TLDCast - Stella Lee Talks About Aging Workforce

Special Guest Stella Lee Talks About Issues Facing Learning and Development Professionals

I'm really looking forward to today's #TLDCast with Stella Lee.

She is going to help us answer these big questions:

• How do we support the aging workforce? 
• How do they prefer to learn? 
• How can we leverage data to improve learning and performance support? Is big data the answer? 
• What is the role of the L&D department for employees in preparing the future of learning (e.g. AI/machine learning/automation replacing workers, jobs being obsolete, etc.)?

Live Streaming Daily Conversations for Corporate Training,  Learning and Development Professionals

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My Weekly Review - eLearning Tools, Iterative Development, Pedagogy, and more

I started the Week in Review posts on July 11th...yea...I've missed a few weeks...Sorry.

Here is my review for this week August 4-8.

eLearning Content Creation tools

Okay, so they aren't specifically tools just for eLearning. They are general content creation tools, but WOW! They are pretty darn cool! I suppose we have HTML5 to thank for giving browsers the ability to do this kind of content editing. Check out my posts at the Litmos blog to get my reaction to Adobe's Voice App for iPad, and 2 browser based tools: Canva.com and Placeit.net.

Iterative eLearning Development

My Litmos blog posts on tools distracted me from my series on iterative elearning development. But I will be getting back to it. Honestly, I was beginning to think that my thoughts on 21st Century Corporate Training Development were perhaps a little too radical...perhaps before its time. But then this morning I saw a post on G+ from my UK eLearning friend, Clive Shepherd. His post is "Why eLearning Should be in Perpetual Beta". He is such a great writer, and has SO much industry experience that perhaps you will better understand the process I'm attempting to define by reading his posts on the topic as well. Here's a small piece...

"I once asked the CEO of a major e-learning company how much of their work was maintenance of existing content, thinking that this would be a substantial revenue earner. I was surprised to find that hardly anyone maintains their content. They just wait four or five years for the content to become obsolete, then they start all over again."

I believe, no matter what we call it, corporate training development and support as an ongoing service is where 21st century learning development is headed. The days of a 1-off product launch are numbered:  Still necessary in some situations, but not the norm.

My Hangups with Pedagogy

I published a post recently titled Mobile Learning - No Pedagogy Required! It sparked quite a conversation which I enjoyed immensely. I like to think out loud...publicly if necessary. Go to the post and catch up on the comments if you would like to engage.  But as a review I wanted to comment on the conversation.  Everyone was kind and rational in stating their views, thoughts, and opinions. Even the disagreements were cordial and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who spent so much time on thoughtful responses.  

Seeking clarity and understanding is not always easy. Asking questions on the internet often leads to putting people on the defensive and the conversations spiral downward out of control. But conversations like this remind me why I love the social nature of the internet.

Random Stuff...

The Litmos team has started weekly webinars focused on different aspects of LitmosLMS. This week's webinar tutorial was a big success! If you're a Litmos user be sure to put it on your calendar...or watch the recordings. Madeline (@mghonig) Does a fantastic job!

#lrnchat was fun this week. I was distracted by...SQUIRREL...#dadchat though. Lots of fun with those folks as well. But the best part was finding this...Thanks daddydazed.com.

And with that I'll leave you to your weekend! Cheers!

Learning Solutions 2013 - Virtual Attendance

Despite a hectic week at work, I was able to participate virtualy in the eLearning Guild's Learning Solutions Conference this week. Their new app is amazing with functions similar to what I'm already used to in other mobile social apps.  I think this is the first eLearning Guild event that I've not attended in 6 years.  It was a very strange feeling NOT being there.  But I got a first hand look at what it's like to be a virtual attendee.  It was a good experience, but for those who say the face-to-face conference is dead, I MUST insist you are wrong.

There is nothing like connecting with people in person and technology will NEVER make that go away.  Technology can enhance our lives but never take away our need for connecting with others in real life.  I don't want to have this argument with anyone, so don't even start.  I've had enough experiences in my life now to just know this is true.  Inevitably this may be why MOOCs will someday require connecting with local attendees in smaller groups, but I digress...

Hashcaster was a great resource for tracking images, videos, and other event content however, I kept wishing more attendees would post more media using the #LSCon hashtag so that more content was there.  I think creating digital content is still not as common an activitiy as we might think...or wish. Yes, many of you are comfortable with it and create/share content readily, but I'm just saying that it's not the widespread practice that we think it is.

Despite wanting more content as a virtual participant, I do know that those on site had WAY MORE content than they ever thought possible.  The eLearning Guild has mastered the art of the conference and is always innovating and improving the experience for attendees, speakers, vendors, and virtual attendees. 

Recruiting the master of the conference backchannel David Kelly was a brilliant idea.  He is a passionate elearning professional with many years of experience in the trenchs of "real world" learning solutions.  And if you haven't heard, they also have Reubenn Tozman and Kevin Thorn chairing the 2 main Guild events.  Awesome!  I'm REALLY looking forward to attending events again very soon.  I probably won't make it too mLearnCon but I'm hoping for DevLearn 2013.

I'm still looking forward to reviewing the rest of the content that I missed. I know there is a lot in the form of handouts, twitter stream, etc. Being a virtual attendee was fun but I would prefer to be there. I hope to see y'all soon...in person.


 

2013 Reality - NOT Predictions!

Performance = Our Goal

Learning = Process

Training = Event

 

This is not a new concept.  This is not new to 2013.  But this SHOULD be the way you approach everything you do from now on if you already don't. 

 

Let me point out some of the obvious parts of this stack...

 

1. TRAINING is at the BOTTOM!

2. Impacting the performance of your companies employees is your ONLY goal. Relentlessly focus on measuring this!

3. LEARNING is not something you create. It is not something you do once.  True learning takes time...and lots of it. 

4. Predictions are bullshit! Go make the future happen!



It's DEVLEARN Week!!! Embracing Technologies for Training and Development

 

It's monday and it's DEVLEARN week! I'm probably looking forward to this DevLearn more than any other.  Of course, it's bitter sweet since it will be my last as the program manager for the event. 
I'll be posting more on that later.

DevLearn 2012 is about Embracing Technologies for Training & Development.  Part of that also includes the fact that Technology is embracing US! The Training & Develpment industry has no choice but to change and adapt with emergence of such wonderful technologies like the iPad (and now the mini iPad), the cloud, better and smaller cameras, and video cameras, and the list goes on.

With such a massive wave of technology hitting us all, it's ALSO important that we do not forget the human elements of training and development.  It's very easy to get excited about new technologies and to see the many educational uses they provide.  And for a high tech conference like DevLearn you'd think we would fall into that trap as well.  But as the pendulum begins to swing too far towards the technology side of learning, I begin to see our responsibility as one of bringing it back to center by talking ALSO remembering the human side of learning. 

My hope for DevLearn 2012 is that we can begin to bring the communities of instructor-led learning and the communities of tech-based learning together and bridge the gap.  There is no one right answer.  We are all in this business for the same reasons.  Let's enjoy this week and celebrate the unique human elements we all bring to Training & Development.
 

Students Are Smarter Than Your Old eLearning Design

Want to know what regular people think of eLearning? A simple, and regular, search of the term "eLearning" on Twitter reveals an overwhelming portion of NEGATIVE tweets about eLearning experiences.  And even worse, they expose the uselessness of the methods being used to assess the learning that is assumed to have occurred during these digital experiences.  Quite frankly, it's embarrassing.  Check out how "MintToppings" passed her "eLearning" quiz.

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We could look at this with a positive spin and applaud miss MintToppings for her higher order thinking skills and technical ability to game the system in the manner she that she did.  Or we could open our eyes to the fact that we still have a lot of work to do.  WE, as an industry, need to step up our game.

If you have a next button with slide after slide of content followed by a multiple choice quiz at the end, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!  Find out how to do it right from those who are paving the way towards the future of learning experiences.  Some of these folks are your peers, but others come from very different industries and they don't have degrees in instructional design. They come with experience in film, gaming, engineering, theater, psychology, anthropology (HT @moehlert), design, and just about every other creative industry you can think of.  The technologies of today and tomorrow, combined with their desire to teach their craft trumps your ID degree.

Anyone with a desire to learn deserves better than a next button and a multiple choice quiz.  I'm certain miss MintToppings would agree.

DevLearn 2012 Conference and Expo - ARIA Resort, Las Vegas, NV - Oct.31st-Nov.2nd

Mobile Learning's First Thing

There are many many great blog posts reviewing mLearnCon last week. Several mind maps, videos, and other media as well. So I don't feel the need to do a high level recap. Instead, I'd like to take another look at one of the questions asked of the closing panel.

(BTW, I'm tapping this out on my iphone using the blogger app because I'm trying to take advantage of mobile content creation capabilities.)

I don't remember the exact question but basically someone wanted to know about the "first thing" you should do to get started with mobile learning. I think it's a great question and I think it deserves more than a couple 30 second responses. I think it's important because "where do I start" is a question asked of any new model, modality, technique, or technology. And while I liked the answers that were given by the panel, I think they require more analysis. Or more to the point, i think the answers only raised more questions...at least for me.

"You must first understand if mobile learning is even an appropriate solution before you decide what the first step will be."

I agree with the statement, but would then argue that seeking understanding IS the first step. But nobody really knows how to make that decision, and gain that understanding.

Similarly, how can an organization define what mobile learning is, or will be, in their environment without first trying out some mobile learning?

My question to all authors, thought leaders, and gurus, in mobile learning is this...

"What does an organization actually look like that is ready for mobile learning?"

I ask this question because if we are to start with discovering if our organizations are ready for it, then I want to know what that state looks like.

If this state of an organization is even definable, then I'd like to compare that to the companies that have implemented mobile learning to validate if they were, in fact, "ready" to take that first step and do that "first thing"...whatever that first thing may be.

So, I ask you to comment here and let's extend this conversation. Hopefully we can nail this down and then share it back into the community.
Ready? Go!!!

(UPDATE 6/25: I made some edits to the spacing, and moved the image to the top. The iPhone blogger app did not allow for this type of editing.) 

Cell Phone is 5th Most Ubiquitous Possession

I was trolling through G+ (I know, I know, who actually hangs out there, right?) and saw this post from noted Futurist and Senior Maverick at WIRED Magazine, Kevin Kelly. In the first paragraph he writes this...

The most ubiquitous technological possession on earth is the steel blade. Second is the cotton T-shirt. Nearly every forest person will have at least these two. Next is an aluminum pot and then a plastic bottle. After that it is a cell phone. Even the most remote farmer or lowliest street sweeper will pay for a cheap phone. These are not the most profound technologies - they would be television and antibiotics -- but the most common among humans.

I was a little stunned that the cell phone beat out pants, but maybe having pants puts me into another minority group.

I do trust Kevin Kelly's data and I assume this data is probably explained more deeply in his latest book, What Technology Wants! 


But even if the cell phone only hit the top ten, or top twenty even, that would still be a remarkable thing.  And something we as training and development professionals should not take lightly.  Yes, we are annoyed by walking and texting pedestrians, and scared by driving and texting teenagers, and struggling to adjust the social norms around these devices.  But one thing is certain, and that is your learners have cell phones, period! Embrace this knowledge and use them to your advantage.  Resistance is futile!

Make the best of this situation and commit to learning about how cell phones will work in your school, or corporate enterprise.  And learn how people are using them.  Use-cases matter...maybe even more than the technology.

Get all the information you need about mobile devices and learning at mLearnCon.  It's your future! Don't be left behind.

Have We Lost the S...in ISD? What Should Workforce Learning Graduates Hear from You?

Allison Rossett posted a fabulous fake commencement address 2 days ago.  I loved it.  She nails a point I'd like to emphasize here.  The work we do at one level is extremely focused on the micro solutions we call courses, but more than ever we need to be thinking about, and designing, systems.  And I'm not talking about Learning Management Systems.  Just reading her post made me realize that so much of our industry is focused on the ID, Instructional Design. And back when I first started in this business it was mostly referred to as ISD, Instructional SYSTEMS Design.

I'm not sure what happened to the focus on systems but it seems to have faded. According to Wikipedia the terms are synonymous.  From a purely academic perspective I might agree.  But from many years of observing our industry as a whole I'm not so sure. I see two very different practices emerging within our industry: 1) The Instructional Design of Courses, and 2) The Instructional Systems Design of Enterprise Solutions.

The Instructional Design of Courses
For the most part, this is the work of creating the final product. The instructional design required here helps developers work with SMEs, understand the content, create the media, and design the flow in which the content is presented, as well as creating some form of assessment.  Much of this work is seen as requiring one technology for the solution.  You might choose to design a classroom experience, or you may design a fully interactive immersive simulation.  But no matter what tool you choose, for a certain period of time your sole focus is on creating that solution and implementing it successfully. You may also need to make sure it conform with a larger system design that is part of your enterprise and that is where ISD comes in.

The Instructional Systems Design of Enterprise Solutions
Mostly defined as the strategy and management issues of training and development, there is a certain level of Instructional Design that seems to have been lost at this level.  My feeling is that those with the power and authority, and responsibility, to implement enterprise systems solutions do not take instructional systems design into consideration.  After all, "I have instructional designers that do that".  I believe it's a rare manager today that thinks about instructional systems design during the many times that decisions need to be made.  It's far easier for me to see a manager interested in buying an LMS because legal, IT, or HR asked them if training was being tracked or "managed" in some way. Legal needs the information to fend of legal action. IT needs to know because their enterprise vendor has one that could be thrown into the deal. HR needs to know because of compliance, new hire training, and employee development.

So, is there a difference between Instructional Design and Instructional Systems Design? Should they be two different roles within the training team? What does this mean in the corporate world vs. higher ed?

I don't know the answer, but I know what I see and hear from so many colleagues managing training departments, and creating eLearning course solutions.  I hear the terms of the industry being tossed around in various communities with different meanings attached.  I participate in frustrating conversations because many use the same words, but mean different things.  Maybe parsing ID and ISD will help.

I love it when the veterans of our industry talk about our field at a very high level as Allison did in her post. I wish more would do so.  Perhaps Allison's fake commencement address will kick off a trend.

If you had to give a commencement address to a class of graduating learning professionals, what would you say? If you post it, let me know.

UPDATE: I got a couple twitter responses to this post and I wanted to share some interesting content.  Donald Clark retweeted my post and when I checked out his stream found this gem on design models. Reuben Tozman also reached out and reminded me of his post on systems titled 7 Metaphors for Experience Design.

Mobile Learning Report Shows Significant Increase in Intent to do MORE mLearning

Mobile Learning: The Time is Now was just released by The eLearning Guild.  With the mobile market being the fastest growing industry you'd be wise to pay attention to how mobile devices impact your learning audience and in turn how you develop and deliver your learning solutions.

Guild members have shared the impact of mobile learning on their organizations and their strategies.  The questions they've answered have given us a solid picture of the mobile learning space.

"The number of Guild members who say they intend to use mLearning continues to increase. In 2010, 45.6% of Guild members said they intend to do more mLearning. In 2012, that figure has increased to 65.7%."

This mobile research report is nicely timed in anticipation of the mLearnCon Conference and Expo.  The major mobile learning industry players can be found at this event. You don't want to miss it.

Screen Resolution Alert for eLearning Developers!

Statcounter Global Stats reported last week that 1024x768(XGA) has been overtaken by 1366x768(WXGA) for the first time. If these numbers make no sense to you then think of it in terms of aspect ratios.  What the report basically says is that the 16:9 aspect ratio has become more popular than 4:3. Think of it as old TV beginning to die out slowly and the newer HDTV growing.

If you are an eLearning developer this is important news. But if you are an eLearning developer this should not be NEW for you.  And, in fact, this may not even impact you.

Let this ALERT serve as a reminder for those who consider themselves eLearning developers but don't know the standard screen resolution supported by your IT department.


I would guess that many of you are not seeing this change within your organizations.  The data is based on global internet usage in general and if you track usage stats for your web sites behind your firewall you should be able to see for yourself.  Or ask your IT department for the report.

3 Reminders to every Corporate Training Department


1) Be connected to your IT department.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  If you are developing anything with software being delivered to your organization digitally, then you MUST have a solid partnership with your IT department.

2) TEST, TEST, TEST!  Always test your eLearning courses on as many different screen resolutions as possible, and on as many devices as possible.

3) Don't forget about the big screen! With the industry chasing down mobile learning at such a rapid pace it's easy to forget about the desktop.  This alert is your wakeup call.  Remember that your corporate audience is STILL most comfortable viewing your courses on a desktop with a high resolution monitor.  Make sure your content looks beautiful in that space.

And if you really want to dig deeper you can check wikipedia for everything you ever wanted to know about Graphic Display Resolutions.

Bloomfire Secures $10 Million in Series A Funding

Bloomfire has certainly taken the eLearning industry by storm.  Or should I say, set it on fire? <rimshot>

Chris Pacitti, from one of the two investing companies, Austin Ventures had this to say... 

“Bloomfire addresses old-school productivity problems with a new-school approach, using social software to create and share valuable information within an enterprise. It essentially allows you to clone your best sales people, reducing costs, improving productivity and accelerating new business opportunities that drive your bottom line.”

I'm so happy for the guys at Bloomfire.  Seriously, these are some of the most creative, hardest working guys I've known.  Every time I see a Bloomfire logo I can't help but remember seeing an naked Nemo wrapped in a Bloomfire banner running through a reception at Learning Solutions.

That was the year I started seeing that the eLearning industry was changing.  The old guard had been asleep at the wheel and frisky new startups were tackling the problems of the corporate training industry.

Of course today there are many new players and old tools have evolved, and embraced social media, collaboration, the cloud, mobile and other new technology shifts.  But I've seen a few startups fail for whatever reason, and it's just really nice to see a startup hitting on all cylinders and catching the eye of venture capitalists.

It's a great time to be in the eLearning game.  Innovative corporate training solutions are needed now, more than ever.  Even if Bloomfire is not the right tool for your current corporate need, you should still take some time and check out what their doing.  Someday it could be exactly what you need.

Check out the latest in mobile learning solutions at mLearnCon in June.

Skillsoft Acquires Element K for $110 Million

The business of eLearning in corporate training continues to shift.  You may have already heard this news, so I won't bother you with the details.  You can read the full press release here.  I'm just pointing it out as a "heads up" that the eLearning industry is alive and well and corporate training departments need to continue to stay up to date on the latest moves within our industry.

"The acquisition adds to SkillSoft's existing offerings in learning content and learning platform technology through the addition of Element K's complementary offerings in e-learning content, virtual labs, ILT print materials and custom development services."

The Learning Solutions Conference and Expo had a 50% growth or vendors in the expo which tells me our business is alive and well.  What we do as corporate training professionals will only continue to be needed in the coming years.  But it's also important to keep your skills up.  Don't rest on your old skills.  Yes, you are needed.  But the world is changing and you need to step up your game.

Check out the media tools report for more information on the tools of our industry.

Which Degree Helps You Get Ahead in eLearning?

The eLearning Guild's latest research report title Degrees for eLearning Professionals answers this question...and many more.

Here is a brief snippet from the executive summary:

"When asking managers what degree level they preferred, most preferred Bachelor’s degrees and some felt that Master’s degrees were very important. They all agreed that someone with the right mix of credentials and skills would be the perfect candidate. Many agreed that a Master’s would be extremely helpful to get the right kind of foundational skills. In fact, one of the most compelling arguments for Master’s degrees I heard from various people was the need for a core of foundational knowledge to inform decisions and actions. And many people, including Karl Kapp, Brent Wilson, J. Michael Spector, Alison A. Carr-Chellman, Keith Hopper, and Allison Rossett, all faculty in educational technology-related Master’s programs, explained the difficulties of getting an adequate foundation without a Master’s. Not everyone agrees that you need a degree, of course. Tom Kuhlmann, community leader at Articulate and writer of the well-known Rapid E-Learning Blog provided various ways to get degree-related knowledge without getting a degree."

You can meet the report author, Patti Shank, Ph.D. CPT, at next weeks Learning Solutions Conference & Expo.

Good Storytelling Takes Time - So Does Good Learning

This week we are looking at a system known as the Differential.  In my first post I asked that you review 2 training videos.  Around the Corner was created in 1937 and How a Differential Works was created in 2011.  In my last post I looked at the importance of titles, and today I wonder about management concerns that good storytelling is too time consuming and wasting employees time.


Stories take too long!
Both training videos do a good job of explaining the facts of how a differential works.  And to be clear, while I am biased towards liking the 1937 video better, I believe both get the job done.  And that is because I also believe there is more to learning than just watching videos.  More on that in later post.

Around the Corner is 9 minutes and 31 seconds.  How a Differential Works is 4 minutes and 44 seconds. So, if they both get the job done then you might as well just stop reading my stupid blog posts and just pick the shortest good quality videos you can find.  You certainly don't want to waste your employees' time, right?


In Around the corner we don't even get narration until almost 2 MINUTES into the video. GASP!  Can you imagine wasting so much precious training time?  How dare those designers not take our time seriously!!!  The NERVE!!!

I can hear today's Sr. managers and/or project stakeholders telling the instructional designers,

  "ya know, that's nice and all but let's cut down that intro to about 30 SECONDS."  

So, in the 2011 video you get an objective statement and a high level overview of what a differential is in exactly 33 secs.

I don't think anyone will argue that it's much easier to simply state the facts about any process.  And doing so will no doubt take significantly less time than telling the story.  I also don't think anyone believes that reciting facts alone is the best method of delivering content being learned by people.  Human beings respond to their feelings and storytelling impacts feelings.

To most of us watching the 1937 video, the intro is just a bunch of motocycles doing a synchronized circus act.  But to the mostly male trainees of the time these riders were part of the pop culture.  We can simply guess that viewers were engaged and drawn into the movie because of these riders and using their skills to illustrate the basic problem being solved by differential gears.

There are many people blogging about storytelling in learning.  I have not covered it all by any means, but I did recognize the importance of storytelling after watching these videos.  Did you notice anything about storytelling when you viewed them?

Creating Passionate Learners 2005 = same in 2011

For those of you that were not into the blogosphere WAY back in...oh... say... 2005 or 2006, the name Kathy Sierra is probably new to you.  It's about time we ALL start learning how to "Create Passionate Users", or in our case Create Passionate Learners...and I'd argue they're the same thing, but I digress.  Let me start with why I am blogging on this topic.

@moehlert tweeted a reminder of an IT Conversations recording of her keynote from the Tools of Change conference (2/16/2011). So, I took 25mins and listened to her story.  I already knew most of the story but its always fun to get a refresher from thought leaders who bring a unique perspective to our industry.  And yes, she IS a learning person...turned blogger...turned top-selling, uber-tech author at O'Reilly.

If you are new to Kathy Sierra, after listening to the recording above, you should read the archives of her blog at headrush.typepad.com.  That will give you a pretty good idea of where she stands on turning users/learners into PASSIONATE learners/users.

My favorite moment in blogging...

I started blogging in August 2005 and I did not have anyone "following" me at the time.  So you can imagine how psyched I was when, after 4 months blogging, Kathy posted a comment on my post 2005 Review of eLearning.

Kathy Sierra said...

The chart that Kathy references
in her comment

What a great post Brent! You've given me about 15 different things to think about here... and I could not agree more. What I didn't mention in my "is it interesting" post (and thanks very much for the nice comments) -- but that you must have picked up on -- is that the ones who were approving my checklist were the ISD'ers and the heads of the LMS team at Sun. They basically said, "If it isn't supported technically by the LMS, it *must not be relevant.* Talk about tail wagging the dog... ; )

I'm especially interested in that diagram of courses vs. collaboration, too.

Thanks for this great blog, Brent. I'm so glad I found it.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2005 

As I was writing this post, and reviewing old posts, so many things struck me:

1. How amazingly powerful blogging and social media was and is,
2. how easy it is to forget about our learners in the process of ISD,
3. how much I miss Kathy's blog posts,
4. how much I wish she'd agree to speak at DevLearn 2012,
5. and how strange it is that my review of 2005 could easily be my review of 2011.

That last one, number 5, really has me thinking and pondering this question, "If I just changed a few dated words, and re-posted that post with a new 2011 title, would anyone know the difference?"
Because, ya know, it is that time of year where everyone reviews the past year and pontificates about the year to come.

But more importantly, are things STILL so much the same?  I've done a lot since 2005 and I'm sure all of you have too, and yet I wonder why so much of our industry still feels the same.  We've seen new iPhones, iPads, and iOS, Android, tablets, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, HTML5, apps, apps, and more apps, and on and on and on.  So why are still talking about building courses? Why do job reqs still read the same?

My guess is that if we started thinking like Kathy and focused on what can we do to help our users kick ass in THEIR job that we would be looking at eLearning A LOT differently.

So, lets make 2012 the year eLearning actually becames about the learner!

P.S.
Here are some other posts where I reference Kathy Sierra.

@KathySierra Learns Spanish via Twitter
Should We Twitter Face-to-Face?
Cubicles Cause Brain Damage

CONTEXT is KING, but CONTENT is QUEEN. Long Live the Queen!

I've given presentations on this idea as it relates and impacts the future of Learning technologies and solutions that we design/develop/support.  SO, I was VERY excited to see wine geek and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck focusing on CONTEXT today.



CONTEXT is important today because of the proliferation of CONTENT.  In general, I don't think one is more important than the other.  Actually, if you don't have any content you don't worry too much about the context.  But since new technologies have made it so easy to create web media content, there is an over abundance of it.  And so the problem that everyone is concerned with is how do we deal with such an overwhelming amount of information that everyone is participating in creating?  And the answer is in the context.

How we organize, filter and view other people's content is increasingly more important.  This is how we learn about things we didn't know we needed to learn.  It's that serendipitous learning that is going to have a major impact on our industry...in a good way.  The more people discover what they NEED to know, the more likely they are to seek out elearning content to consume and learn more about that topic.  At least that's my theory.

How we decide to share our OWN content is another part of context that we all need to be aware of.  Gary Vaynerchuck is a perfect example of how taking control of your own creation and distribution of media content can make you very successful.  It can also grow your personal brand or your company brand.  Getting your message into a channel that allows readers (learners) to have access to it when they need it, on the device they need it on, is increasingly critical.

Its about People, Content, and Context.  That's really all you need to know about the impact of new media on learning.  You'll notice I did not ad technology as a fourth item.  Why?  Because its not about technology.  Learning has never been about technology.  It's about PEOPLE first and foremost.  Second, its about the CONTENT you create for others to consume in your absence: your writings, your podcasts, your videos, your interactive screencasts, or your full blown learning solution.  And lastly, but getting more play these days is CONTEXT.  Access to content at the right time, in the right place, on the right device is part of it.  But delivery and design is the piece that Facebook is figuring out faster than others.  Visually being aware of the content others are consuming, creating and sharing, in a usable interface is today's winning tech solution.  Apps and new technology solutions that help provide CONTEXT around all of today's content will win the day.

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

Viking Training - Objective 1 - DON'T DIE

I love movies, but I don't see them as much as I would like too.  I took my kids to see "How to Train Your Dragon" over the weekend.  It was great fun!  Great animation! Great story! And of course, something I can blog about.

Did anyone else stop and think about the beautiful simplicity of the viking training program? I did.  Sure they had a manual on everything known about the different types of dragons.  But if I remember correctly the viking trainer didn't babble on about reading, and practicing skills before the DOING began.  No, if memory serves Objective 1 of Viking training is "DON'T DIE!".  Simple. Elegant. I like that.

Only AFTER the trainees had experienced the true reality and the CONTEXT of their challenge did the trainer introduce the book filled with all the dragon information.

Did anyone think about learning styles? I did...well...okay not until just now ;-)
Now I need to see the movie again and get all this right.  But anyways, the different characters excelled differently through the training.  The "nerdy" viking knew every last detail about every dragon.  He was what we might call "book smart".

Actually, now that I think about it.  The characters were more like high school stereotypes, but there must a learning style connection in there some where, right?  Can anyone help me out here?  Have you seen the movie?  Now you have a reason too.  Tell me what you think.

mLearnCon - Mobile Learning Conference and Expo- June - San Diego, CA
DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

T+D Simulation Article I haven't read

I just saw a post from Design of Knowledge titled Simulations in Training: New T+D Article.
I just had a quick thought that I wanted to comment on but wordpress wanted me to register...no thanks.
So I'll post here. You can read the post and/or the T+D article, but here's the part that caught my attention...

"And if the simulation is not supported by reflective activities and orientation activities, the benefits will not be realized."

Now, I'm counting on my colleagues to correct my thinking on this, but doesn't that statement hold true for most, if not ALL, of the learning activities we create...not just for simulations? Consider the text book of old. Don't you gain more by reflecting on what you've read with others than if you simply read the book and then put it down?