Last year, when students completed presentations and other media rich projects for the weather project, they just sent them to me and I posted them on our Blogger site.  This year, I want the students to post to the blog themselves.  Taking ownership of the blog should be their responsibility and in doing so, I … Continue reading →

I don’t "do" New Year’s resolutions. Those are for people who already know they don’t really have a plan or goal for the year and need something to announce they’ve failed at before the first of February.  I set goals and place them under umbrellas of usefulness to me or the world.  I still live … Continue reading →

We’re starting the "Big Fat Weather Project" this week! For the next 8 weeks (that’s all that’s left folks!) we’re going to make homemade barometers, and create hurricanes in buckets and tornadoes in bottles.  We’re going to learn how to read a weather map and predict the weather.  We’ll be staring out the window at … Continue reading →

What is… digital literacy? Digital Literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills. - See more at: http://connect.ala.org/node/181197   Sitting at lunch one day, the discussion wandered to how our students are embracing technology in the classroom as we’ve been … Continue reading →

Yes, I know, I start them and then need people to push me to finish them.  At least I put them on paper so I have something to consider, right? So "the project" is moving along slowly.  I’ve almost finished curating my pages and now have reached out to a couple of people about the … Continue reading →

The beauty of my Big Fat Weather Project is how flexible it is and how I’ve been able to teach the students new ways of doing the "same old stuff".  Last week, they learned how to use Google Keep to collect weather data on their assigned cities.  I overheard one of them THIS WEEK, talk … Continue reading →

So I like to read.  I also like to learn new stuff.  I even like helping others learn new stuff.  How can I do all three and still work on my tan this summer? A BOOK STUDY!!!! (loud cheers and screaming from the crowd) Our principal had me start a blog for our teachers last … Continue reading →

In my last installment of #MyInnovativeYear, I talked about the summer book study I’m going to facilitate in a few weeks.  I am so excited about it I wake up each morning thinking of new and different ways to deliver the content and engage the learners and use my newly learned skills with Hyperdocs (oh … Continue reading →

About eighteen months ago, I reflected on becoming Google Certified. At the time, I was focused on becoming a Certified Educator, had done my research, looked into taking the exams, actually took a couple and bombed them miserably and decided to step back and think this goal through more thoroughly.  I’ve read a few articles … Continue reading →

The second to the last day of school, it started. For weeks, we’d been telling our 8th graders what was coming, how they’d become reflective about their middle school experience and possibly begin panicking about high school.  They, naturally, balked at it all.  They were powerful, they were 8th graders. I was standing with my … Continue reading →

I run professional development sessions with the staff at my school all the time.  I know these people; they’re a funny, quirky bunch of professionals, the majority of whom, love to learn new things.  I USED to run professional development sessions when I was an OSHA consultant, more than 20 years ago.  Those people were … Continue reading →

There’s a tendency to do ‘just-in-case’ training rather than ‘just-in-time’ training. In other words, people are given access to learning materials in case they ever need to know what they’re being taught. Key issues in today’s workplace are the pace of change; the appearance of broader and more complex job tasks, and the question of whether learning should be just-in-case or just-in time. If you opt for ‘just-in-time’ learning, you’re opting for performance support. This can be applied to: Organisations: their structure, products and knowledge Office technology Business: applications and processes ‘Dynamic issues’: competitors, marketing and technical Where required knowledge levels are low - typically from zero to 20 per cent - the most effective way to create this knowledge level is via training, using online materials, workshops, coaching, drill and practice. Where the required knowledge level is between 20 and 70 per cent, the most effective way to create this is via performance support, encompassing online and offline reference materials, drill and practice. And where the required knowledge levels exceed 70 per cent, the most effective ways to achieve this are via learning: reference materials, direct support, virtual campus and learning communities. To check you’re doing the right thing at the right time where a learning programme is concerned, use the acronym ‘PRIDE’: Promoted - not just how is the learning programme marketed and advertised, but is the programme a part of the culture of the organisation? Relevant Instructionally sound - not just is it well designed, but is the content always sound in the light of current developments. In addition, you need to check on the way that the trainers and tutors are putting over and/or supporting the programme. Demonstrate value - does this piece of learning demonstrate value (however that can be defined) within the organisation? Effective - is it doing what you want? This approach can’t overcome the ‘politics’ that exists in organisations but, all other things considered, it can help to arrest the decline phase of the programme lifecycle. Pieces of learning have a natural lifespan. For example, you know when a job aid has worked - because the people throw it away. However, to keep learning going, you need flexibility - or change - within the delivery media. All learning delivery media are flexible, although some are more flexible than others. Generally speaking, the more inflexible the media, the higher the cost involved in changing it. Costs associated with changing delivery media include changing the content, testing the programme and deploying the programme - all of which have their own issues. Often, when people produce a learning programme, they think of what’s expensive to do in the first place. They don’t think of what’s expensive to change. The key points here are to remember the ‘PRIDE’ acronym; use transition media where appropriate; draw together disparate elements of information within the organisation to make new learning materials - and keep focused on results. This article has been adapted from the contents of chapter 10 of Bob Little’s e-book, ‘Perspectives on Learning Technologies’ (e-book; ASIN: B00A9K1VVS). This e-book is available from The Endless Bookcase and from Amazon. It contains over 200 pages of observations on issues in learning technologies, principally for learning & development professionals.

In a recent TED Talk by Tim Harford  about how frustrating situations often make us come up with the most creative solutions, Harford cites a series of examples and experiments where people had been faced with tasks of varying difficulty. In one study, two groups of students received the same set of exercises with one small difference: While one group’s sheet was written in an easy-to-read font, the other’s had a much more difficult font. Although faced with an additional challenge and thus taking longer to complete the task, the second group scored much higher than the first. Let me rephrase that because these students were under more difficult circumstances as they had been forced to really engage their minds and think harder, and therefore ended up with better results. Harford also tells of examples where professional musicians have (by way of bad luck) had to perform with broken instruments and avoid certain notes, but actually ended up creating masterpieces that were very different from the rest of their work. Beyond the comfort zone These examples got me thinking of how we design Learning & Development and daily tasks. I’m not suggesting we start building hidden challenges into our company processes, since most of us probably aren’t short for daily problems as it is. But the way in which we deal with these problems could be examined more closely. Might there be a more efficient or sustainable way to deal with problems xyz? Sometimes it’s good to step outside of our comfort zone and question the dangerous ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it’ mind set. Otherwise we risk our teams going with the approach they’ve always used and, quite frankly, getting bored at some stage. And as we know, ‘unchallenging work’ is one of the top reasons why good employees end up leaving an organisation. In terms of learning and development, moving people outside their comfort zone could also foster innovation. When strangers from different backgrounds put their heads together, it might be awkward at first, but it could also prove very rewarding. Human collaboration unlocks learning potential Communicating with colleagues or customers internationally can sometimes take staff outside their comfort zone. Language, culture and differing time zones also factor in the communication mix. However, good communication skills are critical to the success of organisations aiming to gain a competitive advantage in today’s global workplace. In order to achieve a successful management strategy with a high return on investment, organisations need to act in accordance with the current circumstances and predictions. This includes the right financial investment, increased awareness of market shifts and enhanced adaptability to change, such as embracing mobile and cloud-based technology. But as with any new strategy, it only makes sense if it is communicated well and backed by management. Your employees need to know exactly why this strategy is being adopted and how it will help them in their daily work. Finding and presenting examples of other companies that have successfully embraced this strategy is also helpful. This isn’t a costly and complex change that will take months to implement. It’s a more subtle mind set change that needs to be addressed and could get you some amazing results, if done right and supported on all levels. A famous quote goes, "What if you invest in your employees and they leave?" "Well what if you don’t, and they stay?" Whatever happens, those of us who think ahead and encourage our teams to continue learning and growing will ultimately be the ones to attract retain a productive and motivated workforce.

Transforming learning is the number one priority for delivering business impact, according to a survey unveiled this month by global research and benchmarking organisation, Towards Maturity. This reflects Speexx’s findings from its latest annual Exchange survey, carried out in December 2015. Global HR directors, learning and development professionals, learning content developers, training managers and C-level executives responding to the survey said the greatest challenge in 2016 would be finding and retaining the best talent (28 per cent) - and, crucially, aligning training and development with business needs (26 per cent). There is clear evidence that learning is not meeting business needs. The findings from the Towards Maturity ‘Industry Benchmark Report’ reflect the failure of learning and development professionals to deliver business results. It found that 89 per cent seek benefits related to efficiency, but only 41 per cent are achieving them, 91 per cent target improved productivity and engagement, but only 29 per cent are achieving this, while 88 per cent want to see improved business responsiveness and only 24 per cent are achieving it. Focus on just one thing to make a difference In a recent the report, Laura Overton, managing director at Towards Maturity, said: "Time and again, L&D as an industry is failing to see the organisational impact of its activities and we have now reached a crunch point." She recommended: "Focusing on just one thing that will make a difference in the year ahead will help L&D professionals do something about it." Big Data could be that one thing. L&D strategies and business objectives need to be closely aligned and effective use of data is the key to this. Big Data initiatives can play a vital part in collecting data, not only from learning management solutions but also from non-formal learning and development activities that can contribute to learning transformation. At present, 44 per cent of organisations responding to the Speexx survey do not use data to support learning and development, but this is changing - more than a third (39 per cent) plan to start using data within the next three years. Plans for Big Data mainly centre on tracking learner progress and results - an area of interest for almost a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents, but Big Data can do so much more. Read more

If you work in a multinational organization with offices all over the world your workforce has a business need to communicate across borders with colleagues, clients and partners. But without the right language skills, your staff ends up working in local silos, unable to communicate with the rest of their corporate world. Bad communication directly results in serious errors, delays and financial losses for your company. It’s no wonder 90% of organisations consider communications to be vital for business success. It’s time to break down your communication silos! In a global context, the integration of blended learning into cloud-based HRM systems not only enables HR and L&D to deliver standardized content. It also helps to consolidate and report on skill sets across the entire organization and to break down local training silos. For example, say a company has a position opening up in its New York office for a software developer with a solid grasp of IT English. Instead of going through a long and costly recruitment and onboarding process, HR might use the talent management system’s business analytics tools to step out of its silo and find a suitable candidate in its global talent pool. Reducing complexity and driving ROI When BASF switched from traditional classroom training to a blended solution in 2012, the company cut its direct training costs by 30% and its indirect training costs by $100,000. At the same time, it enhanced consistency and scalability, covering 80% of all employees. Even in the early days of blended learning, ROI was clearly visible. When Ernst & Young switched from traditional training to a blended e-learning solution in 2000, the company cut its training costs by 35% while enhancing consistency and scalability. With a clear one-vendor strategy, organizations use blended learning to reduce complexity in training administration and to drastically cut training costs. Speexx brings you the Perfect Blend of mobile and online business language training solutions - available anytime, anywhere and on any device.

One major challenge teachers face, is how to effectively and efficiently teach students with varying educatonal needs. The solution, is blended learning. One of the benefits of blended learning is that it allows teachers to step back and take an observatory approach that supplements the lessons they are administering. It provides insight on when to step in if students need more help, and when to step back when it seems students have mastered a skill. Looking for more information on blended learning? Watch our recorded webinar on The Blended Learning Breakthrough, where we go over the limitations of traditional modes of learning, the impact of social media and social learning in the development of blended learning, and more successful models of blended learning. 

With hundreds of Moodle plugins to choose from, where do you begin? To make the decision a little bit easier, we’ve compiled a list of the Top 10 Moodle Plugins of 2015! This list was completely influenced by the Moodle community - these were the most downloaded plugins by Moodle users in the last year.  Looking for a more extensive list? Check out our Moodle and Totara Plugins Guide! 

We recently held a webinar on the 7 Best Practices for your Moodle RFP, where we went went into detail, showing you how to ensure your LMS deployment meets your project requirements. Here are 4 of the best practices that we covered!

As online learning rapidly expands its reach, there is a growing investement in research on different models of online learning, along with their success rates. ExtensionEngine recently released a report on the different online learning models for generating revenue in higher education, based on the activities of 136 higher-ed institutes across the U.S. They deduced 4 online learning revenue models that are most used by colleges and universities across the U.S. They are: for-credit online video based classes, research, pre-matriculation, and post-graduation.

The New Media Consortium recently published a report on the technology trends and developments they foresee in the next five years, in higher education institutions. Adaptive Learning and Learning Analytics were identified as two important developments emerging in the educational technology market for higher education. Learning Analytics has become a well-established term in the eLearning landscape, as reporting and analytics tools have become high in demand. Adaptive learning is a newer development, nurtured by the data provided with learning analytics.   "Analytic data empowers educators with information that allows them to shape better learning pedagogies."

One of the reasons analytics are so popular is they have the ability to shape and predict the future, making it an essential part of improving institutional decisions and outcomes. The corporate sector already utilizes analytics to support decision making about customers, but for the higher education sector, the use of analytics is fairly new.  

One of the greatest benefits of eLearning, is the ability to incororporate multimedia like audio, and video. Currently, video accounts for 47% of global internet traffic. This year, this number is expected to reach 86%.  Video is one of the most effective ways to keep students engaged and interested in the learning material, and can be used to provide students with lectures they missed, or to deliver learning videos (Eg. "How to"). There are numerous ways to use video in your Moodle or Totara courses. We’ll show you how to prepare your Moodle site to use multimedia, and then demonstrate three simple ways you can add video to your learning environment.

Questions about Moodle's language capabilities are ones that we get often here at Lambda. The multi-language capabilities in Moodle can be used to teach new languages, or support students with different language backgrounds. We know there are resources out there, but we thought we would put together a quick list of the top 6 things we think you should know about the out-of-the-box language capabiltiies available in Moodle! 

Moodle Plugins are the most efficient way to get the most out of your learning management system. Think of your LMS like a smartphone - it does everything you need it to do, but sometimes you need a little more! If you want entertainment, you have a plethora of game apps to choose from. If you want to tap into social media, there's the Facebook app. If you want to work on you physical or mental health, there's a long list of apps that you can download that will assist you. Apps take our smartphones from a piece of technology, to a virtual hub for your everyday life. Moodle plugins are like applications - adding them to your LMS will tranform your online learning experience, allowing you to get the most out of your LMS.