Artisan E-Learning will be offering Articulate Storyline training in September!  You can pick from a virtual format you can take anywhere, or an in-person format in Arlington, VA.Visit their website for more details.Virtual Training:September 6, 11, 13, 18 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. $495  Classroom Training (DC Area)September 20-21 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. $595 (Plus, they will be offering similar Captivate training in October.)  The course will be based on their book, E-Learning Uncovered: Articulate StorylineTopics:1. Getting to Know Storyline2. Creating New Projects3. Scenes and Slides4. Working with Text5. Adding Graphics6. Object Properties7. Arranging Objects8. Working with Media9. States & Layers10. Triggers & Actions11. Advanced Actions & Variables12. Questions & Quizzes13. Screen Recordings14. The Player15. Publishing

This month, The Big Question on the Learning Circuits Blog is to do with New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills.Multitasking is now every presenter’s problem. Tony Karrer posits, "that there are things that presenters and learners should do to address this."Multitasking is binge thinking. It has the potential to distend the capacity of the brain so that normal thinking to do with any one task, including learning, becomes severely impaired. Tony says it all here.Scott Flansburg is a supreme example of how a person can perform amazing calculative feats. He executes thinking skills that traditionally command extremely high concentration levels and all the thinking power that permits this. His unique ability to close down areas of the brain normally associated with other peripheral tasks makes him a matchless unitasker.Thinking tires the brainI am convinced that people often shut down areas of their brains automatically to make it easier to think. For instance, it is now known that when making decisions, the brain’s executive resources can be taxed to an extent that cognitive ability is considerably impaired. To prevent this happening in some situations, fast track routines are adopted.Too much decision making over a short space of time literally tires the brain. Do people make decisions when attending a presentation? You bet they do, if they make a genuine attempt to learn from it.PowerPoint and other potential vagariesSo why is it that when the audience is supposedly concentrating on the single task of learning, the presenter insists on giving them a series of tasks to perform synchronously? Cognitive overload associated with the misuse of PowerPoint has become a talking point. It is an issue because it’s real.Learners well know that when the presenter reads the text from a PowerPoint slide, the best thing to do is to shut the eyes and listen.So why is the text on the PowerPoint slide in the first place? For the presenter? No! It’s there because the presenter knows nothing about cognitive overload. A better way is for the presenter to shut up and let the learner do his or her own reading.Take noteTony refers to backchannel as a distraction for the presenter. I’m not surprised he finds it distracting. It is nevertheless an inevitable activity if learners are engaged in taking notes, by whatever means they use.Through years at school, university and attending hundreds of seminars since then, I have learnt to take notes while giving nearly full attention to a presentation. It’s one multitasking practice that I’m good at. But not everyone has this skill.What I’ve found often helps is if the presenter provides printed notes on the PowerPoint bullets - before the presentation. This frees up the brain when it comes to taking notes. I just write my additional notes on the PowerPoint printout.Cognitive engagementBut there is another aspect to presentation - and that is of intent.What does the presenter really want the learner to take away from the experience? If the seminar has a sales pitch, it may be better not to dwell too much on the facts and details that a learner may take away.Research has shown that the verbal content of a presentation, whether in speech or text, is only a small part of the total message conveyed to the attendee. How often has a conference goer raved about a ‘keynote’, reporting that the best thing about the presentation was its entertainment value?What if the presentation was entirely lacking in entertainment, yet the same factual information was presented? Herein may lie a pedagogical message.Entertainment provides two important features to the learner. It provides the necessary breaks between learning tasks and prevents the possible onset of cognitive overload brought on through multitasking. It also adds interest and factual significance by association.

A recent study published on LinkedIn official blog showed that more than 4 "millions of LinkedIn members want to volunteer their skills for good"[1]. Increasingly popular, notably among young professionals, the skill-based volunteering or pro-bono is the activity of promoting … Continue reading →

Innovating Pedagogy 2014  This is the third in a series of annual reports on innovations in teaching, learning and assessment. The Innovating Pedagogy reports from Open University(UK) are intended for teachers, policy makers, academics and anyone interested in how education may change over the next ten years. Massive open social learning Free online courses based on social learning Potential impact: high... Read More ›

What sort of voice do you use when you write a blog post? Do you have an informal or personal tone to your writing? Or do you prefer the more formal structured approaches?Perhaps you like to adjust your writing style to suit the topic. Many good writers do, but my observation has been that even some of the top bloggers use essentially a single voice in most of their writing.Randy Olson’s book, Don’t Be Such A Scientist, slams the scientist for being too cerebral when it comes to writing for the lay reader. He explains that scientists are too literally minded, are poor story-tellers and in general tend to be unlikeable when they write about their passion, Science (check out Talk of the Nation interview).AuthorshipBill Bryson is one of my favourite authors. He has written earnestly and engagingly on Science, and often. Just read a chapter or two from his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and you’ll know what I mean. But he’s not a scientist.Bryson is a journalist. Yet even for me, twice a Science graduate, his ‘voice’ immediately captures my interest in the Science he writes about. He speaks as if he is talking with me, not talking directly at me.Can bloggers learn a thing or two from successful writers like Bryson?I think we can. But I also feel there’s more to it than just being able to write well in a specific style.GenreKnowing the appropriate genre to use, as well as how to apply it, is part-way to writers’ success. My literary friend and blogging colleague, Virginia Yonkers, agrees with this point of view.Is there a single genre that is appropriate to writing blog posts?Or should the genre be selected according to the topic of the post? Could genre be chosen to address a particular target group within the readership of the blog?There are six genres that embrace most of the writing styles that bloggers may use:descriptiveexpositorynarrativepersuasivepoetrytechnicalWhich would you select when you write your next post?

David Anderson,   Community Manager,   ArticulateWednesday, October 3, 2012 | 10:00AM Pacific TimeFree Webinar, Membership Not RequiredThis webinar showcases one of the most popular, best-rated sessions from DevLearn 2011 Conference & Expo, newly updated and now available to all through this special online presentation.It wasn’t too long ago that eLearning designers wanting to build interactive courses were forced to choose between one of two realities: a blissful illusion of interactivity, or the painful truth that interactivity required advanced programming skills. That’s no longer the case because today’s eLearning tools make it easy for anyone to design interactivity.This session is all about deconstructing the best corporate eLearning, multimedia journalism, and interactive infographics. Participants will learn the three most common types of interactivity and learn creative ways to apply interactivity in their own courses.In this session, you will learn: The basic elements of interactivity Rapid instructional design models that you can build with any authoring programHow to evaluate and design the right interactivityHow to reuse interactive widgets and customize them for new clients and projectsCheck it out:  http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.2507&utm_campaign=bestof1210&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=elg-120rb

Eliademy team is growing and we are looking for the hungriest to learn, coolest and sharpest wanna_be Android Developer in the globe. This is an internship position for a young fellow that wants to be coached and learn from Guru’s. We are … Continue reading →

An interesting infographic from www.businessgoessocial.net :

People are increasingly using video to provide technical information. FromYouTube to free webinars and services like Lynda.com, recorded videotraining is a powerful medium. Join Matt Sullivan for a 4-hour workshopdesigned to help you implement video training using various tools. He will cover the following topics:* Developing a storyboard for your project* Writing a script for actions and voiceover* Practicing and recording your content* Editing the resulting video* Publishing to various formatsPlease bring your own laptop to the workshop. Having Captivate 6 installedon your laptop is preferred, but not required.Lunch will be provided.About the speaker Matt Sullivan (@mattrsullivan) is a senior STC member, an Adobe CertifiedExpert, and an Adobe Certified Instructor. He helps individuals and teamsimplement technical communication and e-learning strategies by integratingtext, video, and online deliverables.Location: American Red Cross, 2700 Southwest FreewayTime: 10 AM ­ 2 PM, Monday, October 22Registration Due Date: October 12, 2012, register athttp://www.stc-houston.org/videoworkshop

We live in an age where ‘becoming an expert’ is just another turn of phrase. Despite research and the embracing of the results of this in several chapters of Gladwell’s Outliers, and in other similar books, expertise is looked on as being easily achievable.You’ll be an expert in no time. You can pick it up as you go along.In March 2007, MediaSnackers promoted these options in an advert, posted on YouTube, for a ‘research genius’ among other guru-types.It indicates distinctly that "experience and qualifications are not essential" for any of the job offers.I fit with the ideas that creativity, right attitude, an inspiring nature and professional mentality go a long way to assisting the activities of young up-and-coming pioneers. Certainly conformists and pessimists have their drawbacks, if innovation is where the job aspirations are at. I have no problem with all of those aspects of the brief.The advertised positions are important to, and influential in contributing to the success of a new and growing organisation. The effectiveness of the training gurus and marketing managers in particular is key to this success. Yet there is nothing more likely to engender contempt in admirers or followers than the so-called expert who clearly demonstrates that he or she isn’t expert.Or is this point of view outdated?I support the youth of today. However, I wonder at the culture and attitude they may have picked up associated with the worth of experience and knowledge, and that they will carry these attitudes with them as they follow their careers. Is there something that I’m missing here?Am I carrying the values and ideas of a bygone age?The critical players certainly need technical know-how, marketing expertise, other skills and a basket of essential knowledge. Is it really the best way to launch our ships into future business space, building them as we go, having had no real experience in shipbuilding, resourcing or navigating? Am I so old-fashioned that I can’t see the potential that these new and innovative approaches have in reaching desired destinations?Is it simply enough to sit back and marvel at the apparent successes of these approaches? I appeal for your assistance here, for I have been puzzled by these phenomena, and for many years now. It seems that they have become so numerous that I have no time to catch breath between instances of their occurrence.What are your thoughts?related post -> ( 1 )