BEING ATTACKED! HELP!First, I must make it clear (once and for all!) that I do not work for Microsoft (or get paid in any way by them!), and I am also NO GREAT SUPPORTER of Microsoft products in general, including Microsoft Office 2010. However, I will admit that I have been using PowerPoint ever since I got into e-learning, and have interestingly never stopped loving it, especially in mashing up graphics (Although, PowerPoint can be frustrating at times).Secondly, no doubt Photoshop fanatics are going to scream foul and use long-winded scientific methods to illustrate all the things that it can do, which PowerPoint can't do. True! But, most educators are not graphic designers, and want to simply develop cool/relevant graphics to spice up, or enhance their websites (e.g. blog), or presentations quickly (EFFICIENCY)! Also, it takes time to master Photoshop (basics), while in PowerPoint you can learn some amazing stuff within seconds.Thirdly, Apple fanatics are going to say, "What about Keynote?" Yes, of course Keynote is 10 times better than any other presentation tool on planet Earth! But, unless it is so disruptively good that it gives me genuine reasons for me to convert to Keynote instead, well...FORGET IT!However, I am always open to change, so you never know. For example, I did use Nokia phones for 10 years, but when the iPhone came along, I said Adios Amigo to Nokia. In terms of mobile learning experience (iPhone Vs. Nokia), it was NO CONTEST! Every time I play with a Nokia phone these days, it makes me wonder... What happened? Hopefully, Nokia wakes up, because Finland kind of depends on it being successful. Anyway, my wife bought a Nokia phone yesterday, so it can't being doing that bad. So, if Keynote can do what iPhone did to Nokia, then why not?Alright, enough defending... Let's attack!THANKS, TOM!First, I would like to thank Tom Kuhlmann for inspiring me to explore PowerPoint as a tool itself to create or mash-up graphics using Clipart (ungroup & group) and images. My first Clipart mash-up in PowerPoint (2007):Tom Kuhlmann not only inspired me, he also shared my first Clipart mash-up in his post entitled: 3 Sure-Fire Ways to Make Your E-Learning Graphics Sizzle (Great tips, so please read it, too!)If you notice the image above carefully, you will see my old ZaidLearn header/banner (September, 2007), which was terrible. Anyway, my current blog header is better (I think), and it was developed 95% using PowerPoint (Cropping was done in Microsoft Paint). So, in addition to PowerPoint, I have to admit that I still use Microsoft Paint (cropping) and Notepad (cleaning up hidden PowerPoint/Word/HTML scripts!) a lot, as they empower me to do certain things more efficiently.THE SPARK!It was actually Erkki Pung (an awesome designer from Estonia) who kind of sparked me to write this post, as he asked (through e-mail) if I could cook up a short story (for his homepage) about the designing process in e-learning.That got me thinking, and then I thought, why not write about something that is practical and that basically anyone with the tool in their hand could do, and that got me thinking about how I create graphics for my blog using PowerPoint. Yeah! Why not share my secret graphic design process (oh boy!). As the graphic design process is not overly complex and rather fun, I believe anyone with a few tips can do it.Besides Photoshop (and PowerPoint) there are tons of other graphic visualization tools that we can use to sizzle photo effects (PhotoFunia), word clouds (Wordle), diagrams (Gliffy), cartoons (ToonDoo), cartoonish animations (GoAnimate & xtranormal), 3D models (Sculptris), etc. In short, we are certainly not limited by choice. Actually, we are overloaded, and many are still clueless (including me!) of all the amazing possibilities we have at our disposal to create attractive, stimulating, and relevant visual learning/thinking triggers, which I call AHA-Graphics or AHA-G (Nothing to do with A-HA...That Norwegian group!).AHA-G?When we talk about AHA-G, we are focusing on creating graphics that sparks the reader, or viewer to think about something relevant to what we want to say or write. If the graphic looks out of this world and is attractive is a bonus, but that is not the main objective of an AHA-G. In a way, an AHA-G wants to shock, click, inspire, and make you laugh, all at the same time. If we can shock (emotional engagement), click (Aha, I got it!), inspire (motivate interest), and make you laugh (Haha!)...Now that is a great AHA-G.To create AHA-Gs, I mostly (92.5%) use PowerPoint, because I still find it the most user-friendly and efficient tool around. Actually, besides using PowerPoint to create cool graphics, animations, and diagrams, you can even trim videos and do some really spectacular things with PowerPoint 2010, which I will illustrate later in this post.My 5 Favorite AHA-G features in PowerPoint 2010 are:Remove BackgroundArtistic EffectsPicture StylesPicture EffectsTrim Video (Not exactly an AHA-G effect, but I love it!)If you are lost, let's watch me play around with some of the cool PowerPoint 2010 features:Oops, I forgot to show you how to create quickly a text bubble, group images (and Clipart), and finally save an AHA-G as a picture (JPG or PNG). This happens when you don't use a script (outline). Anyway, here is part 2, including the missed AHA-G(ems):Here are some more great examples of using PowerPoint to create graphics that sizzle:Create comic book characters in PowerPointCreate a re-usable animated hand animationHow to easily extend a photo's background for PowerPointVisual surprise and slicing image effects in PowerPointPowerPoint tip to create hand holding cardsAdd an easy photo-corner effect to imagesCreating the perspective floor effect in PowerPoint using 3-D RotationClick here for even more PowerPoint screencast tutorials.DESIGN PROCESS If you are wondering how the AHA-G design process works for me, here is brief description:STEP 1 - VisualizationWhen I am exploring a topic (upcoming article) in my head, I like to let the story (idea) linger in my head for at least 4-5 days before I begin writing (Something I learned from Einstein, I think!). To support the story, I also try to visualize an AHA-G I would like to include to spark the creative thinking cells even more. The end product always looks very different from what I originally thought, which I find truly exciting and inspiring. It is like Forest Gump's mum famous quote, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." AHA-Gs should be a visualized fusion of the expected and unexpected. So, if it can shock, click, inspire and even make you laugh , now that is in AHA-G worth spending perhaps 1-2 hours to mash-up. Usually, it takes me around 30 minutes to develop the main AHA-G for each article. Most time is spent finding images and moving them around to reach my AHA-G moment.STEP 2 - Find Images to Mash-upSo, this is where you are going to break the copyright law...NOT! Personally, I mostly use Clipart, Pictures (from Microsoft), and Google Image search. So, I might be breaking the law quite often frankly, and I might one day be sued by Yoda and Mr. Bean. But, sometimes we need to take risks to inspire people to think (Don't quote me on that!). If you are looking for images to infuse into your AHA-Gs that will not get you into trouble, this post by Tom Kuhlmann has a pretty good collection of free (or cheap) image repositories to pluck from.STEP 3 - Add Text Bubble(s)The problem of just mashing-up a bunch of images into an AHA-G, is that readers might miss the point unless your master piece is very direct and clear. To minimize that and amplify your message or point, I like to add one, two or three text bubbles. And you can create some sizzling fonts and bubbles in PowerPoint within seconds (Try doing that in Photoshop!). Interestingly, what I originality wanted to say is sometimes adapted or contextualized to the images discovered, and other times it is the other way around. For example, I might have some idea about a text bubble, but then when I find an awesome image, it might trigger a totally different text bubble, which is kind of cool! So, let the mind do the talking and be flexible, because you never know what pops-up. However, if you feel that text bubbles is not necessary, then skip it.Anyway, the AHA-G is just the support act, supporting the main event; your article and message. Meaning, sometimes people need to read the whole article to understand why this AHA-G is like that. Aha, now it makes sense. Awesome!STEP 4 - Crop & SaveWhen you have finished your AHA-G master piece, it is time to crop (and resize if necessary) it. First, you need to group all the images and Clipart included, and then you right-click and 'Save as Picture' (All can be done in PowerPoint). I like to save it in JPG format, because it becomes light and easy (to view), however if you want it too look more crisp (pixel wise), then you might want to save it in PNG format (size will increase, though!). I used to crop and save it in JPG format using Microsoft Paint, but since you can do all this in PowerPoint, then why bother?STEP 5 - Upload & ReviewFinally, you are ready to upload your AHA-G to your blog or site (unless it is for a presentation), and review how it fits into the big picture. If you feel it is saucy and sizzling, then your AHA-G is done. If not, then edit and upload again until you feel great about it. Sometimes, if your AHA-G turns out to be really offensive religiously, sexually, culturally, racially, etc. then you should rethink and redo. Well, that is what I would do!Finally, we should not think of an AHA-G as necessarily a still image, because it could also be an animation or video, if that is the thinking/learning trigger needed. Perhaps, we should then call it AHA-V(ideo), or something like that :)Here are some of my favorite AHA-G mash-ups:Go Online! Go Mobile! Lost in Space!PLENK2010Using Twitter to Transform the Classroom! My Most Satisfying PowerPoint Animation!RT01- Closed Book Exams Could Even Kill George the Jungle! Join the #moodlewish Twitter Stream! Salman Khan Uses Microsoft Paint to Inspire LearningUniversity Learning = OCW + OER = FREE!Any Free Hosted CMS or LMS? (Yes, Obama Says!) Alright, any average graphic designer would think all this is crap, and that Photoshop is a 100 times better than PowerPoint 2010. However, if you just want to create some sizzling AHA-Gs efficiently, PowerPoint 2010 is pretty good. For the record, 9 out of 10 AHA-Gs above were created with PowerPoint 2007.Yes, I have to admit that I used to use Photoshop to remove backgrounds from images, but in PowerPoint 2010 you have finally got that awesome feature called 'Remove Background' (big button). Now, I can convert completely and ditch Photoshop for good. This means shorter learning curve, less clicks, quicker output, and more AHA-G moments. I arrest my case!That's it! Of course it is not the whole story, but at least you got a glimpse on how I create AHA-Gs, and that I am taking sabbatical leave from Photoshop until I am convinced otherwise :)

"When the son of Adam (human being) dies, his deeds are stopped except for three things, namely, his good deeds, his knowledge, and his pious child who prays for him."- Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)In this context, 'his knowledge' means knowledge that benefit others (including written materials such as articles, papers, books, etc.). Not only what has been learned, but more importantly what has been shared. So, sharing knowledge is not only a good thing to do, it is a form of worship in Islam. So, let's practice it sincerely (whether we are Muslim or not)!TWO CONFERENCESA couple of weeks back (9-11 November), I attended and participated in two (2) very interesting conferences (Oops, I mean one conference & one forum!):International Conference On Islam And Higher Education (8-9 November)Future Campus Forum Malaysia (10-11 November)As for the first conference, I could only attend the 2nd day (9th November), as I was stuck with other work commitments. Overall, these two events where enriching and enlightening (in their own ways), and now I will share some insights (lessons learned) and explore how we could face some of the challenges ahead.ISLAM & HIGHER EDUCATIONActually, I was invited to moderate the e-learning session just a few days before the conference. For whatever reason that may be (the original moderator pulled out, poor planning, etc.), I don't care, except that I was delighted to get the call, and obviously agreed to take up the challenge. As I have never moderated a session at an International Conference, how could I say 'NO' to such a great challenge.Also, I have to share with you the invitation phone call, which was a classic. Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar's (Deputy CEO, IAIS) personal assistant (PA) called me, and said (roughly, as my recall memory is not 100%):PA: Can I speak to Professor Zaid Ali AlsagoffME: There is no Professor Zaid Ali Alsagoff here!PA: Can I speak to Dr. Zaid Ali Alsagoff ME: There is no Dr. Zaid Ali Alsagoff here!PA: Is there any Zaid Ali Alsagoff here?ME: Yes, I am Zaid Ali AlsagoffPA: Oh, Professor Osman Bakar wants to....bla, bla...!In short, I was the only session moderator (7 in all) that is not at least a Doctor, which is a pretty good achievement in an academic kind of conference (good or bad, I am not so sure!). Even during the conference, the announcer wanted to address me as 'Doctor', and was confused that I was not one. I have to admit, I like the attention of being a non-doctor in such situations. A few years back during an International e-Learning in conference in Thailand, I was asked (presented a paper):Person: Doctor?Me: Still a Bachelor, but married!Person: (He looked confused!)Technically that can work for a Muslim, but I don't want to get into that (visit another blog for that). At that time I was doing my Masters, and was probably the only presenter that didn't even have a Masters. In short, I am not too academic inclined (or talented), and prefer reflective blogging to writing 'Objective' research papers! Until now, that has been a quite wise decision (in terms of connecting and reaching out). But I am planning to return mentally to the academic world soon, I hope!Also, I am planning to do my PhD (2012 or later), but at the moment I am enjoying family life (including my 9 months old baby girl), work, and learning (what I want, whenever I want!). So, I don't want to give that up yet for a PhD (unless it involves just that)! Enough about me, let's zoom back to the...9th NOVEMBERI attended all the sessions at the International Conference On Islam And Higher Education (download the presentation slides) on the 9th November, as I was interested to listen and get some insights into how different countries and communities are struggling to infuse more Islamic teachings and values into their mainstream education models. Of course, if FOX News was here, they would paint a different picture saying ______, and I would be on CIA's most wanted list.But, getting back to reality, it was heartening and enlightening that most have realized that investing in education and moving forward is NON-Brainer. I had the opportunity to listen to speakers discuss Islam and (mostly Higher) education in India, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Iran, Tanzania, Kazakhstan and Malaysia.No doubt, we (Muslims) have many challenges ahead, but investing heavily and smartly in education could do wonders to deal with many of them. No doubt, dropping bombs from 30,000 feet is not going bring Muslims closer to the West (or accomplish the mission, except amplify hate. Obama, time to wake up!), but also Muslims have to realize that there are plenty of peaceful loving people in the West, and just brushing everyone under one monster roof is not the solution. We both have to do some soul searching (Including me!), and educating and connecting people (besides using Facebook!) is a great way to infuse greater understanding and move forward.GLOBAL WARMING!Yes, moving forward together to solve mission nearly impossible, which is mankind's authentic TERRORISM AGAINST MOTHER EARTH! Whether 'Global Warming' is a fact or myth, I cannot verify, but what I do know is that mankind is abusing the Earth beyond its capacity (by __%), and unless we change or transform the way we live soon, we are not providing much hope for our future generations. But, on a positive note this disaster in the making (or made!) will increasingly bring us together around the world, and eventually we will have to put our differences aside (for a while), so that we can clean up our own mess. Shame on mankind, shame on me! I suppose I am dreamer, but why not? I am still learning! Let's get back to the conference...HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE MUSLIM WORLDAlthough, some might argue that Universities will be extinct soon (like the dinosaurs), unless they transform the way they facilitate and assess learning, they are still very much needed (for reasons also beyond learning), an e-Learning can play a vital role to empower more people to be educated. As you see in the diagram below, we have a long way to go to ensure that all in the Muslim world (15 selected countries) have the opportunity to continue their education:Professor Dato’ Dr. Ansary Ahmed's insightful an stimulating talk (PDF) during the e-Learning session (which I moderated) went beyond wishful thinking, and provided us with hardcore (sad) numbers and some excellent thoughts on moving forward.The other speaker during the e-learning session, Professor Dr. Ahmad Memariani Azizolah from Iran (FOX News, please chill!), explored Payame Noor University (PNU), Iran: A Universal Distance-Based University in the Islamic World, which I found truly mind boggling. For example, The University has 485 centers throughout the country supported by 3500 teaching staff and the student population exceeds 1,100,000, which means roughly 314 students to one teacher. WOW! To put this into perspective, Oxford University has a ratio of 3 students to one teacher. How can one ensure quality University education with such a student-teacher ratio (314 to 1)? Any magic formulas to share?In 1979 the access to higher education in Iran was just 5% . Today the PNU and Islamic Azad University (1,200,000 students in regular programs!) cover approximately 65% of the students. And Al-Mustafa Open University (a virtual Islamic University) attracts more than 18000 international students from more than 100 countries. Again, WOW!Having also witnessed (2 trips) the tremendous growth and emphasis on education and e-learning (e.g. National Center for e-Learning & Distance Learning) in Saudi Arabia over the last two (2) years, it is an exciting time to be working in the education world. I was fortunate to be part of the first e-Learning audit team that visited eight (8) Universities earlier this year, and it was very encouraging to see the passion and drive in Saudi Arabia to transform the education system (more input here). Actually, the whole Middle East is going through a massive transformation, and education and e-learning is increasingly playing a critical role.MOVING FORWARD?But, we still have a long but exciting way to go, and here are three (3) transformative things that I recommend that we should focus on to really take-off:Source - ZaidLearn Free Internet Access is a Fundamental Human Right!Internet is the oxygen of learning in the 21st century, and without it we are denying millions (1.57 billion Muslims around the world) of people access to learn (e.g. free learning resources), even if educational institutions have no space for them. Also, the Internet provides people an amazing platform (ecosystem) to connect, network, innovate, and do business directly and indirectly.As of 1 July this year (2010) "every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. Finland has vowed to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015 (Source)." In short, we must realize the importance and the empowering impact the Internet can have on society and education, and therefore should do everything possible to make it happen. Of course, the Internet can be used to do negative stuff, but that is a challenge we have little choice, but to face. If that means sometimes censoring sites, fine, but do not censor the Internet itself, which is probably the surest way to self-destruct in the 21st century. Let's think beyond, and envision Internet (and learning devices) for all! It might sound impossible now, but it is not! We, just need to rethink the way we think, and put our energies and passions in the right direction(s)!Forget Copyright, Practice Copyleft Instead!Isn't it weird that we can actually copyright and sell knowledge that was created by others, but synthesized, paraphrased, and mashed-up by ourselves. Oops, I forgot, we contributed say 5% originality. What right do we have to copyright and sell such knowledge? We can argue that we invested time synthesizing it, referenced resources used, but does that take the fact away that many academic textbooks today are often just a collection of other people's work wrapped nicely up into a sizzling cover, which we glorify and sell as if we are the masters of the universe. Some people do actually make a (necessary) living from it, fine! But, to the rest who already make a decent living, let's practice the greatest passion of a true academic, which is to share what we learn to as many people as we possibly can. Today with the Internet and tons of amazing free learning tools we can reach anyone in the world that has access to the Internet without needing to invest much, except our time.Maybe I am wrong here, or maybe it is that I am left handed, and as a result I find copyright so difficult to appreciate (especially in the academic world). Anyway, now that we can easily Copyleft (Confused? Click the link!), or use Creative Commons, we should think beyond copyright, and explore sharing more for the benefit of everyone (except the publishers). Also, if we argue that a University would lose its competitive edge by sharing learning resources (courses), I disagree. If your real competitive edge is content, I suppose you need to rethink your learning model, because content can easily be duplicated within seconds. Having awesome content is not a sustainable competitive edge, but infusing and nurturing learning models that use content to apply learning and transform learning minds is. You can duplicate content easily, but a learning model and culture takes time to nurture. Many top universities around the world know this, and don't mind sharing their educational resources? It is also great branding for a University to be part of the Open Educational Resources (OER) or Open Courseware (OCW) movements.Moreover, if you are a Public University funded by citizens (tax money and endowment), you should share back whatever you can. Although, Public Universities cannot enroll every potential student due to obvious limitations (facilities, teachers, car parks, etc.), they can still share at least their courses and learning resources, empowering hungry minds to learn on their own. Also, the public should have the right to check the quality of their investment. In short, we won't lose much by sharing learning resources (not like money!), but the community at large can benefit tremendously by creating a learning sharing ecosystem (reuse, remix, adapt, contextualize, mash-up, etc.) that is potentially sustainable beyond physical barriers, providing everyone the potential to learn. But, how do we then make money? You can make money through teaching, coaching, online facilitation, consultations, workshops, site advertisements, funding, endowment, etc. There are so many ways to still make tons of money, if we really think about it!Finally, by focusing on researching, constructing and innovating the missing links, instead of wasting too much time reinventing content that already exists (reuse/remix existing OER/OCW), we become more valuable as a teacher and educator. This is the only way to catch-up and lead the way in the 21 century where 'Zorro' bytes of new learning content is created and made available only (mostly for free) every day.Build Learning Networks!Having free Internet access and free learning resources is not sufficient to transform us into a learning and innovation society. Learning resources usually don't inspire people into action or learning (if they did, libraries would be crowded beyond reach!), but inspiring and knowledgeable people can. We all know that the Internet can also be the biggest waste of time creating an amusing life out of basically doing nothing (in the real world). We have to get out of our University cocoon nests and interact beyond. We need to create learning communities and networks where we share and discuss trends, issues, resources and ideas, and are receptive to criticism and disagreements. It is amazing how powerful group and network learning can be, if we embrace it and participate.Finally, we should increasingly explore the idea of facilitating 'Massive Open Online Courses/Environments (MOOC)' where we get together to share, discuss and reflect important topics and issues. If you are looking for a good example, try PLENK 2010. Imagine having educators from say 78 countries explore together important issues using a variety of free learning tools. That brings me back to this conference, and the problem with most conferences (that I have attended) is that when completed, I suffer from information overload and exhaustion. In other words, how can we transform conferences to become less bla, bla, bla... to be more engaging & interactive?In other other words, conferences should perhaps emphasize 'Less is more' for presenters, and encourage them to focus on key points/issues, so that we can have more time to discuss and network.And that is what I experienced at the...FUTURE CAMPUS FORUM MALAYSIAThe 'Future Campus Forum Malaysia' took place at Westin Hotel (Kuala Lumpur), and there were roughly 100 participants. The forum hall was a perfect fit for a stage and 10 discussion tables (with 10 seats each). Besides the amazingly small prayer room (only 4 could pray at once), Westin is a reasonably good place to conduct a forum with this context.Although, this forum did not have any particularly enlightening or inspiring speakers (got quite high expectations, usually!), the whole format was really built around networking and sharing ideas (and capturing them). My role was to be a participant only...DISCUSSION TABLESEven though the presenters or the panel discussion was not too enriching, the real fun was the 10 30-minute interactive discussion sessions. So, basically for 6 hours during the 2-day forum, we were in intensive discussions covering 10 different relevant topics:Measuring EffectivenessRemaining CompetitiveGaming & Immersive learningContent DevelopmentFuture Learning StylesCreativity & InnovationPublic-Private PartnershipsConnected CampusContinuous Professional DevelopmentChoosing Classroom ICT Equipment Each discussion topic was facilitated by an international or local expert who initiated the discussion and captured the interesting ideas and experiences shared (1 facilitator + 9 participants). The 10 interactive discussion sessions were organized according to 10 different colors, and each color was associated with a number, too. Every participant was given a color (on the name card), and would then start from the table with the same color, and then move from table to table after each discussion session. I was black (my name card!), meaning I would start at table 1 (Black). Since some people might be color-blind, it is good to have numbers besides colors to refer to. After 2 or 3 sessions, we would be enriched (discussion break!) with a talk or coffee (networking) break.To manage time (and speed up the discussion), they projected an Interactive Discussion Table Timer (starting at 30 minutes), which was kind of cool, but at times also made you feel like you were taking an exam. As they were going GREEN (Yeah, whatever!) they would not hand out web resources, and instead we needed to participate in all activities and submit the forum evaluation before getting the password (and certificate of attendance) to download all the presentation slides. Did all, but yet to receive the password (by e-mail)!Overall, it was an interesting way to encourage participation, discussion and capturing of ideas. Though, you are stuck with the same group (of 9) throughout all the 10 discussions, and that is where they could have innovated more. Surely, it would have been fun to mix-up perhaps after two 30-minute discussion sessions, and then challenge your ideas with another group of people. By the time my group had reached session two, everyone realized I was the only E-Learning professional (or whatever!) in our group, meaning from then onwards I became the automatic choice to be the first participant to share ideas and experiences.In conclusion, the forum setup was perfect for discussions, networking, sharing ideas and learning; though it would have been even cooler if we didn't have to stick with the same group throughout the two days. Don't get me wrong, my group was a lot of fun, but just something to ponder, if we were to adopt such an approach for our conferences or forums in the future.LESSONS LEARNEDTo be honest I didn't learn that much new, except from the way the forum was dynamically facilitated. But there were a few new nuggets of wisdom and resources shared during the two days, which I will blast away in the form of bullets here:Check out the Digital Education Revolution (New South Wales) resources and information.DER-NSW research focuses on how educational technology (or their programme) is influencing teacher pedagogy, students and the consequences of it on the students’ educational outcomes (3 key research questions). Digital Citizenship (8 free lessons to download).Amazing to learn about Fung Kai Innovative School from Ma Siu Leung (CEO), who is a lively & engaging speaker, too! He shared with us tricks on how to create win-win public-private partnerships, and how to trick (smartly) vendors to sell you great technology for bargain prices, and then make them feel like they have a bargain, too (win-win).There are now 9 million Facebook users in Malaysia alone...Now that is connectivity :) In a connected campus, student traverse formal, informal, & virtual learning space towards learning outcomes in a seamless manner (Whatever!)How to develop authentic learning experiences? Prosumer? Produce and consume your own learning!Not much to scream who-ha about, but I did really enjoy listening to Dr. Stuart Lee (Director, Computing & Services, Oxford University) over the Skype session to us. Now, that was the highlight for me (without doubt!). For example, I learned that Oxford University embraces open source and tries to use it where possible (according Dr. Stuart Lee). Interestingly, some Oxford University building walls are up to 7 meters thick, so it can be a challenge to drill holes to wire the network. Dr. Stuart Lee seemed very conscious that Oxford University is an old University, and that it takes sometimes centuries to change things there (or more than a lifetime).Then Melissa Highton (Head of Learning Technologies Group, Oxford University) took over the Skype session and shared with us that Oxford University uses Sakai for VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and invest a lot in video recording lectures and increasingly making them available online for free (something to ponder!).Oxford University also embraces mobile technologies and learning to support their 3 students to one lecturer ratio (Small group teaching).Interestingly, Oxford University rejected Blackboard as they didn't understand or support the needs of Oxford University's need for a free roaming kind of learning environment (not necessarily course-based)...Ouch! Was it just poor marketing, or could it be that Blackboard is simply not up to mark (yet)?When we came to the Q&A session with the Oxford 'Twin Tech Terrors', silence from the participants continued. However, that did not stop me from asking whether Oxford University uses Moodle or not. It was revealed that Oxford University has embraced Moodle for distance education, and mostly use Sakai to support face-to-face learning and online research activities. In short, who needs Blackboard?Finally, I visited Taylor's University (our group) new campus, as the 2nd part of day 2 was a field trip to one of three chosen locations. Tailor's University new campus is pretty impressive, and their 5 (or 4) floor state-of-the-art (whatever that means!) library, which had sizzling noise, collaborative, quiet and sleeping learning spaces, was certainly my favorite highlight. The library even had a mini orange cinema, which included sand bags perfect for falling asleep. I took tons of pictures with my IPhone until it fell asleep (too early!), but I promised not reveal their secret spices.So, please visit the place yourself to experience a trendy mini-city kind of campus, which looked more like an outdoor version of KLCC (shopping mall) rather than a typical campus you would associate with a University (Certainly hip with Starbucks, Baskin-Robbins, Famous Amos, restaurants, cafes, cinema, hotel, etc). In short, they are making tons of money also by renting out spaces beyond the hostels.Anyway, since their student population (around 9000 at that campus) are mostly young and trendy, this outfit is perhaps a perfect match. Interestingly, when I came to Tailor's University new campus, I had trouble finding a car park. Later I found out that they actually had 3000 parking spaces (according to their tour guide), and ironically I still had problem finding a car park (at 2 pm). I suppose most students today have cars!Overall, I learned a lot during those three (3) days and three (3) major events (conference, forum & Field trip).If only everyday could be like that! I wish :)

"Blue Ocean Strategy is a bestseller across five continents. It has been published in over 40 languages and sold over 2 million copies (since 2005). " - Source BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY?"Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy book first published in 2005 and written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne of The Blue Ocean Strategy Institute at INSEAD, one of the top European business schools. The book illustrates the high growth and profits an organization can generate by creating new demand in an uncontested market space, or a "Blue Ocean", than by competing head-to-head with other suppliers for known customers in an existing industry." - Source "Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 100 years (1880 - 2000) and 30 industries, it provides us with a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and creating uncontested market space. " - SourceSo, what is Blue Ocean Strategy exactly?"It is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low-cost to create new market space. Blue Ocean Strategy seeks to make the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for both the company and its buyers. Blue Ocean Strategy aligns the following three propositions: Value propositionThe utility buyers receive from the product or service minus the price they pay for it.Profit propositionThe price of the offering minus the cost of producing and distributing it.People propositionThe readiness of employees to execute the new strategy with all of their energy, to the best of their abilities, and voluntarily. Beyond the alignment of these three propositions, six principles drive the successful formulation and implementation of Blue Ocean Strategy." - SourceClick here to read more and learn about BOS for free. If the BOS theory still does not make sense, this should nail it:"Go where profits and growth are - and where the competition isn’t." - Kim & Mauborgne (PDF)...And what is the likelihood of that?TWO PART SERIESIn this two part series I will explore Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS), and reflect back on a 2-day BOS workshop I attended a few weeks back (1st - 2nd December) at the UCSI Blue Ocean Strategy Regional Centre. In Part 1, I will zoom in on BOS as a theory and share some insights that might have been overlooked by the authors. In part 2, I will focus on Blue Ocean as a systematic approach to gain insight, innovate and create value, and explore some of the useful tools that we can use to visualize our own Blue Ocean, whatever that might be.Having read the book twice (first time in 2007), read dozens of related articles, and participated in a 2-day BOS workshop, I believe I am entitled to share my honest opinions regarding this approach next. Though, I might be wrong!RED OCEAN VS BLUE OCEAN STRATEGYWhile I kind of like the Blue Ocean idea (Exotically relaxing and hypnotizing!) and most of the BOS visualization tools (explored in Part 2), I kind of find the 'Read Ocean and Blue Ocean Strategy' mambo jumbo (graphic above) and several of the case studies used in the book both misleading and a whole lot of _____ (you guess?)!The BOS theory has already been around for a few years, and it is NOT short of criticism either, so I am not going to go on a full-blown (reinventing the wheel) shark attack. However, being fair to BOS, it has also rebutted six misconceptions about BOS (PDF) reasonable convincingly.CIRQUE DU SOLEIL"Dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." - SourceIf you read the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) book, or listen to any consultant promoting BOS, they will for sure share with you the ultimate BOS example and pride Cirque du Soleil. No doubt the Cirque du Soleil (founder Guy Laliberté) is an inspiring, innovative and breathtaking story, but is it really a Blue Ocean?First, Guy Laliberté never used BOS as a tool to innovate and create value. So, although it might be a Blue Ocean, it does not prove that the BOS as a theory is practical and implementable. Secondly, BOS like so many other theories often hijack success stories from a few angles (and hide others), and then absorb them into a portfolio of evidence of whatever they are trying to convince or sell.Let's look a bit closer at the amazing Cirque du Soleil story, and explore whether it is really a Blue Ocean according to the 'Red Ocean vs Blue Ocean' framework:Break the Value-cost Trade-off?The authors would like you to believe that Cirque du Soleil grew out of the traditional circus act and then reinvented it by eliminating performing animals and star performers (cut cost), and shifted the buyer group from children (end-users of the traditional circus) to adults (purchasers of the traditional circus), drawing upon the distinctive strengths of other alternative industries, such as the theatre, Broadway shows and the opera, to offer a totally new set of utilities to more mature and higher spending customers (Source).In reality, Guy Laliberté (folk musician, busker and fire breather) never really worked with performing animals or so called star performers, and we could actually argue instead that he reinvented street entertainment by transforming a group of street performers into a "proper circus" (learning the circus act from Guy Caron). He didn't pick up the idea of telling a story from the theatre, but from the Moscow Circus method. His vision was to create a circus with neither a ring nor animals. The rationale was that the lack of both of these things draws the audience more into the performance (Source).Ironically, the book never mentions this, and the main reason is probably that these revelations would confuse their 'value-cost trade-off' idea. Yes, Cirque du Soleil enhanced the show value and entertainment as they innovated over the years, but it also made the Cirque du Soleil much more costly than most other street entertainment shows (which are often free, but you are encouraged to donate/give a token of appreciation), and that had nearly catastrophic consequences during the first few years. Did you know that Guy Laliberté or his company went nearly bankrupt several times during the first few years, and if it was not for government grants, his never-say-die attitude, connections, and bit of fortune (luck!) this amazing story would have ended in disaster, and this again was never mentioned in the BOS book. The BOS book gives us an impression as if it was a smooth ride to heaven, and that the BOS was the secret to its success. What baloney!Create Uncontested Market Space?Seriously, what does this really mean? How do you create an uncontested market space for adult entertainment? Give us a break! Cirque du Soleil explored, innovated, and has developed (after several financial failures) over the years several amazing and unique shows that consists of a theatrical mix of circus arts and street entertainment. You could have 10 other groups use similar Blue Ocean Strategies and they would have failed, unless they had people like Guy Laliberté to make it happen.The idea of creating an uncontested market space is an illusion, unless we simply define it as an uncontested market space, which is easy as the authors have provided no real measure (like so much else!) to prove this. That probably did not make much sense either, but then again the idea of creating an uncontested market space (perhaps on Mars!) in the 21st century, unless for an extremely short period, is highly unlikely. But, we should never stop dreaming. Anything is possible!Make the Competition Irrelevant?Very few companies and products throughout history have made competition irrelevant (e.g. Microsoft Office could be an example, but that cost millions, if not billions of dollars in research and development), and if they have made competition irrelevant, it has only been for short periods. But then again, can competition ever be irrelevant? Even the iPhone (Vs Blackberry Vs Android) has relevant competition, although it has been a tremendous success.If there is no competition in sight, perhaps the market is not worth embracing anyway. In short, I would argue that there is no harm with contested competition. For example, the iPhone entered a read ocean competitive smart-phone market (which had bad products!), but through its exceptional user experience and iTunes Eco-system it has managed to capture a healthy market share. As for the Cirque du Soleil story, they are not the first acrobatic story show to pop-up. The Chinese dragon show has been around for centuries. Also, Cirque du Soleil will always have relevant competition from other amazing traveling shows and acts (and other forms of adult entertainment!), but as long as their shows are unique, attractive and entertaining, they will amplify their reputation and attract an increasing global demand.Create and Capture New Demand?Perhaps on Mars or Pluto (the Moon is more likely)! There is and has always been a demand for new forms of adult entertainment (or ways of being entertained), and Cirque du Soleil has been successful in capturing this universal demand with their amazing shows (not necessarily because of their strategy!).Align the whole system of a firm's activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost?Low cost for whom? The firm? The customer? Both? This idea has confused me until today. When I first read the book, I got the impression that Blue Ocean was about enhancing the customer value and at the same time lowering the product/service cost. But after attending the workshop, and scrutinizing some of the case studies, I get the impression that the lowering cost aspect, refers mostly to the firm, and not necessarily to the customer.If we go back to the Cirque du Soleil case, we see a pursuit of differentiation and lower implementation cost if we compare to the traditional circus act. But, that is rather misleading, because we could have and perhaps should have compared it to street performances, which it really originated from. And if we did, it would be differentiation, but at a higher cost. Moreover, had Cirque du Soleil used performing animals and star performers, it would have certainly gone bankrupt, because it nearly went bankrupt without them several times. Though, kudos to Cirque du Soleil for hiring over the years many amazing street performers, and providing them a healthy and stable living income beyond what they would have probably got from performing on the streets.WHAT IS YOUR POINT?Having said all this, we could go BLUE arguing whether Cirque du Soleil is really a Blue Ocean or not. No point wasting any more time on this issue, though please challenge me on all accounts (can always update my post).Having always been attracted to business improvement books, or books that explore creativity and business value innovations (attracted to the stories rather than the formulas!), I see a common trend and pattern in many of the books I have read, which is the manipulation of past and existing success stories to prove their ideas and frameworks for ultimate success. In other words, they will look through their narrow lenses and highlight what fits their theory, and then hide does aspects that do not fit.The secret to sustained success lies in the marketing strategy (BOS misses this point)! No, it lies in strong ethical practices (BOS misses this point)! No, the secret to success is strategic execution (RIP)! No, it lies in the strategy itself. BOS claims based on its research that the strategic move, and not the company or the industry, is the right unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans and sustained high performance...bla, bla (p. 10). They are all right in their own lenses.Though, I would argue that all of the above mentioned ideas, do not really highlight the real essence of companies that have had sustained success over time, which is exceptional leaders working with amazingly talented people. What would Apple today be without Steve Jobs, or Air Asia without Tony Fernandes?Exceptional leaders have the ability to visualize (ideas), inspire, empower, and attract talented people to work for them, and as importantly they have the ability to continuously attract the world attention needed (or hire people that can!) to make it a sustained success. So, if you want a real strategy that really works, hire exceptional leaders and talented people with the right attitude (to your needs). Even if you don't have a great strategy, these people will most likely do a better job on strategy development than any consultant, or consultancy firm out there.You are wrong! Maybe, I am!PART 2?Although, I find all the exotic buzz words (that can easily be manipulated) and the Red/Blue ocean framework from BOS a load of ____ (the real Blue Ocean!), they do have some interesting tools we can use to acquire useful insights and help us create value innovations. Your results using these tools might not turn out to be real Blue Oceans according to their immeasurable and exotic framework, but nevertheless the tools are worth a try.So, what about the Nemo puzzle? That will be explored in part 2 (if I can cook up an answer!), and I will also reveal the ultimate secret to success, which is...Part 2 - Simplify Blue Ocean & Make Consultants __________! Part 3 - ZaidLearn's Blue Ocean Strategy for 2011

"We do no market research. We don't hire consultants. The only consultants I've ever hired in my 10 years is one firm to analyze Gateway's retail strategy so I would not make some of the same mistakes they made [when launching Apple's retail stores]. But we never hire consultants, per se. We just want to make great products. "- Steve JobsIronically, when strategy/marketing/innovation consultants and Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) black belts pitch for a project, Steve Jobs and Apple will probably be mentioned, or used as an example for creating value innovations, and making the competition irrelevant.Steve Jobs, thanks for making that clearer! So, next time you want to create value innovations, perhaps hiring consultants to practically do everything (including help you to fill up all the magical templates) from conceptualization to a sizzling blueprint for innovation is perhaps not the best way to go."It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. So you can’t go out and ask people, you know, what’s the next big [thing.] There’s a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse.’’’ - Steve JobsThanks, Steve!BLUE OCEAN WORKSHOPA few weeks back, I attended a 2 day (free) Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) at the UCSI Blue Ocean Strategy Regional Centre (1st - 2nd December, 2010), and during the process I got to meet and share ideas with several of the big shots in the UCSI BOS team.Based on their e-mail invitation, the title of the workshop was "Blue Ocean Strategy Initiative for Education: Creating New Marketspace & Championing New Growth", but then when I arrived I got to learn that we would not be talking much about education, and that made me furious. Also, I had pulled out a tooth a few days earlier (picture above), so my patience was obviously rather toothless. Luckily the BOS team had Yoann Sapanel (one of the facilitators) to cool me down, and clarify why they would not be talking much about education. Although, I didn't buy the good old 'We are teaching you how to fish..." excuse, I have to admit, he was the only BRILLIANT presenter and facilitator during the workshop, according to my high expectations.Though, thanks to my outspoken frustrations, they did explore briefly two Universities that had used BOS to innovate, which were Limkokwing University (Rented a building in London, and brought the University (learning) experience to UK) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (Used BOS on their own, which resulted in getting the APEX Status). As the facilitator was mumbling with a bad accent, it was not easy to really understand what he was trying to say (But, at least some relevant points!).During the workshop, we did explore several of the essential BOS tools, and worked through the BOS process, before presenting our BOS project.1-MINUTE BOS CRASH COURSEHere is a 1-minute Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) visualization crash course:Visual AwakeningUse the 'as if' strategy canvas to compare your current strategy with competitors and see where it needs to change.Visual ExplorationUse the 'Six Paths Framework' to look across the six conventional boundaries of competition to systematically reconstruct market assumptions to create new market space. During this process, you observe your own products and/or services, and distinctive advantages of alternative products/services. To look beyond existing customers and develop insights on non-customers, use the 3 Tiers of Noncustomers'. Then, use the ERRC Grid to see which factors to eliminate, reduce, raise and create to find a leap in value (Value Innovation).Visual Strategy CreationDraw your 'To Be' strategy canvas based on insights from the visual exploration phase. Then develop a clear-cut and compelling tagline, which captures the essence of the "to be" strategy in a way that speaks forcefully to both a company's employees and the target mass of buyers.Visual Communication Apply the '4 Actions Framework', and present your strategic options to stake holders and fine tune. Then communicate your new BOS with existing strategy canvas, ERRC grid and 'To Be' strategy canvas. For easy comparison, show your before-and-after strategic profiles on one page, and make sure that the factors to eliminate, reduce, raise and create are clearly identified. Use 'BOS sequence' for strategic validation, and use 'Execution Hurdles', 'Tipping Point Leadership', and 'Fair Process' to execute effectively. What do you think?During both days, each team (consisting of 5-6 members) worked on a BOS project. UCSI BOS team preselected a few industry segments to choose from, which included taxi, hospital, mall, and cafeteria. Personally, I wanted really to explore a BOS within education, but that was a big 'No-No', as they wanted to teach us how to fish, and since most of the participants were from the education sector it would not be appropriate to share University-Leaks. That is when I felt that there was a hidden agenda to this so called 'free' workshop. Where they using us to fish for new ideas for their on-going BOS projects? But, since it was free, I suppose it was a win-win situation for all. We learned the BOS, and they discovered perhaps a few new useful ideas, which they could use elsewhere. If that was the case, they should have been upfront honest and professional about it. But then again, BOS and Value Innovation has never really emphasized (to my knowledge) the importance of social responsibility, protecting the environment, and caring about cultures, which are essential for long-term sustainability of mankind (and Earth).Adam Werbach will clarify and enlighten you on what I am really trying to say:THE i-WELLNESS VILLAGEOur group worked on transforming an old non-performing hospital, and we conceptualized a brilliant BOS, entitled 'The i-Wellness Village' (Just added 'The' and 'Village'. Original BOS was just 'i-Wellness') with a compelling tagline 'Live Your Dreams!'. Basically, we sold the old hospital, and then bought and transformed a hotel resort (working with partners) into the perfect old-folks resort where they could live their dreams.Today, populations around the world are getting older, governments are going bankrupt, and they are looking for ways to cut cost. At the same time, families are getting smaller, less to take care of older people, meaning the government must increasingly establish new old-folks hospitals and homes, which are extremely expensive in countries like Scandinavia, Japan, South Korea, and so on. While the cost is high, many old people are miserable with such arrangements, especially during winter.'The i-Wellness Village' BOS solves all these issues, as old-folks get to live their dreams in amazing resorts (sun, beach, sea, swimming pools, restaurants, villages, shopping, golf, bus tours, etc.) that also provide all the necessary hospital support (value added), and governments (e.g. Norway) save tremendous cost by outsourcing it to Malaysia (cost savings). More importantly, old-folks gets to experience a happier ending to their lives.At the end of the workshop, we had to pitch our BOS project to two real venture capitalists (each had 50 million simulated dollars to invest) and the other participants. At that time, our BOS project had many loopholes and my teammates were a bit worried that we would get slammed. Anyway, why worry? It is just some simulated fun, so I took up the challenge to present our BOS project. Little did I know that Dr. Robert Bong, who was one of the venture capitalist evaluators (Also a BOS champion!) would not only slam the project (loopholes), he would literally TKO us (or at least me!), and end with a damning, 'I will not invest in this project'. I wanted to challenge him on all points, but his sharpness and our loopholes were too deep, meaning if I did challenge I would probably get total brain damage. In short, I said 'That's all' and I sat down.However, being up there knocked out on my first ever pitch to a venture capitalist, was a refreshing and valuable learning experience. Also, I learned a great BOS like 'The i-Wellness Village' will always initially have many loopholes, meaning great ideas need time to nurture, and one should never take 'No' for an answer (Tony Fernandes). Though, I do hope Dr. Robert Bong changes his mind, or at least consider investing in such a project. I suppose if I had pitched it today, he would have seen the big picture clearly. Anyway, the other venture capitalist invested 20 million (simulated) dollars, and told us this project could make a lot of money. 'The i-Wellness Village' will not only make a lot of money, it will empower old-folks to live their dreams and have a happier ending. AWESOME!The 'The i-Wellness Village' is perfect for Malaysia, so I do hope other venture capitalists take it up. Perhaps such projects are already under development in Malaysia.So, my final verdict on Blue Ocean Strategy tools is...USEFUL for big projects, but USELESS for daily inspirational innovations.Could we simplify BOS (tools), and make consultants irrelevant in the innovation process?Part 3 - ZaidLearn's Blue Ocean Strategy for 2011 Part 1 - Would Nemo Survive Using the Blue Ocean Strategy?

"Blogging is a way to make myself smarter." - Chris AndersonPart 1 - Would Nemo Survive Using the Blue Ocean Strategy? Part 2 - Simplify Blue Ocean & Make Consultants __________! So, could we simplify BOS (tools), and make consultants irrelevant in the innovation process?CONSULTANTS IRRELEVANT?Impossible! Or that is as likely as making competition irrelevant. No doubt there are exceptional consultants out there, and we often do need to hire consultants do improve our processes, products and services. But do we need to outsource everything to consultants? For example, if we were renovating our University library to meet the learning needs of the 21st century, one could consider, or rather should perhaps hire an Interior Designer (that has experience in this area) to assist in making a wiser decision, and share potential pitfalls for this and that.What about outsourcing branding, marketing, project management, strategic planning, risk management, programme auditing, innovation, etc.? It really depends, but from my experience working with especially consultants from the corporate consultancy providers (that have got the projects sometimes beyond comprehension) over the last 10 years in three Universities, I would argue besides helping us populate templates, and producing nice looking reports, it has been one disappointment after another.One reason could be that big corporate consultancy providers (e.g. Ernst & Young, KPMG, Price Waterhouse & Coopers and Deloitte) use their best and most experienced consultants to work on the big dollar projects in the corporate sector, and then sends their young inexperienced staff to work on smaller projects (in the education sector, which brings in less bucks!). For whatever reason, most of the teams that I have worked with over the years are young and intelligent, but totally lack deep knowledge and experience in Higher Education, and are even weak in their core job, which is to facilitate the process to collaborate, populate, collect and synthesize all the great ideas conceptualized. From my experience over the years I feel short-changed, frustrated, and wonder if the money could have been spent more wisely.In short, my advice would be to hire consultants if needed, but make sure they have the experience (in education) besides the talent to EXECUTE. Also, profile the team assigned to the project, besides the corporate consultancy providers themselves, which are always impressive.SIMPLIFY BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY (BOS) TOOLS? "…The reason that we were very excited about the phone, beyond that fact that we all hated our phones, was that we didn't see anyone else who could make that kind of contribution. None of the handset manufacturers really are strong in software."- Steve JobsThe BOS tools could be very useful to discover insights and explore beyond industry boundaries, but not necessary the best tools to discover and innovate. Breakthrough innovations and inventions, I would argue usually don't happen using consultants, tools and templates. For example, BOS was used in the process of conceptualizing the Nintendo Wii (according to my knowledge). Perhaps so, but was it BOS that brought about the innovative Wii joystick, or the ingredients that made up the Wii console? The real magic of Nintendo innovations (over the years) are the brilliant people behind them.In short, although the strategic move (BOS) is important, you can't run away from hiring brilliant people, or having exceptional leaders/facilitators if you want to have success that is sustainable over years. And more importantly, brilliant people often work best in a working environment that lets them loose to innovate, beyond too many tools to test every new idea to its molecular details."Steve Jobs hires really smart people, and he lets them loose—but on a leash, since he overlooks it all with an extremely demanding eye. If you’re seeing visions of the "Great Eye" from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, then you probably wouldn’t be too far off." - SourceWhat do you mean by 'Brilliant People'? Not sure. Can't think of one description to universally describe what that means. They are for sure driven and passionate about what they are doing, but the rest is for you to table out (smart, process/results driven, creative/critical/innovate thinkers, positive, wise, intelligent, hardworking, knowledgeable, experienced, etc.) according to your needs in whatever industry you are in.ZAIDLEARN'S BOS FOR 2011?"I'm actually as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done…" - Steve JobsLooking back at ZaidLearn (blogging) since it started in 2007, I have noticed that my blog posts are increasingly (on the average) getting longer and fewer:2007 - 247 posts (started July/118 posts from previous site)2008 - 69 posts2009 - 41 posts2010 - 22 posts2011 - 12 postsBased on this trend, ZaidLearn might cease to exist by 2012. Ironically, as I am increasingly getting less time to blog (3 kids, work, family, swimming, etc.), my blog posts are getting longer, and that probably explains why I am not posting that often anymore."In my opinion, your rambling at the beginning of the post may have discouraged some readers from getting to the meat of your argument. You have GREAT ideas, but sometimes you bury them." - Clayton Wright (by e-mail)Great insights from a great (online) friend! Looking back, I obviously see that my ramblings have increased significantly over the years. Yes, I sometimes like to annoy, provoke, irritate, and speak in riddles that sometimes even confuses me, myself and I.Actually, already in 2008 a person wrote..."Hello! I read your blog regularly, and really like it. However, the lack of consistent text formatting (making a word orange and big, for example) makes it almost impossible for me to read. Just for when I read it in the future, why is it formatted this way?" - Avi Levin (By e-mail)At that time I was experimenting with mashing-up different font sizes and colors, and it seriously caused headaches to several readers. Now, I still experiment with colors to highlight the learning juice and for better read scan-ability (green = positive, red = negative, purple, uppercase headings, etc.) through my ramblings, but have toned down my extreme font creativity to make it more reader friendly...I hope!Another reader complained that he needed to buy new glasses to keep up with ZaidLearn's long posts. So, what do (or did) people like about ZaidLearn? Based on substantial feedback over the years, ZaidLearn became known for its juicy resources, awesome lists, useful tips, great ideas, funny graphics, and whole lot of fun.So, what if I amplified what people liked about ZaidLearn, and rambled less, or practice the... 80% (Learning Juice) -20% (Rambling) Principle...instead of the current 80% (rambling) - 20% (learning juice) principle practiced at ZaidLearn. Deal!But still, it does not solve my problem of having less time to blog and my unexplainable habit of writing longer and longer ramblings (getting older?). Having scrutinized the best Edublogs on the planet, and looked across typical Edu-boundaries (e.g. TechCrunch) I realize that there is no silver bullet trend for success, except that the best (or most viewed blogs) provide great content (tailored to their target audience), and usually post often (daily) in small chunks (learning nuggets = less than 500 words).For example, TechCrunch (10+ million unique monthly visitors) can post anywhere from 10 to 30 blog posts a day from their team of bloggers. In one day, TechCrunch can post more blog posts than I have posted this whole year. WOW! I have experimented over the last year sharing learning nuggets through Twitter, but I probably need 140 words rather 140 characters to share great resources, and add a few tips with some spice. I did launch ZaidSwoosh in 2009, which focuses on short and juicy learning nuggets, but realized soon that I couldn't manage both effectively due to my other commitments.To cut this round of rambling short, I love blogging discoveries and ideas, because sharing inspires me to learn (faster and deeper about whatever I am learning). I need to find time and rediscover my joy of blogging and sharing more frequently (2 or more learning nuggets a week). I realize that every working day I will probably have at least 30 minutes to blog (without noise) before work starts, meaning you can expect from ZaidLearn in 2011:More of less, but less of more!But based on scrutinizing the most viewed blogs on the planet, readers increasingly seem to crave for granular juicy learning nuggets rather than long ramblings. My new recipe for 2011, I hope will rediscover my passion for blogging frequently, and transform ZaidLearn to become the juiciest learning blog on the planet. For those of you who enjoyed my long ramblings in the past, you can look forward to it 6-12 times during 2011 (if time permits).Yes, I need to think like a kid again, breakdown any destructive rules of habit (that blocks me from sharing), rediscover my passion to blog, and hopefully inspire a magical 2011.Happy New Year! The flow of learning juice is about to start :)

When the cat reaches the fishbowl, then pause the video and ask your Students/Participants (S/P) to figure out what happens next. Most likely you will get S/P's attention, and stimulate their minds to think creatively about what happens next in a competitive but enjoyable way. If you break S/P up into groups, and then give each group say 2 minutes to come up with their answer, you will get collaborative fun.WARM UP S/P FIRST, OR THEY WILL ________!Using short videos found on the Internet as icebreakers to stimulate thinking and help people to get familiar with each other in new situations and environments is today easier than ever, because of the millions (I mean billions!) of videos freely available on sites like YouTube.More importantly, before you engage your S/P to learn and interact with the subject matter in a face-to-face session (or online session), it is important to warm them up first, or awaken them from their sleep (or whatever they are doing/thinking). It is obvious in sports that we need to warm our relevant muscles before playing a particular activity; otherwise the likelihood of getting injuries increases significantly. Though, strangely enough not all lecturers/educators/facilitators apply this common sense idea to learning. Let's not forget that our Brain is also a muscle that needs to warm up too, or it would probably fall asleep (not literally!), or be in another dimension beyond the subject paradigm.AWARENESS TEST Remember to pause after the first scene when the passes have been made, and then ask 'How many passes does the team in white make?' Most S/P will probably answer correctly, and then you ask 'Did you see the Moonwalking bear?' And unless they have already seen this video (12+ million have already on YouTube alone!), they would have ignored that particular incident. Although, this is labelled as an awareness test, it is also a great short video to warm up students' minds before getting them busy with the subject matter.IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE SKILLSThis one is a classic, which I commonly use to emphasize the importance, relationship, and connection of language with understanding and thinking. Instead of being really serious about it, and making people uncomfortable when talking about such matters, you could use videos such as the one above to make a point (that probably sticks better, too).I have watched this scene (above) from 'The Pink Panther 2' a bazillion times, but I still laugh every time I watch it. I have used this video in several workshops to indirectly encourage S/P to work on their English accents as that might hamper their communication with others (e.g. lectures and discussions), and that new accents can be learned (although it could take time).These are just four examples of using short videos (less than 5 minutes) found on the Internet to stimulate S/P to think, and break down communication barriers. The best part is that there are thousands, if not millions of freely available videos ready to be plucked from video sharing sites.If you have any experiences, or discovered some mind stimulating short videos to share, please share it in the comments section (That would be great!).HOW TO DOWNLOAD VIDEOS FROM YOUTUBE? I knew that question was coming (obviously!), and here is the answer (link below):The Real Way to Download-Convert-Insert YouTube Videos into PowerPoint! What about downloading and copyright? I discuss this issue a bit here.Don't worry, be happy, and take calculated risks using short videos to stimulate thinking and breaking down communication barriers (though, please consider sensitivities to religion, culture and race).It is amazing how fun a learning session can become by taking a few risks in the way we facilitate learning :)

WHAT IS A MOOC?5 STEPS TO SUCCEED IN A MOOCKNOWLEDGE IN A MOOC?STILL CONFUSED?Read this Stephen Downes article: 'Connectivism' and Connective KnowledgeConnectivist teaching and learning consists of four major sorts of activities (read the article above):AggregationRemixingRepurposingFeeding Forward"Rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus... by neglecting the ingredients of genuine motivation -- autonomy, mastery, and purpose -- they limit what each of us can achieve." - Daniel Pink TRY A MOOC?Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2011 (CCK11) is an open online course that over 12 weeks explores the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. Participation is open to everyone and there are no fees or subscriptions required.Click here to register.What? You want me to spoon-feed you more! Just do it! I mean register :)

Today, we are all facing information overload, and it is often difficult to find what we are looking for, especially if we are looking for updated collections of resources to support a topic, issue or idea. Major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo don't exactly do a great job in assisting either, which might also be partially due to the growing influence and spam of 'Search Engine Optimization (SEO)' gurus, engines and companies. It is amazing how much spam comments I get on this blog alone (10 - 20 spam comments a day!), thanks to SEO strategies. Amazingly annoying!DELICIOUS = RIP?As Yahoo is trying hard to kill (sell) off Delicious gently, it is perhaps time to find and explore other alternatives to sort out my management of juicy learning resources and discoveries (URLs). Well, we still have Diigo, Stumble Upon, Digg, and a bunch of other cool social bookmarking tools to use. However, today there is a new wave of social bookmarking tools in the name of 'Social Curation', which are empowered with some really innovative collaborative sharing tools to make sense of the overloaded web by organizing discoveries and resources into mind-stimulating topics, stories, collections, etc. Let's explore!SOCIAL CURATIONWhile the buzz word of 2010 was 'Social Media', don't be surprised if 'Curation' or 'Social Curation' (attempted definitions) will be the buzz word for 2011 (signs). Just in the last few months alone, several social curation tools have emerged, including (source):PearltreesA social curation community that empowers you in a social way to discover, organize and share the stuff you like on the web.Scoop.itCreate your topic-centric media by collecting gems among relevant social media streams, and then publishing it to people sharing the same interest.Trailmeme Enables you to create a trail of content on a specific topic that’s interesting to you. You can also read other peoples’ trails and walk them to keep up with any updates they make.StorifyStorify demo from Burt Herman on Vimeo.Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories. You collect the best photos, video, tweets and more to publish them as simple, beautiful stories that can be embedded anywhere.KeepstreamKeepstream Tutorial from Keepstream on Vimeo.A social media curation tool that gathers all your favorite content in one place. It pulls in content from multiple sources, including Facebook likes and Twitter retweets, and let users build "collections" of social media content. Users control the presentation of their content, add their commentary, and embed these collections on a website or blog.Curated.byA growing collection of topics & interests edited, organized and curated by everyone. Follow the topics you are interested in or create and share your own topics with everyone else.CONTENT CURATIONWhile we are at curation, here are a few really useful content curation (customizable auto-filters) tools to consider:CadmusA real-time service that manages your stream (Twitter, FriendFeed and RSS) by displaying the most relevant content since the last time you checked in. It helps you get caught up on what you have missed.PostRankTap into the intelligence of millions of online users active on the Social Web. PostRank captures real-time data and analysis on any topic, trend, or interest relevant to you or your business.Yahoo PipesA powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.gRSShopperA personal web environment (masterminded by Stephen Downes) that combines resource aggregation, a personal dataspace, and personal publishing. It allows you to organize your online content any way you want to, to import content - your own or others' - from remote sites, to remix and repurpose it, and to distribute it as RSS, web pages, JSON data, or RSS feeds.WOW! Which one(s) to use? It really depends upon what you want to collect and how you want to share them. However, if you ask me what I really want, well here is a brief summary of what I really want:Easy-to-Use Drag-and-drop and please minimize the clicks and loads... Plain and simple! Works on any mobile device with sizzling simple and user-friendly interfaces.Adding & Organizing ResourcesBesides simplifying adding and organizing discoveries (topics, titles, descriptions, tags, etc.), it should have a search feature, and intelligently suggest resources (crawling and filtering out) within the topic (tags) I am using to collect (and even beyond to spark random discoveries).Connecting & Collaborating It should enable me easily to connect and collaborate with others on topics, interests or issues, including plucking resources (or pearl branches) from others (giving automated recognitions to original curators), and so on.Visually Stimulating & IntuitiveYes, it should be stimulating to the eyes and intuitive to the mind, and obviously be light enough to avoid slow interactions due to possible bandwidth constraints in certain areas, while curating on our mobile devices.I could go on, but if these tools above can fulfill these basic needs, then I am willing to ditch Delicious for a new world. Ideally, I would love a large white learning space (in the cloud!), where I could easily dump everything discovered related to a topic, including videos, audio, images, files, sites, quotes, Twitter/Facebook updates, etc. and then organize them in a visually exciting and intuitive way, as easily as it is to scribble on a white piece of paper. And yes, I would be empowered to embed this saucy and visually stimulating interactive collection on my blog (or any site).For now Pearltrees looks most promising for my needs, but can it fulfill my dreams :)

"Every blog has a story behind it." - Teenage Advisor THE STORYIn late October 2010, Sheba DMani, the coordinator (facilitator) for the 'A Critical and Reflective Response to Media' (Medical Humanities Selective) course (at IMU) explored with me the idea of assigning students to work in groups to develop blogs addressing important issues and promoting a healthy lifestyle.Of course that made me excited, as I have been promoting the usage of web 2.0 and social media for learning ever since I joined IMU (June 2009). And having already been through one cycle assisting Prof. Khoo Suan Phaik with her students' project using Google Sites, I was quite confident it would be an inspiring and valuable learning experience.Interestingly, both these inspiring lecturers are not exactly IT-savvy, but they were willing and open to explore possibilities, and with a bit of assistance they managed to get through both projects successfully without too much hassle. As today's Y-generation (Most IMU students) is already quite IT-savvy, you don't exactly need to train them, but instead explore and empower them with creative ideas and possibilities.A CRITICAL & REFLECTIVE RESPONSE TO MEDIA This module facilitated by Sheba DMani focuses on connections between media and health within socio-cultural contexts. Media in the form of text and graphic presented through visual and audio modes from magazines, television and internet will be explored. These may include advertisements, films and music videos related to themes on health and healthcare. Students will approach these media texts through critical interpretation, reflective thinking and creative presentations. Upon completing this course, students will have learned that the media constructs views of the real world and that these views have been mediated to provide filtered and partial meaning of health belief and behaviour.THE PROJECT & EVALUATION PROCESSSo, instead of writing a group assignment (using Microsoft Word/PowerPoint) to impress the lecturer, students were assigned to create a blog and promote their mission to the world. Surely that is more inspiring and exciting, right?The students were assigned randomly into groups (consisting of 10 or less) and had three weeks (29 Nov-17 Dec) to prepare the blog, before presenting their project to the class and a selected group of evaluators. The blogs purpose was to promote health information to a specific audience (i.e. children, teenagers, adults, special needs and pregnant women).The blogs would be evaluated based on their originality and creativity (title, tag-line, content, etc.), and the blog had to include at least 3 articles/columns and/or editorials that convey messages on the chosen topic. Finally, each blog had to include at least one video or audio message developed by the group.Strong emphasis was given on originality, and students were reminded the importance of avoiding plagiarism and dealing with risk communication. In other words, it is important to acknowledge and appreciate authors and sources (re)used to develop the content for the blogs.Overall, the blogs were assessed for accuracy and relevance of information, creativity, interactive features and the use of media techniques. To make it more exciting and competitive, each group did not make their blogs available to the other groups (or public) before their group presentation on the 16th December (2010).Each group was given 30 minutes to present and defend their blog on the 16 December. Interestingly, Assoc. Prof. Dr. SriKumar Chakravarthi (IMU lecturer) whom was one of the evaluators was in India during this period, but still managed to watch and participate in the evaluation process using Skype. In addition to getting feedback from other class mates and evaluators, students voted for their favorite blog (using the Moodle poll feature) after the group presentation.So, what was my role besides being one of the evaluators? As Sheba DMani is not too familiar with blogging, I handled a Q&A session on creating a blog with the students on the 3rd December. No, I didn't present any PowerPoint slides! I simply came to class, asked them relevant questions, and explored possibilities from this awesome list of free learning tools they could use to create or reuse sizzling content for their blogs.So, how much did this project cost? In terms of technology, all the online tools they used to spread their message to the world cost.... ZERO! Not bad!STUDENT LEARNING OUTPUT?Nutrition 101 in Pregnancy "Healthy foods for a healthy baby"This blog aims to guide pregnant women through the process of making a positive change in the diet. It discusses and explores nutrition tips, delicious recipes, common myths, pregnancy tips and no-nos, useful links, and a few cool widgets, including the 'Weekly Pregnancy Calendar'. Overall, the blog is well-designed providing the user with a visually soothing and user-friendly navigation experience, which is certainly a requirement for any pregnant woman.The project team (Amelia, Melisa, Moushini, Natasha, Ray, Shahira, and Sharon) did a great collaborative effort. Congratulations! In one word: Wonderful!Teen Advisor"Teenage Life is Never Black & White" This blog focuses on adolescent issues aimed at the teenage population of 13-19. It explores in an emotionally creative, but informative way common youth challenges such as alcohol, drugs, relationships (family/friends/girlfriend/boyfriend), stress and smoking.To really connect with the youth in an inspiring and engaging way, this hard working project team mashed-up their own original graphics, directed and recorded a short Abstinence Educational Video, set up a Facebook page, and used Xtranormal to create this cool animated video:In one word: AWESOME!Pink Awareness "BIG or small, We Save them All"This blog aims to provide a one stop avenue for information on breast cancer in an easy way to understand. Its' combination of stylish (pink) and interactive design, easy navigation, and relevant topics makes it a great place to discover more about breast cancer, which include symptoms, risk factors, preventive measures, test and diagnosis, and alternative medicine. In addition to developing a great website, the project team (Qi Quan, Melody, Wern Ching, Shariffa and Praveena) developed a very informative 'Breast Self-Examination' video...In one word: INSPIRING!Understanding Asperger’s SyndromeThis blog focuses on Asperger's Syndrome, which is often misunderstood among people. Asperger's Syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. The project team has done a good job in designing and structuring the few (identified), but relevant issues regarding this disability, which include helping people to recognize it, statistics and epidemiology, books and resources, and famous people with it. Did you know that Albert Einstein had Asperger's Syndrome? Now you know!In one word: INTERESTING!An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away "Don't Forget to Brush Your Teeth"This blog provides some useful tips on how to take care of your health, including brushing your teeth, eating oranges and carrots, and washing your hands. The highlight of this blog has to be the creatively designed video developed by the project team (view contributors), entitled "The story of Bluey and Pinky'.In one word: CREATIVE!LESSONS LEARNEDFrom my experience working with students involved in projects requiring them to develop a website (using web 2.0), often complain that it is time consuming and that it requires a lot of work. But by knowing that their work will continue to live on (more meaning), and that they are publishing it to the world (instead of only to the lecturer), they are willing to take up the challenge and put in a greater effort. In other words, their motivation often goes beyond grades, and that is very exciting and encouraging.Though, we still have to work on their fair use or reuse of external content and graphics, and teach them proper online referencing procedures, which is something we have to continue to work on. It is alright to quote and reuse (if permission is given), but we must appreciate and recognize other people's work. As such we have already setup a site for IMU staff and students (only) exploring project based learning (in the e-learning portal), including proper online referencing procedures.Although, our e-learning portal (using Moodle) is wonderful for uploading and organizing course content, linking online resources, online discussions, assignment submissions, online quizzes, and so on, we should also encourage and empower students to use other web 2.0 and social media tools for creating creative content and informal learning. For example, several lecturers from the School of Pharmacy use Facebook for communicating online with their students, and have experimented with conducting Problem-Based Learning (PBL) sessions using Facebook Groups.I have noticed that some Universities in Malaysia ban the usage of Facebook and YouTube at their campuses, and use the excuse that they encourage poor learning/working habits and clog up their network (bandwidth) for other usages. That might be true, but if staff and students learn how to discipline themselves using such tools (no choice!), they will actually have access to some of the most amazing learning resources on the planet (for free), and be able to interact with experts and students from all over the world through Facebook groups/pages (e.g. Harvard University - Facebook). I can't think of a better investment for learning than boosting the network (bandwidth) to support online learning in all forms. The Internet is the heart, blood circulation, and oxygen of learning in the 21st century.More importantly, today more than ever, it is critical to encourage students to nurture their communication, collaboration, creative and analytical skills using the web and multimedia tools. Increasingly in the future, people in organizations will be working and collaborating online using the cloud, so it is important to encourage and necessary to prepare our students for this new world.Also, it is important to highlight here that the quality of the students' output (results) at this stage is not as important as empowering their passionate and inquiring mindset to explore possibilities and ideas, and continuously reflect, learn and improve from these learning experiences. In short, focus more on the learning process than the output (results). Results will come as they learn. Some are early bloomers, others are late bloomers, and that is something we should never forget.Can you imagine hiring a graduate that cannot communicate and collaborate online? Try asking that same question in four year's time :)

"The Maknaz project provides a complete solution for the implementation, customisation, maintenance and support of a reliable and effective online learning environment, including all the required hardware for sustaining a highly sophisticated environment supporting 22 leading national universities."- Abdullah Al Mogheerah (NCEL's Manager for Planning & PMO)Bob Little ranked Abdullah Al Mogheerah as the 4th most influential person in the corporate e-learning world in 2011 (on Jan 4, 2011)CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE MAKNAZMAKNAZ (or Treasure Chest)?"The National Center of E-learning and Distance Learning (NCEL) guides the various efforts of Saudi higher education institutions to develop digital content, enrich the curricula and facilitate learning to achieve excellence in the educational process as a whole...As a result, an electronic national repository has been built to facilitate the process of developing, archiving, retrieving, reusing and sharing of learning objects. The national repository will support the efforts of Saudi universities and serve as a basis for building digital curricula with higher quality and less cost..." - SourceIn developing and implementing Maknaz, NCEL has been working closely with eXact learning solutions, and they have fused "eXact LCMS and Harvestroad Hive DR infrastructures to provide a nationwide digital marketplace within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...Academics and students use the HarvestRoad Hive DR to share and access a wide array of educational materials. The eXact LCMS and other collaboration tools are used to facilitate the production and management of online learning contents." - SourceMaknaz is "integrated with all NCEL's internal repositories, including Qanatech and the Saudi Digital Library (SDL) as well as with a network of over 36 international repositories, making it possible for Maknaz users to search for contents across all these repositories." - SourceTHE BIG CHALLENGEThe problem with many Learning Object Repositories (LOR) in the past was populating the repository quickly (too costly and too few people willing to share), and attracting people to use it. In general, people will only visit the LOR, and continue to use it if they can easily find content relevant to their areas of interest.Interestingly, Maknaz empowers users to search for (and filter) contents across more than 36 international repositories, including ARIADNE, NSDL, University of Cambridge, MIT (OpenCourseware), IDEALS @ Illinois, JorumOpen, Delft University of Technology, Johns Hopkins University (MUSE Project) and Hong Kong University. By doing so, users have access from one search box more than one million learning resources (objects/items), which makes it immediately attractive to find potential learning resource gems.So, while Maknaz is being populated with local content from Universities around Saudi Arabia, Maknaz has already an immediate attraction with its federated search across multiple learning repositories around the world.To go beyond just focusing on developing and sharing content, Maknaz has areas for communities, forums and blogs to bloom, which is great to spark connections and facilitate collaborations among users.The big challenge with such massive projects is getting buy-in by stake holders (Universities, academics, students, etc.), changing people's learning and sharing mindset from copyright to copyleft (or Creative Commons), and creating an environment where honest discussions and constructive criticism can flow without disruption and fear.Having now been to Saudi Arabia twice for educational purposes (Nov 2008: 2 E-Learning workshops and Jan 2010: E-Learning Audit of Universities), I am still amazed how fast they are moving ahead with e-learning and investing in the infrastructure to make it happen.What is even more encouraging and exciting was meeting several young upcoming academics during the process, who have brilliant ideas, and are very passionate about innovating the way they learn, and empower students to learn. I remember even one E-Learning Dean, who told me that he woke up at night having dreams about e-learning. I am passionate about learning and e-learning, but I have yet to have any dreams to testify that.Finally, having a passionate and strategically driven NCEL push forward with so many innovative projects, hosting conferences, and providing tons of training programs (for both men and women) to support the development of the learning nation, and topping that with a growing group of academics hungry to learn and innovate, it will certainly be interesting to see how the transformation of Saudi Higher Education unfolds in the future :)