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I highly recommend this conference, even if you don’t live in Texas. I loved speaking at it this year and am glad to see my video being repurposed. They are also hosting a special in-world component that should be well worth attending.
Dr. Stephen Covey will be the keynote speaker; that speaks volumes to how well respected a group this is and the value of their conferences.
Thank you Brenda of the TxDLA for all your work!
special thanks to Ener and the iliveisl estate
“Better late than never.”
That expression is surely stretched in this case. I spoke at a conference in Corpus Christi, Texas back in April and created a video to run as a promo between sessions. The presentation was made as a Flash projector file to ensure it would play on any PC. After the conference, I was asked if I would provide a web-friendly version. Being five minutes long, it becomes difficult to export it out as a movie from Flash effectively.
The projector piece was 42 MB, far too large to present well online. But, you can always go back into the flash piece and update the compression settings for all the video clips. Going from 1,100 kbps to 400 kbps on the video clips and dropped the SWF from 42 to 20 MB. Still very large but closer to acceptable.
Being a fan of online tools, I finally decided to let blip.tv handle the conversion and streaming aspect (CODECs are always sketchy when handing off video files to other site). But being able to embed the HTML from blip.tv into any site avoids CODEC issues. So here it is, better late than never!
reposted from the iliveisl blog
subQuark.com has a new simpler landing page created to reflect my current direction.
After being invited to speak at three conferences and two online forums and holding dozens of in-world sessions aimed at the eLearning community in the last year, I am shifting away from the eLearning aspect of Second Life.
The highlight of all that was meeting with two business people at Linden Lab last fall and having my first fish tacos! =)
The video tutorials and resources remain. I am focusing more on custom projects including Second Life builds, sim development, and creating virtual world podcasts of other people’s training. Plus the running of Ener Hax’s social efforts and our virtual land business.
Only the ongoing video tutorials and blogging about how to do it are ending.
Basically, everything you need to know is in my tutorials, resources, and this blog.
Last week we had Oque (David Anderson) from the eLearning Guild doing an online forum presentation from our sims. Visit our flickr stream to see some shots of his setup.
Look for my blogging, as Subquark Hax, on the far more popular iliveisl blog as I ride Ener Hax’s coat tails to fame and glory! Who knows, she may end up on the cover of Wired magazine (thanks Kennedy!).
There was a brief, but good topic, over on Chief Learning Officer Network that I responded to and I wanted to post my response here (that way you don’t need to create a Ning account if you don’t have one and I can refer to this myself in the future). This sums up my opinion of the our focus on technology in eLearning:
I like to keep in mind that these “social media” tools are simply forms of communication. As a past high school and college professor turned eLearning “developer”, I am always a bit put off by how we “eLearning gurus” focus so heavily on these tools. To me focusing on wikis, micro-blogging, and even virtual worlds misses the only thing that has any importance (in my opinion) to education – the content.
Plato taught, arguably, some of the most significant “things” by drawing in sand with a stick. The focus of his teaching is not the technology he used in its delivery; it is his message, his content. Personally, I do not think it matters very much the delivery method. Certainly, some methods reach differently and I do not mean to discount the value of those who study these methods.
If success of the delivery method is measured in engagement and retention, then we should be delivering our content via an American Idol or The Biggest Loser format. Both of which reach millions and are the topics of conversation at water coolers the next day.
My view is that most of us have tools at our disposal that work very well and are inexpensive. Tools such as Windows MovieMaker or Mac iMovie work very well to create video podcasts (remember to offer textual options – especially since you probably have the script or text written). Second Life and OpenSim are almost free alternatives to Maya, Blender 3D, and 3D Studio Max – both in cost and time to develop.
Jay mentions Second Life which is certainly seen as a “Web 2.0″ application and seemingly on the hype cycle’s Slope of Enlightenment and it is a wonderful tool for collaboration and creativity. Many fine eLearning examples can be cited from Second Life. Twitter is also useful in certain forms of eLearning. I am biased towards those two methods because I am active in Second Life (owning 12 sims) and experiment with a few accounts in Twitter (one is in the top 0.7% according to Twitter Grader – for whatever that is worth).
Both those tools are simply forms of communication (like the dry erase board – which somehow missed out in being a focus of much debate in education – much like our current discussions of these social tools). Their use and effectiveness lie in dispensing your content effectively. Japan’s number one novel a few years ago was completely wriitten as 140 character (or less) text messages. The story made it successful (and the delivery did influence it’s feel with concise and impactful writing).
Thank you for the very good discussion and I must disclose that the reason I am in both Second Life and Twitter are as a direct result of Jay Krupp’s open view to delivering content. He epitomizes the open-minded wisdom that allows and encourages developers to look at content, the tools at hand, and (hopefully) produce content that enriches lives, impacts people’s happiness, and leads to greater successes on many fronts.
Jay Krupp said:
Bill you are dead on with the hype cycle. While the industry tries to figure out exactly how to be use this, there are a number of mavens out there that have the recipe. The use of things like virtual worlds has application immediatly, if you can be creative with the approach. I suggest you check out subquark.com . He presented at a number of eLearning Guild conferences. He has put 2.0 in action. His sessions were not all theory as many are, he explained how to do it, in detail.
With branding? Indeed it does. How does that relate to eLearning?
Sooner or later, companies will embrace the need to be transparent as a positive aspect of business. If the company does not, the community will.
The days of controlling your message are gone and those that open themselves to the social community can benefit greatly. Zappo’s is always my “go to” example. They are fully invested in social media including Twitter. They have about 750,000 followers and actively use Twitter as a customer service tool.
For eLearning you may be trying to get the word out about your courses to the external world. This applies to your own internal training as well. After all, if your company values the benefit of internal training, let your external customers know this!
I like knowing that companies I do business with value their employees and give them opportunities to learn how to be better. From my insurance company to my cable provider.
Twitter. Another channel to share your message and build your brand. Using it wisely (none of those “get 10,000 followers in a day” tactics) and you will see an impact on your business.
edit: here is a report on the State of the Twittersphere with interesting findings
Even virtual business benefits from Twitter
