THE LEARNING eXPLOSION

Connect Your Solution to Their Needs

2012-06-22T07:01:00.001-07:00

illustration by: dgray_xplane

Teaching is all about a partnership. You are teaching and they are participating. If what you present is what they need and you present it in a way that captures their attention and holds it then you’ve had a successful teaching experience -- whether it's a webinar or an online self-pace course you've developed. Once you have their attention, by knowing the audience and their needs you need to keep that attention.

Remember, you have something of value to present and share. You have a possible solution to their needs. You know it, but they may not know it yet. Help them understand it. They could be somewhere else, even though they’re physically logged on. You need them to be not only “on the webinar” but “in the webinar”, engaged and fully focused.

Review your teach and look for frequent opportunities to connect with them on their level. Your material's ability to mesh with their needs at every stage of the presentation is the best way of sending the right message.

The Learning Explosion Now in Russian!

2012-05-16T08:28:00.003-07:00

Our first book, The Learning Explosion (January 2011) is now officially translated into Russian. It is also found in Chinese, and will soon be in Korean. Here are some interesting facts about the book:

Listed on the Washington Post's top-five business-title list the week of July 20, 2011. "Their (Muller and Murdoch) outstanding, authoritative book makes it clear that they have the chops to teach you how to organize online learning initiatives and how to plan, set up and run virtual classrooms. (we) recommend this concrete, easy-to-understand, highly enthusiastic explanation of virtual learning programs to chief learning officers, and to corporate education and training professionals."

Listed on the Shanghai Daily's Top 5 US Business Books list, July 23, 2011. (Distributed in more than 50 countries and regions around the world)

Reviewed on The Wall Street Journal's online book review site, livemint.com, on July 28, 201o (Audience of 1.2 million)

Featured in The Hindu, on July 3, 2011 (Indian newspaper with circulation of 14 million) "A book that can prepare you for the unfolding life that will have learning unobtrusively woven into it."

Featured as a "Top Seller" in the Handelsblatt newspaper on August 22, 2011--the biggest German-language business and finance newspaper and is the most cited business medium in Germany. It boasts a circulation of almost 150,000 and has a daily readership of 500,000.

Business Wire press release, on June 3, 2011 was posted on 285 sites, including Bloomberg Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money and The New York Times.

Review in "The Press-Enterprise" newspaper on August 28, 2011. (The leading news and information source for Inland Southern California and boasts a daily print run of almost 150,000)

How to Survive Webinars as an Extreme Sport

2012-05-11T05:54:00.000-07:00

photo by: t r e v i

Webinars can be an extreme sport if you choose to push the limits. In order to do this and break free from the mundane–and survive–you need to be connected to a relevant network of people and organizations who can both push you to try the “extreme” and help you survive your webinar.

Commit yourself, today, to never doing ANYTHING on your own again – don’t try to think through it alone, work through it alone, solve it, suggest it, summarize or share it – alone. You have the resources, unlike any other time in history, to engage the best minds around YOUR issue. You may collect and reject a lot of what you’re offered but that’s a lot better than “winging it” all on your own. There are experts out there – find them, meet with them, listen to them, use them.

Take Action: Find resources that can connect you to others. These might be professional sites like LinkedIn or social sites like Facebook. They might be general interest gathering places or very task or job specific chat rooms where experts gather to share specific problems and to synergize solutions. Try connecting with some of these individuals and groups: @cindyhugg; eMarketing Association Network; The eLearning Guild; @janebozarth

Declaration of War--On Bad Webinars

2012-05-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

We’re declaring war—on bad webinars.

And we want you to join us.

This is a revolution and, like most revolutions, this one is both

against something

and

for something.

What we are fighting AGAINST

We’re against “Zombie” webinars where the walking dead hang out in cyber space, begging for someone to put them out of their misery.
We’re against mundane, talking head PowerPoint presentations.

We’re against the insanity - doing webinars the same way we always do, even when they keep failing.

We’re against working alone in silos.

We’re against vapor world experiences – where no one talks, no one interacts, no one shares – it’s just me, my webinar and – nothing…

…vapor.

We’ve tolerated and nurtured the webinar as it is for years. We’ve made some real advances and done some very cool things. We’re closer than ever to getting past the machine and up next to the people. But, we still have a long way to go. And, we don’t believe that webinars can continue to evolve incrementally, like some single celled amoeba waiting another million years to get closer to the edge of the ooze and start growing some legs. We must speed up the evolutionary process. This needs to be more caterpillar/butterfly and less dinosaur/human.

And so we’re declaring war – on bad webinars, and we want you to join us. We want you to join us in committing to KEEP doing the things that work and STOP – now – doing the things that don’t work, that never worked,

…that will never work.

What we are fighting FOR

We’re for captivating our audience through eloquent delivery and beautiful design.

We’re for pushing the limits of our technology.

We’re for amplifying what works and what doesn’t.

We’re for synergy and sharing.
We’re for better transformational webinar design and delivery. In our previous book, The Learning eXPLOSION, we laid out some of the rules we should follow to create great webinars. Now we’re taking those rules to the street – to you. This requires action.

In the next few weeks we will be launching our newest book, The Webinar Manifesto, and we'll be asking you to join this revolution and help spread the word about this movement. So stay close and together we'll win this battle!

The Movement is About to Begin. Are You In?

2012-04-25T07:52:00.002-07:00

We have not been as active as we usually are on our blog because our focus has been on finishing "The Webinar Manifesto: Never Design, Deliver, or Attend Crappy Webinars Again."

It's amazing how much time, research, and effort goes into writing a book. There is always tweaking, fine-tuning, and overhauling to do. But there comes a time when you have to just let it go. We are at this phase in the book writing process right now...just letting go. So, now its onto flowing the copy into the document and getting the design just right.

The 7 Manifesto Priniciples we introduce in the book are:

1. Connect or Crash

2. Don't Default

3. Shut Down The Ugly

4. Captivate or Alienate

5. Humanize The Screen

6. Crack The Feedback Code

7. Cage The Monsters

If you are interested in signing the Webinar Manifesto and joining the movement against crappy webinars stay tuned. You will play a VERY important role in this revolution.

Introduce a Connect-the-Dots Strategy to Your Job

2012-04-12T05:17:00.001-07:00

Most coloring books come with connect-the-dots pages.

You know, pages with seemingly random numbers and dots spread out all over the paper. To make sense of, and discover the hidden image on these pages, you have to put your pencil down on the dot by the number one and draw a line to number two, then number three, and so forth. After connecting all of the dots in sequence, you end up with an image of a car, or a rabbit or a flower.

The newly discovered end product is a complete contrast to the initial smattering of dots first experienced. One dot, by itself, didn't represent anything. All of the dots by themselves still didn’t represent anything. It’s not until all the dots are connected that you actually see a finished product. The answer you were seeking was always on the page, it just took you to connect the pieces to see it.

You are one dot. *
* * * * * * There are millions of other dots.

The game we play in our professional life is similar: to connect to the right dots so that we can support each other with questions and issues we have with any of our current projects.

You need to connect socially.

Find and connect to other relevant groups -- sometimes into great adventures, sometimes into great tragedies and sometimes into serendipitous discovery. And then connect back with the rest of us and share your knowledge.

Beware.

Connecting is not always advantageous or productive. Especially in a virtual world where everybody, everywhere is off doing their own thing, paying little or no attention to what everyone else is doing. Less interaction, less sharing, less synergy, less world changing stuff going on.

Most of us use the social media connections not to go to anywhere important – the new idea, the new solution, the important discussion, the critical synergy. Nope, we use it to wander around, often in circles. Sure, we chat a lot, especially with the person who just popped up next to us. But we don’t talk about much of substance. After all, typical social network connections seem to be something we only grab on to when we’re done with work, with the important stuff, the thinking and solving stuff. We rarely seem to use it to improve our expertise and skills -- let alone share our knowledge with others. It’s mostly used just for hanging out.

What if we re-introduced a connect the dots approach into the important work of business – finding ideas, locating thinkers, connecting to others, problem creation and problem solving. What if we spent more time connecting dots at work and less time as a solitary dot struggling to find our way through something all alone in our cubicle?

Try this: Want to see who's connected to you and who you're connected to? If you're on LinkedIn, go to this site for a great graphical map of your connections. Or go to this site and type in your blog address or social network URL for a list.

How to unblock your creativity

2012-03-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

Are you experiencing a creative mind block?

We find that when we're stumped by a problem at work we need to read or see something that is completely random -- meaning it has nothing to do with the problem at hand. For example, if you work in a business setting all day, take time to shake up your brain and look up information break dancing or how to drive a sports car or how to watercolor.

For some reason, it will help change your brain waves and help you think in different, creative ways. Here is a list of some web sites that can help stir up your grey matter when you need some fresh ideas to help you think creatively:

Future Technology Portal: Crazy futuristic ideas and images
Picocool: Random images from social media and subcultures
PrintMag: Where you can read/see innovative print design. We also found this awesome video there created by Element X Creative (check out their demo reel).
Poetry Foundation: Fill your mind with new combinations of words
Dvice: Feed your technology obsession

There are a bajillion other places to visit so, if you've got other sites add your comment to this post so other's can learn from you.

Webinar Hypnosis

2012-03-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

You all know how hypnosis works – pick a spot, fixate on that spot, listen carefully to my voice, keep looking at that spot, hearing my voice, you’re getting sleepy, sleepy, sleepier…. You’re now fully relaxed and in my power….

How’s that different than “sit there while I talk at you”, “look at your screen or that tiny webcam at the top of the screen”, “stay focused on that unmoving, text drenched PowerPoint… and don’t feel sleepy, sleepier, sleepier…

The goal of webinars should not be to induce an hypnotic state. You shouldn’t create a “spot” for people to focus on while you lull them into a near death experience.

The goal of webinars should be to induce an engaged, interactive, vital state. Not nap time.

What is your Twitter strategy?

2012-03-13T12:31:00.001-07:00

Twitter is one of the big three social media sites. In our opinion, LinkedIn and Facebook make up the other two. Social media has also received a lot of media lately thanks to the now infamous and inappropriate antics of politicians (Anthony Weiner), sports stars (Brett Favre), celebrities (Gilbert Gottfried), and many other "not so famous" web citizens.

One recent article on Mashable.com actually lists some of these in their, "10 People Who Lost Jobs Over Social Media."

Besides some of the negative press associated with Twitter and social media, there is really a lot of productive ways to use 140 characters. So, how do you use Twitter?

Here are 6 different Twitter strategies we think people use:

1. Superstar. If you are part of this elite minority, you may employ Twitter as a tool to keep in touch with your fans. A way to share who you really are.
Twitter Tip: Keep it real. We know you are human, so every tweet doesn't have to be ground-breaking news.

2. Friend. Twitter is a great way to stay in touch with friends, keep them in the loop, and share inside jokes.
Twitter Tip:Beware of what pictures you send. It may be to a friend, but it is still on the cloud and can go viral very quickly.

3. Networking. Twitter can be used to make new professional contacts, follow experts and peers in your "professional community," and contribute to the sharing of ideas.
Twitter Tip: Organize these people into respective lists so you can easily get access to specific feeds.

4. Research. If you want to use Twitter for research you can follow experts, organizations relevant to your areas of interest. Purely to learn, get news, and then share with your followers. This is the strategy we follow for @Learningexplosn. We continuously scan for any news relevant to learning, social media, mobile learning, and all things elearning.
Twitter Tip: If this is your Twitter strategy we suggest only following relevant people and organizations so that your feed that you scan is manageable.

5. Marketing. Many brands utilize Twitter effectively to share relevant news and product information.
Twitter Tip: Don't try to sell your followers with every tweet. Instead, try to provide valuable informationnand resources with most of your tweets. People will stop following you if you don't.

6. Whatever. Many people have a twitter account and randomly follow whoever follows them, or whoever interests them that day. They tweet whatever they want and don't care what people think. The beauty of Twitter is that the whatever approach is completely acceptable and porbably makes up the majority of tweeters out there.
Twitter Tip (if you even care): At least change your profile image from the default egg to something. Anything but the egg.

So, which strategy do you use?

We have a winner! See what the cover of our next book is thanks to YOUR input.

2012-03-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to your feedback and input, we have what we feel is a great cover for our new book, The Webinar Manifesto: Never Design, Deliver, or Attend Crappy Webinars Again! (Coming in May 2012)

Many of you who voted on our Facebook page, contacted us via Twitter, and gave us your opinion at learning conferences we presented at. While the voting was close, this design kept rising to the top.

With this book we intend to start a movement against badly designed and poorly delivered webinars. We will be enlisting the help and wisdom of several other thought leaders and platform providers in this movement. To give you a feel for what is coming, here are several of the principles we will be presenting:

Connect or Die
Don't Default
Shut Down the Ugly
Captivate or Alienate
Cage the Monsters
Humanize the Screen
Crack the Feedback Code
The Attendee Pledge

Intrigued? We hope so. We would like you to also join this movement...by signing the cover of your copy of the book, the official online Webinar Manifesto, and by changing how webinars are designed, delivered, and attended.

Stay tuned for how and when you can join!

Treion and Matt

Are you trapped in an intellectual hall of mirrors?

2012-03-06T06:31:00.000-08:00

Oftentimes we're trapped in an intellectual hall of mirrors. We get lost in our own knowledge and only reflect what we know and nothing else. We aren't able to break past the glass that shows us what is familiar and into other circles where our knowledge could be expanded indefinitely.

Through the power of the Learning Explosion, you now have the ability to find your way past the mirrors and into a whole new world of knowledge. Try it now. Click here or here or here and find something you never knew before.

Go on...explore.

Thunderstorm vs Snowstorm Teachers

2012-03-05T05:51:00.002-08:00

Living in the Rocky Mountains we need snow to survive. It piles up in the mountains and then slowly melts throughout the spring and summer filling up our lakes and reservoirs. Without snow we wouldn't have enough water to drink through the rest of the year. We've learned to love it when a snowstorm rolls through and drops feet of deep powder on our mountains.

When you learn something, which teachers made the biggest impact on you? The most lasting impact? Was it the equivalent to a snowstorm or a rain shower?

Thunderstorm Teachers are those who come in with a big bang, make lots of teaching noise dump some water on your head and then leave quickly--along with their precipitation.

Snowstorm teachers are those who come quietly and shower us with piles of learning snow that will last for days, weeks or months.

But every once in a while you get a combination of both -- where the excitement, energy and snow depth is so amazing that you'll talk about it forever -- this is the "Snowstorm Teacher of the Century".

You may remember your Thunderstorm Teacher because they were flashy and exciting. But we'll wager that the lasting effects of your Snowstorm Teacher have had even more impact in your life. But when you experience a Snowstorm Teacher of the Century, your life will be changed forever.

Now think:

Try and remember your "Snowstorm Teacher of the Century". What did they do to make you learn?

What type of teacher are you? How can you leave an equally great contribution to those around you?

Let it snow.

If you don't put it online, don't print it!

2012-03-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

I was flipping through a magazine the other day, when a particular article got my attention. After reading it, I immediately wanted to share it with you and others online.

However, after searching online for a while I could not track it down. It was nowhere to be found. Not even the magazine website (which will remain anonymous) had any reference to it...
In other words, the message died on the paper it was printed on. The life cycle of that potentially influential idea was shortened because someone didn't see the value of at least copying and pasting it into a blog post. A small insignificant act perhaps, but one that is unfortunately more common than it should be.

The point I wish to boldly make in this short post is this...
If you want to share an idea, make darn sure you also put it online. Printing alone will have very minimal impact (unless you are The New York Times or a similar organization).

See, now you can tweet or link to this online learning fragment and share it with your followers and friends.

Today's the day! You've got an extra 24 hours!

2012-02-29T06:05:00.001-08:00

You've said it. We've said it. Everyone's said it. "If I only had an extra 24 hours I could learn to..."

Well stop dreaming and start enjoying because, thanks to the switch over to the Gregorian calendar 430 years ago, you now have that extra day. It's called Leap Year. So, what will you do with it?...

We encourage everyone to take time right now to write your "Leap Learning List". Yes...WRITE IT DOWN NOW! It's quite simple. But to do it effectively you should focus on four key categories that we've pulled from Stephen R. Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

Physical
Social/Emotional
Mental
Spiritual

To help you out, just fill in the following blank: On February 29th I will learn to _______.

Here are some examples:
1. Physical: On February 29th I will learn to improve my diet by finding online resources to educate me and help me set a plan.

2. Social: On February 29th I will learn to improve my relationships with others by studying this great blog (http://bit.ly/16rzxV) and by instituting 10 of the principles.

3. Mental: On February 29th I will learn to use WordPress by watching an online course at Lynda.com (http://bit.ly/fcxRfq).

4. Spiritual: On February 29th I will learn to live with purpose by creating or reviewing my personal mission statement here: http://bit.ly/Ce5mb.

With an extra 24 hours think of all of the new things you can learn! At midnight on February 29th go back to your list and see what new things you've learned. If you do it as we've said, you will have learned one thing for sure... That you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

So, what will you do with YOUR extra 24 hours?

Have Apps Made Your Life Easier?

2012-02-23T08:23:00.001-08:00

With the number of iPhone app downloads nearing 25 Billion we have been asking ourselves if these handy little tools have made our lives easier or just more complicated.

With this question in mind I did some personal research and found that out of the 102 applications on my iPhone, this is how I used them (not counting the basic apps like Calendar, Phone, Texting, Music, Clock, and Email--these I use all the time):

Daily - Besides the basics already listed I probably only use 5 to 7 apps--Wunderlist (To do list), Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Hootsuite...
Weekly - Over the span of seven days my circle of apps more than doubled to around 15 (including the five already mentioned)--Instagram, HootSuite, Accounts (Banking and Checkbook), Evernote (Notes), Pinterest, Words with friends (Scrabble game), Flashlight, Calculator, Fandango...
Monthly - Surpisingly the total number of apps I used in a month only increased by a few to around 20...

This leaves us with two questions that need to be answered. (1) Have these 20 apps made my life easier? And (2) Why do I have 82 other apps I rarely use?

First, I do believe I am much more productive by having these 20 apps always in my pocket. Just the fact that I can refer to basic productivity tools like my calendar, email, notes, and to do list throughout the day is a major benefit to me. So, yes apps have made my life easier...

Now onto the second question. This is one is not so easy to answer. As I looked at the 82 apps I rarely even look at I realized that they fell into three groups--Games for the kids, research apps, and "Why the crap do I have you?" apps. So, I have decided to keep the first two group of apps (because they have a specific function), and to follow our own advice from a previous post when it comes to the last group...There Is Probably An App For That, But Do You Really Need It?

In that post we suggested you follow 4 actions to make your phone work for you instead of against you.

If you haven't used an app for a month, DELETE it.
If you feel guilty every time you open it, DELETE it.
If you use it regularly, place it front and center (like your home screen or main app banner), or organize it into a folder.
If you download a new app remember to follow steps 1, 2, and 3.

Maybe it's time you take a little inventory of your apps and decide if they are making your life easier or not. Remember, if you delete an app from your phone you can always get it back if your really miss it. So, go ahead and start the cleansing process. I promise it feels really good.

Why we LOVE social media...

2012-02-15T11:37:00.000-08:00

On valentines day we presented a session on our how to build a Mutant Learning Lab, or Social Learning Lab, at Training Magazines 2012 Conference.

In summary, the session was how we can effectively use social media and the web in general for learning. The five-step process we introduced included, connecting to the relevant few (sites and people), creating a system where relevant information is either pushed to us or where we can easily retrieve it, scheduling just fifteeen minutes five times a day to work in your lab, following a three-step process of scanning, reviewing, and studying in our lab, and then sharing what we learn with the community...

As reinforcement to the fact that social media can be a force for good, we had individuals in our session tweet some great comments to their followers. One thought leader in the elearning field (Cindy Huggett) even went on to this website and found more information on Mutant Learning that she included as a link in her tweet (See the image for this post for how it went down).

And that's how information from a conference room in Atlanta was shared with the online community and who knows how many other people. This is only one very small example of this principle in action, and why we love social media.

Social media can be an effective way to learn!

2012-02-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

According to a Nielsen Social Media Report, “in 10 major global markets, social networks and blogs reach over 75% of active Internet users.” Which means most of you reading this post are probably already socially connected in the traditional social media sense.

The mantra we want you to adopt is to “Join the relevant few,” because you can very easily get caught in an online web of irrelevance. We would like to bring to your attention to the fact that social media can be a effective form of informal learning, if you take the right approach, that is.

For starters, you should join the Big 3 of social media, if you haven’t done so already. They are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (Google+ is making a serious push to break into this elite group, but is not quite there yet.) While LinkedIn is not like your typical social network, it does does share many social media characteristics, making it the number one method of connecting to other like-minded business professionals. The power of this network is found in the groups that are founded and run by experts in a wide variety of industries.
As you start connecting to the big three, make sure you separate out the benign, banal, and boring that is so prevalent in some social media circles. Don’t waste your social time on irrelevant people or topics. Avoid the self-centered individuals who erroneously think the rest of the world cares what they are eating.

Choose to follow, like, and join ONLY relevant thought leaders, research sites, trade magazines, and knowledge brokers that can help you become competent in the topic or area you want to be competent in.

If you follow this simple advice of only joining a few social media sites, and then only following the relevant few who can help you focus on an area you wish to learn about, you will be amazed at how effective social media can be as a form of oinformal learning.

What I would do with an extra 24 hours...

2012-02-03T06:22:00.000-08:00

You've said it. We've said it. Everyone's said it. "If I only had an extra 24 hours I could learn to..."

Well stop dreaming and start enjoying because, thanks to the switch over to the Gregorian calendar 430 years ago, you now have that extra day. It's called Leap Year. So, what will you do with it?

We encourage everyone to take time right now to write your "Leap Learning List". Yes...WRITE IT DOWN NOW! It's quite simple. But to do it effectively you should focus on four key categories that we've pulled from Stephen R. Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

Physical
Social/Emotional
Mental
Spiritual

Are You a Conformist or an e-Learning Rebel?

2012-01-30T05:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes in life you feel forced to conform. Other times you resist this peer pressure, which some may call rebellion, but you see it as something different... you see it as progress.

There is a famous psychological test called the Asch Experiment which tests the effect of group pressure on an individual. This short video says it all:

For years the conformists in the training world have told us that face-to-face training is the only effective training method. They have been the ones turned the opposite way in the elevator, forcing their backwards beliefs on the rest of us...

It's now time that we make them face forward and see what they're missing! The only way we can do this is by not turning around when everyone else is. You have to stand forward. Stand for progress! Individually we will all be standing as a group to show the conformists how old ways of thinking are actually less effective as when new training methods are incorporated. You may be seen as a rebel or defiant, but you should wear these labels as a badge of honor.

The backward standers need to conform to us. Not us to them.

4 Tips to Communicate Online Learning Benefits to Others

2012-01-25T03:50:00.000-08:00

We spent last week in Thailand training some organizations on effective principles found in our book, The Learning Explosion. As we presented to these different groups we had to recognize when someone wasn't understanding what we were saying because everyone's English skills were on different levels.

When we felt like someone wasn't understanding something we would slow down and speak very clearly in the simplest of terms. And even then, sometimes we would need a translator to jump in and clarify what we were saying.

For some people, online learning can be a new language. Especially for executives and others who have not really experienced it. When you're trying to sell the concept of online learning to a group that has had limited exposure to it in the past remember these four tips:

TIP 1 Slow down! Literally slow down the speed of your speech so that people can process difficult concepts.

TIP 2 Speak very clearly! Use simple terms that people understand and don't use a lot of acronyms. You may think that everyone knows what the terms LMS or asynchronous mean. It's surprising how many people don't. Oftentimes you'll hear an American increase their volume when trying to talk to a non-English speaker. Keep your volume level steady. Shouting won't increase their understanding. Speaking clearly will.

TIP 3 Be patient! Your listeners may have a lot of questions so be patient and take time to answer them all. You may feel like you're repeating yourself, but that's OK because repetition is the father of all learning.

TIP 4 Use a translator! If you're going to be talking with your executive team, or your finance team, or some other group that may have their own lingo, find someone that understands their language and can help act as a translator for you for hard concepts that you are going to present.

When you communicate clearly, at the knowledge level of the learner, you'll find that you are able to get your meaning across and leave with the comfort that your message has been heard loud and clear...without shouting.

What you can learn from your Twitter followers

2012-01-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

We all choose to follow people who interest us, but it is often the people who follow us who are the interesting ones. Have you taken the time to learn about your followers? It would amaze you how much you can learn about a person by the Twitter handle they choose or how they use the 160 characters they have to work with when writing their Twitter bio.

A 160 characters to tell the world who you are. A 160 characters to represent your uniqueness. A 160 characters to make a memorable statement. A 160 characters to share your vision, mission, values, and beliefs. Or a 160 characters to completely blow it.

We read every single followers bio. Why? Because they are usually pretty amazing. Besides the overly commercial, the self indulgent, and just plain offensive bios out there, most people are quite interesting. Here are just a few:

@BicyclingNomad: I will be living a Nomad lifestyle on a Bike.

@__B_E_L_L_A__: Mom| Teacher| Ironman Triathlete| Insomniac| Animal Rescuer| Advocate Diversity| Celebrate Success| Humbled by my son with Autism. Lover of tech, life & people.

@Uzair41111: Bio in fewer than 160 chars, hmmmm... okieeeee.. lets begin... a very simple guy with a cool attitude... yup.. thats it..

@UmaPurusotaman: There is a past which is gone forever, but there is a future which is still our own

@MiriamSleiman: I'm a work in progress, a little random, love food, pulling apart movies, being pessimistic and never, ever follow a crowd.

@loughvara: Seeking excellence is not for the faint heartened!

@swamisu11: Old Spice with Swagger....I am just saying...

So what's in your bio?

Thanks for following @learningexplosn, and for goodness sake, please replace the generic egg with some kind of picture or image:)

Crossing the Online Learning Chasm

2012-01-23T03:57:00.000-08:00

A chasm exists. It manifests itself through ongoing skepticism about the use of online learning.

This chasm sits between you and your learners. Between your vision and your reality. It's up to you to cross this great divide.

In Geoffrey Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm, he teaches us that this chasm IS very real and that it affects the way we all think about new online products and services. The essence of the principle is that people buy into an idea after someone they trust gives a good recommendation.

You may be working for an organization that still doesn't fully believe you can have a good online learning experience or that elearning is just not widely accepted. We've found the opposite to be true. Case in point: We just returned from Thailand where we had a meetings with several Thai government groups and corporations. When we asked how many of these groups used some form of online learning, EVERY HAND was raised. This wasn't the UK, or the USA, or some other major world power. This was Thailand! We've found the same thing in many other countries we've visited as well.

Online learning isn't new. It isn't even revolutionary. It's common. It's mainstream. It's being widely used in every corner of the world.

So, if you need to convince a boss or a client that they should use online learning just remember that you need to help them cross the chasm. Lead them across by showing how widespread it really is. How they can reach more people with high-quality training at less expense. How their peers are using it to increase their effectiveness. As you do this, you will find that the chasm isn't as wide as you originally thought.

What will you do with this turn?

2012-01-10T06:12:00.000-08:00

photo by: niconelson

Every year you are given the chance to ride one more turn of this giant spinning orb upon which we all stand. Whether it's your 21st turn, your 42nd turn, or your 84th turn, you have a choice to make right now: Will this be the turn where you make a difference?

Will you finish that book?

Will you learn that special talent you've always dreamed of mastering?

Will you teach others how to master other skills you've already developed?

Will you discover something new? And when you do, will you share it with others?

Will you help someone with a problem because you know the answer?

Or will you just sit there. Blankly. Zombie-like. Unwilling to learn, to grow, to help and to share?

Whenever a new year comes around, or your birthday, or some other marker in time, remember that you've been given one more year. It's your turn. What will you do with it? What will you learn? What will you share?

Do you have a social media plan?

2012-01-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from our previous post, we have taken a very nice break from not only social media but posting to this blog:) However, thanks to our networking goals which includes daily research, frequent posts, and ongoing social sharing, we are getting right back on track.

A typical week for the two of us includes the following Mutant Learning Lab Ritual:

> Scanning several sites, white papers, blogs, and reports for information related to elearning, social media, mobile, gaming, learning in general, and other relevant topics.

> Writing 3 to 5 short blog posts (because we believe people want info this way).

> And 40 - 50 original and shared tweets.
This plan helps us to continually learn, discover, and add to The Learning Explosion.

Do you have a social media plan? If not, decide now what a manageable schedule would look like, block out the time, and then stick to the plan!

So? Did You Take a Break From Social Media?

2011-12-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

We didn't post or tweet anything over the long-weekend and we survived. How about you?

It was hard at first not to whip out the iPhone and check my Twitter or Facebook streams, but by Christmas I was almost completely weaned of my technological appendages...but now I am right back in the swing of things again...(good or bad?)

While I am a huge proponent of technology being used for life and learning, I am also a believer in moderation and appropriatness, which is why I bought my eleven year-old a motorized scooter instead of an iPod Touch like many of her friends. I think children should spend their childhood outside with friends not in front of a screen all day...like many of us adults. She will have her fair share of hand-held devices throughout her life, but for now I like the notion of her playing with other real kids instead.