World Bank: Serious Games and Urban Planning

Check out the all-stars presenting to the Worldbank on Serious Games and Urban Planning.
UofW Madison's David Shaffer, and Scott Osterweil from MIT.
There is video of the session as well.  Its in 2 parts:  Part 1, Part 2.

DevLearn2006 - Recap

This is a post that is far overdue.  HUGE thanks to Heidi Fisk and the eLearning Guild for putting on such a great conference.  All handouts are located at the event archive.  The titles to my sessions below will take you directly to the PDF of my presentations.

Interactive 3D Simulation Training Using Macromedia Director
This is a fun session to do because I think many people still see interactive 3D as being out of reach, or "too hard".  Granted, it's not "rapid elearning".  BUT, it IS far more powerful and impactful as a learning tool.  You merely need to witness it in action, with learners, to be completely sold on it.  Microsoft was in the room and they are looking to create something in this space, so keep your eyes open for something VERY cool!

RSS:  The New Learning Pipeline
I modified my current Learning2.0 slideset to focus specifically on RSS for this presentation.  What I found interesting was that some people didn't understand the title, and others thought it was spot on.  It is simply amazing to me how the new information ecosystem is such a dynamic flow of conversations that anyone can plug into or out of  at any given time via RSS.  Hence, the pipeline analogy.  The flow of information is as critical as the actual information itself and has a huge impact on our profession.

Massively Multiplayer Online Games and Environments
This was truly an experimental session for me.  Not the content, but the execution.  I had a Dell XPS loaded up with World of Warcraft and Secondlife.  An Intel colleague in New Mexico was waiting for inworld in WoW, and Mark Oehlert gave us tour of his little virtual plot of land in Secondlife. 

e-Learning2.0:  The Next Great New Phase or Just Hype?
This was a fun session to do with my learning colleagues.  It was also great to meet Tony Karrer in person.  Our blogs connected us months ago and we've had some great, fun, discussions via the blogosphere.  I was very honored to be a part of the panel.  Greg and Simon were fabulous.  I hope we can all do it again.  Check out this post on one of the highlights of the session.

I loved Nick Bontis and Ze Frank. Here's Tony Karrer's take on Ze. They both touched on a similar theme of rapid change, technology, and user-generated content and conversations. Its what we are all struggling with and that's the chaos that I speak of regularly. Users Rip, Mix, and Feed! To the next generation consuming and creating multimedia content is as natural as dialing a phone number is to the rest of us.

I met so many people that I'm still going through the card stack and responding. Please accept my apologies if I haven't contacted you yet. On the flip side, please feel free to send me an email or leave a comment here. I've already recieved many emails from folks who are actually implementing wikis, starting blogs, and engaging with more social networks because of the conference. Its very nice to be a part of impacting change. I am looking forward to the follow up conversations next year, and hearing some successes AND failures.

Again many, many thanks to everyone at the eLearning Guild. I'm looking forward to next year!

Six Word Action Plan, or Oehlert ROCKS!

Hey Mark!  Fantastic upgrade to e-Clippings!  Love it!

Mark posted a challenge a few days ago.  Here's my contribution...

RIP, MIX, FEED! Repeat, repeat...infinity!

I'd like to offer up the elearndev wiki as a place to rollup all of the fantastic input.

Celebration

Celebration
Originally uploaded by Brent Schlenker.

In celebration of my last official Intel day I shared a Mr. Sanfrancisco with my 5 yr old.

I think I'm going to like this...a lot!

Errors with embedded Google Calendar

I discovered this evening that I should be able to get my Learning2006 Google calendar posted to my blog. But I'm having errors with it. Bummer. You can still get to the calendar HERE.
It was working fine in the preview, but alas, it does not appear...heavy sigh.

SecondLife + Moodle = SLoodle and coolness!

I loved blogging about Heart Murmur Sim in Second life back in September by Jeremy Kemp.  While snooping around the SimTeach wiki I discovered some work being done on connecting SL to Moodle.  I found at the NMC Observer that Jeremy wastes no time...that this work has been given a name...SLoodle.  AWESOME!  I just realized that today was the first inworld event...rats! I missed it.
Now that I have a little extra time on my hands, I will definitely be playing in this space...maybe now?

[pause...lose 2.5 more hours]

So, while I started writing this post, I thought maybe I should test this SLoodle thing and so I click a link from inside the SLoodle demo and bingo...I'm inworld.  But wait it gets better...
Jeremy Kabumpo....oops, I mean Kemp, SLoodle creator, is INWORLD... and he gives me a live demo of SLoodle.  Its still in its early stages, but WOW!  Incredible potential here, folks.  The seamless movement from one environment to the next is cool.  Seeing Moodle blocks represented in 3D space will blow your mind!  And the innovative teaching possibilities are endless.  My head is spinning.
I'm going to see if we can get an Inworld demo from Jeremy at Learning2006. 

Oh, and so while I'm inworld, I get IM'd by a Learning professional from the UK who had contacted me the other day via the Brandon Hall Network.  So we chatted for a while.
It truly is a much FLATTER, smaller world.  I love this stuff!

Back to School with the Class of Web2.0

Here is a great 3 part series from a new blog I discovered called SolutionWatch.
Part 1 is awesome because of the list of cool online web tools for students.  The list has some that I already know of, but MANY that are new to me.
My personal favorite is very low tech The PocketMod.  But I LOVE IT!  I really love my Treo, and my iMac, and my digital camera and my digital video camera, but as hard as I try to go paperless, I just can't make it happen.  I ALWAYS end up with paper.  So I don't fight it any more.  Instead of carrying a bulky note pad and pen in my pocket, I can customize a little booklet from one well designed 8.5x11 sheet of paper.
Much like MOO.com, this is simply beatiful design because its easy and helpful.

UofA teaches Web2.0 - GO CATS!

My alma mater, the University of Arizona to teach students to implement BitTorrent and Web2.0 in business. 

"Apparently, the interest in information technology among students has significantly decreased. The Association for Computer Machinery has reported that the number of students choosing to study computer science has dropped by an average of 32 percent over the last 4 years. IBM’s aim is to encourage more of today’s students to pursue a degree in information technology."

"The Univeristy of Arizona will in fact be the first to offer so-called
‘Web 2.0 courses’. Social networking has been a growing trend recently
and has created a new set of jobs in the tech industry. The demand for
a “community manager” is on the rise. IBM wants to prepare students to
fill this position."

This is very cool.  Huge thanks to my friend Keith Carnes over at oddev.blogspot.com.  More on Keith later.

Where at Learning2006 is Brent Schlenker?

I've created a public google calendar of the Learning2006 agenda with a general idea of where I will be if you want to track me down.

Its very basic right now, but I will be updating it as we get closer to the event. This is just another experiment, so don't be afraid to mess with it. I've never done this before so let me know if the link works or not. There is also an xml feed. So subscribe and follow me via your feedreader. How cool is that!

The NEW wiki - elearndev.pbwiki.com

What's the fastest, coolest wiki to set up and start using?   Oh, yeah the graphic is right there...pbwiki.com.
I spend a solid 30 seconds getting the elearndev wiki running without even breaking a sweat and so can you.

I will start using the Corporate eLearning Development Wiki at pbwiki as a compliment to this blog.  Feel free to help me populate it with great stuff.  Go ahead and post a link to your own blog, or just say hi!

If you are attending Learning2006, we will be looking more closely at this tool as well as others.  Let me know if you are going so we can be sure to connect face-to-face.

DevLearn2006 - Spreadin' the news about virtual life

One of my favorite moments at DevLearn2006 came during the panel discussion on e-Learning2.0. Tony Karrer led the discussion and we all had just commented on Secondlife and the future of 3D spaces just before Q&A. I'm not sure if it was the first question, but at some point there was a woman in the crowd who raised her hand and simply said, with great enthusiasm, "YOU GUYS ARE FREAKIN' ME OUT!" It was all I could do to keep from telling her about furries and the other oddities inworld.
Its a great reminder that this stuff is STILL very new to people and we need to continue getting the word out.

A time to be thankful...and to learn a little

I had the pleasure of hanging out with my 9-year-old's 4th grade class on their field trip to St. Vincent de Paul today.
What a fabulous organization!  I've been giving clothes and old furniture to them my entire life but I've never visited their main building in Phoenix.  They run an amazing logistical operation that utilizing everything that is received in way or another;  nothing goes unutilized.  For example:  Clothes that don't meet QC for resale are smashed into 1 thousand pound cubes.  The entire cube is then sold to manufactures that can use the fabric for their operation.   Everyone knows of their work with the homeless and needy, but I don't think people really understand what an incredible recycling operation they run. 

Free Agent Nation hits home

Intel Badge
Originally uploaded by Brent Schlenker.

I attended my first MASIE conference in 2000 where I experienced a significant shift in my thoughts on career and what I wanted to be "when I grow up".

I heard Tom Peters speak for the first time at that event (back then it was Techlearn) and what I heard was what I had been feeling, and known for years...no corporation will ever "take care of you". Me Inc. became my personal montra. Technology enabled the process even more when I discovered Web2.0 and I started this blog. It became very obvious to me that the internet was changing everything...again.

I've spent the last 2+ years of my life embracing web2.0 and being an evangalist for Learning2.0 and all that includes. I've installed wikis, blogged, aggregated, flickr'd, Google'd, Presented, facilitated, taught, traveled and built inworld via Secondlife, and increased my global network of Learning friends significantly via social networking tools. Experiencing and engaging with Web2.0 has been an amazing experience in many, many ways.

Leaving Intel is not hard for me. I have no regrets. (okay, maybe that I didn't leave sooner, but that's another post) Colleagues have referred to the workforce reduction as a bloodbath, and I'm sorry that it feels that way for so many. I'm looking forward to implementing new technologies, and learning strategies, and continuing to connect with the wonderful people in the learning industry.

Besides, now I have more time to blog and discover the metaverse ;-)

DevLearn2006 Starts with Nick Bontis

Some great stats from the opening keynote by Dr. Nick Bontis:  or HERE

Internet Usage 1995 4%, 1998 25%, 2006 75%
In 1997 home PCs passed TVs in units sold - Retail Week
Internet users: 30million -1999, 973million - 2006 - WTO
IP Addresses: 2 to the power of 128=? - ICANN

200 words per minute is the average reading speed of an anglo adult.  Teaching your brain to multitask increases speed of reading and comprehension: Quadrupal algorithm training module?  Can't find it on Google.  (insert personal note:  Bontis is good)

Duplication of knowledge costs companies BILLIONS.  IDC reports FORTUNE 500 wasted $12billion duplicating work.
25% of FORTUNE 500 companies have a CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer)

Sharers, NOT hoarders, required for companies to be successfull in the future.

Yikes!  I can't keep up...this is guy is AWESOME!!!  He just told the story of recruiting, hiring, attrition, exit interviews, and my favorite...LAYOFFS!  Or as my company calls it...REDEPLOYMENT.

McMaster University is where Dr. Bontis is the director of the Institute for Intellectual Capital Research Inc.

Intellectual Capital is exactly what we do in training and Dr. Bontis nails it!!!!  Read his books, or here him speak.  Web2.0 is exactly what he is talking about.  Learning2.0 is the piece that falls into our domain.  We must embrace it the automation capabilities available to us in the new world web.

ScobleShow: Joe Kraus of Jotspot and vlogging key learnings

On my flight to San Francisco I watched the ScobleShow for the first time on my iPod.  I've been keeping up with Scobleizer for about a year and so it was about time to check out what took him away from Microsoft.  For my first selection I watched the Interview with Joe Kraus of Jotspot because I'm a bug fan of wikis.

I have good news and bad news...well, not BAD news but hopefully key learnings for others getting into video blogging.
The good news is that I really enjoyed hearing about Jotspot from the CEO Joe Kraus.  So much so that I am going to give it a test run very soon.  I would recommend LISTENING to the interview.
Which brings me to the bad news, or constructive criticism.  The main thing is that this would have been a lot more effective as a podcast...sans video.

And sitting towards the back of the plane (near engines) made it very difficult to hear Robert's interview questions. 

It looks like Joe had the only microphone clipped to his shirt and Robert went without.

The key learning for me here is similar to my thoughts on giving presentations.  If you don't have a compelling image to support the point you are making then make your point without powerpoint.  Likewise with video.  If you don't have compelling images or creative editing skills then simply stick with audio.  Video makes for a HUGE file size even if it is streaming, so make it worth the wait.

Here is a short list of video bloggers that are using the medium in amazingly creative ways:
Tikibar
Geekbrief
ZeFrank's The Show
Ask a Ninja

OFF TOPIC: MOO totally gets design!

I posted a couple weeks ago about a small UK printing company taking advantage of flickr's open API called MOO. 
My little package arrived yesterday just in time for the DevLearn2006 conference. 

They arrived in the coolest little packaging:  Plastic instead of the usual cardboard.
They even included a little return label in case there is anything wrong with the order.  Mine look great so I won't be needing that, but what great touch of customer service.
 
I had an idea for an image as soon as I discovered MOO and it turned out pretty good...at least I think so.  I had looked at the interface before starting on the image and so I knew that the image would be cropped a little from its original format.  This worked out okay for me.  Here's the original image...

Simplicity, Clarity, Grace, Beauty  - MOO nails them all.  From there amazing interface, which starts the experience, right up until you get to hold that cool little box.
MOO definitely gets my "Amazing Design" award.  Not that it means anything coming from me, but I just love this kind of buying experience.  I would buy more stuff from more people online if only they could figure out what MOO has figured out.  I didn't know that I even needed these little guys until I was introduced to them.  Now I'll never buy 1000 business cards ever again.  I'll just make up some custom miniMOOs from my flickr account for each event. 
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I don't think I even did the experience the way it was intended.  You can actually use as many of your flickr images as you want and they will divide them amongst the hundred evenly:  So you can create a flickr folder of 10 images and buy the 100 pack with 10 cards of each picture...I love that.  I'll use more pictures next time.
I

Online Gamers two-thirds Female - huh?

Here is some excellent data on gamers.  This post summarizes Nielsen's 3rd annual "Active Gamer Benchmark" study.
What conclusions can the learning community draw from this data?

World of Warcraft is good for learning

I've recently been introduced to Terra Nova.  These are most definitely the smartest people around working with Games and Learning.  If you are at all interested in the learning potential of online gaming then you will most definitely get lost for hours as I have done in the past.

This post titled Are Virtual worlds Good for the Soul? is an awesome anecdotal account of a Behavior Intervention Specialist utilizing the MMO World of Warcraft as a therapeutic tool for his challenged kids.

How People Learn in Secondlife

I'm sorry to have missed this presentation.  I posted about but wasn't able to attend.  thankfully the NMC Campus Observer reported on John Bransford Gives Talk in SL.

Here is some great links to get caught up if you missed it as well.

"For a full transcript of Dr. Bransford’s talk be sure to visit the simteach wiki.  The presentation included a video of the research that is being conducted by LIFE – it can be access at the LIFE blog.  If you are interested in joining a community dedicated to building upon each other’s work and experiences be sure to attend one the NMC Teacher Buzz sessions – we would love to have you!"

The folks that participate in the NMC Teacher Buzz are great people.  I highly recommend getting connected in this space.

Games in Education video

Games in Education video created by Mark Wagner and Michael Guerena of the Orange County (CA) Department of Education's Educational Technology group. They have given permission to post.

FOR SALE: Learning2.0 system - NUVVO

The founders of Nuvvo have called it quits.  See details here.
Techcrunch talks more about it here. 
On a personal note, I believe very strongly in what all of the Web2.0 Learning companies are trying to do.  However, everything about "the new web" is about Learning.  And while I applaud every effort in this space I'm not sure how to monetize the learning function in the commercial market.  I don't have any idea. 

Google is held up as the single greatest learning tool that ever existed (here).  Wikipedia is a wealth of knowledge...good, and accurate knowledge despite what the reports say.  Open Source wikis and blogs are becoming internal goldmines of information...especially since they are on servers in a format that internal search systems can crawl and index. 

Of course, I'm speaking from experience inside a giant corporation, and many of the web2.0 learning apps are focused on supporting small and medium sized companies.  So perhaps there is a market, and perhaps there is a business model that works.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the guys that are still out there fighting the good fight.

Learning as Art - continued discussion

I like Mark's current line of thinking and so I'm going to follow along for the ride.  Understanding Comics should be required reading at ALL educational institutions.  Don't forget the theory put forth by Dan Pink in A Whole New Mind:  Right-Brainers will Rule the Future.  If you want your little Johnny or Jenny to be successful in the years ahead, you better start exercising that hemisphere of your brain deemed unnecessary by our educational systems.  But I digress...
Mark points to Garr Reynolds who is one of my favorites.   I love the comparison of the 2 slides.  One thing I've tried to start doing for my presentations these days is this:

1. Use powerpoint the way everyone does with the bullet templates
2. Then I go back and find/create an image that best illustrates EACH bullet point.

Of course that significantly increases the number of slides and size of the file, but it makes for a much more enjoyable presentation.  You also don't stay on any one slide for very long and so you are forced to keep things moving along.  Check out the Best Presentations Ever over at Squidoo. A must see is Dick Hardt and Identity2.0.

The amplification through simplification process is HIGHLY effective for presentations.  So, why wouldn't it be helpful if we "simplify" our training modules/objectives/pages/items? 

Design is EVERYTHING and it will continue to be that way on into the future.

Should All Learning Professionals be Blogging?

This question comes from the LearningCircuits blog. 

My answer:  NO!  However, I believe all learning professionals should be participating in some way.  Maybe you are more comfortable contributing to a wiki.  Or perhaps you enjoy collaborating inworld via SecondLife.  Maybe you like flickr and post pictures from your classroom, or a conference you attended. 
There are so many ways to be a part of the conversation and engage in this community of practice.  While blogging may not be your thing, you should consider the many, many alternative options.
If for no other reason than your job is changing, and you might want to be engaged in the process of what your new job will include.

Learning as Art - the dream, the reality

Mark Oehlert is going through a metamorphasis, "noodling out" the idea of Learning as Art in his head and on his blog.  Mark does some excellent noodling in his post on the topic.  He's goes deep and so I can't comment on it all, but I highly recommend reading his post and thinking about it.
I ranted about Design in general being more important than instructional design last year and I'm still on that kick.  But what I think Mark is talking about goes much deeper.  Its closer to our experience in the NETg tour the other day.  In Mark's words...

"...the person from NETg was showing how they had created all these audio tracks and this whole room with comfy chairs for your avatar and you sat in the chair and clicked on the ball to hear the audio. Then we started having this discussion about what good is this? Is it better than a podcast or even a transcript? The typical kind of ROI discussion - and that is when I really started to think that maybe the value is just in doing it - that right now, it isn't any better but the fact that we can do it leads to the idea that maybe we have to do it in order to get to that next step."

This really got me thinking about all of the stories I've read about successful entrepreneurs "breaking the rules" and creating something so cool that everyone had to have one, do it, or be like them.   The iPod comes to mind.   Some times there is no immediate ROI, just a gut feeling.  After all, I still have a hard time understanding how we lived and communicated before email...then IM...and soon MUVEs (multi user virtual environments).  I believe the day will come that we will wonder how we ever lived without the "metaverse".  But I digress...let's get back to learning as art.

Creative professionals have struggled, probably for centuries, to explain their ideas to the non-creative masses.  Advertisers and Marketing professionals are the first that come to mind.  Here is a GREAT post from Jason Kottke on How Design Works.  He points to and quotes another designer Michael Bierut on his design process.  Jason sums it up at the end like this...

"a designer gets the job done in any way she can and then figures out how to sell it to the client, typically by coming up with an effective (and hopefully at least partially truthful) backstory that's crammed into a 5-step iterative process, charts of which are ubiquitous in design firm pitches."

If you've been "designing" training solutions for a while you understand this.  Most of what you/we do is "magic" to other people.  We just sort of intuitively know what's going to work and what tools to use to get the job done.  So, after we've talked with all the SMEs and reviewed some documents, a solution just shows itself and it feels right.  So then we go back and figure out how to fit in Gagne, the ADDIE model, and all of the latest buzz words to "sell" the idea or solution.

What I wouldn't give for a client to just say...

"yea!  an island in Secondlife sounds cool...oh yea and I really like those audio balls...nice touch...video too? Sure go for it.  I especially like the fact that nobody knows that it will work and that you aren't blowin' any smoke up my back side.  Let's give it a go and see what happens".

...and then I came to my senses and realized that what everyone is comfortable with, and willing to pay for, is a powerpoint presentation converted to Flash plugged into a multi million dollar LMS.  Where's the art in that?

One step closer to a SecondLife modeling tool

I just recently started a folder in my feedreader for MUVEs (Multi User Virtual Environments).  While quickly scanning a few of the first subscriptions I noticed a post about a Sketchup-to-Secondlife conversion tool.  Could it be true?  I saved it to my de.licio.us account for later viewing.  Then, wouldn't you know it, the creator of the tool Roo Reynolds leaves a comment on my blog today about the tool I just discovered via the blogosphere...
Sometimes this whole blogospheric-connecting things is just too freaky. 
Freaky cool, not freaky bad :)

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