Next Generation Learning Challenges is a collaborative, multi-year initiative created to address barriers to educational innovation and the potential of technology to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States. The organization, in partnership with EDUCAUSE and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, provides investment capital to expand the use of proven and emerging learning technologies. The aim is to collect and share evidence of what is effective and to foster a community of innovators and adopters, hopefully resulting in a robust pool of solutions and greater institutional adoption and ultimately improve the quality of learning experiences in the United States.
On Monday, NGLC announced their first cycle from their third wave of grants: $750,000 in pre-launch grants to five middle and high school developers that will open new schools in Fall 2012. The grantees were required to clearly demonstrate that their instructional models incorporate technology to personalize students' learning experiences and their business models can support sustainable expansion or adoption plans. This cycle focused specifically on breakthrough models for college readiness, and while reading their website and press release I found some startling information.
While preparing a training session on conducting effective webinars, I read The New Virtual Classroom by Ruth Colvin Clark and Ann Kwinn. When I give presentations, I always have handouts for note-taking ― in part, because I always take notes when I’m in a learning environment. I was really surprised by what the authors had to say about note-taking in webinars and other learning events.
According to the Project Management Institute, 75% of projects annually come in over budget or run past deadlines, adding up to a loss of over $75 billion. E-Learning projects are at a high risk for delays and cost overruns because they are complex to manage. E-Learning projects are actually two projects: a software project combined with a training project. This means greater scope, more stakeholders, increased risk, and significant opportunities for communication to fail.
Scenario: You have a client that wants cutting edge training, but they don't have a budget for multimedia - a macaroni and cheese budget with caviar dreams! You've overused the same graphic images in your arsenal already and you don't have the time to scour through the many "free" stock image sites online for the perfect representations. What are your options?
ASTD'sTechKnowledge 2012 Conference (#astdTK12) was held in Las Vegas January 25-27, 2012. TechKnowledge is the premier conference for people who create, deliver, and manage E-Learning). Couldn't make it this year? Luckily there is a strong backchannel that allows you to find and learn from the many resources found at the conference.
First, what is a backchannel? In this context, a conference's backchannel is a collection of twitter comments, blog posts, chat room discussions, and even Youtube videos related to the conference. It is typically posted by attendees to the conference.
David Kelly is one of the best information curators for learning conferences. You see his ASTDTechKnowledge 2012 Conference Backchannel on his blog. While there, be sure to check out the other conferences that David has gathered resources for.
Graphic file size and format are topics that did not interest me when I started using software to create and manipulate images for the web. However, a little bit of experience demonstrated the need for some basic understanding of factors related to the way my images displayed on a computer monitor. The smaller the file size, the faster the image loads in a browser. When I create online training, I want pages to load as fast as possible. Optimizing images for the web is the subject of this blog posting.
The pixel is a concept you need to understand in order to comprehend computer monitor resolution and color depth. Both factors influence the way your online courses appear. If you don't consider pixels as they apply to monitor resolution and color depth, you may make some unintended mistakes.
Selecting a color scheme and designing graphics are important considerations for creating web-based training. Professional visual communicators use powerful software such as Adobe®Illustrator and Photoshop to design course templates and create graphics. These programs have a steep learning curve. The complexity of the programs makes them difficult to use if you work with graphics sporadically. When we use graphic software, we often focus on accomplishing our goal (e.g., airbrush over the blemish on my chin or whiten my teeth) and we are not interested in the technical foundation such as file format, file size, and color modes. However, understanding technical information enables you to optimize graphics for web use. This blog posting is about color models.
Bill Taylor's post on the Harvard Business Review's Blog Network really got me thinking this week. The question he poses is whether you are learning as fast as the world changes, and Taylor leaves readers with three takeaways, centered around the idea of diversity in learning:
The best leaders (and learners) have the widest field of vision. Avoid stale sources of information, and take a cue from Steve Jobs: diverse interests inspire innovation.
The best source of new ideas in your field can be old ideas from unrelated fields. R&D could be interpreted as "rip-off and duplicate" as easily as the more traditional research and development.
Successful learners work hard not to be loners. Being a great leader takes enough ambition to address tough problems, and enough humility to be willing to learn from everyone you encounter.
How is it possible with the explosion of the internet that we could be getting less diverse views and information?
MicroAssist's years of experience developing E-Learning have taught us how vital project management is. E-Learning projects are more complex to manage than traditional learning projects because they involve technology and training. There's more risk, more time constraints, more budget pressures, and more potential for communication failure. We are dedicated to using our experience to help E-Learning project managers find success (check out our workshop on the topic!). We've asked our project manager to share pet peeves as the first step to making project managers' lives a little less stressful.
Scenario: You have a client that wants cutting edge training, but they don't have a budget for multimedia - a macaroni and cheese budget with caviar dreams! You've overused the same graphic images in your arsenal already and you don't have the time to scour through the many "free" stock image sites online for the perfect representations. What are your options?
MicroAssist's