Michael Stephens at Tame the Web draws our attention to Skokie Public Library’s “Ten Things” learning program. If parking is as bad in Skokie as it is in New Jersey, this is one heck of a learning incentive!!
So what learning incentives (food, swag, gold stars) have you found effective in your training adventures?
I’m the kind of person who learns best from concrete examples. I had already informed myself about the nature of Personal Learning Environments before attending last week’s webinar, but seeing some sample PLE pages really motivated me to go create my own. I wasn’t the only one, judging by these blog posts.
A PLE is an AJAX start page that is dedicated to collecting resources related to your personal learning. This is a different spin on tools that have been available for awhile.
Presenter Marianne Lenox shared these variations using four different tools.
iGoogle
Netvibes
Pageflakes
Protopage
The ability to create multiple tabs or pages is key. Not only does it organize your feeds and other widgets around specific topics, it also reduces load time. A fully loaded page can be a resource hog, especially if you’re pulling in video feeds. There are hundreds of widgets to choose from and you can pull in a feed from any site with RSS. I created a page for “eLearning,” for “Competencies,” and one just for “FunStuff” where I indulged in the lava lamp, creeping tree frog and comics feed. Learning should be fun, right?
You can view the webinar archive for more information.
Everyone is on the podcast bandwagon and it’s easy to see why. These small knowledge objects are accessible, portable, and even entertaining. Their uses are varied, and organizations are finding neat ways to leverage podcasting. I’ve recently built some e-learning modules for Gwinnett County Public Library (our first foray into e-learning, by the way) and I’m hosting them on MOSS 2007. While I was constructing our Virtual Classroom, I discovered how to directly embed video and podcast players into the site. Now it was time to bring the Virtual Classroom to life.
Enter TVnima. Ever heard of it? TVnima.com allows users to upload a podcast into an online TV studio and then have the user construct a news broadcast, complete with a semi-customizable avatar lip-synching your podcast. I fell in love with this tool instantly. It’s flexible, easy to use, and your learners will enjoy having a face to go with the audio. You can even put your avatar into a Power Point. Check out the news broadcast I made just for this post. Sorry for having to link to Youtube, but I couldn’t figure out how to embed the player into this blog!
Here’s a quick guide for making your own broadcast with completely free tools:
n Record a short podcast with a free mp3 encoder, such as Audacity, and export the mp3.
n Enter TVnima.com and start a new project using their documentation.
n Coordinate your avatar’s appearance, gestures, and camera angles.
n Record your finished broadcast using a free screen capture tool like CamStudio, which is enabled for full-motion recording.
n Save the file as an AVI and upload to Youtube.
n Retrieve the HTML code from Youtube for the embeddable version of your broadcast. If you want to embed video directly into Sharepoint without using Youtube’s player, I can share the code later.
n Past the code into the HTML of your webpage and enjoy.
I currently have a TVnima avatar embedded into my Sharepoint site at work advertising the upcoming training opportunities at the library. Has anyone else out there used TVnima for training purposes? If so, for what?
Trainers, like comedians, are great at borrowing material and making it their own. Fortunately, there’s an abundance of material, a copious urge to share, and the cyber-spatial means to do it. It’s not so much about avoidance of “reinventing the wheel” (why not?); it’s about envisioning new wheels built from found parts.
1. Some additions to the already robust CEBuzz blogroll:
Learning 2.1
The sequel to the world-famous Learning 2.0 program from PLCMC, this blog extends the discovery and play—“mashing up 21st century skills with lifelong learning.” I got my Meez (at right) through a link on this blog. (My apologies for being too cheap to purchase a more sophisticated gesture.)
It’s a bit heavy on the promotion of their upcoming book at the moment, but generally a trove of all things presentation, like where to get good images or Yoda v. Darth Vader.
A longtime favorite of mine for Will Richardson’s perspective on integrating cool tech tools into K-12 education, “working with kids every day helping them (I hope) become literate navigators of this increasingly challenging world,” and dealing with innovation overload.
2. A newsletter:
New Neat Stuff
I’ve subscribed to this newsletter for nearly five years and I continue to be amazed at Marylaine Block’s ability at resource discovery, like Wikivid, free video tutorials for course creation, and the Video Toolbox, links to video how-to’s, editors, converters, hosting, and more.
3. A resource list:
Stephanie Gerding’s Training Resources
I have described Stephanie as a super model of library training and an inspiring train-the-trainer. She’s generous about sharing her expertise and great at finding free resources.
4. And one example of information organization that is so comprehensive and elegantly organized as to make Edward Tufte drool:
Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
If you are looking for some different types of tricks and tips to liven up your training sessions, take a look at what Lenn Millbower offers. I first found out about him when I was looking for ways to use music at key times during training sessions. I found his book, Training With a Beat: The Teaching Power of Music to be very helpful.
Lenn also has a website, Offbeat Training and blog, Offbeat Online.
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You can sign up for his free monthly newsletter “dedicated to furthering Learnertainment® techniques.”
The newsletter articles focus on his eight Learnertainment® principles and their associated action steps.
The eight are:
• Emotion creates memory – Evoke Emotion
• Laughter produces positive energy – Harness Humor
• Visuals aid retention – Present with Props
• Suggestions guide outcomes – Make it Magical
• Auditory signals trump visuals – Mix in Music
• Multiple perspectives deepen meaning – Layer Learning
• The performance sends a message – Stage the Surroundings
• The performer sends a message – Perfect the Performance
The universe may be constantly expanding, but our world continues to shrink with each passing technological innovation. It’s hard to believe that many of us were born into the arms of the waning Industrial Age, set out on the road of adult life during the Age of Information, and then looked up one day to find that we’d taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque, and ended up somewhere in the middle of the Global Village! With so much changing so fast in our profession, we must be more agile in everything, from keeping up with the latest trends in learning to communicating with teams across our organizations.
Virtual teams allow us to have many hands working on the same project in different locations. The benefits are incredible: increased perspective from diverse team members, shorter turnaround time for projects, and more flexibility in scheduling (which affects how we serve our customers). For all the benefits, the performance of virtual teams is largely influenced by communication. And communication, as we all know, can be facilitated or hampered by technology.
Communicating within a virtual team isn’t difficult with the right tools in place, and you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars for the latest iteration of Sharepoint to be effective. There are several free tools available to get your virtual team moving at full speed. Try Mind 42, a dynamic, free, web-based tool for collaborative brainstorming. Manage your team’s projects with BackPack. For collaborative writing, check out Writeboard, which keeps a version history of documents and it integrates with BackPack. There are several other tools like Basecamp and ZohoPlanner that virtual teams can also leverage.
Take advantage of these free tools and begin to explore the virtues of virtual teams.
These tutorials have also made the rounds but are still worthy of note here for library training. It was Marianne Lenox’s Training 2.0 ning group that first turned me on to them. Produced by CommonCraft, they are called paperworks, a name whose appropriateness will be obvious as soon as you see one.
Currently, there are three of them: Wikis, RSS, and Social Networking –all of them “in plain English” and on plain white paper. I’m a great fan of low tech explanations of technology, not to mention the irony of using paper and crayon to explain electronic communication.
As the newest tutorial, Social Networking is not getting the rave responses of the previous two. Seems to be lacking that “wow!” factor. Is it perhaps that social networking is too complex for this format or, as one commenter suggests, it’s a no-brainer and doesn’t need a tutorial? I’ll let you decide.
The 8th Annual Training Showcase at ALA Annual in New Orleans Going to the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans? Don't miss the opportunity to participate in the training showcase! Who: Trainers, Continuing Education Providers, Vendors of learning/education related products and … [Read More...]
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