MS Office Apps Embed - eLearning Possibilities?

Apparently this feature was rolled out about 100 days ago.  I'm just discovering it now from @trinarimmer via twitter and this article http://ht.ly/2JsAA from www.techflash.com.

So this looks interesting to me and instead of just a bunch of links I thought I'd actually try it out.  So I set up a new email@live.com and I'm in.  I create a folder and new notebook in OneNote which I remember being a pretty cool app a few years back.  Then I see that I can get all this on my mobile phone.  So, I check it out and find NOTHING for the iPhone.  Crazy! ;-)

Now I go in and create a docx.  Cool so far.  But nothing about embed.  I can't find anything.  All of a sudden I begin to remember this feeling.  The distinctive I HATE YOU MICROSOFT feeling!  Why can't you just make stuff not only WORKS, but is brain-dead simple to use?  WHY!? Is that so hard...really?

Okay.  With all of that out of my system.  I'd like to say that if one could ever figure out how to embed a microsoft office file into a blog or web site, that would be very cool.  Its another step, albeit late, but a step nonetheless towards MS being more like the rest of the internet.  

How could you benefit from embedding MSOffice docs? I'd like to hear from you.

DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

Social Media for Trainers - Its What Turns Clark Kent into Superman

In the same way that the geeks/nerds took over the world in the age of computers, educators will have their time.  And their time is coming...fast.  The best thing is that I'm not just talking about teachers and trainers, but everyone with their inner educator waiting to bust out.

Before I tell you about social media and transforming yourself from Clark Kent into Superman, lets level the playing field and understand some basics.  

First, how do small companies become big ones?  The best answer is that they figure out a way to scale up.  See Economies of scale.  The internet, specifically the NEW internet (Web2.0), ALSO supports the theory of The Long Tail.  I will not explain them here, but simply hope you have them in the back of your mind as you read on.

Schools. Ah yes.  Classroom training.  As eLearning professionals we LOVE to LOATH them.  But, at least for a while longer, they will remain as they are.  Oh heck, let's cut to the chase.  Here's the punchline.  Web2.0 and Social media give individual educators (teachers/trainers) the ability to scale up taking advantage of economies of scale while simultaneously taking advantage of the long tail.
If that's too much mumbo jumbo for you, then I'll make it easy for you.  Here is my 2-step program for turning YOU, the average Clark Kent trainer/teacher into SUPERMAN, the amazingly global superstar of your area of expertise!  

Step 1:  READ Social Media for Trainers - [Pfeiffer - AmazonUS - AmazonCA - AmazonUK- Barnes & Noble - Facebook page - twitter handle @some4trainers]

These are the tools you will need to learn.  You MUST learn to use them to your advantage.  If you're not into the superman analogy then perhaps think of all the social media tools as part of Batman's utility belt.  Its like having all the experts around the world in your back pocket.

Jane Bozarth covers all of the basic social media tools: blogs, Facebook, twitter, etc.  And she explains them in a practical easy to follow style.  Jane will get you up to speed FAST!

Be sure to meet Jane at DevLearn 2010 this year and get your copy of the book signed.  

If you just want to be the superman, or Batman, of teachers and amaze your peers with your superhuman capabilities then you're good to go.  Go forth and teach.

Step 2: Saved for another blog post - so give yourself some time to figure out Social Media and THEN we'll get together and figure out how you can cash in on your superpowers.

 DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

Podcasting = Continuous Production NOT One-off Course Production

The beauty of podcasting is NOT that you have an easy way to send ONE or TWO audio (or video) recordings of an instructor leading an in-class course or instructor-led training.  If that's all you are doing then you have NOT created a podcast.  The simple act of recording a few audio or video files and putting them on a webserver with a link for users to access...IS NOT PODCASTING!

If you understand what I just said then you may not find this post relevant to you. If reading that made you wonder a little bit about your podcasting strategy then you MUST read on.

When you are creating your strategic plan for 2011 you should stop and consider a completely new approach.  In my years of corporate training experience the "plan" was always based on how many "courses" we would create and how many we would update.  These were like little products...one-off products.   The production cycle had a very solid linear beginning, middle, and end, with all of the appropriate resources being allocated to the project.  In this case training is little more than a widget factory.  Before and during Internet1.0 that was fine...

...but the new internet changes EVERYTHING!

Instead of managing training like a factory you need to start managing the training function like a media publisher/broadcaster.  Your training department is less like Ford and more like Viacom.

Learn more about podcasting and other new media topics at DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

WWII Action LIVE via TWITTER - Uber Cool Educational Use of Twitter

Yes.  I know that there have been lots of historic figures twittering, but something about the use of authentic WWII messages being transmitted via twitter just engages me in a big way.  Why?  I don't know.  And the fact that it is the @ukwarcabinet might be part of it.  I'd like to think I'm going to "see" a very different side of war.

People ask me all the time how twitter could be used in education...oh, I don't know...this seems to be a pretty creative use to me.  Of course with all eLearning tools, your learners MUST already be there.  If you have an audience already utilizing twitter then this makes perfect sense.  It might also make sense if your goal is to combine a history lesson with a technology lesson.  This could get twitter haters to see the technology in a whole new way as well.

Its all about being creative and seeing things differently.  Stop trying to use twitter as a replacement for your chalkboard.  That won't work...if you haven't already found out.

You've got to engage with new media and just use it for a while before you can start to see creative learning solutions like this.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds.

DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

AppleTV + AirPlay = Uber Projector Enhancement

Okay, so maybe not YET!  But when AirPlay is released everything will change...AGAIN!  I know a lot of you give many presentations a year.  And you must be as frustrated as I am with the continued need for cables/adaptors and projectors.  Setting up a projector correctly is NOT easy.  If you've ever dealt with A/V staff at events you know what I mean.  Its one thing to set up a projector to look good, and another thing entirely to get a speaker's laptop connected to the projector.  Its one of those constant nagging issues that continually makes me wonder why a smart tech company can't solve this problem with a cheap device.

So, I'm trying to download and new iTunes10 and its just not happening, so I'm cruising the rest of the Apple web site checking out the newly announced products.  Not ever really interested in the AppleTV originally, I decide to take a look.  And after hearing how disappointed Leo Laporte was about it, I had low expectations.  But once I started reading the features, and continually only seeing $99 light up in my head, I started having a change of heart for how I might benefit from this in my own media consumption habits.

AirPlay lets you Stream from iPad, iPhone, iPod to AppleTV

Then I had one of those lightening bolt moments when I saw the "coming soon" blurb about AirPlay which is part of iOS4.2 being released in November. 

Okay...um...WOW! This is a game changer: $99 connects all iPads, iPhones, iPods in a room to one big HDTV.  Hello? Do I need to say that again?

For fun lets just throw Face-time into this craziness.  Yea, I know...you're thinkin' the same thing I am...WOW!  What? You're NOT?  Okay lets talk through a scenario...

Little Johnny is sitting in his class learning about fish.  Teacher Betty is rolling through some flickr picks via AppleTV on the bigscreen of her scuba diving trip.  Little Johnny remembers that Uncle Flounder is a marine biologist at Sea World.  Bored by the slideshow he sends an SMS to UF asking if he's available to show some fish to his class.  UF calls LJ back via face-time.  TB hears LJ talking and doesn't get mad...she just asks if he has found something interesting to add to the conversation (because in this classroom that's just what they do).  Now UF is face-timeing with LJ and the conversation is AirPlayed via TB's AppleTV so the entire class can watch UF talk about the sharks he is currently feeding.  The class is now engaged.

How sweet would that be I ask you?  

But wait it gets better.  Originally I was on thinking about the many ways you could use this to share your content to an AppleTV from another device.  But then I started thinking about how this might change my Instructional Design habits.  Creating and finding media to display for a class/course now has an entirely new set of options.  Teachers could whip up a quick keynote presentation with links to YouTube videos and Flickr sets on their iPad and AirPlay it too the class.  ALL IN HD!

Tell me what I ideas you have!  And be sure to catch Nick Floro (@nickfloro) talking about Media creation at DevLearn's Learning Media Studio this November in SanFrancisco.  Media is becoming far too important for you to NOT understand fully.  You MUST be knowledgable and proficient in creating media in this day and age.  Its not that hard and its really quite FUN!

 DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA