[Post by Justin Hearn, President of GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] Our GeoTalent Administrator console and GeoTalent Flex interface have been designed to be compliant with accessibility standards such as those in the US’s Section 508 as well as those in WCAG guidelines. The legislation known as Section 508 is an amendment to the United States Workforce Rehabilitation Act. Section 508 requires that certain branches of the US Federal government make their electronic and information technology accessible by people with disabilities. While Section 508 only applies to specific US Federal agencies, many other government organizations as well as private businesses in the USA have chosen to apply Section 508 to their own systems. The reason for this is to eliminate barriers in information technology. But 508 is not the only set of standards covering accessibility for websites. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were developed in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world with a goal of proving a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally. Organizations across the globe have chosen to meet either 508 compliance or WCAG guidelines. As a software developer, it is our obligation to ensure that the systems we develop meet accessibility standards such as those listed above so organizations that use our products can meet compliance if required. At GeoMetrix, we have therefore made accessibility a priority in the development of our GeoTalent Flex interface. The purpose of WCAG and Section 508 is to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to electronic and information technologies. This means that software systems should have no barriers to use by those who are differently abled. Of course, this does not mean that a blind person and a sighted person will use software in exactly the same way. What it means is that the blind should be able to access the software in a way that makes it usable to them. For example, those with impaired sight often use assistive technology such as a machine readers to tell them via audio what is visible on a computer screen. If what appears on the screen consists of only graphical elements, a machine reader will be unable to translate that into spoken words. The purpose of accessibility standards is to ensure that a situation such as that does not occur. For that example, if graphics are used, they must have text tags attached to them so that a machine reader can translate the elements into spoken words. But it is not only sight-impairment that is covered, but also mobility and other disabilities. WCAG and Section 508 provide technical standards that websites should comply with to ensure web accessibility for all. Section 508 also has standards for desktop applications and reporting standards. In fact, Section 508 covers all software, hardware, and telecommunications equipment. This is not only to ensure access for end-users, but to guarantee that there are no barriers to employees with disabilities who may need to utilize technology in the course of their work. Statistics show that globally, 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired. Of those, 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision. Hearing loss affects approximately 10% of the world’s population. The percentage of people with mobility issues worldwide is almost as high. Then there are those with learning-related disabilities. Opportunities should exist for everyone to access technology. While those with differing abilities will certainly have differing experiences, the technology itself should not be a barrier. In meeting WCAG and 508 compliance, GeoMetrix Data Systems assures accessibility for all in our GeoTalent administrator console and GeoTalent Flex interface. To read more about GeoTalent and accessibility, please download our white paper in PDF. GeoTalent Accessibility.pdf For more information about WCAG visit W3 For more information about Section 508 visit the Section 508 website Photos courtesy of Freeimages.com

We believe the best way to provide EHS training to your workers is to use a blended learning solution, mixing and matching the different types of training (instructor-led, field-based OJT, video, e-learning, written materials, social learning, webinars, etc.). When selecting the type of training to use for each training need, you shouldn’t select randomly. Instead, you’ll want to look at the benefits and downsides of each training type, and try to find a match between training type and training need. With that in mind, here’s a quick list of some advantages of online EHS training. We’ve got 10 items on the list, and have given one or more examples or case study for each. Hope you find some food for thought here. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with a strong EHS offering. We make several different learning management systems (LMSs), off-the-shelf e-learning courses for EHS and other training needs, custom training solutions, and more. Contact us to set up a demo or ask some questions. Also, why not download our free Guide to Effective EHS Training? 1. SPEND LESS TIME AND MONEY CREATING EHS TRAINING MATERIALS Many companies think it’s cheaper to create training materials on their own instead of having a training provider do it. It sounds reasonable at first—you’ve got experts in-house who know everything your employees need to know, right? Maybe you can have your EHS manager and some engineers work together on it? But what sounds like a good idea in theory doesn’t always turn out that way in practice. Especially when you consider the costs of producing training, the cost of removing experts from their real jobs, and the cost of having training developed by people who aren’t experts in training development. Example: Assume the direct costs of paying your EHS manager and an engineer for a year are $125,000 each, or a total of $250,000/year. Next, assume that each spends a total of six months creating EHS training materials for your workforce (although it could easily take more than that). That’s more than $125,000 right there. Next, consider the indirect costs of pulling these people off their ordinary jobs: For giggles, we’ll put that at another $100,000. But again, it could be much more than that. Finally, consider the quality of the training materials those two will create. They’re not instructional designers, and the materials they’ll create are probably not going to be engaging and effective. There may be no learning objectives; the writing may be poor; the graphics may not be helpful; and the assessments may not accurately evaluate workers’ skills and abilities. This less-effective training has its own indirect cost on employee safety, productivity, and morale. As you can see, the costs of producing training internally are higher than you would expect. NOW you may see the true dollars and cents (or should we say sense?) of having training materials created for you. Related Articles: Adult Learning Principles Effective Learning Graphics How People Learn Book Review: Julie Dirksen’s Design for How People Learn 2. CUT THE COST OF TRAINING DELIVERY Many companies do all their training in what they proudly refer to as the old-fashioned way: instructor-led training in a classroom environment or face-to-face OJT in the field. Don’t get us wrong. We think there are times when instructor-led, face-to-face, person-to-person training is just the right solution. But there are other times when different training approaches are the better choice. In some cases, that’s because the training is more effective when delivered in a different format. In others, it’s because it’s less expensive to deliver training in a different format. And sometimes, both reasons apply. Case Study: A training manager at a large manufacturing facility in Louisiana was using a third-party training consultant to deliver EHS training to workers. But that wasn’t cheap. He had to pay the trainer and pay that person’s travel expenses, for example. But the bigger problem was that in order to get all his workers together for the training, he had to pull them together after work and pay them overtime to complete the training. Plus there was the expense of food and drinks during the training, and the time he spent arranging all of that. This all added up to a LOT of money. A few years ago, he decided to get our learning management system (LMS) and 3-D animated EHS courses. This allowed him to deliver a lot of the training online. Workers could complete the online part of the training on their own, during slow parts of their work day. The very expensive overtime was no longer necessary. He later told us that the LMS and online EHS courses paid for themselves in the first day (!), and that they saved his facility almost $300,000 on EHS training in the first year alone. And that doesn’t even take into account that in many cases (though not all), the sophisticated visual images, audio narration, practice questions, and testing of the e-learning courses make for more effective training and assessments than the third-party consultant was providing. This more effective training comes with its own set of financial benefits we’re not including here but we should keep in mind as well. Nor does it take into account the benefit of online records, which we’ll get to next. Related Articles: 8 Times When Online EHS Training Is Better Than Instructor-Led Training What Is Online Health & Safety Training, and What Can It Do? 3. REDUCE THE COST OF TRAINING RECORDS AND REPORTING Another expense that adds up quickly with training is the expense of creating, storing, retrieving, and reporting on training records. Stop and think of all the work you do when creating records of EHS training: passing out paper-based sign-in sheets and gathering signatures; creating Excel spreadsheets and Access databases; entering data into those spreadsheets; storing paper-based records in manila envelopes in metal file cabinets; later rifling through those file cabinets or scanning those spreadsheets trying to see who’s done and who’s not done with training, etc. You get the idea—if you’re still using a paper-based record system, or if you’re still using a largely manual process of creating training records in spreadsheets, you’re spending way too much time on training records and you’re getting very few of the benefits an online system can give you, such as easier reporting, dashboard views, and automated notifications. Examples: Here are some ways you can spend dramatically less time and money on EHS recordkeeping and reporting—all while getting better, more complete, and more accurate training records. Instead of handing out paper-based sign-in sheets during classes—use a mobile device to grant attendance credit, collect electronic signatures, and automatically sync the data with your LMS. Instead of creating custom Excel spreadsheets and Access databases—use a pre-configured system that automatically captures all relevant training record data. Instead of manually creating training records—when possible, use e-learning courses and other activities that automatically pass completion data and test scores to your LMS. Instead of checking multiple locations (spreadsheet, filing cabinet, database, and storage closet) to find stored training records—use an LMS that stores them all in one central location. Instead of searching the training records of multiple workers, or over various years, or both, looking for anomalies, patterns, trends, and/or inconsistences—run a pre-configured report in an LMS and have the data you want in seconds. How much time do you spend on recordkeeping? What’s the cost of all that time? Why not save time and money by automating this and putting it online? Related Articles: How Online Tools Can Save MSHA Part 46 Recordkeeping Headaches 8 Important Training KPIs to Track with Your LMS 4. CUT COSTS OF INJURIES & ILLNESSES There are MANY reasons to make sure people get their proper EHS training. The first and most important is that nobody wants to see anyone get hurt. No job is worth getting hurt or killed for—it’s something you hear all the time, but it’s more than just lip service. It’s true. But companies also have financial motives to provide EHS training. When a worker gets hurt, sick, or even killed on the job, it’s expensive. You’ve got to take time out to ensure the welfare of that worker; you may have to train a replacement; you may have to reassign the sick or injured worker to a new, less-critical position; etc. Example: A training manager in a Georgia mill explained to me that an employee had suffered a back injury while lifting materials improperly from a conveyor (even though there was a mechanical lift for that purpose). In one year, direct costs associated with that person’s injury had totaled $200,000. To make it worse the company had to reassign the worker to an unnecessary position they created solely to keep that person employed. So that adds more thousands to the costs. And of course, additional costs came with staffing the injured worker’s former position, and training someone to perform that. Related Article: Training and ROI  5. AVOID COMPLIANCE PENALTIES You should provide EHS training to your workers for the right reasons: to protect the safety and health of workers and to preserve the environment. And if that’s not enough, of course it’s also the law, and we all want to follow the law. But along with those carrots, there’s a stick: penalties and fines for non-compliance. And those penalties and fines can be costly. Using prepared training materials can help you comply with the regulations you face. And a learning management system can not only help you deliver that necessary compliance training, but can also keep records and let you run reports to prove that you did it. Case Study: A packaging manufacturer who is a customer of ours recently had a disgruntled employee file a complaint about them with HIOSH (Hawaiian OSHA). The worker claimed he had not received proper EHS training and that it was a dangerous workplace. HIOSH came to the site to investigate. They met with the HR manager, who was ultimately responsible for the training function, including EHS training. HIOSH looked around the workplace and investigated. But in addition, the HR manager created an account in her LMS so they could investigate her training program. They looked at the company’s LMS to see the type of training that was assigned, delivered, and conducted. They ran reports to see the training records of the disgruntled employee. The HIOSH investigator was impressed with the company’s safety program and EHS training. It was obvious that the disgruntled employee’s complaints about safety training and other safety conditions weren’t factual. No fine was delivered—instead, the HIOSH inspector told the training manager "to keep up the good work." More Examples and Cautionary Tales A quick scan of OSHA’s website shows these penalties in their "Recent Significant and/or Egregious Cases" listings: $758,000; $1,013,000; $463,000; $917,000; $1,200,000; $360,000; $307,000; $550,000; $729,000; $378,000; $563,000; $1,200,000; $157,000; and $1,900,000. All those fines were levied in 2011 or 2012. That money could have bought an awful lot of LMSs and EHS e-learning courses! In addition, OSHA placed at least one company in their Severe Violator Enforcement Program, "which mandates targeted follow-up inspections to ensure compliance with the law." You can only imagine that’s not fun. Why invite OSHA or another regulator to get up in your grill like this? Related Articles: Training and ROI 3 Ways Online EHS Training Can Improve Your Safety Culture 6. COMPRESS THE TIME NEEDED TO TRAIN A WORKER It takes a long time for a newly hired worker to get through all of the mandatory EHS training to work at a site. Then there’s the EHS training the worker has to complete at each new position in his or her career line of progression. And then there’s the refresher training delivered every year (or at two- or three-year intervals, in some cases). Conducting all or most of this training using written materials, face-to-face training, and instructor-led classroom training can chew up a lot of the worker’s time. But by using online learning in addition to these other types of training, you can (a) reduce the total amount of time an average employee needs to complete EHS training and (b) compress the window of time needed to move the worker through the EHS training cycle from start to finish. Examples: Although person-to-person and/or instructor-led training have some real strengths, they often come with a measure of inefficiency as well. Employees end up spending a good deal of time waiting for this kind of training—waiting for the instructor to be available, waiting while the instructor is called away momentarily, etc. e-Learning courses can be used alongside these more traditional training methods to use the employee’s time more productively and efficiently. For example, a new hire can begin the first day on the job by watching some e-Learning courses on basic EHS topics. Then, when the EHS manager is free, he or she can follow-up with a shorter, instructor-led session that addresses more complicated issues and provides an opportunity for Q&A or hands-on demonstrations. The same point applies when a worker is promoted to a new position and is faced with new job hazards, or when the worker needs to complete refresher training after one, two, or three-years. Related Articles: Training for a Worker’s Line of Progression 7. DECREASING COSTS OF MACHINE DOWNTIME & DAMAGE A modern, industrial facility can produce at nearly miraculous rates. When everything’s working, that is. Downtime is the enemy of effi­cient production. Downtime is expensive—very expensive. But workers who have received proper job skill and EHS training can help you decrease that downtime dramatically and keep your machines operating 24/7 all year round. Examples: When a new job process, new work flow, or new machine is introduced at a work site, it takes a lot of time to provide workers with the proper safety training. And in some cases, because the EHS manager is overworked, the training is never created, updated, or delivered. It’s easier to keep up with these changes, and to deliver timely EHS training, with an LMS. The LMS creates an organized, structured method for evaluating your currently training, noting gaps, updating existing materials, creating new materials, and delivering those materials to appropriate workers. And those workers who have received complete, up-to-date, accurate EHS training on all job tasks, work procedures, production flows, and machines are more likely to use them properly and safely. And as a result, they’re less likely to do something that causes you to interrupt operation, perhaps because a part was broken by a worker performing an unsafe act (as a result of improper training). Related Article: Training and ROI 8. RECEIVE BETTER AUDIT SCORES FROM DOWNSTREAM CUSTOMERS Many companies have to demonstrate to their own, downstream customers that they have a robust EHS training program. Those downstream customers want to know the kind of company they’re doing business with, and they often want to know if the company is providing appropriate EHS training. Having an LMS can help you provide better training and create better training records, and it also makes it easier to document your training efforts by running reports. This can help you better demonstrate the quality of your EHS training, which in turn can earn you a better audit score from your customer. And that will make the customer more likely to continue their business relationship with your company. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of effective EHS management providing a positive ROI. Case Study: We do business with a large manufacturing site in Pennsylvania. They make a consumer product, rebrand it, and sell it to a large national retailer who, in turn, sells it to people like you and me. This large national retailer holds annual inspections at our customer’s plant. These inspections include a review of the EHS training program and EHS training records. The training manager explained to me that in the past, these audits were very difficult for him. He’d drop everything to accommodate the auditor, would spend hours trying to find and gather training records, and yet would inevitably be unable to document all of his training. The auditor, in turn, would typically give his site an audit score in the mid-80s on a 100-point scale. Then the training manager began using our LMS and EHS courses, along with his own training materials. We caught up with him later, and he had good news for us. Recent audits had taken only ten to fifteen minutes of his time. He just ran some reports, printed them, and left them in the conference room with the auditors. What’s better, those audit scores skyrocketed—from the previous average of mid-80s to the high-90s. In fact, his site scored a higher audit score than any other site in his company ever had. And, not too surprising, soon other sites in the company became our customers too and began using the LMS and online courses as well. Related Article: Training and ROI 9. GIVE WORKERS A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP OF SAFETY Using an LMS to deliver your EHS training shows workers that you care enough to make an investment in their safety and health. This, in turn, causes the employees to make their own investment in safety and health at your workplace. Which makes for a safer, healthier workplace that’s more productive and efficient and less costly. Case Studies: Two recent customers told us similar stories about using an LMS to deliver EHS training and watching their employees take a greater sense of ownership of safety and safety culture at work as a result. The first, a small manufacturer in the Southeast, used to have an incomplete EHS training program that primarily included instructor-led and in-the-field training. Supervisors spent a lot of time informing workers about upcoming training, making sure they attended the training, later finding out why some people didn’t attend, and then arranging for makeup training. But when this customer adopted our LMS and began using it for EHS training, there was a significant change. Workers logged into LMS, saw the EHS training assigned to them, as well as their completion status and due date. This change of responsibility—from supervisors to workers—put the workers in the driver’s seat, and ultimately led them to take an increased role in other aspects of safety. Our second story is from a small manufacturing company out West. Like the first company, they didn’t have much of a safety training program before they came to us. But according to their EHS training manager, soon after they implemented our tools, a culture change took place. Workers began to identify and report job hazards, something they hadn’t done before. And they began correcting coworkers who were performing unsafe acts. When their management demonstrated that they cared by putting together a robust EHS training program, the workers responded by taking on the responsibility for everyone’s safety. As the training manager explained, "after that, nothing less than a full team effort was acceptable to the workers." Related Article: 3 Ways Online EHS Training Can Improve Your Safety Culture 10. CAPTURE AND DISTRIBUTE "TRIBAL SAFETY KNOWLEDGE" At many workplaces, important work processes and procedures are known by only a small number of workers, or maybe just one. This is sometimes known as "tribal knowledge." If that worker is out for the day, that information isn’t available. And if that worker retires, that information is lost forever. And with an aging American workforce that’s already suffering from a skill gap, this problem will get worse unless your company addresses it now. An LMS can help to capture that knowledge, store it, and distribute it to all workers who need it, letting you turn tribal knowledge to global knowledge. And a lot of that information will have a relation to safety. Case Study: A paper manufacturer in the Southeast began using our LMS to deliver training to their workers. They bought e-learning courses from us, and they imported their own training materials as well. But in addition, they put workers in charge of documenting their own work procedures so that the information could be captured and others could learn the same job skills. Workers used Word, PowerPoint, self-recorded videos, and e-learning authoring tools to document their work-related knowledge and skills. These materials were then imported into the LMS, assigned to some workers, and made available to others on a "reference" basis. The results were amazing. Every day, workers rushed to check the LMS, excited to see the new training materials their coworkers created. They’d watch the materials and then talk about them during the day, making sure to catch up with the coworker who created them to offer a "good job" and discuss more details. The LMS allowed the company to distribute that tribal knowledge more widely, and the initial distribution of that knowledge created even more discussion, sharing, and learning. Check These Samples and Additional Resources If those ten reasons are reason enough to get you interested in learning more about online learning, learning management systems (LMSs), and e-learning courses for EHS, you may also be interested in these short samples. Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to use an LMS to administer EHS and other training. Watch this Overhead Crane Safety course sample, just one of many titles from our EHS e-learning library. Or, learn how to make your own e-learning EHS course in this blog post or this webinar. And hey, why now download our free Guide to Effective EHS training below?   The post 10 Key Benefits of Online EHS Training appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

You may have noticed that I have spent a LOT of time with planning in this blog.The silences should have told you I was also DOING stuff too.Architecture planning doesn't happen in a vacuum.As the plan is developed, it's good to observe what is going on in the environment.How are the relationships with and between the stakeholders?What concerns about the architecture (both existing and potential target) have come up in the interim?Have any new initiatives or projects appeared that impact your architecture?These observations will provide more intelligence around direction than just asking people.I still strongly recommend running your observations and conclusions by a few trusted stakeholders and a few interested outside observers that you also trust.Here is where things can get sticky and dangerous.You are threatening to change things.Change is scary.And if you are already working in an unstable environment, it can be even scarier.Are you inadvertently threatening their job?How much time did the other party spend building his/her current system? (You may be threatening their baby.)Is there a chance they may feel like you are overstepping your boundaries / getting in their business?And, particularly in a strongly hierarchical organization, do they even feel like you have the authority to make these recommendations? Managing upward among your ENTIRE management chain helps here before engaging with your more sensitive stakeholders. They all need to be on the same page with the same message. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.As you may have guessed, the target for the architecture is going to be a bit wider than may be comfortable. 

Thank goodness for Twitter! I love stumbling upon new tools…especially game sites! I recently found Quizalize during a late night #edtech search, and I’m so glad I did! Like many formative, game-based websites, Quizalize allows teachers to create review games and activities for their students for FREE! Unlike Kahoot or Quizizz, Quizalize offers a marketplace […] The post How to Use Quizalize to Review with Your Students appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

If you use the nightly builds at http://nightly.ardour.org/ or if you build your own version of Ardour from git (for yourself or others), please be aware that at about 20:30 GMT, the master branch was merged with the "tabbed" branch and thus the resulting builds will be substantively different from any older versions. The "tabbed" branch features two important changes from previous versions of Ardour. First and foremost, both the editor and mixer windows (along with the preferences window) are by default displayed as tabs in a single window. The tabs can be torn off to create detached versions, and the program will remember this state. Secondly, the entire mechanism for keyboard shortcuts has been completely redesigned to allow us to break away more easily from the constraints that GTK+ (our GUI toolkit) was imposing on us. The "tabbed" branch was under development for months, and has received some testing by a handful of kind and brave users. We nevertheless expect some breakage to emerge as more people start trying it out. If you use nightly builds or build Ardour yourself from git, please take a moment to consider the implications of your next "update". That said, please test it out and let us know what you think. There are lots of details left to be worked on before we consider this ready for release, and it will be a better release the more feedback we get. read more

Many businesses struggle to set prices for their products / services. Not just startups, but long-running businesses, particularly companies with high costs and lots of competition. If you set prices too high you may push potential customers away. Set prices too low and you reduce (or eliminate!) your profit. So, to help you avoid these traps, here are 3 of the most common mistakes that entrepreneurs make when setting their prices… 1. Undercutting the competition Only a very small % of businesses should attempt to beat their competition on price. If you are Walmart, Lidl, McDonalds, or Primark then this is an appropriate strategy because you need a big market to address, and your target market includes many low income families. But for most entrepreneurs, setting low prices destroys your profit (which directly impacts how much money you have to reinvest in your business and/or pay for shoes for your kids!). Instead, you need to set prices that reflect the value you deliver. Sure, some people will decide to go with the ‘cheap’ alternative, but that’s fine. You want to work with the customers who believe ‘buy cheap, pay twice’. Instead, you can pass the discount shoppers to your competition who will have to figure out how to make a profit on razor-thin margins. Even better, customers who focus on price tend to be more painful to work with! 2. Ignoring your costs To set a price that will make you a healthy profit margin (a portion of the money paid by customer that exceeds your costs), you need to identify and understand every cost in your business. You’d be surprised how even ‘small costs’ like website hosting, online tools, and payment processing fees add up. Identify all of the costs associated with you doing business, and work out whether they are ‘direct’ ‘variable’ costs (Where more sales = more costs  e.g. Lemons for a lemonade stand) or Fixed / Overhead costs (Where more sales don’t result in significantly more costs e.g. Paying rent for the location of your lemonade stand) . Don’t forget costs you plan to have in future, like staff salaries and sales commissions paid to salespeople - these can obliterate your profits and lock you into working for your business, rather than on it. 3. Not understanding what customers value Instead of reducing prices to create a better deal for the customer, ask yourself how you can add more value to your customer. This adds to the experience your customer has, which helps bring that customer back again and again - the key to a highly profitable business. To do this, you need to do your research - uncover the value you REALLY offer your customers by speaking to them. Then set your price based on that value. Doing this puts you in a great position to defend your price, with a good list "why" your offering is worth its price vs. the competition. So, avoid the pricing mistakes above, and instead build a profitable business. If you’d like to learn exactly how to set prices that maximise your profit (step-by-step!), then take a look at the details of my upcoming "Premium Profit Pricing Masterclass". Once you master pricing, (an area in which even experienced entrepreneurs sometimes struggle), you’ll save countless time, money and headaches by knowing how to set the right price for new customers, and how to ensure you are maximising your profit. You won’t get it right every single time, but over time, your extra profits will make the difference between you ‘struggling along’ or having financial freedom.

Matt Mason is an award winning instructional designer and writes some of our most popular blogs. Here Matt considers the importance of tracking learning, and how to do this using a powerful tool - xAPI.What is xAPI?xApi is a powerful tool that can be used to track learning events and other data. The simplest description of […]

Cindy Etherton has always been inspired by the idea of "What if…". It motivated her during her years as an Oregon teacher of elementary, middle and at risk high school students helping her to push the boundaries of content requirement possibilities and as she collaborated with her colleagues. She is passionate about providing the best support to other teachers as they envision their own "what if…" projects. Cindy will be presenting 4 sessions at NCCE 2016 this year! Session information is listed at the bottom of this post. Name: Cindy Etherton Location: Salem, Oregon Current job(s): Innovative Learning Strategist in Salem-Keizer School District; K12 Launch Consultant Current computer: Surface Current mobile device(s): Note 5, iPad One word that best describes how you teach or work: Intentional Show us a screenshot of your mobile device’s home screen! The background picture is from my son’s office window in the Puget Sound. What apps/software/tools can you not live without? Google Apps has been my go to tool for a long time. I love the ability that I have to collaboratively work with others gaining their ideas in real time regardless of where we all might be. I am finding OneNote to be another organizational tool that is gaining importance as well. I appreciate having an online notebook that can be visually and informationally organized using pictures, video and text. As I work with others, I am also enjoying using YouCanBook.Me. This scheduling tool allows those I work with to make appointments so that I can best work with them during a time that is most convenient for them. This then syncs with my calendar. It sure beats a series of emails to arrange a time! Share with us a time when you failed in your teaching or learning pursuits. How did you persevere? I fail every day and see it as a simple step forward. Because of this mindset, I just don’t get as flustered. I love to move ideas forward which means that I won’t be the expert (or "successful") every time. That is okay. Just recently, I had a situation where-it seemed-all was going wrong. I stopped and thought about my objective and concentrated on that. This thought reset allowed me to change my plans and continue. While things didn’t turn out as I had originally planned, they were successful because I reached my objective and understand better what the next steps will be. What is your favorite organizational tip, app or advice? I learned this tip from another educator and it has made me a more productive person. I make my To Do List before I leave work each day. When I arrive in the morning, I can look at that list and just get started…with a coffee in hand, of course. What browser do you use regularly? Chrome. I love all of the extensions that I can take advantage of as a result. Snagit, Ginger and TabCloud are some of my favorites. What are your most valuable classroom/work routines? Using my email as a task list and categorizing the rest has been revolutionary. My goal is to get my email to zero each day. While I am not always successful in this, it sure helps me prioritize things better. What is your favorite avenue to connect with social media? Twitter is my go to PLN source. I love the ideas and conversations that I can have with colleagues. Using my GEG: Oregon Google+ and local Slack groups also help me stay connected locally with new ideas and trends as well as being aware of what my local colleagues are thinking about. What app or web service, not currently in existence, do you wish someone would develop? A chocolate delivery service would be a great place to start. As a tech-savvy teacher, what everyday thing do you feel you excel with/at versus other teachers/administrators/mentors? I am a practical visionary. I can see potential in ordinary things and move ideas to the next level through a simple attainable goals while enabling others to contribute to the mission using their strengths and abilities. What is the best teaching advice you have received? Failure is just another word for learning. What are you currently reading? I am reading Poke the Box as a way to push myself to "start something". I am always have a mystery book available. Audio books are a regular part of my drive to work every day. What fantastic tech-savvy educator would you like to refer to us? Jeremy Macdonald, Katie Reel, and Emily Cunningham Any parting thoughts you would like to share with our readers? Good instruction is at the heart of any innovation whether it is the introduction of technology or using new curriculum. Good instruction breeds great results. It is also a learning process for everyone involved. Expertise is not instantaneous; it is a process of learning…failing and trying again. Cindy will be presenting the following sessions at NCCE 2016: Let’s Build A Digital Toolbox For Creation, Collaboration And Content Resources! Thursday, February 25 | 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM | Room: Tahoma 4 Description: To start is half way to the finish line! In this workshop, we will explore useful tools to add to your digital toolbox. This hands-on workshop will give you the opportunity to investigate options that are not tied to any device or student age. Let’s build! Google Apps Vs Office 365: Smackdown Or Shakeup? FEATURED SPEAKER Thursday, February 25 | 3:00 - 3:50 PM | Room: Chelan 4 Description: As instructional and workflow tools develop, we find our favorites and settle in. What if a district decides that two major tools should work in harmony? Lessons learned from Salem-Keizer SD will be shared regarding how to create innovation from a potentially combative situation. In this session, we will look the advantages and weakness of both tools while sharing ideas of how to maximize all that Google Apps and Office 365 they have to offer in the classroom and a district as a whole. Peer Mentors: Fostering The Fire Of Innovation Friday, February 26 | 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM | Room: Tahoma 5   Description: Mentors often provide support, encouragement and motivation as new ideas are implemented. Peer mentors help the fire of innovation and change to catch providing a sustainable model for future years and greater growth. This presentation will involve a panel discussion made up of mentors and mentees as well as on overview of the Salem-Keizer Public Schools Innovators program. Identifying Quality Apps, Websites, And Games For Learning Friday, February 26 | 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM | Room: Tahoma 5 Description: Educators must sift through a sea of digital apps, websites, and games to determine which are high quality. Learn how to discover, use, and integrate the best digital learning products using the free resource Graphite by Common Sense Education. Teachers can also find rigorous reviews of CCSS aligned learning products. The post Meet a Tech Savvy Teacher: Cindy Etherton @EthertonC appeared first on NCCE's Tech Savvy Teacher Blog.

I hope everyone enjoyed the last episode of the podcast with some of the non-profits from throughout the nation which focus on adapted physical activity.This was the second episode where we included the new portion of the show called, "What's New in the History of APE/APA"! This episode focused on the origins of Special Olympics. I hope you all enjoy! 

In part one of this two-part series, I explored the features of the Dell XPS 15 Touch laptop computer. I was given the laptop by Dell to review and figure out the best way to integrate it into my workflow as an educational technologist.  Dell XPS 15 Touch I have been a Mac user for the past seven years, and was excited to both set-up and use the powerful Dell XPS 15 Touch and also investigate the updated features in the new version of Windows.  Many workforce users have two phones-- a work phone and personal phone. And others work on one computer operating system at work or school and on a different operating system at home. Can I learn the best way to use either my Dell XPS 15 Touch or my MacBook Pro Retina to get my work done?MY JOURNEYAfter spending time learning about the Dell XPS 15 Touch, I started getting it set-up with the tools and apps that were necessary to me. Of course, Windows 10 comes with a Snipping Tool that I will use regularly for screenshots. I installed my main collaboration tools — a Twitter client and Skype. I installed Adobe Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements and various Adobe Creative Cloud applications. The rendering time of videos in both Adobe Premiere Elements and Adobe Premiere was super speedy on the Dell XPS 15 Touch. Microsoft 10 Snipping Tool Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for Windows I have a subscription to Office 365 on my Mac, so installing it on the Dell XPS15 Touch was a given. I am also a huge OneNote user on all of my other devices, so I had t omake sure that was available. And, because Office 365 for Window includes Microsoft Publisher, I was re-united with this great program! I have yet to find something to rival it for the Mac.Microsoft Office 365 In addition to having access to Microsoft Publisher, I was also happy to again be able to use some of my favorite (legacy) Windows software apps. I quickly downloaded Microsoft Photo Story 3 and Microsoft Movie Maker. I was also able to try out Office Sway, a great creation tools for Windows and which is also available for iPad (but not available on the Mac). Test of Microsoft Sway I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to sync all my Microsoft Office documents using OneDrive. Everything stayed in sync across the Windows, Mac, and iOS platforms. The easiest solution to the sharing of files between the Dell XPS 15 Touch and the MacBook laptops is to use either the OneDrive or the Dropbox online file storage sites. I already have documents in both online services, and there are clients for both computer platforms and my mobile platform, so it will be a workable solution to use both. I am also a user of Google Drive through the Web browser, and I was easily able to get to my stored and shared files by using any of the Web browsers I had instgalled on the Dell XPS 15 Touch. I also installed the Google Drive app on the Dell XPS 15 Touch since I had just moved all my photos into Google Photos. Google Drive  To be able to project my iPad screen to the Dell XPS 15 Touch for presentation purposes, I installed Air Squirrels’ Reflector 2 app on the laptop. This Windows (or Mac) program turns your laptop into a wireless AirpPay device for your iOS devices. Since the laptop in a classroom is usually attached via a cable to a projector, Reflector 2 allows you or a student to project their iPad for the rest of the class by mirroring it onto the laptop and you are not tethered. Reflector 2 also allows you to record the projected iPad via the computer, so it is a great tool for creating an iPad tutorial or demo. I am not setting my iPad to backup to this Windows machine, but I did install iTunes to have my music library on the Dell XPS 15 Touch and to be able to move files from the desktop to the iPad if necessary. In addition, I can access Apple's iCloud through the browser to view and present my  Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents. iCloud via the Web browser iTunes for Windows on the Dell XPS 15 Touch I am a big Keynote user and my presentations are often huge, complex, and include lots of videos. When I try to save the presentation out of Keynote as a PowerPoint presentation, I am often disappointed with the look, the slide layouts, and the rendering of some of the videos. (Simple presentations easily move from Keynote to PowerPoint.) And, if I create the presentation in PowerPoint, it transitions a little better when opened in Keynote, but it is still not perfect. I will create and present in PowerPoint when using the Dell XPS 15 Touch, and, when using the Mac, I can use PowerPoint for Mac (instead of Keynote) showcase the presentation created on the Dell, and vice versa. PowerPoint for Windows I often create podcasts and audio files for videos, and the best local solution for success in a dual platform world is to use Audacity. Audacity is an easy to use, open-source piece of software that works great on both the Dell XPS 15 Touch  and the MacBook. Audacity The extremely high resolution on the Dell XPS 15 Touch allows me to have two browser windows open. This is just perfect when I need to grade my graduate students' papers and view their online work at the same time! It is so nice to have that bright, 4K Ultra HD touch screen with the 3840 x 2160 resolution!  Two browser windows open on the Dell XPS 15 Touch Most of my other work is done via online tools, many of which can be found on this page of my site, Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. The Dell XPS 15 Touch worked perfectly with all of the tools and via all of the major browsers. Having the touchscreen available when working with the online tools really made the use of these tools easier and much faster!  SUMMARY Can I learn the best way to use either my Dell XPS 15 Touch or my Macbook Pro Retina to get my work done? I really believe, since many of the major tools are available on both platforms, with the prevalence of online file storage sites, and more and more online tools, it no longer really matters whether I pick up my Dell XPS 15 Touch or my MacBook Pro Retina to complete a task. I can get my work done on either of them and can easily share documents between the two machines, too.   However, with most specs being pretty equal between my two laptops (the Dell XPS 15 Touch and the MacBook Pro Retina), the Dell XPS 15 Touch still comes out ahead due to its great feature set.  The Dell XPS 15 Touch's bright UltraSharp 4K Ultra HD touchscreen makes it easier and more efficient to use than the MacBook Pro, and, combined with the longer battery life and the single USB adapter for hooking up to multiple projectors and Ethernet, the Dell XPS 15 Touch is a winning combination of speed, build, and usability for a road warrior like me!   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

The Nature Conservancy and its 550 scientists have created a site called Nature Works Everywhere "to help students learn the science behind how nature works for us - and how we can keep it running strong. This project gives teachers, students and families everything they need to start exploring and understanding nature around the globe alongside Nature Conservancy scientists."On March 16, 2016, the Nature Conservancy, as part of its Nature Works Everywhere project, will offer a free, real-time, virtual field trip aimed at students in grades 3-8. The field trip is entitled "How Nature Works in Coastal Peru: The Amazing Biodiversity of a Coastal Ecosystem".  The field trip will be hosted by Matias Caillaux, a Nature Conservancy fisheries scientist.  Students will learn about the Humboldt Current—a cold water current that pushes nutrients from the deepest ocean toward the surface, forming the basis of a unique and abundant ecosystem in which visitors find a variety of sea birds, flamingos, and even penguins!During the field trip, students will will learn that the productivity of this ecosystem is not only important to its animal inhabitants, but to the success of the region’s fishing industry as well.  They will also discover what’s being done to protect this vulnerable ecosystem so that both people and animals can continue to thrive.To support the virtual field trip to Peru, the Nature Conservancy and the Nature Works Everywhere project provides interactive online materials to use to introduce the topic before attending the online field trip or viewing the archive, or after the event to follow-up on some of the important aspects of this ecosystem. Fishing for a Future: The Artisanal Fishers of AncónImage credit: The Nature ConservancyThe Humboldt Current Ecosystem: How Earth Systems Influence Ocean Productivity and BiodiversityImage courtesy of The Nature ConservancyLesson plans, informational handouts, and links to supporting videosWhile working on the lessons and viewing the videos, students will explore sustainable fishing through a specific case study in Peru, which is home to one of the world’s largest fisheries. The fishing activities that occur in the waters off of the coast of Peru represent a microcosm of the rest of the world.The lessons include interactive story maps that allow students to explore the Humboldt Current, El Niño, and artisanal fishing; engage in a fisheries management activity using data; and participate in a Socratic Seminar that explores the challenges of open access fishing areas. Students will understand how the need to protect this ecosystem and effectively manage its resources is important both for its health and for the communities that depend on it. The content of the field trip and the lessons is also aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.Lesson plan and handouts downloadsStudent handout: Fisheries Management (PDF) (Word)Student handout: Humboldt Current (PDF) (Word)Student handout: Anchoveta Socratic Seminar (PDF) (Word)Lesson plan: Fishing for a Future (PDF) (Word)INFORMATION ABOUT THE FIELD TRIPThe field trip will begin at noon Eastern Time (US) on March 16, 2016, and last 45 minutes. The link to sign up is here.If the real-time March 16, 2016 time slot does not work for your class, you can still register to receive the YouTube viewing link after the event. In addition, a bit later, the Nature Conservancy will provide a link to the field trip video on Vimeo.DetailsHow Nature Works in Coastal Peru: The Amazing Biodiversity of a Coastal EcosystemSubject focus: Science and Geography; aligned with the NGSSRecommended age range: Grades 3-8 (but everyone is welcome!)Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2016Time: 12:00 noon Eastern Time (US)Length of virtual event: 45 minutesRegistration link for live event or to receive link to recorded sessionI hope you are able to take your class on this interesting and educational field trip!This is a sponsored post on behalf of We Are Teachers and The Nature Conservancy.I received compensation for this post, however all opinions stated are my own.  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

The Ariel Group was recently recertified as a B Corp and we are thrilled to be a part of their community of socially conscious businesses! There are more than 1,400 Certified B Corporations in over 120 industries and 40 countries with 1 unifying goal - to redefine success in business. When we learned of B Corp and their Vision and goals, we were immediately struck by how aligned they were to The Ariel Group and our Vision and Principles. B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good™. Its Vision is that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the Best for the World® and as a result society will enjoy a more shared and durable prosperity. B Corporations believe: That we must be the change we seek in the world. That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered. That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all. To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations. The Ariel Group Core Principles of Integrity, Generosity, Personal Growth, Creativity, Quality, Community, Prosperity, and Make a Difference guide our business strategies, policies, behaviors, and actions and are aimed fulfilling our Vision of creating a world where people can engage authentically and unlock their most generous selves. When we act with integrity and generosity and invest in our personal growth, we enable ourselves to fully express our creativity, perform the highest quality work and develop a deep and broad sense of community. Satisfying those principles leads to prosperity of all kinds, which in turn helps us make a difference in the world. We believe we can make a difference for all of our communities. In addition to helping our corporate business partners strengthen their community through our transformational leadership curriculum, each year Ariel supports our local communities through service initiatives and giving programs (#ArielServes). We are enthusiastic about our roots in the arts and the theater and continue our support of that community, in particular.  We are honored to have also served a number of fantastic non-profits who are doing amazing work in areas outside the arts. In the classroom, we deliver our programs and provide tools for non-profits to positively impact their business, people, and constituencies. We are humbled to have recently served with the UN, the Acumen Fund, Project Hope, Jericho Road, and Cradles 2 Crayons. In the field, we have given our time, expertise, and heavy labor. We have built a home with Habitat for Humanity, rehabbed a playground for Acres Family Daycare, cleaned up the Charles River with the CRWA, farmed for the homeless for Boston Friends of the Homeless, and have coached the underserved in many places. We have led charitable drives and campaigns, donated in-kind goods and services, and made financial donations to organizations near and dear to us, both as a company and on behalf of others. >> You can read more about our #ArielServes initiatives here. We are committed to valuing and supporting our Principles and to supporting other businesses making a difference in their own way - like B Corp. The Ariel Group went through a rigorous assessment, which speaks to the incredible integrity of this organization. The assessment analyzed multiple components of our business including; the impact of our business model; governance and transparency; people and their development, benefits, and comp; Community; and Environment. Then they came for a visit and looked at our offices and talked to our employees. Only those meeting the high bar set on the assessment and onsite visit will go onto become certified. We are happy to have cleared that bar both times. While we did exceedingly well, we also discovered many areas where we could do better. This was valuable feedback and we are thankful to have it. The Ariel Group is proud to be a Certified B Corp and we are excited to join hands in an effort to make a difference.  With 2016 just beginning, the opportunities are bountiful! We are enthusiastic about all the ways we can support and serve our clients, local communities, B Corp and others doing great work! #ArielServes To learn how your company can become a Certified B Corp, go here.   The post Proud to be a B Corp appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesLet’s Support Emerging Leaders Part 2: Creating a Program for High PotentialsWhy Biases Ruin the WorkplaceVirtual Conflict: Your Focus Determines Your Outcome 

How can I prevent being overcome by nerves when delivering a presentation?  As a facilitator for The Ariel Group, this is a question I get asked quite regularly in the classroom. Whether delivering a high-stakes presentation or chatting in a one-on-one meeting, many of us battle performance anxiety. We feel the butterflies in our stomach. We start to perspire. Our legs shake. Either we barely get the words out of our mouth or they spew out so rapidly no one can keep up. But not to worry. Here are a few tricks we actors keep in our back pockets when we feel nerves bubbling up: Practice. OUT LOUD. Too often, people only prepare for talks and presentations by writing notes on slides and perhaps practicing quietly in their heads. No matter how large (or small) your audience is, it’s crucial to practice your presentation out loud. And eventually ask some friends to sit in as you rehearse. Getting feedback before your moment can help make it stronger. Socialize with the audience before. They’re just people after all. By socializing with your audience beforehand and learning what they’re interested in, you can say something like "I was talking to Marge beforehand and this is an issue for her too." It makes you more relatable as a speaker and you’ll feel like you have some "friends" in the crowd. Have a mantra. Have confidence in yourself and your experience. When all else fails, talk yourself up! Before you begin, say to yourself: "This audience can’t WAIT to hear what I have to say!" or "What I have to say is valuable." If you think it sounds hokey or contrived, I used to be right there with you, until I tried it. And believe me when I say it’s just hokey enough to work. Give it a shot. Visualize yourself making the worst mistake possible. It may sound awful, but think what would happen if "x" happened? Figure out how you’d move on from it. Have a Plan B. I recently was in a play where the lead actor was sick. During the climactic scene, he literally threw up on stage. The scene stopped. We all exited. The mess was cleaned up swiftly and the show continued. After the show we got a standing ovation and on my way out several audience members asked me, "How did you guys do the vomit? I couldn’t see any tubes!" Your worst case scenario won’t be that bad. Go with the flow, keep on message, and your audience will think you planned the whole thing. Breathe and feel your feet in contact with the ground. Breathing helps us be present and in the moment. When nerves take over, people often forget to inhale and exhale. Exhaling is crucial during presentations. When you hold your breath, you tend to speak faster, at a higher pitch, and get more and more anxious. Find an opportunity when you practice to score your presentation for breaths, meaning find parts where can you take pauses and breathe to ground yourself. To combat nerves hijacking your conversations and presentations, remember this: the audience and you have common ground. You want to inform them; they want to learn from you and hear what you have to say. Your tips want to be received. Believe in yourself and know you have the ability to deliver the information in the best way possible. And don’t be afraid of your nerves. They can provide useful energy if you can use them, rather than letting them use you. What tips do you have for combating nerves? Share them in the comments below.        The post 5 Ways to Calm Your Nerves for Presentations appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesInside the Ariel Classroom: How Scared Should You Be?How to Fight Vocal FryStories From The Road: Park Avenue, New York 

In December, I wrote a blog with tips on endorsing your people for maximum employee engagement. When I mentioned that managers need to balance a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of specific, positive feedback to constructive/critical feedback, I’ve received slightly panicked comments like, What if there’s not enough positive stuff to say about a person? What if I have nothing good to say? My immediate response to that is, "Are you sure they’re in the right role?" I strongly believe that everyone suffers when someone’s in the wrong job, especially the person in that job. My next response is this: crowd source. If you don’t have anything good to say, quote someone else.  Third-party praise is a powerful tool for making people feel energized, engaged and appreciated. Many years ago, when I was a new Ariel Group facilitator, I attended a picnic thrown by one of the founders of the company. When we introduced ourselves to each other, she smiled widely and said, "I’ve been hearing such wonderful things about your classroom work!" I was so touched and pleased, and that one comment got me through many more months of airport delays and dim hotel ballrooms. When you quote someone else’s positive feedback, you send a message that people in your organization see their colleague’s good work and appreciate it. There is no better feeling to know that you are the subject of praise. Which is why it’s so important to share it. Here’s why: we tend to be more effusive when we are praising someone to someone else. I’ve been working on a theory that giving people direct feedback (both positive and negative) is an intimate act, so when we do it we tend to make less eye contact, our vocal tones flatten, and we use more neutral language. When we share praise about someone else, we are more likely to gush. We use terms like "excellent presenter," "a real asset to this organization," "I don’t know what we’d do without her on our team," etc. If you’re the recipient of this "positive gossip," don’t let it die there. It’s like you have a really juicy secret to share: "Guess what so-and-so said about you!" Just this morning on a call with my CEO, he praised a colleague’s work at a high-profile conference they just attended. I ran to my laptop and emailed her, quoting him directly. Lest you think I’m some kind of Polyanna, I tend to lean towards an anxious pessimism — a direct effect of my Irish Catholic upbringing. But I know how rare endorsement can be in the workplace and what a dramatic effect it can have on employee engagement, so I make it my business to practice it. So, go ahead! Share some third-party praise today. Quote the "praiser" directly. Create some of your own third-party praise that can be shared with others. And for bonus points, practice giving authentic, specific praise directly to your colleagues. The more you do it, the more naturally it will come, and you’ll be one step closer to the connected, engaged organization we all want to be a part of.   The post Spreading Positive Gossip: The Power of Third-Party Praise appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesLet’s Support Emerging Leaders Part I: Working at the Individual LevelFrom the Director’s Playbook: Endorse, Endorse, EndorseLet’s Support Emerging Leaders Part 2: Creating a Program for High Potentials 

We have released an updated version of Ardour 4.7 for OS X (technically Ardour 4.7.13). The main release included a bug introduced at the last minute that completely broke the operation of all Command-<key> shortcuts. There are no other notable changes at this time. Anyone who downloaded the original 4.7.0 for OS X should get the new one to avoid this issue. Sincere apologies for the lack of full testing of the changes made so close to the release.

There are underlying stories that come to life when we look at what we teach and why we teach it. We hear the most important underlying voices when we choose whose voices will prevail. We often hear that we need to include all voices of students in our classrooms. When we hear that we need […]

Every time you use a software that requires some tracking on your site, you’ll be asked to install a tracking script. For example, if you’re running ads to your online course, you need to track whether they are actually paying off by using tracking codes. Whether you use Google Adwords, or Facebook Ads,  you’ll need to get their tracking pixel to paste into your Thinkific site to see which ads are leading to sales. Similarly, if you’re using an A/B testing tool like Optimizely, or a marketing research tool like Hotjar, or an analytics software like Mixpanel, you’ll need to add their tracking codes to your site for them to work properly. In this episode of Teach Online TV, we explain how you can do that. So Thinkific has three places where you can paste your tracking codes or scripts. Those scripts can come from a variety of different places, like the softwares we mentioned above. We will talk more about some of these tools in future segments. Site Footer The first place you can paste them in is the site footer code. This will actually track all visitors across your site because you use the same footer across the site. This option is great if you’re using analytics software, A/B testing tools, or anything that requires a presence across every page of your site. Sign Ups You can also put them in your sign-up area if you want to specifically track anyone who signs up for your site, whether it’s signing up for free or for paid. Signup codes are used to track signups for advertising programs such as Google Adwords, external affiliate programs and anything that needs conversion tracking. Purchases And finally, you can track orders. This is different from signups because it only tracks paid courses and not free courses. This script will go in your "Thank You" page. Again, this is where you want to put your advertising scripts or retargeting pixels to see which ones are leading to revenue. In some cases, you’ll need to use all three locations. For example, you can track all three with the same platform within Facebook advertising. You can set up three different goals - one for visitors, one for people who sign up for free, and one for people who purchase. This way you can see how each ad performs in terms of traffic, signups and purchases. So give it a shot and try out the tracking codes. Create a free account with Thinkific and paste your tracking codes in the Advanced Settings area. The post Teach Online TV #05: Tracking Codes And Scripts For Your Online Course appeared first on Thinkific.

Promoting Feedback and Inquiry in the Social Studies, History and Geography classroom. Join us next Thursday February 25 @ 9PM on Twitter: #ontsshg Please take a moment and fill out our Wonder Wall!   //padlet.com/embed/9eudhsqpcubc Created with Padlet

  Inquiry is essential. The fact is that students come to school with partial knowledges.  But the curriculum documents themselves do not address the parts that students know or don’t know. It has been built to present to us about the privileged people in the world. Textbooks, websites and other resources generally reinforce this. For […]

Learning Technologies was a great kick start to February and the Wranx team had a great time at the exhibition. If you didn’t get to visit our stand, here’s what you missed…                This year our stand featured an amazing giant itab so people had the opportunity to try Wranx out for themselves. It proved to be very popular!! There was a great amount of footfall and we had lots of visitors throughout the two days of the event- all keen to see what Wranx was about. We also used the event to showcase some of our new features which we have been working hard on- including improved reporting features and brand new testing features.       On the second day, Phillip Price hosted a seminar on behalf of Wranx on ‘Enterprise Scale Gamification’, which had a fully packed audience! Phillip handles Virtual Academy Operations at PSA Peugeot Citroen, with over 20 years of experience implementing and overseeing professional development operations.              The seminar gave a real time example of how PSA Peugeot Citroen have used gamification as part of their learning strategy for both sales staff and academy learners.  In this case, they needed to refine learning and development service to enable their dealer staff to sell more cars. The results of implementing gamification were very positive, with engagement improved by 42% and dealer feedback showing significant support for this type of learning. ‘We will borrow everything the gaming industry has learnt on how to engage users, immersing our staff in an ‘always’ on world that integrates learning, working and living.’    We are definitely excited for what the future of L&D holds and Learning Technologies is a great chance to see what is up and coming in the world of learning. We have already booked a stand for next year so keep an eye out for what we will bring to London Olympia in 2017!! Share this post with your own audience

I recently purchased a Ricoh Theta S, a camera with two fish-eye lenses, which creates both 360 degree spherical panoramic images as well as spherical videos.  You can find out all the information about the camera on the Ricoh site here.The images taken with the camera, when imported in Photos on the Mac, look like this.When you run them through the Ricoh Theta app (available for Mac and Windows), they are turned into spherical panoramic images. These images then live on the Ricoh Theta360 where they can be shared with other via the URL or embedded in a site using embed code, like the one below. The images can be rotated in any direction using a mouse (or a finger on a touchscreen or tablet) and be zoomed in and out.NEW SHOT WITH BETTER TRIPOD - Spherical Image - RICOH THETAHowever, I did not necessarily want to host the images on their site. I did a lot of searching around, and there were bits and pieces of how to host the images somewhere bu I could not find a definitive solution.  My son, Rockwell, located the Pannellum page which, if you host your images on Imgur or  in Dropbox, you can make the same spherical panoramic images and give you the embed code to use or share with others.The steps are as follows:Make sure your Ricoh Theta M camera is set up not to remove the photos when downloading them to your smartphone.Take your pictures with the Ricoh Theta M. Hook the Ricoh Theta M up to your Mac via the USB cable.Open the Image Capture app on the Mac and drag copies of the images onto your desktop. (You can remove the images on the camera through Image Capture at this point if you wish.)Resize the images to 4096x2048 pixels. Put the images online somewhere where they will have a URL and can be shared. Open this Web page:  https://pannellum.org/documentation/overview/tutorial/Put the URL of your hosted image in the panorama URL box (real URL from Imgur and take off the "?dl=0" from the Dropbox image URL), add a title and author if you wish, check the autoload box, and generate the panorama. Below is the filled-in form.And below you will see the embed code version of the spherical panorama via the code from the Pannellum site.  IFRAME  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I’m kind of obsessing about complexity theory right now (Dave Snowden’s Cynefin Model mostly), and looking at simple, complicated and complex systems. I had a lot of conversations about this last weekend, and have been thinking about it a lot. A couple of upfront disclaimers — first, I’m just learning about this, so I don’t pretend to really understand this stuff.  It’s my interpretation, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to know I’m getting the details wrong. Second, I’m not digging into Chaotic (for now at least). Third, there’s a much longer post on this brewing, and I have more questions than answers right now. So — let’s apply this to the question of school testing, for example: Simple things (with explicit rule sets) are probably fine to assess via multiple choice tests. MCQs for multiplication tables? Sure! No problem! But complicated things (e.g. the subtleties of designing a scientific experiment) and complex things (e.g. problem-solving skills) do not have explicit rule sets, and are therefore NOT appropriate topics for a really reductionistic assessment methods. School testing models are trying to squeeze all the ambiguity out of the system by trying to control every variable. You can do that with simple and possibly with complicated systems (though it’s an insane amount of work — witness the amount of procedural documentation in the air safety industry, or the nuclear power industry in their attempt to eliminate all ambiguity. It’s usually only justifiable when people’s lives are at stake). But you can’t (by definition) eliminate all the ambiguity in complex systems. E.g. you can teach principals for problem-solving, or a process, but how it gets implemented depends on the context, which you can’t control. That’s where teachers, with their personal judgment and ability to adapt, become really important. It’s one of the limitations of computer-based instruction. People don’t like not having control. School testing is trying to exert control by pretending that everything can be put in the simple box, so it can be measures using simple, objective measures. But it just doesn’t work. I think there’s some real value in having a good way to assess whether or not  you are dealing with a simple, complicated or complex situation, and adjusting not only your assessment, but also your learning design for that. Working on this, but if you know of anything really useful, please let me know. A couple of good resources: Chris Dede’s Sleeping, Eating, Bonding metaphor. The first link in this blog post has a short audio clip that explains it. Dave Snowden’s Youtube channel — a great entry point for complexity theory. The excellent Donald Clark on using Cynefin as an orientation framework for learning design (about halfway down the page) Harold Jarche on understanding complexity Measuring What Matters Most: Choice-based Assessment for the Digital Age by Schwartz and Arena Thoughts?

Do decision-makers in health insurance organizations have the needed skills to meet strategic objectives and move ahead of the competition?

Data shows having female leaders pays off. How can women leaders ignite their own impact and how can you coach, mentor, and grow the next generation of leaders?