In my school district, our professional and digital learning department is barely around 7 months old. Since school began we’ve been somewhere in the middle of identifying, addressing, creating and revising problems as well as solutions. In addition, we’ve taken full advantage of eager leadership, teacher excitement, "edtech buzz initiatives", and any opened door that allowed a conversation regarding how students can be active participants in their own learning. This has truly been a remarkable journey and with all that we still have planned…it seems as if we are only just beginning! To give some background, our district is a BYOD district and has only been such for about two years. Unlike many of my peers, we did not have the luxury of mobile carts on campuses, enough labs beyond the one per campus, no technology to supplement for students who did not have their own device and barely enough training on the tools that we have in place. When I say that my department started from a blank slate, I am not joking. Everything that we have done and will do is brand new to Lufkin. I want to also point out that being here in the land of no devices, other than smartboards, has also opened my eyes to the powerful learning that STILL happens even when there are no global connections. Our kids benefit greatly from community partnerships and involvement with community stakeholders. We still have field trips and on occasion guest speakers from industries around Lufkin. What we were lacking were connections outside of Lufkin and the ability to see…"Yes, And" Our first opportunity to get teachers connected happened with the Global Read Aloud. Classrooms were skyping with classes all over the country. It was certainly remarkable to see. That same campus jumped into utilizing code.org, well before hour of code, to have a coding club. This was a K-2 campus and the excitement generated opened the door for #hourofcode. While many of my peers see Hour of Code this venture as nothing more than a hashtag, it was much more than that for us. We took the time to discuss experiences and opportunities that we could and should be offering our students as well as the importance of computer science. We held professional development for teachers and shared learning via twitter and blogs. We also came to understand that computational thinking was so critically important that we are training all of our 3-5 staff in a matter of weeks, which can have greater long term rewards for our students for years to come. That week was a game changer for Lufkin as our teachers were able to experience first hand what "different" could be and they want more of it! We are fully aware that it takes more than an hour but we are also committed to continuing what we started and making sure that Computer Science is just as important as our other core courses beginning at pre-k. This month, we are focusing on active planning with teachers and thinking beyond the tools. Our digital learning specialist will be transitioning from "after school training" mode to school day planning and development with the goal of developing model lessons and publishing them. With the timely release of #NETP16 as well as resources like the Google Lesson Plan Jam Digital Learning Toolkit  as well as Graphite’s Lesson Flows…our specialist are charged with researching and thinking about how we can craft the support that we need according to Lufkin…not specific to a tool but open to universal ideas. (We actually started months ago with Common Sense Media’s 1:1 Essentials Guide and it helped build some foundational understanding for this work) We are also including teachers in this process and are fortunate to have 50 district wide teacher ambassadors from PK-12 so that the work will not be framed from a department of three but by a collective. Eventually, we will include students and have student leadership teams already in place to do so. We took the time at the beginning of the year to get our leadership teams on board with their own use and understanding of technology through their lens, upgraded a few antiquated process and invested in a few pilot tools. Moving forward, we will be developing common language and continuing the work through the lens of "YES, AND" On the horizon… #NETP16 - Visioning and ongoing study/discussions Launch of our Student Voice Blog (Beyond excited for this!!) Grades 3-5 Computer Science across the curriculum professional development Minecraft Teach and Learn (with students and teachers) STEM day with 4th grade (Design thinking and inventing with little bits, cloudbits + minecraft, coding) Inventing to Learn with our Digital Ambassadors and any teacher who wants in! A community-wide MakerFest (because why not?) And reflection…lots of reflection…and long term planning for what’s ahead. Our first guiding question… What does innovation mean to Lufkin? Stay tuned!

In 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, author and therapist Amy Morin presents the 13 most important things that people who are emotionally on top of their games do not do. No one does everything right all the time, but by acknowledging all 13 of these behaviors, actions, and feelings, people can make significant progress in their lives. Mentally strong people have better chances of success, develop better relationships, and are generally happier and healthier. Mentally strong people do not: Waste time feeling sorry for themselves. This is a self-destructive behavior that leads to more negative emotions. Give away their power. People can still be kind while demanding that others respect them. Shy away from change. Change can be scary and uncomfortable, but it is necessary for growth. Focus on things they cannot control. Trying to manage what is out of one’s control just leads to increased anxiety and stress. Worry about pleasing everyone. Conflict and confrontation are often uncomfortable, but constantly avoiding it makes it impossible for people to reach their goals. Fear taking calculated risks. Sometimes people’s fears and anxieties do not actually match the risks they are taking. Dwell on the past. Self-reflection can be healthy, but dwelling can be self-destructive. Make the same mistakes over and over. Repeating the same mistakes does not change anything. Resent other people’s success. Resenting someone else’s success can cause a person to behave illogically. Give up after one failure. Some of the most accomplished people in the world failed dozens of times before achieving success. Fear alone time. Creating time to be alone with one’s thoughts is a powerful experience. Feel the world owes them anything. A sense of entitlement does nothing but anger others. Expect immediate results. Change takes time. To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

Birmingham, AL, November, 2015- In the November issue, National Geographic called attention to ROI Institute’s contribution to sustainability and green initiatives in the business world. The article, 5 Ways to Curb Climate Change, reads: "In 2009, when MIT’s Sloan Management Review first surveyed businesses about sustainability efforts, it found most ‘doing only what is necessary to meet regulatory requirements.’ Five years later the survey told a different story: Nearly two-thirds of companies said sustainability was at the top of their agendas, which fewer than half had said earlier. What changed? The CEOs’ sense of green initiatives’ worth, say Patricia and Jack Phillips, authors of The Green Scorecard. ‘Today, most (if not all) businesses recognize that climate change is a problem,’ they write. ‘Smart companies use their environmental strategy to … build competitive advantage.’" Read the article: 5 Ways to Curb Climate Change Measuring Return on Investment in Green/Sustainability Initiatives ROI Institute’s effort to help organizations have success with sustainability initiatives is documented in the book, The Green Scorecard: Measuring the Return on Investment in Sustainability Initiatives, a unique publication that shows organizations how to measure the success of green projects using five levels of outcome data. "About 80 percent of the green projects an organization develops and implements returns a positive ROI for that organization, if it’s implemented properly" explains Patti Phillips, President and CEO of ROI Institute, Inc. "The other 20 percent is controlled by regulation." Issues with Implementing Green/Sustainability Initiatives The problem is that most projects break down early in the implementation process. Either employees (or citizens, suppliers, or customers) do not see the need for the project, do not understand fully what they must do, or, do not know what they really should be doing. These are our classic Levels 1, 2, and 3 in the ROI Methodology. Ultimately, to improve impact (Level 4) and achieve a positive financial ROI (Level 5), the first three levels must be in place. This informative book provides detailed steps on how this is successfully accomplished. The Solution "This new book can serve all types of organizations, including government, non-profit, NGOs, as well as private businesses," adds Jack Phillips, Chairman of ROI Institute, Inc. Even cities, counties, states, and national governments can benefit by ensuring that this publication is available for any individual involved in implementing any type of green project, ranging from re-cycling and energy reduction to water conservation.   Involved in Green or Sustainability initiatives? Contact us for a FREE copy of The Green Scorecard! As a special contribution to this important cause, ROI Institute will provide a copy of this book to individuals who want to measure the success of these types of projects. If you are interested in knowing how to evaluate green initiatives with all five levels of data using the ROI Methodology, please provide your contact and shipping information to Anita@Roiinstitute.net and we will gladly send you a free copy. For more information on this issue, contact ROI Institute at info@roiinsitute.net. About ROI Institute, Inc. Founded in 1992 as a service-driven organization, ROI Institute assists professionals in improving programs and processes using the ROI Methodology developed by Dr. Jack J. Phillips and Dr. Patti P. Phillips. ROI Institute is the global leader in measurement, evaluation, and analytics, including the use of return on investment (ROI) in non-capital expenditures. Through workshops, consulting services, books and case studies, and research, ROI Institute applies the ROI Methodology in 20 fields in over 60 countries. ROI Institute authors have written or edited over 100 books, translated into 38 languages. Organizations build internal capability with the help of ROI Institute and its ROI Certification process. By successfully completing this process, individuals are awarded the Certified ROI Professional (CRP) designation, which is respected by executives in organizations worldwide. For more information on ROI Institute, please contact info@roiinstitute.net or visit www.roiinstitute.net. The post National Geographic recognizes ROI Institute’s contribution to green business initiatives appeared first on ROI Institute.

Birmingham, AL, December, 2015- December 2015 marked the 20th anniversary of offering the ROI Certification in a public setting. Since the first public certification, the ROI Methodology has become the most successful system for the evaluation of learning and human resources in the world. To date, over 11,000 individuals have participated in the live one-week version of the ROI Certification. In addition, about 3,000 individuals have attended online versions offered through universities. In December 1995, in Nashville, Tennessee, a small group of practitioners attended the first public version of the ROI Certification, which was intended to build serious skills to evaluate all types of programs credibly. When an individual completed an evaluation study, including measuring the impact and ROI, the Certified ROI Professional (CRP) designation was awarded. The number of Certified ROI Professionals now has reached over 4,000, with many more on the way. From its beginnings, the need to develop critical and serious evaluation skills was identified. Although the initial participants were in the learning and development space, this certification quickly grew to over twenty other areas, such as human resources, technology, marketing, quality, innovation, sustainability, consulting, and compliance. "Although our plans were based on needs, this was truly an experiment," explains Jack Phillips, Chairman, ROI Institute. "At that time, individuals interested in evaluation could attend a one-day, and in some cases, a two-day workshop offered by the ROI Institute. Although, it was important to have two days of training, to build a serious capability and transfer content to the organization required more detail, more work, and more application—that is the ROI Certification. We tried this internally with several organizations with great success and we offered it publicly in late 1995." Since then, ROI Certification has been offered publically and internally, all over the U.S.A and in at least 40 countries. Although the first participants represented business, most participants now represent governments, non-profits, non-government organizations (NGOs), universities, and healthcare organizations and professional associations. "The ROI Certification continues to be in high demand," adds Patti Phillips, President and CEO, ROI Institute. "The reaction, acceptance, and use of this methodology has been amazing. In addition to the five-day live version, we offer a variety of possibilities to obtain this important designation. Many organizations are moving this certification internally to build skills with a team, focused on their needs, at their preferred time, and often with much less cost." For additional information about ROI Certification and what it means and the benefits of obtaining it, please click here. For information on the six ways to obtain certification, meeting the time and budget needs for any organization, click here. The post ROI Certification Celebrates 20th Anniversary appeared first on ROI Institute.

I read an article recently stating that 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions are not met. I wasn’t surprised by that figure because of two very common facts: Accomplishing the goal is usually more difficult than we think it will be We rarely ask for help from others who can support us That’s why it makes so much sense to use the three principles of Situational Leadership® II—goal setting, diagnosis, and matching—to make your New Year’s resolutions stick. This highly successful model for setting and achieving work goals applies to reaching personal goals, as well. For years, I’ve shared the benefits of writing SMART goals. I truly believe this acronym provides a powerful method for making sure your goals are Specific, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable. So I’m not going to go over the best way to write goal statements today. Instead, I’m going to strongly suggest, once the goal is determined, that you write it down. Sounds simple, right? In the working environment, writing goal statements are usually part of a performance planning process. However, many times when people are setting personal goals, they think about what they want to do but they don’t write anything down. If you can’t make the effort to write it down, you probably won’t be committed enough to actually change a behavior. Write each goal on a separate sheet of paper and read each goal every day. It won’t do you any good to write something down and file it away. When you read your goal statements each day, you remind yourself of your priorities and match your behavior to meet the goals—or adjust your behavior if goals are not being met. This simple process will help you be accountable for your own goal achievement. I read my goals first thing in the morning, just to get my day off to the right start and get myself in the right frame of mind. Next, it is important to diagnose your development level on each goal. What is your competence (your skills and experience) and what is your commitment (your motivation and confidence) to this goal? Once you determine your competence and commitment, you need to ask for help. For example, let’s say you are excited about your goal but are not competent yet. You are an enthusiastic beginner and need to find a helper who can coach you—someone who can provide a lot of direction on how you can achieve this goal. If you lack competence and confidence on a goal, you are a disillusioned learner. In this case you need a coach to provide direction as well as a supporter to cheer you on. This doesn’t necessarily have to be the same person. If you know how to achieve your goal but your commitment varies, you are a capable but cautious performer. In this case, you need extra support to help you stay committed but you don’t need much direction. Finally, let’s say you have both high competence and high commitment to the goal. A self-reliant achiever, may not even need to write the goal down—you are well on your way to goal achievement. The third step is called matching. This means finding the right person or group of people to help you reach your goals. You may have different helpers for different goals because you want to choose people who will offer the right combination of direction and support for you. For example, if you set a goal to exercise three times a week, find a friend who is already dedicated to exercising and is willing to join you at the gym instead of one who rarely laces up walking shoes. Be systematic about checking in with your helpers. Set up a specific time each week to talk about how you are progressing. This can be as simple as a ten-minute phone call or even a quick text. Or use the check-in as a way to get face to face with your main supporters. How you get together doesn’t matter—what you talk about is the biggest factor that will keep you on track toward achieving your goals. I often ask people, "What is the best diet?" Of course, the answer is "The one you stick with." Think of these check-in meetings as the way to stick to your plan. So, don’t fall into that 92 percent failure group. Set yourself up for success by setting your goals, diagnosing your development level, and surrounding yourself with helpers who will provide the right amount of direction and support to help you flourish throughout the year!

It's time to take stock and plan how each of us will change the world. Let's do it! Here's a quote from Turning Pro, a book I revisit at the beginning of every new year from one of my favorite authors Steven Pressfield: "When we're living as amateurs, we're running away from our calling - meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves… to follow a calling requires work.  It's hard.  It hurts.  It demands entering the pain zone of effort, risk and exposure. " ​

Happy Brand New Year! In this LearningFlash, you and I are going to explore how to bring back the energy that we lost in 2015 in our multitasking madness. I'll be sharing some powerful thoughts written by Parker Palmer. Let me introduce him to you now: "The unexamined life is surely worth living, but is the unlived life worth examining? It seems a strange question until one realizes how much of our so-called mental life is about the lives we are not living, the lives we are missing out on, the lives we could be leading but for some reason are not. What we fantasize about, what we long for, are the experiences, the things and the people that are absent. It is the absence of what we need that makes us think, that makes us cross and sad... we can survive only if our appetites more or less work for us... Because we are always shadowed by the possibility of not getting what we want, we learn, at best, to ironize our wishes — that is, to call our wants wishes: a wish is only a wish until, as we say, it comes true — and, at worst, to hate our needs. But we also learn to live somewhere between the lives we have and the lives we would like." Read in it's entiretyThat's quite a challenge, right? To begin, I've created a quick assessment that contains common things my customers have said to me this year as we live between the lives we have and the lives we would like to have.  See if you've said any of these things: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JT9P2PW. This will provide the self-awareness needed to grow through the challenging thoughts below.

The global mobile learning market is forecast to hit $8.7 billion by the end of 2015 and looks set to reach $12.2 billion by 2017. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives are becoming standard practice for many organisations and learners who are used to accessing corporate systems and data from their own mobile devices are driving demand for mobile learning. Meanwhile, EUdigitisation initiatives, such as the Opening up Education programme funded with tens of millions of Euros, are also driving the adoption of mobile learning. The growth in corporate mobile learning raises questions about how to secure personal data. This data is not only travelling between personal smartphones, tablets and corporate Learning Management Systems, but also across borders. It is therefore vital that the C-level asks and answers these questions to limit their organisation’s exposure to the risk of the loss or theft of personal data. A combined effect and responsibility If your organisation is looking to introduce mobile learning or improve the management of mobile learning across borders, you will most likely face a multiplicity of local data and privacy laws and widely divergent attitudes to the requirement for securing personal data. Here are five ways organisations can help HR departments to manage staff data when workforce learning goes mobile Audit the usage of mobile workforce learning on a global level. HR and learning development staff in regions with lower data protection standards may not understand the rules in countries with more rigid regulations, putting the whole organisation at risk of a regulatory breach. European citizens have the right to be forgotten, something companies from other continents may not appreciate. Most western European countries are only allowed to store user data for six months and then they have to delete it. In other parts of the world, organisations are encouraged to hold data for as long as they can in case of regulatory challenges. Many countries have regulations governing the transmission of personal data across borders and these may well apply to corporate learner data. Appoint a data protection controller. A data protection controller can satisfy the board that the correct level of risk is assigned to data protection. In fact, the law in some parts of the world requires the appointment of a data protection controller. Engage all stakeholders in data protection issues. Get all the stakeholders on board - not just HR, but also legal and IT people. Everyone who might contribute to what happens to data within an organisation needs to be at the table. Consent is an important concept relating to data privacy, and organisations need to know how to go about obtaining employee consent to store and process learner data. Get informed about the regulations that govern the storage, use and transmission of personal data. Ignorance is no defence. An established supplier will have a solid understanding of how your mobile learning solution complies with regulations and should be able to advise you. Cloud-based learning systems enable easy mobile access for learners across large organisations. HR can disseminate consistent mobile training throughout the entire organisation and monitor and gauge results from it centrally. Students can learn anytime, anywhere and on any device. Yet some organisations implement cloud-based learning systems in most parts of the world but exclude some regions from their cloud workforce learning because they cannot cope with the regulations they are faced with in those regions. It is also important to consider the data protection implications if employees are travelling from one jurisdiction to another while learning on their mobile devices. Make sure corporate measures and policies allow for a BYOD environment, where employees use their own devices for work purposes and mobile learning. Conversely, if employees use corporate-issued mobile devices, there must be controls and policies to ring-fence data so that it is not accessible to other apps that employees may install on the device. The measures in place to secure the BYOD environment will go a long way towards securing against threats such as malware and criminal hacks but this must be supplemented by educating the workforce about the importance of protecting their own personal data and how the organisation is ensuring that data is safe. Organisations need to encompass all these factors as they plan their global approach to data protection in a technology-enabled learning scenario. Mobile learning solutions contain personal data and given that all personal data is private, organisations have a duty to protect it. Depending on whether the organisation is in Europe, America or China, regulations might differ, but all global organisations need to be aware of data regulations and act on the risk of falling foul of them when workforce learning goes mobile.

Last year I completed many more e-learning heroes challenges than I thought I had, and I’m surprising myself early in 2016 by completing my first challenge of the year! The Concept This challenge was to ‘awaken’ our e-learning force by creating a Star Wars themed interaction…this was a tall order for me because I had never seen an entire Star Wars movie. I know. I know. The Method When thinking about this challenge, I knew I wanted to do something with the iconic intro crawl, and I knew I wanted to build the interaction in Storyline, which was limited in terms of being able to adjust the perspective of my text. So, here’s what I did instead: Went into PhotoShop and created a transparent canvas the width of my Storyline design, and double the height; Then, I added a text box around the entire canvas, chose a Star-Warsy font, changed the font colour to a shade of yellow, and wrote out my crawl; Once I was finished writing the crawl, I right-clicked the text layer, and selected Rasterize Type; Then, I chose Transform > Perspective from the Edit menu, and adjusted the top of the text box to become a smaller width with the bottom of the text box remaining the same; I added a drop shadow and saved the image. Then… I went back to my Storyline file where I had applied a background fill of a Star-Warsy looking pattern; Then, I added a scroll panel to the entire width (and majority of height) of my project, with the scroll bar extending past the slide so you couldn’t see it; Next, I added the image I had created in PhotoShop and applied a line motion path, changing the direction to up, changing the easing to none, and I dragged the end point of the motion path to the desired location; I added some Star Wars theme music (attribution under the Resources link), and moved on to the next slide, and set a trigger to jump to the next slide when the motion path animation completed; The next slide was a simple click and reveal interaction that employed buttons to trigger layers. Result To view the full interaction, Click Here.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (#CES2016) is happening in Las Vegas all week. It's one of the largest events in North America showcasing the latest in tech gadgetry from all industries. The eLearning community doesn't normally bother with hardware innovations because hardware products are mostly directed towards consumers of non-educational products. However, as Trish Uhl pointed out during my Periscope broadcast, it's the hardware that is driving consumer behaviors which in turn influences how consumers interact with content. This is a brilliant insight as it puts hardware directly at the front of how we plan for the future of corporate training. What Happens to eLearning When Screens Disappear? For many years it's been a race for bigger, cheaper, and more realistic television sets. And now it feels like we've entered into a race to eliminate not just the television, but all screens or monitors. That may be unrealistic to think that we will never again need screens. But is it? What if the screen as we know it is replaced by headsets, or holograms? The viewing of entertainment is largely responsible for our "need" for television screens. What if the future of entertainment doesn't require a screen? And for those few who still watch television news for staying updated on current events...well, we already know information can be acquired faster   via other channels of information. What might that look like? Or in this case, what will it not look like? Think of the Amazon Echo, or Siri, or other voice activated devices. These are becoming more powerful with every new update. All via voice commands, we can get all the information we need without a screen. "Hey Alexa, tell me about the latest news in my area." This may not be widely used, yet. But they show us what learning might look like in the future. Alexa could be quizzing you on the content of your current courses at exactly the right moment in time maximizing the brain's capacity to learn. I know it seems a bit like a science fiction novel, but the possibilities are quite real. And it all starts with the hardware. How are User Interfaces Changing eLearning? Physical technology innovations also impact the user experience. Software has moved to the cloud, but content in the cloud needs a place to go for it to be useful. What we now call the internet of things is the channel for both sending and receiving that cloud data. It's these hardware "things" that become the conduit between the cloud and us. It makes sense that how we engage with these things will also quickly morph from keyboard and mouse to something far more intuitive. It may be that voice activation is the most obvious future user interface with technology. Or maybe there's more too it than that. Our hands/fingers have been the primary tools manipulating keyboard and mouse to interact via onscreen interfaces. However, the rest of our body parts serve important functions as well. Our bodies currently send data through simple monitoring wristbands. But our wrists currently don't receive data and react accordingly. An argument could be made that we choose reactions based on the information we see displayed on our wrist devices. But I'm thinking we may be headed towards something more interesting. Last week I highlighted a company that has created an interactive suit called the Teslasuit. This is an interesting look at what's possible when we include the entire human body in the interface experience. This type of wearable may not have immediate daily uses for the purposes of training. But they are already in use training military personnel in highly advanced training simulations. As the technology gets cheaper we will create effective commercial uses that begin to make more sense. While most of our industry's technology innovations are software based, it's becoming more important than ever to watch the trends in hardware. The eLearning industry follows cultural shifts in how technology is being used. The internet of things is forcing the eLearning industry to take a closer look at new hardware driving the expectations of our learners. We can't expect that the cartoonish click-the-next-button training content will always be the norm. And while we all attempt to move beyond that in our designs, I am beginning to see the technology hardware and cloud software making many of these decisions for us. If you're interested in seeing more you can always follow #CES2016. But if you're interested in anything specific, let us know @Litmos and I'll find the information for you while I'm there. Also, if you are attending, please feel free to reach out and perhaps we can meet up. The post How Does Hardware Drive the eLearning Industry? appeared first on Litmos.

Here’s a list of 20 inspirational elearning examples from Elearning Superstars. Virgin Atlantic: Animated flight safety film Why we like it: Story telling approach Fresh and stylish use of well-known movie genres to get the message across Attention grabbing (and holding) Strong script and storyboard Stylish sophisticated design and animation Memorable, simple and fun! Visit elearning Resuscitation Council UK: Lifesaver is a simulation game the tests your CPR skills Why we like it: Fully immersive, game-based and experiential design Timed decision-making activities Good use of branching scenarios Strong storyboarding and scripting Real time game-style progress stats and points Formative feedback at each decision level Raises the blood pressure! Visit elearning Utility Warehouse: Training for new employees Why we like it: A great example of strong visual design with bold contemporary contrasting colors. Good proximity of content and use of contrast to help chunk the material. Clean and clear templated approach with clean layouts and consistent use of styles, alignment and interactions. Great use of video on response layers in interactive question screens helps situate the learner into the heart of the business and introduce real colleagues. Visit elearning BBC: Mi Vida Loca helps you learn Spanish with interactive TV mini series Why we like it: Good use of interactive video drama - takes you on a mystery adventure. Episodic - 22 episodes in all, 10 minutes each, covering basic learning points for beginner level Spanish. A learning section complements each episode and provides practice activities and opportunities to go through grammar and vocabulary in more detail at your own pace. Includes a speaking phrasebook which is a real person! Lots of audio practice and chance to listen and repeat. Visit elearning Broken Co-Worker: Not your typical learning experience Why we like it: Good use of video for context and feedback Careful use of music helps set the scene Inspired by the printed comic book layout gives it good visual appeal and a strong story-based structure Interactive video - with some strong scripting gives users real problems to solve and uses video effectively for feedback Allows users to share progress on social sites Visit elearning BBC: Finance for non-financial managers Why we like it Dynamic scoring allows for points to be lost and well as won across a range of skills. Each stage is timed - a dynamic counter ups the ante and piles on the pressure to be decisive. Scenario-based - situates the user in the role of decision-maker in front of which a series of characters come to bid for time, money and resources. Tailored feedback at each decision point - once you’ve made up your mind, you get your rankings in all four categories. Good use of multi-media including animated sequences, audio dialogue, fun game-like graphical style of the characters. Branching logic designed into the levels of the game unlock more choices if you make a good selection on the first round. Visit elearning Linda Dong: The Dangers of Fracking Why we like it: Nice example of some website design elements that could be applied to elearning courses. The downward scrolling provides a sense of digging down into the earth to learn about the fracking process. The design is user centred letting the user control the navigation. Interactive elements at certain points lets the user explore and drill down deeper. Background graphics are contemporary and create a good canvas for the content to be displayed on. Visit elearning City Witness: Medieval Swansea Why we like it: Fully responsive, looks good and works well on all platforms and devices. Scenario driven with branching - interactive challenges take learns on a quests to solve a medieval mystery. Story-based - narrative stages, character witnesses. Feedback - at each stage of the investigation. Progression - a dynamic map allows the player-learner to see what stage they are at and what’s left to do. Scoring - opportunities to gather points and bonuses, unlocking the next stage. Dynamic polling - get to vote on solving the mystery and see how other players are voting. Visit elearning Lloyds Bank: Induction for telephone banking staff Why we like it: Flexible, self-paced with clear progression. Integrated Assima simulations of the actual bank’s system provided wall-garden for safely practising systems training for new staff. High-end video using a road trip concept to take new recruits through onboarding. Strong scripting and storyboarding using real world scenarios to help learners build empathy with customers. Visit elearning Connect Group: The Golden Rules (compliance training) Why we like it: Immersive and engaging approach in order to create memorable learning experience. Good use of humor, games, leaderboards and strong visual design to grab attention and motivate learners to interact with the course. Visit elearning Heineken: Capability Academy Why we like it: Progression - a Tube-type map keeps play-learners abreast of their progress and shows them where they are headed. Engaging - leaderboard, competition, quests and challenges. Scoring - earn point as you progress through the learning to push you up the leaderboard. Feedback - gives an overall ranking as well as feedback on how you’re doing at each step. A real board games accompanies the course! Visit elearning US Army: Connect with Haji Kamal Why we like it: Good example of complex branching with 12 paths through the material which cross at several points, so one bad choice doesn’t necessarily lead to failure. Authentic storyline built in collaboration with SME’s Dialogue driven - the whole scenario is based around debate Looks great - using graphic novel style illustration, the images are comic-ified photos. Good use of audio for the discussion. Forms part of a toolkit to help soldiers practice specific cross-cultural capabilities. Visit elearning DrugTreatment.com: Essential information about rehabilitation Why we like it: There are two routes available for users to select the content aimed at them or for a friend/relative. Users can select from personalized lists along the way and their choice is added to their personalized list at the bottom of the screen. Interactive drop-down menu is available to skip directly to specific topics. Clear interactive progress bar lets the user skip back and forth to different parts of the module. Some nice simple animated images add depth to the site without being distracting. Pop ups and layers provide a deeper dive into the topics at each point. Visit elearning New York Times: Amazing Girls Why we like it: Really effective use of full screen still imagery and voice over to create effective program. The style is very authentic, using real voices and imagery that can be captured on any mobile device. Nice use of a really simple menu to let you select the different voices and stories. Visit elearning Sky: Employee induction portal Why we like it: Multi channel learning with a variety of content to suit a large and diverse audience. More than an induction program. This course is part of a five year strategic relationship for transformation at the heart of the client’s business. A leaderboard style scoring system offers an element of competition, together with social media networking tools, games, activities and quizzes. Visit elearning Channel 4: Learning to take risks Why we like it: Successfully links the "important but dull" messages of compliance to the aspirational goals of taking risks and pushing boundaries. Builds competence, not just compliance by focussing less on knowledge and more on actions. Captures and reflects client culture and brand, using bold images from well-known broadcast output. Uses audio voice-over narration provided by the familiar and popular voice of Channel 4 continuity announcer Corie Brown. Draws on authentic scenarios with video-based ‘mini documentaries’ and dynamic scrolling stories Highly visual learning experience, with minimal text on screen, a simple interface, and contemporary touch-screen design styles. Visit elearning McDonald’s: Popular till training game Why we like it: Realistic - game centers around using a simulation of the new till system. Game mechanics - use of stories for context and emotional engagement, Setting is realistic (restaurant) Characters (customers) and narrative (the orders and the different customers). Uses gaming features such as lifelines, bonuses and panel elements to enhance the gamification feel and engage the learner. Scores, levels, count-down, challenges, simulated till environment, sound effects and customer voices all create a gaming feel. Feedback - little and often (satisfaction, scores, levels, customer response, flashing red,) - shows choices the learner is making is having consequence all the time - dynamic feedback. Gives learners an opportunity to learn in a safe environment to practise and learn from mistakes, without customers getting frustrated. Levels - smooth learning curve with lots of attention to achievement. Scoring - goes up to 9 million! Lots of bonus and rewards, only one winner. Visit elearning Tesco: Learning Leap Why we like it: Good example of how the elearning vendor used detailed data and feedback from target audience for the previous course to help design an improved programme. Uses a fun and easy to understand narrative where each learner is represented graphically as a parachutist getting ready to jump into the learning (Leapers) Interesting example of a whole campaign approach around three bite-sized, 20 minute modules with branded emails to notify and encourage staff of the course, and post-event knowledge checks Utilizes gaming techniques such as real time, animated leader boards showing the number of learners at each stage of the training. After course completion, staff receive bi-monthly emails, known as ‘PiPs’ or ‘Putting into Practice’. These micro-learning quizzes are related to the course topics and help reinforce the learning. Visit elearning Treehouse: The classroom from the future Why we like it: Clear progression - uses the idea of ‘achievements’ in a course. Clear structure with timings. Raises the bar with high quality studio produced video lessons hosted by in-house team of trainers and contemporary visuals. Courses organized into ‘Tracks’. These are pre-selected sequences of training topics that you complete in a specific order. Visit elearning PETSYNC: Living with a dog in a shared community Why we like it: Developed in HTML5, it’s responsive design is accessible on desktops as well as mobile devices. Effect use of 3D images and animations, dynamic scenarios, interactive assessments. Provides links to external resources and customizable documents that learners can download for their specific community. 3d virtual environment lets learners pan around, zoom in and out and click on areas to explore more. Includes an integrated glossary and expressive dialogue. Uses fun avatars for the people and dogs. Visit elearning The post Best of 2015: 20 excellent elearning examples to inspire your next project appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Today, we’re focusing on the production phase, the fourth step in the five-step elearning production process. Production is the point at which your planning and design come together. Here are some key steps you can follow to make sure the production runs smoothly. Related: Read more about the analysis phase, design phase or specification phase. 1. Map out content Previously, in the design phase, you mapped out the big idea and now it’s time to get into details. Use a mind map or flowchart to map out the overall flow or experience. For example, let’s say that there are going to be ten core interactions. Map out what will go into each of those interactions. Think about the discussion point, your objective, and the experience that’s going to fall into each component. In the analysis phase, you developed a clear idea of one or two key outcomes and looked at any source content that was available. Now you can start pulling together and organizing what you’ve got already into a series of chunks. Once that is done, you can refine it and give it more focus. In this phase, you must be very disciplined, so you can get rid of any extraneous bits you don’t need. Coggle is the mind map I like to use. Paste in your chunks, ideas and snippets to see how everything fits together. Identify where there are questions for which you need help from your subject matter experts (SMEs). The best way to get information from SMEs is to be very specific about what you want. Recently, the Elucidat team was involved in a complex health care project that had a range of experts involved. To keep things structured, we sent SMEs really targeted mini questionnaires, so that each of them could give their input. The questionnaires included queries designed to provoke insightful feedback from our recipients, like: how do you communicate your complex subject matter to a different audience of caregivers? By giving SMEs a set of questions, we were able to structure and constrain the feedback that we wanted to get back from them. 2. Storyboard Storyboarding is the method of orchestrating all the elements that will make up the elearning to create a score. This is much like in musical composition, where all team members can follow along the same "notes." Here are 10 storyboarding elements you will include: Text Graphics Animations Video Audio Resources Links References Interactions Activities A storyboard explains how all the elements fit together. In other words, it acts like an instruction manual for the team. Some people may choose to create storyboards with applications such as PowerPoint or Word. I prefer to work directly in rapid development tools such as Elucidat. The advantage of working inside a tool like Elucidat is that you have a more visual layout (instead of words in a documents). This makes it a lot easier for all stakeholders to interpret the screens and interactions. Peer-to-peer/stakeholder review Instead of creating Word documents and using the ‘track changes’ feature to add comments and suggestions, authoring tools - like Elucidat - include inbuilt features which help keep reviews and bug tracking all in one place inside the project files. For example, if you do your storyboarding inside Elucidat, your team can click directly on the screen element they want to feedback on. This makes it really easy to interpret the issue or feedback and manage any changes and updates. 3. Create screens and templates Your map and storyboard will give you a list of the interaction and screen types for the project. Sometimes developers will create each of these from scratch. But, tools like Elucidat can now ship with a range of screen and interaction types already fully built and tested. The benefit of using these themes is that you don’t need to spend time and money on costly development. You can set up a project and very quickly select a pre-built template that lets you see the whole project mapped out. You can use project view to see all the branching and navigation right from the start. 4. Involve graphic designers Graphic designers should work closely with your team. They must be involved at the early stages and contribute through the elearning process. Involve graphic designers at the storyboarding stage, so they can create graphics that support what the text is communicating. For any key overarching concepts that get reinforced and used across a module, consider asking your designer to create graphics that visually represent these ideas, so you can make them memorable. Visual memory hooks can help to reinforce your core points. 5. Bring it all together and build Now it’s time to bring all the elements together - a little like an assembly line. The production phase becomes really simple if you’ve completed the work in the previous three stages (analysis, design, and specification). If you haven’t done the upfront work you can easily waste a lot of time tinkering around and feeling lost. Some tools allow you to voice record narrative on the fly, but, for best results, have a voice over artist record in a studio and then integrate the sound files into the course at the build stage. Video, graphics and any other media can be assembled along with the text. Use Elucidat’s responsive slider to test different mobile screen sizes as you go. This saves heaps of time, as you only need to develop the course once for different devices. And finally, if you plan to deploy your elearning in an LMS or LRS or need it to track the learning in any way, development tools that automatically build compliant LMS/LRS ready elearning, such as Elucidat, will really speed up this process. In conclusion The production phase should be short and simple. If you’ve done all the work necessary in the design and specification phases, then this phase will just be about assembling the output. The most important thing here is to have a clear set of easy-to-interpret instructions that your team can follow. Consider using tools - like Elucidat - that allow multiple people to work simultaneously on projects, eliminating the need to package up files and send them around your team. This is a real time-saver that compresses the duration of the production phase and reduces the stress of managing multiple versions of project files. The post Production: How to approach the 4th phase in the elearning production process appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

It can be challenging to find images for your eLearning courses that are stunning, high-resolution and most importantly, free. With the availability of current resources, it’s no longer necessary to use clip art or the type of generic (or cliché) images that make training look dated. Whether you lack the skill or simply the time to create the images for your eLearning courses, we have compiled a list, of what we consider the best free stock photos on the Internet right now. Each of the following websites contains free high-resolution images that can be used for personal and commercial use. We encourage your to visit and bookmark any (or all) of these sites today!

With the unwanted presents stuffed under the bed and all the leftover turkey used up in curries and stews, it is time to focus on the year ahead. This means cracking on with your 2016 training strategy. Does it include acquiring or upgrading training software? If it doesn't then it is definitely something that you should consider. 

Cross channel communication can sometimes feel like a puzzle. Which communication mediums should you be using to provide the highest quality of customer service and more importantly which methods do customers prefer to use? This infographic created by Talkdesk takes a look at some best practice tips for boosting customer service across different channels including telephone, social media and online support. 

There is a myth (or opinion) shared by some entrepreneurs and media commentators that "before you can launch a startup, you need a great idea to pursue". This isn’t true. Whilst a great idea will be important later, if you don’t have it from the beginning, don’t let it stop you getting started (in fact, you are highly unlikely to have the right idea to begin with anyway!) I know that when you look at Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Airbnb, Youtube, etc. they all look like amazing ideas that were always destined to be successful, and through good execution have achieved huge success… But in many cases, the phenomenal success we see now isn’t with the idea they started with! For example, let’s look at Youtube. The co-founders were very smart, experienced entrepreneurs (previously at Paypal). Their big idea was to provide a dating site that used video rather than just pictures to match couples, inspired by ‘Hot or Not’. They created their video dating site called ‘Tune in Hook up’ and launched soon after leaving Paypal (after it’s acquisition by eBay in 2002). As a dating site, the start-up was failing. However, they saw that some users shared links to funny videos of potential matches, and even used the site to upload and share their own (non-dating) videos. The founders learned, and later relaunched as Youtube in 2005. Interestingly Facebook had a similar beginning in the form of ‘Facemash’ in 2003 which asked users to rate which of two faces was ‘hotter’. Airbnb was the result of the founders renting space on air mattresses in their own apartments so they could pay their rent in 2007. It was after creating a site and marketing to get their initial customers that they realized there was an opportunity to enable others to list their rooms too. It took another two years for them to understand and overcome the issues preventing their growth (including bad photos of rooms). Twitter started it’s life as an internal messaging tool for a podcasting company, Odeo. Uber started as a luxury car company for getting to nightclubs. So, whilst some successful start-ups (LinkedIn?) may have had a strong idea of what their product would be very early on, many more didn’t. Don’t wait until you come up with your ‘killer idea’. Instead, FIND your idea through a process of speaking to people about their problems, sharing conceptual solutions, getting feedback, testing ideas, and making changes. I’m running a webinar about how to do this on the 7th January 2016 - click here to find out more (and register).

A decade ago, as a young entrepreneur, I would often look at successful businesspeople and marvel at their resourcefulness, tenacity and vision. I wished I had the same internal mechanics that enabled them to overcome self-limiting beliefs, dream big, and find the right path. I thought I needed to put in more hours to get the results they were getting, but when I was maxing myself out, my results got worse! I now think the big difference was that they had a mentor / coach. As Richard Branson said: "Whenever I am asked what is the missing link between a promising businessperson and a successful one, mentoring comes to mind. […] If you ask any successful businessperson, they will always have had a great mentor at some point along the road." It’s actually pretty startling - identify any successful entrepreneur and you’ll find a coach or mentor that helped them to stretch their goals, identify the right path, and make progress along it. Here’s some I found: Mark Zuckerberg was mentored by Steve Jobs and Donald Graham Steve Jobs by Andy Grove Robert Kiyosaki by Keith Cunningham Richard Branson by Sir Freddie Laker Bill Gates by Dr Ed Roberts and Warren Buffet Jack Dorsey by Ray Chambers Marissa Mayer by Larry Page & other Google Execs (Any many more!) As entrepreneurs I think we often think we have to be the trailblazer, setting the world alight with our crazy ideas, persistence, and massive action. Instead, we’d be better getting help. For example, for my teenage years and the first 10 years of my adult life I struggled with my weight. It slowly went up and up, until I hit 15 stone (95.25kg), making me technically ‘Obese’ according to my BMI’. I had tried to lose weight, but ‘nothing worked’. In 2015, I finally got serious about getting fitter, and hired a Personal Trainer. Wow. What a difference! Not only was I able to lose weight (losing 2 stone in 6 months), but I’m now in the best shape of my life. (And I’m confident that by April 2016 I will be in the ‘Normal’ range - something I had previously resigned to never being able to achieve!) I now have coaches and/or mentors for all the areas of my life where I am serious about improvement and achieving great things - and the impact has been huge. Now, this is an important point… I didn’t need the personal trainer to tell me how to lose weight. (I know that eating less and exercising more will achieve that result!). Instead I needed help to: Set goals that had the right balance between being stretching and realistic Identify the path that would help me achieve my goals most quickly and enjoyably Keep me accountable for keeping to the path / plan Maintain momentum and keep things interesting over the long haul Get up and get going again when I fell off track For entrepreneurs, having a coach can help us do the above with our start-ups, and work smarter (not longer!) as a result. This is particularly important for parentpreneurs, where more hours spent working is likely to damage your relationships, and as a result your motivation, support and ability to think clearly. I’m running a webinar on the 7th January 2016 where I’ll share a process you can use to work smarter with your start-up, and tell you how you can get access to support to help you achieve your dreams in 2016 - click here to find out more (and register). Right, I better go - I’m booked for a session with my personal trainer!

In the last post, it was suggested that for busy corporate learners, putting their learning in a practical context is a first step to building acceptance and engagement in their learning. It is therefore necessary to prove to them the relevance of their E-Learning to giving direction in their role related performance within the business. With this in mind the following two suggestions for building interactivity can be summarized as follows:From an educational point of view, to accomplish knowledge transfer and skill set development, there should be meaningful opportunities for learners to see and test out what they are learning as it applies to real life settings. One way that this may be accomplished using a blended E-Learning format is through well designed simulations and scenarios where the learner is the main character.It is important to establish a readily seen connection between theory and practical application of the E-Learning content. Using a variety of irresistibly engaging learning experiences such as scenarios, case studies, simulations and most importantly, collaborative problem solving scenarios where a group of employees are tasked to engage a problem in an online environment is important to developing engagement. Such E-Learning experiences that involve collaborative problem solving where decisions made, lead to immediate feedback and branching scenarios created as a result of decisions that were made are valuable. They lead to the development of important skillsets that can be readily measured and assessed. Immediate feedback to learners throughout the experience is more valuable than a test at the end.The Importance of Challenge in Building InteractivityAll E-Learning interactions should be challenging enough to involve learners and motivate them at the same time for them to become engaged in the learning process.Learners should have a powerful purpose for engaging in E-Learning experiences. One of the most powerful motivators is the realization by every learner that the role that I perform within the business organization is important to the organization; my work is appreciated and my contributions are respected by decisions makers; my striving to improve my learning by engaging in experiences that challenge and grow my skillsets is an investment in the health of my organization and in my own professional development.Another way to challenge learners is to design into the learning experiences what may be described as "unforeseen distractors". The challenge in this instance is how a collaborative problem solving group are able to use divergent thinking that leads to innovative solutions to a problem when the previously decided upon solution can't work. This is a skillset that every business organization should commit to fostering and nurturing within its business organization. It is a pathway to the development of systemic innovative thinking throughout the organization. An example of such a distractor within a business simulation might be as simple as a new flash to the group that a crucial supplier has been unable to deliver on promised materials crucial to you meeting an impending deadline or it could be a case where a company responsible for creating vaccines for a specific illness discovers that their producing lab has not being operating according to the required protocols for a sterile environment. The decisions made by participants in such a scenario where they are thoroughly engaged will yield "big data" that can enhance the learning culture within the business organization.Another useful challenge, is to teach learners to use online media tools to search for useful information for tasks. One of the problems of the past is declaring in an uncritical fashion that "content is king". The fact that content was delivered to the learner and then all that was expected of them was to memorize the content is a throw back to the "operant conditioning model" mentioned in the previous post. In a learning and information age, being able to use online tools to search, analyze, evaluate and authenticate the truth value of information is far more important. "Well developed online critical thinking skills are king".Next...Lessons from serious games that apply to the hybrid model

Whether you develop eLearning for a corporation, academic institution, or government agency, you’ve likely encountered the challenge of developing accessible content. In this post, we’ll cover some basic best practices you can and should follow when developing eLearning that is accessible to learners with disabilities. In fact, following accessibility best practices will also help you to create more usable courses for all learners. As background, government agencies in the United States are required by law to follow Section 508, a set of requirements for making electronic resources and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. These standards are based on guidelines originally developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative, known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG. WCAG is a global set of guidelines followed around the world. For the purposes of this post, we’ll define accessible eLearning as web-based courses that can be taken and completed successfully by learners with disabilities. Accessible eLearning creates an online learning experience that includes as many people as possible regardless of their limitations—whether physical, sensory, or cognitive. Keep in mind that a learner with a disability may experience blindness, low vision, color blindness, deafness, hearing loss, or mobility impairments. Further, learners may use assistive technology, such as a screen reader, to interpret content on the screen. By employing these best practices as you design and develop eLearning, you can work to create accessible content: Keyboard Accessibility Rather than using a mouse, a learner may navigate through a course and the content on a page relying strictly on a keyboard. One of the best ways to test a course for accessibility is to unplug your mouse and ensure you can access all of the content and complete the course using only a keyboard. Determine if you can: Navigate through the course with your keyboard Access keyboard shortcuts when necessary Tab between fields like buttons, entry fields, and question controls Stop, pause, and play audio and video using the keyboard Some learners depend on a keyboard tonavigate a course Alternative Text A learner with a visual disability cannot interpret images and multimedia if they are not configured properly in your course. One of the most essential and straightforward methods for creating accessible content is to provide alternative text, or text equivalents, for course elements like graphics, audio, and video. Most authoring tools, like Lectora®, provide a way to define the alternative text or ALT text for visual elements in your course. Be sure to consider appropriate and descriptive alternative text as you develop content. Provide short, descriptive alternative text for images Images that act as links to a new page or window need even more descriptive alternative text. Provide the purpose of the link and indicate that selecting the image will navigate the user away from the page. Captions Similarly, a learner with an auditory disability cannot interpret narration or sound that is part of a video or audio file. In this case, you need to provide synchronized captioning. Use synchronized captions for any video in your course If your course has only audio, remember to provide a transcript. Video may also need to include an audio description as well. Reading Order and Labels Well-designed courses include a consistent layout with routine navigation placed in a standard location. Learners can easily glance at a page, find the navigation links, and quickly focus on the main content. Students who are using screen readers don’t have this advantage. A screen reader will interpret the HTML markup used to generate the page, rather than the page itself. For this reason, it’s important to pay careful attention to the reading order of the elements used on a page. For example, paragraphs should be announced in logical order, and page titles should be read first, rather than last. Consider reading order as you develop and design your course, rather than after you have already added all of the content. This will save you time and rework down the road. Further, remember to employ proper labels for text, form controls, and tables: Use text headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to identify and structure the text on a page. Identify header rows in data tables. Ensure questions and forms use labels to identify checkboxes, radio buttons, and entry fields. Identify header rows when using data tables Learner Controlled Interactions When developing interactions in your course, ensure that the learner can initiate and control what happens on the page. Different disabilities can affect the time it takes or the means used to read a page, fill out a form, answer a test question, or complete an interaction. As you develop interactive scenarios, remember these tips: Avoid timed games and tests. (If you must provide timed access to a page, be sure to provide a warning to the learner that time is about to run out, give them plenty of time to read the message, and provide the option to extend the time limit.) Avoid changing or updating content on the page automatically. Rather, let the learner initiate this change. Avoid flashing images and text. Not only can these be extremely dangerous to a learner with photosensitive epilepsy, but it can be distracting and unnecessary. Allow the learner to easily begin, complete, and exit a game, test, or interaction. This dialog allows the learner to extend his or her time in the course Color Like images, audio, and video, color is an equally important part of creating an attractive and visually interesting course. For students with visual disabilities, however, color can create confusion and barriers to accessibility. To create accessible courses, always use color as the secondary indicator of meaning. For example, if you’re providing directions or options, explain those options with text and color. This creates a better and more usable course for all students. Use color as a secondary indicator of meaning While these best practices are by no means comprehensive, they will hopefully provide you with a basic foundation to use as you begin to design and develop accessible eLearning. Stay tuned for an upcoming post that will take a deeper dive into the specific accessibility options and objects you can use in Lectora. For more information and resources concerning accessibility, follow these links: http://www.access-board.gov/ http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag community.trivantis.com/shared-content/how-to-course-developing-accessible-content-in-lectora The post Creating Accessible eLearning: What You Need to Know appeared first on .

Cross-Posted from ImagineEasy.Rolland Chidiac is a Google Certified Innovator from Waterloo, Canada. He is currently teaching at Sir Edgar Bauer Catholic Elementary School (Waterloo Catholic District School Board). Connect with Rolland on Google + and Twitter. It feels like it was just yesterday that I introduced Google Apps for Education (GAFE, the full suite of free productivity tools) to my students. In reality, it has been about a year and a half since I started integrating GAFE in my classroom. Needless to say, it has been a huge success - for my students and for myself.Part of the fun for me revolves around documenting and sharing our learning so that others can benefit from our experiences. I recently took some time to reflect on what I consider to be the major benefits of using GAFE with students, particularly primary students. Here are my top 5:1. It's EmpoweringThere is nothing more exciting than taking a step back in your classroom to watch and listen to your students as they work on a given task/assignment. It is one thing to have a group of students engaged in a task but it is another to see that they are empowered. What started with engagement has moved to empowerment. The students have moved from being interested in what they are doing to using GAFE to express their interests. I first noticed this last year and thought that maybe it was an anomaly but the same thing is happening with my students this year. They have discovered that the tools allow them to express themselves in ways that they weren't aware of before using GAFE. They have quickly learned how to leverage the technology to create, collaborate, and express themselves and are doing so often. Feeling empowered is a game changer and my students are experiencing what it is like to be intrinsically motivated and to act on that motivation. 2. Allows for Dynamic FeedbackMy students are constantly sharing the work they are doing in their GAFE accounts with their friends, family, and myself. They want me (and others) to see what they are working on. They want to know what we think of their work and how they can make their work better. GAFE makes it easy for them to share their work anytime, anywhere, from almost any device and the people they have shared their work with can respond/provide feedback anytime, anywhere, from almost any device. This experience, the ability to gather feedback from whoever you want without having to hand your work over to them has been very beneficial to my students and myself. Here is a good example for you: while a student is actively working on a task in class they will provide their friends, parents, and teacher with commenting rights to their work. As they are actually working in their document, a classmate of two will jump into their work (document/drawing/slide), see what they are doing, and provide some feedback*. I might also get a chance during the day to check their work and leave a comment. I will make sure to check in again in the evening and see how they have (or have not) used my feedback and that of others to improve their work. Instead of physically handing their work to me or someone else, their work lives in one place where many people can offer suggestions for improvement. GAFE allows me to provide my students with feedback without having to take their work away from them and it allows them to gather feedback without interrupting their work flow.3. Builds Capacity around Technological Literacy & Digital CitizenshipOur society is ever changing, more so today then when I was 7 years old. GAFE is helping my students build capacity around technological literacy and digital citizenship. They are learning how to effectively use technological tools to benefit their learning and their lives. They recognize that technology and cloud computing is constantly changing and that it can offer them fun and innovative ways to learn and create artifacts that are helpful to themselves and to others. They are also becoming more aware of their digital identities - how to protect them and how to interact with others. With the ease of sharing and interaction there is a responsibility to be good people and to make the right choices. GAFE provides my students with a relatively safe experience that they can build upon as new technologies arise. Their expertise and openness leaves them primed for the future - they are ready to harness what comes next in order to be successful. 4. Allows for Natural CollaborationMy students don't do a lot of work in isolation, they generally want to work with their classmates. When working in their GAFE accounts, on what I would deem an "individual" task, I will see them calling each other over to take a look at what they are working on and I will hear them asking for suggestions, providing ideas to each other, and I will even see them editing each others work. Then I start to hear "I'm going to share this with you so you can work together when you are at home". I have seen all my students doing this - from the shy introverts to the loud extroverts. This is when things go to the next level, their time at home. They will work on slides or documents together! I asked a few of my students about working together - why they want to work with others and why they invite others to work with them. Their response was that "it is fun...you get better ideas when others help....and...sometimes people helping know more about how to do something than I do". Wow. There are times when a student or two will be off in a corner working away on solving a problem on their own, but generally GAFE brings them together to work on tasks that I have assigned and tasks that they have initiated on their own.5. Promotes Creativity & InnovationSome of the things my students have created via GAFE have been mind blowing. It turns out that they had great ideas and just didn't know how to get those ideas out. For example, using the slides and drawing app they took their ideas and used the tools to bring their ideas to life. The students enjoy taking time to play around with the apps and experiment (technological literacy). Once they realize that they can do things using the technology that they couldn't do without it, they are off to the races. Combine this with the natural collaboration, dynamic feedback, and feelings of empowerment I referred to earlier and you have a recipe for innovation. Ideas start to flow more readily and students start to take more risks because they are comfortable doing so.Like what you're hearing? Check out an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education and learn how to change your classroom and your students' learning with GAFE. Visit gafesummit.com to find a Summit near you! 

[Post by Karla Willems, Account Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] Justin Hearn, President of GeoMetrix Data Systems, will be presenting an informational session at the upcoming ATD Techknowledge Conference & Expo being held in Las Vegas from January 13 to 15, 2016. Over the last ten years, advances in web-based interfaces have led to learning systems becoming more approachable and engaging. However, many challenges remain. Justin will examine these developments and discuss future engagement strategies for learning and talent management systems. The presentation titled "Learner Engagement in the 21st Century" is scheduled for Wednesday, January 13 from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. in Demo Area 2 of the Expo Hall. And while you’re visiting the exposition, please drop by booth # 500 to find out about the latest developments with GeoTalent and TrainingPartner. GeoMetrix and GeoTalent are proud to be Silver Sponsors of this important industry event. So join us in Las Vegas and come prepared to stretch your imagination. Remember to check your attendee bag for a key. Bring the key to booth # 500 for a chance to try it in the prize box. If it opens the lock, you’ll walk away with that’s inside. For a free expo pass to this event, please call 1-800-616-5409 or email us by clicking here. For more information visit: ATD TechKnowledge® 2016

The management and staff of GeoMetrix Data Systems would like to wish everyone a happy new year. May we live to learn well, and learn to live well. May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live. All the best in 2016 from GeoTalent and TrainingPartner!

Specifically, I’m a Neon Elephant: The Neon Elephant is an award from Dr. Will Thalheimer of Work-Learning Research, given for bridging the gap between research and learning practice. This is really delightful, given the company of previous awardees: 2014 - Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel for their book, Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning 2013 -  Gary Klein 2012 - K. Anders Ericsson 2011 - Jeroen van Merriënboer 2010 - Richard E. Clark 2009 - Ruth Clark 2008 - Robert Brinkerhoff 2007 - Sharon Shrock and Bill Coscarelli 2006  - Cal Wick Lots of smart people on that list.  You should check our their stuff. Thanks Will! (In other news, the second edition of the book is out.  I’ll be doing a separate announcement on that shortly).

The 2015 Higher Education Horizon Report presentation by Alex Freeman of the New Media ConsortiumAlex FreemanKeynote presentation at the 2015 Pennsylvania / Delaware / New Jersey Distance Learning Association's (PADLA) Annual Conference & ExpoHear about the future of Higher Education:6 Key Trends6 Significant Challenges6 Important Tech DevelopmentsLinksPresentation Slides w/AudioPADLA.orgNMC.orgNMC Horizon Report Video IntroHorizon Report PDFRPP #123: 2014 Horizon ReportPodsafe Music Selection  "As The Wind Blows" by KitaroClick Image for Larger ViewDuration: 31:49