SCORM-ify YouTube Videos with ScoTube

SCORM.com issued a press release about ScoTube this week.

Many eLearning professionals are locked into creating SCORM compliant courses for their customers and that has been limiting in regards to new user-generated content on services such as YouTube.  It's nice to see tools addressing these concerns moving the industry forward.

From the press release:

"The first of its kind, ScoTube marries the power of SCORM with the wealth of content available through YouTube. Users select the video they want to share with learners from YouTube and ScoTube creates a SCORM course using that resource. "

 If you are required to create SCORM compliant solutions, you should definitely check this out!

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.

YouTube for Education

Social Networking in Plain English - Yeah!

These guys keep crankin' 'em out. I love it!


Social Networking is also Social Learning. I think deepest learning comes from human connections and Social Networking tools make it easier than ever to connect to the people you want to learn something from, or with whom you are willing to learn with, together, collaboratively.

Before there was online social networking I remember reading business books about the power of the "rollodex": Important successful people ALWAYS had a massive rollodex. At the time I remember thinking about the dozen or so people that I had on a piece of paper in my school notebook. Yikes! This isn't going to cut it I thought. But how the heck am I going to get to know more people? And that's where the thought ended and it was probably around that time that I decided to go back to school.

Enter, the web! And now Web2.0! My life is very different and I feel like I know a ton of brilliant people that I could email, chat, or call about any of the cool things I may be doing! I love this stuff!

Its a Big @$$ table - hilarious video

What is a wiki? Explained by pbwiki users

There is no better way to explain a wiki than to hear it from those who use it and find it useful.
The folks at pbwiki have done a great job of gathering input from their users.

Check it out!

This page has many videos covering everything you ever wanted to know about a wiki.

I'm a big fan of pbwiki... elearndev.pbwiki.com

IRA GLASS on Storytelling

I have not been very good about posting this week. Its been a crazy-busy week!
But...I do have the "going-into-the-weekend" video
Check out Ira Glass on Storytelling...

Did you know?

Apparently this little gem is making the rounds within the Educators Bloggosphere (since August '06)...well worth 6mins out of your day to check this out...


The original ppt presentation was created by Carl Fisch and posted at his blog The Fischbowl.

Then Scott McLeod got a hold of it and edited it a little and re-released it in the format you have seen above.

Repeat after me...

RIP, MIX, FEED, repeat, repeat...infinity

...see...I told ya so!

Most educators that I know are psyched and excited by Learning2.0. I used to be quite cynical and think "they just don't get it". But ya know what? They don't know, what they don't know. When our teachers can create this type of presentation and pass it around amongst themselves...then you know they "get it" and the shift is beginning to occur.

When teachers need to ask for a couple hundreds bucks on the internet to buy a digital camera for their class...I'm stunned. Learning2.0? Hah! It looks like many of our educators aren't even at Learning1.0 yet. You can help make a difference by throwing some coin at my Challenge in the sidebar. C'mon folks! We talk about wanting to make a difference via technology...and everyone demands that ISD is still viable. Well, according to my audience analysis, these teachers need digital cameras...I've got 3 sitting right in front of me and I'm embarassed. It just doesn't seem right. Let's make a teacher's day and make sure they get a camera...okay?

Beatboxing Flute Video - Happy Friday

Well, its Friday. Time for the heading into the weekend video. My Mom played the flute and would appalled and what this young man has done. I love it. Think of it as a live music genre mashup.


Have a great weekend!

Web2.0 explained - images and music only - BEAUTIFUL

elearnspace points to this wonderful video. 5 mins that will, once and for all, help you understand what's going on with the web.

If you are into this stuff new web stuff already, then watch this video for the amazing storytelling quality sans voiceover. That's right an amazingly complete overview of a very complex technical topic all done without narration.

You can read O'reilly's Take on Web2.0 or you can be mesmerized by this video.

Is there anything in our ISD books about how to do this? Or that we even should? THIS is new media, and WE (ISDers) don't do it well. Others do...we don't! Have ya seen the tutorials on instructables lately? Not an ISDer in the bunch but THEY are creating tutorials...damn good ones...and people are learning! (Great tutorials using ComicLife here, here, here)

How many of you could walk into your boss/client/manager and say, "I'd to teach a basic overview of web technologies just using video and music...no talking...just camera shots of me writing, and video of my computer screen...I think its going to be really neato". Creativity is not a team sport. The reason why Web2.0 is working is because nobody needs to explain their new ideas. They simply create it and put it out there, and see if it sticks. If it sticks...Yahoo buys you for 10 million.
This is also how creative innovation works. You simply do it and then show people. One guy/gal does it alone...or at best a small group of dedicated friends just get together and say, "wouldn't it be cool if...".

Truly innovative ideas normally are very difficult to "sell"...many times even describe, adequately, with words. Explaining how you will improve something slightly is easy. Explaining why that something should be destroyed and something completely new and different created in its place is very difficult. Or try explaining something that isn't even a category yet, and it doesn't fit ANY norm...how do you do that? Walt Disney did it...but few others have.

Collaborative Building in Secondlife - amazing video!

(via Oehlert)
File this one under "yeah, what he said!"

For those of you still unsure about virtual environments and their viability as learning tools:


Stop telling me that all I talk about is the future. This stuff is here now!

Vista cries uncle! Crashing demo site & Crashed voice recognition Presentation

I just scanned the e-clippings and I'm howling at this post.

You still just THINKING about buying a Mac?

wait...it gets SO much better...

Check out this Microsoft Demo of voice recognition...via YouTube.

Go ahead and head on over to your nearest Mac Store and start doing some cool stuff.