Complete Post Shared Below from http://www.rubegoldberg.com/. Click here to see Press Release concerning the task change. The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC) is an annual international competition that challenges teams of students from middle school to college age to compete in building the most elaborate and hilarious Rube Goldberg Machine. A Rube Goldberg Machine is an overly complex contraption, designed with humor and a narrative, to accomplish a simple task. The 2015 Task is: ERASE A CHALKBOARD. Team Registration is open now! The RGMC is STEM and STEAM friendly, and Teams and their machines are judged on a range of criteria from absurd complexity, reliability, team chemistry, creativity, humor and story-telling — along with the successful achievement of the task at hand. Download the ALL NEW CONTEST 2015 Rule Book. Click here to find out How To Register CONTEST HISTORY Dating back over 60 years, the contest’s namesake is the late American Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, humorist and inventor, Reuben Lucius Goldberg, who specialized in drawing whimsical machines with every-day objects that performed a seemingly simple task. Goldberg’s legacy lives on through the contests — as students nationwide build crazy machines that complete the annual task, all in the spirit of Rube’s illustrations. View the International Online Contest page for middle school students. View the High School and College Contest schedule for dates and to find a contest near you. No contest near you? Sign up to become a Host. Hosting is a great way to: - Create an exciting, annual, on-campus event that sparks the imagination of media and spectators; - Connect students from all disciplines — Engineering to Theater, Physics to Art, and Chemistry to Computer Science — in a creative, competitive, and fun atmosphere fueled by learning and humor; - Engage your students and teachers with an audience and community of creative and abstract thinkers, including prospective students; - Help your students become the problem-solvers of tomorrow by participating in a Rube Goldberg Machine Contest today!  

I am in the process of transitioning publishers. I have a supply of books and will be selling them directly through this website. Just click on the contact form or the widget in the right sidebar! I will then send you an invoice for the book and you can pay a variety of ways. The price of the book is $19.99 which includes shipping or you can purchase from Amazon. Either way take this opportunity to get a guide to implementing technology at a discounted price. If you are looking for easy, innovative ways to integrate gamification, web tools and mystery adventure quests then this book is for you. There are great ideas for simple to complex technology integration activities with sample lesson plans and step by step directions. If you would like a sample please let me know. I am currently working on my second book and hope to have it self-published by the time the new school year starts in August or September. For now, I would love your support and appreciate let their colleagues know about this book. Thank you to those who have supported me in the past and I appreciate it for my future adventures in writing! Miguel Guhlin, author of ‘Around the Corner’ blog, shared a great write up of the content in the book in a post that can be found here: http://wp.me/p39xZQ-1je. Hopefully it gives you an inspirational overview of the book and you decide to purchase the last of the stock. Thanks again for your support!

This past Saturday, June 6th, there was a discrepancy in the directions for one section of the SAT test according to a Washington Post article. The test proctor’s booklet said section 8 or 9, depending on the version the student received, was limited to 20 minutes, which was the correct time allocation, while the student booklets said 25 minutes for the section. Once the discrepancy was noticed, test proctors were frantically calling the College Board asking how best to proceed. It is unfortunate the time allocation discrepancy was not noticed prior to starting the test. Most students were only allowed 20 minutes for the section regardless of what their booklet said causing many students to panic as they had paced themselves thinking they had more time than they actually did. Five minutes can be a big deal when taking timed tests and on a test that is as important as the SAT, anything that alters the timing or answering the questions can really affect student scores. According to a Washington Post article, the College Board issued the following statement: Shortly before noon Eastern Time on Saturday, June 6, Educational Testing Service (ETS) informed the College Board that there was a printing error in the standard test books they provided to students taking the SAT on June 6 in the United States. The time allotted for a specific section, either section 8 or 9 depending on the edition, was incorrect in the student test books and correct in the script and manual provided to Test Center Supervisors. The student test books contained "25 minutes" while the manual and script contained the correct time limit of "20 minutes." As soon as ETS became aware of the error during the administration of the test, they worked to provide accurate guidance to supervisors and administrators. The College Board understands the critical nature of this issue, and we are actively working to determine next steps to ensure the fairness of the test and the validity of the scores we deliver. We regret the confusion and concern this issue is causing for students and their families, and we will provide them and others with updated information as soon as possible. Updates will be available online. ETS is the College Board’s test administration and security provider for the SAT. Think of the panic if you are taking the SAT and planning to enroll in the fall of 2015 in a college program. This is one of the last administrations that you can take and still possibly enroll in the fall. Rushing to finish problems or leaving too many blank can have negative repercussions on the overall SAT score due to a student panicking or experiencing increased test anxiety. This was an unfortunate problem for students all over the United States that took the SAT on June 6, 2015. Some students were given the extra five minutes as stated in the test booklet even though the directions the test administrators were given read 20 minutes. Bob Schaeffer, public education director of the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing, known as FairTest, said Sunday night that his organization had been alerted to the same problem in SAT booklets administered in Asia on Saturday hours before the exams were given in the United States. But a College Board spokeswoman said on Monday that the organization said in an e-mail: "ETS and the College Board have confirmed that there was no misprint in tests administered outside the United States." Schaeffer said in an e-mail: If the mistimed sections were not experimental, the College Board faces a serious test scoring problem. At a minimum, the administration of that portion of the exam was not "standardized" since some students had 20 minutes to complete the items, while others had 25 minutes. Rather than its typical circle-the-wagons and say nothing non-response, the test-makers need to explain immediately how this error occurred and what they are going to do to insure score integrity. The error was brought to light when a student, who had taken the test twice before, noticed the booklet said 25 minutes although he knew the directions only allowed 20 minutes for that section. The test booklet said he had 25 minutes, but the proctor said he had 20. He pointed this out, and the proctor asked what other people’s exam books said. About half the people in the room had 25 minutes for Section 8. Presumably, the other half would have the extra time on Section 9. The test supervisor had to be called in, and she indicated that other classrooms were experiencing the same problem. It turned out that the extent of this problem was much wider and was in fact nationwide. James Murphy is an educator who prepares students for the SAT. He made a statement about the changes coming in the future on the new SAT. In order to get a perfect score on the SAT, you need to be pretty much perfect. You can’t make stupid mistakes, and you have to be very careful with your timing. The SAT this past Saturday did not live up to its own standards. Students across the nation received exam booklets containing a printing error that allotted five extra minutes to one section of the exam.  The SAT has 10 sections, and Sections 8 and 9 are 20 minutes long. On June 6, however, tests were distributed in which the directions for either Section 8 or 9 indicated that section would be 25 five minutes long. Students that took the SAT on June 6 took to Twitter to voice their concerns and frustrations. Two samples tweets are below.                             The College Board put out an initial update regarding the June 6th SAT administration. You can read the update here.

The state of New York recently announced that it was replacing Pearson as its testing vendor and is going to go with Questar Assessment Inc, a smaller Minneapolis based company. Questar is receiving a $44 million, five-year contract. Pearson’s $32 million contract ends this December and was responsible for developing the Common Core-aligned tests that have been given to New York students for several years. Pearson’s tests have had repeated complaints about the validity and content of some of its questions. Just a few months ago, Pearson lost its three-decade testing contract for the state of Texas. Educational Testing Service won the state’s new testing contract of a mere $280 million spanning the next four years. Pearson will keep a small portion of the testing business though, just $60 million compared to Pearson’s last contract with Texas for $468 million over the past five years. Living in Texas, I know many educators were glad to see that Pearson’s presence was lessened. A new test was developed that was supposed to be harder because the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test was too easy and teachers were achieving high passing scores. The new test that replaced TAKS, the State of Texas of Assessment of Academic Readiness (STARR) is extremely difficult and is not without controversy over the questions and difficulty level. In 2014, Pearson lost its contract to provide tests for public schools in Florida, and a new $220 million, six-year contract instead went to the AIR (formerly known as the American Institutes of Research). According to a Washington Post article, Pearson-created Common Core tests in New York have been the target of complaints for several years, including a now infamous question about a "talking pineapple" on a 2012 standardized reading test given to eighth-grade students, which students and adults said didn’t make sense. Ultimately, the question wasn’t counted in students’ scores. But questions about other questions have continued, including these concerns expressed this year by educators: Requiring fourth graders to write about the architectural design of roller coasters and why cables are used instead of chains A sixth-grade passage from "That Spot" by Jack London, which included words and phrases such as "beaten curs," "absconders of justice," surmise, "savve our cabin," and "let’s maroon him" A passage on the third-grade test from "Drag Racer" which has a grade level of 5.9 and an interest level of 9-12th grade. The article also lists the following links to testing related articles of issues Pearson experienced in 2015, as collected by FairTest and the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a non-profit that works to end the misuse of standardized testing: 2015 New York - Quality of Pearson-designed questions on state exam challenged 2015 California - Pearson battles over award of state testing contract to rival firm 2015 Minnesota - Statewide testing suspended due to Pearson computerized administration system collapse 2015 Florida - State end-of-course testing suspended due to PearsonAccess log-in problems 2015 Virginia - State Testing Interrupted Three Times Because of Pearson Testing System Problems 2015 Indiana - Cyber-attack on Pearson Computerized Exams Raises Security Concerns Unfortunately, even though Pearson is out of the picture or their presence is lessened in some states, there is still controversy surrounding Pearson or its replacement. There is no company without controversy when it comes to standardized assessments. How unfortunate for our students. Weigh in with your comments on difficulties with standardized testing in general or Pearson created tests. I am collecting data and anecdotes for future blog posts and appreciate all responses.  

One athlete lost everything because of one tweet that he posted online. It is so important to teach students about developing a positive online presence, that whatever is posted is never really deleted, and create an digital footprint that one can be proud of and not worry if it is searched by recruiters or employers. There were two athletes that a recruiter was watching. The recruiter told the coach that only one was going to be considered because the other athlete had posted an inappropriate tweet and some other posts about partying using vulgar language. "We found his Twitter account, looked through it and some of what we saw isn’t representative of what our university is about," the recruiter explained. That athlete lost everything he worked for because of one negative tweet that he posted. It can be challenging to teach students about creating positive digital footprints and that people do search a person’s online presence for a variety of reasons. Those primarily include job interviews or scholarship or college admissions. That one tweet cost the athlete over $140,000 in scholarship money and a possible future career as a professional athlete. The athlete, Scott Fitch, now speaks to students about watching their online presence and making sure there is nothing negative they have posted online. Fitch also has presented "Pause Before You Post," at a Section V Sportsmanship Summit and to administrators on the state level. "Never let a 140 character tweet cost you a $140,000 scholarship," Brandon Chambers, an assistant men’s basketball coach at Marymount (Virginia) University, tweeted on Aug. 25. On some recruiting and employment forms, usernames of social media accounts are asked for so they can be searched to see what kinds of things are posted and make sure they have the right person associated with the correct account. Had Finch been educated about creating a positive digital footprint earlier in high school, he wouldn’t have thrown away his scholarship by a negative tweet. With cyberbullying and students partying and wanting to share selfies on various media outlets, it is easy to post negative items and get caught up in things and post off color or hate filled posts. "It’s here to stay and we either get up with the times and figure out how to get through it or we’ll be sorry," said veteran Rush-Henrietta football coach Joe Montesano, who’ll occasionally tweet inspirational sayings or messages for his players to see. "I think it’s part of the education process as a teacher and coach. We try to model for them, try to teach them how to do it the right way."    "It’s instant and it’s public and some kids don’t realize that," said Gates Chili athletic director Ken Hammel, who is Monroe County’s representative on Section V Sportsmanship Committee. "You can start a pretty big disruption with one comment that is tweeted or retweeted and taken the wrong way. It could offend an entire district." At one time Facebook was the chosen media outlet of students. Whether a student went to school online or offline, Facebook was the social media venue of choice. Now that many parents and adults are on Facebook, students have move to Snapchat and Instagram. Students still run into the same problem due to ignorance of social media and internet etiquette. That is where teachers and coaches need to step in and help reinforce the importance of thinking before posting. We only have the students in high school with us for a short while and this is such an important topic. We have to do more to reach our students and educate them about their online presence. And just as students, we adults must do the same making sure we think before we post. Share this post and the original article with your students, their parents and your colleagues. Together we can help protect one another and remind each other to think before we tweet.

On September 17th, there will be several events going on to celebrate Global Collaboration Day, International Dot Day, and Constitution Day. International Dot Day is September 15-ish but can be celebrated in conjunction with Global Collaboration Day and Constitution Day. Constitution Day is mandatory by law that educators have activities that support instruction about the founding Constitution of our nation every September 17th. Discovery Education is planning two events to celebrate Constitution Day. Student Town Hall with Justice Breyer 12 PM Eastern Students will meet Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer who will speak about the ins and outs of his job and answer students’ questions A Tour of the National Constitution Center and Conversation with Judge Marjorie O. Rendell 1:30 - 2:00 PM Eastern Take a virtual tour inside this cutting-edge museum, the first and only one of its kind devoted to the U.S. Constitution. Highlights of the 30-minute tour: Signers’ Hall which includes 42 life-sized bronze statues of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention Exhibits that focus on the 13th Amendment, women’s rights, civil rights, and more American National Tree that gives an interactive glimpse of the lives of 100 citizens About Judge Marjorie O. Rendell Both events are appropriate for upper elementary, middle, and high school students. Register your classroom today! As you can sign, Discovery Education has some really exciting events and virtual tours created to teach students about the U.S. Constitution.  If you and your students have questions you would like to ask Judge Rendell, you can click here to submit your: https://discoveryed.wufoo.com/forms/k1g2aycm0pnrqgb/. To find out more information about Global Collaboration Day, click here: http://www.globalcollaborationday.org/         International Dot Day Information and registration can be found here: http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/get-started  

Are your students 13-18 years and like to explain math or science concepts? Then Khan Academy is looking for new video creators. Between now and October 7th, Khan Academy and Breakthrough Prizes are looking for video creators to create a video Khan Academy style about a  challenging and important concept or theory in mathematics, life sciences, or physics. If your students are 13-18 years old please encourage them to submit a video. Inform your students that: Not only can you (13-18 year old students) dig into a topic that you’re passionate about, but there are also great prizes to be won, including a $250,000 scholarship for you, a $50,000 award for your teacher, and a state-of-the-art $100,000 science lab for your school. The winner will also be invited to the televised red carpet 2016 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Silicon Valley, where the prize will be awarded in front of the superstars of science, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood. If you enter, you’ll view and assess other participants’ videos in a peer-to-peer review process. Submissions will then be assessed by leaders in science, technology, and education from Khan Academy and by Breakthrough Prize laureates. The judges will select a winner based on how engaging, illuminating, and creative their video is, and how challenging the concept is to understand. The deadline for submissions is October 7, so register today at www.breakthroughjuniorchallenge.org. We hope you’ll be inspired to get involved - and share your passion for understanding the world! This can be a fantastic opportunity for young people who are creators of digital media and like to share their creations. How exciting!

In conjunction with all the fun, fabulous activities celebrating International Dot Day today and Constitution Day and Global Collaboration Day on Thursday, I am lowering the price of my book purchased through my website here to just $15.00! It is normally $19.99 and I wanted to cut the price to join in the festivities this week in education until September 18, 2015. Many teachers will include gamification activities and that is exactly what my book is about. To purchase, fill out the contact form by clicking here and let me know you want the book at the discounted rate and I will send you an invoice right away!

Dave Ruch, performer and teaching artist, is planning an event to coordinate the most K-5 classes online at the same time ever!. On Friday, October 30, 2015, K-5 teachers from around the world (replayed for those in time zones not conducive to joining the live event) will join together for a live-streamed participatory event where they will enjoy listening to Dave Ruch without leaving their classroom and meeting students around the world. At the end of October, also known as Connected Educator Month, will entertain, teach and inspire students and teachers with songs, stories, movement, laughter and learning duringthe first annual largest online gathering of students in K-5 classrooms. The session will take place at 1;15pm EST/10:15 am PST, Dave Ruch will appear on screen, live from his home studio in Buffalo, NY and lead students in an interactive singalong. The session will be 15-20 minutes so students can take a mini mind break, as I used to call it, and learn and enjoy watching the live performance. If you would like to join, you register to attend and receive the link to join the session in an email at http://daveruch.com/k5gathering/.  

The Texas Computer Educator Association, TCEA, is accepting nominations for educators in the following categories: One award recipient and two finalists are chosen in each of these eight categories: Classroom Teacher of the Year Library Media Specialist of the Year Instructional Technology Specialist of the Year Technical Support Person of the Year District or Campus Administrator of the Year Superintendent of the Year Technology Administrator of the Year Lifetime Achievement for the Advancement of Technology in Education To find out more information or nominate an educator that is a member of TCEA: http://www.tcea.org/membership/awards/.

PBS LearningMedia is hosting a virtual field trip where students can view part of the THE BRAIN media series on PBS and ask questions of the featured neuroscientist, Dr. David Eagleman. After the streamed interview with Dr. Eagleman, a short clip from THE BRAIN will be shown. The audience tuned in will be able to ask questions which will then be followed by a special showcase of resources for students and teachers presented by PBS LearningMedia after the Q&A. This is a great opportunity for students to participate in this virtual field trip and conversation. The following is from the emailed press release: Dr. Eagleman is the host of the upcoming PBS multi-part series THE BRAIN. The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, October 13th from 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET, and is presented by PBS LearningMedia. This opportunity is conveniently timed the day before the national airing of this fascinating multi-part series on PBS. PBS LearningMedia invites classrooms to join a virtual conversation with Dr. David Eagleman, where he will decode the mysteries behind our body’s most complex organ and will share insights into his work as a neuroscientist. Students will learn how our personality, emotions and memories are encoded as neural activity and how the human brain continues to develop over the course of our lives. Classrooms will also get a sneak peek at the six part series airing on PBS on Wednesday, October 14th. Below is the webinar information with the GoTo registration link: WHAT: Uncovering the Mysteries Behind the Brain WHEN: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:00 PM EDT LINK TO REGISTER: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/events/ For questions or concerns, contact: Allison Salzberg For PBS LearningMedia 617.585.5793  

Jimmy Fallon, host of the Tonight Show, is offering students an opportunity to be featured on The Tonight Show. The movie, ‘Bridge of Spies’, is soon to be released and this opportunity is a promotion for the movie. Students aged five to nine years old are encouraged to write a scene that Jimmy Fallon and Tom Hanks will act it out on the show. Two characters having a conversation must be part of the scene based on the title alone, "Bridge of Spies". Students will use their creativity and come up with their own scene and dialogue and based on the title alone. The movie is scheduled to come out October 16 so Tom Hanks will be on the The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon shortly before the 16th.The promo video is below. Take the weekend and have your youngster write a scene and email it to: kidtheater@tonightshow.com.

Google Expeditions are virtual field trips that teachers can participate in with their students. Currently they are looking for schools to serve as content partners. According to the Google information page: Expeditions Pioneer teams will visit selected schools around the world, starting with the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. Each team will bring a complete Expeditions kit with everything the teachers need to take their students on journeys anywhere. The team will show teachers how Expeditions works and help set it up before class. Expeditions is a virtual reality platform built for the classroom. We worked with teachers and content partners from around the world to create more than 100 engaging journeys - making it easy to immerse students in entirely new experiences. Using Google’s Cardboard, a simple viewing device made out of folded cardboard, with an Android phone, students can experience a virtual excursion as an immersive, three-dimensional event. Reminiscent of the old stereoscopic View-Master devices introduced by Mattel in the late ’30s, Google Cardboard turns a smart phone into a cutting-edge virtual-reality viewer that gives an added dimension to virtual field trips." GOOGLE EXPEDITIONS IN ACTION According to an online article from The Journal, Kennis traveled to New York in December 2014 to help Google programmers develop an Expedition. The trip she designed was intended to explore cultural diffusion, or how certain cultural aspects spread from one group to another. She chose photo spheres, or 360-degree views, of various European landmarks to illustrate this concept, and then Google programmers built the virtual field trip from these photo spheres. In May, Kennis got to take her students on the Expedition she helped create. "My kids were really excited about it," she said. "I created a fake passport for them with their picture on it, and some information about where they were going." During the virtual field trip, she led them through the photo spheres and prompted them to reflect on what they were seeing. One of the photo spheres showed a city wall in Italy, and she asked her students, "What is the purpose of this city wall?" The experience "allowed them to tap into their kinesthetic and tactile learning style, because they were standing up and looking all around," she said. "It was the most lively and exciting day I have ever had in my classroom." "Every student was so engaged and so excited; they felt like they were actually there," she said. "It was amazing to see. It was a really powerful experience to see these students who are typically hard to motivate so immersed in something. That was probably the most amazing and rewarding part of it." BRING EXPEDITIONS TO YOUR SCHOOL Sign up to let Google know that you would like the Expeditions Pioneer Program to stop at your school. Google will try to visit as many schools possible, but spots are limited so sign up quickly. Google will notify you if they are able to visit. Sign up here to bring Google Expeditions to your school: i://docs.google.com/forms/d/1TOnK1hgk4rMweh-RNiK0iAucT_iMKz8wNp8cOGnq2eg/viewform

My understanding is that the Civil War started due to the treatment and history of slavery.  History textbooks in Texas say otherwise. Below is a newslist post from the American Federation of Teachers Texas hotline that shows the egregious errors regarding slavery that were discovered. I quoted the whole post below: Hats off to Pearland parent Roni Dean-Burren for publicizing via Facebook video an egregious misstatement in her son’s geography text, which described Africans enslaved and transported by force to America as just "workers." The errant text, from the McGraw-Hill publishing conglomerate, was approved last year by the State Board of Education along with many others. To McGraw-Hill’s credit, the publisher has acknowledged the problem and announced corrective action. On Facebook McGraw-Hill said: This week, we became aware of a concern regarding a caption reference to slavery on a map in one of our world geography programs. This program addresses slavery in the world in several lessons and meets the learning objectives of the course. However, we conducted a close review of the content and agree that our language in that caption did not adequately convey that Africans were both forced into migration and to labor against their will as slaves. We believe we can do better. To communicate these facts more clearly, we will update this caption to describe the arrival of African slaves in the U.S. as a forced migration and emphasize that their work was done as slave labor. These changes will be reflected in the digital version of the program immediately and will be included in the program’s next print run. The McGraw-Hill text may have been vetted for conformity to Texas standards, but those standards themselves leave much to be desired, especially around the history of slavery. For example, the curriculum guidelines imply slavery was not the foremost issue in our nation’s Civil War, even though the war was triggered by a dispute over the extension of slavery to new territories. A 2011 study by the conservative Fordham Institute said the social-studies standards were heavily politicized and all but ignored slavery and segregation. The McGraw-Hill mischaracterization of slaves as "workers" is regrettably consistent with the Texas social-studies curriculum document that the Fordham scholars found "distorts or suppresses" unsavory aspects of our nation’s history. The saving grace for Texas students is that their classroom teachers in social studies are able to supplement approved textbooks with additional, teacher-selected resources and instruction that meet higher standards of fidelity to the historical record. I knew about the controversy but had no idea how egregious the error was. I knew the textbooks were vetted for alignment to our state test standards. Texas doesn’t follow common core standards although they are somewhat similar to the CCSS and the textbooks were supposedly vetted to meet the criteria of the Texas testing standards. Suppressing items because they are not favorable to the nation’s history is inexcusable in my opinion. What else has been suppressed or distorted?

On October 17th at 5pm Central, I will be presenting "Connecting Classrooms via Global Collaborative Projects for the Global Education Conference! I have presented for the conference below and have created an improved presentation and hope you will join the new and improved session! If you are unable to attend, you can watch the recording. All sessions are free, open to the public and recorded. Join us as we celebrate ways you can collaborate with classrooms around the world or across your school district. We will have fun! Come for the fun and come for the door prize!

Today was my Global Education Conference presentation at 6pm EST/5pm EST titled "Connecting Classrooms via Global Collaborative Projects". Below are the resources shared during the session. Recording link: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/table/dropin?sid=2008350&suid=D.7D54BD45C9C94B75713AE90852DBDD Click here to open this binder in a new window.

What are the Eddies? The ‘Eddies’ are the Edublogs awards for blogs and bloggers. (I tried to think of something funny but nothing came to mind having to do with "Eddie"). Anyway, after eating turkey or after making preparations for Thanksgiving Day you can nominate some blogs or bloggers and honor the blog authors’ efforts. You can nominate a blog or blogger for an #eddie15 you can nominate here: http://edublogawards.com/2015/11/24/the-2015-edublog-awards-nominations-are-open/ Edublogs suggests a few tips on nominating bloggers or blogs: Nominate in as many categories as you want! Please make only one nomination per category You can’t nominate yourself Even if you know that your favorite has already been nominated, it is best to nominate them again Categories are competitive, and only the most nominated will make it to the voting round Share your nominations using twitter (#eddies15), facebook, Google+ and email The above was taken from the Edublogs awards site. Take a moment and make a few nominations. Make a blogger’s day or honor a small blogger sharing his/her talents with the blogosphere.

PBS and MIT have joined efforts to meet the needs and abilities of young children and enable them to learn to code. December 7-13th is the ‘hour of code’ week and this app would be perfect to use in an instructional setting with younger students. Also, students ages six and up can participate in coding activities at the Apple store during the week of coding for students. (http://www.macrumors.com/2015/12/02/apple-hour-of-code-workshops-2015/).  You can read more about the collaboration and app below from the email and press release I received. Features of the App: PBS KIDS ScratchJr Features Colorful Programming Blocks: Snap together the color-coded programming blocks to create sequences of actions that cause characters to animate and interact in fun and exciting ways. PBS KIDS Characters and Backgrounds: Create projects based on PBS KIDS shows and mix-and-match over 150 characters. Paint Editing: Create unique characters and backgrounds. Voice Recording: Use the recording tool to add sounds and give voice to projects. Story Starters: Find inspiration with in-app story starters! Each Story Starter features a different set of characters and is designed to encourage children to edit and complete the story however they’d like. Designed for kids ages 5-8, PBS KIDS ScratchJr enables kids to create their own interactive stories and games featuring their favorite characters from Wild Kratts, Nature Cat, WordGirl and Peg + Cat. By snapping together colorful programming blocks, children can make characters move, jump, dance and sing. In the process, kids will learn to solve problems, design projects and express themselves creatively. The app is free, and can be downloaded on the App Store and Google Play. Listed app features below, and the press release can be found online here.  

The acronym LMS stands for Learning Management System and is typically associated with online learning programs or e-learning.   Simply put, it is the software that makes an e-learning program function.  But it really is so much more. E-learning is a general term for online training where employees access a website (internal or external) and complete courses on a variety of topics from general safety training to productivity improvement to HR policies and procedures.  All true e-learning courses rely on an LMS to function correctly so when your employees log on to take a course they are actually logging on to an LMS. Some of the largest companies have their own LMS in-house but the high cost and technical expertise required makes that unrealistic for most employers.  A more cost effective option is to utilize the LMS of an on-line learning provider.  These companies often have their own LMS they will allow you to use via the Internet to take courses that you have purchased from them. So now you know that LMS is the software that runs online training courses but what else can it do and why is it so important to find a partner with a world-class LMS?  Here are some of the features you should expect from a top-tier LMS and why they are important. Detailed tracking - All activity must be carefully tracked so you can provide details of all training in a simple to access format on a 24/7 basis. A good LMS eliminates the need for manual training records, the annoying sign-in sheets and the paper files you can never find when you need them. Multi-lingual courses- The LMS should support multiple languages.  Employees learn best in their native language and the LMS should have a number of the most common languages to choose from. Multiple device platforms- The LMS should support PC’s, laptops, tablets and phones.  It should know which device you are using and automatically switch to fit on that specific screen.  You may not need smartphone or tablet training today but with the speed of technology change you may need it soon. Flexible reporting- Most LMS’s can provide basic reporting but as you progress in the e-learning world you will want flexible and customized reporting to fit your needs.  Reports by name, department, location, date, score, frequency, etc.  A self-serve reporting system is nice for those who want to create their own reports. Support other types of training- Not all training is done online so when you hold classroom training using Word documents or Power Point the LMS should allow you to track those classes also and report on them along with online courses. Embedded knowledge checks- These are small 2-3 question quizzes spread throughout the course to check that the employee understands what they just learned.  It also breaks up the course and makes it more interesting. Hands-on activities embedded in the course- Especially for a warehouse or production environment these computer-based, often animated activities allow the employee to practice what they just learned.  This really improves retention and connects with the younger, millennial generation. Integrate with your HR system- The LMS should be able to "talk" to your HR system.  When you hire or lose employees the LMS should know about it and automatically add or archive the names.  One of the most frustrating, and manual, parts of many LMS’s is making sure the employee names are current. Let the LMS do it for you. Reminders- Some training needs to be renewed annually or in the case of lift truck certification, every 3 years. A good LMS will be able to send reminders when re-training is due.  It knows when the initial training happened and sends a reminder 30 days prior to the due date so your team is never out of compliance. Immediate reporting of scores- Employees take the courses and quizzes on their own but if they fail the quiz did they really learn what you intended? Imagine this scenario- John takes a lift truck safety course but fails the quiz.  He goes to work and 2 days later is involved in an accident.  OSHA arrives and asks to see John’s training records.  You go to the LMS, show them his records and OSHA sees that he failed the quiz at the end.  They ask you why you allowed John to drive when you knew he failed the course.  A world-class LMS will send e-mail or text to a supervisor or administrator every time an employee does not pass so they can quickly address it before it becomes a safety issue. Learning Series-Not all employees need to take all courses.  A great LMS will separate courses into Learning Series.  These can be by department so receiving, shipping, order selection or assembly operations all have their own group of courses that a new employee must take.  Of course, some training is common to all departments so the LMS should allow the same course in multiple Learning Series. Training Basket- You know what courses you want employees to take and in what order.  By placing specific courses in their personal online basket you keep them focused just on the desired courses.  When an employee logs on, their basket comes up and gives access to only those courses. Not all e-learning companies are created equal and often it is the quality of their LMS that sets them apart.  If you expect your business to grow and you want to expand the safety, knowledge and efficiency of your team then be sure to choose an e-learning provider with a world-class LMS.  It will make a difference to your business and certainly to your employees. If you want more information on e-learning or how an LMS can benefit you, feel free to contact us. The post The ultimate checklist for choosing a great LMS - Don’t ever settle for less! appeared first on KMI Learning.

Personalization is a big deal in eLearning. But do we really know the learning styles of our users? Depending on your theoretical reference, there are as many as 7 different learning styles. Your learning style not only determines how you learn, it is also very likely to be the most enjoyable and efficient path for you to acquire new knowledge. The idea that there are different learning styles is not new. The concept was first proposed in the seventies (Wikipedia) when scientists realized that people are unique in the ways they learn. Using one teaching method for everyone cannot yield maximum success for the whole. Despite the age of the idea, learning styles still seem to lie outside of the educational system, and not many people take them into consideration. Oddly enough, many people are actually aware of the concept of learning styles. It’s even likely to have popped up in a meeting once or twice. But mostly, the training departments of companies and organizations do not actually take serious stock in considering learning styles. In fact, acknowledging the existence of learning styles seems to stop short of actually incorporating them into their training programs. And this is the very point at which a serious look at learning styles can dramatically increase efficiency and improve safety. Beyond the measurable ROI, developing a training program that includes learning styles gives authenticity and credibility to a much-abused employer branding statement: "treating people as unique employees". This post really is about you. What is your learning style? How do you get the most out of training? And when was the last time your employer tried to make the training about you? Here are the content examples for the different learning styles, just click the image to check them out! High Volume Learner Retrieval Learner Kinetic Learner Visual Learner The post What’s your learning style? Take the Quiz! appeared first on KMI Learning.

You may have noticed that the average age of the workforce has shifted dramatically recently. It’s getting younger. You may also have noticed that older generations of workers are also shifting: they’re aging out and retiring. Shift happens. Change is inevitable. It’s a part of life. It’s even necessary. The problem with shift. As the baby boomer generation shifts into retirement, knowledge is shifting out of the workforce. Estimates suggest that the rate of retirement is a staggering 10,000 people per day. That equates to accumulated centuries of knowledge: best practices, processes, leadership, wisdom, and other valuable legacy information. And we run the risk of losing that vast and vital resource. More shift. US workers stay at a job for an average of only 4.6 years. Although that is an improvement over previous years, it still means that companies are losing valuable training resources and the knowledge that is being learned by those workers. Add to that the fact that college graduates change jobs after less than a year, and Millennials tend to stay at jobs for 3 years or less. All this adds up to a serious crisis of knowledge management. And that’s not all. Consider the resources that go into training each employee. There is a tangible cost in terms of time, money and productivity. But there are also costs that don’t immediately express themselves in hours and dollars. Think of the impact on other employees, and on the leadership potential within the company. Both are casualties of all this shift. Then there’s a whole other dimension that we need to factor in when our work environment includes part-time or seasonal employees. That’s a lot of shift to deal with. The Magic of the ‘e’ in ‘eLearning.’ eLearning will not stop shift from happening. To say that it will is just silly. But what eLearning can do is help you retain the information that your organization has accumulated over the course of its lifetime of human resources, and also retain control of that information. The information and knowledge that new employees need to learn have been developed by your organization over time. The loss of that knowledge to shifting demographics is a terrible waste. It is also preventable. Valuable and unique legacy information, such as best practices, streamlined and refined processes, even organizational history, and trademarked or proprietary procedures can all be documented and stored in electronic form. That’s the magic of the "e" in "eLearning." Archiving the information in a variety of media creates a storehouse of information. Webinars, videos, simulations and other forms of electronic media are all tools that can be used to communicate and present the information for current and future employees. Using your stored information as content, a good eLearning course designer can create customized scenarios to train your employees with the information most relevant to their task(s) at hand. Learning is now mobile. With the power of the internet, knowledge can be transferred, on-demand, to the people who need the information. In other words, training can happen anytime, anywhere, on any device, and for a specific audience, as long as there is a connection to the internet. The material can be broken up into bite-sized pieces, relevant to a specific group of employees, tasks or processes. And every step of training can be monitored, and even rewarded and certified, if necessary. You maintain the security of your proprietary information or permit broader access as content allows. Customized delivery of material Learning Management Systems can incorporate many different forms of media, including social media. This allows learning to be customized according to the needs of the learners, as well as the demands of the content itself. eLearning can therefore greatly enhance Instructor-Led Training, providing a wealth of information as an online resource that augments the personal touch of a classroom setting. Many training programs now feature some blend of ILT and eLearning. No More "Broken Telephone" Documenting and archiving the knowledge of your people also reduces — even eliminates — the kind of shift that happens along a chain of communication. Many organizations experience a sort of "broken telephone" effect, where knowledge is handed down from peer-to-peer, but imperfectly. If unchecked, this shift in information can lead to shortcuts and process errors, and ultimately lead to serious damage, even injury. eLearning standardizes the information for your learners. And the knowledge can be folded into scenarios and simulations. Employees encounter real-life situations in the safety of a training environment. They then apply the best practices before they ever have a chance to pick up a bad habit. Although accidents can still happen, you are reducing the chances of errors by ensuring that all employees are learning the same information from the get-go. While standardizing your information might seem limiting at first, the eLearning environment can be created to allow for innovation and creative thinking. Video simulations allow learners to experience a situation and develop new best practices. Social media can be incorporated into the learning such that learners share experiences, perspectives and insights. The system preserves legacy information while also encouraging growth, especially as new ideas, technologies and applications become available. So you get the best of both worlds: you can retain the quality and standard of your information, while providing room for development and growth. Investing in the future A company’s legacy information is one of its most valuable assets. Finding ways to preserve and develop that asset is an investment for the future. It’s true that documenting and archiving an organization’s accumulated knowledge can be a daunting task. But it is necessary. Consider that the cost of losing valuable knowledge is too great for us to pretend it isn’t happening. In the next blog, we’ll take a look at a real challenge faced by a client, who was a potential victim of the shift that’s happening in the workforce. And we’ll look at three practical ways that we were able to capture the valuable experience and information of retiring employees. In the meantime, the shift in the workforce isn’t waiting. The time to act is now. The post Holding on to Your Corporate Knowledge When Shift Happens appeared first on KMI Learning.

"We have about 30% of our workforce retiring in the next five years!" my client said with panic in her voice. Her panic is well-grounded. In fact, it’s a cry that reflects a disturbing statistic: 10,000 people are retiring every day, and will continue to do so until 2019. And they’re taking their knowledge with them. It’s one of the biggest challenges for companies today. How will they capture that knowledge so that it can be shared with new and incoming employees? Many of these companies’ aging employees have some very specific skill sets that were learned and amended over time. Many of these companies are small- to mid-size manufacturing companies. These companies have specific and narrow market niches with unique job performance requirements. But the challenge is not limited to that company type. Such companies may have grown organically. They may have documented their processes and procedures, and may have developed their training programs and systems. Unfortunately, what may have been overlooked is the training for the skills needed to perform the actual jobs. The old peer-to-peer training model just isn’t reliable. This is especially true when employees are retiring faster than new employees can be trained. Alternative training solutions are essential. The impending and imminent knowledge crisis was what drove my client’s panic. And it begs the question: How can that knowledge be effectively transferred? To capture this knowledge and experience we employed these 3 techniques: 1. We created precise videos of actual job activities. 2. We conducted detailed interviews with successful performers. 3. We aligned these activities with any documented policies and procedures. But capturing the knowledge and experience of the retiring employees was only half the solution. We also had to take the needs of our potential learning audience into consideration. The void left by retiring baby boomers is being filled by the largest generation in the workforce: the Millennials. 1 out of every 3 people in the workforce today is between the ages of 18 and 34. And this generation has very different learning needs from those who preceded them. With this in mind, we took the videos and interviews and developed eLearning course templates for creating digital content. We applied learning principles, script and story-writing techniques, course and graphic design expertise, appropriate animation, interactivities and experiential scenarios to produce highly interactive courses. These courses allow the learners to practice without endangering themselves or others. The employees can be assessed and certified on their knowledge as well. And, the digital delivery is available just when the new employees need it, in a format they understand and find natural. An additional bonus is that these job skills are now quantified and can be used for talent management and career path development. Problem solved. If you enjoyed this article you might also like Holding on to Your Corporate Knowledge When Shift Happens. The post Shift Happens! 3 Techniques for Companies to Preserve the Knowledge of Retiring Employees appeared first on KMI Learning.

Does your company have a fleet of delivery trucks or vans? Many do and they employ professional drivers to deliver products to customers and act as an ambassador for your brand and in many cases the face of your company. But how well are your drivers trained for this job? I am not referring to their ability to drive a truck or safely negotiate a crowded freeway that is taught in driving school when they obtained their CDL. I’m asking about their ability to professionally and effectively interact, to present an outstanding image to your customers so they see you that run a high-quality delivery operation. Your delivery drivers have a larger impact on your customers than most people realize. Consider the following: Drivers typically spend more time at your customers than sales people. Drivers are often viewed as "the face" of your company. A professional interaction with a customer will leave an impression that often is passed up to the purchasing or executive group. Drivers can influence sales at a customer. A negative interaction with a driver can cause you to lose the next sale. A properly trained driver can lessen the impact of an ordering or shipping error. So how do you prepare your drivers to ensure a professional interaction that leaves a positive impression? Most companies, unfortunately, do not provide any type of customer service training for their drivers and assume they will act professionally. The common thought is "He’s just delivering product to the back dock, why does he need training?" People who think that clearly don’t understand the interaction that happens between a driver and customer. Progressive companies are now providing customer service training to their drivers that includes: ✓ Proper and professional greeting upon arrival. ✓ Brief but pleasant small talk to build relationships. ✓ Setting expectations with customers for unloading, checking and paperwork procedures. ✓ Safely unloading and making the delivery. ✓ How to deal with unexpected circumstances. ✓ How to deal with irritated, angry customers. ✓ How to professionally handle the impromptu request for additional services. ✓ Professional dress and personal hygiene. A poorly trained driver who is dressed sloppily, doesn’t have his paperwork organized, does not greet the customer pleasantly, becomes defensive if confronted about a problem and doesn’t know how to handle an unusual request will leave a very bad impression. Receiving supervisors typically have a good working relationship with the buyers and they do share information about vendors and a driver is a representative of you, the vendor. A series of negative comments about a poorly trained driver can quickly impact a buying decision. Alternately, positive comments about professional and cooperative drivers who are attentive, efficient (quick deliveries = lower receiving labor) and helpful may push the next order your way. Training your drivers to have great customer service skills is surprisingly easy and not only the customers but also the drivers will appreciate the training. Online training or e-learning is an easy and inexpensive way to ensure your drivers are trained with the skills you want them to exhibit to your customers. E-learning will train all drivers the same way and with online activities and quizzes you will be certain they understand the customer service aspect of their job. So consider what many high-performing delivery organizations are doing and establish a formal customer service training program for your drivers. Your customers will notice it, your drivers will appreciate it and your earnings will grow because of it. To learn more about eLearning check out our case studies. The post 8 Skills That Will Turn Your Truck Drivers into Brand Ambassadors appeared first on KMI Learning.

I recall many years ago when I was finishing my basement and I felt comfortable doing much of the work myself. Rough carpentry was fairly simple, running conduit was easy, attaching lights was not hard, screwing drywall was quick and forgiving. But there was one thing I would not tackle, drywall finishing. I recall watching the contractor putting on the mud and carefully scraping it away until it was perfectly smooth. As I watched him I commented how good he was at this and I’ll never forget his response: "Hey, I’m a professional, I do this for a living". That comment has stuck with me for years and I often quote it because it is true of most of our professions. We are all expert at something, but no one is expert at everything. So when I was looking to start an e-learning program for a large distribution operation, I researched the options and made a few quick decisions. ➤ I knew I did not want to buy and host the LMS (Learning Management Software) that runs the courses. That is very expensive to buy and maintain and would require IT resources I just did not have. ➤ I knew I wanted mostly custom built courses, supplemented by a few off the shelf ones for the simpler courses. I wanted our team members learning our SOP’s exactly how we had written them. ➤ I knew that to be effective I needed to roll out 6-10 courses per year. This was based on the need to train about one hundred new team members each year. The decision that puzzled me the most however was how to build the individual e-learning courses. During my research I found many companies that offered software that was easy to use and resulted in exceptional courses that employees would love. Some offered webinar tutorials on how to use the software, yet others would have a trainer visit to tutor us on how to build great courses. I even sat through a few demos on how easy it was to use the online tools to make these courses. It all sounded so simple and perhaps the most attractive part about these "build your own" courses was the price tag. I thought I had it figured out: how to build reasonably good courses in-house at an economy cost. Next, I asked the software vendors for a few references, which they readily gave me. I contacted them and asked them a bunch of questions and to share some of the courses they built so I could see the results. These references sealed the deal but not in the way I, or the vendor, expected. Here is what I found: ➤ The courses took from 100-200 hours each to build depending upon the complexity. ➤ They thought they had internal resources technically savvy to do this but found the learning curve was pretty steep and it took months to get competent with the software. ➤ We all want video in our training (it is a powerful tool) but you need someone trained in videography or the results look like homemade YouTube. One sample I viewed was actually filmed with their phone and you could tell. ➤ Writing the script for the course was unexpectedly difficult. ➤ But one comment that made the decision for me, and was universal among all the references. "Building your own courses takes more resources than you expect". In summary, it took longer than they thought, was more difficult than expected, and the results were mediocre. So I decided it was not the direction for me. Then I remembered my drywall contractor and his comment about "leaving it to the professionals" so I started researching e-learning companies who would build courses for me. Here is what I found: ✓ They required no technical expertise or IT resources from me. ✓ They write the script after interviews with my team about how to do the job our way using our terms, tools, procedures, etc. Jointly we edit the script until it is exactly what we want ✓ They use a videographer and professional equipment that comes to my facility to shoot video of my team following our SOP’s. ✓ They provide a "rough cut" of the course that we critique and adjust to meet our needs. ✓ The final version is professional, entertaining, and includes interactive activities that engage the learners. ✓ When completed, the course will run on their LMS that employees will access through a simple Internet link. I expected all of this to be crazy expensive because of the professional skills they provide but what I found was amazing. They are so efficient at this (because they have done so many) that courses can be completed in weeks following a structured timeline. They will lead me through the steps, set up the conference calls, the script reviews, site visit, ask the necessary questions in order to design a course the way I want it to be done. So when I compared the costs of creating mediocre e-learning courses in-house to paying a professional to design and create high-quality courses that they host on their software, it was basically even. That made the decision easy. Eight years and about 80 courses later I still look back to the day I made the decision that was guided by a simple drywall contractor: "Leave it to the Professionals" Did you find this article helpful? You might also enjoy The ultimate checklist for choosing a great LMS - Don’t ever settle for less! The post Are you trying to DIY Your eLearning Development? - Here is Why You Shouldn’t appeared first on KMI Learning.