View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.     Additional Resources: The Art of Coaching by Kevin Pallardy Is an Employee Coachable? 3 Questions a Manager Should Ask by Shannon Kluczny     Learn something new! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   Developing the Coaching Skills of Your Managers and Leaders Coaching comes down to people and the processes needed to support our people and organization. Download this complimentary eBook to get started with developing the coachingskills of your managers today!

On May 21, 2009, I moderated an eLearning Tour in association with Learn Trends. It was designed to take you on a quick tour of different examples of what's happening out there. The tour guides and their topics:Judy Brown - Mobile Learning SolutionsBob Mosher - Performance Support Tools Karl Kapp - Games and Simulations Tony Karrer - Self-Paced and Other eLearning SolutionsBelow are the videos from the sessions:Mobile LearningPerformance SupportSimulations and GamesAsynchronous eLearningMobile LearningJudy Brown, Tour Guide For the mobile learning section of the tour, we will be talking about the opportunities and benefits in using devices our learners are already carrying for various types of learning. The topics / presenters will be:Overview/Introduction - a quick scan of the current and future environmentJudy Brown, Mobile Learning Strategic Advisor, mLearnopediaInnovative Podcasting - Introduction of research and an example of improved audio communicationsChristopher von Koschembahr, a pioneer in mobile learning previously with IBMMobile Lessons Learned - Overview of experiences in the first year of use of iPhones and iPods for all the learners at Abilene Christian UniversityWilliam Rankin, Associate Professor of English & Director of Mobile Learning Research: iPhoneGeorge Saltsman, Director of the Adams Center for Teaching & Learning and Director of Educational TechnologyPerformance SupportBob Mosher, Tour Guide In the Performance Support tour we will be looking at technologies and approaches which bring learning directly to the learner’s "moment of need". Performance Support offers a unique opportunity to go beyond learning and acquiring knowledge directly in the context of doing work. 4 case studies will be shared. The topics / presenters will be:Overview/Introduction - a overview of the PS learning landscape and some overall design principles which need to be considered Bob Mosher, Chief Learning and Strategy Evangelist, LearningGuide Solutions US Electron Performance Support integration - 2 examples of highly guided and integrated Performance Support environment for IT applications and the DoD. Dan Peay, Transcensus Performance support for Processed based learning - Two more examples of PS used for helping support Medical Devices and On-boarding. Bob Mosher, Learning Guide Simulations and Games Karl Kapp, Tour Guide In this part of the tour, we'll explore how organizations are using games and simulations to provide engaging, effective training to their employees. You will see how: Mini gamesGame EnginesMachine SimulationsSoft Skills Simulationare being leveraged to transfer knowledge within organizations.Speakers during this section will be:Adam Nelson who currently leads the learning group at Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, designing and implementing next-generation adaptive learning environments in enterprises of all sizes. Prior to joining Linden Lab, Adam spent 10 years at Ninth House, a leading leadership and behavioral change company.Phil Sueper - Simulation Designer for The Performance Development Group. Over the past nine years, he's designed more than 200 performance simulations. He will present a series of simulations with very brief summaries of the unique approaches to learning included in eachSelf-Paced, Asynchronous eLearningTony Karrer, Tour GuideIn this part of the tour, we will quickly go through a series of demonstrations of different types of asynchronous, self-paced eLearning that comes directly from the submissions.The topics / presenters will be:Really Rapid eLearning - A rapid process, integrating SMEs to produce software overviews.Ben Duffy, eLearning Program Manager, Fairchild SemiconductorNarrative eLearning - Teaches about Pandemic Influenza Preparedness at Work and at Home through conversations at work and at home, and newscasts - incorporating audio and bandwidth constrained "video."Kim Koehler, Learning Center, Park Nicollet Health ServicesScenario eLearning - Introduces AmeriCorps VISTA to new members through an exploratory environment with interactive scenarios.Angela Nicholas, Instructional Designer, Northwest Regional Educational LaboratoryNon-linear, Clue/Puzzle eLearning - Introduces banking staff to a banking service and customer enrollment through a film noir setting where learners play a private detective search for clues.Jeffery Goldman, e-Learning Designer, Provident BankSocial eLearning - A reusable product that invites conference audiences into a conversation with keynote presenters before and after the event.Douglas Flather, Vice President, Product Development, Washington Speakers Bureau MultimediaMore on our tour guides:Karl KappKarl is a consultant, speaker, scholar, and expert on the convergence of learning, technology and business operations. His background teaching e-learning classes, knowledge of adult learning theory, and experience training CEOs and front line staff provides him with a unique perspective on organizational learning. In 2007, he voted as one of TrainingIndustry.com's 2007 Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals. Recently, he won the Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology. His experience with technology companies and high-tech initiatives provides him with insights into the future of technology. He shares those insights and perspectives through writing, consulting and coaching with clients in the field of learning and e-learning.He is the author of "Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning" and is working on a book about 3D Learning.Judy BrownJudy Brown is a Mobile Technology Analyst who has been involved in technology for learning for over 25 years and with mobile learning since 1996. She coordinates the mlearnopedia.com site. She moderates the Mobile Learning Content Community and is a fantastic speaker on all things mobile learning.Bob MosherBob has been an active and influential leader in the learning and training industry for over 23 years and is renowned worldwide for his pioneering role in e-learning and performance support. Bob joined LearningGuide from Microsoft, where he was Director of Learning Strategy and Evangelism. Before, Bob was the Executive Director of Education for Element K where he directed and influenced their learning model and products. He is an influential voice in the IT training industry, speaking at conferences and participating within industry associations such as CLO Magazine, CompTIA, ASTD, The E-learning Guild and The Masie Centre.Tony KarrerDr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, a software, web and eLearning development firm based in Los Angeles, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. Dr. Karrer taught Computer Science for eleven years. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. His work in social media, e-Learning and Performance Support has won awards and has led him into engagements at many Fortune 500 companies including Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada, Citibank, Lexus, Microsoft, Nissan, Universal, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Fidelity Investments, Symbol Technologies and SHL Systemhouse. Dr. Karrer was valedictorian at Loyola Marymount University, attended the University of Southern California as a Tau Beta Pi fellow, one of the top 30 engineers in the nation, and received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science. He is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

If you've spent any amount of time at all using Adobe Captivate, it's a good bet that you've used some of the more basic keyboard shortcuts (copy/paste, save, etc). But check out the image below for some keyboard shortcuts you might not have known existed. (Feel free to right-click the image and save it to your computer for future use.) Looking for Captivate training? Check out our online classes.

Written by Chris Osborn   Today's Q&A Thursday explores three key ideas behind improving your employees' training     Stay Up-to-Date on the Most Current Business Training Trends BizLibrary offers 7,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   10 Tips for Marketing Your Employee Training Program In this eBook we’ll discuss you'll learn 10 ways to improve the marketing of your online employee training program and boost employee engagement and participation. BizLibrary's Mobile Learning App meets the needs of today's digital learners. Employees no longer wait for training departments to push learning content to them. Employees are used to pulling information to themselves, when they need it, on their own terms and conditions, and on their own devices. Video Transcription Hi, Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing with BizLibrary with today's Q&A. Today's question comes from Marcus, and it has to do with techniques for improving the effectiveness of training. Yes, we actually have three that we want to suggest, all of these are turning up in a lot of recent literature about how to improve the impact and effectiveness of a whole range of training, whether it is classroom or online. And the first is to make sure your training is in a narrative. We're wired to remember stories and if you think about your experiences, classroom experiences, school, personal experiences, think about how you relate them to others. It's almost always in a story, isn't it? It's a narrative. We're wired to remember that way. Great stories are memorable and it's very important to tie your training, your learning, your learning objectives into a narrative. Make the narrative relevant to the employees, to the employees you're training, the audience you're trying to reach and you're going to have a lot better chance to understand the training content and that they can then apply it to their work environment, particularly if the narrative is very reflective of the work environment that they're in. Second, visual representation of information is extremely important. We live in a very visual world, we tend to be very visual learners. It's stunning how many of us in the learning & development field forget that and we just put words, and bullet points, on pages and pages or on a flip chart or someplace else and expect employees to take in that information effectively. It simply doesn't work. Remember, a huge part of training and development has to do with the visual organization and visual presentation of information, so make sure to capture that. Think carefully about how to present information in visually interesting and visually effective ways. And then third, flipped classroom. It's an interesting concept, and it has to do with providing content ahead of time and then bringing people together to discuss the content that they've studied ahead of time. It's a great concept, you can google it and learn a lot more about it, but those are the three methods that we've seen that are front and center in the thought leadership today: content in a narrative, visual representation of information, and the flipped classroom.

My post on learning goals has some great feedback via comments and a couple of blog posts. The focus of the post is really about the design of informal / social learning experiences and my belief that they need to have context for what I call Directed Learners. Particularly, there still needs to be Learning Outcomes defined. But please don't read Learning Outcomes to mean Learning Objectives. They are distinct and while I'm not claiming to have a great definition here, I think you can get the flavor from this post. Business Outcomes and Learning Outcomes This relates to my recent post about Improved Learning or Business Benefits. However, the context of that post is more about defining the overall benefits / positioning. Still in my learning goals post I said: "Unlike formal learning, informal learning is generally not going to ensure that specific knowledge will be transferred. Instead, people will learn what they need in order to accomplish the ultimate objectives. We aren't sure what they will learn." and Jay Cross responds: In a business context, isn't learning enough to accomplish the objective sufficient? At a more fundamental level, the massive swing from the industrial age to the network era is accompanied by pervasive uncertainty. Twenty years ago, the business world seemed predictable; corporations wrote five-year plans. Today, it's a world of surprises. We're all tied to the unpredictable interplay of complex adaptive systems. It's tough to assemble a viable learning to-do list when you don't know what tomorrow will bring. Jay, I agree that it is extremely hard to define effective learning experiences in a chaotic world. It's even more challenging when you have to deal with Directed vs. Flow Learning Styles and with motivation and with questionable outcomes. That said, I don't think the answer is really (and I don't think Jay thinks this either) to ignore the challenges of working with Directed Learners. I actually think that informal learning experiences can be greatly improved by ensuring that you are dealing with learning outcomes or business outcomes. Concrete Learning Outcomes And to that end, great post by Michele Martin that responds to my learning goals post. She provides some context and then positions it in a question that I think is really great about specific learning experiences: So the issue becomes, how do you define learning goals for social, informal learning in a way that provides context and makes sense for more concrete directed goal learners? Michele has concerns that defining a learning outcome or business outcome or set of known learning objectives for the informal / social learning experience is a good start. In my experience, this may be true of a directed learner like Tony, but he seems to be an exception. The people in my work who are most uncomfortable with informal, social learning are those who are also uncomfortable with something as ill-defined as a "business outcome" for their learning goals. They want very specific, concrete, actionable learning objectives AND they want a step-by-step process for getting there. In fact, I find that these types of learners have no patience for informal learning. To them, it's not learning at all. It's too messy and ill-conceived (in their minds). Likely most of us can relate to this. Even if everyone in the room at the end of the session feels like they are better able to perform some task, but they all got there a different way, there will be some members of the audience who aren't sure if they saw the right stuff, missed something … it's just that uncomfortable feeling of not being sure if you really got it. Michele may be right that: I'm not sure that it's possible to provide enough of a structured goal orientation to informal learning to totally satisfy most directed goal learners. That's probably true - but I'll guess that people are likely somewhere along the spectrum and while the extreme ends of directed learners may not be happy with an outcome that achieves the purpose but has an uncomfortable path, I believe that you can greatly increase the comfort of directed learners with the right kinds of context setting. Michele pretty much lands right there: In designing informal learning activities, we may need to get better at helping directed and flow learning people forge a learning path for themselves to navigate the social learning space. But that's a good thing--because then we're also helping people develop the skills they need to learn from work itself. Well said! Social Learning Design Revisited What's also interesting about this is that Michele, Harold Jarche and I went through the whole design of the Work Literacy Ning learning event and had several discussions about how the nature of the social learning environment might feel uncomfortable to many of the participants. But until now, I didn't really have the words to describe the issue. Drilling down a bit on this, we did start out by collectively defining some high level goals. For example: The goals of the event are to: * Introduce you to new tools and methods for work and learning * Discuss implications of these tools for learning professionals *Prepare you to participate in DevLearn in new ways as an attendee or as a spectator. And then for a particular week such as the one on Social Networking, there would be a list of more specific goals: different topical areas to explore: **The Tools--LinkedIn, Facebook and Ning are the primary social networks being used by learning professionals. ** How people use these networks for personal professional development **How people use social networks to facilitate learning **Issues and concerns related to privacy, managing multiple networks, and the value of these networks in terms of the time commitments involved. But we knew that no one could possibly "explore" it all … so we also said: Also--DO NOT FEEL YOU HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING! (Yes, I just shouted that). We have given you many different ways to dip in and out of these topics and by no means are you expected to do everything. You don't even have to read every forum on social networking or do all the activitities related to any particular topic. We have a few hundred people here and we wanted to give people a variety of ways to explore different aspects of social networking. This module is not linear--it's meant to give you an introduction and some avenues into exploring and discussing the tools. As Harold Jarche has said, "there are no gold stars." This is for your learning, so feel free to pursue it in the ways that work best for you. Here is where we start to have a bit of a challenge because if I don't have to do everything and there's too much to explore, how do I know when I'm done? In looking back, a lot of our focus was in describing the process and the systems that we would use to allow discussion. And we focused on topics to explore. I think we could have spent a bit more time defining some specific learning outcomes or at least have made some parts have higher importance. For example, if the point of the experience is to help learning professionals understand implications of these tools for themselves, then we might make an assignment to: examine how these tools fit into your personal work and learning environment. Or the assignment could be to write a list of five suggestions that they can present to their manager or someone in the business. Or ??? Basically, I would work with Michele and Harold to define a business / learning outcome that is close to what you would really want to achieve for the business. Of course, the flow learning types might not like something to be mandatory or an assignment or have higher precedence or however you want to say it. They may have to put up with me trying to put some directed learning structure on top of their flow learning event. Having someone write a discussion item, blog post, or whatever that is the ultimate outcome that we are going for is really something that I would push for in hindsight. I have no idea what Michele, Harold and I would have finally done as an outcome of this discussion. But I'm glad to have the context to discuss it now. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

Send to Kindle Just a quick post to share that I will be teaching a two-day Articulate Storyline class online for a training company called Amananet, Inc. on September 5th and 6th. I have been a big fan of Articulate Storyline even before the product was introduced to the market a year ago. The day the product launched I blogged a list of 7 reasons why I thought it was a game-changer for eLearning.  A year later and having worked on several consulting projects since then, I still strongly believe Storyline is the very best Rapid e-Learning development tool out there. These are all reasons why I’m very excited about this opportunity to teach Storyline. In addition to the course outline, which you can find on Amananet’s site, I will also go over best practices for developing learning for mobile devices based on Mobile Learning (mLearning) projects I have worked on. This course is intended for Storyline beginners and intermediate users, so if you are just getting started, I hope you will join me on August 5th. Please use this link to Register and I will see you there.

by Anita Horsley     When working in Adobe Captivate, it's possible that you will need to use colors that match your corporate brand. In that event, you'll be happy to learn that Captivate 8 allows you to easily create custom Theme colors. And once you've created your Theme colors, you can apply those colors to just about any slide object or learner interaction.The first step to creating custom Theme colors is to apply a Theme to a project. To do that, click Themes on the toolbar and select any of the available Themes (Captivate provides several Themes out of the box).Each Theme comes with a collection of Theme colors. You can use those colors as is or customize them. To access the Theme's colors, click Themes and then click Theme Colors. Scroll through the list of colors and select any one of the Themes you like. To customize the Theme colors, click the Customize button.Click the title of the current color theme and type your own theme name. Click the color swatches to replace the existing colors with your own. (Note: If your company does not have a style guide and you're looking for some guidance when it comes to selecting Theme colors, you may consider using your website colors. You can use the eye dropper tool to match the colors used on your website.) As mentioned earlier, you can apply your custom Theme colors to just about any selected Captivate object. For instance, if you insert a Smart Shape, the Fill area on the Properties Inspector will include your custom Theme colors.You can use customized Theme colors on Interactions. There will be a Theme Style option at the right of the Interaction. If you click Custom, you'll have access to Theme colors.     *** Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

View and download the webinar slides . View the webinar recording.   5 Barriers to Effective Employee Training Programs - Webinar 08.21.14 from BizLibrary Get updates, invitations and free resources from BizLibrary by signing up!   Additional Resources: Five Barriers from Charles Jennings   Everyday we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. So much that 90% of the data in the world has been created in the last two years alone. SOURCE: IBM Understanding Big Data: Analytics for Enterprise Class Hadoop and Streaming Data   How Executives View Learning Metrics by Patti and Jack Phillips, CLO Magazine, Dec 2010     Creating a Frictionless Learning Experience by Dean Pichee Cox eLearning Consultants, Learning Solutions Forecast: 2014 Edition Make Training Stick by Barbara Carnes The Importance of Agility HR Exec Online

I received a response that I didn't expect on my post Profile Photo.  In that post, I suggested that you should always add a profile photo: Don't join that new Ning group without attaching your photo.  Add it to your Elluminate and WebEx profiles. Because profile photos help me: Believe that you are a real person and begin to connect with you. Remember you.  Believe you are serious. I also suggested that for business networking: Don't use anything other that photorealistic photos. Have a reasonably complete LinkedIn profile. The comments I received basically told me that I'm making unfair, snap judgments and I'm showing my bias.  And I want to thank everyone who commented and who called me on that bias.  You are quite right that I'm biased.  But let's set the context here - I don't already know you or your name. I'm running into you on a business networking site.  All I have is often your Photo, Name and sometimes a Company and Title. I have limited time. My goals are generally directed learning goals or maybe I'm thinking about issues with my business or my clients. I need to quickly decide if I'm going to spend time with you and/or your content.  Will this be a smart use of time? That sounds horrible.  I'm going to use that little bit of information to decide if I will go look you up on LinkedIn, or send you a message about something, or otherwise interact.  But that's the reality of what happens. And profile photos are part of the picture.  This is not new.  It's happened for years at business mixers.  People need to control their time as part of in-person networking.  They also make snap judgments at business mixers.  And they have the person, their name, possibly title and company.  They make quick judgments.  They choose to speak to your or not. I'm not saying this is fair or right … I'm saying this micro-decision is going on all the time and you are not likely to change it (although you've got me to think about my own bias).  I think you ignore it at your peril. Now consider the impression left by the images that I've pulled down from various business networking sites shown below.  And consider that people are going to make snap judgments on whether they will spend time.    Dating and Profile Photos Because I was involved in eHarmony at the start, I may be especially sensitive to this subject.  eHarmony was (and is) quite different from dating sites in that the true vision was to create successful (happy and long) marriages.  And they have been successful doing that.  For a long time eHarmony resisted showing pictures because of the belief that this skews someone's impression of the individual, and you may choose someone other than your soul mate because of a profile photo.  Users demanded a profile photo. This is not much of a surprise.  Here's what was found on Yahoo personals: When our researchers looked at personal photo statistics, here's what they've found: A profile with one personal photo receives five times as many replies as a profile without a personal photo. A profile with three photos receives seven times as many replies as a profile without a personal photo. A profile with five photos receives nine times as many replies as a profile without a photo. Granted, eHarmony has a very different mission and purpose from a personals site like Yahoo, but profile photos turned out to be important there as well. And what does this tell us - profile photos are important. Profile Photos Other Opinions and Advice Seth Godin tells us that profile photos are important in business as well: If it's important enough for you to spend your time finding and connecting with new people online, it's important enough to get the first impression right. If you use any online social network tool, the single most important first impression you make is with the 3600 to 5000 pixels you get for your tiny picture. Seth's number 6 advice backs me up on conceptual photos/images: 6. Conceptual photos (your foot, a monkey wearing glasses) may give us insight into the real you, but perhaps you could save that insight for the second impression. There's definitely belief in the book business (and some debate) that having the right picture is very important for book sales. Antonia Hodgson, the editor-in-chief at the publisher Little, Brown, it’s more important than ever, "The author photo is now just the beginning of a process of getting to know the author." And I would claim profile photos are the starting point in building a relationship online. A couple of other interesting links that I found on this topic: Is Your Networking Profile Up to Date? Smile in Your Photo Closing Thought One closing thought - you may look good in a bathing suit, but you don't wear it to a business mixer.  Or at least I think I would remember you if you did.  Instead, you look the part.  Profile photos are part of your image, your brand.  Look the part. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

This morning while reading the latest news, I came across a CNET news article, entitled "Flash quietly re-emerges on Amazon’s Kindle Fire." Speaking to All Things Digital in an interview published on Tuesday, Amazon’s Kurt Kufeld confirmed that his company has been quietly testing Flash support with Kindle Fire owners since February. The effort was offered under the guise of an "experimental streaming viewer" when users would watch Flash video on certain popular sites such as Fox.com, CBS.com, and NBC.com. According to Amazon, the technology relies partly on the Silk browser running on Amazon’s KindleFire, as well as the company’s cloud-based technologies. Kufeld told All Things Digital that it’s part of a broader effort on Amazon’s part to "solve customer frustrations." "One we heard often from customers was that they wanted to view Flash content," he said. via Flash quietly re-emerges on Amazon’s Kindle Fire | Mobile - CNET News. As someone who strongly believes that it’s time to leave Flash behind and embrace a new web that is plug-in free, I shared the story on Twitter with the following  prefix: We need to let Flash go and move on >> Flash quietly re-emerges on Amazon’s Kindle Fire http://t.co/D23BZMfRZm — RJ Jacquez (@rjacquez) July 10, 2013 My tweet initiated a very interesting thread with help from some of my friends on Twitter, who don’t quite agree with my views on this. What do you think, is it time to abandon Adobe Flash in learning design and embrace new, more modern technologies like HTML5, CSS 3 and Javascript instead? Here’s the entire thread and please chime in by leaving a comment below: [View the story "Is it time to Abandon Flash in eLearning Design?" on Storify]   Send to Kindle

You know the old adage "What if you train them and they leave?" "What if you don't train them and they stay?" This infographic includes some key data points to support your investment in employee training and development.       Download a copy of the infographic, "Is Employee Training and Development Worth the Investment?" by clicking here.         Learn something new! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.

There's a fantastic post by Stephen Downes - New Technology Supporting Informal Learning.  In his post, he really is looking primarily at the University of Manitoba's Connectivism Course that he designed and delivered with George Siemens to 2200 students in Fall 2008 and you can tell that he's busy thinking about the technology behind the Fall 2009 course. So as you read this, keep in mind that Stephen was primarily talking about technology that can support a Formal Learning Event that heavily leverages Informal / Social Learning as it's primary mechanism. It's definitely worth a read.  Somewhat random thoughts as I reviewed the post. Training Modalities Stephen tells us at the outset: Online learning today is beginning to be dominated by developments in games, simulations and related technologies. (Akili, 2007) I was just recently looking back at my post Training Methods and have been evaluating submissions as part of preparing for the upcoming eLearning Tour.  Both of these suggest that Stephen's use of the term "dominated by" is probably misleading. Complexity Stephen and I see similar kinds of complexities: our best response to the variability and complexity of the subject matter along with the changing nature of the learner is to design systems that are decentralized, to push learning decisions down the hierarchy or out to the edges of the network. Stephen goes through a great description of the course.  There's a lot to learn from that experience. Certainly one of the things that jumps out at me was the same learning goals challenges that we faced in the work literacy course that we ran during a similar timeframe: Because there were so many people contributing to the course, and because the content of the course actually shifted and varied according to participation and input into the course, it was necessary to emphasize to students that their role in the course was not to attempt to assimilate all course content. This was neither possible nor desirable. Rather, students were told that their role was to select and sample course content, pursuing areas of interest, reading related material from both within and outside the course, and then to contribute their unique perspective based on this reading. For flow learners with flow learning goals, this likely worked quite well.  For directed learners, likely this was a bit disconcerting. Still the fact that within the context of a formal learning event, they heavily use student activity aggregated together is a very interesting model.  In some ways, you could say that this might be an interesting model to experiment with as a formal/informal hybrid at the start of some new project.  A facilitated, get up to speed on a subject, kind of thing. I'd be curious to hear thoughts on that kind of learning experience. I also find it interesting to see the parallels to what I'm doing right now as I explore aspects of professional speaking.  I'm using aggregation and interactions with various bloggers on the topic to learn about it.  This is the same technology that is behind eLearning Learning and Communities and Networks Connection.  It allows multiple people to contribute to the aggregator and tries to filter and organize that content.  Stephen was dealing with that as part of the course and had to make daily sense of what was going on.  Possibly some of the social signals that we could use could have helped him, and I'll be curious how he automates more of that for the Fall 2009 class. PLE Functions Stephen's description of the main elements in the personal learning environment (PLE) was very interesting: In the PLE project being undertaken by the National Research Council, the functionality of the PLE is depicted in four major stages: to aggregate, that is, to collect content from the individual's and other online content service providers, where aggregation includes elements of recommendation, data mining and automated metadata extraction ; to remix, or to organize content from several different sources in different ways, including through automated clustering; to repurpose, or edit, localize, or otherwise modify or create new content; and to feed forward, or send the content to subscribers and other web services, either via RSS syndication, email, Twitter, or other relevant services. (Downes, Theory of Learning Networks, 2004) PLE functions: aggregate remix repurpose feed forward It's interesting to see this perspective on the PLE where it is part of the Connectivism course and students are naturally motivated (or required) to share.  When I look at this from more the PWLE (Personal WORK and learning environment) perspective, I find that there are similar functions, but possibly a different mind set. Looking back at my Tool Set series at the start of this year, there were very similar kinds of capabilities being described.  At first, when I looked at Stephen's list of functions, I felt like he was too content centric and had left out the people (see Networks and Learning Communities).  In many cases, I find myself searching for the right person as an answer to my learning / work need rather than finding the right content.  And I feel that Leveraging Networks is Key Skill and the most important Knowledge Worker Skill Gap. However, as I read further in Stephen's description he said: A network of PLEs is a learning network. And certainly the effect of the network of PLEs is similar to the search for individuals that I describe.  People naturally congregate and interact around content that they've found interesting.  This is an issue that I've found fascinating about networks - content-centric vs. people-centric.  If you think of Flickr, Wikipedia, Delicious - these all are content-centric networks.  The content is the central element but there's lots of social aspects and interaction.  Whereas when you look at LinkedIn (leaving aside Answers and Groups), it's a people-centric network.  LinkedIn certainly is adding all kinds of content-centric connection opportunities with Answers and discussions via Groups.  Thanks Stephen for a great post and a lot of insights into the technology side of supporting informal learning. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

I have been on vacation for three weeks taking a break visiting my parents and celebrating my son’s 7th birthday. I am back and looking forward to more great mobile conversations. I hope you are doing well and thanks for staying tuned in to my writing. James Kendrick over at ZDNet wrote a nice article entitled "10 advantages Windows 8 tablets have over the iPad and Android." Here’s what he said right before the list: … 10 features in this collection that give Windows 8 an advantage over the competition are by no means the only ones. They are significant enough to break them out from the rest. via 10 advantages Windows 8 tablets have over the iPad and Android | ZDNet. Around the same time, stories related to how Microsoft is doing thus far with their Surface tablet began to come out. Here’s one in particular that is very telling: [the] Surface RT tablet recently led to a write-down totaling $900 million. That number turned out to be greater than the amount of revenue earned on the entire Surface product line. According to GeekWire, total Surface revenue reached $853 million on June 30, 2013. via Surface Revenue Falls Below Microsoft’s $900 Million Write-Down (MSFT) | Benzinga. I don’t disagree with James in that all the features he mentioned are unique to Windows 8 tablets, and I’m not entirely sure these may even be some of the reasons why consumers are not buying the Surface tablet from Microsoft, but the list got me thinking about what ‘mobile is NOT about.’ I do think features like ‘multiple users‘ and the ‘snap view‘ are nice features, but beyond that, everything else mentioned, is exactly what we need to get as far away as we can as we move again from the old PC paradigm and into an increasingly mobile world. Namely: 1. Peripherals A slide I use in my Mobile Learning workshops to illustrate ways in which mobile is different than the traditional PC. James points out that attaching peripherals to Windows 8 tablets, such as a 1T portable hard drive, is one of the advantages, as compared to Apple tablets and Android tablets, that do not come with USB ports. One thing that amazes me about the PC revolution is that after more than 25 years, we still need to download drivers every time we plug-in a new peripheral to the back of our computers. Whatever happened to the promise of ‘Plug-and-Play‘? Mobile is about letting go of the past, in order to invent new ways of working better and enjoying the experience. Tablet makers, who add USB ports to their devices can’t let go of the past. We shouldn’t have to carry around heavy hard drive with us, what we need to do is embrace the cloud as a storage innovation and improve how our devices automatically synchronize what’s important to us. The goals is to grab whatever device may be closest to us. We don’t need to plug-in a mouse to our tablet, we need to invent new ways of interacting with our screens using our fingers. Mobile is about doing more with less. 2. Full-blown file manager "The Windows File Manager has long been a fixture on desktops" writes James. True but did it truly make us more efficient? I mean even today we struggle to figure out where exactly we placed that important file, is it in My Documents folder or on my Desktop? We still have to wait for our Windows and Mac desktop computers to finish indexing our files before we can search for a file we desperately need to edit. Fortunately companies like Apple are taking cues from mobile and the web and making things easier on Desktop with features like tagging and Finder tabs, which will be available in the next version of OS X, Mavericks. Mobile represents an opportunity to start fresh and learn from the past and I for one I’m glad I don’t have to worry where I store my files on my smartphones and tablets. 3. Pen Support As for tablets with Pen Support, Steve Jobs said it best: "It’s like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager… they blew it. Users shouldn’t ever have to think about it." Users shouldn’t ever have to think about it indeed! 4. Run Powerful Software If I had to pick one thing the PC revolution was characterized for, I would have to say that it was ‘The more features, the better.’ This is the paradigm that brought us to what we consider today to be ‘powerful software,’ lots of features sprinkled across lots of menus and lots of panels. Mobile on the other hand is about simplicity, it’s about doing more with less. I leave you with something I wrote awhile back that I think applies here: I believe in this article, McKenzie makes an excellent point about how we should think about designing for mobile and I feel these same principles apply to all of us in mLearning: Now we need services that require less typing, fewer buttons, simple swipe and pinch actions, browsing that seamlessly integrates vertical and horizontal movement, larger images, and fewer data hooks that clutter up the user experience. via When Designing Mobile Learning, Think Less is More [#mLearning] | The mLearning Revolution Blog. Upcoming Events: Here’s a list of some of my upcoming events and conferences: August 13-14: From e-Learning to mLearning Design Training [6-hr Online Workshop] http://bit.ly/SxiAN6 If you are looking for Speakers for your 2013 eLearning, mLearning and Mobile Events, please contact me http://bit.ly/xP46WP Here's a recent Keynote Presentation I delivered for ASTD Houston: http://bit.ly/153Vr8C September 5-6: I'm teaching a two-day Articulate Storyline class online: http://bit.ly/14uc02j Send to Kindle

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.       Additional Resources: "It's not just succession to the top - it's getting the right person in place for every job. Some of tomorrow's key jobs may not even exist now." Robert M. Fulmer, Growing Your Company's Leaders   Top 10 Job Titles That Didn't Exist 5 Years Ago via LinkedIn "Managers need to stretch, challenge, and coach their high-potential employees… Without multi-dimensional dialogue about these issues, managers tend to hold on to their high-potential people instead of helping them along an intentional developmental pathway. High-potentials then may interpret this as a lack of company support and will be inclined to look elsewhere." Ron Ashkenas, The Paradox of High Potentials Harvard Business Review A Succession Plan for First Time Managers, Maria Plakhotnik and Tonette S. Rocco, T&D Magazine, December 2011 Leadership Development Courses and Videos "The hallmark of someone with learning agility is that they learn lessons from diverse experiences and are able to distill those down to rules of thumb so that, when they're put in an unfamiliar situation, they aren't stumped by it. It's almost becomes a price of entry for success now, especially in leadership and executive roles." Victoria Swisher, Becoming an Agile Leader.

by Kevin Siegel    Let's face it, some of the eLearning content you are required to create is a bit... shall we say, dry? A tad boring? A teeny bit heavy on the text and short on graphics? One easy way to spruce up your eLearning content is to add characters (or guides). But where do you find quality images to use as guides? The good news is that both Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate offer some awesome, and most importantly, free Characters--out of the box. Let's take a look at the Character features in both programs. While Characters have been around for several years in Captivate, and in both versions of Storyline, the images below are taken from the most recent versions of both programs, Captivate version 8; Storyline version 2.Articulate Storyline 2To insert a Character on a Storyline slide, open a slide and from the Insert tab on the Ribbon, click Character. You'll find two choices in the Character drop-down menu: Illustrated Character and Photographic Character. In the image below, I've selected Illustrated Character, which opened the Characters dialog box. From here, you'll find multiple Characters, Expressions, and Poses.I found the Expression options particularly cool... plenty from which to choose.Shown below are Storyline's many poses. And if you look in the lower right of the dialog box, you'll even find three pose directions (Left, Front, Right).And perhaps my favorite thing about Storyline's Characters is how easy it is to change the appearance of an inserted Character. In the Image below, notice that you can select a Character and totally change it to another character, change its Expression, Pose... even its Perspective. Simply awesome!If you'd rather work with Photographic Characters, go back to the Character drop-down menu and choose Photographic Characters. As with the Illustrated Characters, you'll find multiple actors and poses.Adobe Captivate 8To insert a Character in Adobe Captivate, simply choose Media > Characters.Similar to Storyline, Captivate's Characters dialog box presents you with several Categories, Characters, and Poses. (In the image below, I've selected a Character and Pose from the Business Category.)If Captivate's Illustrated Characters work better for you, choose Illustrated from the Category drop-down menu and you'll be presented with four Illustrated Characters and various poses.If you want to change the Character's pose in Captivate, you'll need to manually delete the Character from the slide and replace it with another (not as cool as Storyline's edit-on-the-fly technique, but perfectly functional).Note: The Characters shown above aren't limited to Storyline and Captivate. You'll find many of the same Characters in Presenter.   Downloadable eLearning CharactersIf you're not happy with the selection of characters that come with those programs, you'll find resources on the web offering thousands of eLearning characters. While you'll need to purchase those characters (typically in groups or packs), you are almost guaranteed to find the perfect character to fit within your scene.  Two companies in particular jumped out when I went on an Internet search for characters: the eLearning Brothers and eLearning Art.Between the two, the eLearning Brothers is likely the better-known company (orange anyone?). They call their Characters "cutout people," and they've got thousands of them. Over on the eLearning Art website, characters are referred to as "people cutout images." And like the eLearning Brothers, there are plenty from which to choose.Another quick Internet search took me to eLearning.net where I found several free characters.If you'd prefer stock photography for your eLearning projects, the eLearning Coach has compiled a handy list of resources. Lastly, check out AJ's article on free zombie characters... perfect for the season.  *** Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes. If Articulate Storyline is more your style, we've got you covered there too. 

Paul Angileri who write the blog There Is No Chalk just left a comment on my recent post Profile Photos (see also Profile Photo):I once had someone comment to me on a non-professional email address of mine. They said it seemed to imply something negative. This was the only person ever to have mentioned it to me, and for the life of me I still can't see the person's POV on it. There's certainly no profanity of vulgarity in the email address, yet someone had a mildly negative reaction to it and at the very least seemed to imply that the very structure of the email address would likely preclude that person from communicating with me.Many of the recent comments really have helped to focus the discussion on the right issues - your brand, your audience and what they perceive. Subquark has convinced me that there are cases where a creative image and likely name make a lot of sense to help promote a creative business. It aligns with the brand. And if someone is not interested in interfacing with someone creative, that's not really the audience anyhow.As long as we are talking about possible bias when someone encounters you online, let's discuss email addresses. Again, in professional networking, your email address should align with your brand, the perception that you want to convey with your audience and the cultural norms of where you are networking. NamesIt's safest to use your name. It's probably a bit of a risk to use any kind of non-name. Again, the situation is a quick decision (less than a second) where you look at the person and decide if you will spend more time on this. What do you get from each of the following?snuggybear83john.mcelhonesurferchampAgain, there are likely cases where more creative names make sense. But make it a conscious decision.Domain Bias?The other thing I would suggest is a likely bias out there on domains. Please help me out on this ... what do you think when you see the following domains?aol.comyahoo.comgmail.comjohnmcelhone.com eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

source: bluebugle When you consider that the average smartphone user checks his/her device 150 times per day, it doesn’t take much to realize that the next big thing will be wearable computing. Smartphones are incredibly smart, they help us in so many ways throughout our day (maps, reminders, status updates, etc.), but we still have to pull them out of our pockets or purses constantly, and therein lies the advantages of wearing them in some way. This is why it isn’t surprising to me that Almost every major consumer electronics manufacturer is now working on a smart watch. However smart watches only get us half way there, for one thing we will still have to raise our hands to put them at face level, or look down at our wrist to see the same notifications we already get on our smartphones. Secondly, today’s smart watches aren’t a viable replacement for our smartphones, most of the videos I have seen of smart watches show they merely serve to display the same notifications we get on our smartphones. The killer apps in the wearable computing era will be to make the experience so seamless, you forget you are even wearing them. Enter Google Glass! I don’t yet have a pair of Google Glass, but I have watched enough videos and read enough articles about it, and used plenty of smartphones and tablets to know this is the future of computing. This is also why I’m not surprised that in 2012, Time called Google Glass "Best Invention of the Year." To get an idea for how Google Glass works, take a look at this short video: I’m a big believer in that the best user interface is the one that gets out-of-the-way, the one we don’t see or even notice, the one that just works. Smartphone are great but they still require us to get them out of our pockets, look for and launch the right app and use their awkward onscreen keyboards as input methods. Wearable computers like Google Glass will provide a more seamless computing experience because they will always be there when we need them and will understand our voice better than Siri does today, and will predict things for us even before we ask for them, based on where we are and what we are doing. There’s something magical about recording video or taking a photo without using our hands and that’s one of the many things Google Glass will empower us to do. I recently bought a couple of electric scooters for my son and I, and it has been a lot of fun to enjoy the outdoors with my boy. But I wanted to record the experience so I went ahead and purchased a GoPro Hero 3 camera, along with a chest mount harness, and you won’t believe just how steady the hands-free videos come out. I suppose this is the closest I have gotten to wearing Google Glass. A screen shot of a hands-free video of my son riding his electric scooter using a GoPro camera and a Chest Mount Harness, while riding my own scooter. In the Connection Economy we live in, Google Glass is going to revolutionize how we learn new things and share what we know almost instantly. Imagine all the how-to videos that are going to be recorded and shared, it will be like everyone wearing the best screen recording software all the time and sharing the world around us. Google Glass will no doubt be a game-changer for Education and Mobile Learning and this is why I’m very excited about it! I leave you with this video I use when I teach my mLearning workshop and recently played during my keynote presentation for the ASTD Houston conference. via Explorer Story: Andrew Vanden Heuvel [through Google Glass] - YouTube. Upcoming Events: Here’s a list of some of my upcoming events and conferences: August 13-14: From e-Learning to mLearning Design Training [6-hr Online Workshop] http://bit.ly/SxiAN6 If you are looking for Speakers for your 2013 eLearning, mLearning and Mobile Events, please contact me http://bit.ly/xP46WP Here’s a recent Keynote Presentation I delivered for ASTD Houston: http://bit.ly/153Vr8C September 5-6: I’m teaching a two-day Articulate Storyline class online: http://bit.ly/14uc02j

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.     Additional Resources: Learning About Learning Agility 10 Hot Job Title That Barely Existed 5 Years Ago Gallup State of the American Workplace The Importance of Agility - HR Exec Online Hacking Leadership by Mike Myatt Return on Impact: Leadership Strategies for the Age of Connected Relationships by David Nour   The Social Leader: Leadership Development for Growing Your Next Generation This complimentary eBook discusses the social leadership model, influential factors that may mitigate in favor of adopting this model or even parts of this leadership model for your organization, the characteristics and traits common in effective social leaders, and emerging competencies that might be important to develop in social leaders in your organization.

This morning I received an email from Motorola with the subject Moto X. Ready when you are. I mostly ignore emails telling me about new smartphones, but the copy inside the image definitely got my attention today. Here’s what it says in case you didn’t get the email: Moto X responds to your voice - no touching necessary. Instead of a generic, unhelpful blinking light, information important to you quietly appears on the screen. When you pick it up, Moto X is curved to fit in your hand. Twist your wrist twice, it becomes your camera, and gets the shots you’d otherwise miss. Moto X is the first smartphone to be designed and assembled in the USA, so it’s close to you before it even gets to you. Once you turn it on, Moto X is all yours. Three things caught my eye, namely: Moto X responds to your voice. Instead of a generic, unhelpful blinking light, information important to you quietly appears on the screen. Twist your wrist twice, it becomes your camera, and gets the shots you’d otherwise miss. For a while now, we haven’t seen much innovation in smartphones, the newer ones are for the most part faster than the previous generation, and their batteries last a big longer. Or in the case of Apple and the upcoming iOS 7, a design that goes from skeuomorphic to flat, and not much beyond that. In other words, there hasn’t been much to get excited about. In fact, things on mobile are beginning to get complicated as they did in the PC era, and since Mobile is about simplicity, this cannot be a good thing. Think about it, we now have an excess of apps and we are constantly struggling to find the right one, we are now swiping too much in my opinion for such a simple task. I actually use the search on my iPhone to find the app I need, that is if I can even remember about all the apps I own. Predictive Computing I for one believe that it’s time for us humans to stop having to adhere to our technology and have our technology cater to us. I feel that we are now ready for truly smarter phones that can begin anticipating our needs based on where we are and what time of day it is for example. This is why I’m excited about Google Now and why I’m concerned about Apple’s future, in part because they don’t have a Google Now-like strategy. Neither does Apple seem to have an answer to the upcoming Google Glass. I will share more of my thoughts on Google Now in a future post, but for now I believe this is the future, predictive computing if you will. Back to the Moto X phone This is why I take notice when I read that a smartphone will wake up when I speak to it, no touching required. Incidentally this is possible in the Moto X because Google Now is built from and center. The idea that a phone can display the right notifications for me exactly when I need them is another exciting microinteraction that I welcome into my mobile experience. Finally, the ability to simply twist my wrist to invoke the camera is one of those ‘why didn’t anyone else think about that before’ concept. This is a great start and I look forward to more manufactures doing more. Thoughts? Here are two videos I found on the Moto X that illustrate these innovations:   via Moto X - Quick Capture - YouTube.   Upcoming Events: Here’s a list of some of my upcoming events and conferences: August 13-14: From e-Learning to mLearning Design Training [6-hr Online Workshop] http://bit.ly/SxiAN6 If you are looking for Speakers for your 2013 eLearning, mLearning and Mobile Events, please contact me http://bit.ly/xP46WP Here’s a recent Keynote Presentation I delivered for ASTD Houston: http://bit.ly/153Vr8C September 5-6: I’m teaching a two-day Articulate Storyline class online: http://bit.ly/14uc02j

Written by Chris Osborn   The development of your high potential employees (or HiPos) is a critical factor in ensuring continued success for your company. Today's Q&A Thursday video provides you with a simple tip to help ease your HiPos into their future roles.   Stay Up-to-Date on the Most Current Business Training Trends BizLibrary offers 7,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   10 Tips for Marketing Your Employee Training Program In this eBook we’ll discuss you'll learn 10 ways to improve the marketing of your online employee training program and boost employee engagement and participation. BizLibrary's Mobile Learning App meets the needs of today's digital learners. Employees no longer wait for training departments to push learning content to them. Employees are used to pulling information to themselves, when they need it, on their own terms and conditions, and on their own devices. Video Transcription Hi,Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing with BizLibrary with today's Q&A. Today's question comes from Kiera, but it's really more of a comment and suggestion about how to really drive leadership development. Kiera says, I would say that you can give your high potential employees opportunities to grow their leadership capabilities with smaller projects and initiatives. For instance, I've been tapped to lead a change initiative related to our shared drive. I've been given a task force of five members and it has really been a great experience, and really helpful in exploring leadership strategies. Well, we here at BizLibrary talk a lot about the value of action learning projects, or participating in a task force or project team as a way engage high potential employees or emerging leaders in learning, and Kiera's comment, well really it's a testimonial, confirms the value of this suggestion. And why are these approaches good ideas? Let's go back to Kiera's words. "It's been a great experience" "Very helpful in exploring leadership strategies" Well, we learn best by doing. And that's what happened with Kiera. Now let's build on that by adding some great learning content all around the experience. Before the project, provide video courses on the basics of teams, team dynamics, and team leadership. During the project, provide access to mobile content, real time access to content on engagement, coaching and leadership essentials. Then, once the project is completed, perform an after-action review with the participants and their managers to talk about the positives lessons learned and the impact on the organization. Find the wins, and ask how the wins might have been bigger by asking "what-if" questions to explore even more depth and breadth of the emerging leadership skills. Learning is a process, we can't talk about employee learning and development in linear terms, and we can't expect learning strategies that project learning as a linear process to deliver results, especially in today's world. So to really amplify the results of your employee learning efforts, remember, define ways for employees to experience learning firsthand. Be creative, find a task force project for high potential employees which gives your emerging leaders chances to actually practice leadership skills.

Here what eLearning Learning thinks is the most interesting stuff from last week. Actually, it's what all of you seemed to think was the most interesting stuff from last week.Top Posts The following are the top posts from featured sources based on social signals. New Way of Learning- eLearning Technology, May 4, 2009The Ten Commandments of eLearning- Upside Learning Blog, May 8, 2009Avoiding the Virtual Ghost Town- Kapp Notes, May 6, 2009Learning Outcomes- eLearning Technology, May 6, 2009ASTD / ISPI Event- Social Enterprise Blog, May 8, 2009eLearning Tour - May 21 - Free- eLearning Technology, May 5, 2009Brain rule #6- Clive on Learning, May 8, 2009Improved Learning or Business Benefits- eLearning Technology, May 4, 2009Lies, damned lies, and Wikipedia…- ThirdForce Blog, May 8, 2009Profile Photos- eLearning Technology, May 7, 2009The next Web of open, linked data (Semantic Web)- Don't Waste Your Time, May 6, 2009Describing What You Do: Instructional Design- Learning Visions, May 6, 2009iPhone Learning Links- Kapp Notes, May 5, 2009How small is too small for educational technologies to be meaningful?- Electronic Papyrus, May 3, 2009Top Other Items The following are the top other items based on social signals. 9 Free Tools That Help Me Build Better E-Learning, May 5, 2009Control and Community: A Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage, May 4, 2009Using Elgg as as Social Learning platform, May 2, 2009Learning with 'e's: e-Learning 3.0, May 4, 2009Learning 2.0, May 5, 2009Become a chief meta-learning officer, May 3, 2009The Future of eLearning is Social Learning, May 2, 2009Are You a Super Learner?, May 7, 2009Learning as a Network, May 7, 2009Is there no room for Informal Learning?, May 3, 2009How to Get the Most Out of a Conference, May 7, 2009New technology supporting informal learning, May 4, 2009Royalty-Free Music, May 2, 2009 Top Keywords Camera (8)Twitter (27)Pipes (2)Desire2Learn (2)Social Network Analysis (2)Learning Management System (6)Mobile (18)FLV (2)Photo (9)ISPI (2)TechSmith (2)Articulate Presenter (2) eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Jen Weaver   Because Mexico is  our neighbor to the south, Mexican culture may be familiar to most Americans. Whether you will find this information new or just a refresher course, let's explore some common cultural facts about Mexicans and their expectations when it comes to Training and Development. Test Your Knowledge of Mexican Culture True or False. The official name of Mexico translates to "The United States of Mexico." True or False. Mexico's official religion is Catholic. Quick Tips for Training & Development in Mexico1: Mexican communications include elaborate and extensive demonstrations of courtesy. Culturally, many Mexicans find it difficult to say "no," so they may agree to decisions or tasks without fully understanding the expectations but will avoid asking clarifying questions. You may find that those with higher levels of education may be more prone to request further details. While generally deemed acceptable in business interactions, intense constant eye contact may be interpreted as aggressive or threatening in other settings. During casual interactions, for example, intermittent eye contact is more appropriate. Authority figures are commonly perceived as corrupt, so most Mexicans will be skeptical of those in positions of leadership. Overcome this by being warm, personable and courteous. Demonstrate trust and goodwill while building relationships and maintaining professionalism. Mexicans are typically risk-averse and highly resistant to change. Subjective feelings on a topic guide an individual's perspective on what is true or right. Generally speaking, however, those with higher levels of education will give greater weight to objective facts than straight emotions or gut feelings when making decisions. Family is highly valued, and individuals will commonly make decisions based on the best interests of their family unit. Even with such a prevalence of machismo in Mexican culture, the mother is typically viewed as the central figure in the family due to her protective nature. However, the father may still garner the most respect. Business opportunities rely heavily upon building relationships, with relationships taking priority over expertise. Take time to get to know your students and key decision-makers in advance, especially when interacting with high-ranking professionals or governmental officials, as this will aid in their receptivity to your message. Priorities in time are given to building relationships, not to necessarily ending the meeting on schedule. While business meetings often end late, they will typically begin on time. So, be sure you are punctual. For casual gatherings, everything will typically start and run later than planned. As relationships develop, your Mexican counterpart may transition to using first names when you communicate. Wait for him or her to make this change; otherwise, use educational or business titles to address each other. Business settings are more relaxed than here in the States, and decision-making is a lengthy process. Build buffers for delays into your class timelines to allow for multiple conversations. Once a decision has been made, implementation processes are usually faster than here in the States, as Mexican businesses face less requirements and paperwork. Be mindful not to publicly criticize anyone, as individual dignity and respect are highly valued. High-end sharp-looking visuals are appreciated, so be sure to use quality graphics in your training materials. Answers The Trivia Above: True. False. Mexico does not have an official religion, although Roman Catholic beliefs are very prevalent. References:   1Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. (2006). Kiss, bow, or shake hands (2nd ed.). Avon: Adams Media.   *** Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions. And if you love Jen's articles, check out her new Localization mini courses.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.     Learn something new! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.

We have reached another key milestone in the mobile revolution, which bodes well for everyone involved in Mobile Design and Mobile Learning. A new report by Gartner, which came out today, shows that for the first time, smartphone worldwide sales exceeded those of feature phones in the second quarter of 2013. The report shows that while feature phones sales continue to decline steadily (21% year-over-year), worldwide smartphone sales reached a whopping 225 million units, up 46.5 percent from the second quarter of 2012. I expect that very soon people won’t be able to buy feature phones and instead will upgrade to smartphones and this is a great thing because it means that more people will be able to leverage the capabilities and sensors built into smartphones for Learning. The report has many interesting statistics, including the fact that Microsoft has now become the No. 3 Smartphone vendor, overtaking Blackberry. You can read the full Gartner report here.