We are excited to feature Kristina Wambold, a digital learning coach for ESD 112 in Vancouver, Washington and Google for Education Trainer!  She will be joining forces with the NCCE Tech-Savvy Teachers to present the NCCE Summit, featuring Google for Education, in February at the NCCE conference in Seattle! We caught up with Kristina recently to find out more about how she uses technology for enlightenment and organization in her busy training schedule! Name: Kristina Wambold Location: Vancouver, Washington Current job(s): Digital Learning Coach for ESD 112, Google for Education Trainer Current computer: MacBook Air, DELL Current mobile device(s): Samsung S5, iPad Air, CTL Chromebook One word that best describes how you teach or work: Connected What apps/software/tools can you not live without? In my current role as a Digital Learning Coach working with several districts, using multiple devices, I could not survive without Google Drive! Google Drive allows me to switch between devices and school district accounts with ease. Anywhere, Everywhere, Anytime with Google Drive. Another must have is Snagit by TechSmith. Snagit allows me to create quick and easy training screencasts that I share with my teachers and students. Snagit also allows me to create annotated screenshots for step-by-step directions. [Editor’s Note: Snagit is the preferred screencasting and screenshot tool by the Tech-Savvy Teachers!  Best money you will ever spend.] What is your favorite organizational tip, app or advice? Google Now? Google Wow! Staying organized with email can be tricky—You open an email to read, yet you don’t have time to address it right away; since it’s read you forget to reply. That is until I started using flags within email. Now when I open an email that I don’t have time to address, I flag it so that I don’t forget to reply later. Scheduling life can be trick when you’re a working parent but with the help of layered Google Calendars I am able to make life work. On my cellphone I layer over 20 calendars to ensure I’m always where I need to be when I need to be. Calendars alone is amazing but add Google Now into the mix and your phone will become your new life secretary. What is your browser of Choice? Chrome! If you had $1,000 to spend on classroom tools and wanted to make the greatest impact on student learning, how would you spend it? The greatest impact on student learning comes from students that are active and engaged, thus I’d spend $1000 on devices in the hands of students. This would include Chromebooks and cameras—not necessarily one-to-one but enough to allow students the tools needed to create. What is your favorite avenue to connect with social media? Social Media has become my PLN connecting me with some many fabulous educators from around the world. As a Google Trainer I use Google+ to flip professional development and connect with educators using GAFE. If I have a Google related questions Google+ is my first stop. As a tech-savvy teacher, what everyday thing do you feel you excel with/at versus other teachers/administrators/mentors? One of my strengths that enables me to work with some many different people is my ability to build relationships. Through these relationships I’m able to encourage risk taking in the classroom. What is the best teaching advice you have received? The best advice I’ve ever received as an educator is to find balance between your classroom and personal life. As a passionate educator, it is easy to get wrapped up in grading papers, lesson planning, students and committees. Too often family, hobbies and health can take a back burner to the classroom. Without a balanced life we can become overstressed resulting in not being our personal best at either side of life. Although I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a pro at balance—it is my goal. What is your workspace/classroom like? I have a cubical at ESD 112 that I visit a few times a month. The rest of my time is spent in classrooms around the region. Cubical (Left) & the Mobile Office Join Kristina, the Tech-Savvy Teachers and other great speakers and trainers at the NCCE Summit featuring Google for Education, presented by the Digital Bug and NCCE Tech-Savvy Teachers! The post Meet a Tech-Savvy Teacher: Kristina Wambold appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

Dublin, Ireland December 7th 2015 - LearnUpon, the world’s fastest growing learning management system, has won a prestigious Excellence in Technology Award for 2015 from Brandon Hall Group. LearnUpon was honored with a Silver Award in the Best Advance in Learning Management Technology category. Although the Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards program is in its 22nd year, LearnUpon has won in its first year of entry. The program is widely considered the most distinguished in the eLearning industry, described as equivalent to the Academy Awards by Learning and Development professionals.   Entries for the 2015 awards were evaluated by a panel of Brandon Hall executive leadership and senior analysts, and independent industry experts. Winners were selected based on the design of the eLearning solution, the functionality, usability and innovation of the learning management system, and measurable benefits demonstrated by the LMS provider. LearnUpon is delighted that Brandon Hall‘s rigorous judging process has recognized the innovation and benefits its learning management system delivers to more than 450 customers worldwide.   The Brandon Hall Excellence Awards recognize the best organizations that have successfully deployed programs, strategies, systems, and tools that achieve measurable results in eLearning. The program attracts entrants from leading international corporations and solution providers with innovative, cutting-edge technologies, products and services.   Commenting on the announcement, Rachel Cooke, Chief Operating Officer at Brandon Hall Group, said Our award winners are the most visionary and innovative developers of HCM technology solutions that move organizations forward in serving employees, customers and investors.   Mike Cooke, Chief Executive Office at Brandon Hall Group, said I think everyone can learn from the achievements of our award recipients. These award-winning solutions were closely evaluated by our judges for not only their innovation, but the real results they brought to the organizations. That is what makes our technology awards program special - connecting creativity and innovation to direct business results.   LearnUpon’s CEO Brendan Noud, said The whole team at LearnUpon is delighted to have been honored at the recent Brandon Hall Excellence in Technology Awards. Our Silver Award for Best Advance in Learning Management Technology recognizes the impact LearnUpon’s LMS has had on the market since our launch three years ago. Our focus on constantly improving our platform with new feature releases every couple of weeks and providing exceptional customer support are key factors in LearnUpon’s rapidly growing reputation. We won’t be resting on our laurels, however. Our customers can look forward to lots of exciting new features in 2016.   Recipients of the Excellence Awards will be honored with a ceremony and gala on January 28, 2016 at Brandon Hall’s HCM Excellence Conference in Florida.   For more information about LearnUpon’s cloud-based learning management system, visit learnupon.com or email hello@learnupon.com. The post LearnUpon’s learning management system wins Brandon Hall award appeared first on LearnUpon.

We’re wrapping up 2015 with a trip to Maryland. You’ll find us at Booth #710 at the 2015 ASAE Technology Conference & Expo. This year the event celebrates its 10th anniversary! We officially launched our learning management system for Associations back in July. Since then more than 20 Associations and Professional Bodies have chosen LearnUpon to create, manage and deliver continuing education to their members.   You’ll find Brendan, Caoimhín and Phily at Booth #710 in the Gaylord Convention Center from 11:45 am to 2pm on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th of December. They’ll happily take you through the feature set we’ve built to meet the specific learning management needs of Associations and Professional Bodies. We’ll also be running a competition to win a brand new iPad Air. All you have to do is test your knowledge!   We’ll have exhibited at six conferences this year, in London, Orlando, Detroit, Vegas and Maryland. We love stepping away from our desks for a few days to attend events like ASAE Technology. We get the opportunity to meet our customers and get invaluable feedback on our LMS platform from attendees, and bring all of the knowledge we gain back to the office.   So if you’re attending ASAE Technology next week be sure to stop by Booth #710 to say hello and get a demo of the best LMS for Associations and Professional Bodies. The post LearnUpon exhibiting at ASAE Technology 2015 appeared first on LearnUpon.

Converting learning from paper to digital Not just rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic: From guest writer: Judy Bloxham. I have recently created a set of induction modules for a geographically, distributed company. The material to be covered was written up and delivered face to face as an initial trial which worked well, but the geography […]

FATDEC and Face-to-Face Classes - 5/2012Technology and Playing Games - 11/2011

A good digital game is an activity which transcends players into an environment which entrenches them to focus on accomplishing a mission. Games provide prompts for players to use resources, problem solve and/or think critically to succeed.  Failure is simply part of the game which prompts the players to try to solve the task at hand by selecting a different action to get there.   Have your students Play to Learn! 

Gratitude is built into San Francisco’s Hidden Garden Steps—as it is with any community-based, volunteer-driven collaboration that transforms an eyesore into a place where neighbors and visitors from all over the world routinely meet, chat, relax, and dream. Together. Detail of the "Gratitude" passion flower on the Hidden Garden StepsAnyone spending time on those ceramic-tiled steps today—the second anniversary of the formal ceremony celebrating completion of the mosaic designed and fabricated by project artists Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher here in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District—is bound to see a wonderful intersection of gratitude, community, and cause for celebration. The signs of gratitude begin at the foot of the Steps, where a bronze plaque reminds visitors that a group of neighborhood volunteers, along with more than 600 donors and numerous community partners, formally presented the mosaic and gardens as "a gift to the City of San Francisco." Gratitude is overtly on display just above the largest landing on the project—at the top of the fourth set of Steps as we ascend from Kirkham toward Lawton Street—where a large ceramic passion flower expresses formal gratitude to the numerous project supporters who provided time and services to help bring the project to fruition. And gratitude is expressed nearly every day not only by those who see volunteers who continue to work together to clean the site and expand the gardens, but also by those of us in the neighborhood who have a wonderful outdoor version of what Ray Oldenburg described as a "Third Place" in The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community—that place where we can just show up and know that we’ll see members of our extended community willing to take the time to stop, talk enjoy the site, and meet numerous other people drawn by the site’s beauty and tranquility. There are plenty of partners to acknowledge—not the least of whom are our predecessors who inspired us by creating the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project with the same two artists five years before we began working on the Hidden Garden Steps—as I noted during a brief presentation at the dedication ceremony on December 17, 2013. The Friday-morning sweepers on the StepsAnd there’s plenty of cause for continuing to acknowledge, thank, and celebrate the contributions of those numerous partners in community-building. We still see a group of neighbors—including a few who served on the project organizing committee—on the Steps every Friday morning to sweep them from top to bottom so weekend visitors will see the site at its best. We also see the volunteers who work onsite from 1 - 3 pm on the second Saturday of almost every month (the exceptions are when rain prevents onsite work) to maintain and expand the gardens adjacent to the Steps—a group that has, over the past couple of years, included drop-in volunteers from other parts of the city as well as from France and Japan. Our partners in the San Francisco Department of Public Works have returned to the site several times for continuing work including additional erosion-control retaining walls and work to resolve long-term drainage problems resulting from blocked pipes underground; they have, at times, been supported by colleagues from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. There are, furthermore, what I lovingly call the "guerilla volunteers," those neighbors who, without prodding from anyone else, show up at various times to sweep, pick up the occasional piece of letter left on the Steps or in the gardens, or simply tidy up an area in need of attention. And there are the neighbors who, without complaint, show up to quickly remove the rare bit of graffiti left by those apparently unaware of how dedicated many of us are to keeping the site pristine and welcoming. Visiting photographers on the Steps But the often unacknowledged partners in this wonderful ongoing project are those of you who visit once, twice, or many times. Your presence on the Steps and in the neighborhood overall have contributed to a sense of positive street life and community that was barely visible before the Hidden Garden Steps project began—which, more than anything else, is a tremendous cause for celebration and gratitude in a city where we have plenty worth celebrating—including a third (Flights of Fancy) and fourth (Lincoln Park Steps) set of ceramic tiled steps. N.B.: Numerous articles documenting the Hidden Garden Steps project remain available on this Building Creative Bridges blog. Steps updates can be found on the Friends of the Hidden Garden Steps blog. Stories provided by donors to the Hidden Garden Steps project continue to be added to the project website by Steps volunteer Liz McLoughlin, and a step-by-step virtual tour created by McLoughlin and by project volunteer Gilbert Johnson also continues to grow, with 110 of the 148 individual steps currently included on that online tour. 

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Huffington Post and explores the link between employee engagement and the future of workplace technology.The need to keep up with ever changing technology can sometimes leave your head spinning. But if used in the proper way it can also lead to higher productivity and happier, more engaged employees. The trick is not to bring in a new solution expecting it to be one-size-fits-all.According to How Technology and Work Culture Drive Each Other, gamification, intra-company social networks, and external applications all pay a role when it comes to maintaining the health and well-being of employees. Each solution also brings its own set of problems, which if left unchecked can make it less effective.Is technology making life for your team easier or harder?"While cash prizes are nice, they are not as rewarding as simple recognition. People want to be recognized for their skills and job acumen. Using a gamification program doesn’t necessarily mean more money, but does mean creating personally meaningful rewards."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: How Technology and Work Culture Drive Each Other appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Madeline Albright once said, "What matters anywhere, matters everywhere." That statement is especially relevant in our increasingly divisive American and global landscape. In those five words, she says: Don’t act like something doesn’t apply to you. Don’t brush off an issue thinking it isn’t yours. We are connected. Yes, that matters. And yes, those people matter. We can’t run away from that.So let’s assume you support that idea. Then we, as humans, have an obligation to recognize people, even in far reaching corners and places, who make our world better. Their efforts may not immediately affect us; however, we are connected. Their setbacks are our setbacks. Their progress fuels our progress.Oftentimes our acknowledgement as a collective is shown in the form of an award. Nobel Prize Day is this Thursday, December 10. The Nobel Prize exists to award those who have done their best to benefit the world in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.According to their website, here are three 2015 winners:The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 was awarded to National Dialogue Quartet "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011".The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 was awarded jointly to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar "for mechanistic studies of DNA repair". These individuals have left a permanent mark on the world with their contributions. Who in your world has made an incredible impact? Who deserves praise? This week’s tip is to celebrate someone that you think exemplifies the best in your world. So often we can be tempted to wait until we give formal awards or prizes. But this week, give your own. Schedule a time to connect one-on-one with the individual you want to recognize. Be specific about the contributions you feel make them the best.Who are you going to acknowledge? The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Yes, It Matters. Acknowledge the Best. appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Originally posted on HR Times - The HR Blog : Posted by Jennifer Stempel and Amy A. Titus on April 17, 2014 It’s tempting to think that social learning is about technology — after all, social media platforms and the Web 2.0 technologies that enable them are virtually inseparable. But as our recent overview (Social Learning: Empowering employees to learn from one another) points out, social learning is different: more about people than technology. Specifically, social learning is about people sharing knowledge to learn from and with one another. Technology might be involved, or it might not. A more important characteristic is that it provides learners the ability to pull the information they need, when and where they need it. That’s the ideal "teachable moment" and when learning can be most valuable and productive. View original 759 more words