Virtual meetings as the first choice?

new headset.jpeg

cc licensed flickr photo
Here in the UK the snow continues to fall, and yet another face to face meeting is cancelled. I had a quick chat with the other person involved and we’ve now arranged to hold the meeting at the same time as originally planned, but via Skype. Simple.
So why didn’t we just do that in the first place?
As someone professionally involved in virtual communication and collaboration, I regularly look for oportunities to do things online rather than in person, and yet it surprised me how many times in the past year I’d met with people face to face when maybe it could have happened virtually.
I think we tend to assume that certain types of meeting and event should happen in person, and as a result we don’t consider all the options.
Going forward I’ve resolved that for myself, virtual options will be the first I consider. That doesn’t mean I don’t intend to do anything in person (far from it), but where the inconvenience of travel, time and location outweigh the benefits of meeting in person I think it’s right to question doing it any other way.
What I’d really like to know is what you think.
Are there any particular circumstances when we shouldn’t even consider doing things virtually? I’m thinking about this in the context of meetings, interviews, training activites, conferences and any other event where the default behaviour is to do it face to face.
Similarly I’m thinking of the whole range of virtual solutions from VoIP to Telepresence, whatever is appropriate.
So why don’t we just consider doing things virtually as the first option?

Geanium is sheer genius

Describes Geanium, a digital content-creation tool.

Last week at Online Educa 2009 in Berlin I was struck by a really innovative tool for developing time-based digital content that originates from Croatia. It’s called Geanium, a system that’s designed to ‘analyse, visualise and compare historical or any other time-sequenced data’.
geanium
The demo I saw showed a detailed map of Europe which could be explored against a historical timeline. At each point in time, major events were shown on the map at the place in which they occured. Each event could then be explored further using additional multimedia resources.
This is the sort of interactive content you could play with all day. I’m not sure if I’ve found an application for the tool which I can use yet, but I’m certainly going to be happy if I find one!

Graphics tablets bring whiteboards to life

Reviews the potential of graphics tablets as input devices for web conferencing whiteboards.

wacom 
Last week at Online Educa 2009 I stopped by at the Wacom booth to take a look at their latest range of graphics tablets. I was interested because they’ve started to promote their hardware as a useful aid for anyone running live web conferencing sessions. A graphics tablet is a far superior drawing device to a mouse and much better suited to sketching on an electronic whiteboard. If a facilitator adds a tablet to their kit, they’ll be able to work on-screen much as they do on a conventional whiteboard or flip chart. I reckon that could make a very significant difference in terms of engaging learners and break the reduce our dependence on PowerPoint slides. I’ve got a small Wacom tablet tucked in a drawer, so I’ll be dusting that down before my next live session.
Wacom have prepared a free white paper on the use of graphics tablets in web conferencing, which can be downloaded here.

Ten commandments of social media

Ten commandments of social media.

Robb Clarke has posted these excellent 10 Commandments of Social Media :

  1. Thou Shalt Not Be a Narcissist
  2. Thou Shalt Listen to What Others Are Saying
  3. Thou Shalt Not Spam
  4. Thou Shalt Say Something of Substance
  5. Thou Shalt Not Abuse Thy Neighbour
  6. Thou Shalt Give Credit Where Credit is Due
  7. Thou Shalt Learn How to Spell (or at least use a spell checker)
  8. Thou Shalt Use Real Words
  9. Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness
  10. Thou Shalt Not Be a Friend Whore

Learning and Skills Group webinars: a success story

A look at the webinar series run by the Learning and Skills Group.

Those looking for a good model to follow when it comes to running webinars could do worse than to look in on the series of events run by the Learning and Skills Group (LSG). Although fashioned primarily around the needs of attendees at the Learning Technologies conference, all of the webinars are actually available freely to all comers. They must be doing something right because they’ve been running now for many years and attract audiences in the hundreds. So, what do they do well:

  • The sessions are put together and hosted by Don Taylor, a highly experienced conference chair.
  • Don makes sure none of the speakers get into sales mode.
  • Every session is thoroughly rehearsed.
  • They keep to time.
  • The format is kept really simple, with most interactions occuring through text chat.
  • Participants are actively encouraged to use the text chat facility as a back channel and they take advantage of this energetically.
  • All sessions are recorded and the videos made available to anyone.

All of the partners in Onlignment have presented at LSG webinars. Peek back through the archive and you’ll find Phil Green talking about Building e-learning for classroom trainers and Barry Sampson on Social media behind the firewall – the paranoid organisation. My own webinar, held this morning, on bridging the e-learning skills gap, will be available shortly.

Tandberg Shareholders Hold Out For More From Cisco

We recently reported on the news that Cisco had acquired Tandberg, the Norway based video communication business, but it seems they may decide to drop their bid.
Less than 10% of Tandberg’s shareholders accepted Cisco’s $3 billion offer. Cisco have now extended the deadline to 18th November, but have said that if its offer is not accepted by the required 90% of Tandberg’s shareholders, it will withdraw.
This may just be sabre rattling on both sides, but considering that the current offer is a premium of nearly 40% on the current share price, it’s a remarkable show of confidence by Tandberg’s shareholders.
Cisco CEO John Chambers has expressed confidence that the deal will go through, and has reminded Tandberg’s shareholders that they have already walked away from other deals this year where they couldn’t get the pricing right. Bearing in mind that one of the deals they walked away from was with LifeSize, recently acquired by Logitech, and that Tandberg has a 40% share of the video conferencing market, they may not find it so easy to walk away from this deal.

Logitech buys LifeSize

It was announced today that consumer peripherals maker Logitech has bought LifeSize, a video conferencing business based in Austin, Texas.
Logitech is one of the biggest players in the PC peripherals market, producing a wide range of webcams, headsets and microphones, as well as mice, keyboards, and music and gaming equipment.
This is definitely one to watch. If Logitech employs their consumer knowhow to make video conferencing a more affordable option, it has the potential to turn it into a more mainstream tool. Indeed, in their press release they suggest that it is their intention to make video communication as common as voice only communication.
The full press release can be read here.

Adobe beef up Acrobat Connect Pro

News of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro 7.5

Adobe has announced version 7.5 of their Acrobat Connect Pro Flash-based web conferencing service.
The new version will integrate with any audio conferencing provider, allowing organisations to leverage existing investments. Telephone audio can be recorded along with a web conference and streamed to VoIP-only meeting participants. Advanced integrated audio teleconferencing capabilities include call controls, participant management and synchronised recording.
Increased webinar capacity will enable users to engage up to 80,000 participants in high-impact sessions that can incorporate rich media demonstrations, live and recorded video and interactivity.
Additionally, work is currently underway on the Acrobat Connect Pro Mobile application, which will enable meeting participation from mobile devices. The first devices that Adobe is working to enable are the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. And I thought Apple didn’t support Flash!

Digital learning content does not have to mean CBT

Argues the case that it is pointless training l&d professionals to create fully self-contained online courses, a job best left to specialists. However, l&d professionals do need to know how to create simpler forms of digital learning content.

I am becoming increasingly aware of the the need to make clear a distinction between the broad concept of digital learning content, in all its many varieties, and the much narrower idea of interactive tutorials of the traditional CBT (computer-based training) variety.
In the former category I’d put the following:

  • how-to guides
  • slide shows, with or without narration
  • podcasts
  • videos
  • software demos
  • quizzes
  • polls
  • learning games
  • visual aids

I’d say that every l&d professional should have at least a basic level of competence in the design and development of digital learning content, at least those forms of content most relevant to the learning domain for which they are responsible. This is no more than a natural evolution from their traditional responsibility for the production of PowerPoint slides and handouts which support most classroom events.
What this is not saying is that l&d professionals need to be able to create interactive self-study courses which completely replace their face-to-face predecessors. While some trainers will have the aptitudes and interests which will help them to excel in this area, in most cases this will remain a job for specialists. It is much, much harder to create a set of fully self-contained instructional materials than it is to develop the components – the explanations, the examples, the demonstrations, the practice exercises, the assessments.
Unfortunately, most attempts to train l&d professionals in the design and development of digital learning materials begin and ends with the assumption that the end result will be a self-contained tutorial. Because it is typical to try and achieve this in a couple of days with only a minimal amount of practice, these interventions are very unlikely to lead to any useful level of competence and will most likely only reinforce the idea that this is a job to be put out to full-time instructional designers.
What is much more feasible and much more useful is to concentrate on far simpler forms of content:

  • taking an existing slide show and converting it into a self-contained resource
  • using screen capture software to make a software demo
  • using a simple audio editor to record and edit a podcast
  • creating interactive learning resources (Articulate Engage is great for this)
  • developing a quiz
  • taking publicly-available content such as YouTube videos and topping and tailing them to act as learning resources

The way I see it, the idea of rapid e-learning needs to work at two distinct levels:

  • The use of rapid tools and processes by e-learning professionals to create fully self-contained e-learning courses.
  • The development of simple digital learning components by l&d generalists and subject experts, for use as classroom aids, reference materials and elements in blended solutions.

What’s needed is more training and encouragement to support the latter, rather than a futile attempt to develop advanced levels of instructional design expertise across broad swathes of the l&d profession.