Value of Humor And Play – Max Levin

January 1, 2013 – 9:33 am

Need I say more about how important it is to bring humor and play into Education?

“If play were not pleasurable,
kíttens would never chase each other’s tails, and so would lack
practice in the motor skills needed for survival. If there were no
pleasure in the appreciation of the absurd, if there were no fun
in playing with ideas, putting them together in various combinations and seeing what makes sense or nonsense—in brief, if there were not such a thing as humor—children would lack
practice in the art of thinking, the most complex and most
powerful survival tool of all.” – Max Levin

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Inside the Mind of a Community Manager [INFOGRAPHIC]

December 7, 2012 – 9:38 am

Here’s an infographic illustrating the mentality that not only community managers (those with that official title) but also learning designers, employees, students, EVERYONE in a community need to have. We are ALL community managers and relationship builders.

Investing in relationships, online and offline, is the key activity in this hyperconnected world. Relationships are one of the most important forms of  currency.

We need to have the mindset of every action (again, online and offline) being that of investing more of this currency into our knowledge economy. So, let’s put on the hat of community managers. Take a step toward being a meaningful relationship investor.

It’s now about the “media” in social media. It’s about the social, not matter what media. It’s about relationships that can be fostered through different medium types (media). Don’t get the “media” confused with electronic objects/assets… media as in means, medium.

Let’s all treasure our communities.

What does that mean to us Learning professionals? Let’s foster discussions in our different social media channels, let’s consolidate groups, let’s share best practices for creating communities and better utilizing the relationships we have across the board.

Let’s make it easy for people to communicate openly, let’s clean up, let’s facilitate, mediate, instigate…

</rant>

 

Tags , , , , , | Category eLearning 2.0 Infographics social media Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comment (1)

Two Videos on The Future of Education

November 26, 2012 – 9:13 am

70:20:10 by Charles Jennings

An introduction to the differences between types of learning and how they come together.

(Designing) The Future of Learning

Although from a more academic perspective, this video provides a great overview of future learning models in this hyperconnected world. A brief history of Education and its start, and an overview of where we should be headed…

 

 

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Thank you for a great career

November 19, 2012 – 10:02 am

It’s Thanksgiving week here in the United States. It seems all the most appropriate that I acknowledge those that kick-started my career in Instructional Design (in corporate America).

Soon after moving to the US (2006 – after a month working at Chick-Fil-A, which was my pleasure), I met Steve Brandau and Larry Howick who were marketing a revolutionary Technology-Assisted Language Learning program (appropriately named TALL) especially in the APAC market. My initial task was to write up a report (after a lot of research) on how their recently released program compared to others in the market (such as that one named after the famous tablet). It didn’t take long for them to recognize (some sort of) potential in me and I was hired as a trainer and instructional designer for their company. I got to design. develop, deliver training around the world. An amazing experience. Coming from a poor family in Brazil, I never thought I’d see Hawaii or climb the Great Wall of China, which I only saw on my 14-inch screen TV growing up.

Then came the ASTD conference in Atlanta in the summer of 2007. Karla Brandau, Steve’s wife, couldn’t attend the last day. I borrowed her badge then (not sure it was against the rules). In any case, I only had time to attend one last session that day: Charles Beckham, Karie Willyerd, and Kelly Palmer from Sun Microsystems (which I had heard of because of Java but didn’t know how big it was, coming from Brazil). Their session was titled “The Power of The People: Learning Revolution 2.0“, and in it, they described the paradigm shift social media and collective intelligence brought to the Web in the mid-2000s.

If you don’t believe in God, you have to at least admit that something special, a miracle, happened that day as the four of us met. I think God had a purpose for that day. I’m thankful for having met these human beings.

I came to the event with no intentions (sorry guys: not knowing who you were then – having come late, as a typical Brazilian, to the session, I missed the intro), enjoyed seeing them talk about my passion (social media – Charles was demoing Ning then)… I’ll never forget coming up to them and telling them about a lot of other websites I came to use throughout the years and how useful they could be for learning…

Then, a couple of weeks later, I came across a blog post by Charles… I was flattered by the title and its contents: “A Brazilian’s Take on Web 2.0“. I didn’t consider that Charles would remember me, let alone the list I gave him at the end of the session.

Then, months later, a call from Brandon Carson… he wanted me to fly into Denver, CO for an interview. That was around January of 2008 or so. MONTHS later, Charles, Karie, and Kelly had remembered me and told Brandon, the hiring manager (who then became my mentor) to interview me.

The story goes on. But to summarize it, in a few words: I feel so blessed to have met you all, worked with you over these years, having been giving a chance to further my career. You inspire me to give back to the Learning community and to the world in ways that I’ve been embraced by you.

… you gave me a chance to have the BEST JOB I’ve ever had…

THANK YOU!!!

Karie Willyerd Charles Beckham Kelly Palmer Brandon Carson

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Edutaining Airline Safety Videos

November 14, 2012 – 3:47 pm

Dying on a plane crash is one of my nightmares. I am afraid of flying on commercial aircrafts, it’s tense. So, why not catch my attention in that sweaty-palm moment with a fun little video about air travel safety? I’m already tense enough to be bored by the traditional video segments.

Here’s to the airlines that like to break tradition and provide more engaging educational videos to their passengers:

 

 

 

 

Category eLearning 2.0 instructional design Life in General Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

Learn Anything in Real Courses – For Free Or For a Fee

October 12, 2012 – 10:41 am

I’m always looking at/for new ways to learn things or for a flexible way to learn things my way. One thing I am always looking out for is informal learning opportunities, be it in the form of a Youtube video, a Pin on Pinterest, talking to a friend on Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin (the big 3), finding a useful document on Scribd.com, the list goes on.

Also very interesting, however, is the rise of curated and organized “class” experiences on the Web that are open to anyone (it seems some of my not-so-crazy predictions for 2012 were correct after all). You may know from this post that I have a bit of a disappointed attitude (to put it politely) with universities claiming they have “open content” out there for anyone to take, when all they do is put up a lecture in formats like podcast, PowerPoint files or videos. Top-down approach at its best with no participation. It’s a step in the right direction but not the “best” way (disclaimer: what’s “best” for me might not be “best” for you, take this comment with a grain or two of salt).

That’s why I get really excited when I see opportunities to learn “with/from” others and share what I know as well in “class” experiences on the Web.

I recently took a Gamification course on Coursera, delivered by Prof. Werbach from the University of Pennsylvania. The class was setup as a series of short asynchronous video lectures, interactive quizzes, and peer-reviewed written assignments. A university-level course with a lot of interaction with peers and the professor, open, free of charge.

There are many opportunities for professional development out there these days, and not all of them mean “I’m sitting alone at home watching a boring lecture on Youtube” (no offense – those have their place too).

As forward thinking individuals and companies, let’s take advantage of these opportunities and learn, spread knowledge. Let’s DELIVER classes and share with the world what we know (a call for myself too). Let’s support employee professional development by encouraging our employees to take full advantage of learning opportunities online and offline.

Recently, Laura, a colleague put it in her professional development plan to take a course to improve specific skills. The company fully supported her in doing so. This is the type of forward thinking organizations need to have nowadays, in the 2020 Workplace!

Here are a few of the 1000s of places where you can learn something in a structured course, online, for a fee or for free… openly. Go learn something new today!

Coursera: Instructor-led and peer-reviewed University courses available for free, providing certificates of completion! Watch videos, participate in discussions, submit written assignments, respond to quizzes. According to the Coursera team: “We hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. We want to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.”

Udemy: Curated and instructor-led courses online. Some are free others are not (but well worth paying for)!

General Assembly : “A global network of campuses for individuals seeking opportunity and education in technology, business, and design.”

Class Central: A curated list of several free online courses offered by universities on various platforms.

Udacity: Video lectures for free accompanied by problems/questions and answers, and exams. Udacity also offers certificates of completion!

SkillShare: A catalog of hybrid and local classes offered by experienced instructors.

CodeCademy: A gamified and fun way to learn code and programming with friends online!

 

More similar sites here. Explore, learn, teach, have fun!

Category eLearning 2.0 learning social media University | Permalink | Comment (0)

Live and Recorded Demos and Screensharing from iOS to Desktop

August 27, 2012 – 5:23 pm

I am a gadget, app hoarder. I always get excited when a new app solves a problem at work or in life in general that has no-one was able to solve before.

I’ve often needed to show family and friends (who are far away) how to do things on the iPhone (or iPad, or i-whatever for that matter). At conferences, I’ve had to demonstrate an application using a table-top projector and (not-so-great) camera gadget. At work, teaching people how to use certain apps for business is essential.

Now, it’s relatively easy to do live or recorded demos of applications and iOS workflow using mirroring apps/servers.

These applications use AirPlay to show on your desktop (Mac or PC) your real-time iOS screen in a shell/skin that looks like your actual device via “mirroring.”

In a quick search for apps that would mirror iOS to the Mac or PC, real-time, I’ve found the following so far:

Educators and training professionals will be all over this… Right?

How will YOU use mirroring to demonstrate apps and teach?

AirServer App

AirServer App - for illustrative purposes only.

 

 

Thanks Brandon, for the tip on Reflection App.

 

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Skype in the Classroom

June 5, 2012 – 9:19 am

Skype has changed the way I communicate with my family (who lives in Brazil). When I was dating my wife long-distance, in between international trips to see each other, we communicated via instant messaging (Yahoo! Messenger), email, and expensive phone cards. That was mid-2000s, video chat wasn’t available, let alone video chat via mobile devices! Fast forward to 2010, and now Skype offers video calls on the iPhone: and since I’ve been living in the U.S. for years, I can not only talk to my family in Brazil for free but also show them where I live!

Now Skype aims at changing the way the classroom sees the world and interacts with it too.

Skype in the Classroom is a project that wants to connect teachers and students with professionals out there for live video conferencing sessions. It provides an online community that allows teachers to share projects and find people that want to contribute to them. Skype has also partnered with organizations to provide expertise, be it in the form of a quick Q&A with an expert at a certain field, tagging along a professional doing their job, or having an author perform a book reading for students.

Skype in the Classroom also has a Resources section where teachers can share materials and articles to support lessons in a variety of topics. Content, can be searched and filtered by Age Group, Language, Country, and  Category.

Projects can be searched and filtered by age group, language, type of expertise, and category.

This is a great idea to expand the students’ world beyond the walls of the classroom by using a free tool!

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Mowing the Lawn Can Help with Productivity

April 14, 2012 – 5:02 pm

Proven fact: mowing the lawn can make you focus on what matter and increase productivity.

Well, maybe the research might not point to mowing the lawn exactly but activities that have nothing to do with work help ease your mind, get it off of work and manage stress levels (see Weinberg, Sutherland & Cooper, 2010) . It is perhaps when you’re away from the desk that the best creative ideas come. Like when you’re taking a shower, that epiphany-soaked shower (pun anyone?).

I recently bought a riding lawn mower. Living the Southeast of the US (Georgia), there is a lot of yard work to be done. I got tired of pushing the push-mower for hours in a row. Well, in reality, I just thought riding a riding mower would be fun. Surprise: indeed!

Aside from hobbies and mindless work, fitness programs and exercises should also be seen as a priority at the workplace, as a way to increase productivity, decrease illness-related absenteeism, diminish the effects of stress on employees, along with several other benefits (Theobald, & Cooper, 2011). Working remotely, I have to say it is a challenge to stay focused on fitness and wellness.

It feels good to say I work at a company that gets it. At SuccessFactors not only do leaders invest in performance management, learning and development, but they seek innovative ways to increase employee happiness and productivity such as the Keas gamified fitness program that has employees cooperate and compete in teams for points, badges, and goods for completing fitness and wellness-related tasks at the office, gym, at home, or wherever they may be. Not only is the program a good example of (simple behavioral) game mechanics applied to the workplace, but it is also a great way to have remote employees bond outside of work.

We need to see learners as whole human beings, not just “students”. Their wellness and health matters. It can make or break a learner’s disposition to learn and apply what they learned. It can influence employee productivity.
Now, let me go back to my weekend. Take the previously mentioned (and much needed, especially after yard work) shower, and can think of not only one but several creative (I’ll let my boss be the judge of that) ideas for work this week.

PS.: Ironically, I guess this week the mindless tasks involved in yard work didn’t help with keeping my mind off of work, writing, tweeting while on the lawn mower… I’ll try again next week…

 

References

Theobald, T., & Cooper, C. (2011). Doing the right thing: the importance of wellbeing in the workplace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Weinberg, A., Sutherland, V.J., Cooper, C.L. (2010). Organizational stress management. Palgrave MacMillan.

 

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[INFOGRAPHIC] – Gamers Get Girls – A Comparison Between Dating Sites and Games

March 21, 2012 – 4:41 pm

Infographics are a relatively new fad. But a good fad: what’s not to like about just the right amount of graphics coupled with just the right amount of textual information and data, all wrapped in a beautiful typographical, visual package? Isn’t that what us in Education strive for: helping others understand and make use of information in practical and engaging ways?

Here’s a fun example a colleague suggested I post here, developed by OnlineUniversity.

Gamers Get Girls
Created by: Online University

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