Here at Epignosis, the company behind TalentLMS, we view the Cloud as one of the pillars of modern computing in general and educational technology in particular, both now and for the foreseeable future. Until direct to brain interfaces become popular and training material is directly implanted into our memories, that is. Cloud computing remains a mystery for many enterprise departments and businesses, and there are plenty of myths built up around deploying and running applications on it. Let’s wear our myth-busters suits, and clean up those myths once and for all. Myth #1 : Everything works better in the cloud Having a successful new technology be perceived as a silver bullet is the oldest cultural problem in IT, and Cloud has been no exception in this regard. Truth is, the cloud might not be right for all of your IT infrastructure needs. And even when it is, it might a private cloud (which offers more integration options and raw performance) that fits your needs better, as opposed to the public cloud. Depending on your particular use cases, the right overall solution is often best achieved through a combination of one or more of the available options (public and private cloud, dedicated hosting, and even good, old-fashioned native applications). Myth #2 : The cloud is not secure Security concerns are the main barrier to cloud adoption, and they really shouldn’t be. The key insight regarding security is to understand that no system is ever 100% secure (just ask the CIA or NASA), and that why it’s important to assess the relative risk. Are your local computers, internal networks, and company servers better protected than cloud-based assets? Does your IT team know how to properly install and secure any third party server product you ask them to deploy? In most cases the answer is no. And relying on "security through obscurity" is prone to fail and is actually discouraged by security advisors. The major cloud providers invest more heavily in security (and data safety) than the average business, and can afford to have top notch administrators and security gurus on their team — people who know their Cloud offering inside out. Myth #3: Cloud is expensive. Or cheap. It is not always cheaper to run on the cloud, but it can often be more cost efficient. As with all business expenses, it’s not just the month-to-month costs that matter but the "total cost of ownership" (TCO). The up-front costs of a cloud migration can often be sizeable, but the savings over time typically offset the initial expenditure. Plus, switching to an operational expenditure model rather than a capital expenditure one, can be beneficial for many businesses. Then there’s another important metric, well known to economists and business owners: opportunity cost. Is building and managing your own infrastructure the best use of your company’s energy and budget? For most businesses that would be like building your own office furniture or making your own printing paper from tree pulp. It just doesn’t make sense. Myth #4 : There’s only one cloud Words can be misleading in subtle ways. The fact that the word cloud (as in "the Cloud") is singular doesn’t really help. There is, in fact, an innumerable number of clouds, both public and private. Consumer cloud hosting providers do not store all their data in the same box. As for the major players, Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Apple, Microsoft etc. - they all run their own cloud. This is obviously good: it means that you have options, that by adopting the Cloud you’re not tied to a particular vendor, unless you chose to (e.g. to take advantage of some proprietary APIs and services they might offer). But it also means you have to do your research, as not all clouds are created equal. Myth #5 : The cloud is a fad Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, it was the isolated personal computer that has proven to be a fad. You see, the idea that computing should be organized like a public utility goes as far back as 1961. And for the first few decades of commercial computing, computers were in fact just like that: central behemoths serving tens or thousands of users using dumb terminals. Then, in the eighties and early nineties, we had the short period of non-connected personal computers whose only option was to run programs natively. A period that came to an end with the emergence of commercial internet and the world wide web. Today our browsers are once again those "dumb terminals", whose intelligence comes from being connected to massive cloud services such as Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, and the like. While native applications such as Word and Excel are all well and good (and even preferable for CPU demanding tasks, such as video editing and games) there’s simply no going back to the pre-internet and pre-cloud era. In fact, Gartner predicts that companies will spend $788 billions on public cloud services the next four years, while McKinsey forecasts that cloud technology could have an economic impact of $1.7 to $6.2 trillion a year by 2025. Those clouds aren’t dissipating any time soon. - - - - - - - - - Enjoyed the myth-busting? Stay tuned, as next week we’re gonna continue with another 5 common cloud myths. Until then, have fun and carry an umbrella. WHO’S TALKING: Epignosis, the global eLearning solutions provider, has produced Cloud based offerings for over a decade. Not just TalentLMS, whose blog you’re reading, but also eFront, our powerful enterprise LMS for private clouds and Snappico, our latest mobile offering that leverages the cloud to make casual learning fun.     The post Top 10 Cloud myths busted, part 1 appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

In last month’s post discussing TalentLMS’ integration options, we mentioned that our team is working hard on adding a tighter integration with the eCommerce king, Shopify. Well, the time is now! In this post we’ll have a look at how our new integration with Shopify works, how you configure it, and what it enables you to do. Shortcut: check the Talentlms-to-Shopify step-by-step integration guide Shopi-what? With over 150,000 merchants and billions in sales, Shopify, created by the Canadian company of the same name, is one of the most widely used eCommerce platforms, letting anyone set up an online shop, accept credit card payments and respond to orders. By integrating TalentLMS with Shopify, you can use the platform as a marketplace for your TalentLMS courses, exchange and share courses and customer information between the two platforms. Integration between the two platforms has been built on top of the powerful Zapier meta-service, so in order to set it up you need to configure your Zapier triggers and actions. Don’t worry though, because, as with most things TalentLMS related, the process is easy. Let’s walk you through it step by step. Because that’s what blogging friends are for, right? (We assume that you already have a Shopify account. If not, go ahead and register for one, we’ll wait). Sharing customer accounts If you’re using both platforms, manually opening accounts and managing customer information from one to the other is no fun. Thankfully, you don’t have to. Zapier integrations, regardless of source and target application, follow the pattern of connecting triggers ("when this happens") to actions ("do that"). To hook Shopify and TalentLMS up so that new Shopify accounts are copied as new TalentLMS users, you can pipe the results from "New Customer" trigger from the Zapier Shopify service to the "New User" Zapier TalentLMS action. The only tricky part is matching the data coming out of Shopify to the information needed for a new user account creation in TalentLMS. Most fields have a straightforward relation between the two platforms — for the rest you can reuse or combine values as you fit it (e.g. use the Spotify user’s email as the username of the corresponding TalentLMS user). As there are Shopify user information fields upon registration without corresponding TalentLMS ones, if you need them, you can set them up as custom fields in TalentLMS. Setting up the inverse procedure (from new TalentLMS user to new Shopify account) is just as easy. You just have to connect the "New User" trigger of TalentLMS to the "New Customer" action of Shopify. Sharing course info with Shopify (and vice versa) Sharing customer information between Shopify and TalentLMS can be useful even if you don’t sell courses. One use case for that would be offering complementary online training for buyers of your products in Shopify. If you plan on promoting and selling your TalentLMS courses through Shopify though, you’ll want to share course information between the two platforms. For this to happen, your Shopify products should be stand-ins for your TalentLMS courses (so, essentially courses, themselves). If that’s the case, you can connect the "New Product" trigger of the Zapier Shopify service to Zapier’s TalentLMS "New Course" action, to have TalentLMS automatically pull new products created in Shopify as new courses. The inverse is also possible (and probably more convenient, especially if you are used to working with TalentLMS’ intuitive user interface). By using Zapier to connect TalentLMS’ "New Course" trigger to Shopify’s "New Product" action, you can have all your new TalentLMS courses automagically available as Shopify products. Shopify orders to course registrations Setting up your Shopify products as TalentLMS courses (or vice versa) only takes you half of the way there. You’ll also need a way to track new course (product) orders from Shopify and convert them to TalentLMS course registrations. As almost all things in Zapier, this is all about connecting the appropriate trigger to the appropriate action. In this case, the "New Order" Shopify trigger to the "Add User to Course" TalentLMS action. Are you sold on our Shopify integration yet? That’s all there is to it, really. If you’re selling eLearning courses but you’re not yet a Shopify user, we suggest you take a look at what it has to offer, starting with its large and vibrant customer base. For our part, we’ve made integrating the two platforms a no-brainer. After all, that’s how TalentLMS got crowned as the most intuitive and easy to use LMS: by being intuitive and easy to use. That, plus bribing the judges (just kidding). And in case you get stuck, there’s a handy "Shopify ‐ TalentLMS Zapier integration" guide , that goes into the whole process in far more detail than we have screen space and you have time for. So what are you waiting for? Get integrating!     The post Set up shop with the new TalentLMS - Shopify integration appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Conventional wisdom says that late July / August is "slow news season" (that would be "silly season" for people in the UK, and "sommerloch" for our German speaking friends). A period with few newsworthy stories in the media. Well, I for one, do have some great news for the thousands of TalentLMS users worldwide: our brand new July 2015 release just landed, and it includes a number of important new features. So, let’s open the (virtual) package and have a peek inside! Events engine Our headline feature for this release is the brand new Events Engine. If you’re familiar with our existing event-based Notifications system, the new Events Engine supersedes that, giving you the ability to go beyond email notifications and have custom Actions be performed on specific events. The process of adding a new action will be familiar to anyone who worked with the Notifications system before, as both notifications and actions are based on a simple "if this, then that" logic. Actions take responding to events beyond the simple sending of emails, to handle all kinds of automation of TalentLMS operations. Actions can also accept additional parameters to further customize their behaviour. Setting up an action to assign students to specific courses a few hours after they sign-up. The number of hours before the automatic assignment happens and the specific courses to be assigned are user configurable. Note that, while all TalentLMS users get to benefit from the revamped Events Engine-based Notications, Actions are only available for users on our Plus plan and above. Customized Badges TalentLMS now allows you to replace our existing badges (icons & description) with your own. This opens up new opportunities to customize the gamification experience for your particular organisation and its learners. Badges can be edited from the "Gamification" tab of the "Account & Setting" page. Click on any badge to edit it’s name (1) or replace it with a custom image (2). User files Administrators can now attach files to any user’s profile, for easy sharing of files inside the app. The files can also be set as invisible for the end-user (when used in this way the feature becomes a handy way of storing documents related to a user but not meant for him (e.g. his internal file as student, proof of address scans he has sent, etc). The new feature is accessible from the new "Files" tab when viewing a user’s profile page. Multi-day sessions This new release also brings new functionality related to instruction led training (or "hybrid-learning"), namely "Multi-day sessions". As you’ve probably already guessed from the name, multi-day sessions enable you to have sessions spanning multiple days, by linking individual sessions together to act as a single session. Confused? No need to, as using the feature is easier than it sounds. You just create individual sessions like you always do (e.g. "Day 1", "Day 2" and "Test" for a 3-day session), and then link them to each other in the session edit page. Multi-day sessions are grouped together in the list view under a common multi-session name, with sessions forming a multi-day session sharing the same group of registered users, capacity, and colour. Multi-day sessions are presented to the students grouped together under a common name (here, unimaginatively set to"Multi-day session" for illustration purposes). Create units by drag-and-drop Starting from this update, you can create new TalentLMS units just by dragging and dropping a file from your computer into the content area of a course. TalentLMS will handle the rest. How’s that for convenience? When viewing a course’s content page as an instructor (1), just drag and drop (2) a file directly from your computer into the course’s content area (3) and the system will convert it to a unit. Prevent multiple logins from the same user There’s a new security option to prevent users to login with the same account from different browsers. You can enable it from Security section in the "Account & settings" page. Besides the increased security this option offers (e.g. for users logging in from a public computer and forgetting to logout), it also puts up a barrier to paying users from sharing their courses with others. Print test option If you’re not particularly fond of trees, you’ll love this new feature: instructors now get to print a test with all of its questions using the "Print" button in the bottom of a test’s page. This is handy for having a print copy of tests to be given online, but especially for xeroxing and handing out physical copies of the test for instructor-led training sessions. New induction process Whether you’re new to TalentLMS or just want to learn more about its user interface, our new induction process will help you get acquainted with the available options in no time. Just click on the flashing circles around the interface to get a quick tour of the various features and usage tips. You can disable or re-enable the feature at any time. The new induction process in action: click on the flashing circles (1) around the interface, to get a popup explaining their corresponding features (2). You can hide (3) or re-enable the tour at any time from the "Help" dropdown in the top menu (4). Executive Summary (or "TL;DR;" as the youngters call it) A new TalentLMS update is out, and with it the usual assortment of new features, enhancements and fixes. Aside from the brand new Events Engine that takes TalentLMS capabilities up to eleven and sets the stage for future automation goodness, this release offers handy new features and workflow improvements across the board designed to make your job easier and your eLearning business more productive. So what are you waiting for? Log in to your favourite Cloud LMS and enjoy the smell of new. The post Stop the presses: TalentLMS Summer 2015 release is out appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Big organizations consider Training & Development a major part of their motivation and retention strategy. On the contrary, small businesses don’t seem to invest a lot of time and money -if at all- in training their staff. Startups rely on two things: an innovative product or service and the people behind it. eLearning cannot do much about the former, but it can definitely help with the latter. In this post we will look at 5 ways startups can benefit from adopting eLearning. New skills Startups grow not only when their revenues increase, but also when their employees broaden their skills. It is expected and fairly reasonable that a company of 5-20 people will have various skill gaps to cover at their earliest stages. eLearning is the easiest way to cover these gaps. There are many affordable LMS systems, like our TalentLMS, that small startups can make use of, allowing their employees to widen their expertise and develop new skillsets. Compliance I am not aware of any enterprise that does not have to abide by a framework of rules and regulations. Sooner or later, a startup will need to be audited and have their processes scrutinised by some uptight state committee or, more often, by potential investors. As an unvoiced rule goes "if it’s not documented, it never happened"; when it comes down to compliance and auditing, this is the ultimate rule. An affordable LMS can help a startup to keep accurate records of all their employees’ eLearning. Broaden your mind "eLearning is just something employees have to do to keep their managers happy". A statement like this has many -far too many- flaws, but let’s jump to the one that implies that eLearning is just a business oriented activity. This is totally and utterly wrong. eLearning comes in many forms and one of these includes MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). At no, or at a very low cost, anyone can have access to a subject they are personally interested in, from History of Art to Big Data or Game Theory - courses offered by universities such as Harvard, MIT and Stanford on platforms like Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Iversity and Udacity. An employer may now think: what does this have to do with my startup? Well… having well-educated employees who can demonstrate learning agility is a great benefit; a MOOC enthusiast is someone who takes initiatives and sets personal targets, a resourceful professional who never stops evolving. Who wouldn’t want to hire a person like this? Keep clients happy The core function of eLearning is that it educates a selected audience on a particular subject. By acquiring the best courses for your own business, you can offer your workforce an eLearning catalogue that can help them enhance their knowledge, improve their practices and consequently upgrade the customer service experience. Motivate the team There are primarily two ways to show your employees that you care about them: pay them well and give them room to breathe and develop. Always remember that startup employees tend to work long hours, being asked to remain innovative and creative at all times. Unless a good manager effectively monitors the energy levels within a team, it is likely that some staff will become emotionally and physically drained before the end of a project. Keeping the team motivated is the only way forward. In addition to team bonding activities and events, they need to be offered the opportunity to challenge themselves by acquiring some new knowledge or by exploring a new mental path they have not been down before. Conclusion eLearning in startups is a tool and, in these case, a very powerful one. It can help your employees stay up to date with legislation, broaden their minds, improve their skills and stay motivated; and all the above at a very low cost with great ROI. As I always say, though, don’t force eLearning onto your team. Startup employees are people who do seek out challenges and new stimuli. Make eLearning available to them and they will make use of it at their own pace and convenience.     The post 5 reasons startups should embrace eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Mythology. We use to think of it as something ancient societies did. In fact the modern world never stopped producing its own myths, and the IT sector is no exception, as it has its own share of urban legends, conspiracy theories, fear-mongers and snake-oil salesmen. In the first part of this series of posts our myth-busting team took down 5 common Cloud computing myths. Now we’re back to dispel some more Cloud-related misconceptions and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). Myth #6 : The cloud is for small businesses This myth, like most myths, has some basis in the truth: indeed, the Cloud is a godsent for small businesses that cannot afford dedicated IT personnel. Installation, updates, security and backups are all taken care for them by the SaaS / Cloud vendor, enabling them to be more productive, competitive and cost efficient. But this does not mean that the Cloud is not for big organizations. While the adoption of the public Cloud by larger organizations is slow (for cultural, financial and other reasons), adoption of private and hybrid clouds is already high and ever increasing. Let’s not forget that four of the biggest IT-based companies on the planet, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon are all heavy users of private Cloud infrastructure (and all but one of them also sell Cloud solutions ―Azure, AWS, GAE― to third party organizations). Myth #7 : Clouds are one-size-fits all This is so removed from the truth one has to wonder how people came up with this myth (although its origin is probably the feature-restricted initial public Cloud offerings back in the day). If anything, the inverse is true: today, organizations looking to adopt the Cloud are spoilt for choice. First, there are the different deployment models: public, private and hybrid, depending on whether you connect to some third party Cloud service, deploy your own internal Cloud infrastructure, or opt for a combination of the two. Then there are the different ways that Cloud services can be packaged and sold: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). With the first option you get the equivalent of an application over the Cloud (e.g. where you had a desktop mail app now you have Gmail). With the second, you get a platform where you can run your own applications. You have to build those apps specifically to the platform’s specifications (using the allowed programming languages, libraries and frameworks), and in return the platform takes care of things like automatic scaling, massive storage capacity, fault-tolerance, backups, etc. for you. The third option, Infrastructure as a Service, is the more flexible and, at the same time, the more demanding. In this model, the Cloud provider just gives you virtual (cloud-based) servers, and you get to manage them and build whatever you want with them, in the same way you would with physical collocated boxes. You still get some Cloud benefits, of course, like automated provisioning of new machines, backups, on-demand creation of new images, etc. Finally, there are three operating models for an organization’s Cloud: a) the customer owns and operates it, b) the cloud provider owns and operates it, or, c) the customer owns the solution but the provider operates it. Between these deployments, service provision and operating options an organization has tons of flexibility with regards to how it uses the Cloud. And we haven’t even mentioned the choice of vendors, frameworks, tooling and support options. Myth #8 : Everything should be automated in the cloud The beauty of the Cloud is that everything from the infrastructure layer upwards can be automated. This, however, takes a significant level of expertise and understanding of the tools involved. Most importantly, the fact that everything can be automated does not mean that it should. In practice, the extra effort to build and maintain a fully automated cloud service may not be worth the time and effort. In fact part of the beauty of the Cloud (and especially hybrid Cloud solutions) is that it enables you to replace parts of your existing infrastructure one at a time, while at the same time making sure that everything still works as good as before. There should be no rush to fully replace your existing operating procedures with some fully automated scheme in one go — in fact it can even be risky. The best strategy is to identify parts of your Cloud that can be automated and proceed piecemeal to automate them. Myth #9 : The cloud is not reliable Major cloud provider outages always make the news: "Amazon AWS has been down for 3 hours", "GAE down for SE Asia users", etc. But do you know what doesn’t make the news? The myriad outages experienced in smaller corporate IT services and data-centers. This gives the wrong impression that the Cloud is more unreliable than your enterprise IT department. First of all, this only concerns the public Cloud: your private Cloud IS run by your enterprise IT department anyway, so it’s just as prone to outages as your other infrastructure. The thing is, whether you’re using the Cloud or some internal IT service, outages can only be minimized, they can never be completely eliminated. What’s important is how much damage those outages can incur. For the typical enterprise, internal IT outages are usually more devastating than Cloud ones, as there isn’t the same level of backup or redundancy involved as is with the Cloud. In practice, several studies have shown that the Cloud offers improved service availability compared to the majority of local IT solutions. And for small to medium businesses, with their often average or mediocre IT departments, there’s really no comparison. Myth #10: Cloud eliminates traditional Software Statistics for Cloud vs non-Cloud software revenues show that while the Cloud market grows, it doesn’t do so in expense of the traditional software market. While you’ll adopt the Cloud for your infrastructure needs, you’ll still need Windows or OS X to run your desktop applications (at the very least a web browser to access Cloud apps), and unless you’re one of the easy-to-please users who have adopted Google Docs, you’ll still need your Word, Excel and PowerPoint (plus, there’s no Cloud substitute for Solitaire and Minesweeper). Besides, all those Cloud servers, also have to run traditional server OSes and applications: from Linux and Solaris down to Oracle DB and SQL Server. Native apps won’t go away anytime soon. Conclusion As with any emerging technology, the Cloud brings with it its own share of myths and misconceptions. In this series of posts, we tried to clear out 10 of them — but there are many more. The Cloud is neither a "silver bullet" nor something to be wary of. It’s an important part of any modern IT infrastructure, and as everything, it has its pros and cons. So, keep calm and keep adopting the Cloud. The post Top 10 Cloud myths busted, pt. 2 appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Mobile learning is rapidly becoming the norm of eLearning! mLearning has invaded the eLearning scene, regardless of the age of the learner. A successful eLearning project caters to mLearning by default. In this article, we discover why mLearning is the preferred method of learning among eLearners. Performance support or collaborative eLearning environment, mLearning has all the cards. Throw in the favorite handheld device (the smartphone) and your eLearning course becomes a favorite pastime! What’s with the enormous success of mLearning anyway? Why are learners more motivated to browse through screens and screens of mobile courses, but not the same ones on the desktop? Here are a few takes on that question: Shift in Learner Profiles In a given organization, there are traditional learners, baby-boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. Most learners prefer using tablets and smartphones for learning. Shift in Learning Patterns More and more learners now prefer multimedia to stay engaged in a learning environment, for example videos, podcasts, audio as well as access to bite-sized learning, or micro-learning on the go. They also appreciate more control over their learning sessions, i.e. being able to select which modules to complete first and which ones later. Shift in device use pattern Initiatives like BYOD (bring your own device) have created a mobile device-based learning environment. Maturing educational technologies and tools have also added to the trend of using mobile devices in a learning capacity. Ease of development and ease of use of mobile learning platforms are also major contributors towards mLearning. Shift of legacy courses to the mobile platform Older courses can be migrated easily to the mobile platform with minimal effort. This can create a better learning experience and provide the flexibility for learners to access the courses on the device of their choice. What Are The Benefits Of mLearning? So now you have it all - the reasons why mLearning is gaining swift popularity. Let’s explore the benefits now. We guarantee, you will become an mLearning believer! 1. Flexibility to learners. Flexibility is not limited to any one place or time anymore! Flexibility in mLearning also involves learning using videos, podcasts and other popular multimedia assets on smartphones. 2. Better completion rates and higher retention The content presented in the mobile platform is chunk-sized and concise. This enables learners to complete courses and initiate the next course as well. 3. Collaborative learning. Engaging learners towards the establishment of online learning communities is more effective using mobile devices. 4. Higher engagement. Extant research and statistics reveal a higher engagement rate when courses are delivered using the mobile format. 5. Multi-device support. The same course is available on variable devices ranging from PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. 6. Performance Support. Learners prefer methods that are as unobtrusive to their daily routine as possible. This creates a learning habit that yields higher quality of performance. This facilitates easy access to information while at work. Learners also find and retrieve just-in-time information easily using their personal mobile devices. 7. Learning path. Phone based reminders and organizers are integrated with the mLearning platforms. Learners get ongoing notifications and updates on their courses, which they check anywhere and anytime. The can also resume their course easily, without unlearning previous content. The learning path established in a mobile platform is more personalized and continuous. With the popularity of mobile devices and the ever increasing use mobile applications, eLearning will soon need a mobile application to run. Most training programs already use a mobile-friendly learning management system to host their eLearning programs. We hope that these 7 benefits of mobile learning will motivate you to create quality mobile learning programs. The post 7 Awesome mLearning Benefits appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Learning styles are not a new adult learning concept. In fact, psychologists have been discussing the categorization of learning environments according to learner types. Previously, these concepts were thought to be possible only in the live learning environments. But with the proliferation of educational technology tools, all popular learning styles can be catered. In this article, we show you how! Not all adult learners learn alike! We all are unique in our level of assimilating information, applying it, connecting it with past experiences, recalling it and even perceiving it. We all have different preferences for learning. Some of us like watching visual material to learn, some of us prefer hearing, while others want a hands on - a learning-by-doing method of learning. As adult learners, we do have one basic learning need in common: whatever learning journey we embark on, it should lead to meaningful application, a value that can be utilized in our professional and personal context. Another set of discriminating factors among learners is the preference towards testing and assessments. While some of us are comfortable with the regular multiple choice quiz, most of us resent the recalling exercises associated with these quizzes. Comprehensive tests are also a big no-no for most learners. Developing team-based projects that build over the span of the course are popular with some learners. With so many strategies available to instructional designers, how do we determine the optimal route that pleases all learners enrolled in a given course? What is the best way to determine an instructional strategy within your course? Simple. It’s called "differentiated instruction" and it meets the individual needs of learners. It involves custom tailoring the eLearning content so that it is delivered in multiple formats or styles. In short, it allows instructional content to be conveyed in a way that is preferred by individual learners. The question is, how is it possible to create instruction that caters to the individual needs of all learners? Let’s first identify the established needs of individual learners. Then we will share five best practices to include in your eLearning project design to yield a differentiated instructional aspect to your course. Diverse Learning Needs Learners have varying areas that need improvement. Some may struggle with reading comprehension, some may struggle with technological challenges. Also, learners may absorb information at their own pace. Some need more time while some need less. As an instructional designer, you need to be prepared for such diversities. Continued Support through Assessments Online instructors need to assess learners periodically to determine progress and take any remedial steps needed for improvement. Collaboration in Groups Group exercises that combine different competency levels of learners are essential to help learners connect with peers, eradicate isolation and also learn from each other’s experiences. Empowering Learners Enable your learners to decide which topics to tackle first in your course. This helps them manage their time and resources more effectively. It also creates active participants that have more control over their learning. 5 Tips for Applying Differentiated Instruction in eLearning Now that you are more aware of the differences between learners, you can easily incorporate these tips in your instructional design. 1. Create a self-paced learning environment Provide an estimated time to complete the course, but allow your learners to progress at their own speed. Enable others who move through tasks and activities more quickly to proceed through the course. Provide ample support to slower learners. For timed quizzes and other assignments, provide post reflection activities that enable slow learners to internalize concepts better. This will also enable advanced learners to share their valuable experience with others. 2. Offer extant learning resources and online tools for learning Make sure the links, supplemental guides, research papers and multimedia you provide are current and functioning. Slower learners will appreciate extra resources, while advanced learners will enjoy additional information. Offer some prerequisite material for slower learners to go through. This will help them catch up faster. Create a forum for peer-based or subject-matter support for learners to connect and receive feedback. 3. Encourage learners to create their personal road maps to complete the course Request learners to create a customized learning plan to complete the course. Review their plans with them and offer guidance and edits if needed. Also, request a timeline with milestones and their tentative dates. Towards the end of the course, ask your learners to submit a reflections statement on whether they achieved their goals or not. Provide additional support to help them achieve the desired outcome. 4. Determine any unique needs in your learners This is the most important step towards establishing a differentiated instruction for diverse learners. Before you can provide support to your learners, you will need to identify a list of individual needs. Conduct surveys to uncover expectations and learning gaps. Create action plans to meet their requirements within your course. The best time to do this is in the beginning of the course, when learners are hopeful and eager to share their concerns and aspirations from the course. 5. Establish clear learning expectations from the beginning Develop a set of clear instructions that state what real world benefits the eLearning course can provide. Also provide the value in the job market and how they can apply the knowledge in the real world settings. While it is practically impossible to cater to all of the needs of all your learners, who may be scattered worldwide, these best practices will help you create an eLearning experience that is comfortable to most of your learners. Creating an eLearning course for different learning styles is a challenge. While you don’t have to create a course three or four times for each learning style, what you can easily do is, provide something for everyone!     The post 5 Tips for Applying Differentiated Instruction in eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Never assume that online learning is easier than in-class learning. You are all alone, and the only way to get well-connected to your eLearning environment is to communicate, communicate and communicate. And also, re-program your study habits. In this article, we show you how to make these personal changes to reap greater rewards! Instructional designers and eLearning developers, this information can be relayed to your students during the introduction phase of your eLearning program. Are you a learner looking for eLearning success? Use these tips to help you perform like an ace in your next course. For starters, eLearning is not to be underestimated as the easier way to learn something new. Rather, it is a more convenient way to learn. If you have taken at least one eLearning course, or you are thinking about registering for one, know that eLearning requires a unique temperament and self-management skills. You need a sense of time-management, strong motivation as well as the love for learning. In short, you will need everything you need to complete a physical/live course and a bit more self-discipline! Let’s look into these best practices in online learning: Manage Your Expectations Be warned, eLearning is not an easier way to study. It requires dedication and focused goals that are frequently revised. Be prepared for the following: Commitment to attend a live or an asynchronous eLearning session. Check your course by logging in frequently throughout the week. Become tech-savvy. Work with your online peers effectively, through responsive communication. It is very crucial to complete your eLearning assignments on time. If you have checked all of the above, you are on your way to an enjoyable eLearning experience: Dedicate a Study Space Create a corner in your home, your office or an area that is dedicated for your eLearning. Make sure it is free of distractions. Your study environment should replicate a professional and a formal learning environment that enables you to focus and study well. Let your family and friends know when you are studying. Turn off your phone and social media to avoid any interruptions during your study time. Determine your Learning Goals Write down your personal and professional goals after completing the eLearning course. These will provide you with a meaningful roadmap with specific milestones along the way. Finally, consider starting with the most difficult tasks, as this will improve both the effectiveness of your study and your performance. Create a Study Plan Review the course syllabus and plan your course ahead. Highlight all the assignment and quiz dates and include them in your personal calendar. A study calendar will remind you when something is coming up. This will help you prepare before time. Last minute assignments hardly make up a quality deliverable. Procrastination will lead to stress and stress will prevent you from completing your tasks on time. If you have any vacation plans or seasonal holidays, you can plan and study ahead to avoid delays. Create a Checklist of Tasks Prioritizing and managing tasks in a timely manner is the crux of studying an eLearning course. Before the week begins, create a checklist (on your smartphone) of learning tasks like reading up the text resources, research papers and attempting the assignment. Estimate the time required to complete each task. Stick to your time limits when working on your tasks. Review this checklist towards the end of the week. Stay on your schedule. Any lagging behind will exacerbate quickly. Ask for Help Anytime If you have any hesitations in contacting your course mentor or peers for help, you will be in hot waters pretty soon! Working independently is constructive as long as things are smooth. The moment you realize the content is getting frustrating or you feel you are walking in circles, you need to email or call out for help. Isolation and alienation are the worst drawbacks of eLearning. Be ready to ask plenty of questions. The answers will reassure you and guide you towards the right direction. Another good way is to read your peers’ posts and instructor’s responses to similar questions. Study in your Free Time Instead of learning things the hard way or at the least desirable time, learn smartly! Review your reading material and assignments in your free time to keep on top of things. At the end of your reading sessions, simply scribble down the highlights of the week. This explicit memory jotting exercise will help you retain information for a longer duration. It will also create a favorable background to build the upcoming information on. Remember to take breaks. Your performance will improve if you allocate study times after regular breaks. Actively Participate in Online Discussions Connecting with your virtual classmates on social media or your online course’s forum will tremendously enhance your eLearning experience. This is especially true if you are an introvert. Participate actively in online discussions and group activities based on the topic of the week and projects. Provide guidance to others based on your experience. This will earn you respect among your peers. Netiquette and writing tone have to be practiced well in online discussions to avoid any negative experiences. Staying motivated throughout your eLearning experience is another trick to complete your course within the suggested time frame. Reward yourself for completing challenging tasks. Take regular breaks. Use inspirational quotes in your study area to keep your dedication strong. Above all, smile, you’re doing a great job! This list is complete and it’s the only guideline you will ever need when attempting to study in an online learning environment. As an adult learner, you are naturally wired to study online! Simply get in tune with your natural study instincts and connect them with the eLearning environment’s requirements! The post 9 Study Tips for eLearners appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Games in the form of mobile applications or desktop games have successfully merged into the adult learning environment. While eLearning games received a considerable amount of resistance, they have proven their worth through superior learning achievement results. In this article, we will explain how to boost your educational games and deeply engage your eLearners. No one who uses a computer can be unfamiliar with games. This is not a broad claim at all. Have you ever been in a game in which you compete with yourself? No? What about those phone messages that require you to message back to win extra minutes or mobile data? Your car’s GPS trying to get you to become a registered member of the application through badges and icons? What about your Facebook account sharing your last year, same date memories so that you continue to create more memories on the service? These are games in disguise. Did we mention your credit card company giving you incentives to "spend more to save more"? Let’s create such games for your eLearning environment to motivate and engage your learners and to improve learning achievement. Let’s get the managers happy with your learners’ job performance! Start Small Choose a theme, for example "Safety at the Workplace". Ask questions in a fun drag and drop exercise like, "Susan needs these five items in her first aid box". Have the learners drag the correct items in the image of the first aid box! So, start small. No need to sweat over pages and pages of games. Short bursts of excitement are motivating and engaging at the same time. Interact with Games ELearning courses can easily double as interactions with the help of the right course authoring tools. For example, you can build interactions from scratch using actions and variables, or you can customize a pre-built interaction from many eLearning templates available for free! Some templates are especially built for particular authoring tools. Take your time to explore and download templates (if needed) to create an interaction for your content. Reward Your Learners If there is one thing adult learners love, it’s recognition. If your learners make it all the way to the end of "Safety at the Workplace" game and succeed at the final challenge, award them a "Safety Star" badge of victory! Badges and points are great because an employee can put them in his or her email signature or brag about their accomplishments to colleagues on LinkedIn. Badges can also be awarded for contributing to the online community of practice for a particular eLearning course. Congrats! You just gamified your eLearning with these techniques! Games have taken over learning. Did you also realize that the status bar displayed on your course telling the learner their location on the eLearning course pathway, is also a game itself? It motivates the learner to complete the course 100%. We seriously believe that a 90% course completion status incites learners to move towards completion more than "the last chapter" remaining! What do you say? The post 3 Ways to Level Up your eLearning Games appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Who says developing an eLearning project is easy? Not with the plethora of tools and applications available, eLearning development is still a major project that needs careful implementation. In this article, we uncover the major advantages of using a cloud based authoring tool as opposed to a desktop application. A high performance eLearning development team dreams of an automated workflow with the least amount of ambiguity and repetitious tasks. Such tools are in high-demand. Since the needs of eLearning developers change rapidly, a cloud based LMS is more agile than a desktop one. The desire to make a tool as simple and hassle-free as possible is still the main driving factor for frequent updates. The goal is to take the frustration and long hours out of the development process. This is critical when multiple eLearning authors are simultaneously involved in a project. eLearning Project Management using the Desktop eLearning Tool Desktop tools for eLearning authoring lack version control of files. No one knows which version is the most current. For a large project, only one person can work on the project at a given time. Think about idle resources, eating up time and budget! Projects need to be stored in the local machine. They might not be able to be worked upon across networks. Hence authors working in different locations have to use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). Multiple authors need to be managed across VPNs. All authors need to install the eLearning development application in their local machine. Downloading and uploading the files in turns is a common practice. Maintaining the software changes is also an added step. Unless you have a very smart plan that never breaks down, how on Earth can you get things done in time? Maintaining courses is tedious too. Files need to be relocated, changes made and the updated course needs to be published again. As you can guess, working remotely on this project is not happening! All authors and developers need to be present to ensure no issues arise. eLearning Project Management using a Cloud based eLearning Tool The cloud, as we know, is a meeting place from remote locations. Collaborations in the cloud are the norm. The collaborating point is the eLearning development tool itself! The files to be worked upon in the development environment are transparent to all team members. Authors do not need to install this tool on their machines. At any given moment there is only one up-to-date version of a file. This version has updates added by everyone and is ready to use, anywhere, anytime. It also has the capability to hold comments and suggestions by authors, subject matter experts and graphic artists. No need to track changes with names. Requests for a task or more information are fulfilled on time on an as needed basis. All of this, with one browser and an internet connection. Consider the improved productivity with this scenario! Workflow is much smoother, simple, holistic and iterative in a cloud based eLearning authoring environment. All stages of the project - design, development, testing and implementation are carried out using one tool. No need for added software for designing, prototyping or storyboarding. Cloud based eLearning tools like TalentLMS truly take the pain out of the eLearning development process and enhance creativity. The post Painless eLearning Development through a Cloud based Development Tool appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Stephanie Ryon is an Instructional Technology Coach from Texas. Stephanie's experience as a classroom teacher and instructional coach has given her a solid understanding of how to meet the needs of modern day century learner and educator. Follow Stephanie Ryon   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   TodaysMeet.com   HelpHub.me   Audible.com   House of #EdTech Recommendation: TubeChop.com   House of #EdTech VIP: Jill Dobrowansky   Complete shownotes: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2015/07/edtech-math-stephanie-ryon-hoet040.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi   Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

Baby Nesi #2 is arriving in a few short weeks (or sooner). I wanted to make sure you were still provided with some awesome content. So this episode features an #edtech thought, #edtech recommendation, and of course a VIP!   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   TodaysMeet.com   HelpHub.me   Audible.com   Recommendation: Doodle.ly   VIP: John Mason - host of beardED Podcast   Complete shownotes at: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2015/08/dog-days-of-teachers-summer-part-1.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

Baby Nesi #2 has not arrived at the time of recording/release of this episode but I can assure you that he will be here before episode 43 is released on August 30, 2015. The sub $5000 kitchen project is officially complete and the end of Summer is fast approaching!   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   TodaysMeet.com   HelpHub.me   Audible.com   House of #EdTech VIP: Tina Monteleone   Complete shownotes at: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2015/08/dog-days-of-teachers-summer-part-2.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi   Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

  Baby Nesi #2 is here! Listen to get the latest update.   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi   Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

There are two conflicting themes floating around the wider worlds of technology-enhanced learning at the moment - the notion that the lecture is dead, and at odds with this, an increasingly loud voice from researchers and students who believe that all lectures should be filmed and made available to students for later viewing. Let’s take each of these separately. Item 1: the lecture, apparently, is an outmoded form of teaching and learning that may once have been a useful way of conveying knowledge to an illiterate populace, but has long since had its day. This is by no means a modern notion. Indeed, the lecture format has been questioned for many years.  Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) long ago produced his own straightforward critique of lectures: ‘People have nowadays…got a strange opinion that everything should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do as much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken…Lectures were once useful, but now, when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary.’ A quick search of the Internet suggests the term ‘the lecture is dead’ before I have even finished typing my search query. A quick scan through the first half a dozen blog posts, online articles and journals repeat the same message: ‘nobody learns if you talk at them for 3 hours.’ This is doubly true for the guys who fall asleep during such passive experiences I guess. Ok. So let’s agree then, that the traditional lecture is no longer required as we can find what we need to know ourselves, and sitting passively in a lecture theatre for long periods of time does not teach us anything anyway. On to item 2: lectures should be filmed so that students can watch them online in their own time. Lecture capture is certainly front and centre at my institution, with four big-name providers showcasing their brands in the next few weeks. It’ll be like Dragons’ Den, with all four companies being scrutinized for the chance to provide the entire university with a solution only their company can deliver. I have already written about my experiences with lecture capture elsewhere in this blog, so won’t cloud the issue by repeating them here. Now, if I were a student who didn’t need to attend a live lecture because I could watch it whenever I wanted - with the added benefit of being able to pause, rewind and re-watch, or even spread the whole thing over a few evenings to make it more manageable- then that’s exactly what I would do. And this brings up a new issue: if nobody goes to a live lecture because they know it’s being recorded, then what happens? Does the lecturer ‘perform’ to an empty auditorium? And hang on a minute - isn’t the lecture supposed to be dead anyway? Should we be spending vast sums of money kitting out lecture theatres with HD cameras and sophisticated microphones if the same spaces are empty and the concept of the lecture obsolete? Should we, perhaps, be making better use of our resources? One solution would be to support academic staff to sit in front of their computer with a web cam and a microphone, and to show them how to use screen-casting software. They could go on to record their lectures at a time and in a location that suits them, and upload the results at the fraction of the cost of lecture capture hardware and software. In the future, disused lecture theatres could then be repurposed and turned into cinemas. Or fast food outlets. I’d like to know what you think.  Is lecture capture something you champion?  Please cast your vote here: Take Our Poll

That’s not a plea to set fire to my current place of residence, but the name of a bi-monthly presentation night hosted at a The Glee Club in Cardiff Bay.  The premise is simple. 10 presenters deliver a talk about absolutely anything. But there is, of course, a catch: each presentation lasts no more than 5 minutes and is build around 20 Powerpoint slides timed to last exactly 20 seconds. Until a colleague mentioned Ignite, I had been aware of neither the presentation style nor concept of events based around them. However, I was aware of - and have used - PechaKucha, of which this is a variation.  I still have no idea what impelled me, but I found myself checking out the website and, on an impulse, applied to be a speaker. I truly believed that I would not be invited to speak, so was delighted when I was. I abandoned my first presentation. ‘We’re not so Different, you and me’ looked at the many and varied similarities between Wales and Cornwall but my heart wasn’t in the subject so I couldn’t feel enthusiastic about the finished product. I spent many frustrating hours tweaking my slides, but only felt truly happy when I decided to change the subject completely and settled on a theme that I feel more comfortable with: Doctor Who, or more specifically, ‘How Doctor Who Saved me from Becoming an Evil Overlord’. Having delivered dozens of presentations and addresses over the years I was surprised at how nervous I was. It’s easy to espouse the benefits of student analytics and QR codes to your peers and nerves have never been an issue for me. I enjoy speaking publicly (but, oddly, clam up in public when around anyone I don’t know) and a larger audience doesn’t intimidate me. This time though, I experienced a proper dose of stage fright, as you can see in my very nervy performance: Though I wasn’t terrible, I certainly couldn’t compete with most of the other presentations I saw that night. But that’s alright. It has made me look at my delivery from the ground up and there’s certainly some stuff to I need to work on (pace, stance, language use and hair style being just a few). And I’ll tell you what: in a year I am going to ask if I can present at a future Ignite event, and if they let me I am going to be a whole lot better.

NOTE: this post was written in August 2014, but has been languishing, unseen, in my ‘Drafts’ folder since then.  As a result, it’s probably very out of date by now - technology years are like dog years - but it may still have some merit! In part 2 of my ocassional ‘Tools Roundup’ serties,  I’m going to look at a couple of tools that teachers can use to make their own online learning resources / lessons / activities.  As with part one of this series, these tools need to hit certain criteria in order to be considered: They are free to use (or have a free basic account) They are easy to use - so if you only have enthusiasm but no IT skills, you can use them without throwing your laptop out of the window in frustration. Here at Cardiff, as with many educational institutions in the UK, the free online resource-authoring tool of choice is Xerte, and there is nothing wrong with that.  Indeed, I have been using Xerte on and off for several years now, and it’s pretty good (plus objects can be published in a variety of formats, making them playable on any device, be it a computer, tablet or smartphone).  However, it can look a bit intimidating to those who have enthusiasm, but not much in the way of experience, confidence or time.  This is why I’m looking at these alternatives, the first of which is: Tool #1: TED Ed This is a very quick and easy way to produce a stylish, interactive online lesson or resource.  Simply pick a film on TED Talk or YouTube to centre your online lesson around, copy the film’s link and a framework for constructing a lesson is provided. Adds your own text, questions and discussion headings, press a button, generate a link and you’re done.  This does mean you are tied to whatever happens to be on TED or YouTube (so it may well be that there is nothing there that quite ‘fits’), and although I do like TED…and I know that this may not go down too well with some fans…I do find it all a bit evangelical and smug sometimes. Sorry. I have made a very quick and dirty lesson about Genetics (and called it part one of three. I like to set myself unobtainable goals by thinking I’ll have time to make parts 2 and 3, when really, all I want to do in my spare time at the moment is ride my bike and eat ice cream).  In this instance I have chosen to make my lesson public: though when you do sign up for a free TED Ed account, can make a lesson and you can choose to keep it private, so only those who you choose to share a link with can access it.  Here’s Genetics Part 1: Tool#2: Versal This tool is very new, so still in Beta stage, and provides users with a very clean and simple interface based around dragging and dropping customisable gasgets (such as text areas, quizzes, surveys, videos and Prezi presentations) on-screen, then adding content via a very basic WYSIWYG editor. This makes for a very logical and visually engaging experience - you start, effectively, with a blank canvas then build your content using these gadgets as digital ‘Lego’ blocks. Content can then be published and made avaialble as a URL or embedded into a VLE or blog.  Paid membership as a single user or an institution also gives the user the ability to publish content as SCORMs Versal have added a really nifty collabroation feature that allows users to work together to create courses and lessons. I’ve not tried this yet, so don’t know if this happens synchronously or whether only one user can contribute at a time, but I’ll be checking this out later. I mentioned a few of the gadgets avaialble to users a little earlier, and will admit that in the short course I’ve made while learning how Versal works, I have stuck to the very basics: text, video, multiple choice quiz and survey.  There are many, many more examples of gadgets such as interactive diagrams and maps, an anatomy gadget (which I am going to have to look at, as it could be especially useful in my line of work), and several that do look a little tricky to figure out… Here’s that short course I mentioned.  Surprisingly, it’s called Doctor Who 101… Oh - bear in mind that you need to set up an account to view the course. Tool#3: Office Mix Another tool still in its Beta stage, Office Mix is a free bolt-on for Microsoft PowerPoint.  Download it here and, once installed, you will find your copy of PowerPoint now includes a shiny new ‘MIX’ tab.  You can now add screen recordings, voiceovers, videos, polls, true and false / multiple choice / free response questions and a whole ranfege of nifty things.  student analytics can be recorded, presentations published as SCORM packages and the finished content can be accesseds on any device, be it a Windows-based laptop or a smartphone running iOS. This is ideal if you are already familiar with PowerPoint (and as it’s ubiquitous, there’s every chance that you are) but not so familiar with the software used to build online resources.  It’s free, it’s very easy to use…but it is only available to those who use Windows-based machines, so if you’re running Office for Mac on your MacBook, you won’t be able to download or use Office Mix.  With Office 2016 for Mac coming out at the end of the year, I can only hope that this issue is fixed.

Working as a Learning Technologist (LT) means that it can be hard to feel a true sense of identity. Rather than sitting squarely in one camp - be it academic or professional support - the LT often has a foot in each tent flap. As far as my particular role (Learning Technology Manager) goes, I am aligned to the professional support framework, so I am a member of several administration-themed committees and working parties along with colleagues from our student data, marketing, admissions and assessment teams. I do spend some of my working week carrying out various administrative tasks including but not limited to enrolling staff on our LMS, checking student alignment to modules, setting up rubrics in Turnitin and copying content from one area of Blackboard to another. However, I spend more of my time talking to academic staff about where to embed technology into their curricula, their modules and their individual sessions. I discuss with them the pedagogy of online and blended learning, the best methods to use to enhance learning, to improve students’ critical thinking skills and to allow students to engage reflectively on course content. I show academic staff how summative and formative assessment can be carried out with real accuracy and validity using digital enhancement and how web apps and smartphones can make a session more innovative and interactive. I develop online resources and modules for national and overseas students that nod to a variety of learning theories and engage users via a multi-sensory, multi-media, truly two-way experience. I also show academics how to best use a toolkit of technology-based artefacts to enhance teaching and learning and I explain why this toolkit is just so bloody valuable.  And if there is time, I spend the rest of my working week reading, researching and writing around the subject of education and technology. I started reading The Really Useful #EdTechBook by David Hopkins on the plane back from *INTED2015 last week, and was struck how different institutions perceive the role of Learning Technologist in very different ways. This, I assume, has a lot to do with the fact that it’s very hard to categorise or pigeon hole what a LT is. ‘In reality‘, states Peter Reed, one of the contributors to Hopkins’ book: ‘the Learning Technologist is a complex professional (and academic) role, and its variations and derivatives have increased over the years.’  However, Oliver suggests the practices of Learning Technologists are ‘little understood, even within their own community.‘ (Oliver, 2010) Reed expands upon his original statement: ‘ Think of the Learning Technologist as the middle person in the complex relationship between learning and teaching and technology.  Typically, the role involves a good appreciation of both elements.  Critically though, a thorough understanding of learning and teaching precludes an understanding of technology.  This is imperative, as we must first identify the challenges, within and of, pedagogy, before applying theory to practice.  If we don’t understand these core aspects of what it is to learn, or indeed teach, how can we possibly advise on how technology might be an influencing and enhancing intervention?  The understanding of technology and its place in education, for me at least, will always come second.  Thus the role of the Learning Technologist sits comfortably alongside academic staff within curriculum development initiatives with a particular focus on applying theory to practice.’ So there seems to be a growing consensus of opinion that the role of the LT is firmly entrenched in the academic side of institutional life.  This then highlights an issue that needs to be unknotted.  If Learning Technologists are working with academic staff to shape their teaching practice (and don’t forget, we have the word ‘Learning’ in our title), then perhaps we should be aligned to the academic side of our institutions’ lives?  That way we can help to shape teaching and learning with technology at grass roots level. Here’s one final quote to finish off: ‘Learning Technology teams are typically considered a professional service - some institutions, (which Selwyn suggests is derogatory) consider them non-academic, non-Faculty or ‘support’ staff (Selwyn, 2014, p56), but the very placement of the team can have consequences for the role and how they are seen by academic staff.’ References: Oliver, M (2002), What do Learning Technologists Do? Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 39(4), pp. 245-252.  Available at http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/3083/1/Oliver2002What245.pdf, date accessed: 18/03/2015 Reed, P (2015) The Structure and Roles of Learning Technologists within Higher Education Institutions: The Really Useful #EdTechBook, published by author under Creative Commons Licence Selwyn, N (2014) Digital Technology and the Contemporary University: Degrees of Digitalization, Routledge *INTED2015 post-conference blog post to follow. Honest!

Every evening, at 6.30 I settle down to watch the local news, and (just about) every day, without fail, the lead story involves failings within the Welsh NHS. It’s disheartening, and is starting to feel like propaganda: designed to make the populace hate the NHS to the point where we will agree to a fully  privatised health system. That or I’m paranoid and need to lay off the George Orwell novels and stop listening to Russell Brand. Anyway, here’s what I had to say: Dear Sir / Madam I just don’t get it. I moved here almost 3 years ago from my native Cornwall having fallen in love with Wales, and now work at UHW, Cardiff. Not for the NHS, but Cardiff University. So I may not be a medic (I’m actually an elearning designer for health care students. But that’s neither here nor there), but I do see hospital life up close every day. Ah, the NHS. Now there’s something you should be proud of. Your service here (despite what David Cameron may say) is fantastic. Your doctors and nurses are awesome. You have free prescriptions. GPs and receptionists alike are kind, patient and caring. And you invented it all. The Welsh are awesome. So why are you so intent on damning it every single day? It started off as a bit of a joke in our house: we turn on the local television news at 6.30 and have a bet that the leading story will be about failings in the NHS. Inevitably, I win. Funny (and lucrative at 50p per bet) at first…but now it is making me pretty fed up. And my partner (who is Welsh) is starting to find it all a bit upsetting too. The NHS makes mistakes. Though it’s so underfunded, understaffed, over-managed and overlooked, and staff on the frontline so exhausted and demoralised, it’s a wonder it doesn’t make more. What it needs is funding, but just as importantly, it needs support. And to have the same nation who came up with the concept of a National Health Service savage their own system every evening (and, in turn, planting the seeds and then fanning the flames of mistrust and anger in your audience)-it’s like me going back home to Cornwall and telling everyone that pasties are evil. Flippancy aside, please would you consider turning down the relentless criticism? The NHS is having a terrible time across the UK as it is! I’m not expecting to receive a reply, and I’m not the type to write letters of complaint - but bloody hell, I feel better for having had a rant!

It’s been a busy few months with a pretty full social calendar, a dissertation to finish before the end of September, and a landslide of work-based projects, all of which have conspired against me to stop my blogging. And, to be brutally honest, despite the aforementioned social life outside of work, I’ve been feeling listless, unenthusiastic and devoid of mojo for a couple of months.  And, it goes without saying that when you feel as if all the pleasure you once had for all things learning technology-esque have buggered off, it’s pretty much impossible to think of anything to blog about. However, an office move, a couple of work-based quick wins, an invitation to sit on the advisory board for an international conference and a couple of speaking engagements have all pulled me out of my temporary rut.  The icing on my ‘happy cake’ was provided at a Jisc event yesterday when a delegate approached me to say how much they enjoyed reading my blog nposts. Well, clearly, I have a public to entertain!  Which is why I was rather pleased when, whilst floundering in the bath last night I had an idea for a post that captured my interest.  So here it is. At yesterday’s event, one or two common themes cropped up across the day.  One of these was the notion that the digital native did not exist.  As some of you may know, I hate pigeon-holing, and am frustrated at the notion that ‘anyone under 25 is a digital wizard, and anyone over 30 is a digital dinosaur.’  You may as well say that anyone with a shoe size larger than 8 will only eat pepperoni pizza while those with smaller feet will always stick to spaghetti. Nonsense. Yet it appears that putting every aspect of one’s behaviour, personality, abilities and preferences into clearly labelled boxes is here to stay, so I’ll add my two penneth and posit that people of my age (I’m 45) are probably at the BEST age to understand technology and to ‘get’ the concept of digital literacy. And that’s because we know when to use if to enhance what we are doing  and when to stick to ‘old school’, non-techy methods. And that’s p[robably got something to do with the fact that we were there at the start. When I was 7 I played my first ever video game.  It was 1977, it was Space Invaders, and yes, I was very lucky because my parents were publicans who were fortunate enough to have one of the very first arcade gaming machines in the country in their pub. I remember being fascinated and terrified in equal parts - after opening the doors of the pub for the evening I was happy to watch my dad zapping that curtain of crab-like, pixelated blobs moving down the screen, terrified that a customer might come in before he lost his three lives and the joystick would be passed over to me to finish his turn.  (Before being sent upstairs - not  good for business to have a 7 year old running around the public bar demanding ‘gimm and tommics’ at 6.00 in the evening). Soon it was the 1980s and the first rudimentary home computers were making their mark. I remember getting a scorchingly average grade in my CSE Computer Studies exam in 1986. Thing is, as much as I liked trying to programme in BASIC, I was entranced more with the Commodore 16 my parents had bought my brother and I for Christmas in 1986 and had become obsessed with playing Mercenary and those text-based ‘choose your own adventure stories’, so had never really practiced coding.  But with a Commodore at home and a suite of BBC B models at school, I can say that I was there, right at the start of the digital revolution.  We had a top loading video recorder at home too.  And a microwave. Ha!  Who are the digital natives NOW then? Thing is, because I was there when technology started to become mainstream but before it became an established part of daily life, I still have a heap of non-digital skills that I use regularly.  Note taking, when done with a pen and paper, is much more meaningful than simply taking a photo of notes on a whiteboard, or recording a lecture to listen to or watch again later.  That act of putting pen to paper - of having to think about forming the correct shapes in the correct order - commits the word to your brain in a way typing never will. And books!  Yes, those proper, smelly books, with their cracked and bent spines standing proudly on shelves - nothing can beat that (other than wandering into Waterstones and browsing for an hour). And yet it feels incredibly liberating to go on holiday armed with 16 books on a Kindle that weighs less than a bag of ‘Monster Munch’. I was there when the Internet started to become popular, so was able to navigate it while it was still constructed of 16 pages. On the way, I learned about how I projected myself online, and how best to manage my growing digital identities (professional / social).  I did this just in time for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to start making their mark. I know instinctively when technology will make a difference and, vitally, where it doesn’t. I have learned as the Internet has grown how to be secure. My parents did not post photos of my achievements all over Facebook, so my childhood was very secure and totally private. I played outside, developed social skills by talking to my friends and see the value of disconnecting and living as I did pre 1995, with no telephone, and no tethering to the digital. Indeed, once a year I purposely stick all my gadgets in a cupboard and take a tent to the middle of nowhere so that I can have one of those ‘digital detoxes’ that seem to be trendy amongst Guardian readers. I had a Walkman when I was a teenager and a Discman in my 20s so getting an iPod in my 30s felt like normal progression rather than something new. Developments in technology don’t scare or overwhelm me, but neither am I on the eternal hunt for an upgrade to my smartphone or 1,000 more Facebook friends. So today I will copy and paste this document from my OneDrive to my blog site,  I will have a quick blast on Witcher III on my PS4 when I get home, check Facebook on my iPad after dinner and go to bed with a cup of tea and a book. Made of paper. With smells.

This spring I have sent Ji Guo to Chengdu to collaborate with the iPad classroom in a first grade.His report seems to indicate that teachers are in the replacement and augmentation phases of technology integration. They very ably use iPad linked to projectors as agile white board applications for sharing content (through projection) and presenting.At the same time we are seeing a few creation apps used to create videos that are then shared with peers. This is a huge development for all partners in the project. What we are having a harder time is having student discussions that include critical feedback. That said they are only first graders and they are busy creating video, writing, and sharing.What is clearly emerging is that beyond the affordances of the specific technology, there is an overarching theme. Technology seems to create a non-trivial opportunity to transform instruction. This transformation is not just about technology integration (although it is also about that), it is about student centered, differentiated practices that focus on engagement, participation and creation. The question that still remains is what impact it will have on more traditional measures of achievement.

Working in China exposes the cultural differences AND the similarities of concerns. Despite all the concerns and challenges our project just won first prize in a National competition for Technology Integrated classroom. This is a great boost to our work and I am excited to continue.I think that in the following excerpt from Chinese media in Chengdu you can see what concerns the Chinese public and how my comments are interpreted.WCC: With the introduction of technology into traditional teaching, whiteboard, book bag, IPAD all applied to the classroom, how do you see the development proceeding? 　　Dr. Guy Trainin: Today's kids are exposed to smart phones, computers every day. Their parents and teachers are still from the 20th century. Without technology the teacher, the school can not meet the needs of 21st century child's development. So the idea of how we can use technology to help teachers to teach  21st century kids. 　　WCC: Chinese schools require the exam, how will students do on traditional exams? Do you have parental support? 　　Dr. Guy Trainin: In our classroom (with Du Yu as teacher) students have mastered more words, electronic production than other classrooms, their overall quality has improved significantly. Support from parents is not difficult to imagine, as long as parents to see the students really active and growing, parents will be supportive. 　　Today, young parents are more willing to accept new ways of education. If schools do nothing to change the direction, either to promote any new technology or method, students will not be ready to learn and work in the 21st century. Technology integration with our project TechEDGE has been practiced for several years in the United States, transfer to other countries with different national and cultural backgrounds, ideas differences, makes us need to find a new path to our ultimate goal and effect. Link to original story.

This week we held our annual iPads in the Classroom workshop. Laurie and I used last year's work as a foundation but added many new components. Most importantly like many other iPad academies around the nation we kept things open and let our learners guide much of the work. It is very interesting to start the week by asking everyone to set their own goals. In interesting ways we got a lot of "what do you want us to do" during the first two days. Then everyone settled into the routine and expectations and did an outstanding job learning and extending.You can take a peek at the work we all did here.The week of working with teachers has reinforced the ideas that have been guiding my work in the last year. Mobile devices are the perfect tool to enhance identity and literacy through shared story telling. We envision families recording oral histories, creating in vivo memories, and composing personally relevant texts. Using the affordance of the digital device itself and specific apps within it can create rich personal tapestries with fairly low user knowledge.We now have a chance to try it out in Nebraska and perhaps within the year in a parallel project in China. I am excited!

The lens I most often use to view motivation is Bandura's concept of self efficacy. The idea is that we are more likely to succeed when we believe we can be successful. There is quite a bit of empirical work supporting this construct. More than that self efficacy is the best motivational predictor of academic success.Recently, however, I've had read personal narratives of failure from teachers who are innovating in their classroom and school. The thing that immediately emerged is that self-efficacy cannot be the prime motivator because they actually do NOT always think they will be successful. Often they actually say "I don't know if it's going to work". In my work on democratic education I actually said "I don't even know what it looks like but I think it is important to do."So what are some ways to think about the motivation to innovate despite the high probability of failure:1. Value- while self-efficacy is important we also have to consider the value of our actions. If the value is high enough we may be able to consider failure and the potential personal fallout from it.2. Long term success- while we may not believe that we have it figured out right now we have a belief in our ability to work it out through trial and error. This is closely connected to the idea of grit or stick-with-it-ness/stick-to-it-ness recently highlighted.3. Self delusion- you can have self-efficacy that is completely unjustified. Sometimes it is better to believe that you are going to be successful despite best evidence to the contrary.4. Identity- when individuals assume the identity of an innovator (or even entrepreneur) makes self efficacy for a specific action less important than your sense of competence as an innovator. You believe not that you can do the next step but in your ability to overcome the odds and problem solve.5. A community of innovators. The knowledge that peers around you will support your efforts, share your experiences and appreciate your willingness to dare.For me it comes down to "surfer attitude" (temporary name)- this is what I am calling it now. It is the deep understanding that to gain expertise you have to fail, since you are constantly pushing the envelope without quite knowing your limits or whether you can hang on. For me it is all five previous aspects wrapped into one. It is what keeps teachers innovating despite not knowing if they will be ultimately successful.It's good to be back blogging.