Standards play an important role in all aspects of our lives. Everything we take for granted - from standard light bulbs and batteries to the width of roads - could be significantly disrupted without the uniformity produced by consensus around a standard. Interoperability is an Educational Imperative Educational systems are accelerating their transition to the... Read More ›

Yesterday TED-Ed launched a new, international classroom based program - TED-Ed Clubs - to promote media and presentation literacy among students. To promote presentation skills is good, and TED is a good platform to spread words. But do students really need a setting created by adults because adults think kids can’t voice their thoughts and even... Read More ›

The paper on "mobile learning through indigenous languages: learning through a constructivist approach"(Creative Commons BY 3.0 licence) written by Mmaki Jantjies and Mike Joy reports on a case study in a South African high school that evaluated the potential use of mobile learning to support bilingual learners using a constructivist learning approach. With their research they provide... Read More ›

To ensure high-quality alignment of digital K-12 education resources to state-adopted academic content standards, SETDA had launched a project in June 2012 ("Granular Identifiers and Metadata for the Common Core State Standards" or GIM-CCSS). Given that the technical work in designing an approach to digitally encode the CCSS remains of interest to state and district education leaders,... Read More ›

Just like Sheryl Abshire(Chief Technology Officer of Calcasieu Parish Public Schools, LA) pointed out : Districts already have more data than they can manage, and the new assessments and teacher evaluations for 2014 promise to add more to the overflowing pile of numbers. District leaders are overwhelmed right now because they face many changes in 2014,... Read More ›

To date, a lack of accepted data standards has limited states’ and districts’ abilities to use the most innovative assessment systems. As they develop next-generation assessment systems, states in the Race to the Top Assessment consortia and General Supervision Enhancement Grant consortia need to establish such standards to facilitate item and data transfer across systems... Read More ›

As mobile learning and massive open online courses (MOOCs) become the latest global reality. What are the similar characteristics of both? How can they bring an impact to each other? Inge Ignatia De Ward has done an interesting research on the impact of mobile access on learner interactions in a MOOC. She has ever organized MobiMOOC course -... Read More ›

A purple monster with wild curls spiraling out of control explains the economics of oil production in the Sudan to students in Los Angeles, Sydney, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Riyadh. That is education and animation working together to teach students everywhere, everything they ever wanted to know. Educators need only utilize the tools available, most of... Read More ›

This is a research document about transmedia storytelling, made by students of the Utrecht School of the Arts in assignment for the theatre company Tryater. Along with our own work, we’ve also examined transmedial work made by others, in order to get a better view on what has already been done in this line of... Read More ›

Mission statements for all educators: - Common Core State Standards ask that every teacher plays a role in students’ writing development, whether you teach Literature, Math, Science or Social Studies. - The Standards for the English Language Arts requests to get kids to engage with what they’re reading on a deeper level: to ask questions... Read More ›

The latest SVC2UK White Paper, "The Future of E-ducation", has been written in collaboration with  Gold Mercury International, the Corporate Vision® Strategy Think Tank.  The Paper draws on many of the case studies from  SVC2UK  2013 and explores what the future is likely to look like for teachers and students. This report looks at the... Read More ›

Clarissa is a 17-year-old aspiring screenwriter, growing up in a working-class household in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her passion is fantasy fiction. When friends introduced her to an online role-playing site that involved writing fiction interactively, she jumped at the chance to connect with others who shared her interest. Online, she found a community of like-minded peers who... Read More ›

In keeping up with the rapid growth in mobile usage worldwide, the World Bank just relaunched the Open Knowledge Repository (OKR)—its open access portal to its publications and research—on an upgraded platform specifically optimized for mobile use. STORY HIGHLIGHTS The World Bank optimizes its publications and research website for mobile phones. Nearly half of all users... Read More ›

Published on Open Education Europa, a paper presents an example of a Social Learning Analytics Tool to visualize real-time discussion activities in a MOOC environment. Practitioners and researchers can read how to implement and use such a SLA tool as a plugin in practice. We will learn how a collaboration between a teacher (Susan Voogd), a SLA... Read More ›

With this 1 million euros EU Support Action, focussing on adult learners and the design, testing and validation of a new innovation working method for TEL, the concept map of Learning Theory(with linked explanation for each theory) was built by Richard Millwood.(his blog: The Design of Learner-centred, Technology-enhanced Education, licensed under CC BY-SA) About HOTEL Many studies on the role of... Read More ›

White paper title: Beyond MOOCs: Sustainable Online Learning in Institutions (licensed under CC BY) Authors: Li Yuan, Stephen Powell and Bill Olivier The key opportunity for institutions is to take the concepts developed by the MOOC experiment to date and use them to improve the quality of their face-to-face and online provision, and to open... Read More ›

Mobile Learning Week (MLW) is the flagship UNESCO conference on mobile technologies and education.  Held annually, this event assembles a diverse group of stakeholders to share how affordable and widespread mobile technologies can advance Education for All goals. The theme of MLW 2014 is teachers Teachers are the pillars of education systems and their involvement... Read More ›

Ever since the beginning of the Internet age, all things and processes can be digitized and hence exchanged through the Internet are only getting more decentralized and democratized. This trend includes learner-centered learning, and that a learner can involve in plotting his/her own learning story, personalized his/her own learning journey. Can you tell the significance of... Read More ›

Before her school implemented the AcrossX solution, Ms. Lin used several software tools and content resources in her teaching practices, and it was a big pain to put together the workflow and data locked within different applications. AcrossX Solution Enabled by xAPI AcrossX solution solves this problem for her. Here is a top view of integrated... Read More ›

Whenever a new communication medium arrives, people first tend to use it just like how they used existing media. For instance, many early television shows were simply radio broadcasts filmed on video, early digital textbooks were simply scanned versions of paper books, and the first online educational videos were videotaped in-person lectures. As time progresses,... Read More ›

[Post by Greg Gammie, Implementations Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] The Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network is sharing solutions from its annual conference in a free webinar tomorrow: July 21 at 12:30 PM ET / 9:30 AM PT. The 44th LTEN Annual Conference, held in June 2015 in Phoenix, was a successful gathering of life sciences training and education professionals, sharing, learning and networking together. Unfortunately, however, not every LTEN member was able to attend the annual event, and not every attendee was able to attend every session. Join LTEN for this webinar to get a flavor of the 44th LTEN Annual Conference. A panel of presenters will share key takeaways from some of the most successful conference workshops and discussions. Register today for this free, LTEN webinar. No need to be a member. Register now at LTEN webinar.

[Post by Arden Rose, Account Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] Since 1991, the Optimas Awards have been a source of ideas, direction and inspiration for human resources professionals. The Optimas Awards celebrate HR’s success at solving some of the biggest business challenges of our time. Each year, the Optimas Awards are given by Workforce magazine to recognize human resources and workforce management initiatives that achieve business results for the organization. The Optimas Awards include more than 21 organization recognition awards across a range of categories, recognizing workforce management initiatives at organizations worldwide. They include the following. General Excellence: Our top award, while not open to general nominations, will be selected by judges and given to the organization whose workforce management initiatives have met the standards established for at least six of the other nine categories. Benefits: This award recognizes organizations that designed, developed or implemented innovative benefit programs that achieved organizational goals. Business Impact: This award recognizes organizations that have developed a program to deliver significant financial impact or forge or maintain a winning edge over the organization’s competition. Corporate Citizenship: This award recognizes organizations whose corporate citizenship programs are demonstrably and successfully linked to its employee recruiting, retention and engagement goals. Global Outlook: This award recognizes organizations that have created a program or strategy to help the organization succeed in the world marketplace. Innovation: This award recognizes organizations that have developed an innovative workforce management strategy that addresses a fundamental business issue. Managing Change: This award recognizes organizations that have demonstrated adaptability and agility in successfully developing a program in response to the changing business environment. Partnership: This award recognizes organizations that have developed or implemented a program in partnership with another constituency, either within the organization or outside of it. Recruiting: This award recognizes organizations that developed and implemented an innovative and effective recruitment initiative that helped the organization source, attract and recruit job candidates. Training: This award recognizes organizations that developed a targeted training program that addressed a significant corporate priority and delivered measurable results. Vision: This award recognizes organizations that anticipated internal or external trends and responded creatively, effectively and proactively. The 2015 nomination period is now open! Submit your nomination by 11:59 p.m CST on Monday, August 10. For more information and to access the nomination form visit: Optimas Awards

[Post by Greg Gammie, Implementations Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] The eLearning Guild is all about sharing knowledge and decided that the learning in Austin at mLearnCon and Performance Support Symposium 2015 last month was too good not to share. The organization has just added 22 videos of the most popular session presentations from mLearnCon Conference & Expo and the Performance Support Symposium to the Conference Archive. To access the videos, simply create a complimentary eLearning Guild Associate account today and start your learning with concurrent session videos, including: Designing eLearning User Interfaces for Mobile Delivery with Tim Slade Using Workflow Performance Support to Replace or Enhance Traditional Training with Kristi Nokken Comparing mLearning Development Tools with Joe Ganci Getting the Most Out of User Experience in Mobile Learning with Scott McCormick Performance Support in Action: Getting Past the Theory with Carol Leaman Plus 17 more… To watch now, get a complimentary membership at: eLearning Guild If you are a full member, you have access to all keynote presentations in the conference archive. For more information visit: eLearning Guild

[Post by Greg Gammie, Implementation Services Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] As with any project, success rests on the people involved. Team-building is one of the keys to managing any software implementation project, as are communications and coordination of resources to efficiently utilize time, skills and effort. A balanced and complementary skill mix in the project team with sensitivity and knowledge of the customer environment and processes will help ensure success. The project team must be responsive to the changing business requirements and have strong communication, analytical and problem-solving skills. The customer project manager must establish a project plan with input from the vendor, implementation specialists and the rest of the customer organization. Following are the team members that we recommend for the implementation of our learning and talent management software. Of course, each project is different so your project may require more, fewer or different resources that those listed here, but this is a good starting point for understanding the roles and responsibilities involved in a successful implementation. Customer Project Team Project Sponsor It is important to the success of a corporate software implementation to assign a "champion" or project sponsor. The project sponsor is the individual (or group representative) who has requested the project. Responsibilities include: Initiating and monitoring the project Establishing project parameters Committing resources including budget Appointing the project manager Developing or overseeing development of the project plan Ensuring impediments are identified and resolved quickly Controlling costs Project Manager/Team Leader The project manager will be responsible for day-to-day contact with members of both the GeoMetrix implementation team and the customer implementation team at each project stage. Responsibilities include: Communicating with GeoMetrix on the day-to-day activities of the project Coordinating customer resources to the project Building a project team and managing project personnel Formulating actions for the project plan Assigning tasks to customer project team members System Administrator The customer should identify a system administrator (SA) responsible for the overall set up and technical administration of the system. The SA role covers two distinct areas and may, on some projects, be split between two individuals. At an application level, the SA is responsible for controlling the configuration of the system and ensuring consistency of implementation across the modules. The second role of the SA covers the more technical aspects of setting up user profiles, data site management, network security, etc. In some circumstances, the IT department may carry out this role; however, all these activities are configured through the software and can be performed by a SA user. Business Units/SMEs At different stages of the project, it will be likely that Subject Matter Experts from different areas of the organization will need to participate in the project. These team members will provide information on business rules and standard operating procedures used within the organization that must be translated into the software system, either through configuration or custom development. Information Technology IT resources may be needed for various technical responsibilities that the customer must carry out. Suitable staff should be available to the project at various times during the implementation and afterwards to carry out periodic upgrades. For an installed solution, GeoMetrix can assist with installation and configuration and provide training. For a hosted solution, the host is responsible for installing and configuring the system, but the customer must consult throughout this process. Vendor Project Team Implementation Services Manager The Implementation Services Manager’s principal role is to act as the project liaison and to understand and interpret the customer’s requirements and accommodate these by recommending a viable approach. Responsibilities include: Acting as initial post-sale contact Working with customer to establish a project plan Assigning and overseeing GeoMetrix implementation resources Monitoring and overseeing all activities Resolution of high-level issues Implementation Coordinator Implementation coordinators are specialists in the analysis, design and implementation of our software. They combine a solid understanding of learning/training environments with expertise in learning and performance management systems incorporating accounting, reporting, accessibility and adaptability. Responsibilities include: Communicating with the customer Project Manager/Team Leader Coordinating the tasks to be completed by our implementation team Developing Statements of Work for requested customization of reports or macros and add-ons as required Scheduling work and ensuring completion of deliverables Dealing with day-to-day issues as they come up Trainer GeoMetrix trainers offer comprehensive instructor-led training for both end-users and system administrators. Responsibilities include: Consulting with customer team members to determine training requirements Developing a training scheduling Arranging for necessary training materials Delivering training Development Resources/Specialists Software development resources or specialist consultants can advise on the set up and development of procedures and the integration of business rules into the system. GeoMetrix specialists can also work with the customer organization to tailor the application to departmental workflows and business rules. This may include setting up automatic email notifications, designing specific user interfaces or integrating with ERP, financial, HR or other third party systems. Technical Support Technical Support personnel assist with ongoing operational issues. The technical support department handles the continuing needs of customers and deals with specific support incidents as they arise. Technical support personnel have expertise in all areas of hardware and software support related to your system. Be aware that planning is an on-going process. Changing requirements must be effectively and efficiently managed. Effective communications are essential in the success of any project.