This is the first of a series of guest blog posts from members of my online ‘family’, my PLN. I am thrilled and  honoured to have Marjorie Rosenberg write her reflections on this topic on my blog,  Marjorie is  an active and prominent member of the ELT community, teacher, teacher trainer, author,  IATEFL BESIG coordinator, on the Membership Committee of IATEFL and regular participant and summary writer for #ELTchat. You can find out all about her on her About.me page and do make sure you visit her blog, Learner as Teacher where she posts her reflections. She is @MarjorieRosenbe on Twitter. Teaching styles and lesson outcomes by Marjorie Rosenberg   A recent ELT chat dealt with the topic of teaching styles and how these affect the outcome of lessons. However, none of us were actually able to come up with a definition of what a teaching style is. Having worked with both learning and teaching styles for many years, I would say in general that a large part of what we would call a ‘teaching style’ reflects the personality of the teacher as well as the way they themselves like to learn. There are many factors to take into account however. Some teachers become ‘friends’ with their students and others maintain a certain amount of distance. Many teachers make use of technology both in and out of the classroom while others are very low tech. There are teachers who write lexis and grammar examples on the board for their students while others prefer that their […]

This week is one of the first wherein Terminology Tuesday hasn’t been prompted by a specific event or discussion the previous week. Instead, I considered some of the challenges new faculty member struggle with when attempting to convert their traditional face-to-face courses to distance or blended learning. A primary challenge is how to ditch the concept of chalk-and-talk and allow students ample opportunity to interact with one another and construct knowledge together, in close facilitation with the faculty member. Because not everyone is well-versed in learning technologies, this can seem like a daunting task. Some faculty members struggle with understanding that their students don’t need to be in the same physical location to participate in group work or to collaborate with one another (and/or the faculty member), but once they see their distance course in action, they have context with which to change their tune. You can teach an old (or young) dog new tricks! Collaborative Learning Collaborative learning is an instructional approach that requires students to work closely with one another, often participating in group work. The educator is responsible for providing the information to the students, but the students must work collaboratively to apply the learned information when completing activities, assignments, or projects. The educator will monitor the students to ensure that the learned information is being applied correctly, but they typically act as an observer within a collaborative learning environment and less of an enforcer. When you think about it, collaborative learning feeds on the concept of constructivism in that multiple individuals are pooling their experiences and ‘resources’ (e.g. prior learning) to learn the subject matter together. If you really want to get specific, collaborative learning is deep-seated in Lev Vygotsky’s concept of ‘zone of proximal development’, which indicates that individuals will learn information from one another (in Vygotsky’s case, he was specifically talking about children modelling their behaviours after adults) simply by learning like information near one another. With the emergence of Web 2.0 (more on that in another week), education is bursting at the seams with technologies that enhance collaborative approaches (e.g. wikis, blogs, social media, etc.), and this doesn’t apply to just the education sector. Technology examples, please! Off the top of my head, I can think of several technologies that are used to enhance learning: Blackboard Collaborate (used for real-time VOIP classes), Twitter, Adobe Connect. As for examples that don’t specifically pertain to the education sector (but which can also be used), I’m drawn to technologies such as: Google Hangouts, Google Drive, Dropbox, and any Webinar application. Resources Still confused? Aching for more information? Perhaps you want to write your thesis on Collaborative Learning. Here you go: - What is Collaborative Learning and Why is it Important? - Collaborative Learning  - Group Work and Collaborative Learning (Ryerson University) - 20 Collaborative Learning Tips and Strategies for Teachers - Zone of Proximal Development - Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding in the Classroom

Pre-Conference Events with the Special Interest Groups For me, the high point of the conference is always the Pre-Conference Day with my chosen Special Interest Group. Since 2015, I have been a member of the Learning Technologies SIG and have enjoyed the activities, the talks and the subsequent communication through the members’ website and yahoo group. Special Interest Groups organize their own day of events, usually in a different location to the main conference. This year, the LTSIG took place at the University of Manchester, a fitting place as Gary Motteram, LTSIG coordinator and committee member for a long time, teaches there!! It was on this very first day that I heard some of the most interesting talks all related to innovative uses of technology, for instance, a great talk about how to connect immigrant women and help them acquire English for their daily lives via mobile technology outside the classroom. This year, the LTSIG day had a new feature, a number of short talks happening simultaneously in which colleagues shared a tool they had experience with. I was fascinated by the new Google Classroom which was presented by Carla Arena and Swivl which a colleague teacher trainer introduced to us as the motion sensitive video camera base which follows the teacher (or whoever wears it) around the classroom. It was interesting to see an example of one student wearing it and how many times his attention strayed away from the teacher in just a couple of minutes! I was also asked to contribute with a short presentation […]

Before making the leap to full-time independent contractor-ship I freelanced for about three years. The work I did ranged as I built up my confidence with the freelance game, and in addition to some sites to check out, I’ll provide you with some tips and tricks I learned from my time as a freelancer. I’ll make my way down the list chronologically (based on which sites I used first). Freelancer.com Freelancer.com was my jumping off point for finding freelance work. It’s a site that operates on bidding - the freelancer will bid on jobs and the client will choose a contract winner. It’s tough to build your reputation on freelance sites as there are loads of freelancers out there who will more or less work for peanuts. Peanuts can’t pay your rent, so this can be discouraging. I spent a lot of time on this site doing things that weren’t necessarily my finest freelance moments, and I will caution you to strongly consider how much time it will take to complete a project before bidding - 1) because you’ll end up working for peanuts if you don’t, and 2) it will save you a lot of tears down the road. One of my first bids was for transcription of audio files; I actually really enjoyed the content (I was transcribing interviews for a lady’s Master thesis), but I grossly underbid the amount of time I would have to spend doing the transcription. I completed the job, but definitely didn’t make any profit. My favourite jobs on this website were Proofreading gigs; I’m good at proofreading and I enjoy it, so it worked out well. I also made the most amount of profit from these jobs. One downside is that the initial payment period has a delay (unless it’s changed in recent years) of about 3 weeks after initial withdrawal and another is that they take a cut of your profits (depending on which membership you have - if I remember correctly, the free membership takes a 10% cut). A third downside is that there are very few e-learning or Instructional Design gigs posted on this site. Odesk.com I really enjoyed working with Odesk; I know a lot of folks harp on it (likely in the design world) because it’s another bid site where you can easily end up working for peanuts. However, I have found a lot of my best long-term clients through Odesk. There are a TON of Instructional Design and e-learning jobs posted (daily for the most part), and I found it really easy to build a solid reputation using the site. Of course there are some flops with clients, but overall, the quality of my clients were pretty good and they were willing to pay a reasonable rate for my services. I will say that I was unable to get to my current hourly rate with clients through Odesk, but I was able to get pretty darn close. Withdrawals can be made using PayPal, and they were usually processed immediately (or close to immediately)…factor in PayPal processing times and you’d be paid within 2-3 business days, which is certainly reasonable. Elance.com Elance is yet another bid site, and this one I have found little success with. I can’t even write too much about it, but I will say that they have a very high job post percentage relevant to Instructional Designers or those working within the e-learning industry. The main reason I can’t speak too much to this one is because I found it incredibly difficult to get established on this site. I think I had two clients total, neither of which were repeat clients (because they could get similar services for cheaper through the site). If I had jumped on the Elance bandwagon when they first emerged on the market, I may have found it a lot easier to establish myself…let me know if you’ve had any success! Research and Cold Emailing I spent MANY hours researching companies I would love to work with and then cold emailing folks working within these companies. I originally started doing this when I was trying to break out into the post-secondary education sector within my province. I would cold-email the relevant department heads of local universities pitching myself as a solution to their problem. This turned up several very interesting meetings, some great networking opportunities, and really allowed me to extend myself outside of my comfort zone. My role within one of the local universities is attributed to this technique, and I have recently been offered a full-time permanent role within the university which I honestly don’t believe would have happened had I gone the traditional route of waiting for a position to come up and then applying - even my best friend couldn’t revise a cover letter successful enough to score me such a gig as our province is wrought with educators and most of them have many more moons of professional experience than me…and in this particular university, there is only one Instructional Developer role…so think of the competition…barf! While the success rate of my cold emailing is very small, I’ve experienced multiple 8-12 month after the fact follow ups that have resulted in working relationships. I would definitely recommend researching and cold emailing potential clients; some of them may not even know they need you until you explain what you do and how you can make it work for them! Craigslist.org When I tell folks that I found some of my best long-term clients on Craigslist, they are beside themselves with disbelief. I actually found one of my repeat clients through there (working with colleges within the health sector) and I was also able to gain significant experience within the K-12 and Higher Education sectors with another client I had found through Craigslist. Instructional Design jobs are hit or miss for posting, and it really takes a lot of dedication (to the hustle) to find relevant roles through the site. Why? Because you either have to try googling a specific-enough search phrase and hope for the best or you need to visit individual city sites searching for your desired role. The other downside to Craigslist is that there aren’t a lot of remote positions - this can be a good thing if your city has a lot of Instructional Design opportunities, but that’s seldom the way. It’s odd that there’s still a resistance to remote work when our society is moving further away from being tethered to cubicles. E-Learning Heroes Community Forums I’ve found quite a few short-term Instructional Design gigs through the ELH community forums, but I will say that many have not lead to long-term working relationships. With that being said, I have had quite a few organizations (or individuals) reach out to me through the forums based on what they’ve seen of my participation within the community. Basically, the more active you are within the community (specifically when it comes to demonstrating your technical competencies), the greater the opportunity you make in being contacted by prospective clients. Another good thing about the ELH community is that every Friday, Mike Taylor posts a compilation of e-learning jobs he’s found within the forum and online. It’s nice to have them compiled within one neatly organized post. LinkedIn.com I’ve found several repeat clients by applying for posts on LinkedIn, one of which has been one of my most profitable endeavours. However, it was for a large corporate client and once the higher powers within their organization realized that they weren’t as organized as they originally thought (which created a lot of work for their in-house resources, of which they had few), they cancelled the contract for all involved, realizing that until they got their butt in gear and got organized, they would be losing profits. Smart - yes. The good thing about this contract is that I know I’ll be kept in mind when they do decide to kick off the project again, but until then, it’s on hold. The thing about LinkedIn is that if you really want to be successful at finding work through the site, you need to optimize your profile and actively participate in communities, blogging, or maintaining up-to-date samples. My Website! Honestly - Do not sleep on building (or having someone else build) your website and portfolio. The people who want to hire you are visual creatures. They want to see what you can do! It helps them make up their mind. Over the past month and a half I’ve been working with a fantastic client who came to find me through my website. They liked my samples and had even read some of my blog posts (because they complimented me on a sample I hadn’t showcased in my portfolio), and it’s turned into a long-term working relationship! I understand there’s a lot to promoting yourself through your website, but if you make an honest effort, it will truly pay off. My blog is maintained primarily for an audience of my peers and not my clients. I do this because it generates interest and provides help, some of which I wish I had when I was just starting out. This inadvertently drives traffic to my site, of which a small percentage may be prospective clients. I include my portfolio and work with me sections not as an afterthought, but certainly not as a focus, and I’ve found the indirect promotion of my services has landed me some more genuine clients than I may have found hustling my services unabashedly. Did any of this help? I really hope this post helps some of you Instructional Designers lusting after a life of being location independent. That’s the second reason I wanted to take my freelancing full-time (the first reason was that I was sick of ‘working for the man’ and dealing with the politics of being a cog in an organization), and I’ve been able to achieve that in a very short period of time. If anyone has found any other places to source freelance Instructional Design or e-learning jobs, please let me know in the comments!

As someone who suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, it’s really important for me to make an effort at balancing my life, work, and mental health. As a new small business owner, this can often times be a difficult task. That’s why I’m deciding to take this week to make a conscious effort to better manage myself in an effort to counter feelings of overwhelm. Make Yourself Accountable For me, this meant using my fancy project management software (shoutout PancakeApp) to set up all of my current projects and their individual tasks. This was somewhat counterproductive in that it initially made me feel more overwhelmed - oh my goodness, look at all of the tasks I need to complete (by Monday, by Wednesday, by the end of next week)…ugh. But when I stepped back, I felt refreshed, organized, and I now have an interactive to do list that will make me accountable for each of my tasks. Find Peace Within my work life, this means finding a quiet place where I can be productive; I haven’t perfected this yet (we have a beagle), but I’ve come pretty darn close, and I really enjoy the routine I have working from my home office, work office, or certain cafes. Finding peace usually involves some relaxing music (I’m a frequently listener of Songza’s Mellow Indie Playlist) or a podcast (e.g. Totally Laime or Alison Rosen is Your New Bestfriend) that allows me to listen passively. A calm environment can lead to an increase in productivity, which stands to decrease your feelings of overwhelm considerably! Within my daily life, this means dog walks or exercising or reading a few chapters of a book before resting your head on your pillow and catching some sleep. Be Active - CONSISTENTLY I used to be so good at this, almost to the point of obsession. Obsession isn’t a great thing, but I’ll be the first to admit that I do miss my five day per week gym routine. I’ve been haphazard in ramping up my activity levels over the past few months and it’s really catching up to me. I’m not as in shape as I once was, my anxiety is a lot less predictable and extreme, I’m easily tired, and I just don’t feel on top of my game. Being active is a great way to counter feelings of overwhelm because activity gets your endorphins chugging along and then all of the happier feelings buzz through your body, making your daunting to do list seem a lot more manageable.

I very often talk to teachers about online apps and great new tools and the standard question always is: "Is it free?'" And of course it’s natural for teachers - who are amongst the world’s worst paid people for the amount and quality of the work they have to do - to look for free apps and tools. Reasons? On a UK pay scale, a colleague recently told me that they make 23 pounds an hour. In Athens, if you  have training and experience, you will be lucky if you make 9 or 10 euros - the average is 6 per hour while the official hourly rate is 4,5 euros per hour  for only 8 months a year; in the summer you can live off the sun and the sea and unemployment benefit of 300 euros per month  (for some people, not even that). So if most of my better paid colleagues look for free apps, why would the low-paid colleague do anything different? Teachers look for freebies because Their school won’t pay They can’t afford to pay themselves If it’s free, why pay? So we all flock to the free options and use them, create accounts, create materials, until one day, the company goes bust and we lose everything! Of course, the paying users lose even more! A typical example was one of my favourite online animation tools Xtranormal  I loved this app and used the free version along with thousands of other teachers, then started paying to buy more scenes and more characters and to have the option […]

I first came across the concept of adaptive learning when working at my last corporate gig. Someone had a pie-in-the-sky type of idea for moving into adjacent markets, and adaptive learning would give us a HUGE competitive edge. I say pie-in-the-sky because, at the time, the organization could certainly not fund something so new to us. This past weekend, I came across the term again - this time in the context of its increasing popularity. If it’s becoming more popular, I figured we should probably talk about and get to know the term a little bit more. What is Adaptive Learning? Adaptive learning is an educational approach which uses technology to create individualized learning experiences. Computer programs, which work diligently to collect data, adapt the material presented based on the user’s learning needs (which are dictated by their responses and interactions with the computer program). Sounds creepy? Yeah, a little. I sort of liken adaptive learning to the way in which advertisements on websites are adapted based on your browsing history. While it might be creepy, it’s also really cool! Why is Adaptive Learning Cool? Adaptive learning is pretty neat, in my opinion, because it allows students to step outside of the traditional face-to-face classroom environments, where teachers are often times over-saturated with the amount of students per class, leading to very generalized teaching (in most cases). Teachers have it tough! And it can be incredibly difficult for them to veer from traditional teaching methods to make learning an individualized experience for each and every student. Many teacher friends of mine who have taught in the K-12 school system are incredibly frustrated; because of the ‘no child left behind’ concept, kids are being pushed through, regardless of which grade level they’re functioning at. This results in lower-level learners struggling further with the curriculum. Another problem is that it’s getting to the point where teachers are becoming responsible for developing Individualized Education Plans for more than half of their students per class - Doing this is understandable in that the education system wants to cater (as much as possible) to student’s needs, but it also takes a lot of time on the individual teacher’s side of things, which may lead to increased rate of teacher burn-out. Frustrating, no?! Adaptive learning may be a solution to such a problem, saving teacher resources and frustration! The only questionable aspect of adaptive learning that I have found is that implementation may be incredibly costly, so institutions really need to recognize the need and the ultimate cost savings on human resources (and ultimately increase in return on investment), before it will ever gain mainstream traction. Examples, please! There’s really only one key example that I want to share - Knewton is a technological platform designed to personalize "digital courses so every student is engaged and no one slips through the cracks." Using analytics, learning gaps are predicted and the presentation of educational materials are adapted to satisfy these learning gaps. HOW COOL IS THAT?! A more rudimentary example could be a choose your own adventure book; while not necessarily ‘learned’, the outcome is dependent  on (or predicted by) the reader’s choices. Who didn’t enjoy a good choose your own adventure book? Come on!

There’s a reason children could sit in front of cartoons for hours—they’re engaging. Just because your trainees are all grown up doesn’t mean they have to stop enjoying the power of animation. In fact, when used correctly, animation can have some sizeable benefits for eLearning. 

What’s this we have here? A process post? Sort of! Exciting, no? Note: If you want to avoid reading my drivel, just scroll down to the video and watch - you’ll get to hear my drivel instead! It’s my hope that this feature will continue, but we’ll see how it goes! I love reading all about what my friends and colleagues are working on, so I figured it was time to put together a similar type of post.  I usually find this a difficult task as some projects are hindered by Non-Disclosure Agreements and/or it’s difficult to describe exactly what you did. However, this project was fairly straight forward, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some amazing clients who really value my experience and let me take their concepts and bring them to life! I’ve been working with the folks at QueBIT for a few months now - you can see some of my other work with them in the Portfolio section - and they have been fantastic clients! Their instruction is based around a program, specifically the SPSS Modeller. If you’re like me, you might cringe at the term ‘SPSS’, having flashbacks to your undergraduate degree’s Statistics requirement. However, this particular program is useful in terms of Data Mining, which is actually really cool! For this project, I was provided with a prototype version and asked to base my Articulate Storyline development on the prototype, taking creative liberties wherever I saw appropriate. The end product was a Node Glossary, which is basically a glossary of various functions within the program. First I designed the template, then I sought about organizing each ‘Palette’ into a scene, and branching the nodes from the navigation menus (the shapes you’ll see in the video) to a video related to the specific ‘Node’. There are two versions; essentially one was saved out as an internal, standalone version for employees and the other version will be integrated into a larger Computer-Based Training (CBT) program (which I’ll probably post about once it’s finished in a month or so)  - I’m excited to be working on these projects with such supportive clients, and I’m happy to be able to share some of my internal process with you! What I’ve Been Working On! What I’ve Been Working On - QueBIT Node Glossary from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more results-oriented business than sales. With only two potential outcomes—making the sale or failing to make the sale—there is little room for gray area. Either you succeed or you don’t.