What is your name, your position, and your affiliation and what is your involvement in Brainshark?I’m Joe Gustafson, the CEO of Brainshark. I founded the company in 1999 to create a simpler, faster, cost-effective way for organizations to deliver learning and information to their employees, customers and partners. Using Brainshark, organizations can significantly accelerate learning programs and

Do you have your students watch online videos in support of your classes? Are you using or thinking of using the flipped classroom model? You're going to love this!I think what I love most about Videonot.es is that it is a tool designed to improve how we learn with online video, which is truly one of the biggest needs in education today. The recent video revolution has dramatically increased the amount of online video used to support formal and informal learning but, often, it's just tough to track what we learn with videos. Even when we deliberately take notes while watching a video and include the link to the video in the notes, the desire to view that very moment in the video again at which a concept was discussed or explained is experienced. And I imagine this is even more true for second language learners, dyslexics, and other "non-traditional" learners. If you use online videos in your classes, take 4-minutes to watch the video I created below. It will show you the benefit of using Videonot.es and demonstrate how it integrates directly with Google Drive, creating a simple, cloud-based access pathway to your notes (which you can even share with others).I'd love to hear from some of you who have been using Videonot.es awhile and might have some student feedback to share.  My only hiccup I experienced was an inability to get the video to pause by using the combination key command specified on the screen.  This may be user error. :-/

Welcome to an interview with Majda Kovačič Cimperman, who lives and works in Slovenia. She is principal of a school that offers instruction to students grades 1 through 9, and also includes a kindergarten. The school, OŠ dr Ivan Prijatelj Sodražica, was named after a distinguished scholar. In this new series, we share the experiences of successful educators as they discuss their unique

This morning I had the pleasure to be streamed live via a Google+ Hangout from my home office in Rocklin, CA to Fort Worth, TX to speak with a group of 100+ faculty at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary about my book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies. +Greg Smith , Associate VP for Academic Administration, invited me for the event and it was a great opportunity to apply Hangouts to connect with faculty and share ideas.The live feed was shared online via Google+ today and a few faculty members also engaged in a Twitter backchannel, sharing reflections during the presentation.  The only "goof" was on my part (I am learning, just like you!).  While recording the Hangout, the user who launches the Hangout on Air (in this case, me) is responsible for manually toggling between the attendees' (me and Greg) video images to "tell" the YouTube recording which image will appear in the large video screen.  Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in our conversation that I forgot to do this. Oops. So, for most of the conversation, you'll "see" Greg and "hear" me.  But you can still "see" me somewhat through the large screen projection screen in the back, which is what the faculty in the room were viewing.It was a great experiment and I enjoyed the dialogue.  I'd love to do more of these!This video may be viewed on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/g8_KAdX-m9I

Virtual worlds, simulations, and games are used in training and education in ever-expanding applications which seek to create learning experiences. Welcome to an interview with Patrick Mileham,director of editorial development for NexLearn (http://www.nexlearn.com).What is your name, your position, and your affiliation and what is your involvement in NexLearn?Patrick MilehamDirector of Editorial

Online learning for secondary education continues to evolve, and the curriculum developed is being used in innovative ways. Welcome to an interview with Cheryl Vedoe, CEO of Apex Learning, developer of curriculum and elearning solutions for secondary education.What is your name and what is your involvement in e-learning?I'm Cheryl Vedoe. I've been directly involved in the development and

The video revolution is bringing about the need for sweeping changes in higher education -- from the way we teach to the way we support the needs of our diverse student population.  As video creation tools become less expensive and easier to use, educators continue to realize their potential to enrich learning.  The popular flipped classroom model involves the use of online video to transform passive face-to-face classroom experiences into active, critical thinking sessions.  Smartphone ownership continues to rise year over year; at 56% of U.S. adults in 2013.  This number is staggering when we consider the first smartphone hit the market just six years ago. And while Facebook users are accessing the social network less on desktop computers, mobile access is soaring and YouTube is seeing similar mobile growth.  Each month, 1.5 billion hours of video are watched from mobile devices. The rise of mobile has created an intensified demand for swifter, smaller, more manageable video technology.  We can now record them and share them straight from a smartphone. No multimedia lab is necessary any longer. And the newest video sensation? Glide -- video text messaging.  Inside the walls of colleges and universities, the increasing pace of video creation and easy access to online videos that can be linked to or embedded in an online class have created accessibility concerns.  To be compliant with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, videos must be captioned.  The federal law requires that electronic content provided by all entities that receive federal funding must be accessible to all users.  If you listen, you will hear that accessibility is a critical priority in higher education.  Yet, as emerging solutions for captioning videos have surfaced, few have been systemically integrated.  Many colleges and universities caption their content internally and others send the content out to external captioning resources.  Others provide poor to severely inadequate support and can set up unspoken or spoken expectations for faculty to caption their own instructional content.  In other words, the fear of lawsuits in instilled within an instructor who may clearly see the learning value that video brings to his students' experiences.  Yet, when there is not support to caption those videos, what must he do?  As one who has captioned many of my own videos, I can attest that manually captioning videos is incredibly time consuming task and not the most effective use of an instructor's time.  I would much rather be interacting with my students or making pedagogical or content related improvements to my course. This latter approach generally collapses attempts to create innovative cultures of teaching and learning, as faculty find themselves immersed in a culture of fear -- wanting to teach with video; yet knowing they cannot find the time to caption the videos and understanding there is no support to help them.  Frustration sets in. One may feel undervalued. I have spoken with faculty in workshops who have shared, "I want to use videos in my classes but I know it's illegal for me to do so unless they're captioned. And I have no support."This is a serious issue in higher education and one that we need to learn from.  Talking about how to provide streamlined support for the captioning of videos seems to have become one of the unspoken issues, which Chris Argyris (1990), an organizational learning expert, indicates is a symptom of a defensive routine that surfaces when organizations find themselves amidst a significant change.  The change could be anything that requires members of the organization to become aware of the latent mental models that govern their everyday routines.  Looking at ourselves through a fresh lens and becoming aware of the traditions that drive our actions places us in a vulnerable state -- and this state of awareness is the first step in initiating change.That's why defensive routines are so common.  They keep us comfortable. Making something non-discussable is easier than tackling a tough problem, taking it apart, understanding how and why it challenges us.  Defensive routines can present themselves in different ways -- you may observe someone quickly changing the topic when the issue arises, shaking their head and nodding the issue off as if it's not accurate or important, or simply making the topic non-discussable.  All of these routines create a social environment for members of an organization who begin to understand that "this is just the way it is." But, really, these issues are precisely the issues that must be addressed if change is to occur. I believe accessibility is one of the most important topics that needs to be discussed in higher education today.  It is one of the most misunderstood issues and too many educators (a term I use to refer to all members of colleges and universities, not just faculty) turn away from valuable tools out of the assumption that they are "not accessible" or that they cannot find a solution to making the content accessible to all learners.  There are sustainable options for captioning instructional videos.   YouTubeCaptions.com is a new a partnership between YouTube and 3PlayMedia.  It is an easy-to-use tool that integrates directly with a user's YouTube account.  The captions are not cheap at $2.50 a minute (perhaps some leverage for undersupported faculty?). A 9-minute 23-second video of mine was quoted at $25 to caption (not sure how that breaks down to $2.50/minute?). Captions are produced in about 8 hours, according to the site. I just place my first order (the freebie noted below).The site is offering 10-minutes of FREE YouTube video captions now through 9/21/13. Enter PROMO Code 10FREE at check out.Note: YouTubeCaptions only provides captions for videos in your own YouTube account -- you cannot caption videos created by other users. Amara: Add subtitles and captions yourself, request them to be added through Amara's crowd-sourced community approach (a brilliant idea -- has anyone tried this?), or order them through their retail service.Amara is an "overlay" captioning service, which means you can add captions to online videos you did not create.  Essentially, Amara produces a secondary video url for the captioned video.  The video embedded at the top of this page is from Amara. CastingWords.com is an option for those who only need transcripts. Prices start as low as $1.00.  CastingWords will not provide transcripts of videos "on screen." In other words, you must supply the file you want transcribed. Therefore, if your goal is to caption a video you did not create, this option isn't for you.  If you are a regular YouTube user, you can use the transcripts from CastingWords and upload them into YouTube's captioning tool to convert the transcript into closed captions in a matter of minutes!I envision a dream world where faculty members are granted a gift card each year to one of the sites above and encouraged to use the credit on the card to demonstrate their commitment to teaching with video in an accessible manner. To get a new card the next year, the original card would need to be used completely the first year. I would love to learn how your institution supports the captioning of instructional videos.  Or if you have feedback about any of the services listed above or other ideas to share, please share a comment.

Web-based techniques for learning languages are expanding, and social networking is proving to be one of the most effective approaches. italki.com has adopted an open platform approach, and the resources have remained free. In addition, it has recently added new features which encourage language learners to receive tutoring from native speakers. The italki.com platform allows individuals to

I am honored to be the keynote speaker for the 3rd Annual eMerge Blended Learning Conference at Cuyahoga Community College on March 13, 2014.  The conference brings together an inclusive gathering of representatives from higher education and professional industry in Northeast Ohio. If you are in the Cleveland area, check out their site and consider joining us on March 13th! I'd love to meet you.For updates, follow the conference on Twitter at @TriCemerge.

PodcastThe energy farm, containing multiple "cash crops" on the same block of land has become a reality, at least on a large scale. Chances are, you've seen the large wind turbine farms, miles long, with massive wind turbines configured to maximize electricity generation and then to deliver it into the grid at wholesale prices. They are often combined with solar panels to collect energy on days

Five and a half years ago, I attended the first Sloan-C International Symposium for Emerging Technologies (ET4Online) in Carefree, Arizona. It was an awesome event -- I fondly recall the energy and conversations wrapped around hot new technologies like the Flip camera, Second Life, open educational resources, podcasting, and iTunes U.  I shared my reflections in a blog post here.Since then, technologies sure have changed! That first event was actually before the release of the first iPhone.  Who could have imagined how quickly hand held, internet connected computers equipped with collaborative, enticing apps would reshape the way so many of us communicate, the experience life, complete simple tasks, validate data, organize groups, document the world, and, of course, rearticulate who we collaborate with.I have attended every one of the six ET4Online symposiums and I am thrilled to be the Chair-Elect for the 7th Annual Sloan-C/MERLOT International Symposium for Emerging Technologies which will be held in Dallas, TX on April 9-11, 2010 at the Sheraton. The ET4Online Call For Proposals is now open until November 1st This date will not be extendedThe tracks for this year's conference include:Learning EnvironmentsOpen EducationEvidence-based LearningFaculty and Student DevelopmentInnovative Media and ToolsVisit the CFP site for more details! Whether you consider yourself a novice, intermediate or expert in this area, I hope to see you in Dallas. In the field of emerging technologies, there are so many opportunities for us all to learn from one another to understand how today's new technologies are impacting online teaching and learning.

Welcome to a roundtable discussion with Tadeja Toppolnik, a teacher from a Slovenian school, OŠ dr Ivan Prijatelj Sodražica, which participated in a competition revolving responding to a book, Good Deeds Society, and thinking about how children and the community could collaborate in a good deeds society.What is your name, your position, and your involvement with your school?Tadeja Topolnik ,

Hybrid learning can involve more than a blend of face-to-face and web-based courses. They can also involve mobile devices combined with traditional books -- for example, all-weather field notebooks, digital pens, and mobile devices with GPS. With that in mind, welcome to an interview with Ryan McDonald, "Rite in the Rain" All-Weather Writing paper, which can be used in conjunction with digital

If you identify yourself as part of higher education, I expect you agree that preparing students for a successful job search is one of your priorities -- not the only one, but certainly one of them.  Just like so many of aspects of life, looking for a job is an entirely different reality today than it was just a few years ago.  And, no, I'm not referring to the economy in this post.More Companies Using Social Media The use of social media by Fortune 500 companies has increased significantly in recent years, leading to transformed relationships with customers and more transparent communications with leaderships. Use of corporate blogs increased from 16% to 38% by F500 companies from 2008-2013 (UMASS Dartmouth, 2013). In 2013, 77% of these companies had corporate Twitter accounts, 70% had Facebook accounts, 69% had YouTube accounts, 35% were present on Google+ (none had a presence a year ago), 9% had Four Square and Pinterests accounts, and 8% were using Instagram. Why is this important to college educators? Well, it's important to us because this sharp increase in the value of social media to major corporations is, first, reshaping many concepts that underpin our disciplines but, secondly, and more broadly, the increased use of social media identifies a need for college graduates to have a developed their own mastery of using these very same networks to build their own professional brand.  Some of you may be thinking to yourself that this trend is very industry specific and, well, you have a point that certain industries are certainly different than others. For example, we all know that academics aren't going to be hired based upon their Twitter followers.  But what I believe is so important and precious is the fragility of preserving the openness of where one is headed in life at graduation.  To presume that one will thrive in a particular industry and ignore the opportunities of flourishing in others may be a missed treasure.  I graduated with an undergraduate degree in Art...I'm still trying to figure out where I fit into this miraculous world (and loving every minute of it). Why Social Recruitment is on the RiseA recent survey of 1,600 human resources professionals by Jobvite found that 94% of recruiters use or plan to use social media in their search for new employees and 78% of them have hired at least one employee through social media.  The survey revealed that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are primary sources for locating talent; however, what's more interesting is how recruiters are learning from what they find online about prospective employees.  By locating an individual with a particular skill set on LinkedIn, for example, a recruiter may further validate that individual's presentation, industry-related presence, overall expertise within a field, or even cultural fit by clicking over to her YouTube channel and viewing videos she has uploaded or examining the number of Twitter followers, as well as their own social worth within the particular field. Blogs provide deeper validation of an individual's writing ability, as well as one's ability to negotiate and interact with others who may leave comments that challenge the views represented in the post. All in all, social recruitment can provide much more context about a person's skillset and fit within a company than a resume.  And in today's competitive job market, wouldn't you want to set yourself apart from others?  That's not to say resumes are dead, however. Rachel Louise Ensign at the Wall Street Journal argues, "a paper resume can make or break a bid for a job" because hiring managers still want to review a resume on paper before meeting a candidate in person.  Preparing our StudentsPerhaps, the question is, "What are the odds of getting that interview without a professional presence on social media?"  And, more importantly, how is are experiences students have in college preparing students to cultivate this presence? Integrating social media into our teaching and learning landscape holistically fosters an effective and professional use of tools like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, even Pinterest is being used in college. Today LinkedIn shared the video below which lucidly points out simple ways students can build a presence on their site.  I'm going to share this video with my students -- I hope you do too!  And while you are at it, take a few moments to explore Pathbrite, another new, open, free ePortfolio site which provides robust integration services for those who are interested.  Pathbrite is a great way to have students create ePortfolios for a class, program, or institution that are easily "taken with" students after graduation and even embedded directly into LinkedIn.  I have my own Pathbrite ePortfolio embedded on my LinkedIn page.  That's another way we can teach our students -- by leading by example. :)  I would love to hear from some of you about how you and/or your institutions are preparing students for success in the social job search. Please share!

Game-based e-learning for students in grades 4 through 8 is an effective way to teach health education. Wisconsin-based BlueKids.org is both popular and effective, and provides courses in injury prevention, wellness, self-esteem, drug education, and more. Welcome to an interview with Bridget Clementi, executive director of Children's Health Education Center. What is your name and your

 Communicate, Collect & Collaborate with Sticky Notes from Tony Vincent on Vimeo.I just viewed this excellent video by Tony Vincent (@TonyVincent) of Learning in Hand that explains the relevance of Padlet (formerly Wallwisher) and Lino, sticky note apps, in student learning. Padlet and Lino are both free apps, available for iOS and Android, that also work on standard web browsers, require an instructor account but do not require students to have accounts.  Tony's 15-minute video is thorough, well-paced, easy-to-follow and a transcript is available here.Instructors use one of the apps to create a "wall" or "canvas" to which students individually (or in pre-designated colors for small groups) add sticky notes. The notes can include a simple word, a phrase or sentence, a link, an image, or video! With padlet, instructors have the option to moderate the sticky notes as they are submitted or allow them to appear synchronously.The collaboratively produced wall of sticky notes could reflect brainstorm results, responses to a critical inquiry prompt, links to resources about a topic, links to projects created by students (in Haiku Deck, Google Presentations/Slides, Slideshare, YouTube, etc.), a collection of images that represent a particular time period or event that could then serve as a visual backdrop for an introduction to a new course topic.  Since laptops and mobile devices are supported with Lino and Padlet, there are lots of great ways these tools could activate classtime and, of course, they would be fabulous for blended and online learning, as well.Take 15-minutes to view Tony's video (above or here) and also check out the very, very helpful image below which compares the features of Padlet and Lino. Thanks, Tony, for the great resources!by Tony Vincent CC-BY-SA

Welcome to an interview with Petra Zigon, journalist who writes for the largest magazine in Slovenia dedicated to a demographic that includes teen, tween, and pre-teen girls. Her work takes her to interesting places and conversations, where she finds out what the latest trends and beliefs are in the world of teens, tweens, and pre-teens.Hi Petra -- It is a pleasure to talk to you about your work

To those of you who will be in or around the St. Louis area on Thursday, October 24-Friday, October 25, consider attending Focus on Teaching and Technology, a St. Louis regional conference held at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.I am grateful that the conference committee has selected me to keynote the event along with Amy Collier of Stanford University. My keynote is titled "Humanizing Learning with Emerging Technologies" and it will be followed by an advanced VoiceThread workshop, "Tips and Strategies for Flipping Your Classroom with VoiceThread." The two-day event is packed with fabulous sessions covering topics from infographics, GoAnimate, social media and FERPA compliance, using digital media in the ESL classroom, the flipped classroom and more!  I am looking forward to connecting with the higher ed communication in St. Louis in October!Registration information is available on the website at:http://www.umsl.edu/services/ctl/fttc/index.html

Having to use a costly and hard to manage learning management system creates a barrier for many would-be online instructors. Gregor Gimmy of Sclipo.com has worked to overcome that barrier, and has also recognized it is often difficult to incorporate web 2.0 functionality. So, he developed Sclipo, in response to the need, and the fact that social networks for education have grown in size and

I am honored and excited to be selected to present this free Inside Higher Ed webinar on October 9th, brought to you by Academic Partnerships.  It will be packed with tips and strategies from my book Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies and my new eBook, How to Humanize Your Online Class with VoiceThread (Nook).  The foundation of the presentation will be the voices of my very own online students.  Wednesday, October 9th12:00pm PDT-1:00pm PDT / 3:00pm EDT-4:00pm EDTfree Click here to register: https://events-na3.adobeconnect.com/content/connect/c1/1002564123/en/events/event/shared/default_template/event_registration.html?sco-id=1234175794Humans are social beings and learning is a social process. Both require interaction and connection to flourish. Do these factors undermine the effectiveness of an online class or strengthen it? In our digital, mobile society are discussion forums still the most effective tool for student-student interactions? In this webinar, Michelle Pacansky-Brock will share examples of what students identify as valuable characteristics of a "humanized" online class and identify key tips and strategies for harnessing the potential of emerging technologies to make your online class personal, meaningful, and memorable.The webinar is part of the Inside Higher Ed webinar series and is brought to you by Academic Partnerships, as part of the free professional development Micro MOOC, Human Element Micro-MOOC, Human Element: An Essential Online Course Component, being delivered via the Canvas Network.

Finding effective ways to engage teachers and help them take advantage of new technologies, instructional strategies, and content is not easy. The conditions under which teachers are having to work are constantly in flux, and the assessments that teachers must prepare their students to take are often high-stakes, high-pressure. Dr. Angie McQuaig, Chief Academic Officer at Knowledge Delivery

New authoring tools can make creating flash components for customized applications, or shareable repositories of learning objects much easier to do. In this way, some of the early promise of learning objects and LO repositories can be realized, and the high expense plus time lags can be reduced. Welcome to an interview with Robert Penn of Suddenly Smart, an innovator in the area of flash-based

The Launch Pad (#LaunchPad)Sloan-C MERLOT Emerging Technologies Symposium for Online LearningApril 9-11, 2014 in Dallas, TXAs emerging technologies continue to open new opportunities for improving education around the world, increasing the interaction and learning between educators and edtech entrepreneurs becomes more essential.  The gap between the minds that conceptualize and create the tools and the minds who facilitate teaching and learning must be minimized to increase the quality of emerging technologies moving forward.  If constant efforts are not made to bridge this gap, edtech startups will well, in the finessed words of Reynol Junco, "suck."In the past several years, there have been an array of new "spaces" that have brought startups and educators closer together including Educause's Start Up Alley, SXSW LAUNCHedu, and the no fluff, no frills (meant in a good way) events put together by the dynamic community at EdSurge which includes the upcoming K12 EdSurge Tech for Schools Summit in Silicon Valley scheduled for November 2nd.  Each of these events acknowledge that we are all learners.  Entrepreneurs are business people with a quest to be successful and, yes, be profitable but to do so with the goal of developing a product that meets the needs and interests of real teachers and students.  Educators are continuously learning about the newest tools available to them and seeking to identify how they may improve the learning environments they have cultivated for their students.Last year, the Sloan-C MERLOT International Symposium for Emerging Technologies for Online Learning (@ET4Online) stepped into the learning space, as well by crafting the Launch Pad.  It was a new, refreshing change for the conference and one that we are continuing again this year.The 2nd Annual Launch Pad is now open.  Early startups in the edtech space are invited to attend the conference and, this year, learn with top online educators and Michael Staton, of Learn Capital.  If you are an early startup with a product focused on improving online learning, consider applying for the Launch Pad. Applying is free.  Those who are selected will receive a deeply discounted rate to attend and a fabulous array of benefits (see site for details). The Launch Pad application period closes on January 31, 2014. 

Educator.com (http://www.educator.com/) is a site that responds to the needs for content in the high-stakes content areas where learners often need the most help: math, chemistry, biology, and computer science.With high-stakes standardized testing, No Child Left Behind, entrance exams, and outcomes-based assessment, the need for on-demand instructional materials, particularly in math and science,