen to first land with someone who values social media as a tool for "getting more traffic," "gaining ...

I'm curious to find out a few things from bloggers who have been posting for more than a year: What is your blogging tool of choice (blogger, wordpress , etc)? Have you always used the same tool? If you switched why? How often to you post? Does traffic to your blog matter to you? Do you try to stick to one topic/theme or are you generalized? How many other blogs do you follow? Have you kept your blog in the standard templates offered, have you tweaked it, or have you designed your own fully? Do you blog internally for a company/organization or is it out there for the world to see?

At my previous job I had 5 weeks of paid and 1 week of unpaid vacation per year. I took it all. I have 2 weeks of vacation now. The hours weren’t as flexible in my previous job and they were set. In my current job, I’m able to do a lot more personally and that means more to me. So, I exchanged time off for flexibility. Last week was the first time in 2 years that I actually disconnected from what has become 16 hour on-and-off workdays where all things work and all things personal blend. It’s refreshing. What do you do to refresh?

Malcolm Gladwell says that everything has a Tipping Point , that point at which a virus goes epidemic, when the hip new thing goes mainstream. Think Uggs . Well, my Facebook world has just tipped. I'm not talking about the quantity of my friends, but rather the breadth and depth. In the past month, I have friended or been friended by: my 73 year old mother (we like to play Scrabble) my 16 year old niece (she has WAY more friends than I do, which is not surprising) former students almost everyone I used to swim with in my high school swimming days ...

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 ...

Courtesy of lisa_funtime Free education?  I’m not referring to grants or scholarships.  I’m talking about a change in the way we acquire marketable knowledge and skills.  Could there really be such a thing as free education? MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has made essentially all its course content available in a free, web-based format.  Tag line:  “Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration required.” Other institutions are offering similar content and services.  Are there any drawbacks?  In the current environment, yes.  ...

A new site called eLearning Tool Chest ( eLearningToolChest.com ) has a collection of eLearning books, authoring tools, blogs, and other miscellaneous resources. The site is growing each week. I think it could be pretty big in a month or two. If you think a specific book, authoring tool, or resource should be listed, you can suggest that it be added . Visit eLearningToolChest.com        ...

We are going to continue a tradition in the Big Question ... The Big Question for December is: What did you learn about learning in 2007? If you are a blogger, I would highly recommend taking this as an opportunity to go back through your blog posts over the year and looking for any "aha moments" or highlight the posts that you think were the best/most interesting. You might want to look back at some discussions going on during the last two yearly recaps: 2007 - What Did You Learn about Learning? 2008 - Past experiences. Present Challenge. Future Predictions.