Understanding and Enhancing Learner Engagement   Engagement demo slides I made it to DevLearn this year, and had a fantastic time catching up with friends old and new. Hopefully I’ll share more about that and what I learned in the next few days. Meanwhile, here’s my slides from the conference (see the links above). The first file is the main presentation, the other is some additional demo slides that briefly indicate some of the things we have been doing to improve the learning value of our content. I welcome your thoughts on the slides! If you attended my presentation, I’d love to chat more about what you have been doing recently to give your learners a better experience. I can’t share with you any details about the engagement tracker form Adobe, which was demoed during my presentation, but if you are interested in testing the tracker I can put you in touch with the Captivate beta team at Adobe. Filed under: eLearning Tagged: analytics, DevLearn, learner engagement

From the horse’s mouth, so to speak What is it that Adobe is announcing? Adobe announced to increase its efforts on HTML5, use of the Flash Player for applications (packaged with AIR) and specific desktop browsing use cases including premium video and console-quality gaming. As a result, Adobe will no longer develop Flash Player for mobile web browsers. See this Flash Platform blog post for more details: http://adobe.ly/sbokei Does this mean that Adobe is no longer supporting content publishers focused on delivering content via a browser on a mobile device? Adobe offers world-class tools and technologies including HTML5 tools like Edge that allow content publishers and developers to bring rich content and experiences across mobile web browsers using HTML5. What does this mean for Flash Player support on desktops? Adobe is fully committed to providing a great experience for use cases not yet well supported by HTML, including console quality gaming and premium video. In fact, Flash Player 11 just introduced dozens of new features, including hardware accelerated 3D graphics for console-quality gaming and premium HD video with content protection. We are already working on Flash Player 12 and a new round of exciting features which we expect to again advance what is possible for delivering high definition entertainment experiences. Why is Adobe making this move now? All the major platform providers (Android, iOS, Windows 8) are betting on HTML5 for browsing, some even to the point of excluding third party plug-ins such as Flash Player. Adobe sees this as the right time to increase our focus on accelerating the development of HTML for in browser experiences, especially on mobile (phones and tablets), and general purpose apps, while using Flash to drive whatʼs possible in advanced interactive entertainment areas like console-quality gaming and premium video so that it can continue to serve as a blueprint for further work on HTML. Flash developers get the greatest reach by targeting mobile devices with apps packaged with AIR, and that is where we are investing while helping the mobile browsers advance the state of the art of what can be done in a browser. Our new strategy allows us to maintain leadership in web content and give developers the best tools to create content across all platforms. Will Adobe continue to support AIR? On Mobile? On TVs? Adobe is fully committed to enabling Flash based apps via AIR on mobile and digital home devices. Will the Flash Player continue to be available on the Android Market? Yes. The current version of Flash will be available on the Android Market in the near future. When will Adobe stop supporting Flash Player for browsing on mobile? Adobe will release one more version of the Flash Player for mobile browsing, which will provide support for Android 4.0, and one more release of the Flash Linux Porting Kit - both expected to be released before the end of this year. After that time, Adobe will continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates. What will happen with Flash Player support on RIMʼs BBX platform? Adobe will continue to support RIMʼs use of the Flash Player on the current PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates. RIM has done a great job optimizing the Flash Player for their platform and as a result the RIM playbook provides a great experience for consuming Flash content. RIM is expected to leverage their expertise with Flash to continue to support and ship the Flash Player on BBX devices for the foreseeable future. Will the current version of Flash Player support smartphones and tablets that are coming to market over the coming weeks and months? It depends on the version of the OS, silicon, and browser supported on the device. We are working with OEMs to determine the appropriate support and transition plan for their current and planned devices. Will Adobe stop OEMs from shipping Flash Player on devices? No, Adobe will not stop OEMs from pre-loading and shipping the Flash Player. We expect some of our OEM partners to opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations of the Flash Player. However, Adobe will be recommending mobile OEMs discontinue pre-loading new devices with Flash Player due to expected OS and browser compatibility issues. However, existing licensees can continue shipping Flash Player at the manufacturerʼs discretion. Will 3D support and any of the console-quality Flash games you demoed at MAX come to mobile devices? Yes, game developers will be able to bring console-quality games with hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to mobile devices as Flash based apps packaged with AIR. On the desktop 3D games can be delivered with Flash within the browser or as a Flash based app via AIR. However, 3D content will not be supported in Flash Player on mobile browsers. What does this mean for Flex? Flex SDK 4.5 supports the development of mobile applications that target, or are packaged with AIR. Mobile applications built with Flex SDK are installed on phone or tablet devices and do not rely upon the browser or Adobe Flash Player to run; as such, they are unaffected by this announcement. How does this affect other Flash Platform tools? This news has no impact on the Flash platform tooling offerings (e.g. Flash Builder) from Adobe. Is Flash getting more and more replaced by HTML5? How will Adobe advance Flash Player on desktops and stay relevant? We are continuing to invest in Flash to deliver the most advanced web experiences on desktops, focusing on features that are not yet available in HTML5. Flash Player 11 just introduced dozens of new features, including hardware accelerated 3D graphics for console-quality gaming and premium HD video with content protection. Flash developers can take advantage of these features, and all that Flash has to offer, to reach more than a billion desktops through their browsers and repurpose their content to hundreds of millions of mobile devices through popular App Stores using Flash based apps packaged/enabled with AIR. We are already working on the next future version of Flash Player and a new round of exciting features which we expect to again advance what is possible for delivering high definition entertainment experiences across the Web and devices. We will continue to leverage our experience with Flash to accelerate our work with the W3C and WebKit to bring similar capabilities to HTML5 as quickly as possible, just as we have done with CSS Shaders. And, we will design new features in Flash for a smooth transition to HTML5 as the standards evolve so developers can confidently invest knowing their skills will continue to be leveraged. How many Flash-based apps are available on App Stores today? There are thousands of Flash based apps available on App Stores like Android Market, AppWorld, or Amazonʼs App Store. Popular and top rated examples include Machinarium, Politifact, Dr Stanleyʼs House, Facebook on BlackBerry, WatchESPN etc. How are Flash-based apps different from HTML5 apps? Flash based apps deliver features and capabilities not yet supported in HTML5 such as 3D graphics or content protection for premium video. Developers are able to deliver high-end entertainment experiences as Flash based apps packaged via AIR on mobile platforms and within the browser on desktops. What about Flash Player and support for web browsing on TVʼs (Google TV, Samsung SmartTVs and other connected Digital Home devices)? Adobe will continue to support existing licensees who are planning on supporting Flash Player for web browsing on digital home devices and are using the Flash Player Porting Kit to do so. However we believe the right approach to deliver content on televisions is through applications, not a web browsing experience, and we will continue to encourage the device and content publishing community down that path. What happens to Flash browsing support in the Google TV solution? We recommend you talk with Google, but we believe Google has no immediate plans to remove the Flash Player from the Google TV browser. Do you regret having waited so long after Steve Jobs predicted that Flash Player wonʼt work on mobile devices 1.5 years ago? HTML5 has matured and is able to deliver a great web browsing experiences across mobile devices. At the same time users consume rich content almost exclusively via apps on smartphones and tablets today. At Adobe we are focused on delivering the best tools and technologies for our developers and content publishers so they can offer the best possible experiences to their customers across platforms - from desktops to smartphones, from tablets to TVs. We are proud to lead the industry with HTML5 tools while offering new, cutting- edge features in Flash that are not yet supported in HTML5. Is this expected to improve the relationship between Adobe and Apple? Adobe and Apple have a longstanding relationship and Mac and iOS users are very important to Adobe. Like with any other company in the industry we work closely with Apple in specific areas like support for our Creative Suite products on Mac OS while we compete in other areas like video editing tools. What platforms and browsers will Adobe continue to support with Flash Player for browsing? Adobe plans to continue to support Apple Mac OS X and Safari; Google Chrome Browser for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Intel-based Chrome OS; Microsoft Intel based Windows and desktop Internet Explorer; and cooperate with other third-party browser providers such as Mozilla and Opera. How will content publishers serving premium video reach mobile devices? Content publishers can continue to stream premium, Flash based video content across platforms and devices including the iPhone and iPad using Flash Media Server 4.5. Additionally, content publishers can deliver premium video experiences as Flash based applications packaged with AIR across platforms including connected TVs. Does Adobe intend to bring HTML5’s capabilities to full parity with Flash Player? If yes, then why continue supporting Flash Player for desktop? HTML5 today cannot replace the Flash Player as a platform for delivering console gaming or premium video experience on desktop computers. Adobe plans to leverage its expertise around these use cases to help HTML5 catch up to the Flash Player, but even with the rapid pace of innovation for HTML5 it will take time for HTML5 to catch up to Flash. Will Adobe create Flash Player for Windows 8 on ARM and Windows 8 on X86? Adobeʼs plan is to continue supporting Flash Player for browsing on desktops going forward with Windows 8 on X86 only.Filed under: eLearning

Adobe will continue to develop Flex Builder. Adobe Flex SDK is going open source. Check out this blog post from Adobe for more info: Your Questions About FlexFiled under: Adobe, Flex

Are you interested in Adobe Course Companion?http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2012/01/course-companion-for-adobe-captivate.html Adobe Systems will give a demo of "Course Companion for Adobe Captivate 5.5" on Wednesday 1st February 2012. Here are the details. Date - Wednesday 1st FebruaryTime - 8:00 AM PST (Pacific Standard Time) 11:am Eastern Duration - 1 hourConnect meeting URL - https://my.adobeconnect.com/giliyaruFiled under: eLearning

On Friday June 15th, Adobe released Captivate 6. This latest version of Captivate has some major new features, including the ability to publish to HTML 5 (concurrently with Flash publishing), a new Video Project, massively improved PowerPoint import and integration, interactive widgets, powerful themes and much more. If you are heading out for mLearnCon in San Jose on June 19th, I’ll be there talking about the Video Demo workflow with Pooja Jaisingh, one of Adobe’s eLearning Evangelists. Adobe has published a lot of Captivate 6 feature demos on AdobeTV, and I recommend you take a few minutes to browse them. Here are some quick Captivate 6 resources: AdobeTV: What’s new in Adobe Captivate 6 Leive Weymeis (Lilybiri): Captivate 6 - Advanced Actions  Filed under: Adobe, Captivate, eLearning, Technology Tagged: 6, adobe, captivate, mLearnC

The new Camtasia Studio 8 interface has become a little more complex. Filed under: eLearning

Techsmith quietly released Camtasia Studio 8 last week. Camtasia Studio 8 gains a more complex interface as great new features are added. I am a big Camtasia fan, so I’ve just downloaded Studio 8 and taken a quick look and I see several things that are exciting:- Grouping objects on the timeline The ability to replace video on the video layer with an image and then zoom the image, same as zooming video (Used to be able to do this with video or image, but not both combined in the same project) Motion animations Smartplayer - bringing interactive Camtasia projects to iOS at last Since Captivate and Camtasia are close competitors, it is easy to see why certain features are similar in each, but until now I thought that Captivate 6 was going to be an easy choice for video-only demos. However, this latest release from Techsmith has me certain that I will still want to use both products. Exciting Times But I suspect I will not be saying this for long. With Captivate’s new subscription model allowing more regular updates, I hope to see new features in CP6 dot releases that enable Captivate to quickly leapfrog Camtasia. It has been a few years since Adobe/Macromedia’s software releases have generated such a buzz in the Community. The new subscription model has the potential to be both disruptive and stimulating for software users in all sorts of industries. Camtasia for Mac Confession: I have been aware of Camtasia 2 for Mac for some time, and even own a license for it but I did not install it until now. It looks like Camtasia Studio 8 for Windows and Camtasia 2.2 for Mac do not have feature parity right now, though I have to do some more research to be certain.Filed under: eLearning

Frankly, I’m getting pretty excited about it. I’ve read in a few places that the Surface tablet will be like the Surface ‘table’ computer in that it will be able to ‘see’ what it placed on it. If you’ve never seen any of the Surface demos on YouTube, you should go peek now. I showed this iPad vs Windows 8 (beta) tablet to a colleague and some friends. There are some pretty compelling new features, reminiscent of a conglomeration of WebOS and other tablets that make my wallet nervous … Filed under: eLearning, Technology

I was amused by this blog post - Ballpoint pens… the ruin of education in our country - that Jane Bozarth shared on Twitter. It points out some absurdities from educational resistance to change over the last couple of centuries. Quoting the book Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America the Nick Sauers has the following list: From a principal’s pub­li­ca­tion in 1815: "Students today depend on paper too much.  They don’t know how to write on a slate with­out get­ting chalk dust all over them­selves.  They can’t clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?" From the jour­nal of the National Asso­ci­a­tion of Teach­ers, 1907: "Stu­dents today depend too much upon ink.  They don’t know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pen­cil.  Pen and ink will never replace the pencil." From Rural Amer­i­can Teacher, 1928: "Students today depend upon store bought ink.  They don’t know how to make their own.  When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the set­tle­ment.  This is a sad com­men­tary on mod­ern education." From Federal Teach­ers, 1950: "Ball­point pens will be the ruin of edu­ca­tion in our coun­try.  Stu­dents use these devices and then throw them away.  The Amer­i­can val­ues of thrift and fru­gal­ity are being dis­carded.  Busi­nesses and banks will never allow such expen­sive luxuries." From a sci­ence fair judge in Apple Class­room of Tomor­row chron­i­cles, 1988: "Com­put­ers give stu­dents an unfair advan­tage.  There­fore,students who used com­put­ers to ana­lyze data or cre­ate dis­plays will be elim­i­nated from the sci­ence fair." It’s fun to note that the book could have continued much further into the past, to Socrates who is often cited as lamenting that writing causes forgetfulness, and thus permanently harms the value of education. For extra giggles, as a constant reader you will remember all the hoohaa a couple of years ago about how Google makes us stupid. There were so many copycat articles, I’m not even sure I could find the original if my life depended on it  :-) The fact of the matter is that humans are very resourceful, and somehow we keep fumbling along, learning stuff, making stuff, inventing new stuff, in spite of our seemingly constant efforts to destroy education as we know it and make our children stupid. What do you mean we don’t? It must be true, because I read it a thousand times. So anyway, Nick Sauers‘ blog post inspired me to write the following on Facebook, and I thought it was worthwhile sharing here - it’s high time I stuck with my occasional promises to blog more consistently anyway! I remember being told that if I didn’t learn to write as beautifully as my sister, then I would never get a decent job. Thank goodness for computers, phones, tablets! I think the only thing I regularly write these days are cheques, and my writing is still horrible :-) More seriously, it seems that many of us agree that we do have some deep-seated issues with eduction that need to be addressed. Education in America gets constant bad press for being more expensive and less effective than in other industrialized nations. IMHO, at least some of the cause, as suggested above, is with teachers and their resistance to change. The trouble with many teachers (not all - I am well aware that there are many great teachers!) is that, on average they are an ‘older’ generation, they were taught by an even older generation and they don’t have time or motivation to truly learn, master and integrate new-fangled technologies and techniques into their workflow. Therefore I think teaching is about to go through a painful revolution as a few things converge, particularly here in America:- The personal cost of higher education, and the return on that investment is just not equating to value. There is a loud hubbub about moving to something akin to an apprenticeship model in education - teaching to a career rather than teaching to a square peg and rarely-used specialities. The Internet means everyone knows they can get great learning resources for free, so why pay $60,000+++? Technologies like tablets really are changing how we interact with information and technology, making learning more instant, and critical thinking more important than Industrial Age teaching methods require (the flaws of Industrial Age teaching wonderfully explained by Sir Ken Robinson, full version here ). Classrooms make less and less sense. As does the rigid timetable of formal education. More parents work from home these days, so why can’t kids ‘school from home’? I use this phrase as a distinction from ‘home schooling’. It might just require a revolution in education to keep unemployment below 10%. It seems like too many young people leave education without being able to turn their schooling into employment. I’m not saying anything new here. In the eLearning, Teaching and Business worlds, people are saying similar things and have been for a while. I really have enjoyed the bloom of technology over the last two decades, and the effect of it in our learning solutions, in particular how we can all now be constant and instant learners. I am excited by the changes that are ahead of us, even as I recognize that for many of us, these changes will bring all sorts of trauma as our view of learning gets turned upside down, inside out and spat out as something new and (hopefully) effective for at least a couple of generations before our next learning revolution. Do share your thoughts in the comments. This is a subject that fascinates me, and affects us all!Filed under: eLearning, Teaching, Technology Tagged: evolution, future, ken robinson, learning, memory, teaching, technology, writing

Before the sun was even up here in Atlanta, Adobe released eLearning Suite 6 today. Of big interest to me is the new Multi-SCO packager which has been significantly improved. Check it out in the sneak video below!    Filed under: eLearning