CES2016 was an interesting experience. And to experience it with an interest in eLearning made it even more interesting. It's much bigger than the eLearning events I'm used too, and even though it's not about elearning, it's filled with just as much technology based learning innovation. I've already posted my initial thoughts about the event in these posts: CES2016 Trends That Will Influence Your eLearning Development CES2016 Update Part 2: eLearning Mega-Trend! The Future of Learning Experiences is Here Today The following video is a closer look at my personal CES2016 experience, and some of my thoughts about the future of eLearning and the L&D industry. Enjoy! The post VIDEO: An eLearning View of CES2016 appeared first on Litmos.

 What does it mean to be normal? How can we tell if new and innovative tasks and pedagogies are truly authentic - or just considered authentic because it fits into our privileged views of what normal is? Innovation. New Pedagogies. Digital literacies. 21st Century Learning Skills. How do we make sure we are not just […]

One year on 12 months ago today I posted my very first article on my new company’s website after choosing to leave Jisc. The article began: I have been very fortunate to have spent more than a decade dishing out advice, supporting and occasionally nagging, learning providers about the fantastic and often simple technology available to them. But here […]

Living with a Seal I don’t recommend books to often. The reason is there are not a lot of good ones out there. Also, people in business tend to suggest books about business. Some of these are worth a quick browse through the table of contents to see if anything stands out. Most are not worth the time. They can be verbose and repetitive. A friend of mine told me to check out "Living with a Seal" Read More The post Get off your butt with this motivating book appeared first on renshicon.com.

This weekend I was going to go cross country skiing. When I woke up the temperature was -24c. Yikes! My wife and I were planning to go to Shark Mountain. A beautiful place with wonderful mountain views about 30 minutes south of Canmore Alberta. Now -24 is pretty cold but it would be at least 10 degrees colder there. -34 was a no go in my book. So we decided to stick around home, get some errands completed and do some reading. Read More The post Smoking, Fumes, Pitch Dust and Dirt! appeared first on renshicon.com.

In the Speexx Exchange 2015-16 Survey, we spoke to 220+ HR and L&D professionals who told us what’s happening in their organisations right now with regard to e-learning, business communication, mobile learning, talent management systems, and Big Data. Things are clearly moving ahead, with more and more managers reaching their goals, yet a number of barriers still need to be overcome for them to really thrive. E-learning and E-enablement  An impressive 81 per cent of survey respondents have now introduced some form of e-learning, with over half of them having established or embedded e-learning across their entire organisation and made it part of their corporate culture. Yet at the same time, the large part of HR and L&D managers (43 per cent) plan to invest just 10-29 per cent of their training budget in e-enabled or blended learning programmes this year. This finding was slightly alarming to me. Despite e-learning being more cost effective on the long run, a realistic proportion of the budget still needs to be invested to get started and find out what works best. Just 8 per cent plan to invest more than half of their L&D budget in e-learning. We were also curious about the benefits of e-learning - does it really deliver what it promises? The top benefit registered is ‘Flexibility and accessibility’ (as it was in the past two years), cited by an overwhelming 46 per cent. Clearly, we shouldn’t underestimate the opportunities e-learning offers in terms of engaging learners in remote locations, delivering globally standardised content and supporting students who travel frequently. A further 20 per cent believe that e-learning increases "Student motivation and retention." This strongly resonates with point 5 of Bersin’s Key Predictions for talent management in 2016: Bersin believes that "engagement, retention and culture" in general will persist as top priorities in HR and L&D this year. Big Data  Moving on, Big Data was all the rage in the past 12 months. While it helps to follow and predict consumer trends across numerous industries, Big Data has been slow to gain a foothold in HR and L&D. Just 17 per cent of the Speexx Exchange Survey respondents currently use Big Data for talent management purposes, while an encouraging 39 per cent want to start using it in the next three years. Yet the benefits of Big Data in this sector cannot be ignored: The Towards Maturity Benchmark Survey showed that the top performing organisations are three times more likely than the rest to use benchmarking data to improve performance. Almost a quarter of respondents of the Speexx Exchange 2015-16 Survey said they would like to use Big Data for tracking learner progress and results, while a further 21 per cent were not sure how to use it at all. If Big Data is to work, HR and L&D Managers need to start gaining a thorough understanding of its opportunities and risks, and stay informed about current trends. When asked what they thought was the main barrier to applying Big Data for HR and L&D purposes, organisations cited, "Lack of management support" (30 per cent) as the top issue, followed by (unsurprisingly)"Lack of know-how in collecting and using data" (25 per cent). This shows that both HR and management need to act swiftly and find out what Big Data can actually do for them and what is realistic in their case. Looking ahead  The role of HR and L&D is becoming more complex as HR increasingly aligns into delivering more tangible outcomes to meet business objectives.  There are perhaps four key threads driving HR initiatives forward. First, the on-going challenge of finding and retaining the best talent (28 per cent), aligning training and development with business needs (26 per cent), second, using big data for HR and people analytics (16 per cent), and finally developing great leaders (12 per cent). While not all goals can be reached at once, knowing what lies ahead, being realistic about what’s right for the business and staying up to date with trends and changes will keep organisations on the right track. Read the full post via Training Journal.

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of hosting our first webinar of 2016 with special guests: Don Taylor (Long-time veteran of the learning space and currently the Chairman of the Learning and Performance Institute) and Carol Leaman (CEO of Axonify). The webinar focused on the results of a survey, which asked participants to identify the trends that are going to be ‘hot’ in workplace learning this year. Having moderated many of our webinars before, I can easily attest to the fact that this one was highly engaging. The chat window was very active. We had a total of 362 unique comments in a 60 minute session (which averaged out to a comment every 10 seconds!). Clearly, a lot of folks are excited for what 2016 will bring to the world of corporate learning. We are too! Here are three interesting takeaways from the webinar: 1. Personalization and Collaboration have consistently been important. For the last three years in a row, these two trends have consistently been in the top three results and don’t forget, this is a global survey. What we’re hoping to see this year is a better distinction of the difference between personalized and adaptive learning. If you’ve already started personalizing learning in your organization, you’re certainly on the right track; however, to make learning even more relevant therefore, engaging it has to also be adaptive. From a social/collaborative learning perspective, a real challenge that organizations will face this year (and in the coming years) is knowledge transfer from the baby boomers to the millennials. Does your organization have a way of identifying experts on certain topics? Have you also created a system that allows employees to have easy access to learn from these identified experts? 2. Microlearning is on its way up the hype curve. There was a lot of discussion on the webinar about the topic of Microlearning (In fact, we did a whole separate webinar on Microlearning in December of 2015). We anticipate that this year, Microlearning will begin to take center stage as a strategy to deal with knowledge decay and to help with increasing speed to competency. To really get the full value out of Microlearning, you need to combine it with elements of brain science, personalization and proven methods of engagement, like gamification. Toward the end of the webinar, Carol shared stories of organizations that have been successful at driving bottom-line results with this approach to learning. 3. The formula doesn’t need to be complicated. It needs to be focused. How to make 2016 a great year in L&D? share-play-find-try, or as Robert Mapstead put it in today’s @Axonify webinar: 分享游戏找到试试 — Donald H Taylor (@DonaldHTaylor) January 20, 2016 Toward the end of the webinar, an attendee asked a very good question: "How can we embrace, internalize and make happen some of these ‘hot trends’ in our organization - if we haven’t already started?" To this question, Don had a simple formula: Share, play, find and try. Firstly, share and learn from others, ask questions and network with others instead of spending hours researching something. Secondly, play around and try out what you’re going to do in order to get a feel for what it might be like in your environment. Thirdly, find a manager who gets it and is willing to try it out, no need to go big here, you’re just looking to build a case. Trying it out is actually the final step in the process. What we would add at the end here is to center your efforts around a business problem. This way when you’re building a case and presenting it to your stakeholders, you can demonstrate the potential impact on the business. Which trends are you most excited to see come to life in your organization this year? Which trends are you most afraid of? Tell us below and in case you missed the webinar, you can catch the on-demand version at any time. Written by Shum Attygalle The post New Survey Reveals Top 2016 Corporate Learning Trends appeared first on Axonify.

If you have ever purchased a software system whether it be a CRM, LMS or training management system you will be sure to have heard the phrase ‘this product will save you time and money’. Perfect! Just what we are all looking for. But can it be true? Can we really reduce administration by introducing automation into our business?

Operations executives are finding that an eLearning program has a valuable place in training their employees on a wide variety of topics. But the term eLearning can be confusing and misunderstood and since it is relatively new in the operations world, it is helpful to clarify what it means and what an eLearning program might look like in a plant, warehouse or distribution environment. We tend to think of eLearning as online courses offered by a university. These are courses that students take over three or more months and substitute for traditional classroom learning. Students log on daily for up to 12 weeks and advance through chapters of the course, respond to daily posts from the instructor, complete papers, and tests online and often interact with other students online. That description is typical for the academic world, however, an eLearning program in the operations world is quite different. Similar to the academic version, eLearning students (employees) take courses on a computer but that’s pretty much where the similarity ends. Instead of a course taking 12 weeks it typically takes 10-15 minutes and instead of taking a test online employees will take brief quizzes to confirm they understood the most important points. There are neither papers to write nor interaction with the instructor, however, there are hands-on interactions where employees must demonstrate how to do a task or confirm their understanding of the material. An eLearning "program" is made up of many individual courses that are organized into chapters or topics for easy navigation. Here is an example of how a typical program could be organized. Welcome  Introduction to Smith & Co - 10 min  Overview of Your Benefits - 12 min Work Rules in the Operations Group - 8 min Safety New Employee Safety Orientation 10 min Lift Truck Certifications Walkie Rider 10 min Order Picker 20 min Proper Harness fitting 5 min Reach Truck 20 min Sit down dock truck 20 min 3 Year Lift Truck Recertification 10 min Conveyor Safety 8 min Proper Lifting and Bending 12 min Safe Loading of Outbound Trailers Quality Why Quality Matters - 10 min Understanding Our Item Numbers - 5 min Damage Free Pallet Building - 12 min What is the Cost of an Error - 8 min Productivity Efficient Trailer Unloading - 12 min Case Picking Procedures - 15 min Broken Case Picking - 15 min Replenishment - 10 min There are many chapters that can be included in a well-developed eLearning program. Chapters such as… Inventory Control Delivery Driver Training Quality Control and Auditing Lead and Supervisor Training Each course is accessed by simply clicking on the name which opens the course and registers the employee. Once started, the course is easily navigated with simple controls for forward, reverse and stop. At several points in each course, there is a knowledge check or hands-on activity that gives employees a chance to practice what they have just learned. At the completion of each course, a short quiz of 8-12 questions ensures they understand the most critical points and a minimum passing score can be set. If they are unable to pass the quiz an email can be sent to a supervisor alerting them that additional training may be required. This is particularly important for safety courses where comprehension is critical. An eLearning program is an efficient way to train new employees or update current employees on new practices and company guidelines. The simple organization of a well-designed program quickly connects with employees, allows them to self-navigate and guides them step-by-step through each course. It is simple to start an eLearning program with a few basic courses and then add more over time.   The post What Does an eLearning Program in the Warehouse and Distribution Environment Look Like? appeared first on KMI Learning.

Skills are one of the most valuable assets in the modern workplace. They cannot only make an organization more profitable and productive, but also lead to greater advancement opportunities for employees. In this article, I’ll share what eLearning professionals need to know about upskilling in corporate eLearning. Upskilling In Corporate eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Need […] The post 6 Strategies To Promote Upskilling In Corporate eLearning appeared first on PulseLearning.

Cross-post from Sylvia Duckworth at the maplesyrupedu blogA couple of weeks ago, thanks to my friend Sandra Chow, I was invited to experience Google Expeditions at Lawrence Heights Middle School (TDSB) in Toronto. (Photo courtesy Julie Millan)My first thought as the day unfolded was that the hype about Google Expeditions is well-deserved: this is one amazing tool. Students and teachers alike were enthralled from the beginning of the day to the end. Led by Chris Zhu from Google, teachers were able to choose from a list of about 100 different expeditions to try out with their students and we were given a brief training on how to use the app prior to our sessions.The premise of the app is that you can take your students on virtual field trips around the world. The places we visited included: The Great Barrier Reef, The Moon, the Seven Wonders of the World, a rainforest in the Congo, and much more (in the rainforest, the students came face to face with a gorilla which provoked a lot of screams!)However, you DO need the Google Cardboard viewers and devices (smartphones) to insert into the viewers to experience virtual reality. Fortunately, the Google Expeditions leader supplies these for your students: Chris came with 60 viewers and devices for us to use, so we were able to rotate many classes during the entire day. Unfortunately, the Expeditions kit is not yet available to the public: Chris told us that it won’t be available until the end of the year. This means that the only way that you will get to experience the full Google Expeditions repertoire is if a Google rep comes to your school to demonstrate it. Many schools have applied but only a few get chosen.HOWEVER…. If you are going to the EdTechTeam Ontario GAFE Summit  on April 9/10 in Kitchener, you can experience Google Expeditions yourself! Yup, you read that right. Thanks to Google head office in Toronto, we have managed to secure a full kit of Google Expeditions (30 Android devices, 30 Google Cardboards, 1 teacher’s tablet) for the entire weekend. Sandra and I will be providing sessions all weekend long, allowing teachers a hands-on experience with the Expeditions app and Virtual Reality.If you can’t make it to Kitchener, however, we have put a mini-presentation together with links to many Virtual Reality apps you can explore right away (but no Google Expeditions). For more information, you can also read Holly Clark’s blog post  or Rolland Chidiac’s blogpost. In addition, Molly Schroeder has some great resources here, and Jim Sill’s resources are here.Below are some photos taken of Lawrence Heights Middle School and Joyce Public School students and staff: What a great group! Thanks Julie Millan and Sandra Chow for sharing the images:~Sylvia Duckworth

Thanks to the boom in eLearning resources, we no longer need to try to solve every eLearning challenge from scratch. There are hundreds of eLearning experts online who’ve been there, tried that, and even worn the t-shirt (we’re looking at you eLearning Brothers). In fact, there are so many potentially useful eLearning websites available that it can be hard to keep up, week to week and month to month. So we asked our own experts at LearnUpon to name the sites they check in with, no matter how busy their day is. Bookmark these tried and tested websites to give your eLearning an extra kick any time you need it.   Elucidat & their eLearning Superstars Who should read: Instructional Designers and course developers keen to speed up their processes Check in: Twice a week First up, Elucidat provide a HTML5 authoring tool that we like a lot at LearnUpon. The tool’s USP is also the inspiration behind many of Elucidat’s articles: how to create eLearning courses as quickly and efficiently as possible. While there are quite a few authoring tools that help create responsive courses, Elucidat is laser-focused on helping users to deliver projects an impressive 50% faster than usual. Most of Elucidat’s extremely practical content is written by Customer Success Director Steve Penfold, who’s passionate about making the lives of learning and training managers easier. Sign up for Elucidat’s weekly email to get practical tips for every phase of the eLearning planning and production process. And bonus points for Elucidat’s Elearning Superstars, a website that draws on the best eLearning examples from top companies like Virgin, Toyota, the BBC and Tesco to email three pieces of inspiration every Tuesday.   Craig Weiss Who should read: If you’re in the market for an LMS or have an active interest in the industry Check in: Once a week You can’t afford to miss Craig Weiss’s take on the LMS industry because no-one else does. His recent title win of most influential person in corporate eLearning for 2016 is just one of many similar accolades he’s been honored with. The strapline of Weiss’s influential E-Learning 24/7 blog - "the truth and realities of eLearning" - gives you an accurate idea of what to expect. With his blog now read in 154 countries, this eLearning analyst, consultant and adviser calls the LMS market as he sees it. And Weiss knows the international market better than most. You’re as likely to bump into him at a conference in Berlin as Boston. His post-conference wrap-ups are a highlight, especially his unique take on the facilities and refreshments details that really matter to attendees. You’ll soon need to keep up with Weiss offline too. His book, "a How To Guide for an LMS" will be published under ATD’s imprint. Full disclosure: LearnUpon was named Weiss’s best SMB LMS in the world for 2015.   Tin Can API Who should read: Course developers interested in the tech side of things Check in: When you’re working with Tin Can The ability of the Tin Can (xAPI) to handle all kinds of mobile learning has seen its popularity grow rapidly over the past few years. This entry on our list is the place to get to grips with it. Bookmark the website and check in when you need a little extra help with the course content format, from understanding how it works to actually writing code and other resources for eLearning developers. The easiest way to keep up with the movement is to sign up for their monthly newsletter, which delivers all kinds of useful info on the Tin Can API, from spec updates to dates for educational webinars. Bonus tip: read a guide by Lisa, one of our Senior Customer Support Reps, on how to publish to Tin Can API with Articulate Storyline 2. Recommended by CTO Des Anderson: Another good website for developers is the Rustici GitHub repos where you can download sample code for various projects related to TinCan.   Aurion Learning Who should read: Course developers with an eye for design Check in: Once a month Aurion Learning is home to all kinds of eLearning experts who use unusually creative techniques to help the company’s clients find a solution for L&D challenges. And keeping all of those experts around is very handy when you need to create guides for everything from course content to planning and strategy. We try to catch an Aurion masterclass whenever they’re in town to get a behind-the-scenes look at the most recent tips and tricks the extended team has tested. It also gives us a chance to catch up with eLearning friends and learn from Aurion’s masterful presentations. John Curran, Chairman of the eLearningNetwork kicked off the most recent session with a whistlestop tour of what’s happening now and what’s coming next in eLearning. Aurion’s SlideShare presentations are one of the best examples of how the team draws on deep internal expertise to showcase some of their most impressive projects.   eLearningIndustry.com Who should read: eLearning professionals and Instructional Designers who want to be part of the eLearning industry’s largest online community Check in: 2-3 times a week eLearning Industry has no less than 8 sites dedicated to all things eLearning. Their primary site, eLearningIndustry.com, features articles, free resources, information on upcoming eLearning events (both online and offline) and even has comprehensive directories for authoring tools, LMSs and content providers. With authors like Christopher Pappas, Jay Cross and Li Whybrow, the site features articles on every aspect of eLearning so there’s something for everyone. Everyone in eLearning should have this website in their bookmarks. And given their 90,000 followers on Twitter, everyone probably does! It’s worth subscribing to their newsletter to get all the top posts delivered straight to your inbox. Marketing Manager Caroline Lawless says: There’s an unreal amount of content on the site so it’s probably best choosing your area of interest from the drop-down menu in the Articles link. If you’re feeling really brave you may even consider publishing one of you own articles.   Jeff Cobb & Tagoras.com Who should read: If you want to deliver better eLearning for associations and professional bodies Check in: Once a week The eLearning needs of associations and professional bodies differ a lot from other organizations and as a result good resources can be tougher to track down. Jeff Cobb’s Tagoras website is essential if you’re on the hunt for an LMS that can really manage an association’s requirements. It’s worth subscribing to the RSS feed of the blog alone for the regular research and reviews Cobb publishes on association-specific news in the LMS market.   E-Learning Heroes and The Rapid E-Learning blog Who should read: Course developers in search of help and inspiration Check in: Twice a week These two eLearning websites are run by the team behind Articulate’s authoring software. If you use Articulate’s Storyline tool already, both websites are a must bookmark. If you don’t, you’ll still find lots here to help with course development and design. Community Manager David Anderson oversees E-Learning Heroes, the home of the Articulate community. The website is packed with crowd-sourced learnings that will inspire lots of new ideas and save hours of tricky production time. When you start to really feel at home, you might tackle a weekly e‑Learning challenge and test your skills against some fierce but friendly competitors. Tom Kuhlmann’s Rapid E-Learning website claims to be of the best instructional design blogs in the industry. Every week, Tom dishes up incredibly practical tutorials and templates that promise to turn us all into eLearning heroes.   Talented Learning Who should read: If you want to stay up-to-date with LMS industry news Check in: Once a week Have you been researching the international LMS market for 15 years? Well Talented Learning’s John Leh has and that’s reason enough to bookmark this website. After working in LMS sales for over 10 years, John put his knowledge to public use when he became lead learning technology analyst at Talented Learning. With a focus on enterprise and association learning, John’s research, reports and webinars are particularly useful if your LMS buying cycle is long and involved. But it’s also a great place to check for news, reviews and trends across the learning technology industry. Full disclosure: LearnUpon’s Caoimhín was named one of Talented Learning’s top 10 LMS demonstrators in the world in 2015.   Learning Solutions Magazine Who should read: Anyone who makes critical decisions about eLearning management and design Check in: Twice a week Learning Solutions Magazine is a handy place to catch up on what the main eLearning thought leaders have to say. Published by The eLearning Guild since 2002, it’s one of the industry’s oldest resources for practical information on everything from strategies, tools, technologies, to best practices for the management and design of eLearning. The quality of contributors alone is a reason to add Learning Solutions to your bookmarks. Hundreds of the industry’s biggest names tackle cutting-edge issues in what I’m guessing once was an actual magazine. Today it’s an all but encyclopedic online repository of all kinds of great content, including case studies, reviews, interviews, tips and news.   ATD Who should read: Talent development pros on the hunt for data-driven research Check in: 2-3 times a week If you’re really serious about professional development, you’re probably already a member of an association or professional body that works hard to keep your knowledge and certifications fresh. You might even already be a member of ATD, which prides itself on being the biggest association for professionals working in Talent Development. ATD do all the usual things you’d expect from an association that helps members to become eLearning experts. Their annual conference is a must-visit. It’s one of the biggest in the industry, as you might guess from their 30,000 Twitter followers. But the reason you really should check in with them is for their research, or what their email newsletter calls the "Science of Learning". Although you need to be a member to benefit from the full catalogue of resources, there’s still a lot of good stuff available to casual visitors through ATD’s Community of Practice.   TrainingZone Who should read: Training Managers and Training Developers will get the most from this one Check in: Twice a week Our favorite area of TrainingZone is the Community, which is updated almost daily with thought-provoking questions and innovative ideas. Having recently updated the website with a bold new design, it’s all change at TrainingZone. The team is also set to launch their own podcast in early 2016. TrainingZone’s Twitter account already boasts 10,000 followers and is the best way to keep up with the extensive original and curated content the team pushes every day.   Patti Shank Who should read: Readers keen to improve how their organization does learning Check in: Once a fortnight Patti Shank’s PhD is only the first sign that she takes learning very seriously. An expert in instructional design and technology, AND organizational learning, Patti’s analytical posts go deep and wide, covering very different topics with equally impressive expertise. So it’s no surprise that Patti regularly features on annual top 10 eLearning movers and shakers lists. Once a Research Director of The eLearning Guild, Patti draws on her knowledge to show readers how their learning environments could work better. You’ll find Patti’s content on a number of websites already mentioned here, including ATD’s Science of Learning blog and Learning Solutions Magazine. The best place to (try to) keep up with her is on Twitter, where she regularly moderates the #chat2lrn tweetchat. You’ll also catch Patti on LinkedIn Pulse, where she publishes and curates her top eLearning content.   eLearning Brothers Who should read: Designers who can’t get enough Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline templates Check in: Twice a week You’ll know the eLearning Brothers as soon as you see them. In the sea of shirts and dresses at any given eLearning conference, you’ll spot a bunch of high-energy guys and gals in bright orange t-shirts, probably holding megaphones and distributing goodies to excited fans. You’ll see from the company’s backstory that these real-life brothers do things a little bit differently. That includes their content which is anything but boring. Lucky for course designers and developers, the eLearning Brothers are also on a mission: to build the world’s largest library of templates for online training programs. Customers pay an annual membership fee to access over 25,000 eLearning templates, including quizzes, interactions, layouts, and much more. There’s also plenty of free inspiration to help visitors avoid boring learners with dull course content.   eLearningCoach Who should read: Smart designers who are serious about designing great learning experiences Check in: Once a fortnight Instructional Designer and eLearning Specialist Connie Malamed is probably better known as the eLearning Coach. An early adopter of innovative formats, Connie has already developed both an app for iPhone and Android and a podcast. The eLearning Coach podcast interviews authors and experts with interesting things to say about creating and delivering courses today. Connie even has an interesting take on the blog format, describing it as a "blogazine" in typically trailblazing style. This website’s also a must-bookmark for designers in search of excellent resources on subjects like storyboarding, testing and UI/UX.   David Kelly Who should read: eLearning pros disappointed they can’t make that unmissable conference Check in: Before and after eLearning events Although David’s background is as a Training, Learning, and Performance Consultant, he’s also an eLearning Twitter pioneer. A frequent speaker at heavyweight industry events like Learning Solutions and DevLearn, one of David’s big ideas is "backchannel learning." Because you can’t make it to every conference, avoid FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) with David’s curated lists of conference and chat resources. It’s the next best thing to being there and definitely worth a bookmark.   Bonus tip: our blog! Sign up for the best in eLearning and the latest news from our LMS.   Want to read more? Sign up to get our latest posts! The post 15 eLearning websites everyone should bookmark appeared first on LearnUpon.

Last week (11th-15th Jan), I had the opportunity to engage in the ‘open magic box’ that is Bring Your Own Device For Learning or #BYOD4L on social media. I had taken part in 2015, but this year I also volunteered as a community mentor and helped facilitate a tweetchat. BYOD4L is a fantastic community that spans the global education sector and focuses on the use of mobile/smart devices in learning and teaching. It runs over a week and participants have the opportunity to engage through a variety of online communities; Google+, Facebook and Twitter and at a time and place appropriate to them (often people are in different timezones).Each of the 5 days has a theme from the ‘5 Cs’; Connecting, Communicating, Curating Collaborating and  Creating and participants are encouraged to engage with various learning and teaching scenarios that relate to the theme and the potential use of mobile technologies. I posted thoughts on these themes in 2015 and submitted them as part of a portfolio to gain accreditation through digital badges that signify the skills that I have developed. For the 2016 iteration of the course, I’m now collating evidence to support an application for the mentoring badge.Part of the mentoring process involved responding to, as well as instigating conversations within online spaces, which for me are on Google+ and Twitter. I also co-facilitated Tuesday’s #BYOD4Lchat on Communicating which ran from 8-9pm. It was great to connect with so many other educators interested in the use of technology to support learning and a storify of the conversation was made available for reference and for those that couldn’t join us at that time.It was a great experience to connect with colleagues across the sector and I’d recommend others to get involved in the next run. Contact the team to discuss opportunities for using mobile devices in learning and teaching.

Hace un par de semanas me contactaron desde la web de Educacontic del Ministerio de Educación para ofrecerme escribir un artículo sobre STEM. Éste es el resultado:http://www.educacontic.es/blog/stem-por-que-ensenar-programacion-en-la-escuela-i-andonisanzhttp://www.educacontic.es/blog/stem-por-que-ensenar-programacion-en-la-escuela-ii-andonisanzhttp://www.educacontic.es/blog/stem-por-que-ensenar-programacion-en-la-escuela-iii-andonisanz

Next week I'll be giving a presentation in Durango at the Basque Country's Public School Digital Conference.Enrolling is free, and you can meet me on the 28th at 12:30pm. See you there!http://eskoladigitala.euskaleskolapublikoa.eus/

Toward the beginning of last week, I was FINALLY able to start reading EXPlore Like a Pirate in the hopes of vamping up my gamification … well … game in my classroom. First impressions? Do you ever open a book, novel or other, and think, "wow, this is going to[Read more] The post Thoughts on EXPlore Like a Pirate and Gamification in the Classroom appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

It’s that time of the year again. Learning Technologies, the largest European gathering of L&D professionals, is upon us. As we’ll be attending both days in full force (03-04 February 2016 | Olympia, London), here comes a brief summary of what to expect from the show.

Note: the following is a guest post by Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat… As online teachers, you are already used to the online world and all that it entails. So, the world of blogging is not going to necessarily be alien to you. Some of you may already be edubloggers, while some of you may be contemplating […] The post How To Get New Students through Blogging appeared first on Teaching ESL Online.

Just as we were about to rip December 2015 from the wall and greet the new year, I saw an article and accompanying video in the New York Times called "The Wisdom of the Aged,"  which contained advice on leading a good life by those over 85. It occurred to me that many of the lessons had applications in the business world. Let us know what these thoughts do to stimulate your own thinking as we set sail into 2016. The quotes are from the article, the paragraphs are mine.   "Stay engaged."  The more we allow ourselves to be "fully present" and engaged at work, the more likely we are to make our best contribution and have our best experience of work. When we "phone it in," or are distant, or barely present at all, there’s very little we can expect that will be rewarding and satisfying.   "Try to be happy."  Are you a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full kind of person? Wherever you are on the continuum, see what you can do to slide yourself toward the end of optimism. Remember: focusing on the negative begins a downward spiral and focusing on the positive tends to lift us up.   "Have a curious mind."  I think not only does curiosity keep us youthful in spirit, it also expands our horizons and allows us to "jump across" silos in the workplace. Express your curiosity with frequency. "Tell me more" is a great way to continue — and deepen — a conversation. As deep and probing questions, to build relationships and solve problems. There’s a Stephen R. Covey quote I like connected to this notion, "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."   "Find pleasure and reward in doing for others." Yes, I know, we all have more to do than we think we can possibly do on our own "to do" lists. Please meet your deadlines and deliverables; do what you say you will do (perhaps the most basic foundation on which trust is built). AND . . . if time allows and the desire to build relationships grows, see how you can be helpful to others. This might take the form of "just listening" or offering some informal coaching or actually sharing someone’s load to free them of some stress in the completion of a task.   "Don’t give in or give up."  Sometimes work can feel overwhelming. To the degree possible, see if you can "hang in there" with it. Don’t sabotage yourself with negative thinking. ("I can’t do this."  "I’m not smart/creative/competent enough."  "Why do I even try?" etc.) Instead, take that proverbial deep breath, take a short walk or move away from your computer and stretch that body to get some blood flowing. After, take another approach to what’s at hand. Ask for help if you need it and exercise that "stick-to-it-ive-ness" muscle, perhaps approaching the current dilemma from a different approach or perspective.   "Don’t waste time on anger or worry."  Things are not always fair and just and sometimes, we’re completely entitled to be angry. If you notice a great deal of energy is expended on being angry, see what you can do to turn that around. Can you reasonably work to change something in the system that’s creating this anger? Can you "let it go" and use that energy directed in another way? Similarly, imagine the time we’d save if we relinquished worry! There are some things we just can’t control - they’ll either happen or not.  Worrying about those things doesn’t help much. And for the things that are in our control, perhaps that expenditure of energy spent on worrying could be better applied to preparation or influencing or solving a problem.   "Accept the mixture of happiness and sadness."  Think about its meaning in your own life, right now, whatever age you are. Can we, indeed, accept the ebb and flow of happiness and sadness, or the paradoxical experience of them being present in our life simultaneously? Can we accept what is, as it is? Yes, of course, we’ll have goals and ambitions and ways in which we want to grow and stretch and develop, and be challenged and rewarded . . . and even be happier than we are now. Offer appreciation and gratitude for things as they are in their complicated mix. Name them as "trying." Accept the ebb.   What life wisdom do you apply at work? What New Year’s resolutions do you hope to apply in 2016?   The post Applying Life Wisdom from Our Elders in the Workplace appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesWhy Biases Ruin the WorkplaceVirtual Conflict: Your Focus Determines Your OutcomeFlying Unfriendly Skies: 6 Ways to Manage Change 

Acquisitions. Mergers. Turnover. New technology systems and software. Economic shifts. Operational redesigns. New hires. In today’s workplace, change is no longer seen as three to six months of turbulence. Instead, the uncertainty can last for much longer, even years. In the midst of that uncertainty, teams tread water and attempt to keep legacy projects afloat. All the while, it would seem that they are - to borrow a popular phrase - "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic." While some remain engaged, many adopt a "wait and see" stance - and you lose time and productivity in the duration. You can imagine that adding "something new to learn" isn’t always met with the greatest enthusiasm when employees are worried that their projects, department or job may not exist after the transition is complete. So, how can leaders: Maintain composure and empower their employees during a transition phase that seems to have no end in sight? Reassure their staff that despite the turmoil, our strategy and mission remains clear? Get employees to embrace change and add new skills to tweak the way they perform? The simple answer? By having presence. Let me indulge you in a story. I’m on an "adventure vacation," helping my best friend Pam celebrate her 40th birthday. Keep in mind, I am not an adventure traveler. Yet, I find myself standing in the middle of the hot, oppressively humid Costa Rican rainforest. We’ve been walking for almost an hour under a verdant canopy of vines and dense foliage. Orchid flowers dripping from trees. Toucans nesting in branches. Under the hardhat I’m wearing, sweat is dripping down my brow. At the same time, a harness chafes uncomfortably against my legs. You see, Pam has decided that to celebrate her birthday, she wants all of us to go zip lining. I find myself thinking that if I could have found my way back to the base lodge through this jungle, I would have bailed by now. Sebastian, our local guide, leads us to the first platform. He methodically goes through the instructions. I don’t hear a thing. I’m too paralyzed with fear to take in his words. When he finishes the demonstration he turns to the group and asks, "Who here is most afraid?" Pam reaches over and raises my hand. "Come, come up to the platform," Sebastian says. "What is your name?" I can’t speak. My tongue is glued to the top of my mouth. I am so nervous my knees are actually knocking together. I know he can see the terror in my eyes. "Did you hear my instructions?" His voice is calm and steady. I shake my head, no. He repeats patiently, "I’m going to clip you to the line. All you need to do is hold on here. Scrunch your legs up tight. And, most importantly, keep your eyes open!" I shake my head "No, Sebastian, I’m not ready to…" He pushes me off the platform. I can feel the wind whipping against my face…I am holding tight to the line…I scrunch up my knees…finally, I remember…open your eyes. Oh, my lord! It is MAGNIFICENT! I am zipping along suspended by a thread over a lush, rainforest valley. Then, before I can fully take in the majesty of the world under me — BAM! — I am on the other side. Sebastian’s assistant grabs the line and my feet are firmly planted on the next platform. We can all learn much from Sebastian about leading change. His instincts about how to get folks to jump into the abyss were spot on. Here’s what he did right: The EQ Check-In "Who here is most afraid?" With those words, Sebastian acknowledged that he knew he was asking us to take a huge leap into the unknown, and that we might have feelings about that risk. You’ve got to address the 800-lb. gorilla in the room - or the gaping abyss in the rainforest. Taking a moment to pause, check in, and see how folks are feeling in the face of change is key. Often the biggest thing getting in the way of transforming your organization is unspoken or unacknowledged feelings. Be patient. Stick to your message. Repeat. Sebastian must have gone through these zip line instructions a bazillion times. But he still had the energy to patiently and methodically repeat his message to ensure that I got it. As leaders we often tire of our own change message before our people on the frontline really get it. But we can’t give up. Don’t be afraid to push! When all else fails you may have to give your employees a nudge off the platform.  But before you do - don’t forget to remind them to keep their eyes open. They may even enjoy the ride!   What about you? How do you use your presence to help employees through a difficult transition that seems to never end? Tell us in the comments below. The post Presence in the Face of Change Management appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesApplying Life Wisdom from Our Elders in the WorkplaceFrom the Director’s Playbook: Endorse, Endorse, EndorseWhy Biases Ruin the Workplace 

Recently I’ve been sharing stories that illustrate one of the five fundamental narratives a leader can tell to move people to action. The who I am story. The who we are story The what we have learned story The how can we change story The how to see things differently to improve your life, work and the world around you story. Today we’ve a great example of how-to-see-things-differently from Isaac Rodriguez, President of The Provident Loan Society. Provident Loan is a not-for-profit that’s been serving New Yorkers since 1893. Isaac understands the importance of seeing things differently because at a young age he fell in love with magic. When I was six I got a magic kit and spent hours learning all these tricks. The first thing you learn is something called the Magician’s Choice. Magician’s Choice works like this. At this point Isaac took a quarter out of his pocket and with a flourish of fingers and a turn of his wrist put the coin in his right hand. He then presented me with two closed fists and said: Okay, pick a hand. I, having seen where he’d put the quarter, picked his right hand. And sure enough, in the palm of his right hand, sat the silvery profile of George Washington. Now, what if you hadn’t seen which hand I put the quarter in? Then which hand would you have picked? He put both of his hands behind his back, made a big show of moving the quarter back and forth a few times between them and brought forward two fists. Okay, now, pick a hand. This time I picked his left hand. At this point he withdrew his left hand and revealed the coin sitting in his right hand. Well, yea me, I thought, I choose the correct hand. Then he said: If you’d picked my right hand I would have just revealed the quarter without removing my left hand. You would have ‘picked’ the correct hand either way. You see. Magician’s choice. People see what they like to see and it’s the magician’s job to make them look in the right place at the right time. It’s all about how you frame the trick. Or in life, the conversation. I’m not saying that being the boss is about playing tricks on people, certainly not. But the idea of how to get people to look at a situation has been important to my development as a leader. I could easily see that Isaac was a dynamic leader with great presence. He made things visual—literally. He didn’t just explain to me how a magic trick works; with his eyes twinkling, he involved me in the experience. He continued with: Years ago I was on the board of the Magician’s Society of American. This was an association started by Harry Houdini in 1902. And I was having a hard time with one particular member. He complained about everything all the time. I could never satisfy him. Finally, a colleague of mine—the President of the Sweetheart Cup Company—told me: "Isaac, don’t ever wrestle with a greased pig. You’ll get dirty. And the pig loves it." It’s funny advice right? But it’s also a form of Magician’s Choice. I’d only been looking at the guy and his problems. I didn’t see that he was taking 90% of my time and energy when there were dozens of other members that were waiting for me to lead them. My friend made me look at the situation differently. And in doing so, made me realize that it’s okay to have one person who complains. I started listening to the guy’s complaints, considered if they were relevant for everyone else and if not, just thanked him for sharing his experience. I’d never led like that before. Before that I was trying to make everyone happy all the time. As a leader sometime you have to make the Magician’s Choice about what’s important and what’s not. That’s my job. As Isaac learned, helping employees see things differently is sometimes as simple as framing the conversation in the right way. What conversation are you having at work that could use some re-framing? Think about a time in your own life when you took on a new perspective. Was it when you got your first pair of glasses? When you moved to a new city or country? When you learned a second language? Tell this story before you propose your next new idea or change initiative. We suspect it will help you connect more quickly with your team and get them to consider your idea with fresh eyes. Let us know how it goes.   The post Stories From The Road: Park Avenue, New York appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesPresence in the Face of Change ManagementFrom the Director’s Playbook: Endorse, Endorse, EndorseDo Your Employees See You…as Human? 

As you welcome whatever you find alien within yourself, extend that same welcome to whatever you find alien in the outer world. - Parker Palmer The first thing that gets cut when we are under stress is collaborating with others. It's messy and hard and there's no energy for it. Collaboration by its nature takes more time than doing it (poorly) by ourselves. Collaboration is the only way to get the mysteries/dreams to fruition. Multiple passionate brains provide exponential potential which can mitigate interference to drive incredible solutions. Busy-ness has replaced collaboration. Busy-ness has also replaced achievement and purpose. Check out this stat: Change the game. Schedule face to face meetings (virtual or live) and focus on purpose like Dorothy did. Work together to make the meetings effective- it will take time because it is a lost skill. Get the right people in the room. Hold each other accountable. No rambling. AND don't forget to balance that with alone time. Based on your behavioral styles, you'll need different amounts of each. Honor each others differences. If you'd like to build a Team Model so you are always aware of your team members' needs, request one here. Bring lunch and breaks back. One of our local IT companies, Moser Consulting, buys lunch for the entire staff each day. This is probably one of the reasons they were chosen as a "Best Place to Work" in Indy the past three years. When I walked in, the positive sounds of collaboration and friendship at lunch were impressive. And then, people were gone, focusing on their work. This is not a software company where everyone is sitting around a large table with their headphones on completely ignoring each other. Each developer has a cubicle with white glass to write on, and there's lots of collaborative space. Intrapersonal and Interpersonal strengths are equally valued. Collaboration and quiet are both the way to their goals. As you integrate ignorance and failure into your knowledge and success, do the same with all the alien parts of yourself. Take everything that’s bright and beautiful in you and introduce it to the shadow side of yourself. Let your altruism meet your egotism, let your generosity meet your greed, let your joy meet your grief. - Parker Palmer

I have always wanted to doing something substantial with Google Draw.  The icon sits on my waffle drop down looking so forlorn and lonely.  I also don’t want to have to print another Venn Diagram in my life.  I think I found a way to use G-Draw and get that assessment done at the same … Continue reading →

At CES2016, Ginni Remmity, CEO for IBM, delivered her keynote focusing on one trend: Cognitive IoT. It's the overarching term she uses to cover analytics, cloud, mobility, security, wearables, and all the other individual trends in technology today. She refers to digital as the foundation for all of it. But when everything is digital, the new challenge is making meaning of all that digital data. The challenge of understanding data is what IBM does best. "the most disruptive transformative trend is now in front of us. And it's cognitive. This ability to think to learn to understand. The systems the products the processes and everything you do. And it is the dawn of a new era. The cognitive era." - Ginni Remmity, CEO, IBM   Training Teams Can Expose "Dark Data" to the Light An interesting point she makes is that about "80% of data is "dark data". This is the digital content that is stored somewhere, but there is no system that knows what that data is in order to make use of it. And this is where training departments can add value. I believe that the trend in cognitive is in front of us. But for most of us and the companies we work for, it's a trend that's WAY out in front of us. There is at least a decade of transition before the cognitive era of computing begins to seriously effect the work we do. While we wait for the cognitive internet of things to evolve, there is still that massive amount of digital dark data providing no value to the business. This is where training professionals can help. We have the infrastructure and expertise to seek out important dark data and bring it into the light. Part of what we do best is digging up existing content as part of our analysis process. But here's the twist. Instead of holding on to that content while we transform it into a proper eLearning course, just make it available immediately and more easily accessible than it was before. Use your LMS and call it a course if there are no other tools at your disposal. Litmos is great at this. You may end up discovering that a previously urgent need for a training course mysteriously becomes not so urgent. In large companies you may say this is the responsibility of the Knowledge Management or Communications team, or some other similar group. But not many companies have KM groups these days. Besides all of the other training needs you should be addressing, this one is the lowest of low hanging fruit. It quick and easy to implement and will satisfy a significant number of employees. Those adult learners who prefer to guide their own learning will thank you, and the rest will get with it until you have the time and resources to improve it. Remmity's keynote is filled with very interesting insights about cognitive IoT and I would highly recommend taking the time to watch the video of her presentation. Intel's Vision of Future Changes Learning Experiences Another interesting presentation came from the opening keynote by Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. Intel sees three major trends that their technology drives: Smart and Connected Sensification of Computing An Extension of You Together these trends are doing one thing. And that's creating new, or changing existing, experiences. By flying 100 drones simultaneously and synchronizing their lights and movements to an orchestra Intel changes the possibilities for future fireworks displays. And that's an experience that's been relatively unchanged for hundreds of years. If that doesn't get you thinking about creating learning experiences then maybe this will. Intel is also working with the Xgames to collect and display more data than ever before from the athletes and their equipment. Consider how this might effect some of the jobs you may already be creating training for. You may not be a fan of the X Games or a fan of snowboarding, but now that the experience of watching the sport has changed, you might too. These are just a few of the technologies that exist today and are changing how we experience the world around us and how we interact with it. It may take a while, but soon these technologies will also impact the workplace. It's important to prepare your company with flexible systems with accessible APIs and strategic partnerships with the businesses that collect and manage the data you work with like Salesforce and others. Prepare for the future of work now because the technology driving it is here today. The post The Future of Learning Experiences is Here Today appeared first on Litmos.