There were some issues processing payments for several hours during March 8th (possibly extending into March 9th for some parts of the world). I don't know precisely how these errors would have manifested to users (some of them would have no consequence). If you were trying to pay for Ardour on March 8th/9th and ran into problems, please email me (paul@linuxaudiosystems.com) and I'll fix things up. For the curious, PayPal is starting to require the use of HTTPS when verifying IPN (Instant Payment Notification) messages, and I made a mistake when altering the code that is responsible for doing this. Apologies to all for any inconvenience. read more

There continue to be issues with our interactions with PayPal over the last several days. PayPal required some small changes to the way things work (good changes, that help with security), but they also changed some minor details that broke our payment processing system in subtle ways. If you made a payment or tried to set up a subscription in the period March 8th - March 11th at about 15:30h UTC, and things did not work as you expected, please email me at paul@linuxaudiosystems.com and we'll make it right. The problems are believed to be fixed now. Apologies for the errors and inconvenience. read more

Starting on March 17th anybody who requires assistance with subscriptions, website registration and so forth will need to wait until the 29th. I (Paul) will be travelling and likely without any internet access during that time. I will survey emails when I get back, but older forum posts will not get scanned, so if you have an issue related to the those things, please send me mail (paul@linuxaudiosystems.com) rather than assume that a forum post will lead to action - it will not. Friendly users and some developers will likely still answer other questions posted to the forums, so don't feel limited in that respect. read more

We discuss the trends and issues we observed during the weeks of March 14-24 as we flipped resources into our Flipboard magazine (http://bit.ly/trendsandissues). We have five trends that we discuss. Virtual Reality remains a trend. The Oculus Rift has finally shipped. Microsoft’s Holo Lens was in the news as well with different applications being developed. Online […] Tags:   Del.icio.us Facebook TweetThis Digg StumbleUpon Comments:  0 (Zero), Be the first to leave a reply!Copyright © Trends & Issues [Episode 60 Trends for March 14-27 VR, Online Learning, Neuroscience & Cognitive Theory], All Right Reserved. 2016.

We’ve been revamping our mining safety training e-learning library, in case you didn’t know. What does that mean? Well, we’ve added a BUNCH of new courses, for one thing. We’ve spruced up older titles, adding new information when relevant and improving our graphics (our 3D animation capabilities become more and more impressive every year). And we’ve broken some of the courses up into shorter, more "bite-sized" learning activities to make them easier to watch and more effective learning experiences. One of the courses we’ve updated is our General Physical Characteristics of Surface Mines (great for Part 46 New Miner and Annual Refresher, by the way). To show that off a bit and give you a free training resource, we’ve taken some of the terms, definitions, and images from that course and made the free interactive glossary below. Feel free to flip through the glossary and see if you know what’s what. You can come back and watch this as many times as you want. Plus, you can send this links to others, too, so they can check it out and use it. Even better, we’re going to make this glossary available as a free download in the short-term future, so check back for that. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider. We offer mining safety e-learning courses, general EHS e-learning courses, custom training solutions, a learning management system (LMS) specially designed for mining safety and MSHA compliance, and more. Contact us to set up a demo, view full-length demos of the courses, or to just ask a question. Plus, while you’re here, why not download our free guide to online mining safety training? Here it is. Hope you enjoy it. Here’s a short sample of the General Physical Characteristics of Surface Mines course that we took these images from. Once we’ve made this glossary available as a free download (that’s coming soon, we’ve just got some behind-the-scenes work to do first), you can download it, import it into any SCORM-compliant learning management system (LMS), and deliver/play/view the glossary from there. If you’re looking for an LMS, we’ve got several, including our Mining Safety LMS with special features specifically intended for MSHA Part 46 compliance.  Check out the overview below for more information about our Mining Safety LMS. And hey, while you’re here, why now download this free guide to online mining safety training?   The post Free Surface Mine Physical Environment Interactive Glossary appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year and a half, you know that this is an election year. Not only is this a Congressional election year, but this year, we are also charged with the enormous task of electing a new President of the United States - and leader of the […] The post Using Countable During an Election Year appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

All over the world, eLearning professionals are tossing and turning in their beds. They’re waking up in cold sweats, muttering things about ‘compatibility’ and ‘M-Learning’. The constant winds of change are taking their toll on our psyches. We couldn’t let you suffer in silence any longer. So we set out to do some research and find out what’s playing on your minds.  We all know that training has shifted, shifted, and shifted again. It’s changing at such a pace that we can’t even keep up. As soon as we think we’ve nailed a way to engage employees, improve performance, and retain good talent, a new method, new technology, a new study, or a new concern pops up. We decided that to tackle these problems effectively; we have to prioritize. That’s why we took a survey asking hundreds of eLearning professionals at the front lines of the industry what challenges they’re preoccupied with, and what’s keeping them from getting their head down at night. Here’s what we found:

"Colors aren’t important." Oh yeah - then how do you explain traffic lights, warning signs, and rainbows? Color is important, and it’s time we pay attention to color in eLearning too. Learning is a difficult field to understand, and there’s so much research out there discussing these issues that it’s hard to know where to begin. What’s pretty obvious though is that color plays an key role in creating an environment that fosters learning. So let’s talk about color - What colors help learning? What colors might be annoying or distracting to online learners? And how can we mitigate that risk? That’s what we’ll be delving into here.

A quick search of the almighty Internet reveals that there is no end to the amount of advice on how to do just about any job better. ELearning is no different. While plowing through dozens of blogs, articles, and how-to sites will likely garner you quite a bit of good information, it will also take up valuable time you could use actually to design and improve your craft. So, because a big part of our job is to make you better and more successful at your job, we’ve compiled a list of top elearning blogs for 2016 to ramp up your design skills and stay on top of the industry. Quick tip: use the handy Feedly app to organize the blog content you want to read. 

Like the King of Pop once sang "it doesn’t matter if its black or white…as long as you use good, complementary choices from the color wheel." Ok, maybe those weren’t the exact lyrics, but the point is that color, regarding its place in eLearning design, is quite significant and knowing how to use it can make or break your eLearning courses.  So, how do you decide what colors go where and how? The answer can be found in the spinning wonder we know as The Color Wheel. That spiffy, rainbow-hued circle you were likely introduced to all the way back in elementary school is actually an extremely useful tool for creating seamless, organized designs.

The blogosphere has been abuzz with talk of the Millennial generation for a while now - and we’ve talked about designing eLearning for them ourselves. But the times are a-changing, and now it’s time to start thinking about the next gen. Born after the mid 90s and raised in the 2000s, this new ‘Generation Z’  workforce is set to account for 20 percent of working adults by the year 2020. With this in mind, we would be looking at a unique situation of four distinct generations working alongside one another, including Baby Boomers, and the infamous generations X and Y.  As an industry, it’s time that we start thinking about tomorrow’s workforce today. Companies need to plan to educate, train, and recruit these young workers.

The benefits of Big Data mentioned in the previous post would on the surface give us cause to adapt the whole regimen as very worthwhile in the design of learning experiences. Having the ability to produce Big Data that is individualized to each learner should enable us not only to reach that elusive goal of instruction designed to the strengths and weaknesses of individual learners but also when a case is needed to present to education ministry administrators for the purpose of increased funding.  There is also the great benefit of the efficiency and expediency that Big Data affords. In terms of efficiency, the ability to stream strategies saves time in the design of learning experiences that is not only noticeable when employed in the education sector but also in the learning culture of business organizations.Credit: Surya P. MohapatraDespite these benefits, there also exists some serious ethical concerns to be wary of.Credit: www.news.mit.eduGate Keepers of Big Data: In the previous post, I posted the Latin phrase: " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?", which loosely translated means: "Who is to watch over the guardians themselves?"  With the incredible amount of data being produced every day on individuals in society in the online world, a very informative personal open dossier of individuals is available. Although this dossier has a vast amount of information on an individual, it does not mean that all the collected information is absolutely accurate or even true at all. Consider the fact that companies such as Google have and promote extensive services that include: email, document storage and processing, news, Web browsing, scheduling, maps, location tracking, video and photo sharing, voice mail, shopping, social networking and other tools of interest to users. From these information producing tools, personal data is collected, stored and cross-referenced. There are a number of important questions that need to be asked in regards to privacy:Who will have access to this personal Big Data and for what motives?Will this Big Data be protected from unauthorized access by individuals with motives other than the improvement of education for the learners? Data breaches of customer data is not science fiction but a serious reality and in the business world digital espionage is something to be prepared for. Are we ready?  Credit: www.fortune.comWill governments use educational Big Data to improve the quality of real education for learners or will they use it for self promoted political agendas to slap down political opponents where learners and their schools, instructors and education districts are just pawns in a larger game?Will learners themselves have access to the Big Data collected on them as well as the interpretations of that personal data?If Big Data is the basis for decisions that will have an effect on the actions taken "in the best interest" of the learner, the whole path that the life of a learner will follow may be determined in ways that violate the learner's goals and future occupation. 2. Reducing Human Beings to Just Numbers: The concept of profiling learners can lead to the        dehumanization of learners. People can become just collections of objects and collections of facts rather than living, breathing thinking unique individuals. It is the extreme application of objective judgment.3. Lying With Statistics: Correlation of data does not prove causation! The motives of the handlers and interpreters of Big Data always needs to examined. It is very easy in the heat of debate, especially in the political realm, to jump to purposed conclusions using Big Data and forget how many people's lives are going to be changed based on the interpretation of the Big Data.Credit: www.instructionaldesignandtraining.blogspot.comQuestion: Do we have effective protocols in place to handle educational Big Data and address the ethics of using it?Next.... Positive suggestions to address the concerns with educational Big Data

Our Google for Education Case Study:

Google Expeditions* contains a growing number of journeys from around the world - but what seemed to be missing was a way to search the available content. So I produced a searchable map and table of the current expeditions: * The Google Expeditions App is currently is beta but you can sign up to test it here. How this map was produced… 1. I started with a list of Google Expeditions shared with me during the Expedition Pioneer Program - helpfully this included the location for most of the expeditions. 2. Then I ran the GeoCode Add On - on the location column. This turned the locations into Latitude and Longitude. 3. Then I used Awesome Table to display the data and embedded that back into this page. You can also view the map direct in Awesome Tables here. 4. This worked for most expeditions, however I had to tidy up a few locations in the dataset (as a Geographer I could not let some of the errors go). If you spot any errors on the map let me know in the comments below and I will correct the data. 5. I added the Country Column to make it easier to search the data.      

"Machines that learn (limited AGI) will obsolete ‘jobs’ FASTER than entrepreneurs can make them and people can retrain to fill them." - John Robb We need to rewire how we work. The machines are getting much better at the old world of work than we can ever be. Automation is the driver. Offshoring and outsourcing... Read more »

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You’ve spent weeks developing an amazing course and now it is time to create the assessments. Nothing kills an award-winning course like a poorly developed assessment. There is more to creating a good assessment than pulling the main points from the course content and turning them into multiple choice questions. Unfortunately, many of us do not leave ourselves the time to thoroughly craft assessments, don’t involve the SMEs like we did with the content creation, and just plain don’t know how to create strong assessments. A good assessment should not only check the learners’ knowledge of the content, it should also test the learners’ ability to apply the content into real life. This means scenario-based questions. This means involving the SMEs to create realistic scenarios. This means leaving enough time! Another thing that a good assessment does is to identify when learners are weak in a topic area. If learners incorrectly answer several questions within a related topic, then provide feedback on the area within the course where they can review the topic content or to a location outside of the course where they can receive additional help on the topic. Periodically run a report to see what questions and topics people are struggling with. If learners consistently miss a question, it is a good indication that either the question is flawed or the content within the course needs work. Julie Delazyn at Questionmark created a great inforgraphic on 10 Actionable Steps for Building a Valid Assessment.

In this article, we share 6 ways to create meaningful eLearning assessments. How To Create Meaningful eLearning Assessments Your eLearning assessments are the oracle of your eLearning course. The results can tell you if your training efforts have been successful, whether your audience learned and retained the information you set out to impart, and where […] The post 6 Ways To Create Meaningful eLearning Assessments appeared first on PulseLearning.

In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and various projects being undertaken within the sector.The flipped classroom is not a new method for learning, and actually refers to techniques that have been used for a while now. You may or may not realise that you’re using these techniques in your teaching. If you’re not, then the best reason for adopting a flipped approach to teaching and learning is that it offers pedagogical advantages. Within this post I am going to focus on a few different ways that learning can be flipped. Knowledge transfer → knowledge assimilation, and just in time teaching CC-BY-NC 2.0 licensed image by Derek BruffFrom the image you can see that Mazur proposes is that knowledge transfer should be covered prior to attending class, and that the class time be used to help students assimilate what they have read or watched prior to coming to class. The ‘flip’ is simply that knowledge transfer happens outside class, and knowledge assimilation happens in class.Mazur puts emphasis on the assimilation of knowledge within the classroom through peer interactions. Content and readings that the students need to receive are disseminated prior to a class based session and students are expected to engage in that transfer of knowledge. Within the class he then poses questions and problems and polls students on their answers (so they commit to an opinion). Once that is done the students discuss between them and the ones that understand articulate it to the others. The questions and problems that are asked during the class time are usually based on results of quizzes that students are asked to complete before the lecture. This type of learning is referred to as ‘just in time’ teaching as the schedule and questions for the class session are often not determined until very close to its delivery.Blending ‘just in time’ teaching and peer instruction are not the only approaches, and whilst there is no one correct way of doing things it’s probably safe to say that an approach which sees the students actively engaged in class, rather than passive, is likely to lead to them learning more. A visual idea of how the flipped classroom could work based on the above, is given below: Farmer, 2015This brings me onto Experiential Learning. This certainly isn’t a new idea, and was first talked about in the early 1900’s by John Dewey:"The Teacher and the book are no longer the only instructors; the hands, the eyes, the ears, in fact the whole body, become sources of information, while teacher and textbook become respectively the starter and the tester.  No book or map is a substitute for personal experience; they cannot take the place of the actual journey"  (Dewey, 1915, p74).Fast forward 100 years, and the same things are being discussed, just in a slightly different contexts. Technology is now part of the delivery of a flipped environment, using tools to engage the learner with materials and activities outside of the classroom, allow synchronous and asynchronous discourse, and acquire knowledge.There is a lot of overlap in the phrases used for things like experiential, active and flipped learning. There are differences, but the general consensus is that getting students to access content and engage in activities designed to develop their understanding before class, and then using the class time to discuss and engage in depth brings issues, ideas and questions to the surface. The pre-class content and activities develops their knowledge and understanding more effectively when discussed and reflected on in class (Farmer, 2015).Flipped learning offers the best of both online and face to face learning. In a similar vain to the message in the Lens on… Blended Learning post a while back, flipped learning should offer a seamless transition between the students’ own learning environment and the classroom. Each should compliment the other, with purpose and meaning being paramount. Students should be able to have the opportunity to experiment with ideas to learn through doing, in a supported environment where they learn from everything they do, apply their knowledge into problem solving, and assimilate their knowledge to develop it into concrete experience (Kolb, 1984).Whilst researching for this blog post, what I didn’t find is much research about flipped learning in arts and creative subjects. There is a lot of information about the marked improvement of results and performance in science, technology, engineering and maths areas. It would be interesting to work up reasoning behind the lack of literature around flipped learning for creative subjects: is it because the nature of these disciplines is already experiential, and active? Engagement within a class environment is participative, and less didactic?Educational Technology are very interested in learning more about how you engage your students inside and outside the classroom. Do you encourage a dynamic environment within your teaching spaces? How do you think it improves what you do and how your students learn?Comment below or get in touch to tell us more :)References:Dewey, J., Dewey, E. (1915) Schools of To-morrow. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company.Farmer, R., (2015) ‘What is the Flipped Classroom?’. LearnTech blog, [blog] 16 Jan 2015, Available at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2015/01/16/what-is-the-flipped-classroom/ Accessed [24 March 2016].Kolb, D. A., (1984) Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Every fortnight I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds. "Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." ― Leonardo da Vinci, via @gfbertini "Millennials: the landless peasants the founders warned each other would happen." - @girlziplocked "Blessed... Read more »

Find out whether you are an optimist, pessimist, realist, engineer or conspiracy theorist (debate.org) Because you really want to know.------------------------------ Going through the Risk Management planning process is fantastic for figuring out pessimistic, optimistic and most likely scenarios.We did a little bit of work with this earlier as we estimated how much things will cost.We can use the same technique to figure out how much time things take.Even if you are using nothing but internal resources - think time = cost.--------------------------------So for this, I'm assuming you've already broken down the activities of your project.Now that you've got your activity list and have a good idea of what needs to happen when - it's time to take those activities and figure out how long each activity is going to take.Most of us do this on the fly.  We can be a bit more mindful about it.  Especially since we often don't account for the things that can go wrong (like the production laptop dying - which should be on your Risk Register).Again, I like Three-Point Estimating for this.Three-Point EstimatingWe used this for cost before. We can also use this for time.Step 1: Create 3 estimates- Most likely (tM) - The time the activity will take based on realistic effort assessment for the required work.  Before learning this technique, I tended to use most likely(based on my personal development speed) + 3 days for time estimates for development activities.  - Optimistic (tO) - The time the activity will take based on best-case scenario.  Opportunities should be in your risk register. Things such as getting the star developer on the project or a template appears that you didn't know about or finding a design model from elsewhere that cuts your research time.  Accounting for optimistic scenarios gives you ammunition for when the project champions and executives invariably move your project deadline forward.- Pessimistic (tP) - The time the activity will take based on everything going horrifically wrong. The developer quits and you need to onboard a new person to the project who has never used Captivate before. The developer's laptop dies. Your project champion leaves the organization and no one is willing to make decisions.  All of it should be in the Risk Register.  And you need to try to have a realistic view of how likely that scenario will happen. For disasterizers like myself, that can be hard. Hence the Risk Register probability / impact matrix exercise.Step 2: Plug resulting numbers into formulasThere are two ways to calculate expected time for each activity.Depending on your organization, they may want to see one or both calculations.tE = Expected time- Triangular Distribution.  The average of the most likely, optimistic and pessimistic time scenarios.tE = (tM + tO + tP) / 3- Beta Distribution. This uses the PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) technique to get a weighted estimate between optimistic, pessimistic and most likely scenarios.  The assumption is that the most likely scenario is 4x more likely to happen than either the optimistic or pessimistic scenarios.tE = (4tM + tO +tP) / 6--------------------- This information will allow you to build the first draft of the project schedule.An optimistic scenario - where everything goes right and then some.A likely scenario - the "realistic" time frameA pessimistic scenario - where the project gets finished, but everything goes wrong My first draft of a project schedule for the types of projects I do (instructional design and development projects, simple learning applications / solutions implementations) assumes that everything follows each other and nothing happens in parallel.We know life doesn't work like that.

The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. -Adlai StevensonWith the political primaries in full swing, voters’ blood is boiling listening to would-be future leaders of our country. Candidates from both parties have left voters confused, frustrated, disgusted, frightened and angry. An "us vs. them" mentality has created a wider divide than ever before. Who can voters trust? Who can really fix what’s broken? What will our country become?While it may sound a bit cheeky, and certain political purists may roll their eyes at the sentiment — we need Pope Francis. If he were running for president, he’d get my vote, and I’m not Catholic. I love this Pope. In a mere three years, despite serious obstacles, he has accomplished major bureaucratic housecleaning, set new directions and priorities for a global organization not traditionally known for its innovation, and focused the attention and resources of the Church on matters of global concern. Other Popes have worked towards change and failed; some didn’t even bother; some made things worse. It’s been a long road and Pope Francis is number 266 in a long line of leaders.Consider what the Pope is up against within the Vatican and compare this to what the President of the United States is up against with Congress. Resistance to change? Check. Hidden agendas? Check. A culture of infighting and power struggles? Check. A network of powerful administrative departments that seem to despise each other? Check. Wars between conservative and liberal wings? Check. Throw in scandal, hubris, greed, cover ups and conference rooms full of decision makers with narcissistic personality disorder and you’ve pretty much got it.So how has Pope Francis done it? Why is he so popular?Let’s start with how he became the Pope. Jorge Mario Bergoglio didn’t use negative television commercials, name calling and profanity or an over active ego to be considered for this position of leadership. There was no us-versus-them, no I’m right, they’re wrong. Through a miraculous process unimaginable in the U.S., Pope Francis was chosen by people with strongly opposing views. I suspect he may have been chosen, in part, because of his gentle, unassuming nature. Some may have thought he could be controlled. Turns out, while he is gentle and kind he is also strong — these are all qualities that our nation should be looking for in a presidential candidate.Once chosen, it became clear that Pope Francis is a communicator. He has a Facebook page, he tweets, and when he speaks, it is without the usual Vatican filters. His goal isn’t to get "likes." He seeks unity, resolution, focused action on matters like climate change, religious persecution, and the suffering of so much of humanity. Pope Francis seeks engagement with the world, including those who do not share his beliefs.He understands that what gets talked about, how it gets talked about and who is invited to the table determines what will happen. Or won’t happen. He is engaging the world, including his adversaries, one conversation at a time. These are conversations that build our world of meaning, building bridges, not walls, conversations that provide clarity versus confusion, conversations that invite cross-boundary collaboration and cooperation versus adding concertina wire to the walls between well-defended fiefdoms. Indeed, these are conversations that reveal we are capable of original thought. Intelligent, spirited conversations which provide clarity and impetus for change.Read the rest of the article in my Huffington Post column.The post What Presidential Candidates Could Learn From Pope Francis appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Ted.com and uncovers the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.A recent leadership study conducted by The Conference Board found that 4 of the top 10 challenges that CEOs face are focused on leadership. Yet, many organizations lack a well-developed leadership pipeline. CEOs know their organizations cannot retain highly engaged, high-performing employees without effective leaders who can manage, coach, develop, and inspire them.So I ask: How do we address the every-widening leadership gap? First, we need to start by distilling the characteristics of great leaders. Read the complete transcript here. The post Fierce Resource: Roselinde Torres - What It Takes to Be a Great Leader appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

We get what we want at a faster speed than ever before. Amazon delivers items in one hour. Starbucks provides coffee through a drive through. Uber arrives at your doorstep in a matter of minutes to take you anywhere you need to go. The list goes on and on; there are on-demand services for walking dogs, receiving massages, house cleaning, etc.While our accessibility to products increases, we must remember that people are not things. To share a moment, to build a relationship, to better understand one another, there is not an on-demand option. It requires many conversations…and patience. Patience is becoming a rare mineral in this bustling world we live in.Practice more patience in your conversations. Patience with yourself when a conversation doesn’t go the way you want it to. Patience with someone who brings an issue to you that seems unfounded. Patience with someone who tells you something you don’t want to hear. Patience with a stranger. Patience with a friend.This week’s tip is to practice patience in your conversations. What derails your conversations? Or what we say in fierce, triggers you? In what situations do you feel least patient? Explore that. And with who? Your partner? Your kids? Your neighbors?How will you practice this week? Gabe de Jong has a TEDx Talk called The Most Important Leadership Quality is Patience, and he recommends you using a simple tip of counting to ten to be a little more patient in life. Seems easy enough, right?The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Practice Patience - Relationships Aren’t Built Instantly appeared first on Fierce, Inc..