This post is a dedication to the people who have shared a spot in the blogosphere - who have brought much enjoyment, companionship and wisdom - who have permitted us to exchange views and opinion, experience and learning - who have brought an enormous cornucopia of thoughts, ideas and achievements here at Middle-earth.How great the feeling is to receive support, encouragement and reassurance at times of need. That’s what I’ve experienced lately, initiated entirely by visitors who have been reading my recent posts.Blogging isn’t easy without a PC. I was feeling as if I’d lost touch with the ‘ether’ - the ‘fluence’, as it were. I saw my fledgling blog-spot flapping its wee wings and disappearing into oblivion.But no. I believe it is just my perception, for the circle is still there.I am, and always have been, thankful for the support of those in my commentsphere.Not so lonely traveller:This is an amazing journey. The ‘lonely traveller’ is not so lonely, for so many helpful friends are met and made on the way.At this time, I’m particularly grateful to my work colleagues who have dropped by and cheered me with their chummy banter. They are newcomers to my commentsphere but I sense that they are not newcomers to the blogspot.They, and many other welcome visitors like them, affirm that it’s not the blog posts that make the blog. A blog without visitors is like a child’s party without children.What use are all the nuts, apples, oranges, lemons and grapesif there’s no one to munch them and spit out the pips?

When elected British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan uttered these words in 1959, I was 12 years old. He summarised what he thought were future halcyon days for Britain. It didn’t work out so well for Macmillan.But 50 years later, these same words can be used to describe genuinely a halcyon time for those who wish to learn all about elearning.Never has there been a time when world leaders in the field of elearning have been so generous with their advice - on all aspects of elearning, from the best available software, both free and commercial, to the best technique in elearning design.Never has there been a time when so much free debate and ebullient discourse between those experienced in the field of elearning have been so accessible to anyone who has the wherewithal and takes the trouble to access it.Never has there been a time when virtual festivals of learning have raged so splendidly and so deeply on the intricacies of thought, idea, knowledge, pedagogy and scaffolding on behalf of that favoured being, the elearner.Never has there been a time when all of this has been so easily accessible in archives that date back ten years and more.Never has there been a time when a teacher/tutor/instructor/learner could build so easily his or her own online database of information on elearning using the most up-to-date free software to access the Internet.Bountiful elearning:From regular blogs on the subject, written by experts on practical tips and tricks, through expert tuition on blogging, on how to use blogs and all the attendant embeds, widgets and devices, and advice on current changes in those, to a 60 minute mini-course on elearning design practice. Chronicles that burst forth cornucopias of up-to-date news-streams on everything that’s happening online, feeds that weld collaboratively the joint thinking and writing of elearning experience from all over the world, you could read about it all 24/7.The above ‘fan of links’ (with apologies to Sue Waters) merely skims the surface of the skin of what wonderful fruit is available online for anyone to enjoy in elearning all that is currently known, available and being developed.When it comes to finding out and digesting anything to do with elearning, you’ve never had it so good!Tom Kuhlmann - The Rapid Elearning Blog 50 Practical Tips and TricksSkellie - Skelliewag.org Bloggers: Watch and LearnSue Waters - The Edublogger Have You Re-inserted Your GA Tracking Code?Clive Shepherd - 60 Minute MastersStephen Downes - Stephen's WebBrowse My Stuff - Tony Karrer's brainchild Elearning Learning

Tony Karrer asks the BIG question,If you peer inside an organization in 10 years time and you look at how workplace learning is being supported by that organization, what will you see?In answering this, I’m going to be brief and pragmatic.Ten years is a long time to project when making such a prediction. We have to forget about the current global economic crisis that’s putting everything, including workplace learning, into a tight spin. I’m assuming that we will have well recovered from this trauma by 2019.We also have to shut our minds to the time warps that technology and its uses seem to have experienced in the past 10 years. Technology will experience its own ‘crash’ that we will have to contend with. This is already starting to happen with technowhelm, and I estimate that such a trough is not far off. My prediction is that the crazy technological frenzy that appears to be peaking at the moment will tend to moderate tolerably.Drawing from the past:Ten years ago, we might have been forgiven for thinking that the future of workplace learning in 2009 lay in computer assisted learning. Advancing a further five years and we could have been excused for believing that training databases were going to be action packed with animated instruction kits and video assisted training tools.None of these predictions became general features of workplace learning and for a number of differing reasons. A few components of these found their way into specialist programs, limited in their extent by budgetary factors.Learning must be accessible:Accessibility of any information is the main limitation on its effective application. With the sheer volume of digital data that is likely to be associated with any organisation, access will become a major feature of any support system providing useful learning. It’s my best guess of the most efficient way for it to be brought about. The likelihood is that accessibility will become a major issue well before the year 2019 and will have to be dealt with or bust.Over the past few years resourcefulness and conservation have been features of many societal practices. This cultural trait will find its way into the processes to do with how knowledge is stored, and disseminated.Knowledge management will have swept a wide orbit and will return along a familiar but digitally oriented groove. Filtering and replenishing will be based on practice and resultant success, rather than theoretical principles governing what’s deemed to be useful.Data retrieval will have become a fine art, almost an algorithmic feature of the technology of an organisation, rather than a problematic process within it. Already we have successful examples of data being managed on the Internet in Wikipedia and examples like this will serve as practicing models for the design of accessible data systems.The networks:Digital networking may well have found a niche by 2019. The study of how online groups behave and operate, tackled from the standpoint of best optimised rather than random mixes, will develop some of its own fundamental principles.Sharing skills and knowledge, and working collaboratively in doing this, using refined technologies and their developments and appropriate techniques, will be lean and more efficient. Partnerships within and between organisations will be mutual organisational strengths, rather than organisational threats in a competitive environment.Taxonomies for learning:Training and learning in the workplace will become principled studies. Practical taxonomies will evolve. Technologies and associated learning techniques are selected for particular learning needs.For this learning need, use this learning practice, is a pithy summary of how it will work out for most workplace learning needs in 2019. related posts->> ( 1 )

Hannah and Catriona posing for the photoThe attitude of the know-it-all learner is well known to anyone who has been teaching in the classroom for even a short term. It’s also recognised by trainers, tutors and coaches and is often a difficult barrier to dismantle.In my varied experiences in education and training, I was often left wondering what it is that brings about an attitudinal obstacle in the first place. Its source is usually difficult to reveal, for its origin can lie in many different parts of the human psyche.Unless its cause can be identified, there is little the teacher can resort to, other than dismissing it with reference to taking a horse to water.Here are three of the causes I have identified over the years.The greatest barrier to learning something newis the belief that it has already been learnt.This barrier to learning is most commonly met in the classroom and needs a teaching strategy that I call unteaching. It is met in some form by every teacher when introducing a new topic to a class. A deal of dismantling of the misconception and erroneous belief in the mind of the learner is required.One useful path to achieving this is in revealing to the learner, in the nicest possible way and without them losing face, that their knowledge or belief may be wanting in some important detail. Once the major part of the learning obstacle is removed, its remnants are eradicated through the art of good teaching and the application of appropriate pedagogy."I’m expected to know all thisand I can’t show my ignorance."This is a too common situation in learners, at all levels.I once had a job as a computer coordinator for the student database of a prominent university. My boss was the Registrar who shouldered convincingly the responsibility of being knowledgeable about everything to do with the database and the student data contained there.That responsibility was the biggest impediment to assimilating anything new that needed to be learnt. While it was my duty to pass on required student information to the Registrar, and I did this successfully through verbal reports and other means, I often felt powerless to convey effectively any technical knowledge that the Registrar also needed.The transactional analysis of that situation is explained admirably in Thomas Harris’ celebrated book, I’m OK - You’re OK."What are you? Ignorant or something?"Peer pressure in a classroom environment can often engender an ability in ignorant learners to appear convincingly knowledgeable. This unlearn syndrome can also exist in the workplace.I have always claimed that one of the reasons I learnt more than I might have done is because I’m forever asking questions.At work meetings I am usually the first to ask a question. For as much as what I ask may be met with tones of derision and ridiculed by some, I am always amazed at the proportion of people who are grateful to hear the answer - if there is one. In some instances when I ask my evident question, it turns out that few, if anyone, know the answer, and it starts a debate."It’s possible that my whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others" - Ashleigh Brilliant.

Since my old PC packed a sad, I’ve been bereft of Photoshop, a tool that I used a lot for preparing pictures on this blog. I’ve been forced to find other means to create and edit images.This weekend I did a bit of experimenting and research, with various Web2.0 image editors, all of which offer wonderful editing features. During my searches, I recalled a post on screen capture applications Sue Waters wrote some time last year.I was gobsmacked when I found she had asked me some questions in a later comment on that post that I’d never seen and of course never answered! It just goes to show how things can be missed in conversation. Today’s post on photo editors is by way of my humble apology toSue Waters and a reply to her 8 month old question on MWSnap.MWSnapThis cool tool allows any image viewed on the screen to be snapped and cropped at the same time. It has additional facilities to save in a range of different file formats, gif and jpeg to TNG and TIFF.For instance, by simply opening an already saved gif image in MWSnap it can be converted and saved as a jpeg image. I found this feature very useful.When I need to edit a gif image in Picasa 3, which only accepts jpeg files, I open it in MWSnap and use Save as with the jpeg option.MWSnap also has other simple features, including adding a border with a range of useful colours and styles that can be customised.All the pictures shown on this post were fitted with matching borders in MWSnap before uploading.MWSnap has no text facility. For this I can use Picasa 3 or Paint.Picasa 3Picasa 3 is a free Google photo editor and viewer. It is also the default picture editor in Flickr. Picasa 3 offers a rich range of most often needed image editing tools.Among its useful features are cropping, straightening (useful for sorting crooked pictures) a red-eye removal device, brightness/contrast adjustment as well as colour and colour density adjustment, and a simple easy to use text writer.The text writing features that impressed me most were the ability to rotate text and to adjust the text font and size, while also relocating the text before locking.Picasa 3 also has a facility to adjust text transparency, style and alignment. I find this handy.10 other Web2.0 apps In my inevitable panic to find easy-to-use image editors, I came across this wonderful post on Daily Gyan that listed another 10 great online photo editors. Check them out.For anyone who is looking for a tool that is more like the professional ones, I'd advise having a look at Splashup. It comes with a high recommendation from the team at Gyan.CreativityI’m a great believer in the suck-it-and-see approach to using computers. I recommend you should try this as a first approach before looking around and asking for advice or searching for a training clip on Google unless you are an absolute beginner.I'm not knocking asking for advice though. Use everything at your disposal, including, taking time to think through different ways to do things. That’s what I did to get the illustrations for this post.Though some of the images may not be edited in the most artistic way,I hope they serve their purpose and inspire others to do better.

Today I listened to a presentation by Andrew Churches. One of the highlights of his talk was a video by Don Tapscott launching his book, "Grown Up Digital - The Net Generation is Changing YOUR World".I just have to post his vid, but it's a tad ironic that Tapscott has to write about the use of all this technology and the Internet in a book!

North of Scotland, 25 miles south west of the Shetland Islands, lies Frjóey (Sheep Island - from the Norse) or Fair Isle. About 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, it is the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom. Despite its almost complete lack of raw materials, Fair Isle has been occupied since the Bronze Age.The resourcefulness of the people of Fair Isle is extraordinary.The principle occupation of the men is crofting. The people subsist almost entirely on their own fine produce of meat and vegetables.The women foster an impressive cottage industry in woollen knitwear, from natural coloured home-spun wool.Their intricate Fair Isle patterns are legendary and are favourites in fabric and textile industries, local and world-wide.A wind-powered electricity supply seasonally provides between 50% and 85% of the island’s electricity needs. Fair Isle is a world leader in the use of renewable energy.In 1900 there were 300 inhabitants. Less than 70 people live there today, ranging in age from 6 months to 96 years old. But what is truly remarkable is that the community has a lifestyle based almost entirely on mutual help and community effort. Disputes between individuals or between families on the island are virtually unknown; such is their dependency on, and commitment to cooperation and mutual support.The commitment to cooperation and mutual support is self-sustaining.It is what has permitted the people of Fair Isle to live as a community for thousands of years.A lesson in communityThere is much to be learnt from the people of Fair Isle. In recent years, people networks, groups and communities, and the relevance of their activity in present day education, have captured my attention.A fascination for the behaviour of communities and a desire to learn how to encourage learners to participate within learning groups, motivated me to become a blogger in May last year.Through my own practice and research, I’ve discovered that achieving a sustainable online learning community is very difficult. Over the years, and especially recently, I’ve been relieved though not satisfied to learn, from many different sources, that it’s not just me. Teacher/facilitator reports of the endeavour needed to engage online learners in community participation are to be found everywhere I look.So-called learning communities are capricious in the way they perform. Growing an online learning community needs a specialist skill. It also takes a lot of time, effort and patience. Such undertakings do not always achieve the desired learning successes. In Clark Quinn's recent post Real Community, he questions if what we call online communities are really communities. I continue to look, learn and try to understand how some communities function and survive.Taking a lesson from the people of Fair Isle, how can a sustained commitment to cooperation and mutual support be brought about in a group of online learners?VIDEOcourtesy Lise Sinclair

I saw this on Dick Carlson's site. I just had to have a shot!videovideo