It’s National Teacher Day in the US.

I was reminded of this via the Google Groups “Google Teacher Center” group newsletter I am subscribed to.

Some info they shared…

Google is introducing a new section of their Google for Educators site – dedicated to using their most popular Geo Products (Google Earth, Maps, Sky, and SketchUp). They also have classroom activities and starter kits which feature “cool and easy things you can do” with each product in your classroom.

They have also developed a Google docs “getting started” guide – with step-by-step instructions for creating accounts, sharing and collaborating, editing and organizing your work.

Although written for the K-12 educator, some of these resources can be adapted to any group.
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Google Teacher Center Group

Here’s a jibberish generator (called the bloog…originally created for mashing up blogs) that could shouldn’t be used by e-learners to create their own educational game called…”you figure it out.” I’m kidding of course…but, it did make me think about taking text and putting it in a tag cloud to visualize large amounts of text.

Below, I’ve taken notes from a PowerPoint presentation on generational differences and put them in a tag cloud (which may not be viewable in a reader). Is it just me or can you see tag clouds being used to illustrate course “objectives”visually? Just me then, oh well. Via Boing Boing.

accepted appreciate authority boomers change civil classroom comfortable conscious develop discussion don downsizing esp etc flexibility form generation grew group hard interested job learning level life optimism options parents people person practice program reference remember share since skills social soft suburbs technology themselves traditional training value view ways woodstock work

created at TagCrowd.com

Pipl is a ‘deep web’ people search engine. Their 5 facts about social networking sites based on data collected in November & December 2007 is interesting.

You are able to filter their data by location, gender, site, etc. Their methodology is posted here and they do have some notations about their Facebook data – namely, they don’t have it. I hadn’t even heard of Hi5.

If the age distribution charts don’t rock your world, then maybe this little slice of humor I received from my colleague Richard Nantel will.

Well, I don’t know about you but I’m sure more people would want to be interviewed by me if they could speak into a snazzy microphone ring. Imagine the envy of your friends when you are recording impromptu moblogs looking like Inspector Gadget. It seems to be sold out now but hey, still not to late to put it on your holiday wish list. You could also do some stealth recording of uncooperative SMEs in action. Bling. Bling. Etsy :: analogue ring via Shiny Shiny

(aside: can’t we think of something better than “learning professional”?)

My feet are killing me! Working at home, I never wear heels so I am just not used to it. However, being a woman of very short stature, I always wear heels when traveling or attending a business function. Does it matter that one is 5′? What a riot, right? Like 5′ 3″ is an Amazon woman or something. Did I say ouch?

Anyway, I just finished co-facilitating a workshop in Davidson, North Carolina at Ingersoll Rand with my colleague Gary Woodill. We had a group of twenty (perfect I think) for a highly hands-on workshop. Ingersoll Rand University supplied everyone with laptops and loaded them up with many of the no-no’s of corporate America  Skype, Facebook, SecondLife, Blog and Wiki software, etc. As with high-heeled shoes, it’s easy to forget the discomfort of firewalls.

The last time I used a wiki at a workshop I failed to populate it with anything. I expected people to just show up and start partying. I mean *hello* who would come to a dead party? This time, I think I did a better job. I’m not sure why I think training folks are any different when it comes to learning how to use new tools. We need to provide context and reasons other than “collaborate.” All attendees got their own page to take notes and the entire agenda and all necessary materials were there – cocktail franks and all. We had a end-of-session contest and, as a facilitator, it was gratifying to see the wikis used in unique ways and one attendee spent the evening setting one up for his workplace. Suh-weet!

Blogging worked. Instead of taking an hour to get everyone set up with their own blog and then trying to pull them back into the conversation when they just want to write, I live blogged an activity on a big screen as they were presenting it and then they commented (nearly ALL hadn’t done that before and didn’t use a reader). When we returned from a break, someone outside the group had picked up the post and it provided a good example of how blogs connect people.

Of course the real reason the workshop went well was because the attendees rocked, Gary Woodill rocked, and Ingersoll Rand rocked!

I must publicly thank my new friend Charlotte Coyle of Ingersoll Rand University (along with the IT staff and Lynn Palefsky) for managing this event for us and hosting us at their state-of-the-art facility. The North Carolina-style barbeque we all had for lunch was a killer ending. When I finally get home, I’ll be dreaming of Crocs and Uggs, open access, and will be hoping for a chance to go back to Charlotte soon.

It all started with a Wiki. You know. You start one and it becomes all consuming. “Wow, it’s two o’clock already?” or “you guys are on your own for dinner” type of consuming. It’s like starting a blog.

The Brandon Hall Wiki we use internally (actually we have tried several over the past couple of years) is MediaWiki which was written for Wikipedia. This past week though, I’ve been busy exploring other Wiki platforms.

A class I am taking requires me to set up three knowledge bases on learning theories. Some people used PowerPoint, some used Word, a couple had pages on their Websites but I decided to use a Wiki even though this isn’t a collaborative project. I used pbwiki, a wiki designed for educators, and loved it. Nice templates for classes. Easy. (I won’t share my school wiki because I think it sucks right now. After I’ve been graded with an “A,” maybe).

I’m using WikiSpaces for some workshops on Emerging Learning Technologies. I like this platform too. I found that multiple people can’t edit at the same time though, so have set up pages for each attendee to work in. There’s some nice, easy to use plug-ins. I thought since others will be leading the workshop at different times during the year, it’s nice to get the agenda and content out there along with a place for people to work. It’s not done yet either. Of course, that’s the nature of a Wiki. I guess that’s what I like.

This “never done” aspect of collaboration raises some interesting questions when it comes to a class Wiki that is graded. When I turn the knowledge base assignment in (provide a link via the university’s Blackboard LMS dropbox), can I continue to work on it? When does the professor actually review it? It’s a roll of the dice for procrastinators. (I think it would feel like cheating).

My daughter (11) set up her own Wiki this week using WikiSpaces. She was home from school and watching what I was up to on the workshop Wiki. I had her act as a workshop participant and go through my little 10-minute explanation/demonstration on – you guessed it…wikis. I asked her, what do you think? She said, “Mom, can I have one?” (successful training!)

It’s always fun for me to watch a child  learn. She has excellent computer skills and her choice of uploading photos of Beefaroni and a Sphynx labeled ‘things I like’ cracked me up (those running for the award ‘Mother of the Year’ apparently feed children Beefaroni). I imagine she’ll have a fully functional Wiki to share with her friends shortly. (FYI for your kids…parental controls on our PC running with Vista allowed her to set up an account but not access her Wiki. WTF? Anyway, she was up and running in 10 minutes and I removed controls).

And, finally, I’ve been in the Complexive Wiki that George Siemens and Tony Karrer set up for the Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations online conference. It is also on the MediaWiki platform.

In the event you don’t know what a wiki is, here’s one definition:

A Wiki allows web pages to be created and edited using a web browser, usually by multiple people. Wiki software is classified as collaborative software; software that helps people work on a common platform. Wiki software runs the Wiki on a Web server and the Wiki engine implements the wiki technology. Most Wiki engines are open source meaning the code is openly available to the public.

(Here’s a nice comparison of Wiki software and Wiki farms.)

What’s your Wiki favorite?

Looking for peeps…

I’ve been contacted by someone who wants to create a “living document style guide that includes effective best practices for instructional design standards.” He wants to know what components go into a style guide. It’s his first attempt at a style guide and so far he tells me, “it’s about spelling, grammar, and minor style standards.”He wants something comprehensive but I doesn’t know for sure what that looks like. “What components go into a style guide (typically)?”

So… the problem he wants to address is to have consistentcy among the designers when creating or updating training materials/content. His group of three designs their our own in-house facilitator guides, participant guides, handouts, posters and other supplemental resources.

My problem-o? Zero bandwidth. I just can’t find the time to put something together…can you help? If you’ve got stuff on your blog, just pass along the link. I’ll pass it on.

I’ve pointed him to Cathy Moore’s blueprints as a good place to start. What else?

In my quest to find a mouse that is not a mouse (see foot mouse and ring mouse) I stumbled upon this humorous (and politically incorrect) new anvil mouse that’ll be quite useful as we approach the costume-making Halloween season. Via Howl at the Moon. This of course is for my husband who’s the only one ironing in my house…ironing, as if.

Yes, a “creative instructional designer can use PowerPoint coupled with a rapid elearning tool to build very effective elearning courses” says Tom Kuhlmann in his post What Everybody Ought To Know About Using PowerPoint for E-learning on Articulate’s Rapid eLearning Blog. Yes, I know, the post is from a company that sells a rapid elarning tool…and I’m not endorsing it – I just think the post is worth a read. And yes, Tom’s post mentions our conference (he attended) which is how I picked up his post in the first place..geesh enough transparency already, huh?

Next week at this time I’ll be at the Innovations in Learning Conference in sunny Santa Clara. Yay!! Harold Jarche and I will be facilitating a pre-conference workshop (“boot camp”) on Sept. 24.

I’ve found in the past that when I’ve facilitated a ’101′/intro-type/boot-camp workshops, the e-learning readiness of attendees has varied greatly. It makes it difficult to plan. Plus, you generally don’t have a very good idea of who your audience is when you’re offering workshops to the public. To adddress this, Harold and I contacted several attendees last week and – as in my past experience and no surprise – found varied levels of readiness and interests.  We have decided to break many topics down into small chunks and offer them up menu-style to participants. Should make things very flexible and loose. In some ways we’ll be serving up the various dichotomies that we blog about – formal vs. informal, PLEs vs. LMSs, etc. Reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skits with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin…point – counterpoint but (hopefully ; ) without the “Janet, you ignorant *&%!…”

Harold and I have organized and collaborated using Google docs, box.net, email, Skype, telephone, and a conference community (you must be an attendee to be part of the community).

I’ve been getting the conference community up and running over the past few weeks and am happy with the amount of participation and interaction. I think connecting with people before a conference begins can really make a difference in the conference experience. With limited time, it can be difficult to network face-to-face. And that’s a big part of going to conferences. We’re using Leverage Software for the community. It’s exciting to see who’s coming and the people map helps make connections with those who have similar interests.

The people map puts you in the center. People with similar interests are closer to you and you can just hover your mouse of the pin and it’ll show you their profile. From there you can set up meetings, chat, send email, etc. The community also supports polling, chat, advertising, blogging, messaging, and groups. Blogging and group discussions have RSS and email support.

I’ll be blogging live next week – here, in the community, and on the Brandon Hall conference blog. Blogelicious. We’re also using a wiki, twittering, maybe a little Facebook sharing…whatever it takes to keep the the communication channels open. Yay!! You can register here. Here’s my quick connect card for those attending.

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