Digital Learning

Newspapers are dead. The younger generation doesn’t like to learn in the same we they have in the past. This is a must watch video for anyone interested in where publishing is heading in the future.

The Future of Publishing

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you probably realize by now that Apple recently released its highly anticipated tablet computer, called the Apple iPad.  The latest line up from Steve Jobs & Co starts at $499 for the 16GB WiFi model.

The iPad attempts to build upon the huge success that the iPhone and iTouch have enjoyed by using the same basic Operating System and user interface that users have come to enjoy. Now with more screen real estate application developers are rushing to take advantage of the 9.7” screen and bring applications  to the next level.

There has been much excitement  in the Learning & Development world as people look for ways to use the iPad for Learning.

As we spend more time with our iPad we will provide more insight on how the iPad can be used in for learning, development, and performance support.

In the meantime, here are some  great reads around the blogoshphere on the iPad:

• Elliot Masie covers all things iPad and Learning over at the iPad Learning Lab
• Want to use the iPad to access a Learning Management System? Check out Blackboards Mobile Learn app
• Learning Solutions Magazines gives a good overview of thoughts on using the iPad in e-Learning

What are your thoughts on using the iPad in learning? Got any great resouces we missed? Share in the comments below.

Any e-Learning developer knows the one component that is crticial for the success of any course is the voice that you will use to narrate your e-Learning. It doesn’t matter how flashy your flash is or how engaging your interactions are, without a high quality voice over to accompany your e-Learning courses it can be very distracting for learners to become fully engaged with your content.

We present to you our Top Voice Overs for e-Learning Resources

1. Voice123.com
This site should be your first stop when looking for voice talent. Simply sign up for an account, post your project, and within hours you’ll have professional voice over artists submitting bids and samples. You can specify the type of voice you want (male or female, young or old, etc) and get recommendations on artists that may fit what you’re looking for. Rates can vary considerably but there is usually a voice over artist out there somewhere that can fit your budget.

2. Voices.com
This site is very similar to Voice123, in fact you may see some of the same exact voice over artists on both sites. You simply set up an account for free and post your project to the site. Sit back and wait for the bids and proposals to come in. The biggest difference between the two websites is that you pay Voices.com directly for the talent, where as with Voice123.com you deal directly with the voice over talent to arrange payment.

3. E-LearningVoices.com
Another website with voice over talent. However these artists all specialize or have experience working on e-Learning projects. This invites only artists that have previous experience with e-Learning voice overs. You are able to listen to sample voices directly on the website as well.

These are our current top resources for finding Voice Over talent for e-Learning courses. We will update this post as new resources are discovered.

Do you have a great resource that I’ve not listed? Be sure to comment below and we’ll get it added to our list.

Sumeet Moghee authors a guest blog post today for the Articulate Word of Mouth Blog titled “4 Easy Steps to Repurpose Content for E-Learning”. In this great post he explains the 4 steps to reusing content. Before event starting on the 4 step process Moghee states that you first need to gain the buy in of your stakeholder (more than likely the client or business unit requesting your services) and set the expectations. Once you’ve done that you can use a model like his. The 4 steps are:

Step 0: Decide on your instructional approach
Step 1: Build Your Action Map
Step 2: Sketch Out Prototypes
Step 3: Dive into Articulate [or other Rapid Development Tool]
Step 4: Iterate through Development and Release

I think he explains this process very well and breaks it down into nice easy steps. I’m interested, what models have you used in your effort to repurpose content for elearning?

ORLANDO, FL — 03/24/10 — LETSI, the International Federation for Learning, Education, and Training Systems Interoperability, announced today during the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions Conference the kickoff of the final test phase of its software standardization project entitled Runtime Web Services for Learning.
Eight LETSI volunteer organizations are involved in the final research and development phase of this year-long project, which pioneered a rapid, collaborative approach to solving systems interoperability issues.

LETSI’s project allows standalone learning activities, like mobile training on an iPhone, to communicate directly with existing learning management systems (LMS) using web service definitions based on SCORM protocols — a standard developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1990s. LETSI’s innovative work will enable new types of elearning activities to easily integrate into existing LMS at learning institutions and in industry.

Participating companies:

Booz Allen Hamilton, Rustici Software, and Meridian Knowledge Solutions are instrumenting their learning management systems for web service communications.
Imedia.it, OutStart, Intelligent Automation, Booz Allen Hamilton, pipwerks, and WISE Learning Solutions are modifying existing courses to use the new communications framework.
Each will demonstrate delivery of elearning with runtime communication across platforms (e.g., LMS, browser, PC desktop, mobile) and with standalone learning activities like simulations, games, virtual worlds, and intelligent tutors.

Future LETSI projects will continue to advance activity-based software architectures for learning systems. Enabling communication across learning platforms fosters rapid experimentation and evolution of innovative learning activities, intelligent online tutors, and new tools for academia, and parents.

LETSI Commentary
“For a long time, industry has been dissatisfied with limitations imposed by standards in the area of content-to-LMS communication,” said Meridian Knowledge Solutions’ Christopher Sawwa, an e-learning standards expert. “LETSI has figured out a simple way to incorporate the technology that some of the best LMS vendors have had for years. By doing this, we have developed a powerful and elegant method for content, and a hosting system to talk to one another without a web browser. For example, a course on a flight simulator can now transmit tracking information directly to an LMS using simple Web service calls; a course can now be its own stand-alone application, not limited to a collection of web pages. As web services become ingrained in the new standards, the very way we think about content will drastically change.”

“Over the last 10 years, the web has changed our lives — the way we shop, the way we read, and even the way we date,” notes Avron Barr, LETSI’s communications chair. “But education and job training have been slow to adopt new technology. One barrier to innovation is the lack of modern interoperability standards.”

“OutStart is an aggressive supporter of standards that help industry move learning from an era of proprietary platforms to one where content works across multiple systems and is delivered from many sources,” said Massood Zarrabian, president and CEO of OutStart. “LETSI initiative’s laser-beam focus on agility and time-to-value can create great benefit to vendors and users alike.”

“The RTWS framework allows a learning activity to sidestep traditional browser server/client limitations and be a first class citizen in the elearning world: a desktop real time game that requires gigabytes of local data; a simulation that needs access to OS api’s not exposed to the browser sandbox, training that can run without a continuous Internet connection; or a learning app running native on an iPhone or Blackberry or on limited bandwidth devices that don’t have a browser such as vehicle information displays.” Ethan Estes, elearning developer, WISE Learning Solutions.

About LETSI
LETSI was formed in 2007 by a group of organizations dedicated to innovation through the creation of open standards for the next wave of online learning tools. LETSI collaborates with international standards bodies, including IEEE and ISO, to produce mature standards in a fast timeframe — for broad adoption of new technologies.

Additional resources:
IEEE LTSC, http://www.ieeeltsc.org:8080/Plone
Piscataway, NJ

Media Contact:
Michelle Hunt
LETSI Secretariat
1.732.981.3434
m.hunt@ieee.org
info@letsi.org
www.letsi.org

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/letsi-announces-first-step-in-modernizing-elearning-software-standards,1219459.shtml#ixzz0j9VvsdB0

Techcrunch is reporting that Facebook is testing QR codes for user profiles. For those of you that don’t know, QR stands for Quick Response, because they are designed to be read quickly through a camera on a mobile phone. They are basically barcode style images that contain information such as a person’s contact info, website address or other information.

I can see QR codes having a major place in the workplace. Imagine a environment where instead of needing to read a manual on how to operate a piece of equipment you simply used your mobile device to scan the QR code that was on the machine and up on your phone came detailed instructions with graphics (and audio/video perhaps) showing you how to use the equipment.

Do you currently use QR codes? How do you envision QR codes being used in learning? Share your comments below.

Here’s a video showing a demo of the the popular Moodle Open Source Learning Management System running on an iPhone.  Mobile learning has already started to get traction in a number of industries. The biggest barriers of entry currently seem to be a lack of standardization in equipment. For instance an organizaiton might be  some users on Blackberries, some on iPhones, some on Androids, etc. Once content providers are able to code eLearning quickly and efficiently for all the platforms I think the adaption of Mobile Learning will skyrocket.

What are you thougths on the Moodle LMS on the iPhone? Will it catch ?

Jane Hart writes on her popular blog that Caspian Learning has announced a Serious Game Challenge that will have  instructional designers to square off against one another in a 30 day challenge to create the most immersive game using the Thinking Worlds technology. The winning team will be awarded a cool £3000, which is just about $4,500 in USD.

If you want more information on the competition you can read the official press release.

So are you up for the challenge?

One tool that every eLearning professional should keep in the tool-box is the ability to create quick, on the fly, screen cast. This can come in very handy when you need to create a step by step process to show someone how to do something on their PC and you don’t have the time (or face it, eneregy!) to create a full fledge job aid.

For instance, I recently created a screencast for a co-worker when I needed to show them how to fill out some information on about 5 different mainframe screens for an older application we use. I could have taken screen shot after screen shot and dumped them into a PowerPoint or Word document, but it was much easier to simply create a on the fly screencast to show them how to complete the task.

Now there are a variety of tools that can be used to create screencasts. There are some full fledged software packages like Adobe Captivate that give you full editing control and allow you to create elaborate SCORM compliant e-Learning packages. However, there are often times that you need to quickly put together a simply screencast. In that case that is when a tool like ScreenR comes in handy.

What is ScreenR?

ScreenR is a free, easy to use, tool that is brought to us by the fine folks at Articulate. This web based application allows you to record what you are doing on the screen. Once you finish the recording you will then be given a custom URL that you are able to share with others. ScreenR has a tight integration with Twitter, meaning that you can easily Tweet your screencasts so others can view it.  You can view the public stream of various screencasts.

What are the limitations?

Now one thing you should keep in mind is that ScreenR should not be viewed as a replacement to some of the full fledged e-Learning software tools like Captivate. There are some limitations to using it, the first and foremost being that each recording is limited to 5 minutes in length. You also do need to have a Twitter account before you can start recording. This may limit some users who don’t have access to Twitter behind their companies firewall.

ScreenR is a great tool for those who need to quickly and easily create a screencast to share with others.  If you are looking for something that can be produced in minutes rather than hours this is a tool to consider.

Tom Kuhlmann is the author of the very popular Rapid e-Learning Blog. In a recent post he provides a very thorough summary of Why e-Learning Is So Effective.

Tom argues that e-Learning supports not only a organizations goals, but also the individuals goals by such factors as reduced costs, standardized learning, and increased productivity. He also points out that a organziation with an e-Learning culture helps to nurture a community of leaders.

One tidbit that Tom points out that escapes many people is that e-Learning is also ‘green’. By reducing the amount of travel that learners are require to engage of and a decrease in print material, eLearning helps to contribute to the green scene.

Leave a comment below as to why you think eLearning is effective?