Well, this post is LONG overdue. I attended the 2015 Institute for Performance and Learning conference here in Toronto way back in November, but the last month and a half kind of got away from me. A bit late is better than nothing, right?Rather than try and blog about every single thing I saw individually, I thought I'd instead do something a bit different this time: a summary post about the best parts of the conference that have stuck with me even a month and a half later.Nir Eyal's KeynoteEyal's talk on how habits are built (and how to influence people's habit building) was delightful AND insightful. It pretty much hit all my buttons for a great keynote at a L&D conference: technically out of our field but on a topic strongly connected to what we do, a great balance of enough information to understand the topic but not so much that it felt like an infodump, excellent storytelling, a good sense of humour, and well-designed slides. I would definitely want to see him give a talk again if I had the opportunity. He also completely convinced me that I need to buy his book, so I suppose that's a win for both of us.Sad you couldn't see the keynote yourself? Well, this video seems to have the same talk filmed at another event, so that's a pretty decent option for you. Also, hooray for YouTube!Trend: Lego slidesYeah... I've seen slides that use Lego before, but never so many used so well all at the same conference. This is a trend I feel I can totally stand behind (well, at least while people keep using them smartly). At some point it's going to become overdone (and poorly done), but for now I'm just going to keep enjoying it.Gotta love this!Trying to attend a conference while sick is the worstI've gotten Con Plague after a conference, but never before it. To say attending a con while sick is a challenge is a massive understatement (as was trying to desperately keep from infecting others... sadly, no conference hugs and handshakes for me). Thankfully, my body at least picked a hometown conference to feel horrid at, so there's one small win there, right? That said, there were more than a few events I ended up needing to skip, which wasn't ideal for my first time attending this particular conference.FINALLY getting to see certain speakersI've had some pretty crummy scheduling luck with certain L&D speakers. For some reason there have always been a few people I either always end up having my sessions scheduled at the same time as (Hi JD!) or other people that always have their talks opposite of six other things I need to see in that time slot. I guess to make up for me being pathetically ill, the universe decided to do me a solid this time around and I got to see two people talk that I usually never get to see: Jane Bozarth and Aaron Silvers. No surprise, they were both fun and engaging speakers, so that was a big win as far as I'm concerned.Hallway meetingsAs I go to more and more conferences, the thing that's becoming the most valuable to me is simply the conversations I have with other attendees. Actually getting to meet Twitter buddies in MeatSpace (AKA: the real world), making connections with new people, and chatting with all of them about what they're doing is what tends to stick with me the most weeks later. Plus, it's just plain fun.So, no surprise, this was definitely my favorite part about the IPL conference. While I always love catching up with everybody, this particular location gave me a chance to chat with a ton of Canadian L&D folks. You'd think that since I live in the same country as them I'd see them in real life more often... yeah... that's sadly not how it turns out. And sometimes we don't all go to the same conferences in the US either. So attending IPL became an amazing opportunity to connect with people I don't regularly get to see. That was a nice surprise I hadn't considered.So those were my thoughts about my very first IPL conference. If you attend or followed the backchannel and have some of your own reflections, pop them down in the comments below!

I have been on a social media vacation for the past month. I have not blogged or participated in many of the regular social media activities. The idea was to take a deep breath.No, I did not go to a sunny beach. I just spent some time evaluating my goals, my approach, and simply recharging. The question that guided my break is a simple A, B testing. The question guiding my quest was: Am I on social media because I am in a cycle that compels me to participate or risk becoming irrelevant? Or am I using social media because I think I can make a difference? The proposition was simple if I feel compelled to stay on social media during this time than it is more of a self-reinforcing cycle. But if I am able to take this break without feeling the urge to participate then maybe, just maybe I am actually contributing.So what lessons did I learn from my social media vacation?1. I survived. I enjoy participating in social media, but when I stopped being significantly involved I was perfectly fine. Social media is work and it is nice to stop for a while. I learned that the momentary compulsion to check and post were easily discarded once I made the decision.2. I enjoyed it. It was actually enjoyable not to be on social media for a while. No, I did not use my productively. I just enjoyed some free time.3. I am eager to come back and try and make a difference. My mission for the past few years have morphed but in many ways, it is still about making sure that all students have access to top-notch 21st-century education in and through technology. The way to reach this goal is collaboration with teachers who are the ones that change their students lives.That's it, I am looking forward to a productive social media year!

MOOCs are Focusing on Fundamentals https://t.co/OeBRE4UNW8 #elearning

I have spent the past 20 years figuring out what changes the internet era might bring. During the last 12 years I’ve run a web-powered business. What have I learned as a freelancer on the Net? First of all I am lucky that blogging gave me an international reputation, and that I started early enough. But all the benefits from blogging have been indirect. It is impossible to proactively increase sales through this model. Word of mouth travels at its own speed and in unknown directions. All things come in time: usually a long time. I have found that business value keeps shifting. I used to get paid well to help companies select new learning technologies. I have not done that type of work for over five years. I have also seen organizations move away from using external consultants. I think the entire consulting model is ripe for disruptive change. When LinkedIn advertises ex-McKinsey consultants available for $60 per hour, you know that it’s an obsolete business model. What worked yesterday will not work tomorrow. After several of my major clients decided they no longer wanted to hire consultants, I temporarily lost a primary source of my revenue. Luckily I was testing out my online workshops. These happened to pick up just as consulting work was decreasing. Whether you work for yourself or are part of a small business, you need to have new products and services tested and ready to go. This is what I call perpetual beta: experimenting in order to create emergent practices. It may sound trite, but the change cycle seems to be getting faster. It’s the effect of what Jay Cross referred to as Internet time. Our interconnected economy is forcing us to be more innovative because replication is just too easy. The competition can copy most of what you are doing as soon as you do it. It doesn’t matter if the competition is not as good as you if they can get more attention than you. I am going to start working on my next book, which will be different from my perpetual beta series. My objective is to take what I have learned these past twenty years and create a guide for freelancers, consultants, and other creative workers. Some things already in progress are: How to negotiate a contract. How to establish fees. How to manage client expectations. How to find a community of practice. How to build a trusted knowledge network. All of these will be based on first or second-hand experience, learning from my colleagues as well. I will post the ‘half-baked ideas’ here and then use them to create a finished narrative for the published work. Image: @gapingvoid

 "Life would be dull without creativity", and "Creativity encourages risk taking", Mr. Maley said in his talk at the launch of the most recent volume on creativity, Creativity in the English Language Classroom ,  a volume which he co-edited with Nik Peachy and for which he was an important inspiration.   As one of the contributors in this volume, I had first hand experience of his skilful and meticulous editing and must confess to being an early follower of his work, very much inspired  by the ideas related to including literary text in the ELT classroom - I still use many of the ideas he shared in early workshops on using poetry and have published at least three books on class materials using literary text. Alan Maley’s writings have inspired many teachers to be more creative over the years, not just me.  He has been a familiar and very important voice in ELT for a very long time and has always been a champion of allowing learners to escape the confines of the coursebook and letting their imagination run free. In those days, we did not call this a creativity drive but creativity it was! In more recent times, and since Sir Ken Robinson’s celebrated talk, many have "come out in the open" as it were and, indeed, the evidence of how keen ELT teachers are to embrace the idea that teaching and learning should be more creative is phenomenal. Alan Maley has written many books which have shaped the thinking of many educators and recently started the C Group, […]

Happy New Year! As we move into the start of our third year of our podcast, we begin our first episode of 2016 by discussing the major trends we observed during the 2015 as we flipped resources into our Flipboard magazine (http://bit.ly/trendsandissues). We have five trends that we discuss. These trends are: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Educational Technology […] Tags:   Del.icio.us Facebook TweetThis Digg StumbleUpon Comments:  1 (One) on this itemCopyright © Trends & Issues [Episode 54 Six Trends of 2015 & Trend Predictions for 2016], All Right Reserved. 2016.

Wish all our readers a very happy 2016! As you step into the  year 2016, you may wonder what could be your priorities for eLearning as a learning & development professional for your organisation. Here are some of elements which you may consider adding into your eLearning initiatives: 1. Gamification Many organisation view eLearning as mere implementation of Learning Management System and then hosting & distributing self-paced course content using these systems. Such initiatives either fizzle out or if they survive, remain mechanical lacking the necessary edge. Gamification can be an extremely potent tool to increase participation by employees and improve effectiveness of the eLearning initiative. 2. Mobile enabled eLearning Mobility devices are no longer just consumer devices used by employees for their personal uses. Organisations are using tablets, smart phones, and even basic mobile phones based apps in the hands of employees to carry-out organisational processes. Ensure that your eLearning initiative is mobile enabled. To know more about mLearning, do read my following blog here: http://elearningindustry.com/going-mlearning-2-points-ponder 3. Micro Learning Thirty minutes or sixty minutes elearning sesions are considered optimum duration for eLearning courses in cases of the conventional eLearning initiative. However, when target audience is customer facinig and field sales / services staff, who predominantly use mobility devices, elearning content delivered in capsules of 3-5 minutes is gaining popularity. Some organisations have even successfully used SMS to deliver eLearning. 4. Collaborative Learning Conventional eLearning is typically is a monologue with the flow of the content from the system to the employees, who are learners.  Employees can be encouraged to participate to create unstructured but useful & complimentary content addressing queries and issues faced by other fellow learners. Their participation can be gamified by awarding them credit point for their participation. 5.Use of Virtual CLassrooms Corporate eLearning is mostly equated with Self-paced learning. Very few organisations use virtual classrooms to deliver interactive eLearning. Virtual classroom can be used to deliver blended learning to the employees in combination with either classroom learning or self-paced learning. Virtual classroom sessions can be used as follow-up sessions to check effectiveness of learning imparted or addressing practical issues/challenges faced by learners while applying their learning, especially if learners are geographically distributed.        

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The corporate world saw many changes and innovations in 2015, which begs the question - What will the new year look like? Bersin by Deloitte issued a report on the 10 Big Disruptions in HR Technologies on the Horizon for 2016. With the new year fast approaching, we thought we would summarize the insights for you. 

For the past three years I’ve been trying to share  a photo a day on the blipfoto site. The first year I tired I missed a few days, and last year just one. Thisyear I have actually managed to post a picture everyday.   In the grand scale of things this isn’t a particularly amazing, life changing feat, but for me it has become a really enjoyable habit. My photos (or blips) are more personal reminders of each day. Some are mundane, some include shoes, some are actually quite nice photographs. Together they are a visual record of the past few years for me, my visual diary  if you like. They are an increasingly important part of my digital presence/ identity. I’ll be writing more about that next week when I have my work head back on and have had more time to think about my holiday periscope adventures.  I am going to continue to try and share a picture a day, but in the meantime I’m raising a glass to my achievement this year and wish everyone a happy and peaceful New Year.