CES: VIZIO Announces new line of PCs - Impacts eLearning?

Hey! It's CES week! Why is a Corporate eLearning Strategies blog covering consumer electronics?  Well, I wouldn't exactly say that I'm "covering" the show.  However, I am getting a lot of info about new product launches.  I'm actually quite shocked at the number emails I am receiving as an industry analyst.  But it's also quite fun to see it all.

This came from VIZIO inviting me to check out their new PCs.  It's interesting to me because I always think of VIZIO as a TV maker.  And the products in this image look REALLY nice.

So, what does this tell me and why should eLearning people care.  Okay, I know this is going to be a stretch but its also kind of fun :)

1) The TV is increasingly more interesting as a content delivery device...not less.
2) Convergence (an often overused word in computing) is becoming more mainstream.
3) Mainstream adoption of new consumer electronics capabilities means eLearning can get on board.

So that's a long way towards an impact on eLearning, right?  Yes, but seeing the reality of what the future holds can help us prepare.

Think about how powerful it is to participate in a Google+ Hangout while watching a YouTube video.  That experience, as good as it is, is still not quite ready for prime time.  But it will be...soon.  When TV makers get into the PC business and PC makers start getting into the TV business it's easy to see that we are well on our way to a shared video viewing experience.

This is the convergence that has been talked about for many years.  2012 is when this begins to actually work for many people.  Computing on your "TV", and watching television shows on your laptop, iPad, or other mobile device.  Yes, it's available now and many enjoy the experience, but I would still call it new and in it's infancy.  The true convergence and ease of use begins this year.

And since eLearning lags behind consumer technology it's easy to see how this new technology will be useful as a technology delivered learning channel.  Don't worry.  You don't need to start converting all of your training materials just yet.  But aware of what's coming and start thinking about the next 5 years in your org.  Plan now.

Get more CES info and video at their official YouTube channel.

Learn eLearning Audio Production from an Expert

Are you an eLearning developer struggling with audio? Okay maybe you're not struggling. You're getting stuff done, but you wish your audio was better. Like most things technical, once you know the little tricks and gain a better understanding of the technology it becomes an easy leap from amateur audio to "wow, that's sounds great" audio.
I know many of you just farm out the dirty work of audio scripting, producing, recording, publishing. But I ALSO know many of you are a Learning Department of One. You are the lone developer with little to no budget. If the eLearning is going get any better in your company its totally and completely up to you. So, lets make that happen.
Audio is a big part of developing eLearning. I'd even go so far as too say that MOST learners expect some level of audio in the multimedia mix. And if you are doing anything with video you will most likely will be dealing with audio as well...unless you've designed the script as a Charlie Chaplin, silent movie, experience.
The bottom line is that every developer should have a basic understanding of digital audio technology. And while understanding is good, getting your hands into the tools and making audio files is even better.

DevLearn pre-conference workshops are a great way to ramp up new skills. This year we are very happy to have Chris Hansen leading Audio File Production and Management for Learning as part of the eLearning Guild Academy.
Besides producing audio tracks for musicians and voice over talent in his studio, he is also the Instructional Design Manager for Guitar Center. Chris is truly a rare find in our little world of eLearning colleagues. Of course I know many instructional designers, and outside of eLearning I know a few talented media producers. But Chris is the first audio specialist I've met that not has both skill sets but also takes on the role of managing the development process for the largest music retailer in the country.
DevLearn is at The ARIA hotel in Las Vegas this year. Its the newest hotel in Vegas with the most high tech conference facility. I would highly encourage anyone interested in stepping up their development skills to register for this workshop and spend the day with Chris learning about the finer points of audio production.

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

PBS News Wars - worth watching?

I've heard that this series is "definitely worth checking out". I have not seen it yet, but I wanted to pass it along in case...like me...you missed it when it aired. Who actually watches shows WHEN they air anyway? I guess that's part of the story unfolding as we speak, blog, share.

Television news is information...and we learn about current events via the "news". So, as the media of news delivery changes, so does the delivery of all content.

Old Media = Old Education

Dave Winer has a great post! Actually its part of a post but there is a link that goes directly too the section I want you to read.
What's happening in media is the same thing that's happening in education...in case you were wondering ;-)