Cammy Bean's Learning Visions

Tips! Get your elearning tips!

2013-05-23T14:56:00.000-05:00

I love tips. They're short, sharp and stuff you can use.

The eLearning Guild has just published a new ebook available to Guild Members:
68 Tips for eLearning Engagement and Interactivity. It's a compilation of practical ideas and tips from 11 individuals, myself included, who will be presenting in an eLearning Guild Online Forum this July.

And if 68 tips isn't enough for you, be sure to check out the Kineo website for another 79+ elearning tips.

John Seeley Brown Keynote at #ASTD2013

2013-05-21T09:28:00.000-05:00

These are my live blogged notes from the opening session at the ASTD International Conference and Expo (ICE) -- happening this week in Dallas, TX. 10,000 or so training and development people here to extend their practice. Forgive any typos or incoherence!

This morning's keynote with John Seely Brown: http://www.johnseelybrown.com

How to turn any situation into a learning moment? If you can do that, you’ll become an entrepreneurial learner.

We have been in a period of instability and it won’t be stable for a long, long time…

Corporations have yet to organize in high-end guilds like world of warcraft.

The half life of any skills is shrinking to less than five years. We move from stocks to flows….

Stocks = assets that we packaged (the old order of corporate training)

Flow = the world no longer receives well structured assets. How do we participate in knowledge flows. It’s about creating knowledge and participating in that creation.

When we create something, we have not had time to figure out the explicit component of that knowledge. A lot of it is still tacit. Tacit knowledge can’t be delivered by traditional training techniques.

How do we move from a world where our strategic leverage was scalable efficiency to one of scalable learning?

Participation & the embodied mind: the essence of tacit learning.

As kayaker becomes PART of the current – embedded in that current, and your mind is your arms and your head. Hand and head learn together in this kind of embodied context.

Strategic leaders need to think about embodied participation.

We have moved from an era of equilibrium to a word of dis-equilibrium – disruption every year.

Our ways of working need to be reframed. It’s a new mindset that we need for this new world.

A paradigmatic example:

How do we leverage a worldwide ecosystem as our learning environment?

He shares the story of Dusty Payne and his cohort of friends from Maui who became world champion surfers.

As a group, Dusty and his friends studied frame by frame DVDs of other world champion surfers. Then they got entrepreneurial and pulled the best ideas from other “adjacencies” (windsurfing, skateboarding, mountain biking, motor cross…)

Looking around in an entrepreneurial way

Questing, Play, Probing boundaries to invent new things.

Dispositions can not be taught, they can only be cultivated.

Reverse Mentorship: we have a lot to learn from the kids.

How can you make Mentorship and Reverse Mentorship work together? The kids learn from the elders, the elders learn from the kids.

Building a community of peer-mentors.

Creating and sharing knowledge through a virtuous circle. Using simple social software to create a network of practice or a community of practice. In SAP, almost obsoleted the need for the corporate training.

Much of the real work and learning happens in the emergent – so how do we really support this?

The distributed water cooler is everywhere.

We’ve not been supporting the emergent and informal.

Basically, work IS social.

e.g. Google Hangouts lets you bring up to 10 people together to work on Google Docs – a feeling of intimate space. You also have the ability to have people link and lurk on the periphery. So 10 core people, but limitless people can observe what’s going on and can pass a question in. Brown calls this “legitimate peripheral participation.” So this can scale….

Brown lists amazing innovators: Jeff Bezos, the Google guys, etc. – they all went to Montessori school. Entrepreneurial learners?

“In a world of constant change today’s creators must be willing to regrind their conceptual lenses.”

Let’s go back and think about PLAY.

How did we learn how to frame the world? Not in school. We PLAYED.

Book: Homo Ludens (a highly nuanced concept of play_ -- permission to fail and fail again, play of imagination (poetry), an epiphany – when something falls into place.

Not just creativity, but the play of imagination. Learning as riddles – learning to reframe the world every five years.

Extending blended epistemology:

Knowing, making, playing

Through play, we find new ways to make sense out of the world.

Consider Facebook. Hackathons. Once a month everyone gets together to try things out and break it – a radically different attitude than most organizations. This has helped to create a deep learning community within Facebook.

Google has become famous for the 20% rule – to go on own and explore new rule in 20% of their time.

“Every time we have done something crazy, we have made progress.”

The old school mindset: “I am what I wear/own/control.”

Today’s mindset: “I am what I create, what I share, and what others build on.”

There is a fundamentally new kind of individual entering the job market:

More interested in learning than salary
Adaptable and mobile: east cost educated, west coast bound
More interested in start ups
Risk taker
An entrepreneurial learner
Technically sophisticated and social adept.
She won’t want to work in the traditional workplace environment.

In the 20th century, we viewed institutions as things that shaped individuals- to create people who were comfortable to work in factories and standardized bureaucracies.

In the 21^st century, the individuals reshape the institutions. They come with agile minds.

For this to work:

We must thing about mentorship and reverse mentorship. How do these kids help shape the institutional architecture, and how do we help these kids see they don’t know everything yet. These need to co-mingle.

The CLO will need to become the Chief Organizational Architecture. To create a learningscape.

We need to be responsive to these types of changes.

If your culture doesn’t work that way, you need to change your culture. These are the types of things we need to take on. How do we become the architects of the institutions that we want these kids to be part of – to provide fluidity and scale (without inertia or mass).

Where imaginations play, learning happens.

Imagination needs to reign supreme.

Sir Ken Robinson Opening Keynote #ASTD2013

2013-05-20T09:42:00.003-05:00

@sirkenrobinson

These are my live blogged notes from the opening session at the ASTD International Conference & Expo (ICE) -- happening this week in Dallas, TX. 10,000 or so training and development people here to extend their practice.

We all have deep talents, but it’s often the case that we don’t discover them. Human talent are like the world’s natural resources – they are often buried beneath the surface. And if you don’t go looking for them you’ll never find them.

You need circumstances for talent to demonstrate themselves…

Whether you actually discover your talents is another matter.

Why don’t we discover what we’re good at? It’s because of our organizations and our education systems.

What really makes you a success is PASSION. “If you love what you do, you’ll never work again.”

When it’s just a job, you’re disengaged.

People who love what they do…”this isn’t what I do, it’s who I am.”

Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative (Sir Ken book, published ten years ago.) Publisher wanted to do a 10^th anniversary issue – instead of updating it with spell check and a bottle of Jack D, Sir Ken read it and then rewrote it.

When a really original idea turns up, it excites everyone’s imagination. What we’re seeing now is a maelstrom of digital innovation (turning the iphone into a harmonica so you can play the Delta Blues during a meeting, because we know those meetings can be so sad). 10 years ago we didn’t have ipads. 10 years ago people didn’t Tweet.

Regarding talking to people on planes – “I would rather regret the conversation we didn’t have…I’m OK with talking to people on the final taxi.”

The combination of passion AND aptitude is what it means to be in your element.

Some people do things because they’re good at it – but that’s not enough. Being good at something isn’t enough reason to spend your life doing it.

A strong passion will take you farther with moderate talent, than talent without passion.

Today we have a crisis in human resources.

Last year, sales of anti-psychotics/anti-depressants out sold anti-acid reflux in the US.

There’s a myth that happiness is directly geared to material wealth. We know the opposite is true and that there’s no correlation.

Depression is going up as material wealth increases around the globe.

But happiness is not a material state.

A crisis – so many people have not discovered a sense of purpose in their lives.

The Element: doing something that you’re good out and that you love to do.

Every single life is different. We are infinitely variable. And it really is a gift that you are here in this world. It’s amazing how little people settle for.

Two key principles:

Life is unique and inherently diverse. Nobody else will be you.
You create your own life. You have made your life what it is. You earn your resume. What you do with your life is in your control. And you can recreate it.

Often, people’s lives have been shaped by an interest that no one else sees any value in. (He shares the story of Bart, who could walk on his hands and turned out to be the world’s most celebrated male gymnast…his mother brought him to the gym—she encouraged him).

Life is organic and a process of improvisation.

When ordinary people find their passion, extraordinary things happen. (We’re organic creatures; we’re inherently creative).

Sir Ken Robinson’s new book: Finding Your Element (out today!)

A quest - - where you set off hoping to find/discover something, but you’re not sure what…

Tony Bingham Opening Keynote #ASTD2013

2013-05-20T09:10:00.004-05:00

Tony is the President and CEO of ASTD. He shared a lot of date and useful info on current trends with mobile. I only captured some if, but hope someone else took better notes!

Only 30% of orgs have put mobile content out there. In 2013!

Security concerns have been the biggest barriers – some content needs to be more protected than others. OK to put sexual harassment training or management training out there and less secure.

Think Globally – in India more access to smartphones and using them differently whereas in the US we might have access to all sorts of devices. Use the tools that are available to solve the problems that you’re org is faced with.

With mobile -- we've been talking about it for eight years or more, and now it's really starting to happen.

5 Tips from ASTD on mobile:

Think mobile – always think how to use it to augment learning. (don’t just put a course out there – think performance support, product training…)
Start small – expect obstacles and be prepared for them.
Create content specific for mobile devices. It has to be simple enough but not too simple.
Partner with IT/Compliance/Regulatory – work to clear security barriers.
Identify impact and effectiveness – tie to business needs and goals.

Some suggested books on mobile:

Chad Udell, Learning Everywhere

Going Mobile from ASTD

Learning Theories

2013-05-13T20:45:00.002-05:00

The amazing Jane Bozarth (@janebozarth) shared this today and it looks like a great resource if you're looking to learn more about learning theories.

With hyperlinks galore, you can drill down to learn about Vygotsky (and possibly even how to say it!), scaffolding, experiential learning and more.

What are the established learning theories?

Learning Solutions in Orlando! #lscon

2013-03-08T08:35:00.002-05:00

Sunday morning I head to sunny Orlando for Learning Solutions 2013 (which makes me SOOOO happy considering how much snow is falling outside my window at the moment).

I'll be part of the pre-conference activities, delivering a full day workshop on Monday, "The Accidental Instructional Designer." There may still be time to sign up if you're fast!

Sadly, I'll not be staying for the actual conference this year as I've got other commitments. I'll be heading home Tuesday morning, but keeping a keen eye to #lscon on Twitter throughout the week.

Look for me by the pool Sunday afternoon!

"Is Your Compliance Training Ready for a Makeover?" @kineo webinar recording now available!

2013-03-07T17:26:00.000-05:00

If you missed our Kineo webinar from a few weeks back (Is Your Compliance Training Ready for a Makeover), the recording is now up for your viewing pleasure:

Enjoy!

The Power of Habit (it's what I'm reading)

2013-02-19T09:19:00.000-05:00

To run or eat a donut? To go to bed early or sit up watching hours of Netflix? To do a process correctly and follow the steps or to go all rogue and do what you feel like?

How do habits form and how do we change them? How do we learn new habits? How do we replace bad habits?

My late night habit this week is reading The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.

It's an accessible and riveting read, full of smarty pants research and technical discussion about things like the basal ganglia.

Highly recommend you form the same habit!

Compliance Makeover! (Slides from today's webinar)

2013-02-07T13:50:00.000-05:00

Ten tips for compliance training from cammybean

Compliance Training need a makeover? Join us for a free webinar!

2013-02-07T11:24:00.003-05:00

Is your training connecting with employees? Is your content relevant and engaging? Are you successfully having the impact you desire?

Or could your training benefit from a dose of inspiration? If so, you aren’t alone.

According to LRN’s 2011-12 Ethics & Compliance Leadership Survey Report, 59% of respondents identify “Online Education Fatigue” as their top challenge.

Let's take a look at best practices in compliance training from organizations across the globe including examples of how to:

1. Make it fun
2. Show consequences
3. Tell stories
4. Make it personal
5. Make the learner’s role clear
6. Focus on grey areas that require judgment
7. Include clear calls to action
8. Link to policies don’t replicate them
9. Keep it simple
10. Make it memorable

Join me today for a free Kineo webinar at 12:30 eastern!

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/819257152

The slides from the February 7 session are posted!

Using Game Design To Create Accomplishment Based Learning, Julie Dirksen #astdtk13 @usablelearning

2013-02-01T13:42:00.001-05:00

These are my liveblogged notes from a concurrent session with Julie Dirksen. I'm at the ASTD Tech Knowledge 2013 Conference in San Jose, California. Apologies for typos and incoherence.

In ID school, we learned about the A and the D-esign part is mostly -- then all this cool stuff happens in this black box.

There's a lot of cool stuff from game design that we can apply.

It's not about making a multiple choice test look "gamey".

We can make stuff look like games, but it doesn't have the fundamental elements that make games engaging.

Gamification has gotten conflated with the idea of extrinsic rewards: badges, points, etc. The scooby snacks approach to tricking people into it.

More on extrinsic rewards on Julie's blog.

How do we make the most boring topics interesting?

Raph Koster -- "in games learning is the drug" in A Theory of Fun. It's learning, but it doesn't feel effortful.

Let's start with attention

How long is the avg attention span? We hear that it's 7-10 minutes. But there's really not a practical limit to our attention span if we WANT to pay attention. Think a 13 hour Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon.

What about elephants? Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis

You have a rider -- the conscious, verbal thinking brain -- and the elephant -- the automatic, emotional, visceral brain.

Your rider says things and your elephant feels stuff. We think the rider is in charge. but the elephant is much bigger...and sometimes they compete. The elephant wants to eat the french fries and take a nap now....

When there's a conflict -- it's very easy to distract the elephant. We are creates of urgency. The elephant has a hard time waiting. Your elephant is really concerned with what is happening RIGHT NOW.

"I know, but..." activities -- I know I shouldn't smoke, but... I know I should exercise, but....

So for our learners -- I need you to pay attention now, but when are you actually going to need this? It's not going to feel urgent or important until they get to that point.

so how do we get them to "I'm really glad I know this right now."

Hyperbolic discounting -- behavioral economics. (I'll give you ten dollars today or eleven dollars tomorrow? Ten dollars today or eleven dollars in a year? Ten today or 1,000 in a year?) If it's really important and I know I'm going to need it I can wait.

Cake vs. Fruit Salad research study: Shiv and Fedorikhin 1999 (Stanford)

Higher cognitive load in one group vs. the other who had easy math tasks.
Then they asked each group if they wanted cake vs. fruit salad.
When we ask people to concentrate and use cognitive resources, it has an impact on will power. The people with the harder tasks took the cake 2:1. We've depleted their willpower.
We think it has to do with brain glucose. (Willpower by Baumeister)

The rider has to drag the elephant behind.

So if our learners are forcing themselves to pay attention we are lucky if we get 7-10 minutes.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience -- what does it look like when people are really engaged? When you're in flow state, you work on something for three hours without noticing.

It has to do with challenge vs. your skill level. When things are too hard, it's hard and you might stop. (e.g., a game that's too hard). If your ability exceeds the skill level you might get bored.

The flow channel is in the middle -- keeping people on the edge of the flow channel. How do we keep people engaged? It looks like an upward sloping wavy line.

When you play a game, the first levels are easy. Then it gets harder and you get more challenged.

When you use a regular pattern you already know, it's the cognitive equivalent of coasting.

Your brain on Tetris. Study showing glucose levels in brain when first learning Tetris vs. after a few weeks of practice. Much less glucose used -- you're good at it now. It becomes automatic.

Putting people back into the beginner state can make them grumpy. It's hard.

Learning activities are often just straight uphill climbs. Here's some info, here's some more, some more, more...

What games do well is give you a period of biking up hill, with a downhill slope, then another uphill climb -- so the slope goes up not just in a steady climb but in a bumpy road.

Structure a flow of goals - smaller goals that lead up to larger goals. Ultimately you get to the boss fight.

Even a jigsaw puzzle has structure goals -- you find the corners and build the borders....

Monopoly -- first you buy property, then get a monopoly, then buy houses, then hotels...

Game designers think about this a lot. Plants vs. Zombies is a great example of flow. (She mentions a good slide share that talks about how they created that game).

Purpose is a big part of this.

Why am I doing this?

How do you take something that you won't need for six months so it feels important enough that you should learn it now?

Instead of WIIFM (what's in it for me?), how about WCIDWT (what could I do what that?)

Teaching remedial math in the context of creating a new coffee shop. Instead of just teaching math skills, give it a purpose that will connect with your audience (what do they want to do with that math?)

Instead of a photoshop on working with layers, why not "how to create swanky blog headers?"

How do we give people the feeling that they're accomplishing something?

Restaurant Management course. Instead of doing modules on Food Safety and Management....how can you make this more interesting?

Scenarios -- can you level up your scenarios? Start with easy scenarios and get them harder...

First module could be a slow lunch shift and you're dealing with an employee who is late and a customer complaint. Doing all the skills at a really easy level.

Then move out a week, a month, a year...have customer service as a topic spread throughout all the scenarios. So you're touching the topics more than once (as in a traditional elearning mod).

How can we make you need this right now? How can you create structured goals or a series of quest? What are the immediate goal? short-term goals? mid-term goals? The long-term goals?

Brain and Memory with Arthur Kohn #astdtk13

2013-01-31T19:13:00.001-05:00

These are my liveblogged notes from a concurrent session with Arthur Kohn. I'm at the ASTD Tech Knowledge 2013 Conference kicking off today January 29, 2013 in San Jose, California. Apologies for typos and incoherence.

Brain and Memory: Seven Tips that Improve E-Learning
Arthur Kohn, PhD
Fulbright Professor of Cognitive Science

He starts us off with a memory test. He gives us 15 words in turn and then after he's said them all, we write them down in any order:

(I remembered 12 out of 15 of them!)

Primacy effect: the word that come first we remembered the most - it was the most rehearsed.
The word cotton -- most recently said was also remembered. The words in the middle were not as well remembered...

We are organic machines.

You would think you encode a word. But what you encode in your brain is a representation of that word or connotations you have with that word. (e.g., if you heard the word switch, you have may have remembered the word light as a connotation of switch).

There is no difference, biochemically, between a true memory and an implanted memory. It is incredibly easy to implant memories in people's minds.

The constructed nature of memory.

1. Memory is Constructive. Our brains often invent our memories in creative ways.

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Take control over the content that you want your students to learn. Here are 40 facts you need to remember. As a teacher, that's your fault when the student doesn't remember, not the student's.

Skinner: "if the pidgeon fails to behave like I think they will, the pidgeon is right and I'm wrong."

How do we educate uneducated,

Create context around random letters (he shows us FB INB AAN DIB MHI PPAO SHA and asks us to remember that. Much easier to remember if you see it as FBI NBA AND IBM HIPPA OSHA).

"Chunking" - we can hold 7 independent facts, plus or minus two. But if I can enrich that content by combining things we can remember a lot more! The brain wants things chunked into whole stories.

2. Memory limits can be expanded. The carrying capacity of memory can be expanded if you provide enriched content

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So what makes some information and some memories stick better than others?

The brain is not best compared to a computer. It's a machine that helps us survive. It tries to tell stories to make sense of our environment.

As trainers, it's simple stuff that makes it easier. Start with a rhetorical question "What do you feel is the best way to deal with a difficult person?" By challenging people to fill in the gaps -- they will remember better. This is so simple!

3. Memory can be unlimited. New information needs to be wrapped within meaningful shells.

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Video has more carrying capacity then text -- 100 words with lilt and tone and a face -- more richness than text. Create a world where human beings talk to each other.

Synchronized transcript that you can review and highlight.

Add rich context, emotionally laden, and interactive.

How does visual information pass through your brain? Info that passes through left visual field goes to right brain; info through right visual field goes to left brain.

Left side of brain processes language
Right side of brain processes emotion

4. Memory is emotional. the brain attaches both cognitive and emotional tags to information.

Your training will be more effective if you are unembarrassed about including emotion. Discussing love life is more interesting than talking about hair net. So how can you pull in training about hair nets to include your love life?

We've got to give dignity to the content and the learners by developing engaging and meaningful content. Weave in every lesson you can using emotion -- it will stick for a much longer time.

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Recall is profoundly different with the addition of a contextual image. He divides us into two groups and has half the group close their eyes while he shows the other group a picture. Then he describes a procedure. It makes no sense to the group who did not see the picture. Group 2 got it because they saw the picture. (It was about laundry). Group 1 didn't know where they were going -- when he showed us all the picture, group 1 said "Ohhh..." (why didn't you tell me that...

If you tell people where they are going ahead of time, you make a profound difference in recall.

5. Context increases memory

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6. Levels of processing affects memory. Author your materials in a way that forces learners to engage with the material in a deep and personal way.

He asked us to look at a series of corporate logos. Half of us wrote down whether we thought it was a good or bad company (making it emotional); the other half were asked to evaluate the letters in the logos. THEN later he asks us to rmember teh logos (which was not our original task). Those who made an emotional evaluated remembered more logos.

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The forgetting curve (Ebbinghaus)
Within 20 minutes you've lost 20%, within two hours you've lost 70%

Encoding information vs. retrieving information

encoding = taking knowledge and encoding it into the brain
retrieving = bringing it back out

Both need to be practiced. If you encoded a book two weeks and now for the exam you re-read the book -- you're practicing the encoding part. But you're not practicing the retrieving part.

Forgetting is not the failure of memory. forgetting is a process that the brain uses to reduce the amount of knowledge it has to maintain. The brain purges a LOT of info that it thinks is unimportant.

So how do you tell the brain that something is important? How do you tag it?

what specific events do you give to a person following training to make that training stick?

Reinforcement - quizzing
Depth of processing
Generative retrievals
Social elaboration
Coaching

Give a student a lesson. Two days later give them a quiz ('according to the instructor, what was the most important first step). After two days ask them to retrieve critical information. It gives them the opp to practice retrieving it.

Touch 3 times (2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months)

The 2 day touch is fact based -- recall facts

After 2 weeks build in elaborative recall. Now ask them -- "Hey, according to that lecture on XXX how can you imagine using that info in our organization?" Then the student gives a written response. So his ideas get fed into a social learning environment.

2 month touch -- ask that same person -- "can you give us examples of how you've used this in your organization?" (so here's the return on investments, here's your Kirkpatrick...)

No one learns from a single pass. Even if it's outstanding training, no one learns in a single pass. Find every way you can to give people the opportunity to recall your information. You'll be cueing their brain to remember this info -- that it's salient.

The forgetting curve is brutal.

Get this and you can convince your organization to touch the learner - 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months.

7. Booster Training (don't forget the forgetting curve!)

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www.aklearning.com

Design Models at #astdtk13

2013-01-31T18:14:00.000-05:00

Today I presented a session at ASTD Tech Knowledge 2013.

Here are my slides for your learning pleasure!

Design models cbean astd tk13 from cammybean

Nick Bilton Day Two Keynote “I live in the future” #astdtk13

2013-01-31T12:10:00.001-05:00

These are my liveblogged notes from the day two keynote with @nickbolton. I'm at the ASTD Tech Knowledge 2013 Conference kicking off today January 29, 2013 in San Jose, California. Apologies for typos and incoherence.

New York Times, columnist

http://www.nickbilton.com

@nickbolton

Author of: I live in the future and here’s how it works

All our devices are increasingly becoming connected. 3 SCREENS: phone, computer, tv screens.

Sensors as reporters – sensors in your phones – can they be used as resporters?

Technology to watch:

Wearable computers and sensors

3D printing

Mobile Banking (Venmo – bank payments via SMS)

Flexible devices (that bend and flex)—think Paper 2.0

All of these things are brought together by social media

It’s a generation that wants to CREATE. Everyone’s become a storyteller. We post updates and pictures, and links, and deals.

People are developing a CONVERSATION.

People in business have to be a part of this conversation.

Social media breaks the news to us in real time. (He shares a very cool visual heat map that shows how people accessed the NYTimes on the day Michael Jackson died.)

The hyperpersonalization of EVERYTHING.

Big DATA.

Your job has changed.

Gadgets on planes –Nick did research on whether or not devices really disrupt airplane communications. He wrote a bunch of stories on the FAA – and part of his job is to post on social media networks.

Social media is the new printing press. It’s the way we share stories with each other.

Asked neuroscientists – can we multi task or can’t we? The ability to engage in two tasks at the same time depends entirely on what the tasks are. You can watch a game on TV and watch the Tweet stream about the game. But driving and texting = no.

Brodmann’s Area 10 – the area of brain involved with multi-tasking

Fear of new technologies – “Technochondria”. We were afraid of trains, we were afraid of phones. Our brains adapt. It’s not evolution. Instead our brains are built to adapt.

Research on video games – surgeons who play video games are better surgeons.

Epic Win (a game)– you create tasks you need to do with your friends. I need to do my laundry and so do you. Whoever does their laundry first gets more points.

To reach the next generation: speak in games, photography. They want to have a conversation. This generation wants to be part of a community.

We need to use Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus to communicate with our audience.

Clark Quinn Mobile Learning Design #astdtk13

2013-01-30T17:14:00.001-05:00

These are my liveblogged notes from a concurrent session with Dr. Clark Quinn @quinnovator. I'm at the ASTD Tech Knowledge 2013 Conference kicking off today January 29, 2013 in San Jose, California. Apologies for typos and incoherence.

Mobile design principles

What's the least I can do for you? We over design and overdevelop. What's the least I can do to get you over the hump?

Don't try to put everything in a mobile world. Focus on 20% of the features tht give you 80% of the value.

What tools to develop mobile? They change so fast. And if you don't get the design right it doesn't matter how you implement it. So get the design right and then figure out how to implement it and what tool to use.

Prototype, test, refine. Make it iterative.

We have an opportunity in the palm of our hands...

If Not ADDIE, Then What with Michael Allen #astdtk13

2013-01-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

These are my liveblogged notes from a concurrent session with Dr. Michael Allen. I'm at the ASTD Tech Knowledge 2013 Conference kicking off today January 29, 2013 in San Jose, California. Apologies for typos and incoherence.

Michael Allen CEO, Allen Interactions

ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) – it just wasn’t good enough for him. He used to teach ADDIE with confidence. It’s hard to argue. All of the pieces make sense and are defensible and naturally right.

But we’re pressed to produce a product that changes behavior and creates organizational impact – and do it on time and budget. If we could do it better, faster, cheaper…

ADDIE’s origins – by the armed services when they needed a cookbook to create a lot of instruction fast by people without a lot of instructional knowledge. And it worked.

Over time, he has evolved ADDIE into Successive Approximation. (SAM)

We’re not after perfection, cuz you’ll never arrive there. Perfection is an impossible journey. But we can keep getting closer to the perfect solution.

Extreme programming, Agile, etc. is going on in other technical disciplines. They use the same principals of Successive Approximation.

Dr. Michael Allen’s Book: Leaving ADDIE for SAM (co-written with Richards Sites, Allen VP – he leads the Allen studio in Tampa)

What we’ll cover today:

Why not ADDIE – too costly and not enough fun.
Search for process must consider the desired perfect.
ADDIE is too content-centric and not learner-centric.
Agile – what are the bigger challenges and opportunities?
SAM

If the model you uses gives you the quality products you want on time and on budget then stick with it.

Products need to meet expectations, achieves performance outcomes (it’s not about knowing), stays within budget, delivers on time, unites the team (builds enthusiasm and has everyone excited about the final project – especially if you’re doing it over and over. If it isn’t fun, then it’s really hard).

Agile Product Development

Manifesto (www.agilemanifesto.org):

Continuous functionality (satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of software – every delivery is a usable product. Unlike in ADDIE where people look at a specification document but what they imagine is completely different. For each “sprint” you set required functionality that must be there, then target , future deliverables)

Changes welcome (Welcome changes, even late in development. At the end of the process you start asking yourself “is this what we meant to do?” – this stimulates late breaking ideas.)

Frequent deliveries (Work in two week sprints – deliver working software frequently. And you may throw out everything you did in those first few weeks. And that’s ok. It turns the ADDIE question around from “what do we need” to “why wouldn’t this work?” We might find out in this process that we’re targeting the wrong audience.)

Buyer involvement (Business people and developers must work together DAILY throughout the project. “We’ll know it when we see it.” Agile is really good when the requirements change. Agile EXPECTS change. Nobody ever asks the senior leader to be involved – why not just ask? Allen tells the story of a project they did with Apple. They wanted him on the project – he said he’d only do it if the person who owned the project was also involved. This was the Chief Counsel. At Apple. So she was asked. And she participated and was fascinated by it.)

Minimum documentation (Keep the documentation as small as possible but as useful as needed. Even storyboards have this problem. Think hard about what documentation is useful and needed. Less is necessary when you keep putting product in front of the customer.)

Face to face communication (Written documentation is low on the communication totem pole of effectiveness. Face to face and a whiteboard is really effective. Open space with lots of white boards and in between. People adapt to that and wear earphones. We do have virtual teams but we mostly work together. Use Skype a LOT.)

Iterative and incremental (Keep doing things in small steps and build on top of them. If you mess up something in the sprint that was already built, then you have to fix it in that sprint. The product gets more and more complete.)

Breadth vs. depth (We go from one content area to the next and we avoid perfecting things. We do a once over – build the bottom layer of the cake. As we go into other content areas, we see ideas that would be useful in earlier areas. We want to discover those synergies. So then we build the next layer of the cake. This is hard for developers, because they like to perfect things as they go.)

Continuous testing

JIRA – Project Planning Ticketing tool (we use this at Kineo US) great for itemizing all the tasks that needs to be done in sprints.

THE SAVVY START

Allen Interactions does a Savvy Start to kickoff meetings. They try for two days (could be 1-3 days depending on the project). Try to get offsite somewhere. They spin through the SAM model as many times as they can in those two days. 1 ½ hour cycles to squeeze out all kinds of interesting information.

Ideally, the project owner (the Chief Counsel!) is in the room.

Quick initial evaluation:

What do we think we know?
Who are the learners
What needs to change in their performance?
What can they do now?
Where do learners go for help now?
What delivery means are available?
What will define success?
What is the budget? Schedule? Resources are available?
Who is the key decision maker?

Try to get answers to these question before the meeting so you’re just validating them at the savvy start.

Get all the ideas out there as quickly as possible. And then mock up something as quickly as possible. Sketching is so important!

Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton

Sketching is not drawing – it’s about communicating ideas quickly and inexpensively. Sketching invites comments and suggestions. Easy to dispose of and nobody cares. Often the main content idea isn’t discovered until later in the process.

Do a mock up – an iteration – and then ask “why wouldn’t this work?”

As a rule, throw out your first idea and then try something completely different.

People like their first ideas and feel wedded to it and proud of it. We need to let go of the first idea. Because almost every time, idea 2 is EVEN BETTER!

Three is the magic number of iterations. You get declining return. Two might be enough. Four might be needed. But plan on three.

For iteration 3 you can borrow from the other two ideas.

Project planning comes AFTER the Savvy Start. Only then do we write a project plan and price it.

Agile based approaches can take a little longer than you expect. To keep in time and budget you just stop doing iterations.

Questions from the crowd:

How do you agree with client on contracting and scheduling?

Even with ADDIE there's a lot of strong customer education we have to do. We have to show them that this is a different process. We have to walk them through it and say it's going to be different. We do contracting just for the Savvy Start first. And then they move into full budget. Then they write up a plan and charge for that. And the client could go build that themselves.

danah boyd ASTD Tech Knowledge Key Note #astdtk13

2013-01-30T12:17:00.001-05:00

These are my liveblogged notes from ASTD Tech Knowledge 2013 Opening Keynote kicking off today January 29, 2013 in San Jose, California. Apologies for typos and incoherence.

danah boyd

Microsoft Research

Networked Learned: How Tomorrow’s Workers Will Challenge Today’s Organizations

@zephoria

http://www.danah.org

Thinking through organizational change that matters.

She has been tudying teenagers for the last decade: from Friendster to Facebook to fragmented apps today of Instagram, Tumblr, etc…

Interested in the inflections where technology meets with society

What is the culture around the production of new technologies?

How technology sector has radically changed its way of working.

Transformation happening around the boundaries of organizations. We used to think of people working in contained organizations.

Young people are saying this makes no sense. In a networked world why would you only talk to people in your org? Why not talk to everyone?

Young people assume information flows faster. Where you don’t keep secrets from people who can help you. This is confusing and counter to organizations.

Young people find ways of challenging the status quo of how boundaries work.

Technology Sector

In last 15 years, a shift in how programming happens and how it’s changed the industry.

Back in the day you read a book on programming and you followed the rules. And you slowly understood the code through simple implementation.

She studied computer science – where they had a formal planning process. How will I use this code in the future? Compiling code took time – you made sure your code was perfect. It was very formalistic.

About 10 years ago, the way people coded changed. It didn’t take hours to compile. Young people were taking code from all over the place and shoved it together. And they didn’t know how it worked. Building collages of code. Frankenmonsters of code.

This was alien to software engineering. This is not how you’re supposed to code.

Now you have ecosystems where people share code (GetHub) – the process of sharing has become part of the process of building.

Code is now a social, communal, collaborative process. This practice of sharing has created reorgs in major start ups.

You will find co-working spaces – tons of people from competing companies sitting side by side and working together. People who “shouldn’t” be talking together because they work for competing orgs…There are no cubes – open space to encourage conversation.

Companies do this because sharing knowledge builds up everyone. This is disruptive!

Geeks are really social in term sof engaging in certain activities. They don’t stay at organizations for that long. The average tenure in Silicon Valley is around 3 years. They switch jobs to learn new skills. Because they are highly social networked.

A lot of this is happening off hours – outside the core of the workforce. In NY there are “data drinks” – the social networks become the fabric of the tech industry.

Outside of tech sector, the idea of people moving from company to company, spending hours after hours to network, sharing code – is

Teenagers

How do they understand the world of public vs. private.

4chan (the underbelly of the Internet – not for work! A community that creates deeply problematic content – but also fun content. Started by a 15 year old boy).

In order to look at 4chan, you can only see what’s on the front page. Once they scroll off the front page, they disappear and are gone forever. He did this because he was in his bedroom and didn’t want his mom to know. It became part of the culture for 4chan. And this is where the meme started – lolcatz. People repost, reown, modify.

Rickrolling started on 4chan – “I got rickrollled!”

A culture of pranking and punkstering.

Anonymous emerged out of 4chan in response to Scientology.

These people are trying to hack the ATTENTION ECONOMY. They mess with the flow of attention in society. They play with the status quo and play with the boundaries of Internet culture.

Remix culture – let’s take Monty Python Holy Grail and mix it with Star Wars. Oblivious to copyright, but finding ways to engage and play online.

Teenagers on Twitter, Instagram, with millions of followers. They’ve created an ecosystem that exceeds the adults.

These teenagers live in a world where they are not let out of the house. So young people are trying to find some place where they have control – where they have control in public. Finding a space where they have some level of power.

They see the Internet as their own.

We see teenagers going public, but this doesn’t mean they’ve given up their privacy. Privacy is not control of information; it’s the ability to control a social situation. It requires understanding the social situation well enough to control it.

Ability to achieve privacy in these spaces. They want to be in public, but to not always be public.

“Hiding in plain sight.” Teenagers know that they can’t control the access to the content, but they can control the access to meaning (by using in jokes) – danah shares a story of a teenager of Facebook (whose mom is also on FB and comments a lot in a lame, mom way). So instead of posting the sad song lyrics to show how sad she’s feeling, because she doesn’t want her mom to overreact she posts lyrics to Life of Brian “Always look on the bright side of life.” Her mom thinks she’s having a great day; her friends get the joke and send her txt messages.

So how do we think about the 21^st century?

Loose ties that get reinforced. People making sense of a networked public. This is a radical shift.

15-20 years ago we organized by groups….now we’re organizing through networks.

Success in today’s workforce is about being networked in a way that makes sense. How do you build relationships that help you sustain the right kinds of connections?

In traditional higher-ed, the elite college in the US – not a place to learn skills. Professors give horrible lectures on esoteric subjects. They teach so they can do their research. Why people go to those institutions is really about social networking. Negotiating the dynamics of the dorm room – you start to build relationships that help sustain the elite connections of our country.

But this has gotten messier now with social media. Young people find their network of people like them even before they get on campus. So they’re rebuilding homogeny. This is dangerous as a long term practice. We see people on social networks connected with people who are MOST LIKE THEM.

On LinkedIn you see this. Google’s application form you fill out all the people you already know at Google. They are asking “are you like us?” Because they might stay longer with them, too.

People recommend people who are like them.

So we are reinforcing homogeneity.

We need to train people about thinking how DIVERSE their networks are.

Start up networks in the late 90s – they got to know each other but no reach beyond their world.

We see certain industries contract…how do you take your skills and apply them to a new sector, outside of your field?

As new educational technologies are coming into your landscape – MOOC, automated instruction. Making learning more accessible to a larger group of people. But we lose the ability to build networks. When you’re learning together you’re building relationships.

As you build skills, how to you build social networks and relationships?

Kids who live at home in college – we’re losing the weaving of networks and connections.

When we see young people experiementing with networks – we want to encourage them. Help people connect with networks. And yet young people are told not to meet strangers.

We need to meet people who are NOT LIKE YOU in order to build and learn.

Building out relationships through social networking is not just an HR issue – it’s connected to your ability to become a lifelong learner. Exposing people to other people who know what they don’t know.

Grow your networks to expose you to possibilities.

How to help people build skills and make connections?

We may need disruption to help grow things (e.g., outsiders coming into your organization).

How do we prepare learners for the skills of the future, but also how do we prepare them to engage with the ecosystem?

Questions from the crowd

Mobility – teenagers have very little control over their time. Mobile phones don’t give them mobility (because their lives are so scheduled), but it provides interstitial connection. Provides social grooming – they’re saying nothing, but maintaining a meaningful relationship because they can’t be together (“hi. What are you doing.” “nothing” etc.) Kids aren’t allowed to run around time anymore. You’re reliant on your parents to drive you around. Even if you’re allowed out, your friends probably aren’t. So teenagers are more organized around PCs or mobile phones.

Go through your Twitter list and see who you’re following. And then go out there and find someone who is radically different than you. Make sure your network on twitter is full of different voices. It shapes how we think, keep it broad.

Diversity within workforces – more diverse teams outperform less diverse teams. More diverse teams perceive themselves to be underperforming homogenous teams. AND they perceive themselves to be less happy. So how do you explode out diversity, even when it makes you uncomfortable.

Strategies to help your employees move beyond their network? (The woman who asks this question works in tech sector and says her org hires people from same colleges/universities – so her challenge is to help them broaden their network). Idea: Here are a list of people on Twitter to follow that are ALL different.

Coding Freedom http://www.amazon.com/Coding-Freedom-Ethics-Aesthetics-Hacking/dp/0691144613 – a book about the hyperindividualistic culture of programmers and open source software – the tension.

How do we incentivize people collectively vs. individualization?

Can you get a team to buy in to be collectively evaluated?

Tired old elearning? Want some ideas? Free Webinar!

2013-01-18T09:34:00.002-05:00

Join me this Tuesday, January 22 at 1:00 eastern for a free webinar hosted by Training Industry and Brainshark. I'll share some tips and strategies for spicing up your eLearning designs - simple tips for better writing and more thoughtful interaction that don't have to blow your budget.

Yawn Proof Your eLearning without Busting the Bank

Hope to see you there!

One Learning Designer's Look Back at 2012

2013-01-02T17:11:00.004-05:00

So we've wrapped up 2012 with a few ribbons and bows and have sent it on its way. It was a big year.

Some of my professional and personal highlights from 2012 (not that you asked):

Growing Kineo US

Our Kineo US team has continued to grow and flourish. While I still work out of my home office in the Boston area, our office in downtown Chicago now boasts a full host of project managers, instructional designers, ace graphic artists, top notch developers, our Totara LMS support team, as well as marketing and support personnel. It's an exciting journey and I'm proud to be part of the Kineo family.

So what did I learn from all that? Well, keep on keeping on. Virtual working is great, but it's also really wonderful to hang out in the office with my team mates.

Clients & Project Work

Of course, none of that growth is possible without our growing and amazing client list. I've had the opportunity to work on a huge range of projects this year, from virtual classrooms to leadership academies.

And what could have been a boring course on information security won a Brandon Hall Gold Award for Compliance Training. Just a little proud of our team!

So what did I learn from all that? Well, that learning and development always provides something new to learn. New technologies, new approaches. There's really no getting static in this field unless you just stop trying.

Conferences

Going to industry conferences is where it's at as far as I'm concerned. I love connecting and learning and breathing learning stuff with really smart people. This year was no let down.

The year started off with me wrapping up my stint as the planning committee chairperson for ASTD TechKnowledge 12. I was this close to doing onstage karaoke in front of the entire TK crowd -- it's hard not to let Vegas get into your soul. You can see the proof here.

In March, I ran a pre-conference session at the eLearning Guild's Learning Solutions called The Accidental Instructional Designer. Loved, loved, loved that. So much, in fact, that I'll be doing it again this March!

I helped facilitate two ASTD Learn Now Conferences -- one in April and the other in July -- where we focused on real application of social, mobile, and performance support. Working closely with Justin Brusino, Bob Mosher, Conrad Gottfredson and Chad Udell -- amazing!

At DevLearn in November, I had a great time with my session: Putting the Design Back in Instructional Design. This session had me out of my comfort zone -- I was reading and researching it for the six months leading up to it. How's that for some informal learning with a clear goal in mind?

So what did I learn from all this conference speaking? Well, that yes, I can talk in front of 1,200 people and somehow pull it off without looking or sounding like a complete idiot. That I need to slow down more when I talk and let people absorb it a bit (thanks to Lance Dublin for that feedback!)

Writing

I appeared in actual paper print this year for my first time with an article published in ASTD's T&D Magazine. As much online blogging and writing as I've done in the past 7 years, it was still a thrill to see my words in an actual magazine.

Not only that, but I got interviewed for an article on training that appeared in Delta Sky Magazine. You know, an inflight magazine that you randomly read while enroute from O'Hare to SFO or something. Weird, right? In print and in the air! (This is where people can start making jokes about the mile high club or something).

My article, The Accidental Instructional Designer, appeared on the Learning Solutions site in January. OK -- it's not a paper magazine, but I think it's one of the best industry news sources out there so I was thrilled just the same.

My blog has suffered a bit this year as my writing has ended up elsewhere. But be sure to check out Kineo Top Tips to which I'm a regular contributor.

So what did I learn from all that? Well, that people actually like to read what I write. And that I really love it. And that I just need to keep on writing...I've got quite a few unfinished articles and ideas floating around that I need to pull together and get out there. It's like giving birth sometimes. And also like releasing an idea into the wild.

Getting Sporty

I used to be a competitive swimmer, so getting back in the water to race brings back strange feelings for me.

This July, I swam the swimming leg of a sprint triathlon in my now hometown of Littleton, MA. Of all the relay swimmers, I was the first one out of the water and my team finished fifth. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. And apparently I am saying that myself. This inspired me to start running in earnest and a few days later I started a couch to 10k running program. I've got my mind thinking about doing the entire triathlon this July...

So what did I learn from all that? Well, exercise really does make me feel better. And that sometimes you can just decide to do it--and then you go ahead and do it.

City & Guilds

Big news for those of us who proudly fly the Kineo banner! We're now thrilled to be a part of City & Guilds, a UK force for 130 years with a focus on vocational training and support for employers all over the globe. As part of City & Guilds, our goal: "to become the global workplace learning company." You can read more about our acquisitions on our website.

So what did I learn from all that? This one is still new so haven't had much time to absorb. But I think it's that exciting alliances can come from unexpected places!

So what's up for 2013?
Well, there's that triathlon that I may have just publicly committed myself to...

I'll be speaking at loads of conferences, with ASTD TK 13, Learning Solutions, and ASTD ICE coming ahead in the nearer future.

Hoping to write more, more, more.

Hoping to push myself more, more, more.

And -- to slow down a bit too and be more mindful....(check out my Learning Resolution on the Open Sesame blog.)

Thanks for being with me in 2012 and looking forward to more more more in 2013!

DevLearn Conference Video: Putting Design Back into ID

2012-12-05T09:23:00.000-05:00

At DevLearn this year, the eLearning Guild taped a number of sessions and has made them available to members.

I was honored to have my session recorded: Putting "Design" back into Instructional Design. eLearning Guild members can access the video archive on the eLearning Guild's website:

The eLearning Guild: Putting "Design" back into Instructional Design

If you do take the time to watch the video, I'd love constructive feedback and ideas for how I can improve this session for the future!

Thanks for watching :)

Joe Sabia – opening keynote at Brainshark #sharkmeet12

2012-11-06T11:14:00.000-05:00

Joe Sabia – opening keynote at Brainshark #sharkmeet12

Video maker

TED Talk

http://joesabia.co

Joe follows viral culture.

What could be transferred to business communications? From the world of viral video?

Think about a presentation you’ve given in the past month. Based on the principles Joe is going to talk about, how might you integrate those principles?

CDZA – creating videos for this music channel.

Keeping people on the edge of their seats…don’t reveal it all at once.

Joe starts off and shows us two videos on detecting extra solar planets. Two methods:

Take 1 – talking head, dull voice over. But more information. If you watched it 10-12 times you might get more out of it. Facts, but dense. Dry and boring.

Take 2 – exciting visuals, more memorable. Made reference to pop culture to pull people in. But all over the place and distracting.

Neither really very effective.

Two questions any presenter must ask:

How do you present info in a way people will learn?

How do you present info in a way people will pay attention?

How do you present info in a way people will learn?

Brevity
Clarity (no confusing graphs!)
Relevant aesthetics – no pictures of hotdogs and bunnies!

So how do we get people to pay attention?

Joe looks at videos and internet culture. What compels us to send the video around of the cat falling into the fish tank?

Right now, SO much content out there. So what do we share and why?

Benefits of connectivity

Unprecedented access to info

Global connectedness

Work from anywhere!

But there’s a darkside…

Makes it so damn hard to pay attention to anything.

Easy to be addicted to all the stuff that's out there.

Joe shows an Excel spreadsheet that looks like Facebook – so you can use this at work and no one will know!

Attention is a valued commodity. Keep in mind that people probably have 15 tabs open on their browser and that Facebook Excel page…

Use creativity to stand out and capture that attention!

Six things that might be interesting…to apply to presentation world? Not trips or tricks, but perspectives in grabbing attention.

1. Dessert and vegetables

The Huffington Post – it’s reliable. Huge headline, big photos. Serious politics up tight. But then you go down and there’s John Hamm without a shirt. The mullet approach to news – business up front, party at the bottom. Get your veggies at top ad your dessert at the bottom. We all love dessert.

Sitting in class (veggies) vs. recess (dessert).

Barry Schwartz – great with the dessert and veggies.

Dessert is a moment of escapism. Makes the veggies more memorable.

As long as dessert is on the table – doesn’t matter if in beginning, middle or end.

2. Cultural references as dessert

The power of cultural references

Cultural love – analogizes information, baked-in familiarity. Shows you have a pulse on culture.

Obviously, challenges to do this in culture world. But how can you connect back to cultural references?

3. Interactivity

“tone of voice is personality expressed through words”

tests, evals, url slides, polls.

“Liking” on Facebook – you’re showing the world your view and doing marketing for another organization.

How do you get people to interact without clicking their mouse? But get them to move their body behind the computer screen?

Skittles Lick the Rainbow video. Touch the space. Touch the screen. Get your hand licked by a cat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnwEntgHyFI

Passive isn’t as good as active.

4. Your Space as a Playground

Think outside of the walls of your classroom. (shares a video of a classroom teacher who has a ppt on screen that “comes alive”).

In a presentation world, your confined to a box. Your PPT box. Don’t see it as a box, see it as a universe.

Choose your own adventure – an interactive Facebook experience. In the first comment for a photo, you click a link to go off…

5. Unscientific Research

“What happens when you put an android, winpho7, iphon 4 – what grills faster?” (youtube video) – cooked three phones on a grill. Over 1 million views.

Apply human, unscientific views - -ask people – raise hands.

Information for a captive audience.

Offers convincing, offbeat evidence.

Shows passion.

6. Power of Surprises

Your world may not allow for a lot of this absurdity. There is a time and a place for fun.

Replace the word fun with the word surprise.

Tania Luna – her company is called “Surprise Industries” – she consults with corporates. Give people the unexpected. Stand out from everyone else.

In primates, surprise intensifies emotion by 300-400%.

That element of surprise makes us talk about it and share it.

Surprises can be a lifestyle.

Joe likes to pay for things with $2 bills.

Surprises make everything better.

How does this work with presentations?

Make a pact – put one surprise in your presentation. (But don’t give anyone a heart attack or completely inappropriate – know the boundaries).

Look at the presentations that people are doing that you want more of. Think of your own ways to do these things. Be inspired by what other people are doing “good artists borrow; great artists steal.” ~Picasso

When it comes to presentation making – be the 1%--stand out from what everyone else is doing. Don’t let the corporate world corporatize you out of your creativity.

Putting the Design back into Instructional Design #DevLearn

2012-11-03T11:18:00.003-05:00

Here are my slides from my presentation on Thursday, November 1, 2013 at the eLearning Guild DevLearn conference in Las Vegas.

Putting Design Back into Instructional Design from cammybean

Thanks to a great audience -- we had lively conversation and great food for thought!

DevLearn 2012 Wrap Up #devlearn

2012-11-03T11:13:00.000-05:00

Wrapping up a few days in Las Vegas for this year's eLearning Guild DevLearn 2012 conference. I could NOT miss Halloween with my kids, so flew in Thursday afternoon. So I missed a lot, but still had enough time to talk my head off and soak in a lot of elearning goodness.

Shortly after I arrived, I jumped on stage to participate in a panel with Koreen Olbrish, Janet Clarey, Jane Bozarth, and Jeannette Campos on New Emerging Tech. Great format as we pulled Jeannette in from Skype and Jane on Twitter. Koreen handed us a new topic every five minutes-- from QR codes (hot or not?) to 3D printers.

At 3:00 I presented a concurrent session on Putting the Design Back into Instructional Design (slides forthcoming!) I had everyone closing their eyes and imagining "good design" - forks and phones and Harry Potter rides came to mind. Not surprisingly, eLearning examples were not the first thing to pop into people's minds. We talked a lot about Design with a big D and then came back to elearning and what we can all do to be better DESIGNERS of elearning.

The afternoon/evening was all about DemoFest. I shared a demo of an example of our new Responsive Elearning Design Framework - all HTML5. If you want to know more about RED, check out a webinar presentation that Steve Rayson did last month.

The downside of presenting something at DemoFest is you can't wander around and see what everyone else is doing. I did get to check out some interesting work at the next table over that Reuben from EdCetra Training showed off: a responsive onboarding program developed as an "app store. Each app is a short onboarding exercise and the whole thing is built off the TinCan Experience API.

Which leads me to Tin Can. You couldn't walk through the conference this year without tripping over one...

So Friday morning I listened to a panel on TinCan - "Everything you ever wanted to know..." And while it may not have answered everything I want to know about the new Experience API and what many are calling "the new SCORM", it was useful to hear some real world examples and listen to the questions of real developers who are trying to figure out what the impact of this will be. There's a lot of hype about TinCan at the moment...and a lot of confusion. My message to people: no need to panic. This will take time.

Then I sat in on a session with Sharon Boller (@sharon_boller) on converting a PC based elearning course to an iBook. I've been playing around with iBook Author recently and think it could really meet the needs of a lot of what gets produced as elearning these days. Sharon did a nice job presenting their design process and the finished output. Learn more about their project and download a demo from the Bottom Line Performance site.

The closing keynote (and so sorry I missed Wednesday's fire breathing keynote!) wrapped up with a hilarious eLearning Guild documentary. The final speaker, Dayna Steele, urged us to find our inner rock stars and to be nice to each other. Karma pays off, man.

Of course, the most memorable bits of the conference are the informal hallway chats, the late night beer of elearning conference, and the Las Vegas experience. Last night, I saw The Beatle's LOVE -- a Cirque du Solelil extravaganza. Talk about experience design!

So thanks to the eLearning Guild for putting on another memorable conference.

I'm off to catch a plane home now! See you on the other side.

Is Your Elearning Interactive?

2012-10-02T14:57:00.001-05:00

If you missed my recent webinar on interactive elearning, have no fear!

Answering the question, "did you record the webinar?" Why, yes. Yes, we did. Watch the 60 minute webinar on Youtube.

And answering the question, "will your slides be available?" Why, yes. Yes, they are.

Interactivity in eLearning from cammybean

Creating Effective Design Models - Thursday Sept 20th Kineo Webinar

2012-09-25T11:46:00.001-05:00

Join me this Thursday, September 27 at 11:30 EST for another webinar in Kineo's fall series: Creating Effective Design Models.

At Kineo, we've been creating our own names for the design models or patterns that we find ourselves applying over and over again to solve different types of learning challenges with our clients. Having a common language that we use

As usual, I'll share lots of examples and look to you to help create another lively back channel!

Register for the webinar here.