Are attending conferences and tradeshows a large part of your business/job? If so, learning the nuances to get the most out of conferences can be difficult. Whether you are new to the conference scene or are an experienced participant and attendee, understanding how to effectively use your time can save you valuable resources.   Here are a few quick tips to get the most out of a conference: 1. Do Your Homework Many conferences will provide a map and layout of the conference beforehand in some sort of program. Some conferences are notorious for hosting thousands of attendees with hundreds of vendors and participants. Looking at a map ahead of time can save you precious minutes that would have otherwise been spent getting lost in the masses. If you are able to look up the companies and organizations that will be there ahead of time, you can better prepare--especially if you are looking to do business. There’s nothing worse than people asking , "So what do you do?" when you are looking for leads. Completing your homework prior to the conference frees up valuable time so that you can go conquer your conference objectives. 2. Make Yourself Memorable In a convention style conference, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the crowd. Make sure to differentiate yourself somehow. Whether it’s through unique signage, samples and swag, or even interesting activities, your company is only of value so long as people remember who you are. Also, some conferences offer special networking opportunities and luncheons outside of a booth-style arena. Make sure to take advantage of these features to better connect with other professionals.   3. Save Time to Explore After creating a game plan, penciling time to explore can be extremely beneficial. This can give you time to look at what businesses in a similar industry are doing and can also give you time to interact with prospective clients or business partners. Additionally, it’s good to take notes about what successful companies are doing at conferences. Are there characteristics you can model your business after? Saving time to explore can also give your business the opportunity to interact with other conference attendees in a lower stress situation. Plus, you never know what sorts of helpful surprises you might run into. Sometimes the best opportunities come about when they are unplanned. 4. Sponsor an Event A great way to differentiate yourself in a massive industry conference is to sponsor an activity or event. Not only does this raise awareness of your company, but it also gives you the opportunity to have your employees have more valuable face time with conference attendees outside of the conference booth setting. Whether you are an experienced conference veteran or a new attendee, making sure that you use your conference time effectively can make the experience much more enjoyable. With these tips, you can be on your way to conquering your next conference! LefttipsView the discussion thread.

We’re excited to share our brand new infographic on how most organizations invest in the wrong kind of training - it doesn’t cater to how people learn. Click on the image below to open a larger version of the infographic … The post The Social Learning Circus (Infographic) appeared first on Bloomfire.

Establishment goes alternative — from insidehighered.com by Paul Fain Excerpt: Traditional colleges have been mostly on the sidelines for the early development of online microcredentials or badges — the kind that aren’t linked to conventional courses and the credit hour. Educational technology companies and other alternative providers have taken the lead in working with employers […]

Custom eLearning development offers a wide range of advantages in the private sector, but is custom eLearning really the way to go for distributed workforces? When your employees are scattered around the globe, designing and developing an online training program can be a challenging task. In this article, I’ll share 12 of the most convincing reasons why custom eLearning is a worthwhile investment for global organizations, so that you can enrich the overall experience for your staff that is located in different parts of the world. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Can Abraham Maslow have made a mistake?  His theory of psychological health premised on fulfilling innate human needs in order of priority culminating in self-actualization, is a known fact. But given the speed of change that is currently taking place everywhere, the 3rd level of human needs based on relations will perhaps need to be […]

The 1980s was the golden age of training videos. I remember it well. It was a decade of big hair, loud colors, and shoulder-padded blazers, all of which showed up great in the low-resolution video that was fashionable at the time. Every month brought a new innovation in synthesizer technology, creating rhythms that were both The post Can 80s Training Videos Work As Microlearning? appeared first on Grovo Blog.

We have a real problem with intellectual humility in this country. Or should I say, lack thereof. It’s frowned upon to be uncertain, to lack expertise, to meet a question with another question. If we don’t know the answer to something right away, it’s viewed as a weakness rather than...The post The Power of "I Don’t Know" appeared first on InformED.

Renewable energy is generated from natural sources and sustainable replenished constantly. Different technologies are used to create energy and help a lot in improving efficiency in homes and ensure that family health is given the best. The energy reduces reliance on fossil fuels common, slows global warming, which has become a very serious problem and ...

By Tara García Mathewson, Eductaion Dive Nanodegrees from Udacity, microdegrees from Coursera, and other programs like them resemble the trade certificates or extension programs of the past, but some see these new innovations as the latest "game-changers" in higher ed. The accelerated certificate programs create their curricula with employers to offer a course that directly readies [...]

By Devon Haynie, US News Women say online learning gives them more flexibility to tackle their work and family commitments. Women may be more highly represented in online education because of the kinds of jobs they pursue, experts say. In the world of online learning, female students predominate. At the undergraduate level, 70 percent of online [...]

by Athanasios Drigas, Marios Pappas, International Journal of Online Engineering The last decade, researchers and educators have shown particular interest for the use of educational video games in mathematics education, in an effort to provide educational character to entertainment. In this paper we represent some of the most representative studies which evaluate the effects of video [...]

I created a video to help organizations fully understand the meaning of their smile sheets. You can also view this directly on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QucqCxM2qW4

In this paper, we draw on Actor-Network Theories (ANT) to explore how material components functioned to create gateways and barriers to a virtual learning network in the context of a professional development module in higher education. Students were practitioners engaged in family learning in different professional roles and contexts. The data comprised postings in the […]

This study used the technology acceptance model to explore undergraduate students’ perceptions of the virtual world of Second Life (SL) and their intention to use it to learn a chemistry concept. A total of 136 undergraduate students participated in the study by completing a learning task in SL and a self-report measure consisting of 6 […]

Fostering interaction in the online classroom is an important consideration in ensuring that students actively create their own knowledge and reach a high level of achievement in science courses. This study focuses on fostering interaction in an online introductory nutrition course offered in a public institution of higher education in Hawai‘i, USA. Interactive features included […]

There was a time, not long ago, when solar energy was science fiction. Now it is the fastest growing in the nation of renewable energy. Here’s why things will only promising for the booming industry. 1. Increased capacity Like most innovative products, the panels that convert sunlight into usable electricity took some time to catch ...

The 2015 6th International Conference on Distance Learning and Education (ICDLE 2015) will be held in Paris, France during October 12-13, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Jonathan Keane, freelance journalist, living in Ireland, covering business and technology writes, "Mexico needs new investment and competition to close its enormous digital divide" Photo: IDG Connect"Seemingly every nation wants to be known as a tech hub in one form or another. Efforts are rife throughout Central and South America but this isn’t possible without a tech-savvy population and the infrastructure to back it up. You need to be tech competent before becoming a tech hub."Mexico, one of the countries vying for a "techy" mantle, has identified the need for greater education for young children in a country where high school dropout rates are worryingly high.Digital divides are well documented. They can result in discrimination and leave certain communities in the dust when it comes to information and career opportunities. Mexico, with an internet penetration of about 43%, has lagged behind but it is now growing.Various schemes have emerged to get more people online but also to pursue technology careers.  The government-funded program Mexico Conectado [Spanish] runs initiatives to bring broadband to public areas and counts Cisco among its partners. Mexico Conectado already represents about 250,000 public spaces across the country, which mostly includes schools, hospitals, and libraries.The scheme is moving into the state of Hidalgo next, which will pose a couple of challenges where some towns and regions lack adequate electricity supply. Another investment is hoped to benefit 40,000 families in the town of Merida [in Yucatan]. Mexico Conectado also recently held a robotics contest for children between the ages of 8 and 13 in the hopes of stimulating their interest in technology. The free courses are available in most Mexican states. These efforts are intended to overall address the digital literacy gaps in Mexico and foster a tech-savvy future.How to get the internet into rural areasNarrowing such a digital divide demands a very long term view though. More than half of the population still isn’t online. A recurring theme in Latin America is the challenge of bringing the internet to remote rural areas. Naturally, urban centres with large populations attract investment from operators but it creates a staggering gap between urban dwellers and rural residents.While the majority of Mexico’s population live in urban areas, some 26 million still live in rural regions.Read more... Source: IDG Connect 

"‘Girls read more. They spend more time on homework, and usually spend less time online and playing video games. Boys think they’re too cool for school’." continues Irish Times.‘Girls read more for enjoyment than boys, PISA surveys have found, and in particular, girls read more fiction, which is associated with high performance.’’ Photograph: Getty ImagesGirls outperformed boys in 50 of 58 Leaving Cert papers across higher and ordinary level, according to a gender analysis of this year’s results. This is part of a recurring pattern - and not just in Ireland. But why is this the case?The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys 15-year-old students across 70 economies every three years to evaluate education systems worldwide. It has consistently found girls outperform boys in school. report (PDF)There are several reasons for this, according to a report (PDF) earlier this year by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Girls read more. They spend more time on homework, and usually spend less time online and playing video games. Boys think they’re too cool for school, where girls are generally highly motivated to do well. Girls read more for enjoyment than boys, PISA surveys have found, and in particular, girls read more fiction, which is associated with high performance. They also found that on average, girls will spend five and a half hours on homework a week, against boys’ four and a half hours. In Ireland specifically, girls do eight hours’ homework on average, while boys spend an hour and a quarter less. Homework, unsurprisingly, has an impact on student performance, with students who spend more time on homework achieving better results.Various studies considered by the OECD suggest the difference in attitudes towards school between the genders is strongly related to our idea of what’s masculine and what’s feminine. For many boys, an interest in school or academic achievement isn’t cool. Across OECD countries, boys were eight per cent more likely than girls to say school is a waste of time. They were also five per cent less likely to agree or strongly agree that trying hard at school is important. Read more... Source: Irish Times

Top educators have defended Australian universities' move away from requiring mathematics as a prerequisite for science, engineering and commerce degrees in which mathematical knowledge plays a key part, writes Tim Dodd for Australian Financial Review. Easing the prerequisite for maths is one way of boosting student numbers, science dean Stephen Walker says. Photo: Australian Financial Review.The chair of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, Moses Tade, who is also engineering dean at Curtin University, said universities were using "many innovative ways" to teach maths to engineering students who were not up to the necessary standard. He said his fellow engineering deans would "refute" the notion that "you can't do engineering without having done intermediate maths".  Figures released last week show that 41% of Australian universities which offer engineering do not require students to have studied intermediate maths in year 12. And, to the knowledge of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute which produced the study, no university engineering faculties require students to have studied advanced maths in year 12, even though engineering courses are highly mathematical.  Full report on the Australian Financial Review siteSource: University World News

"The new Minister of Higher Education and Science Esben Lunde Larsen is on a mission to ‘cultivate the elite’." reports Jan Petter Myklebust.  Photo: Esben Lunde LarsenIn an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende Larsen recently said that although Denmark had the most favourable student financial support system in the world, the system should be adjusted so that students could study for more hours per week during the term, and to treat elite students preferentially. "The elite have not to a sufficient degree been prioritised in our education system," he declared. "Danish students shall not be treated like a grey mass without differences in talents or ambition levels. To a larger degree we will point at the leaders who have outstanding abilities and talents and offer them specific training at a higher level than their peers." Lunde Larsen (36) was appointed to his post in the Liberal Løkke Rasmussen government in late June, removing ‘innovation’ from the portfolio of the previous Social Democratic ministry. Research and science ministers with a PhD are rare in Scandinavia. The last one who comes to mind is Gudmund Hernes in Norway (1990-95). But Lunde Larsen holds a masters degree in theology and a PhD from Copenhagen University.  A former teacher, a post-doc and a regional politician, for two years he also chaired the Board of the Danish State Educational Grant and Loan Scheme, or SU - presiding over the above-mentioned financial support system. The minister is from the so-called ‘Bible-belt’ in the Ringkøbing area, where he received 11,000 personal votes, and the media has tried to allude to him as a kind of religious fundamentalist.Read more... Source: University World News

Forums in eLearning allow learners to connect and collaborate in eLearning environments, making them an ideal addition to both asynchronous and synchronous instructional strategies. In this article, I’ll offer 7 tips that can help you integrate forums into your next eLearning course. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Where did it come from? This blind respect young people give their elders, children their parents, followers a deity. These students didn’t know me. I didn’t have a master’s degree. They hadn’t read my book. I hadn’t written one. Throughout the semester, I would see one boy grooving at a...The post Pedagogue or Peer: Addressing the Social Dynamic Between Tutor and Tutee appeared first on InformED.

Twitter has demonstrated potential to facilitate learning at the university level, and K-12 educators’ use of the microblogging service Twitter to facilitate professional development appears to be on the rise. Research on microblogging as a part of teacher education is, however, limited. This paper investigates the use of Twitter by preservice teachers (N = 20) in […]