Defined narrowly, epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy So there you go. I mispronounced epistemology several times during a class last year. This is probably why: from Greek ἐπιστήμη. It’s like the symbol formerly known as Prince. My professor pronounced it so it sounded nearly sensual: \i-ˌpis-tə-ˈmä-lə-jē\. I’d probably get it right if I remembered the second syllable is pissed. Why would you take a class where you have to pronounce epistemology anyway? Yawn. Anyway, my nemesis. Epistemology. Perhaps I’ll fake sneeze when I say it next time so half the class says gesundheit! (American translation: gazoontite) and only the other half is thinking DOH! I’ve had trouble with mispronunciations ever since I can remember leaving me wondering if I’m phonetically challenged or just dumb. Isn’t this just the best digressive start EVER? Can you even digress if you’ve not yet focused at all? Apparently. Tony Bates. Author of Books. Ph.D. in educational administration. Global consultant. Brilliant. Probably can pronounce that word with ease….answers three questions that end up being words to work by. Design deliberately. He says the design of an e-learning course reflect the (often unconscious) epistemological position of the instructor/course designers SO if you want to exploit the learner-centered social constructivist approach to today’s social learning supportive technologies, you need to deliberately design. He notes that LMSs (the ones without collaborative tools) tend to be used in a objectivist way which implies that we’re behind the eight ball to start with. You may not agree but I think a lot of people just go with the gut. View e-learning as a curricular and instructional decision. Dr. Bates thinks we tend to see e-learning mainly as a ‘delivery’ decision. He suggests that it become a curriculum decision too especially if technology tools are deliberately chosen and used to support a particular epistemology (noting that slow uptake of web 2.0 tools is that they don’t support the predominant objectivist approach in North America). Use. Understand. Share. Be helpful. "Instructors should certainly know how to use the Internet and computers, but much more important is that have a good understanding of epistemologies, learning theory and instructional design; alternatively they need to be prepared to work collaboratively and respectfully with those that do have this knowledge." I think this gets at the core of what needs to be done to solve problems around poor e-learning courses and, as Dr. Bates notes, slow uptake of social learning. Of course he speaks of higher ed, where it’s more acceptable to talk about epistemologies and pedagogies and social constructivism (because they are in the business of learning). Talk like that is mostly poo-pooed in corporations. Perhaps it shouldn’t be. Theory application to design - especially when unconscious decisions are at play - seems to be one way to break out of a rut. I haven’t supported all of this in the past. I’ve gone with the gut. Banned the blah blah blah stuff from my work vocabulary. This is probably why I sway toward starting e-learning with "course" in mind. Or content. You?

Cooking analogies have been used to describe blended learning. Instructional designers looking at blended learning through a chef’s eyes might see  a "recipe" of sorts where you put ingredients together using a process. Or, you could look at blended learning from the learner’s point of view as buffet where you pick out what you want from a variety of food. My mentor/colleague Gary Woodill introduced me to the cooking analogy at a newbie elearning workshop we were doing. It is a good one. However, I can’t help but think that when you actually mix ingredients while cooking the result is usually something that can’t really be "unblended" (although you could pick raisins out of an oatmeal cookie for example). But blended learning and quilting…that to me might be a better analogy, especially when talking about where social networks fit in. I like this definition of blended learning: "Blended learning is a combination of learning objectives and learning modalities that are strategically combined to achieve a training program’s expected learning outcomes." -Miner and Hofman, 2009 I hadn’t thought about the analogy between quilting and design of instruction until recently when I found some old quilting projects in need of attention. I share my love of the hobby with the Amish: Amish quilts continue to be a source of inspiration to quilters. Modern quilt artists are using black with solid colors and discovering the beauty in such basic designs. Amish quilt designs are a result of a belief that art is not a separate thing but that beauty is a part of function, a concept that can be an inspiration to all quilters. - womenfolk.com. When I design a quilt, I think in terms of its 3-dimensions. A quilt, of course, is made up of three layers (top, batting, backing) assembled by tying, machine sewing, or hand-stitching the three layers together. The top most layer is normally decorative; using an infinite amount of colors, techniques, and patterns. It can be taken apart and rearranged (with some effort but not as much as, say, a pie). The top layer is content. The batting is what makes it a quilt. Perhaps that can be viewed as the human element of learning. The backing is the underside of the quilt. Perhaps that can be the overall learning objective. You have commercially-made quilts that you can buy somewhere like JC Penney. They are all the same. They are quilted with a machine, not by hand. This is the equivalent of off-the-shelf courseware. You have template-type quilts with standard patterns from over the years. The can be very detailed or not. You can sew them my hand, machine stitch them, or even tie them (rapid). These are courses you make with template-based authoring tools. Then you have custom quilts. One-of-a-kind art quilts. Custom content. Entered into award contests. The picture below is a crazy quilt. No two are alike. They look haphazard. Random pieces are joined by elaborate stitching. Historically the pieces were a frugal way to use old fabric. Your fabric, each with a memory. Schema. This is what blended learning today might look like with today’s social learning focus. I think what’s especially interesting is that crazy quilts normally don’t have batting. And, if the batting represents the human connection to content and objectives, perhaps our approach to social learning should be letting people take the random pieces of their lifetime and sew them together as they see fit …crazy talk I know.

"There’s something deeply human and therapeutic in getting all the crap out. We also feel a whole lot better. Manure, once it’s spread around, smells less offensive and actually helps things grow." The manure quote above is from a three-part post (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) on Losing your Job? Psychological, Spiritual, and Practical Advice by Kenny Moore. The quote comes from his advice for getting rid of anger, frustration, and resentment (after loss of a job). Some are givens… "…a safe place where you can get it all out without damaging your employment prospects. It’s better to vent these noxious fumes with supportive family and friends than to bring them along to your next job interview. Support groups, professional associations and life coaches all play a helpful role in this regard." His series offers some valuable advice. The one thing I’d change is the "next job interview" part. Might it be better (after you’ve vented your noxious fumes) NOT to look for a traditional  job? Deal with the psychological, spiritual, and practical issues and then realize it’s a new world of work. In the U.S., 20% of workers are either unemployed or underemployed. (Underemployed = employed part-time when needing full-time employment.) The reported (doctored) number is 9-10% unemployment  but it doesn’t include underemployment which brings the number to 18-20%. (And I suspect it’s actually higher because some people have just stopped looking.) Twenty freakin percent. I know right? And it doesn’t look like it’s getting better anytime soon. Economists are saying  it will take 5-6 years to return to "normal." Whatever that is. I don’t think anyone knows what normal will be five or six years out. To start to understand my own normal, I started to look to the "edges." The following is a definition of edges from The Power of Pull by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison. Edges are places that become fertile ground for innovation because they spawn significant new unmet needs and unexploited capabilities and attract people who are risk takes. Edges therefore become significant drivers of knowledge creation and economic growth, challenging and ultimately transforming traditional arrangement and approaches. It is exactly at the edge that the need to get better faster has the most urgency. Incumbents at the core - which is the place where most of the resources, especially people and money, are concentrated, and where old ways of thinking and acting still hold sway - have many fewer incentives to figure out the world, or to discover new ways of doing things, or to find new information. They’re on top, and they’re ready to keep doing what got them there. The traditional definition of full-time employment is antiquated. I started to think that a bunch of part-time jobs pieced together might be a better bet (especially for folks like me that deal primarily with digital information/knowledge work). Start to see your lack of full-time employment  as a way to get established in the new world of work (before the others get there.) Or wait 5 or 6 years. I’ve been a virtual hermit the past few months as I find my own way. So I’ll share my journey (still in progress) toward becoming an independent cloudworker in a series over the next several weeks. I think cloudworkers are on the edges. More about working with cloudworkers here… Other parts in the series: Coworking on the Social Web, From Cubicle to Cloudworker, Establishing Rates, Balancing Your Workload, Keeping Social Skills Sharp, Your Office, and something I’ve drafted called Doucheboat (but will probably never publish).

I’ve got two, five-picture frames hanging on the wall that leads into my kitchen. Each one has  a picture of our family at the same place on the same lake we go to every July. So I’ve got ten years of tradition which is a continual source of comments. "Look how much we looked alike at the same age." "Look at that hair." "That was the year it rained a lot", "Ha! you have the same shirt on two years in a row," etc. I’m sure every family has something like that. This year we broke tradition and didn’t go to the lake house. It was a hard decision. There were several reasons which I won’t bore you with. We decided to do something different this year so we’re off to the Cayman Islands next month, the place where my husband and I honeymooned twenty years ago. When we were there we did a lot of scuba diving. I remember becoming PADI certified before our honeymoon by doing confined dives in a pool, attending classroom training, and then doing open water dives. Not training at the resort but the cold lake water of New York State. Since then, I can’t recall the last certification course I took. It might have been that one. I thought after twenty years I’d need to be re-certified but that’s not the case. Since scuba diving is a dangerous sport if you don’t know what you’re doing, I’m going through refresher training. I don’t want the stories associated with my picture as, "remember when Mom jumped into the ocean from the back of the boat with lead weights and didn’t remember how to control buoyancy and sunk to the bottom of the ocean? That sucked." My kids are in the process of becoming certified so I’m tagging along. I thought it’d be cool to document our family training activities. Week 1: My 11 yr-old studied the first two chapters of his five-chapter text diligently and completed the review questions. He used a highlighter and wrote a lot in the margins. He was so excited to share what he was learning - hand signals, etc. My 14 year-old took the e-learning version and completed assessments. She kept a notepad and wrote down a lot of stuff about safety…exploding lungs and stuff. She’s very safety conscious. My 16-year old is away at camp so has taken his text. He’s already been in a pool with  scuba gear as a boy scout so it was decided he can miss the first pool session and get up-to-speed the following week at the next pool session. I’m not allowed in the pool the first week because there’s all newbies in the class and the instructors don’t need any extra work. I’ll be allowed in the pool the second week. So, I was sitting watching the first part of the pool session (it’s 3-hours long) and they have to first swim eight laps of the pool and tread water for 15 minutes without any equipment. My husband looks at me and I know what he’s thinking. He’s wondering if I can do that today. Swimming for me today is jumping into the pool and then jumping into the floating chair with a beverage. I’ll have to try the swimming test on my own at my community pool before the next pool session. Some of the newbies are moving pretty slow, floating on their backs so I should be OK. As long as I don’t have to do a full out crawl next to Michael Phelps I should be OK. They go over equipment in detail at the first pool session. It comes as no surprise that the equipment has changed in the past twenty years. I will now use a dive computer  to manage things like decompression status, ascent rates, etc. instead of tracking it manually. My 11-year old is planning to be my equipment instructor next week when I get in the pool. He’s taking that very seriously drawing me diagrams and watching a video with me. I start my e-learning today…we’ll see how it goes. I’m really kind of nervous about the first pool session. My observation of what’s changed for me since 1989: Computers have replaced analog devices for scuba. There are now e-learning courses to replace classroom courses making the certification process more flexible. I lost my PADI certification card so ordered a new one online, uploading a new picture. It arrived in 5 days. I could’ve also printed a temporary care from the PADI site if I needed it immediately. Questions I had about the health form I researched online and even posted some questions in an online forum. An automated status update on Facebook via TripIt mentioning the trip to the Cayman Islands resulted in ten comments, three from friends who went there. My connections will know when I takeoff and land (if they want to) and if I enter my flight details.  And  that means… Burglars will know that I’m not home (but they won’t know that I hired Chuck Norris to house sit). I started following some dive shops on Twitter in the event there’s a Twitter deal. I’m monitoring, via RSS, hurricane updates. I booked the condo I’m staying at online after doing some comparative shopping including reviewing the comments from people who spent time there. I used my credit card rewards program to get two free plan tickets - all done online. I’m following a couple of dive blogs to find some of the better places to dive. Big changes and interesting to think about what will change in the next 20 years.

This is a just a test post for the fine people from the Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce.

In Leaving Social Media Still Planned [http://bit.ly/bmRTid], Robert Bacal is interviewed by an unidentified person (I suspect he’s interviewing himself - a reflective piece) about his previously announced plans to leave social media this year. Well, not leaving, he explains, but "continuing to feed blog posts into social media platforms automatically…and interacting when asked." So perhaps a title like Changing the Way We Use Social Media might better reflect the business decision he’s making. Not leaving but doing it differently. Why the change? To me it sounds like Bacal’s getting tired of swimming upstream. ("Why do something when the trend is going against you and you have zero power to influence it" he says.) I imagine it would be tough when your site’s name is SocialMediaBust [http://socialmediabust.com] and your business motto is "Giving the Business to Social Media." One of the reasons for the change, he says, is to "not drain our time doing things we hate to do." I hope that’s one of the reasons anyone changes something they’re doing. Life’s too short. Anyway, SocialMediaBust is in the business of critiquing social media,  he says he hates doing it, so he’s going to "pull back" on "giving it." That would make SocialMediaBust a useless site to me, as a business person. I want the dirt. I want the critique of research. The way Mark Bullen separates the wheat from the chaff on Net Gen research as it relates to learning. That’s a USEFUL site. We won’t be getting that. Instead, SocialMediaBust’s purpose will be to "broadcast [content] to funnel people to our blogs and websites." (Hat tip for transparency and thanks because unsubscribing to useless blogs and Twitter streams happens to be one of my business goals so this makes things quite easy.) Bacal goes on…he’ll decide month-to-month is he’ll maintain the very blogs he is trying to funnel people to (measured by traffic). Here are some of the statements that I hope Mr. Bacal can give some clarification/facts/data for all our benefit: "Real interaction is and has been dropping like a stone on the major platforms." "I’m seeing more data that suggest a contraction of users and use." He predicts a social media bubble burst (for business purposes) sometime in 2012. (That should give him enough time to sell several copies of his book Giving the Business to Social Media, soon to be released.) I can’t help but think that the post  misses the whole point. The social web won’t die off, it will continue to evolve. This could’ve been written about any number of technology tools we’ve used over the years in education. (I don’t have links in the post so as not to give any linky love. Just copy and paste the URLs on your web browser.

Week 2 of the family scuba certification and training progressed along nicely. My 11 yr-old continued to study independently and did very well in the pool and on his tests. He seems to have a really good grasp on doing everything ‘by the book’ and is very attentive and mature about things. He re-trained me on putting equipment together and buddy checking and I got a "good job Mom" out of it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said "good job" to him and I nearly teared up. My 14-yr old decided scuba is not for her. She just wasn’t having fun in the pool and, since it’s supposed to be a recreational sport, it didn’t make sense for her to continue when she wasn’t really comfortable. I’m glad she tried it. It’s good too because I had my own case of anxiety in the pool and we’ll likely be snorkeling buddies. I’m not, however, throwing in the towel yet and am going to venture into the pool next week again because I didn’t think I gave it my best shot. I will regret it if I don’t. Next week there may be an additional instructor for crybabies so perhaps that will make me less freakazoid about the whole thing. I feel the need to over train with an instructor vs. re-familiarize myself with the skills. < overshare > I think that’s because there seems to be this switch that goes on sometimes when you’re a parent and you can easily become hypervigilant. In my mind I’m not really worrying about myself, I’m worrying about something happening to my kids due to my (possible) inability to respond to some problem like entanglement. And I think there’s something else at play - the remembrance of having to be bagged and resuscitated during childbirth eleven years ago. (Short story: my epidural block moved, paralyzing my diaphragm and I could not breathe). So instead of focusing on skills, I’m focusing on mistakes before they are made with a dash of ‘am I getting enough air here?’ I know right?  Why don’t you bring all your baggage into the pool? < /overshare > My 16 year-old returned from camp and successfully performed all the basic skills without a problem and did perfect on the test. This did not surprise me. He approached driving the same way. The boys went to a three-hour, instructor-led class and I completed two units of the e-learning course instead. Each unit in the e-learning course looks like it will take about 45 minutes to complete. The course was built with Articulate. There are frequent quizzes (every several slides) which is good because there’s over 100 slides to look at in each unit. I think the material is from the text mixed with video which you can also buy separately from PADI. There are also links to resources. Each unit ends in a test. It’s a pretty standard tutorial. Now the nit picking… I don’t like the word "slide." It’s a page. It’s the stuff from the book. Text appears on the left which mirrors the audio. I know we do this for people who don’t want, don’t have, or can’t hear audio but I get distracted reading while being read to. I wanted a way to hide it. If you fail a quiz, it takes you back to the beginning of the section. You can go through the section again or simply turn the pages and correct what you missed without getting any new information. Some branching would be nice that gives more information and a different question. When you do fail a question your get "feedback." Feedback, to me, is the language of IDs. I’d prefer to see "not quite," "there’s a better answer," or something less clinical. I like conversational e-learning. All in all though, it is good for its purpose and good use of the tools at hand. It must have taken a long time to create. Kudos to the creators. As with a lot of self-paced e-learning, one thing that’s lacking is "high touch" points of the classroom. You don’t get the stories. Like this… Scuba Diver Girl Janine: Where do I start? I was doing my hypoxic trimix certification in the Caymans and got narc’d. I saw a sponge that I swore looked like Richard Nixon! So I gave my dive buddies the double - V "I am not a crook" gesture. They looked at me like WTF does that mean. Of course when we surfaced and I told them what I saw it was hilarious. I haven’t lived it down! I think stories from longtime divers (or access to them in a community) to illustrate key safety points (narc’d)would be helpful for all but the psycho hypervigilant mother with a possible lingering case of post-traumatic stress. Hand me a Xanax already and wish me luck.

Earlier this year I did a presentation on e-learning where I showed a bunch of course examples. When I asked how many people were creating e-learning solutions I saw about twenty percent of the people in the audience (of three hundred) raise their hands. That may be generous. It may have been as few as ten percent. And this was a group of L&D folks. I don’t think that’s an anomaly. Amber Naslund writes about the restless novice. She talks about traveling to events and hearing, "We need to talk about what’s next…Can we move beyond the basics?" Of course my basic is different than your basic. But I’m still shocked when only one person in a group of twenty has heard of something like RSS - something that’s been around maybe what…ten years? Of course that insults anyone reading this who doesn’t know what RSS is and I apologize if it does. Perhaps you have no need in your job or personal life. Perhaps you only check email and don’t access the web much. Sometimes I seem to forget this… "I think there’s beauty in the basics. In fact, you can point to many reasons why they’re absolutely essential. There’s a simple eloquence that resides in fundamentals and one of which I’ve discovered I’m quite enamored. I enjoy the basics. Teaching them, exploring them, understanding them better, explaining them more clearly. Reframing them in ways that make sense to more people. They’re always useful, always necessary if we’re ever to build upon a strong foundation." That quote from Amber Naslund. She suggests people are uncomfortable being called beginners. I don’t know if that’s the case in our industry where we’re used to training people "starting at the beginning." She asks if you’re uncomfortable with being a beginner, or with teaching them to others? (you might want to weigh in) I think I’ve forgotten the beauty in the basics. I guess I’m kind of an asshole for thinking," jeesh…you should know this" when I’m with a group of people who are fine with saying openly, "I’m in L&D and don’t know about e-learning." Who am I to judge? I’m sure that’s a boatload of stuff about the publishing industry that I SHOULD be aware of. That’s my other job. I don’t work toward becoming an expert in publishing world like I should. Anyway…do we need to write more about the basics in the industry? I always feel as if I’m stating the obvious. But look at the popularity of Tom Kuhlmann’s Rapid E-Learning blog. 61,000 readers. Tom has a gift for building a foundation without putting off people with more experience. I think that answers my question. Now is anyone up for contributing to a site about basics? Or do you know of one I’ve blown off?

For the better part of two years my office was 10 feet from my bed. It’s a large room and a portion was partitioned off as an office. (Yes, I’m aware that sounds like a cubicle.) I could easily spend 15 hours a day in that one room. Hermit-like. I imagined myself as eventually becoming a reclusive, gray-haired hermit with a Twitter account. While my office today is still in the house, it’s a separate room with some (household) traffic throughout the day. My move from the bedroom to the main living area of the house  just meant an equal distribution of daytime parenting responsibilities (my husband works from his home office too). Before my move, kids would come in, stop to ask my husband something (because he’s the first person they’d see) and if they wanted me they had to walk ALL THE WAY through the house and upstairs. That, or they’d text me. It was as if I wasn’t there. Even with the new set up there’s no work-related socializing. There’s no sitting back and saying, "what do you think of this?"or "can I bounce this idea off you?" And there’s no one asking me what I think. No creative side trips. What is coworking? "A global community of people dedicated to the values of Collaboration, Openness, Community, Accessibility, and Sustainability in their workplaces." - coworking.com A hermit-free zone. Here’s one explanation: Over the past couple of years I’ve talked to a couple of people in my area who work virtually from their home office and have found some interest and a shared understanding of coworking. Most people I talk to can’t quite get their arms around the community part of coworking and instead want to provide shared office space using something like a fitness center business model. The spirit behind coworking isn’t about profit or renting office space. While you need a space (eventually), first you need a community. I’ve even presented the idea to groups and now have a blog with one post so I can start pointing people to something. One way to get a coworking community going is to do something called Jelly. "Jelly is a casual working event. It’s taken place in over a hundred cities where people have come together (in a person’s home, a coffee shop, or an office) to work for the day. We provide chairs and sofas, wireless internet, and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of." It would be difficult for me to open up my home during summer vacation with my kids around. Fall would be better. So that’s a goal for this fall. Jelly. Why do I like the idea of coworking?  This older Wired article resonated with me. Coworking: Mixes up work Re-humanizes work Makes collaboration easier Fosters socialization It seems an especially nice fit for cloud workers and creatives. I can see value too in a ‘many jobs loosely joined‘ set up where it would be easier to meet the needs of a large client no one person could easily handle. BTW….Here’s a link to all the coworking resources I’ve been using. It’s a generous community. Would love to hear of any such work areas in your community. Photo: Coworking Photo/Hillary Hartley Getting established in the new world of work Part 1: The edges

I’ve been settling into a new way of work - busy collaborating with awesome folks like David Mallon at Bersin & Associates, doing some technology stuff in my community (our pool has a blog!), joining alliances with other consultants and  consulting groups, and doing occasional workshops. Other than the work for my community pool, all this work has been through a series of small serendipities. It’s been interesting to look at this series of opportunities as if I’m trying on clothes for fit. When opportunities arise I’m thinking…is this an "I *guess* I can do that if I have to" (not a good fit) opportunity? Is it an "I like to do that" (pretty good fit) opportunity? Is it an "I love that" (perfect fit) opportunity? I don’t think there are many people (aside from the independently wealthy) that don’t have some sort of mix. Hopefully there’s more "perfect fit" work than anything else. I don’t think we have much control of the mix when you work for someone else the man. Maybe you do. I never did. I NEED control of the mix. Life’s too short. After thinking about an opportunity that recently surfaced, I’ve decided my mix will now include freelancing as the new Technology Editor at Elearning! Magazine, part of the B2B Media Company. In The Power of Pull, a book I’ve been reading, it says in the chapter titled The Individual’s Path to Pull… "We can also be on the lookout for "editors" who have a talent for searching out new edges and providing early perspectives on why these edges might be gaining importance….When it comes to the written word, this new generation of editors won’t just edit content developed by their own publications, they’ll focus on curating  a much broader range of third-part content available throughout the Internet. Some of these editors will likely focus on tracking the emergence of promising new edges, searching out the most promising content from the edges to help their audience sort out the signal from the noise. In this case, our serendipitous encounters will be with content that provides early visibility into the innovation opportunities arising on emerging edges. One role of this new generation of editors will be to help us to see relationships between new stories from the edge and our own passions and interests." That, for me, is "perfect fit" work. That’s the type of "editing" I’m hoping to do. It’ll be nice to focus on an area I’m passionate about. Another important factor in making decisions about which opportunities to work on is collaborating with people you actually like and trust. Sounds simple but unfortunately, not always the case. You don’t realize you were being interviewed by Beelzebub until it’s too late. A perfect coworker I like and trust is someone like my former colleague Gary Woodill. We all need "Gary’s" in our daily work. Working with people you like and who are compassionate and actually give a damn about you should be a given. If you’ve got a Gary, thank him. I really like the folks at Elearning! Magazine. I’ve done a summit event with them (along with Gary Woodill), co-wrote an article for them with Venkatesh Rao, and met with them during a past trip to California. Connecting with them most recently was yet another serendipitous encounter. The type of thing that can only come up when you’re connecting, sharing, and networking. So fresh back from vacation in a couple of weeks, I’ll be Janet! Clarey, Technology Editor at Elearning! Magazine. Yes, my name now includes an exclamation point. Photo credit: Stephen Coles (Try it On)

Think in terms of m-learning in 2010. Potential vs. what is actually happening. What is happening RIGHT NOW as in, "I’m doing it" and not just "planning on doing it" or "hoping I’ll be able to do it." If you selected 100 employees randomly and asked them to find the answers to two or three job-related questions on their mobile device, how many could find relevant information in a reasonable (before someone says ‘never mind’) amount of time? This comic reminded me of a talk E-Learning is what? (jump to slide 5) by Allison Rossett I heard early in the year in Australia. She talked about what IS actually happening in e-learning vs. what MIGHT happen with e-learning in the future. (Her study has limitations - which she outlines - but still..) Allison Rossett: eLearning Is Not What You Think It Is - Presented by Training Magazine Network Do we have ten employees who have already looked up the answers and are using The Idiot Test app on their iPhone while the other 90 are looking for their glasses/browser/mobile device/favorite geek/exit? Take "just a sec" and let me know how big the skill gap is from your vantage point.

Can you help this small training group find a solution? I had someone contact for advice on finding (really) low-cost LMSs with e-commerce capability. Initially I mentioned Moodle for this small training group of three people but they had already determined it wasn’t going to fit their needs. Here are their needs: Hosted solution Merchant interface Easy administration Ability to launch e-learning courses only (video) Basic reports on sales data Ability to create quizzes Crazy cheap Here’s what they DO NOT need: Integration with another system Support for standards (SCORM) Classroom functionality Here are some systems I thought they might want to take a look at. If you think of others, please put the info in comments so I can pass it along to them. And, if you’ve got feedback on any of those I’ve listed (or if I missed the mark) I’m sure they’d appreciate it. JoomlaLMS Intellum Ziiva Training Partner Syberworks Enlightus Rainmaker SimplyDigi (P.S. This isn’t a client, just someone looking for advice.)

Is this the adoption curve for next generation of e-learning? I’m beginning to think it is. And I’m thinking it may stay that way unless there is an awareness of personal beliefs as it relates to usage of e-learning. An older paper by Dr. Irina Elgot I recently ran across doing some research really resonated with me. Called "E-learning adoption: Bridging the Chasm", the paper considers possible reasons for e-learning not reaching its full potential. Elgot mentions the socio-cultural, intra-and interpersonal factors, with a special focus on the personal decisions made by [instructors]. Elgot… "…suggests approaching the e-learning innovation as a multidimensional process located in two planes: the plane of technology and the plane of pedagogy (or teaching and learning). Conflating these two separate aspects when evaluating the progress of e-learning adoption is counter-productive. At any given point in time both individual and institutional adoption of e-learning can be undergoing different adoption cycles; and it appears that currently the adoption of e-learning technologies, especially LMS, is located at a more advanced adoption stages compared to the teaching and learning innovation." "This is why research in e-learning adoption…indicates that the roots of the problems with e-learning are primarily associated with teaching and learning processes, rather than with the use of technology per se. This can be referred to as the e-learning chasm. The chasm, in this case, is not located within a linear adoption process but between the two interrelated but distinct components of e-learning: adoption of the e-learning technology innovation and adoption of the e-learning pedagogy innovation." So if an instructor thinks voicing over his or her PowerPoint and uploading it into the LMS is the right approach, he or she will continue to instruct that way regardless of delivery channel. Elgot says, to overcome the e-learning chasm, instructors need to make their theories explicit. I just don’t see that in corporate L&D, especially when SMEs create the content. If your e-learning is not reaching its full potential. maybe its because people don’t know they always approach instructing the same way and can’t envision another way because they’ve never been exposed to it. When you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail, right? Curve via Scott McLeod (who’s wondering if we’re too harsh on our teacher’s kids and suggesting that over time, "we [edubloggers] begin to normalize these actions and internalize them as ‘best’ or ‘desired’ practice." (I’d say yes to the latter.)

This is why it’s important to get out of your home office occasionally.

I have read and analyzed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of academic research studies as part of my normal process for writing "commercial" research. In contrast, my experience with the academic culture of being published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals is non-existent. There’s just not time for both. While my research over the past several years has been published by commercial research firms, it doesn’t play into my academic requirements at all. If I was writing under the guidance of one of my professors, it would. It is what it is. As a student with a professional studies focus in a university program that caters primarily to those students with an academic research focus, I have struggled. Professional studies my ass. When asked for recent publications for a monthly departmental newspaper, my publications are not listed among the others because they were commercial and not done in collaboration with faculty and subsequently published in an elite journal. Similarly my speaking events are at corporate events and, in my experience, mean nothing in the eyes of academics. (I was, however, highlighted one month; a sidebar of a student’s professional life.) There is some progress but it doesn’t help me because I am not and will not ever be a professor. I have no desire. So here’s the rub….or rug burn (keep in mind part of the reason I chose the school was the liberal policy on registration and degree completion): Dear Student: The University has long had a requirement of continuous registration during each academic semester once a student matriculates. That is, every fall and spring semester, students must be registered for courses that are part of their programs. Students who are in between courses, or who have completed all courses and dissertation credits, but who are still working on requirements such as projects, exams, or portfolios, meet this requirement by registering for "Degree in Progress," for "0" credit hours. Online registration is accepted during regular registration periods. Beginning Fall 2010, students who have registered for "Degree in Process" for any 4 semesters, will be charged a $500 fee when they register for the 5th semester of "Degree in Progress", and beyond. This fee charged upon enrollment indicates continuing engagement in a graduate program; it recognizes the continuing use of faculty, staff, and institutional resources, even during periods when courses are not be taken. It is designed to encourage students to enroll in courses on a continuous basis so that they complete their degree programs expeditiously. If circumstances are such that students have to register for "Degree in Process" for an extended period of time, students must take a leave of absence. A Leave of Absence permits extension of the time to complete your degree a maximum of one year. P.S. Thanks for the $18,000. Screwed without so much as a kiss.

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." ~William James It’s pretty damn easy to procrastinate when you work from home (or even if you don’t). I’ve worked from my home office for over four years now. I’d call myself a successful virtual worker and I like working alone. However, no one is here to give me the stink eye when I’m starting to go into an unproductive state. Some get procrastination confused with being unproductive. But actually, being unproductive is a bit different than procrastination. When you’re unproductive, you’re not working at producing something (I call this fake work). Procrastination, on the other hand, is putting things off to do at a later time.  For me, procrastinating (in moderation) is usually a way to find some energy and creativity. Or, it’s a way to avoid being unproductive. (Avoiding fake work…) Better to be off thinking about a better way to do something than aimlessly looking for photos or sharpening pencils or something. Did you know being unproductive can be triggered by a real or perceived loss of freedom? In fact, if your employees consider you a controlling person, even an unconscious thought of you can have a negative effect on their performance. If, for example, they were to happen to subliminally see, out of the corner of their eyes, your name flash for 60 milliseconds, you could expect them to start working less hard. Even if they didn’t intend to slack off. Anyway, I’ve been using a new tool, Toggl, for over a month now and it’s really helping me with productivity. I’m able to focus on production without feeling the loss of freedom from other methods of measuring work. I’d recommend trying it if you want to see how you’re actually spending your time. It’s free, although I recently updated to the $5 plan so I could run reports on specific project and clients. It’ll help me quote work more accurately. If you’re procrastinating now, reading this, get the heck back to work.

Thursday, September 30, 2010. 11:00 am PDT/ 2:00 pm EDT From Elearning! Magazine: "Tapping the Power of Collaborative Content Authoring for Creating E-learning" Mike Alcock, Product Specialist, Kaplan IT Learning’s Atlantic Link (I’m moderating) Register here. FREE. Online. What it’s about: How to place eLearning development capabilities within the hands of SMEs and other contributors so as to reduce the cost of using external resources How British Telecom used collaborative authoring and centralized content management to easily create the variety of training needed within each business unit, regardless of the unit location How to easily enhance exiting training materials, such as documents and PowerPoint’s, with interactivity, assessments and branching learning scenarios. Wednesday, September 29, 2010. 12:00 pm EDT PLENK 2010. Online. I’ll be a guest speaker for the topic: Understanding the neXT/eXtended Web PLENK 2010 is a MOOG (Massive Open Online Course) about thinking facilitated by George Siemens, Stephen Downes, Dave Cormier, and Rita Kop. Free. Wednesday, October 6, 2010. 11:00 am PDT / 2:00 pm EDT From Elearning! Magazine: "Engaging for Influence: Delivering Virtual Training with Impact" Camille Prestion, Founder, AIM Leadership; Jessica Eastman, Marketing Manager, Citrix Online Moderated by Roger Courville, 1080 Group. Online. What it’s about: What prevents Virtual Trainings from having full impact: Inside-out Alternatives mistakes What people really need: The 8 Keys to Virtual Influence How to develop Virtual Rapport, Authenticity, Trust & Agility Register here. FREE. November 4, 2010 6:00 am - 2:00 pm PT Elearning! Summit 2010 (online) This takes place online within the UNISFAIR virtual environment. The Elearning! Summit Virtual Event includes: Educational sessions with industry experts and live Q&A Exhibit hall displaying hundreds of products & solutions Networking opportunities with 1600+ professionals Sessions: eGovernment Roundtable (Jay Allen, ADL Co-Lab; Dr. David Twitchell, Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs; Haley Steele, Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs, and Mark Oehlert, Innovation Evangelist, Defense Acquisition University) Best Practices: Integrating Learning & Talent Strategies (Stacey Harris, Senior Analyst, Bersin & Associates) Best of Elearning! (Catherine Upton, Group Publisher, Elearning! Magazine Group) Solutions Roundtable (Jerry Roche, Editorial Director, Elearning! Magazine Group) I’ll be there throughout the day so stop by or I’ll be totally ticked off at you. Plus, it’ll be kick ass of course. Register here. Free.

Had a good time at the PLENK2010 session today. The session was part of a free Massive Open Online Course. I was thrilled to be asked to participate. It’s led by George Siemens , Stephen Downes, Rita Kop, and Dave Cormier. I thought there was a great amount of interaction. I used annotations on blank slides and saw a lot of chat and some Twitter conversation. Slides are below and here’s a recording that, according to one at least one person, was poorly moderated (below). I know right? Geesh. Chill. It’s more about the content and what people do with it than me performing. Whatever. Anyway, it’s always quite a buzz kill to get one of these comments even if 50 others found value in the session. Plenk2010 Of course there’s always one. What’s been your worse? (Oops: I forgot to add the fourth moderator - Dave Cormier - when I originally posted this. Saving the best for last : )

The September/October issue of Elearning! Magazine is out (my first as technology editor). I wrote an article E-learning on a budget. Other features: E-learning Goes Social, Rolling Out a New LMS, Maintenance: The Forgotten Step, What Makes a Top Learning Organization, and a story about Crowd-sourcing by Ross Dawson. Enjoy!

That weekly calendar pop up I received every week for the PAST SEVERAL WEEKS reminding of the day I was to contribute to my good friend Jane’s book tour just kept getting pushed back. So here I am watching "Outsourced" and browsing through Jane’s book realizing that pop up popped up for the last time. There are so many nice review’s of the book, I just thought I’d give some advice on how to actually use it (beyond simply reading it). 10 Things you can do with Jane Bozarth’s new book, Social Media for Trainers: Read it, of course, then… Casually drop the book on the desk of a frustrated coworker who says he just doesn’t get all the "social media" stuff…or Use material from the book for staff training…or Donate one to a school or library…or be evil and… Send a tweet to someone who annoys you and tell them [you think] they’re featured in the Twitter chapter. You could also… Buy the Kindle edition so you’ll have it as an electronic resource then be all uppity and…. Take your Kindle to various events and say, "what are you reading? I’m reading my good friend Jane’s book. I have many friends who authors"…or Use it as inspiration to write your own book…and of course… Apply the ideas in the book. Finally, Thank Jane for writing a really easy-to-read, practical book.

A loose theme… From HRM Today, another good reason [in addition to locating experts] to have a social networking feature that allows you to recommend and rate peer contributions. "The easiest way [to find and retain your hidden performers is with strategic recognition in which you allow all employees, regardless of level of position in the organization, to give and receive appreciation from their colleagues. In a well-designed program, each recognition would include a detailed message on why that person is being recognized in a way that can be easily recorded and tracked. Surfacing your hidden gems becomes much easier when you have the proof right in front of you of all the people, across your organization, who value their ability to get things done." Of course, you could just walk up to a co-worker and say how valuable he or she is to you. Or phone them or send an email or something. Proof is not needed. And, of course there's the popularity contests and gaming of the system to deal with. Anyway, I'll take an 'atta girl over cash (the more popular 'retention' method) most days. Today, though, cash would be fine. ****************************************************** From D'Arcy Norman dot net, a link to a documentary (1 hour) from IBM researchers on data visualization. As a writer and researcher, I see so much potential here for understanding vasts amount of data. How much data left behind...hidden in results because we see what we want to see (and don't deny it). I look forward to the day where a lengthy report is replaced by a visual. So, for example, when trying to understand problems at work, you don't have to go to focus groups or whatever that tend to be so subjective. You just survey and SEE it. Love it. Job of the future. Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo. ****************************************************** From Steve Roesler's boss, "Useful Work Phrases Guaranteed To Make You Feel Better." These type of comments - as harsh as they are - do run through my mind when I'm listening to blather, idiots, and the blather of idiots. Fave... "I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth." ********************************************************** I'm so beyond this "authentic self" stuff. I sit here at my desk (in what used to be my living room) with no makeup, a hoodie sweatshirt, and jeans pulled from the floor. Clean? Dirty? I don't know. I do know I just ate an Eggo waffle in 20 seconds. That's authentic. However, if I worked in a corporate office, I really couldn't do that. The advice in this post might be useful for women trying to fit in to various social situations so they're not at a disadvantage at work. Dr. Donna Thomas-Rodgers recommends that women ask themselves one very powerful question: "Would the person I’m closest to recognize me while I’m at work?" If the answer is no, she says, you’ve got a lot of soul searching to do. No, he would not but that's not the point. The problem is how women are often viewed in the corporate environment. BJ Gallagher, sociologist: "Research shows [no source] that if a woman wants to be successful in a corporate environment, she needs to behave in a way that is androgynous, neither masculine nor feminine. If a woman behaves in a manner that is viewed as ‘too feminine,’ she will be seen as too soft to take the ups and downs of business. If she behaves in a manner that is ‘too masculine,’ she’ll be seen as a ‘ball-buster,’ bitch, or even worse. In other words, she’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t and simply telling a woman to be herself is naive at best and career-suicide at worst. Advice to ‘be authentic’ doesn’t take into account the harsh realities of the corporate world." Amen to that. I can hear it now: "Which one is Janet?" She’s that sloppy looking one over there eating something that looks like a waffle. And she’s dripped syrup on her hoodie." ‘Authentic indeed. Neither masculine or feminine. Just fired. Atta girl. ******************************************************* First off, Matt Mullenweg, changed the look of his website (which has the best url ever). Second, he added a feature to his contact page that shows the amount of mail in his email queue (so you’ll know how long it’ll take from him to get back to you). This just seems like a lot of pressure. Kind of interesting though. I’d feel better if I contacted him and he didn’t get back to me knowing he has 128 things sitting in his inbox plus low priority and unknown items. ******************************************************* This may be a new format for me for blogging.

As I may have mentioned in the past, I’m now working as Technology Editor for Elearning! Magazine and Government Elearning! Magazine. We’re hosting an online summit on November 4, 2010. I hope you can join us. It’s a FREE event. Here are some details: eGovernment Roundtable hosted by Jay Allen, Chief Collaboration Officer, ADL Co-Lab, Dr. David Twitchell , Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Haley Steele, Department of Veteran Affair’s, Mark Oehlert, Innovation Evangelist, Defense Acquisition University. Dr. Twitchell, as lead on the VA’s Healthcare E-learning Initiative, will discuss lessons learned from their large scale e-learning launch. Mr. Oehlert leads the social learning initiative at Defense Acquisition University. Learn how these agencies are deploying enterprise learning initiatives, the tools used and results achieved. Hear about the unique challenges and opportunities facing public sector executives. Bring your questions to ask these experts. Best Practices: Integrating Learning & Talent Strategies, hosted by Stacey Harris, Senior Analyst, Bersin & Associates Learn: To evaluate your organization’s current talent landscape, Which talent initiatives to begin with, The key stakeholders and partners to target to build integration strategies, The time and resource investments required, The impact integration has on team and business performance. Best of Elearning! 2010 with Catherine Upton, Group Publisher, Elearning! Magazine Group. See the top learning technologies and services deployed in 2010 ranging from the Best LMS to Best Authoring Tools. See Best-in-Class solutions at work Hear what your peers say about these solutions and share advice with learning professionals during and after the session. More than 40 solutions across 20+ companies will be covered. The Best of Elearning! Awards program is the exclusive readers’ choice awards in the market. Approximately 49% of buyers report that they rely on peer and word-of-mouth advice for product information. This session provides a formal platform for executives to share what works and why. Solutions Roundtable with Jerry Roche, Editorial Director, Elearning! Magazine Group. See how solutions can solve your business problems during this interactive session. Bring your questions and hear from real users and solution providers about these tools. Learn how to select between vendors; Hear advice on implementation and lessons learned. Register here.

When "checking in" via FourSquare at an iconic roadside BBQ and at an after-school soccer game (and even at Dunkin’ Donuts) I can’t help but scratch my head and wonder about location-based services and their use for L&D. Perhaps I can’t imagine their use because I post mundane information. (Basically, location-based social networking means you can share your physical location with others through GPS, mobile email, or text message.) I’ve gotten beyond the ‘this shit’s creepy’ phase of location-based social networking (mainly because I’m always 20 tweets, 1 video camera, and 10 FB status updates shy of being a lifecaster anyway). I like to thing I’m helping populate the social web and not just dropping location crumbs for the people losers who stalk middle aged women at Dunkin’ Donuts. What am I sharing beyond location? Well, I guess I’m saying "I’m here" or I’m looking for "who else is here" or "who else has been here." That might help me find the right people  in the right place at the right time. Or, it might help me make a decision (pumpkin muffin?). But what else? I read this interview with Julia Grace and thought of the need for good communication in getting projects done. And good communication, to me, is about having some sort of connection beyond checklists and schedules. She mentions a particular exchange: "I read your Twitter stream. I feel like I know you" and I smiled because there are several people I feel the same way about. But, she’s also talking about how we’re losing… …the "beautiful humanizing features of social networks are going away. It’s becoming more about finding information fast, and getting it to your network fast." Data. Not just people. Word clouds show us that (eXtended Web). She talks about IBM’s Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM) which IBM researchers are using to explore data in new ways. She says: "When I go to use something like Twitter, Facebook, and FourSquare, like all of us do, everything is always time ordered. But now that we’re generating truly global data, and we’re able to look at information on this global scale, location is more important than time. You need to know where information is coming from in order to really understand what’s going on." I find it funny that she goes back to the 80’s and PowerPoint before Microsoft bought it (PowerPoint: the number one choice for rapid e-learning since 1985). She demonstrates how we’re using data visualizations from the 1980s…"Whenever I see charts like these something inside me dies." She sees us - in 2010 - being in a period of data purgatory. Trapped in Tron. See this 10 minute video from Julie Grace. IBM researchers took geo-encoded data sets (Twitter, etc.) and put it on a 3D globe. (2D rendered on a 3D surface gives you distortion and inaccuracy, she says) to see a pandemic. So now I’m seeing it beyond Dunkin’ Donuts. Beyond mundane. I see now that I’ve been thinking in 2D. Time ordered. So now I’m thinking about getting data out of 2D training data out of PowerPoint (or similar) and presenting it as a 3D visualization. Still not there yet…but getting there thanks to insanely bright people like Julie Grace.

If a course is free and open, the facilitator may have a lower tolerance for complaints. If a course is free and open, speakers may have a lower tolerance for criticism. If a course is free and open, attendees may have a lower tolerance for excuses. I imagine the third bullet is the same for fee-based, closed courses. Not so much the other two.