Earlier this year I questioned why there was Still No Flash on the iPhone and iPad. It’s become quite clear that Apple (Steve Jobs) is going to block putting Flash on these platforms. Today the big news is Scribd Switches to HTML5; Adobe To Make Tools for HTML5. As a Part-Time CTO, I am continually making choices about what platforms to use, what do we build for, how do we integrate with social networks, etc. And just like a few years ago when it became clear that you shouldn’t build desktop applications anymore, I think we are hitting a tipping point where you have to question building anything that uses Flash as the delivery mechanism. Scribd today announced that they are going to be changing their Flash player to be based on HTML5. "We are scrapping three years of Flash development and betting the company on HTML5 because we believe HTML5 is a dramatically better reading experience than Flash. Now any document can become a Web page," Scribd co-founder and CTO Jared Friedman told TechCrunch. This comes at the same time as Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch: We’re Going To Make The Best Tools In The World For HTML5. Kevin doesn’t say that they are moving away from Flash - rather that they will support Flash and HTML5 as output. But it’s pretty clear that even Adobe sees the problem here. What does this mean in practice? Well Captivate will produce HTML5 so that it can be run on an iPhone, iPad and everywhere else. Right now, I believe this is a tipping point moment. It’s the beginning of the long slow death of Flash. The only question is my mind is how long/slow it will be.Oh and if I'm predicting relative to the big question this month: Learning Technology 2015 then my prediction is that we won't be building for Flash delivery in 2015. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

The high school biology lab is coming around to PETA. As more students object to animal dissection coursework in high school biology labs across the country, teachers and schools have begun to provide online alternatives or eliminate animal dissection altogether. The trend is backed by animal rights organizations such as PETA. To date, 11 states have enacted legislation to protect student dissection alternatives on the grounds of moral and religious freedoms. Dissection is practiced by 84% of pre-college biology educators, according to anti-dissection nonprofit NAVS. The practice began in the 1920s but didn’t become widespread in high schools until the 1960s. Online alternatives like 3-D illustrations, videos and interactive courses could save the lives of millions of animals. There are economic and environmental benefits as well. When a teacher or school procures an online alternative to animal dissection, they can re-use that digital resource infinitely, whereas animal specimens require resupplying every year. Many online alternatives are free, as well. The savings to schools on a tight budget can be considerable. Teachers also get back the time they would otherwise spend on setting up and cleaning animal specimens in the lab. Studies have shown that students taught using non-animal methods — online alternatives to animal dissection — tested as well if not better than their peers who were taught using traditional animal-based methods. No mess, no queasiness improved the students’ focus. The discoloration from animal preservation (think blue and bright pink veins) doesn’t distract or confuse students, and the specimen isn’t discarded, so students can return and review online diagrams and resources. With virtual dissection, students can repeatedly study a body system utilizing interactive graphics and video accompanied by in-depth text. Both the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) have approved non-animal alternatives to dissection. These organizations, along with PETA, the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) and the National Association of Biology Teachers, strongly encourage teachers who do offer traditional dissection in their classrooms to be responsive to students’ objections to animal dissection and to be prepared to provide alternatives. The Humane Society provides a campaign packet to help students and educators implement alternative dissection methods. The great news is that many of these alternatives are widely available right now. Even companies that supply once-living animals now offer dissection alternatives. Also be sure to check out Versal’s course catalog, which features courses with online diagrams and interactive quizzes on animal physiology for biology labs. Online, interactive courses provide as good or better educational outcomes for students as animal dissection, with greater cost savings. For a growing population of both students and teachers, the online alternative is the more humane and enjoyable choice.  

Based on the recent Big Question - Learning Technology 2015 - I received an interesting question: "Tony, what do you think of environments like Second Life? Do you think these have a great future in the world of learning for adults?" This is a topic I’ve talked about a few times.  Probably before you begin to read my predictions, it’s worth looking at: Second Life Learning Videos where I’ve collected a few different examples of learning in Second Life.  You might also look at Second Life and Learning and Second Life as a Learning Tool. There was a great recent article (found via  Gary Woodill) - Where Have All the Avatars Gone?  The basic point of the article is that despite not hearing as much about Second Life and other virtual worlds, a lot is happening where you can’t see it.  A couple of points from the article: Over 2,000 global enterprises, 600 universities, 35 international governments, and several divisions of the U.S. federal government — including the Departments of State, Homeland Security, NOAA, NASA, Army, Navy and Air Force — now exploit Second Life technology to connect with stakeholders around the world, communicate complex ideas, train and collaborate. In Second Life, the Michelin Group, for example, has an "extremely successful complex training program and interactive simulations for training worldwide employees in Enterprise Architecture. My personal experience with Second Life is that there's something really compelling about conducting meetings and events in virtual worlds.  You really feel like you are more there.  I also think there are some incredible opportunities to use things like Second Life to create virtual learning experiences very much like the experience of visiting the Plymouth Plantation or Colonial Williamsburg - without travel or cost of the venue.  Forms of this are happening already. But I also think that the current technical hurdles and learning curve is putting a damper on adoption.  It’s a bit like video conferencing systems.  If it’s not as easy as picking up a phone, then you need something pretty compelling to make it worth the headache. So to answer the question directly: Virtual worlds offer the possibility of creating some incredible learning experiences, however, Current technical and learning curve adoption hurdles make it a niche technology, thus If I’m creating a new company, product, etc., I’m pretty skeptical about basing it on these technologies. What about by 2015 to go along with the big question? My belief is that true 3D virtual worlds like Second Life will remain a bit more of a niche.  But I think there’s something that will come in from the back door that could cause significant adoption by 2015. We’ve reached a tipping point for web conferencing where it’s equivalent too and often preferable to face-to-face (Learning from Others in the Room, Narrowing Gap between Face-to-Face and Online Presentations, New Presenter and Learner Skills and Methods). I’ve predicted for a few years (Ten Predictions for eLearning 2008) that we would see adoption by mainstream web conferencing / video conferencing tools of something I would call a 2.5D environment.  Give people an avatar or picture.  Allow something along the lines of conference seating and break out rooms with separate voice streams in each.  But I’ve yet to see this materialize.  I think this changes the adoption dynamic entirely. I’d love to hear your thoughts on where this is going and where we will really see adoption for the mainstream. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Today we’re delighted to feature a guest post from Richard Byrne, author of the popular #edtech blog FreeTech4Teachers. Every year I talk with thousands of teachers at conferences all over the world. The question that I am asked most? "How do you learn about all of this?" The answer is rather simple, I subscribe to a lot of blogs. Over the years, the way that I subscribed to blogs has changed. At first I used email, then Google Reader, and now Feedly. But how you subscribe is not as important as how you share what you’re reading. If you’re following blogs and websites to discover information for your classroom, post stories in a place that makes them accessible to students. Teachers have plenty of options when it comes to sharing online resources with their students. First consider what you want your students to do with them. Diigo, Pinterest, and similar social bookmarking tools are fine if the goal is to just create lists of resources about a topic. For years I developed Diigo lists and invited my students to contribute too. As a condition of adding to the list, students had to write a short comment explaining the value of their suggested links. When I wanted to create a more robust conversation about an article or video, I would put in a blog post. The classroom blog post allowed students to write longer comments and allowed me to thread my comments in reply to each student. But today there are tools like Versal that combine the best of tools like Diigo with the best of blogging practices. With Versal you can build online courses that incorporate text documents, web articles, images, videos, maps, slideshows, and just about any other media that you find on the Internet. When you build a course in Versal, you build it lesson-by-lesson in an easy-to-follow outline. Ask students to comment as collaborators on the resources that you share or add a quiz on the resources you’ve posted in the course. When you incorporate a quiz into your lesson, you can require that students meet a minimum percentage in order to advance to the next lesson in your course. And if you already have an existing classroom blog or website, you can embed your entire Versal course directly into that blog. Today, the Internet affords us greater access to educational resources than ever before. Help students take advantage of those great resources by sharing and building discussions around them.  

I was asked what the biggest traffic sites are in eLearning that were not vendor specific sites. This was from a marketer trying to reach eLearning professionals. My quick answer was that Jane Hart’s site, eLearning Learning and The eLearning Guild would be among the top. But I really didn’t/don’t know the answer. I did promise I’d do some research and post what I found. I used Compete.com. It’s definitely not accurate as it way under reports traffic for eLearning Learning. However, after reading various sources that compared different traffic estimation tools, I was convinced that it was generally a decent indicator. Thanks to Harold Jarche and Susan Lewis (via twitter) and Cathy Moore and Dennis Wilen (via Facebook) with help on this. Cathy pointed me to questions about Alexa (Wikipedia article). Susan pointed out that none of this accounts for RSS subscription. Of course, it also doesn’t count email subscribers or twitter. So, yes … This is only rough estimating. Top Sites Using it, I plugged a whole bunch of different sites into it and produced the following graph of some of what I perceive to be the top sites. After doing this, I realized that eLearn Magazine don’t seem to have that much web traffic. In fact, according to Compete, eLearning Technology (this blog) and Stephen Downes’ Site come in higher that eLearn Magazine. Here’s a chart with those sources included: Of course, Stephen covers more than eLearning. And there are sites like ASTD that go well outside the world of eLearning. So to be clear, things I excluded: Vendor specific sites, e.g., Skillsoft Sites focused on broader topics like HR, Talent Management, Training, etc., e.g., ASTD (which has good traffic), CLO Media (which doesn’t seem to have good traffic volume) Sites that I can’t get accurate numbers separate from the base site. Learning Circuits is part of ASTD. Other Sites I tried but came out lower: Brandon Hall Learning Solutions Magazine Training Magazine Network TrainingIndustry.com ELearning! Magazine Masie.com It’s a little bit of a surprise to me some of the traffic numbers. Is this a surprise to you? What sites did I miss here? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

In honor of National Teacher Appreciation Week, we asked a few of our favorite teachers what they love about teaching. As the unsung heroes of our society, it’s only right that teachers receive recognition on one special day (at least!) for all of their incredible work.   What do you love about teaching? "In the eight years I have taught government to seniors, my experience has been different every year… In a good way! My students have amazed me with their personal growth, their evolving interest in their community and country, and their experiences after college." - Jennifer Hitchcock, Government Teacher at Westfield High School "I love it when I get a student to genuinely love science. Sometimes students feel that science just isn’t for them. But if you relate it their lives or relate it to their interests, all of a sudden they get it. Science is a part of everything that surrounds us." - Steven Iannuccilli, Biology Teacher at Xaviaer High School   What’s the funniest thing that happened in your classroom? "I am a woman of height. One day, in the middle of teaching I was standing with my ankles crossed. For no reason at all, I fell over. A student looked at me and said, straight-faced, ‘Tall people problems?'" - Jennifer Hitchcock, Government Teacher at Westfield High School "When a substitute teacher or other adults think you are a student in your own classroom." - Allison Gest, Science Teacher and Instructional Coach at Main Township High School   What’s exciting about teaching in 2015? "I find that teaching in 2015 has no boundaries. No longer are students confined to learning within a set of four walls. Now they can connect with others around the world and learn from cultures they could only read about before. The amount of information that is readily available to students is mind-boggling and readily available. If so inclined, students can learn at their own pace as opposed to being teacher-led as before. The world is now at their fingertips. The only limitation is imagination." - Deb DeJong, English Teacher at Oskaloosa Community Schools "The technology!! There are so many tools students and teachers can use to bring excitement and life into the classroom." - Allison Gest, Science Teacher and Instructional Coach at Main Township High School "The ability to use tech to reach my students in new platforms and rebrand their devices into learning tools where we learn from kids around the world and teach out to our community is pretty darn cool." - Jennifer Hitchcock, Government Teacher at Westfield High School   How is technology changing the way you interact with your students? "I find that students are more engaged when they are using technology. Because of this, I let students drive their learning. This means I spend less time lecturing and more time facilitating. It is amazing to watch them take control of their learning versus sitting back and being told what they should know." - Deb DeJong, English Teacher at Oskaloosa Community Schools  

This post is a new kind of thing for me. Dr. Joel Harband wrote most of this post and I worked with him on the focus, the content and a little bit of editing - actually I couldn't help myself and I edited this a lot. So this is really a combined effort at this point. As you know, Text-to-Speech is something that's very interesting to me and Joel knows a lot about it as CEO of Tuval Software Industries maker of Speech-Over Professional. This software adds text-to-speech voice narration to PowerPoint presentations and is used for training and eLearning at major corporations. Joel was nice enough to jump in and share his knowledge of applying text-to-speech technology to eLearning. Please let me know if this kind of things makes sense and maybe I'll do more of it. It certainly makes sense given all that's going on in my personal life. Text-to-Speech Poised for Rapid Growth in eLearning Text-to-speech (TTS) is now at the point where virtual classrooms were about 4 years ago when they reached a technological maturity where they were mainstream. It took a couple more years for me to say (in 2009) that virtual classrooms reached a tipping point. Text-to-speech has reached the point of technical maturity. As such, we are standing at the threshold of a technology shift in our industry: text-to-speech voices are set to replace professional voice talents for adding voice narration in e-learning presentations. Text-to-speech can create professional voice narration without any recording which provides significant advantages: keeps narrated presentations continuously up to date (it's too time consuming/expensive to rerecord human narration) faster development - streamlined workflow lower costs. It's being adopted today in major corporations, but it's still early in the adoption cycle. That said, at a developer’s conference in 2004, Bill Gates made the statement that that although speech technology was one of the most difficult areas, even partial advances can spawn successful applications. This is now the case for text-to-speech: it’s not yet perfect, but it is good enough for a whole class of applications, especially eLearning and training. The reason is that most people learn out of necessity and will accept a marginal reduction in naturalness as long as the speech is clear and intelligible. There's a lot going on behind the scenes to make text-to-speech work in eLearning. Like most major innovations it needs to be accompanied by a slew of minor supporting innovations that make it practical, easy to use and effective: modulating the voice with speed, pitch and emphasis, adding silent delays, adding subtitles, pronouncing difficult words and coordinating voice with visuals. Over the course of a few posts, we will attempt to bring readers up to speed on different aspects of this interesting and important subject. The focus of this post is around the quality of Text-to-Speech based on Natural Language processing. Text-to-speech Basics To understand how to think about text-to-speech voices and how they compare, it's important to have some background about what they are. Text-to-speech (TTS) is the automatic production of spoken speech from any text input. The quality criteria for Text-to-Speech Voices are pretty simple. They are: Naturalness Intelligibility Due to recent improvements in processing speed, speech recognition and synthesis, and the availability of large text and speech databases for modeling, text-to-speech systems now exist that meet both criteria to an amazing degree. A TTS voice is a computer program that has two major parts: a natural language processor (NLP) which reads the input text and translates it into a phonetic language and a digital signal processor (DSP) that converts the phonetic language into spoken speech. Each of these parts has a specific role and by understanding a bit more about what they do, you can better evaluate quality of the result. Natural Language Processor (NLP) and Quality The natural language processor is what knows the rules of English grammar and word formation (morphology). The natural language processor is able to determine the part of speech of each word in the text and thus to determine its pronunciation. More precisely, here's what the natural language processor does: Expands the abbreviations, etc to full text according to a dictionary. Determines all possible parts of speech for each word, according to its spelling (morphological analysis). Considers the words in context, which allows it to narrow down and determine the most probable part of speech of a word (contextual analysis). Translates the incoming text into a phonetic language, which specifies exactly how each word is to be pronounced (Letter-To-Sound (LTS) module). Assigns a "neutral" prosody based on division of the sentence into phrases. This will make more sense by going through examples. And this also provides a roadmap to test quality. We’ll compare the quality of three TTS voices: Mike - a voice provided by Microsoft in Windows XP (old style). Paul a voice by NeoSpeech - the voice used in Adobe Captivate. Heather a voice by Acapela Group. Actually, let me have them introduce themselves. Click on the link below to hear them: I'm Mike, an old style robotic voice provided by Microsoft in Windows XP. I'm Paul, a state of the art voice provided by NeoSpeech. I'm Heather, a state of the art voice provided by Acapela-Group. So, let's put these voices through their paces to see how they do. Actually, in this section, we are going to be testing the natural language processor and its ability to resolve ambiguities of parts of speech in the text. 1. Ambiguity in noun and verb "Present" can be a noun or a verb, depending on the context. Let’s see how the voices do with the sentence: "No time like the present to present this present to you." Mike Paul Heather Paul and Heather resolve this ambiguity with ease. Another example: "record" can be a noun or a verb: "Record the record in record time." Mike Paul Heather Again, Paul and Heather resolve this ambiguity with ease 2. Ambiguity in verb and adjective The word "separate" can be a verb or an adjective. "Separate the cards into separate piles" Mike Paul Heather Only Paul gets it right. 3. Word Emphasis (Prosody) Another type of ambiguity is word emphasis in a sentence: The intended meaning of a spoken sentence often depends on the word that is emphasized, as: "He reads well", "He reads well", He reads well". This is called prosody and is impossible to determine from plain text only. The voices try to achieve a "neutral" prosody that tries to cover all possible meanings. A better way is to use modulation tags to directly emphasize a word. We’ll discuss that in a later post. 4. Abbreviations Most voices are equipped to translate common abbreviations. The temperature was 30F, which is -1C. It weighed 2 kg, which is about 4.5 lb. Let's meet at 12:00 Mike Paul Heather Heather does the best job. 5. Technical Words Unless they are equipped with specialized dictionaries, TTS voices will occasionally fail to read technical words correctly. However they can be always be taught to say them correctly by using a phonetic language. Here are some examples. Each voice says the word twice: first by itself (incorrectly) and second after being taught (correctly). Deoxyribonuclease (dee-ok-si-rahy-boh-noo-klee-ace) Mike Paul Chymotrypsinogen (kahy-moh-trip-sin-uh-juh Mike Paul More Information http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis/introtts_old.html http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis/ eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

As you probably know, eLearning Learning has been steadily growing and is now one of the top eLearning sites on the web.  I wanted to let you know about an exciting development for eLearning Learning that’s being announced this morning in the eLearning DevCon Keynote. Garin Hess and the team from Rapid Intake has stepped in to help me keep the site going both from an effort and financial standpoint.  I'm very happy to have Garin involved because I've known him for years and he's always done a good job of helping to build the larger eLearning community through conferences that you probably already know about: eLearning DevCon Bring Your Own Laptop Garin was really excited to support this broad community of bloggers.  We both believe that while this is a loose network, it provides an important and really valuable voice.  It's somewhat the whole reason I started eLearning Learning - many people in the world of eLearning miss the great stuff that is going on in blogs.  Of course, if you are reading this, that’s probably not you.  That said - I still believe that everyone should be Subscribed to Best of eLearning Learning. Otherwise you’ve been missing things like: Top 75 eLearning Posts - May 2010 Top 68 eLearning Posts from April - Hot Topics iPad Google Buzz Top 125 Workplace eLearning Posts of 2009 Hot Topics in eLearning for 2009 And even though I subscribe to most of the blogs that are part of eLearning Learning, I still use the Best Of to make sure I’ve not been missing really good content. By the way, if you want to know more about the site and/or see ways you could be involved, take a look at: Curator Editor Research Opportunities on eLearning Learning. Garin - thanks for stepping up to help! eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

If you’re a teacher and a fan of Twitter chats like us, you probably participate in some of the more popular weekly chats, like #edchat and #edtechchat (and many others!). One of our favorites is #TTOG (Teachers Throwing Out Grades), hosted by teacher and education author Mark Barnes. Earlier this week, Mark asked everyone to comment on mastery learning, and we wanted to chime in. Many teachers use Versal to facilitate flipped classrooms, and we’re definitely intrigued by the "Flipped-Mastery" model (according to Wikipedia, a term coined in 2008 by Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams that refers to mastery learning that uses technology to time-shift the individual instruction). Self-paced online learning is one of the most obvious ways to time-shift instruction. There are so many options available to teachers, from Khan Academy courses to YouTube videos and even blogs. All can conveniently serve as valuable supplemental content. And while not all students have internet access outside of the classroom, the gaps are closing and online learning is often a viable option. Still, flipping a classroom isn’t just about sharing links with students. Teachers are rarely just experts at instruction. They’re (almost always) subject-masters. This is why we get excited about the Flipped-Mastery model. We believe that combining the wisdom of the Web with a teacher’s own expertise, blending online and classroom experiences, and focusing on helping all students master the material is the future of education. We think the future is already underway. Next gen SaaS VLE (virtual learning environment) platforms like Versal are making it easy for teachers to create interactive online lessons to compliment the classroom experience. We see more and more teachers every day looking to experiment and implement online learning. What do you think? Are we nearing the tipping point for mastery learning, and will tech be the last small piece to push it over? Will the Flipped-Mastery model become more the norm? If you’re flipping or blending your class (or have tried it before), what worked, and what do you need to make it work better? Share your thoughts on Twitter (#TTOG) or in the comments below!  

Inc. Magazine published an article The Best Industries for Starting a Business In 2010.  Not sure what to make of most of the article, but they did include Exam Preparation and Tutoring as one of the top ten. Parents always want their kids to do better on tests. A large number of adults returning to school are also looking for an edge. Given the low barrier to entry, this field is competitive. But if you carve out the right niche, it could be lucrative. The industry, which includes tutoring in such fields such as special education, language, and music, grew about 7 percent last year. And it seems like there are lots of eLearning Startups that are taking aim at different aspects of the Business of Learning.  My 12 eLearning Predictions for 2009 included Increase in Consumer/Education Social Learning Solutions 2008 was an interesting year that saw a myriad of new start-ups offering content through interesting new avenues. Social learning solutions like social homework help provided by Cramster; CampusBug, Grockit, TutorVista, EduFire, English Cafe, and the list goes on and on. And it seems like Inc. is maybe just a little bit late as there are a bunch of startups going after online exam preparation and online tutoring.  Some eLearning startups rouhgly in this space: Knewton focuses on test preparation online using test experts to help students study. TutorJam offers online tutoring programs for students in K-12, AP classes, and college. Brightstorm focuses on helping students prepare for AP tests, as well as standardized tests. Sums Online provides a wide range of math activities to help at home learners. DreamBox Learning is an education start-up that provides math games for kids. This was recently acquired by Netflix founder Reed Hastings. ProProfs - SAT and certification quizzes. PrepMe - personalized prep for SAT, ACT, PSAT. Tutor.com - online tutoring. And there are a bunch more out there.  As Inc. tells us - low barrier to entry.  So we should expect lots more. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

It’s now significantly more convenient to add contributors to your course. So if you are interested in collaborating with colleagues or creating student-led projects, simply invite people. You may also now remove contributors from a course. While the core course creator hasn’t changed (don’t worry, your work is still beautiful), the interface where you manage everything is so much easier to use. As a bonus, there’s a few new features. NOTE: you may need to clear your browser cache to enter the new dashboard. If you don’t know how to do it, read this. It’s now significantly more convenient to add contributors to your course. So if you are interested in collaborating with colleagues or creating student-led projects, simply invite people. You may also now remove contributors from a course. We’ve also added robust new course list management features, including the ability to bulk-delete courses. If your dashboard is cluttered with some of your more experimental projects, it’s now easy to clean it up. The individual course manager now includes basic access statistics. This will give you insight into how many people have started your course in the past 7 days or month (we have much bigger plans for this in the future, stay tuned!). Let us know what you think in the comments, or send our team a note at support@versal.com. If you need help finding your way around, please visit our support center for more detailed instructions. Or, watch this short tutorial video: Special thanks to everyone who opted in to testing the new dashboard for the past few months. Your insights have been invaluable, and our team appreciates your support.  

My posts around the Beginning of Long Slow Death of Flash and my post from a CTO perspective that I Cannot Bet on Flash for new development stirred up quite a bit of response.  A lot of it said quite correctly that HTML5 is not there yet.  And that Flash provides things that you can’t do in HTML/JavaScript.  However, there are some pretty amazing things you can do without Flash. The bottom line is that none of the feedback I’ve received has convinced me that choosing Flash as a delivery option for a new product or project would be a good idea today, especially if I want it to play on mobile and live for 5 years. But then I received a great question via a comment: I am a Masters student enrolled in an Instructional Design course with Walden University. I am somewhat new to the field and this article intrigues me. Should I hold off on learning Flash... and focus more on learning HTML5? Or would it be best to learn both? I know a very little about Flash and made it a goal to learn more, but now I wonder. You input is greatly appreciated. What a great question and kudos to this student for being so on top of things to ask it! And it was somewhat the inspiration for this month’s Big Question - Tools to Learn.  If you’ve not done so already, you should go read each of the posts there.  They have different perspectives and taken together they provide a pretty good roadmap of how to think about what tools you should learn. Jeff Goldman in Development Tools I Would Learn If I Were You - Jeff's response to June’s Big Question tells us: Flash: Yes, Flash is still very much alive and well in e-learning and because it is so embedded in our industry and there is nothing at this time that can provide the rich interactive elements that it provides, I do not see it being "dead" in our field anytime soon. The fact is HTML5 is not there yet and if it ever does get there it will probably be more than 5 years before it is at the level of quality and ease of development that Flash currently provides. However, see my comments under HTML/HTML5. To me the question is more about where you choose to spend your time.  The list of tools that Harold and Holly provide are pretty lengthy.  And Jeff suggests both Flash and HTML 5.  If you have so much time that you can afford to learn all of these tools, then go ahead. However, if you have to prioritize Flash vs. HTML 5 vs. ??? … then I would put learning Flash (especially scripting in Flash) way down on priority list at this point.  Remember End of an Era - Authorware - another Macromedia/Adobe product.  These things do eventually die out.  How valuable are your Authorware scripting skills at this point? Learning Flash today is like learning Authorware in 1997. So, yes, hold off on learning Flash and focus more on learning HTML 5. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

There’s a wealth of knowledge on the Web - why not bring it into your Versal course? It’s easy with the Generic Embed gadget. With this gadget, you no longer have to create all of the content from scratch. If you find something on the Web, bring it directly into your course. Embedding preexisting content makes creating courses faster than ever and offers your students diverse content in engaging formats (For fun, we’ve listed See a list of our favorite embed services below). Generic Embed has actually been available for several weeks, but today we’re going to explain all the ways you can use this gadget to embed your favorite, interactive content from across the web into a Versal course. Check out the video below. The embed gadget allows authors to bring in content from many existing services into a Versal course using embed codes, such as EdPuzzle, Geogebra, Padlet, Remind, Slideshare and Plotly. There are literally thousands of services that offer embeds, and many of work well in an educational context. See a list of our favorite embed services below. With Generic embed, bring interactive content from virtually any service directly into your Versal course. Offer student’s greater context create self-contained instructional units, without the risk of losing our students to all the distractions of surfing on the Web. Even flip your classroom and empower students to create their own courses. For step-by-step instructions on how to use the Generic Embed gadget, be sure to check out this course. Below is a partial list of our favorite educational services that can be embedded into a Versal course. Take a look and let us know if you have any suggestions! Presentation/Video EdPuzzle Educanon Knowmia Voicethread ShowMe Slideshare   Math/Science PhET Next Gen Molecular Workbench Geogebra Plotly Trinket.io   Curation tools Padlet Blendspace Storify Pathbrite Curriculet   Interactive media Thinglink Storyboard That StoryMapJS Popplet MuseScore AudioBoom   Communication Remind  

This is the second post in a series on Text-to-Speech for eLearning written by Dr. Joel Harband and edited by me (which turns out to be a great way to learn).  The first post, Text-to-Speech Overview and NLP Quality, introduced the text to speech voice and discussed issues of quality related to its first component - the natural language processor (NLP). In this post we’ll look at the second component of a text to speech voice: the digital signal processor (DSP) and its measures of quality. Digital Signal Processor (DSP) The digital signal processor translates the phonetic language specification of the text produced by the NLP into spoken speech. The main challenge of the DSP is to produce a voice that is both intelligible and natural.  Two methods are used: Formant Synthesis.  Formant Synthesis seeks to model the human voice by computer-generated sounds, using an acoustic model. Typically, this method produces intelligible, but not very natural, speech. These are the robotic voices, like MS Mike, that people often associate with text to speech. Although not acceptable for eLearning, these voices have the advantages of being small and fast programs and so they find application in embedded systems and in applications where naturalness is not required as in toys and in assistive technology. Concatenative Synthesis. To achieve the remarkable naturalness of Paul and Heather, concatenative synthesis is used. A recording of a real human voice is broken down into acoustic units: phonemes, syllables, words, phrases and sentences and stored in a database. The processor retrieves acoustic units from the database in real time and connects (concatenates) them together to best match the input text. Concatenative Synthesis and Quality When you think about how concatenative synthesis works - joining together a lot of smaller sounds to form the voice, it suggests where there can be glitches.  Glitches will occur either because there’s not a recorded version of exactly what the sound should be or will occur where the segments are joined when it doesn’t come together quite right. The main strategy is to try to choose database segments that are as long as possible- phrases and even sentences - to minimize the number of connection glitches. Here is an example of a glitch in Paul when joining the two words "bright" and "eyes". (It wasn’t easy to find a glitch in Paul - finally found one in a Shakespeare sonnet!) Mike - bright eyes Heather - bright eyes Paul - bright eyes The output from the best concatenative systems is often indistinguishable from real human voices. Maximum naturalness typically requires speech databases to be very large so the larger the database the higher the quality. Typical TTS voice databases that will be acceptable in eLearning, will be on the order of 100-200 Mb. For lower fidelity applications like telephony, the acoustic unit files can be made smaller by using a lower sampling rate without sacrificing intelligibility and naturalness, making a smaller database (smaller footprint). By the way, the database is only used to generate the sounds which are then stored as .wav, .mp3, etc.  It is not brought along with the eLearning piece itself.  So a large database is generally a good thing. Here is a list of the TTS voices offered by NeoSpeech, Acapela and Nuance with their file sizes and sampling rates. Voice Vendor Sampling rate (kHz) File Size (Mb) Applications Paul NeoSpeech 8 270  (Max DB) Telephone Paul NeoSpeech 16 64 Multi-media Paul NeoSpeech 16 490  (Max DB) Multi-media Kate NeoSpeech 8 340  (Max DB) Telephone Kate NeoSpeech 16 64 Multi-media Kate NeoSpeech 16 610  (Max DB) Multi-media Heather Acapela 22 110 Multi-media Ryan Acapela 22 132 Multi-media Samantha Nuance 22 48 Multi-media Jill Nuance 22 39 Multi-media The file size is a combination of the sampling rate and the database size, where the database size is related to the number of acoustics units stored. For example, voices 2 and 3 have the same sampling rate, 16, but voice 3 has a much bigger file size because of the larger database size. In general, the higher sampling rates are used for multimedia applications and the lower sampling rates for telecommunications.  Often larger sizes also indicate a higher price point. The DSP voice quality is then a combination of the two factors: the sampling rate, which determines the voice fidelity and the database size which determines the quality of concatenation and frequency of glitches - the more acoustic units stored in the database, the better the chances of achieving a perfect concatenation without glitches. And don’t forget to factor in Text-to-Speech NLP Quality.  Together with DSP quality you get the overall quality of different Text-to-Speech solutions. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Project-based learning allows students to work together using concepts taught in class to solve real world problems. This dynamic, hands-on approach to learning can be especially effective in math classrooms. Rather than simply explain to students how to solve a problem and then have them practice independently, students are actually able to use and apply what they have learned. With Versal, teachers can instantly provide students with the perfect platform to accomplish many of their goals. Students can build projects in Versal using dozens of interactive gadgets. And students can collaborate on teams to build a project, similar to how they’d use Google Docs to work together. Below are just a few of our favorite ways to incorporate project-based learning into a high school math class.   Job Uncovered: Architect Requiring students to solve fraction operation problems, this project challenges students to create blueprints for a house to the specifications of their "clients." Incorporating all sorts of geometric concepts, students explore the world of architecture and see first hand how the math they learn can be applied in everyday scenarios. Versal’s Sketchfab gadget can help students take house plans to a new level - by being able to embed 3D models (either from Sketchfab’s catalog or created via Sketchup). With 3D models, students can zoom in and further explore geometric designs.   Go for the Gold This exciting assignment asks students to study the relationship between height and speed in various Olympic events. Students can visit a local running track, record how fast various classmates run, and study their speed in relation to height. Is there an impact? Does their stature make the race easier or harder? Finally, they can determine if conventional races are fair or if they need to be organized proportional to an individual’s height. Versal’s video and graphing gadgets, like Desmos and 2DVector, let students demonstrate their findings, draw conclusions, and make recommendations.   Domino’s, Anyone? In this project-based learning assignment, students take a closer look at the popular pizza chain. Using the Domino’s Pizza website, students decide just how much Domino’s likely profits off of each pie. Predictions can be made about how and why the company decides what to charge for toppings. Students can take the project one step further and incorporate percent change by comparing Domino’s pricing to another local pizza place. Versal’s Expression gadget makes writing linear equations a breeze, so students can determine the base price of a pie and the cost for each topping thereafter.   Hot or Cold? With this project, students collect weather related data during both the day and night to determine which area of the country has the largest temperature swings (for example, students may study a desert location, a Midwestern area and/or a coastal town). Using a sine curve, students plot their data and make comparisons. Of course, Versal has a simple solution for this application as well. Using the Versal Sine Wave gadget, plotting the information will be a snap and students will create an excellent visual to show off their work.   Wrapping Up By providing students with practical experiences, project-based learning makes mathematical concepts far more meaningful for students. And, because it naturally promotes student collaboration and conversation, students process material on a much higher level. Education Researcher Sylvia Chard clearly explained the benefits to Edutopia when she said, "One of the major advantages of project work is that it makes school more like real life. It’s an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic worthy of children’s attention and effort." With project-based learning and Versal, there’s no telling how far our students can go.  

I’m involved in several discussions around how to use Wikis as part of learning solutions.  I wanted to collect a few resources around this topic for use in these discussions.  So, of course, I went to eLearning Learning and I looked at Wiki, Collaborative Learning with Wikis, Wikis and eLearning 2.0, Wikis Corporate eLearning, Social Learning with Wikis, Wiki Security and a few others.  Here’s some of what I found: Why a Wiki?- Experiencing eLearning, July 27, 2009 Wikis at Work- eLearning Technology, February 25, 2007 Control and Community: A Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage, May 4, 2009 Blog or Wiki?- Kapp Notes, January 20, 2009 Wiki activities 5 stage model, April 7, 2008 Control and Community: A Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage, May 4, 2009 Really Cool "3-Minute e-Learning" on Social Networking - Wiki, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, RSS, October 10, 2007 Wiki working, June 19, 2009 Wiki: Intro to Emerging Tech, July 18, 2009 Could A Wiki Be Your Next Talent Management System?, October 23, 2008 Using Toolkits to Aggregate Learning Resources, February 6, 2009 Enterprise Wiki as Intranet - a success story, September 20, 2007 Lurking and loafing, March 9, 2010 Activities, Workflows and Structured Wikis (Augmented Social Cognition), February 9, 2009 Wikis for Improving Productivity- Experiencing eLearning, June 10, 2008 Wiki's For Professional Development- Learnadoodledastic, September 26, 2007 One more time: what's the difference between a blog and a wiki?- Clive on Learning, April 13, 2007 Wikis: Ways to use them for a more Collaboration and Interaction- Dont Waste Your Time, August 28, 2009 Do wikis work for any topic? How about math?- eLearning Acupuncture, March 25, 2009 eLearning Tools - Wikis, Blogs and More- eLearning Technology, April 2, 2007 Wiki - Day 2 - How Wikis are Used- Engaged Learning, December 1, 2009 Wikis - Day 3 - Privacy & Adoption- Engaged Learning, December 2, 2009 Wikis - Day 4 - Overcoming Bad Stigmas- Engaged Learning, December 3, 2009 Top 10 Ways Social Media Will Impact Employee Development and Training in 2010- Learning Putty, October 29, 2009 Conference Wiki Examples- eLearning Technology, November 25, 2008 Use of Wikis as Compared to Other Tools- eLearning Technology, February 23, 2007 22 Social Learning Strategy Questions to Answer Before Your Next Lesson- Learning Putty, July 1, 2010 TCC09: Wikis that Work: Effective Wiki Practices for Virtual Learning Communities- Experiencing eLearning, April 15, 2009 Wiki as repository for a virtual community- Joitske Hulsebosch eLearning, January 21, 2009 How Wikipedia Works and Wikis in the Enterprise - HBS- eLearning Technology, July 23, 2007 Wikis - Public vs. Controlled - Why There's No eLearning Wiki- eLearning Technology, September 14, 2006 10 Social Media Tools For Learning- The eLearning Coach, November 16, 2009 Collaborative Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools - A Summary- eLearning Technology, May 16, 2006 Benefits of Collaborative Learning- Dont Waste Your Time, July 8, 2010 Enterprise 2.0 - Community Spaces can lead to Walled Gardens- Free as in Freedom, March 27, 2010 Examples of eLearning 2.0- eLearning Technology, September 22, 2008 Collaborative Learning « Social Enterprise Blog, June 3, 2009 A Learning Paradigm Shift: Cybergogy, April 9, 2010 Learning space mashups, July 13, 2009 Case studies of corporate (social) learning, March 12, 2010 Using SharePoint- eLearning Technology, December 16, 2008 SharePoint 2010: The New Employee Gateway?- trainingwreck, January 23, 2010 Social Learning Strategies Checklist- Social Enterprise Blog, January 11, 2010 Extending elearning?- Learnlets, November 30, 2008 SharePoint Social Learning Experience- eLearning Technology, February 1, 2010 Time for "new" training approaches- Daretoshare, February 28, 2009 Checklist of Social Learning Strategies- Engaged Learning, January 12, 2010 The Future Of Learning Design- The eLearning Coach, November 23, 2009 Wiki Owner- eLearning Technology, March 19, 2009 Social Learning Tools Should Not be Separate from Enterprise 2.0- eLearning Technology, April 7, 2010 SharePoint 2007: Gateway Drug to Enterprise Social Tools :: Personal InfoCloud, March 16, 2009 Driving the Informal with the Formal, February 10, 2010 groundswell - confirming my e-Learning 2.0 ideas, August 27, 2008 TELUS Case Study - Using Sharepoint to embrace social computing and streamline formal learning , May 15, 2010 Driving Change: Selling SharePoint and Social Media Inside the Enterprise, January 30, 2009 How to Find the Right Wiki for Your Project or Organization, February 15, 2009 From formal courses to social learning- Learning Conversations, November 26, 2009 Requirement to Social Learning Adoption #1 - Relative Advantage- Engaged Learning, February 23, 2009 Characteristics of Emergent Communities- Social Enterprise Blog, April 14, 2009 Promoting Social Learning- eLearning Blender, May 23, 2009 eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

The concept of "flipped classrooms" has been a hot topic for the past couple of years. Can instruction be effectively delivered at home, freeing up class time for debates, projects and labs? The model flips the traditional approach of using class time for explaining concepts and homework for reinforcement. In the beginning, many teachers dove all in, but soon faced challenges. Then it started to lose favor. Anecdotally - we’re hearing it’s making a comeback. Mostly, we’re hearing about teachers blending the flipped classroom approach into their traditional curriculum, using the method more selectively. When flipping their class, those most typical use case we see is where teachers provide lesson materials the night before class as online video, podcasts, blog posts or interactive courses, and then plan a collaborative project for class time. (By the way, you can easily create interactive courses on Versal - it’s a great way to experiment with flipping your class.) Flipped classrooms usually work best with science, geography and other courses that enable students to explore and research topics. Some teachers even flip English class and have students read novels during class and respond to those works by writing blog posts at home. Are you considering flipping your classroom? We’ve spoken to many Versal teachers about the pros and cons, and wanted to share what we’ve learned with you.  Pros of flipped classroom teaching Passive student learning is removed, with teachers moving into a coach or advisor role. Students are encouraged to study independently or with their peers. Students assume the ownership of their own learning. Through independent work, students become more likely to master concepts, rather than just do the minimum for a grade. Students review online material at their own pace, revisiting information until they are satisfied and skipping ahead if they desire. This helps keep more of your students on the same page, leaving fewer behind! Classroom time is used to work on higher cognitive activities, inquiry learning models, application of new learning and assessment tasks. Cons of flipped classroom teaching Teachers need to be highly organized and plan well ahead of class. It may require creating more instructional material, including videos and exercises that you may previously have done verbally. But the time and effort investment pays off in the long run, as online lessons can be easily repurposed and updated in subsequent semesters. Online access poses a barrier to students without computers/connectivity at home (aka the "Digital Divide"). Teachers must be comfortable using different forms of technology and willing to try and learn new skills. Some students prefer the traditional face-to-face lecture type classroom format. Flipped classrooms definitely take effort on behalf of both teachers and students to be successful. The method isn’t for every class or every lesson or even every subject. Teachers should have flexibility in their curriculum requirements and the time to set up take-home lessons. Also, it’s especially useful if students are generally motivated to do independent work and enjoy more collaborative in-class sessions.

I received a question this week related to Discussion Forums for Knowledge Sharing at Capital City Bank: I successfully launched a discussion forum for a small group of lending assistants within my bank. That forum is still up and running. Since that time, I have attempted to introduce the discussion forum tool to two other work groups within the bank but I have not been very successful. I’ve used examples from the lending assistants as well as other benefits of the tool to demonstrate how its use would benefit the bank and these work groups. They see the benefit of the tool in a strict learning environment, but have difficulty seeing its use in an expanded role. One of the things that this group has identified as one of their "problems" is that they receive too many emails. I presented the discussion forum as a solution to this problem, in that it would reduce the number of emails they receive because the information would not be in their in-box, and more importantly would allow discussion between the all the members (one to many) rather than one to one or one to a few. They pushed back because they felt that this was just one more place to go and one more thing to do. They were also concerned about the accuracy of the information that was published on the forum. I pointed out the benefit of correction of inaccurate information on a discussion forum is that it is visible and correctable - unlike information that is sent through email or other back channels of communication.  I could go on… but I’m sure you get the picture.  I’m just having trouble getting traction and wondering what I can/should do better/different. The one thing they were interested in finding out, is whether other financial institutions are using discussion forums and if so how. I was wondering you could help me find out if there are others, who they are and if they’d be willing to talk with me. Great question.  Of course, there’s no easy answers here, but lots we can discuss and learn around this. In terms of finding people with experience on this, my first suggestion was using LinkedIn and particularly looking through LinkedIn Guide for Knowledge Workers, LinkedIn for Finding Expertise, and Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers.  This is in process.  I’ll also reach out via twitter.  If you have other ideas or if you are at a financial institution and are willing to have a discussion with this person, please drop me a comment/email. Of course, there’s a lot of great information out there on this via eLearning Learning under terms like Discussion Forum, Collaboration in Discussion Forums, Discussion Forum Adoption, Benefits of Discussion Forums, Discussion Forum Case Studies.  I also checked out Nancy White’s Communities and Networks site under Discussion Forums, Case Studies of Discussion Forums, and Community Building and Discussion Forums. I found a lot of great stuff.  Let me start with some of the ones that are probably more relevant to this particular inquiry: Examples of online communities in the financial services industry- FreshNetworks, March 17, 2009 7 Creative Ways to Introduce Social Media to Your Team- Learning Putty, October 22, 2009 Using Online Forums in Social Learning- Learning Putty, October 19, 2009 Change agents, group forums and the one percent rule.- Business Casual, October 29, 2008 Making Intranet Discussion Groups Effective- eLearning Technology, June 15, 2006 Requirement to Social Learning Adoption #2 - Compatibility- Engaged Learning, February 24, 2009 The Holy Trinity: Leadership Framework, Learning 2.0 & Enterprise 2.0- trainingwreck, May 8, 2010 Ten tips for choosing & using social software- Learning Conversations, February 23, 2009 Promoting Social Learning- eLearning Blender, May 23, 2009 Get involved and make the most of your online community- FreshNetworks, June 3, 2009 Examples of online communities in healthcare- FreshNetworks, April 8, 2009 Blogger in Middle-earth: Working With Online Learning Communities- Blogger in Middle-earth, April 14, 2009 How To Kill A Community, February 12, 2009 Online Success - a recipe for learners and facilitators- Designed for Learning, February 14, 2010 eLearn: Best Practices - Discussion Management Tips for Online Educators, September 30, 2009 Franchisees Benefit from Learning 2.0 at Zaxby's - 1/15/2009 8:54:00 AM - Chain Leader, January 17, 2009 Facilitating online communities - WikiEducator, June 11, 2009 HOW TO Sell Social Media to Cynics, Skeptics & Luddites - Tips, Resources & Advice - UPDATED, June 2, 2009 Intel Communities: IT@Intel Blog: Why Intel is investing in Social Computing, February 15, 2009 Community of Practice for Facilitators : pilot, adoption and participation- Library Clips, September 13, 2009 Team-based communities : Transparency and Crowdsourcing for a more cohesive workplace- Library Clips, March 9, 2009 BT Web 2.0 adoption case study " Inside out, February 20, 2009  How to kick start a Community | Connie Bensen, May 20, 2008 Cisco on Collaboration: Know Your Enthusiasts & Laggards | Future Changes, October 2, 2009 Essential reading for online community managers- FreshNetworks, January 5, 2010 Insight from online communities: 2. Focused discussions- FreshNetworks, January 19, 2009 Is this the Future of Forums?- eModeration, May 4, 2009 The top-down and bottom-up creation of enterprise communities, and wikis- Library Clips, December 18, 2008 More thoughts on community structure and creation- Library Clips, January 11, 2009 Forums Are Everywhere and Here to Stay, So Skip the Tools Discussion and Focus on Your Objectives, March 25, 2010 Discussions Are Not Warfare; Forums Are Not a Battlefield, December 9, 2009 5 Easy Ways to Find Stories, Topics and Discussions to Post on Your Online Community, February 24, 2009 Understanding the difference between Forums, Blogs, and Social Networks, February 10, 2008 How to Develop Robust Moderation Methodology- Community Guy, March 23, 2010 Back to Basics: Want to Know What Your Community Members Need? Just Ask., January 19, 2010 Creating Passionate Users: How to Build a User Community, Part 1, June 17, 2007 Why so many community initiatives fail to take flight…, January 17, 2009 Social Media and the insurance industry- FreshNetworks, February 18, 2010 Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: The Series- Portals and KM, January 20, 2010 More Resources on Discussion Forums, Communities: Forums vs. Social Networks?- eLearning Technology, September 15, 2008 5 Easy Tips for Teaching Online Courses- Learning Putty, January 18, 2010 Forums - Day 1 - What is it?- Engaged Learning, November 23, 2009 Discussion Forums for Knowledge Sharing at Capital City Bank- eLearning Technology, September 15, 2009 The new look Captivate forum- Adobe Captivate Blog, April 8, 2009 I want to facilitate online discussions but how do I choose the right platform?- Joitske Hulsebosch eLearning, November 14, 2009 Top 10 Ways Social Media Will Impact Employee Development and Training in 2010- Learning Putty, October 29, 2009 22 Social Learning Strategy Questions to Answer Before Your Next Lesson- Learning Putty, July 1, 2010 From formal courses to social learning- Learning Conversations, November 26, 2009 Tips for facilitators in Ning- Joitske Hulsebosch eLearning, March 13, 2009 Making the case for social media- Good Practice, November 2, 2009 Social learning: all talk and no action?- Spicy Learning, February 5, 2010 Communities of practice- Learnforever, May 31, 2010 Make way for virtual learning communities- Electronic Papyrus, March 25, 2009 An Introduction to blogs, wikis, and RSS - New Technologies for e-Learning, September 20, 2007 ONLINE FORUM: Lights, Camera, Action - Using Media to Engage the Learner, June 2, 2009 Online social networks, learning and viral expansion loops- Sticky Learning, December 14, 2009 Community of Practice for Facilitators : pilot, adoption and participation, September 13, 2009 Distributed Network Learning FAQ - WikiEducator, December 20, 2008 Seed, feed, & weed- Learnlets, September 17, 2009 Online communication is not second best- Clive on Learning, October 11, 2007 The Power of Community | workforce.com, May 28, 2009 conversation matters: What Do We Get From Conversation That We Can't Get Any Other Way?, April 14, 2009 Case Study: Comics in Community Communication- Community Guy, August 10, 2009 Designing an online and face-to-face learning trajectory- Joitske Hulsebosch, July 15, 2009 Employee social networking case study : Sabre's cubeless product, September 1, 2008 Understanding the difference between Forums, Blogs, and Social Networks, February 10, 2008 I want to facilitate online discussions but how do I choose the right platform?- Joitske Hulsebosch, November 14, 2009 Should anonymous comments be allowed in an online community?- FreshNetworks, March 7, 2010 Oldie but goodie: "CompuServe's Intranet Forum"- Endless Knots, February 23, 2009 What’s the biggest mistake a community manager can make?- FreshNetworks, December 24, 2009 Are your community's lurkers healthy lurkers?- Joitske Hulsebosch, June 15, 2009 Preparing for community release- Library Clips, April 11, 2009 Community Netiquette: How to Avoid Stepping on Virtual Toes- Community Guy, August 4, 2009 Facilitating an online discussion to foster cooperation between two development organisations, December 27, 2006 Full Circle Online Interaction Blog: Updating my basic article on online facilitation, April 29, 2007 What other resources or case studies would you point to around this topic? Any thoughts or advice? Help would be sincerely appreciated! eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Space travel is that rare educational topic that seems to capture the imagination of almost every student. It wraps math and science up in a cloak of adventure, curiosity and dreams of the unknown. Fun fact: even the Versal logo was inspired by space travel. Our icon is spherical triangles, a form of trigonometry used by astronauts to navigate in deep space. No matter what subject you teach, incorporating space travel into your curriculum is sure to be a hit. And, in case you haven’t already discovered it, NASA’s Education site is chock full of free online resources. What should you check out first? Read up with in-depth articles showcasing science educators, recent scientific discoveries, scientist profiles, and ongoing events and missions at NASA. Subscribe to a weekly email and search a vast catalog of educational resources. Sign students up for free webcasts - they’re a great way to virtually attend lectures by experts in their fields on a wide range of topical subjects. Try some of the interactive activities, including the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program - Mission 9 to the International Space Station, and propose real experiments to fly in low-Earth orbit on the space station. Connecting with NASA on mobile and social Beyond curriculum resources, NASA also offers many ways for high school students to engage with the agency and other space travel enthusiasts. With popular accounts on Facebook and Twitter, as well as links to literally dozens of departments and programs, NASA’s organizations weave the sciences into the daily lives of students. NASA Socials provide NASA followers with an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at NASA facilities and events and speak with scientists, engineers, and astronauts. And NASA Chats run in conjunction with live scientific events like the Geminids Meteor Shower of 2014 or the most recent lunar eclipse. NASA Apps are downloadable for smartphones and tablets. NASA Spinoff highlights numerous examples of NASA research and technology that has become part of our everyday lives. Other apps cover the latest from NASA, including photos, videos, mission information, news and feature stories, tweets, ISS sighting opportunities, satellite tracking, Third Rock Radio, and more. More to explore Students will find plenty of videos and programs to boost their science education. Just to name a few: What’s Up - helps junior astronomers track the constellations month by month. Crazy Engineering - introduces students to the fantastic science behind some of NASA’s latest missions. FIRST Robotics -  a national engineering competition in which student teams design and build robots with professional experts, who provide guidance on brainstorming and testing designs. There are also internships and projects involving research and collaboration with high school students across the nation. NASA has a long and rich tradition of supporting educators to prepare, inspire, and nurture students who will become leading members of the future workforce, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). With so many online resources and mobile apps, you’re sure to find something to capture the imagination of students in your classroom.  

A colleague just asked me if I knew anyone who was using Augmented Reality for learning.  I’m not and I gave him the standard advice about looking through LinkedIn Guide for Knowledge Workers, LinkedIn for Finding Expertise, and Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers.  He did that, but didn’t find particular people.  Probably I need to update my posts because there have to be lots of people who would be involved in training and augmented reality found via LinkedIn.  I just tried a search for "augmented reality" as a keyword along with either title contains "training" or "learning" and found some interesting folks. My next suggestion was to use eLearning Learning to search.  This gave rise to the additional of a new keyword Augmented Reality on eLearning Learning.  You may have wondered where the keywords come from. :) Actually, this leads to quite a treasure trove of great posts: Tools for Developing Augmented Reality Applications- Upside Learning Blog, April 30, 2010 Fighting Phobia's with Augmented Reality- Kapp Notes, July 6, 2010 Augmented Reality, Future for eLearning?- Designing Impact, June 8, 2010 Augmented Reality: does it have a place/future in education?- Dont Waste Your Time, February 23, 2010 More Augmented Reality Videos- Dont Waste Your Time, March 26, 2010 Mobile Augmented Reality Training, April 30, 2010 Augmented Reality To Help Military Mechanics Fix Vehicles, January 25, 2010 Augmented Reality and the Future of Learning & Work, September 22, 2009 Google Goggles will rock m-learning., December 7, 2009 Augmented Reality and The Coming Tsunami of Location Learning Apps- Electronic Papyrus, October 26, 2009 Layar the first mobile augmented reality application- Ignatia Webs, June 23, 2009 The two types of augmented reality- E-learning in the Corporate Sector, July 20, 2010 Advantages and Drawbacks of using Augmented Reality #AugmentedReality- Dont Waste Your Time, March 30, 2010 In 2015 augmented learning in a ubiquitous learning environment will be fact- Ignatia Webs, May 11, 2010 Augmented Reality in Learning- Upside Learning Blog, April 15, 2009 Learning - augmented- Lars is Learning, September 9, 2009 Augmented Reality - Now A Reality at Upside- Upside Learning Blog, March 2, 2010 Augmented Reality on campus- Dont Waste Your Time, July 7, 2010 And this naturally leads to both the people/companies in the various case studies as well as suggests some folks to contact such as Judy Brown, Karl Kapp, Lars Hyland, David Hopkins and more.  At least they’ll likely have a bit more clue as to who to talk to. If you have suggestions for my colleague, we are all ears. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

With the school year winding down, it’s a great time to plan for summer assignments and help students avoid the inevitable "summer slide." Creating such assignments, however, can often present quite a challenge. Students are mentally moving into fun mode. And since they won’t have much direct teacher support, teachers not only need to create independent assignments, but activities that will capture student’s attention and make them buy into the experience. Summer is still a time for learning, though, and so we have five  ways to engage your students - to get them thinking and keep them reading and exploring - even in the midst of beach season. Make reading a social experience. While it’s difficult to form in-person book clubs, consider setting up a private place online where questions can be assigned and students can share and comment on each other’s responses. With an online collaborative workspace, teachers can easily keep tabs on students and provide support as necessary. And, like all virtual assignments, students can participate from anywhere - even while lounging on the beach. Swap jobs with your students for the summer. Let them pick and choose what they’ll read - preferably around a topic covered the previous year but that ties into the next year’s focus. After the first summer rush starts to wear off, ask students to select their favorite book. Next, have them create an online presentation that explains their book and makes an argument why you should choose to read their selected book as a class during the school year. Select one book, or perhaps choose one from various genres and work them into your curriculum throughout the next year. This offers students a say in their summer reading as well as for assignments during the year. Create a mini-course for students to take at their own pace during the summer months. Using an online course creator like Versal, go ahead and provide students with an actual lesson. The numerous gadgets allow students to learn through interactive and meaningful experiences, and feel a lot less like homework. Enlist the help of a online motivational reading program. One of our favorites is the Scholastic Summer Challenge, Power Up and Read. Your entire school can choose to participate or individual students can enroll online. Kids simply record the amount of time they spend reading and become eligible to win prizes and earn cool digital rewards when they complete Scholastic’s challenges. Create your own prizes too! For more information, head to Scholastic. Want to teach your students about point of view? Encourage students to choose a character from a book they’re reading over the summer and create a mock social media account for that character. Either choose to help students set up private, secure social media account before summer begins, or students can simply create a poster showing the design of what their character’s social media site may look like - profiles, posts, friends, and things the character would likely follow. Just a few ideas to get kids thinking! What are your favorite ways to keep your students reading and learning over the summer? We’d love to hear them!  

This is third post in a series on Text-to-Speech for eLearning written by Dr. Joel Harband and edited by me (which turns out to be a great way to learn).  In the first two posts, Text-to-Speech Overview and NLP Quality and Digital Signal Processor and Text-to-Speech, we introduced the text to speech voice and discussed issues of quality related to its components: the natural language processor (NLP) and the digital signal processor (DSP). In this post we will begin to address the practical side of the subject: How can e-learning developers use Text-to-Speech (TTS) voices to narrate their courses? What tools are immediately available? Text-to-Speech (TTS) Tools for eLearning Applications There are a number of possibilities available today for using TTS for eLearning; they fall into two categories or approaches: TTS Stand-Alone. A general approach in which developers use any standard authoring tool such as Articulate or Lectora and use stand-alone TTS on-demand services/products to create audio files that are then linked or embedded in the presentation. TTS Integrated. Products/services that have TTS voices bundled and integrated with an authoring solution, including Adobe Captivate and Tuval Software Industries’ Speech-Over Professional. In this article, we are going to concentrate only on using TTS Stand-Alone tools to create audio files that are embedded into a course. TTS Stand-Alone Web Services TTS stand-alone products can be used by eLearning developers irrespective of the authoring tool they are used. Several of the voice vendors offer on-demand TTS voice web services which accept text and produce sound files.  Here are a few of the top web services for TTS: Company Web Service Loquendo Pronuncia NeoSpeech On Demand Acapela-Group Acapela-Box These web services have the advantages: Choose any voice among a set of vendors voices Set pitch, speed volume of voice for the entire file Select type of sound file output (wav, mp3, etc) Preview function Pronunciation dictionary Pay as you go Disadvantages Because they are web services, there’s no automatic connection with the desktop file system.  Most of the time you are creating audio files locally and thus having access to the file system means it will keep files up-to-date.  In some cases, this also applies to things like storing scripts and default settings. This can be a major disadvantage and cause significant extra steps.  Because of this, we are going to concentrate on a particular desktop stand-alone product to illustrate the eLearning production workflow. Acapela Virtual Speaker - a Desktop Stand-Alone TTS Product Acapela-Group offers a desktop stand-alone product, Acapela Virtual Speaker, that is better suited to eLearning production than most of the web services solutions listed above.  As an example, let’s see how to work with Acapela Virtual Speaker. Virtual Speaker works with input text files (the narration scripts) and output sound files organized into directories.  Narration scripts (text files) are stored for easy updates and the system makes it easy to generate the associated sound files based on updates.  The sound files are generally easy to find and access from any authoring tool. To create a sound file from narration text for an authoring tool using Virtual Speaker, you perform the following: Define a file naming system to identify the text and sound files for the authoring tool Set working folders for input text files and output sound files Enter new narration scripts or open a stored narration script file from the text files working folder Select the language and voice for this sound file Select the volume, pitch, speed of the voice Press the Play button to preview the voice reading the text Make changes in text and voice settings as required Name the text file according to the naming system (for new text) and save it in the working folder Select the output format: wav, mp3, etc Press the Record button, a sound file is created with the same name as the text file and stored in the working folder To import the sounds files into the authoring tool use the File Import function of the tool to import the file from the working folder as required. It sounds really easy and it is.  Stand-alone TTS tools are used to create sound files just as you would if you had a human recording audio for the course. These sound files then need to be associated with the content using the authoring tool.  In later posts, we’ll get into more specific comparisons of TTS vs. human narration.  In terms of taking the resulting audio files and using them via an authoring tool, the level of effort is similar. Of course, both human narration and TTS tools that produce audio files means that it takes some work to get the audio files embedded in the authored course, including importing the files and in some cases synchronizing them with a time-line editor.  Tools that have embedded TTS, like Adobe Captivate, make this significantly easier. And if you make changes to the script, you will need to create new audio files and import them again. This is much easier than having to go through another round of narration. But it still takes work. Personal TTS Readers Not Licensed for eLearning Some readers may be wondering why we haven’t mentioned the TTS "personal reader" products such as: Natural Reader , TextAloud, Read the Words,  and Spoken Text as possibilities for eLearning tools. The reason is that sound files produced by personal readers are for personal use only and are not allowed, by license, to be distributed. This restriction means that these products cannot be used for eLearning, where sound files are distributed to learners. We’ll talk more about this important subject in a future post. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Google Classroom is one of the most interesting new ways to create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback, and easily communicate with students. This morning, we’re excited to announce that Versal is one of the first companies to integrate the new Classroom share button, launched this morning by Google at ISTE. What does this mean? Now you can share courses with your class directly from Versal, and empower your students to take the assignments from within Google Classroom. Simply publish your course or lesson, and click the Classroom share button. Here’s a short video explaining how it works: The Classroom share button is a simple embeddable javascript button which allows teachers and students to easily share content from third party websites to assignments and announcements in Google Classroom. The Classroom share button saves teachers time by removing the copy-paste steps of sharing great content with their classes in Classroom. It’s a great step forward, and we’re honored to work with the Google Classroom team on this initiative. Open solutions are especially critical in educational environments, where teachers need the freedom to integrate the solutions that best serve their respective students. It’s the same philosophy we’ve embraced with our open embedding gadgets, empowering you to bring the best content on the Web into your courses. Check it out, share a Versal lesson or two with your Google Classroom, and let us know what you think. We look forward to your feedback!  

I’ve discussed before about how it’s Hard to Evaluate the Performance of Knowledge Workers and now some additional backup from Dilbert: Which goes along with: But let’s be careful here because: eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.