In my school district, our professional and digital learning department is barely around 7 months old. Since school began we’ve been somewhere in the middle of identifying, addressing, creating and revising problems as well as solutions. In addition, we’ve taken full advantage of eager leadership, teacher excitement, "edtech buzz initiatives", and any opened door that allowed a conversation regarding how students can be active participants in their own learning. This has truly been a remarkable journey and with all that we still have planned…it seems as if we are only just beginning! To give some background, our district is a BYOD district and has only been such for about two years. Unlike many of my peers, we did not have the luxury of mobile carts on campuses, enough labs beyond the one per campus, no technology to supplement for students who did not have their own device and barely enough training on the tools that we have in place. When I say that my department started from a blank slate, I am not joking. Everything that we have done and will do is brand new to Lufkin. I want to also point out that being here in the land of no devices, other than smartboards, has also opened my eyes to the powerful learning that STILL happens even when there are no global connections. Our kids benefit greatly from community partnerships and involvement with community stakeholders. We still have field trips and on occasion guest speakers from industries around Lufkin. What we were lacking were connections outside of Lufkin and the ability to see…"Yes, And" Our first opportunity to get teachers connected happened with the Global Read Aloud. Classrooms were skyping with classes all over the country. It was certainly remarkable to see. That same campus jumped into utilizing code.org, well before hour of code, to have a coding club. This was a K-2 campus and the excitement generated opened the door for #hourofcode. While many of my peers see Hour of Code this venture as nothing more than a hashtag, it was much more than that for us. We took the time to discuss experiences and opportunities that we could and should be offering our students as well as the importance of computer science. We held professional development for teachers and shared learning via twitter and blogs. We also came to understand that computational thinking was so critically important that we are training all of our 3-5 staff in a matter of weeks, which can have greater long term rewards for our students for years to come. That week was a game changer for Lufkin as our teachers were able to experience first hand what "different" could be and they want more of it! We are fully aware that it takes more than an hour but we are also committed to continuing what we started and making sure that Computer Science is just as important as our other core courses beginning at pre-k. This month, we are focusing on active planning with teachers and thinking beyond the tools. Our digital learning specialist will be transitioning from "after school training" mode to school day planning and development with the goal of developing model lessons and publishing them. With the timely release of #NETP16 as well as resources like the Google Lesson Plan Jam Digital Learning Toolkit  as well as Graphite’s Lesson Flows…our specialist are charged with researching and thinking about how we can craft the support that we need according to Lufkin…not specific to a tool but open to universal ideas. (We actually started months ago with Common Sense Media’s 1:1 Essentials Guide and it helped build some foundational understanding for this work) We are also including teachers in this process and are fortunate to have 50 district wide teacher ambassadors from PK-12 so that the work will not be framed from a department of three but by a collective. Eventually, we will include students and have student leadership teams already in place to do so. We took the time at the beginning of the year to get our leadership teams on board with their own use and understanding of technology through their lens, upgraded a few antiquated process and invested in a few pilot tools. Moving forward, we will be developing common language and continuing the work through the lens of "YES, AND" On the horizon… #NETP16 - Visioning and ongoing study/discussions Launch of our Student Voice Blog (Beyond excited for this!!) Grades 3-5 Computer Science across the curriculum professional development Minecraft Teach and Learn (with students and teachers) STEM day with 4th grade (Design thinking and inventing with little bits, cloudbits + minecraft, coding) Inventing to Learn with our Digital Ambassadors and any teacher who wants in! A community-wide MakerFest (because why not?) And reflection…lots of reflection…and long term planning for what’s ahead. Our first guiding question… What does innovation mean to Lufkin? Stay tuned!

In 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, author and therapist Amy Morin presents the 13 most important things that people who are emotionally on top of their games do not do. No one does everything right all the time, but by acknowledging all 13 of these behaviors, actions, and feelings, people can make significant progress in their lives. Mentally strong people have better chances of success, develop better relationships, and are generally happier and healthier. Mentally strong people do not: Waste time feeling sorry for themselves. This is a self-destructive behavior that leads to more negative emotions. Give away their power. People can still be kind while demanding that others respect them. Shy away from change. Change can be scary and uncomfortable, but it is necessary for growth. Focus on things they cannot control. Trying to manage what is out of one’s control just leads to increased anxiety and stress. Worry about pleasing everyone. Conflict and confrontation are often uncomfortable, but constantly avoiding it makes it impossible for people to reach their goals. Fear taking calculated risks. Sometimes people’s fears and anxieties do not actually match the risks they are taking. Dwell on the past. Self-reflection can be healthy, but dwelling can be self-destructive. Make the same mistakes over and over. Repeating the same mistakes does not change anything. Resent other people’s success. Resenting someone else’s success can cause a person to behave illogically. Give up after one failure. Some of the most accomplished people in the world failed dozens of times before achieving success. Fear alone time. Creating time to be alone with one’s thoughts is a powerful experience. Feel the world owes them anything. A sense of entitlement does nothing but anger others. Expect immediate results. Change takes time. To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

Birmingham, AL, November, 2015- In the November issue, National Geographic called attention to ROI Institute’s contribution to sustainability and green initiatives in the business world. The article, 5 Ways to Curb Climate Change, reads: "In 2009, when MIT’s Sloan Management Review first surveyed businesses about sustainability efforts, it found most ‘doing only what is necessary to meet regulatory requirements.’ Five years later the survey told a different story: Nearly two-thirds of companies said sustainability was at the top of their agendas, which fewer than half had said earlier. What changed? The CEOs’ sense of green initiatives’ worth, say Patricia and Jack Phillips, authors of The Green Scorecard. ‘Today, most (if not all) businesses recognize that climate change is a problem,’ they write. ‘Smart companies use their environmental strategy to … build competitive advantage.’" Read the article: 5 Ways to Curb Climate Change Measuring Return on Investment in Green/Sustainability Initiatives ROI Institute’s effort to help organizations have success with sustainability initiatives is documented in the book, The Green Scorecard: Measuring the Return on Investment in Sustainability Initiatives, a unique publication that shows organizations how to measure the success of green projects using five levels of outcome data. "About 80 percent of the green projects an organization develops and implements returns a positive ROI for that organization, if it’s implemented properly" explains Patti Phillips, President and CEO of ROI Institute, Inc. "The other 20 percent is controlled by regulation." Issues with Implementing Green/Sustainability Initiatives The problem is that most projects break down early in the implementation process. Either employees (or citizens, suppliers, or customers) do not see the need for the project, do not understand fully what they must do, or, do not know what they really should be doing. These are our classic Levels 1, 2, and 3 in the ROI Methodology. Ultimately, to improve impact (Level 4) and achieve a positive financial ROI (Level 5), the first three levels must be in place. This informative book provides detailed steps on how this is successfully accomplished. The Solution "This new book can serve all types of organizations, including government, non-profit, NGOs, as well as private businesses," adds Jack Phillips, Chairman of ROI Institute, Inc. Even cities, counties, states, and national governments can benefit by ensuring that this publication is available for any individual involved in implementing any type of green project, ranging from re-cycling and energy reduction to water conservation.   Involved in Green or Sustainability initiatives? Contact us for a FREE copy of The Green Scorecard! As a special contribution to this important cause, ROI Institute will provide a copy of this book to individuals who want to measure the success of these types of projects. If you are interested in knowing how to evaluate green initiatives with all five levels of data using the ROI Methodology, please provide your contact and shipping information to Anita@Roiinstitute.net and we will gladly send you a free copy. For more information on this issue, contact ROI Institute at info@roiinsitute.net. About ROI Institute, Inc. Founded in 1992 as a service-driven organization, ROI Institute assists professionals in improving programs and processes using the ROI Methodology developed by Dr. Jack J. Phillips and Dr. Patti P. Phillips. ROI Institute is the global leader in measurement, evaluation, and analytics, including the use of return on investment (ROI) in non-capital expenditures. Through workshops, consulting services, books and case studies, and research, ROI Institute applies the ROI Methodology in 20 fields in over 60 countries. ROI Institute authors have written or edited over 100 books, translated into 38 languages. Organizations build internal capability with the help of ROI Institute and its ROI Certification process. By successfully completing this process, individuals are awarded the Certified ROI Professional (CRP) designation, which is respected by executives in organizations worldwide. For more information on ROI Institute, please contact info@roiinstitute.net or visit www.roiinstitute.net. The post National Geographic recognizes ROI Institute’s contribution to green business initiatives appeared first on ROI Institute.

Birmingham, AL, December, 2015- December 2015 marked the 20th anniversary of offering the ROI Certification in a public setting. Since the first public certification, the ROI Methodology has become the most successful system for the evaluation of learning and human resources in the world. To date, over 11,000 individuals have participated in the live one-week version of the ROI Certification. In addition, about 3,000 individuals have attended online versions offered through universities. In December 1995, in Nashville, Tennessee, a small group of practitioners attended the first public version of the ROI Certification, which was intended to build serious skills to evaluate all types of programs credibly. When an individual completed an evaluation study, including measuring the impact and ROI, the Certified ROI Professional (CRP) designation was awarded. The number of Certified ROI Professionals now has reached over 4,000, with many more on the way. From its beginnings, the need to develop critical and serious evaluation skills was identified. Although the initial participants were in the learning and development space, this certification quickly grew to over twenty other areas, such as human resources, technology, marketing, quality, innovation, sustainability, consulting, and compliance. "Although our plans were based on needs, this was truly an experiment," explains Jack Phillips, Chairman, ROI Institute. "At that time, individuals interested in evaluation could attend a one-day, and in some cases, a two-day workshop offered by the ROI Institute. Although, it was important to have two days of training, to build a serious capability and transfer content to the organization required more detail, more work, and more application—that is the ROI Certification. We tried this internally with several organizations with great success and we offered it publicly in late 1995." Since then, ROI Certification has been offered publically and internally, all over the U.S.A and in at least 40 countries. Although the first participants represented business, most participants now represent governments, non-profits, non-government organizations (NGOs), universities, and healthcare organizations and professional associations. "The ROI Certification continues to be in high demand," adds Patti Phillips, President and CEO, ROI Institute. "The reaction, acceptance, and use of this methodology has been amazing. In addition to the five-day live version, we offer a variety of possibilities to obtain this important designation. Many organizations are moving this certification internally to build skills with a team, focused on their needs, at their preferred time, and often with much less cost." For additional information about ROI Certification and what it means and the benefits of obtaining it, please click here. For information on the six ways to obtain certification, meeting the time and budget needs for any organization, click here. The post ROI Certification Celebrates 20th Anniversary appeared first on ROI Institute.

I read an article recently stating that 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions are not met. I wasn’t surprised by that figure because of two very common facts: Accomplishing the goal is usually more difficult than we think it will be We rarely ask for help from others who can support us That’s why it makes so much sense to use the three principles of Situational Leadership® II—goal setting, diagnosis, and matching—to make your New Year’s resolutions stick. This highly successful model for setting and achieving work goals applies to reaching personal goals, as well. For years, I’ve shared the benefits of writing SMART goals. I truly believe this acronym provides a powerful method for making sure your goals are Specific, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable. So I’m not going to go over the best way to write goal statements today. Instead, I’m going to strongly suggest, once the goal is determined, that you write it down. Sounds simple, right? In the working environment, writing goal statements are usually part of a performance planning process. However, many times when people are setting personal goals, they think about what they want to do but they don’t write anything down. If you can’t make the effort to write it down, you probably won’t be committed enough to actually change a behavior. Write each goal on a separate sheet of paper and read each goal every day. It won’t do you any good to write something down and file it away. When you read your goal statements each day, you remind yourself of your priorities and match your behavior to meet the goals—or adjust your behavior if goals are not being met. This simple process will help you be accountable for your own goal achievement. I read my goals first thing in the morning, just to get my day off to the right start and get myself in the right frame of mind. Next, it is important to diagnose your development level on each goal. What is your competence (your skills and experience) and what is your commitment (your motivation and confidence) to this goal? Once you determine your competence and commitment, you need to ask for help. For example, let’s say you are excited about your goal but are not competent yet. You are an enthusiastic beginner and need to find a helper who can coach you—someone who can provide a lot of direction on how you can achieve this goal. If you lack competence and confidence on a goal, you are a disillusioned learner. In this case you need a coach to provide direction as well as a supporter to cheer you on. This doesn’t necessarily have to be the same person. If you know how to achieve your goal but your commitment varies, you are a capable but cautious performer. In this case, you need extra support to help you stay committed but you don’t need much direction. Finally, let’s say you have both high competence and high commitment to the goal. A self-reliant achiever, may not even need to write the goal down—you are well on your way to goal achievement. The third step is called matching. This means finding the right person or group of people to help you reach your goals. You may have different helpers for different goals because you want to choose people who will offer the right combination of direction and support for you. For example, if you set a goal to exercise three times a week, find a friend who is already dedicated to exercising and is willing to join you at the gym instead of one who rarely laces up walking shoes. Be systematic about checking in with your helpers. Set up a specific time each week to talk about how you are progressing. This can be as simple as a ten-minute phone call or even a quick text. Or use the check-in as a way to get face to face with your main supporters. How you get together doesn’t matter—what you talk about is the biggest factor that will keep you on track toward achieving your goals. I often ask people, "What is the best diet?" Of course, the answer is "The one you stick with." Think of these check-in meetings as the way to stick to your plan. So, don’t fall into that 92 percent failure group. Set yourself up for success by setting your goals, diagnosing your development level, and surrounding yourself with helpers who will provide the right amount of direction and support to help you flourish throughout the year!

It's time to take stock and plan how each of us will change the world. Let's do it! Here's a quote from Turning Pro, a book I revisit at the beginning of every new year from one of my favorite authors Steven Pressfield: "When we're living as amateurs, we're running away from our calling - meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves… to follow a calling requires work.  It's hard.  It hurts.  It demands entering the pain zone of effort, risk and exposure. " ​

Happy Brand New Year! In this LearningFlash, you and I are going to explore how to bring back the energy that we lost in 2015 in our multitasking madness. I'll be sharing some powerful thoughts written by Parker Palmer. Let me introduce him to you now: "The unexamined life is surely worth living, but is the unlived life worth examining? It seems a strange question until one realizes how much of our so-called mental life is about the lives we are not living, the lives we are missing out on, the lives we could be leading but for some reason are not. What we fantasize about, what we long for, are the experiences, the things and the people that are absent. It is the absence of what we need that makes us think, that makes us cross and sad... we can survive only if our appetites more or less work for us... Because we are always shadowed by the possibility of not getting what we want, we learn, at best, to ironize our wishes — that is, to call our wants wishes: a wish is only a wish until, as we say, it comes true — and, at worst, to hate our needs. But we also learn to live somewhere between the lives we have and the lives we would like." Read in it's entiretyThat's quite a challenge, right? To begin, I've created a quick assessment that contains common things my customers have said to me this year as we live between the lives we have and the lives we would like to have.  See if you've said any of these things: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JT9P2PW. This will provide the self-awareness needed to grow through the challenging thoughts below.

The global mobile learning market is forecast to hit $8.7 billion by the end of 2015 and looks set to reach $12.2 billion by 2017. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives are becoming standard practice for many organisations and learners who are used to accessing corporate systems and data from their own mobile devices are driving demand for mobile learning. Meanwhile, EUdigitisation initiatives, such as the Opening up Education programme funded with tens of millions of Euros, are also driving the adoption of mobile learning. The growth in corporate mobile learning raises questions about how to secure personal data. This data is not only travelling between personal smartphones, tablets and corporate Learning Management Systems, but also across borders. It is therefore vital that the C-level asks and answers these questions to limit their organisation’s exposure to the risk of the loss or theft of personal data. A combined effect and responsibility If your organisation is looking to introduce mobile learning or improve the management of mobile learning across borders, you will most likely face a multiplicity of local data and privacy laws and widely divergent attitudes to the requirement for securing personal data. Here are five ways organisations can help HR departments to manage staff data when workforce learning goes mobile Audit the usage of mobile workforce learning on a global level. HR and learning development staff in regions with lower data protection standards may not understand the rules in countries with more rigid regulations, putting the whole organisation at risk of a regulatory breach. European citizens have the right to be forgotten, something companies from other continents may not appreciate. Most western European countries are only allowed to store user data for six months and then they have to delete it. In other parts of the world, organisations are encouraged to hold data for as long as they can in case of regulatory challenges. Many countries have regulations governing the transmission of personal data across borders and these may well apply to corporate learner data. Appoint a data protection controller. A data protection controller can satisfy the board that the correct level of risk is assigned to data protection. In fact, the law in some parts of the world requires the appointment of a data protection controller. Engage all stakeholders in data protection issues. Get all the stakeholders on board - not just HR, but also legal and IT people. Everyone who might contribute to what happens to data within an organisation needs to be at the table. Consent is an important concept relating to data privacy, and organisations need to know how to go about obtaining employee consent to store and process learner data. Get informed about the regulations that govern the storage, use and transmission of personal data. Ignorance is no defence. An established supplier will have a solid understanding of how your mobile learning solution complies with regulations and should be able to advise you. Cloud-based learning systems enable easy mobile access for learners across large organisations. HR can disseminate consistent mobile training throughout the entire organisation and monitor and gauge results from it centrally. Students can learn anytime, anywhere and on any device. Yet some organisations implement cloud-based learning systems in most parts of the world but exclude some regions from their cloud workforce learning because they cannot cope with the regulations they are faced with in those regions. It is also important to consider the data protection implications if employees are travelling from one jurisdiction to another while learning on their mobile devices. Make sure corporate measures and policies allow for a BYOD environment, where employees use their own devices for work purposes and mobile learning. Conversely, if employees use corporate-issued mobile devices, there must be controls and policies to ring-fence data so that it is not accessible to other apps that employees may install on the device. The measures in place to secure the BYOD environment will go a long way towards securing against threats such as malware and criminal hacks but this must be supplemented by educating the workforce about the importance of protecting their own personal data and how the organisation is ensuring that data is safe. Organisations need to encompass all these factors as they plan their global approach to data protection in a technology-enabled learning scenario. Mobile learning solutions contain personal data and given that all personal data is private, organisations have a duty to protect it. Depending on whether the organisation is in Europe, America or China, regulations might differ, but all global organisations need to be aware of data regulations and act on the risk of falling foul of them when workforce learning goes mobile.

Last year I completed many more e-learning heroes challenges than I thought I had, and I’m surprising myself early in 2016 by completing my first challenge of the year! The Concept This challenge was to ‘awaken’ our e-learning force by creating a Star Wars themed interaction…this was a tall order for me because I had never seen an entire Star Wars movie. I know. I know. The Method When thinking about this challenge, I knew I wanted to do something with the iconic intro crawl, and I knew I wanted to build the interaction in Storyline, which was limited in terms of being able to adjust the perspective of my text. So, here’s what I did instead: Went into PhotoShop and created a transparent canvas the width of my Storyline design, and double the height; Then, I added a text box around the entire canvas, chose a Star-Warsy font, changed the font colour to a shade of yellow, and wrote out my crawl; Once I was finished writing the crawl, I right-clicked the text layer, and selected Rasterize Type; Then, I chose Transform > Perspective from the Edit menu, and adjusted the top of the text box to become a smaller width with the bottom of the text box remaining the same; I added a drop shadow and saved the image. Then… I went back to my Storyline file where I had applied a background fill of a Star-Warsy looking pattern; Then, I added a scroll panel to the entire width (and majority of height) of my project, with the scroll bar extending past the slide so you couldn’t see it; Next, I added the image I had created in PhotoShop and applied a line motion path, changing the direction to up, changing the easing to none, and I dragged the end point of the motion path to the desired location; I added some Star Wars theme music (attribution under the Resources link), and moved on to the next slide, and set a trigger to jump to the next slide when the motion path animation completed; The next slide was a simple click and reveal interaction that employed buttons to trigger layers. Result To view the full interaction, Click Here.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (#CES2016) is happening in Las Vegas all week. It's one of the largest events in North America showcasing the latest in tech gadgetry from all industries. The eLearning community doesn't normally bother with hardware innovations because hardware products are mostly directed towards consumers of non-educational products. However, as Trish Uhl pointed out during my Periscope broadcast, it's the hardware that is driving consumer behaviors which in turn influences how consumers interact with content. This is a brilliant insight as it puts hardware directly at the front of how we plan for the future of corporate training. What Happens to eLearning When Screens Disappear? For many years it's been a race for bigger, cheaper, and more realistic television sets. And now it feels like we've entered into a race to eliminate not just the television, but all screens or monitors. That may be unrealistic to think that we will never again need screens. But is it? What if the screen as we know it is replaced by headsets, or holograms? The viewing of entertainment is largely responsible for our "need" for television screens. What if the future of entertainment doesn't require a screen? And for those few who still watch television news for staying updated on current events...well, we already know information can be acquired faster   via other channels of information. What might that look like? Or in this case, what will it not look like? Think of the Amazon Echo, or Siri, or other voice activated devices. These are becoming more powerful with every new update. All via voice commands, we can get all the information we need without a screen. "Hey Alexa, tell me about the latest news in my area." This may not be widely used, yet. But they show us what learning might look like in the future. Alexa could be quizzing you on the content of your current courses at exactly the right moment in time maximizing the brain's capacity to learn. I know it seems a bit like a science fiction novel, but the possibilities are quite real. And it all starts with the hardware. How are User Interfaces Changing eLearning? Physical technology innovations also impact the user experience. Software has moved to the cloud, but content in the cloud needs a place to go for it to be useful. What we now call the internet of things is the channel for both sending and receiving that cloud data. It's these hardware "things" that become the conduit between the cloud and us. It makes sense that how we engage with these things will also quickly morph from keyboard and mouse to something far more intuitive. It may be that voice activation is the most obvious future user interface with technology. Or maybe there's more too it than that. Our hands/fingers have been the primary tools manipulating keyboard and mouse to interact via onscreen interfaces. However, the rest of our body parts serve important functions as well. Our bodies currently send data through simple monitoring wristbands. But our wrists currently don't receive data and react accordingly. An argument could be made that we choose reactions based on the information we see displayed on our wrist devices. But I'm thinking we may be headed towards something more interesting. Last week I highlighted a company that has created an interactive suit called the Teslasuit. This is an interesting look at what's possible when we include the entire human body in the interface experience. This type of wearable may not have immediate daily uses for the purposes of training. But they are already in use training military personnel in highly advanced training simulations. As the technology gets cheaper we will create effective commercial uses that begin to make more sense. While most of our industry's technology innovations are software based, it's becoming more important than ever to watch the trends in hardware. The eLearning industry follows cultural shifts in how technology is being used. The internet of things is forcing the eLearning industry to take a closer look at new hardware driving the expectations of our learners. We can't expect that the cartoonish click-the-next-button training content will always be the norm. And while we all attempt to move beyond that in our designs, I am beginning to see the technology hardware and cloud software making many of these decisions for us. If you're interested in seeing more you can always follow #CES2016. But if you're interested in anything specific, let us know @Litmos and I'll find the information for you while I'm there. Also, if you are attending, please feel free to reach out and perhaps we can meet up. The post How Does Hardware Drive the eLearning Industry? appeared first on Litmos.