Spring Blessings

I read my niece's blog a few minutes ago and it made me want to blog. It's only been a few weeks since my last post, so that's progress!

Today is a beautiful Spring day. The flowers began to bloom last week and the grass is lovely. The river is going down to manageable levels without danger of flooding our area, which is another blessing.

I got to video chat with my oldest child today. Having her 10 hours away isn't so bad when I can see her face, even if it is on a video screen.

I've been thinking about changing the name of my blog, but I'm at a loss. Any ideas? Please feel free to respond if you have a suggestion.

Has it been almost a year?

Has it really been almost a year since I last blogged? Well, actually about mine months, but that's still a long time. Especially since I miss blogging. I don't know if I have any readers left out there, but I'm going to come back because it's fun.

This reminds me of my journals. I have several of them started, and I occasionally go back and read them. Most of the entries start something like this: "It's been a long time since I wrote in my journal, but I'm going to be better about it from now on." And then I try to update the highlights of the year since my last entry.

This time is different because I am using an electronic journal. Surely it will be different this time...right?

Graduation

We did it! We graduated today. For some, it was just a couple years. For others, like me, it was closer to five years, and some even longer. It has been a journey that I truly embraced; I loved the classes and collaboration and professors. Every bit of it (well, most of it) has been an excellent part of the process and I'm so thankful to have been given this opportunity. My kids are excited for me that this opportunity is done; my husband is ready to have me home without having to study.

Tonight my six-year old daughter asked me to play a game and I was thrilled to realize that, for the first time, there was nothing else I had to do in that moment. It was a very warm and gushy feeling. To my fellow graduates, congratulations on your accomplishment. I am truly proud of each of you.

Dissemination

Well, we all survived dissemination, and it was actually fun. My husband, parents and oldest child came to support me. My 15-year old didn't want to have anything to do with it, so he babysat the younger two instead.

There were several other students who did studies related to mine, and it was gratifying to see that we came up with similar results.

Almost done!

I just realized that my last post was six months ago. One of the things I am looking forward to doing once I graduate in May is blogging. I have missed posting here, even if no one ever sees it. It is somehow gratifying to see my past comments and even use it as a reference.

I graduate with my master's in Adult Learning and Organizational Performance, which means that I am currently experiencing the birth pains of my thesis. Although I wouldn't have admitted this a month ago, I appreciate the process. I feel that I am a better writer than when I began this process, and for that I am thankful.

Facebook

Greetings! My technology voyage continues; I have recently been getting into Facebook. I have been connecting with people that I haven't seen in years and some that I don't see often enough. I have been able to connect with family members in a whole new way. I assume if you are reading this that you have computer access, so if you haven't set up a Facebook account yet, you should really check it out. There is some measure of privacy available, in that you can set your privacy to allow only friends to see your stuff, your friends and their friends, or anybody who cares to look.

I'm back

Hi everyone - whoever that may be. I have missed blogging and decided that there was no reason I couldn't blog, just because the emerging technologies class is done. If any of you out there have any interest in the subject of collaborative technology, I encourage you to check out the class at Drake University.
Since I last wrote, I have taken the needs analysis and evaluation class and am currently taking Leadership Essentials and Organizational & Political Savvy, both with Dr. Westbrook. There is a TON of work, but it's good stuff. I pretty much work, eat and sleep a little, and do homework. My kids are excited to know that I will be done with homework in 10 1/2 months. Woo hoo!
I have also purchased my first mac since I finished class, and I love it. It has a lot more functionality for the techie stuff I like to do. If you don't have one, you should check them out.
This is kind of lame for a first post, but it's after midnight and my brain cells are rebelling. Good night and blessings to you all.

Vodcasts

Today has been another banner day in the technologies for learning arena. I have painstakingly learned how to create a vodcast AND download it to my iPod. I am now trying to figure out how to do the RSS feed without feeding my whole blog. I just want to know how to syndicate specific files. If any of you have suggestions, I am open to trying them.

To create my first vodcast, I started with a PowerPoint that had each term and formula from chapter one of CPCU540: Finance for Risk Management and Insurance Professionals. I used Audacity to record myself reading the terms as I advanced the PPT slides and saved the voice as a separate file, which I originally added to the PPT file.

Through trial and error, I discovered that if I saved all slides as jpeg images, I could import them into Windows Movie Maker, then add the audio there. I also finessed my timings there, then created the movie, which saved it in a .wmv format. From there I used my Cucusoft converter, which I bought last year to convert my purchased CDs and DVDs to iPod files. This automatically created an mp4 file, which I then went to iTunes and imported. It's not in the iTunes store, so I'm the only one that can access it.

I'm really glad we had the discussion on the last weekend about copyright. This is something that I have always been very conscientious about, but there were some good reminders and great information. Because of that session, it occurred to me that I couldn't just use this content to make my own podcasts and distribute them without permission because the definitions are the words of someone other than myself. That could have been embarrassing, at a minimum.

This was the thing I was most excited to learn about when I signed up for this class, and I finally got it. I am checking into getting these distributed, so I don't know where these vodcasts will live in the future. Even if nothing comes of it, I will have had a great learning experience and I will be able to study for my CPCU540 test in a new and exciting way. Stop laughing, it's true.

It's all coming together

I have had several successes this week in the eLearning Technology arena. To set the stage, my employer has hosted a Trainers' Institute for at least six years as a live, face-to-face event. However, budget cuts eliminated that this year. In an effort to keep the momentum and learning of that event, my team decided to put on a virtual event. For 4-5 hours each day this week, we are offering 60-90 minute sessions via WebEx by Fugent. We have a broad range of topics and have made full use of WebEx's meeting manager capabilities.
Since we don't have Training Center on WebEx (not yet, anyway, but we are working on it), for one of the sessions we had breakouts where we divided participants into four groups and gave three of them different phone numbers to call. One group stayed with me, we all stayed in the online session so we could communicate via chat, and each team had their own group of white boards. It was really awesome to see it all come together.
Anyway, I offered a 60-minute session on eLearning Trends, which I recorded. It was very well received, and I am going to see if I can use it for my final project for this class. I had planned on something else, but I have copyright issues and may not have them resolved in time. A side benefit of the class today is that at least one person wants to take this class because I talked about it in my session.
I am still doing the other project for myself, but may not be able to make it available on my web site. That is actually one of my other aha's, which occurred just moments ago. I figured out that instead of recording sound directly into PowerPoint, which will probably make a huge file size, I made the sound recording separately, as an mp3, and added it as a sound object to the PowerPoint. Now all I have to do is time each slide to see how long it takes to read it, then set the animation to advance the slide automatically after that many seconds. It is time consuming, but I believe it will be worth it.
Even though our class is coming to a close, I feel like my learning journey is just beginning. When I think about how far I have come in the weeks since we started, I am filled with anticipation that I can't explain. I have to wonder if it's not a little like an explorer feels when confronted with the reality of his journey and the vastness of what he has yet to learn. As Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise would say, "Make it so."

Links

As my fellow classmates know, I had a bad experience at a local computer store. One of the many consequences of this experience is that I lost all of my favorite web sites. To hopefully prevent that in the future AND share them with you, I am starting to add them to my blog. I will probably need to organize them differently as I get more links, but this will get me started. The TechRepublic and Kim Komando links both provide tech help; I have found TechRepublic invaluable. I hope you are able to make use of them, too.

Duh!

I didn't realize how much I had been crowding my head with new information until today. Have you ever had one of those "Duh!" moments? In the spirit of self-disclosure and a good laugh for my classmates, I will tell you about it. I struggled so much with getting the mp3 capabilities before we talked about it in class that I think I had blinders on. I posted on Robin's class blog that I couldn't make LAME work. That's because I was being lame. I wasn't pointing it to the right file in the computer, but it looked like I was. When I tried again today, after several days away, I was actually embarrassed. Luckily there was no one here to see me, but you will feel my shame into eternity, since I am blogging it here. Luckily I have an audience of 17, so it will be short-lived, I hope.

Anyway, I managed to get a couple posts out there on my web site, so enjoy it and know that persistence pays off.

Audio files

I finally received my Microsoft LifeChat 3000 (that sounds like a product name straight out of the sixties...from what I've heard), and it sounds beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that it creates lovely files that are too big for this free web tool to accept. I have been working on my own web page through my internet provider, Mediacom. I think I will try it there, and if it works, I will create a link here.

My first audio

I'm so excited! I have FINALLY learned how to create and upload a podcast. Woo hoo! Click here to have a listen. Be warned, there were 15 other people in the room doing the same thing at the same time, so the background noise is easier to hear than me for most of it.

Collaboration is everywhere, if you look for it.

I was in a Microsoft Access Database design class at work for the last two mornings. The instructor asked if anyone had a database in mind that she could use as an example for the class to practice on. I actually do have one, so I shared the details and the class asked questions and brainstormed on fields that I would need to include. It struck me that this exactly the kind of collaborative learning that is the focus of our class.

YouTube

How cool is this - I was on YouTube to show my mom a couple videos (Mom's Overture and Pachelbel Bedtime), when I happened onto a great video of laughing babies one of my favorite Christian Comediennes, Chonda Pierce. The cool part is that I found my niece on YouTube! Her husband Jonathan is very talented with AV stuff, and he made a video of her for a class election. Technology is amazing!

SecondLife

Ok, so I got invited to SecondLife, so I signed up for an account. I had a really funny experience my first time in. I'm standing in the virtual street and other people pop up. I am standing with my back to the screen and there is another person in front of me. One of us moves a little and I see that the other person is wearing a tee shirt and undies. I ask him a question, which I think is how he realized that I was there. As soon as I typed my question in the chat box, he took off as fast as he could off-screen. I'm sure it was his first time too; he either hadn't figured out how to put clothes on or hadn't gotten there yet.
The thing I found interesting, though, is that he was embarrassed about his Avatar's lack of clothing. He was shy, as if I could tell who he was. It was an interesting revelation for me, and I'm not quite done processing it. Clearly he was projecting his own feeling of exposure to his Avatar. I'm sure that is not uncommon and I wonder; is SecondLife just about creating a new identity, or seeing your current identity played out in front of you?

Interesting Facebook blog posting

Ok, I was going to take a break tonight from this class and just work on CPCU and CPLP, but I decided to check out my google reader and found this article that I wanted to share with all of you. It's an interesting read on using Facebook as a learning platform. Basically, the author's premise is that we should go where the people are. What a concept! Here's the link:

http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2007/10/facebook-as-learning-platform.html

This is the first blog posting of his I have read, so I don't know what else his site has to say. Happy reading!

By the way, I have some toys for you. I found them on Microsoft.com. I highly recommend spending some time out there with keyword searches for templates. It's addictive!

15-Minute PowerPoint Timer

10-Minute PowerPoint Timer

1-Minute PowerPoint Timer

5-Minute PowerPoint Timer

Boca Raton, FL

Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to attend a training session to learn about a new online learning development tool, Lectora 2007. The class was held in their Boca Raton office, which is a couple miles from the ocean and miles of beaches. I say blessed because not only did I get to learn a lot about using the tool and I was in a beautiful place, but my husband got to join me. I am going to see if I can add the photos to my actual site, but if I can't, I will add a new post so you can see them.

One particular photo I wanted to comment on is the picture of the choppy waves. My husband and I, on the first full day, spent the day at the beach, playing in the ocean. I had a teachable moment for both of us. We hadn't been in the water very long, and I had already lost my sunglasses (thankfully not the prescription ones!) and almost drowned more than once. I do well enough balancing on land, but an ocean with constant wave motion is another. My husband taught me how to stand and lean into the water and let it carry me a little bit instead of fighting to maintain my balance. Once I figured it out, I decided I no longer needed to cling to his hand for survival.

He made a comment about me letting go of his hand, and I had to remind him that standing in the water was a learning process for me. Once I had observed and practiced the technique, I was able to do it on my own, just like anything else that has to be learned. I wish I had learned that lesson BEFORE I lost my brand new sunglasses. However, I got them for $1 instead of the $10 on the pricetag, so I feel that was an inexpensive lesson.

It turned out to be one of those perfect days, and I have a very funky tan pattern by which to remember it.

Free tip: If you are going to be standing on an extroardinarily windy beach to apply sunscreen, make sure it's not the spray-on kind.

Resources to share

I have just learned a valuable lesson: don't pull up a favorites list in the middle of writing a blog and click on a saved link in order to copy it into your blog. When you go back to your blog entry, you will get to start over! You will never see exactly what I said the first time, as I'm sure I won't remember it perfectly. It went something like this.

I have spent a lot of time researching podcasting lately, among other things, and I have run across some resources that I thought I would share with you.

http://www.alice.org/
I haven't tried this out yet, but it is a free 3d environment created by Carnegie Mellon University.

showme.physics.drexel.edu/bradley/BradleyTeachingACSMarch07/BradleyTeachingACSMarch07.ppt
I ran across this PowerPoint presentation today while looking for podcasting resources. The subject matter isn't important; he is sharing his eLearning methodology and some definitions of different eLearning terms. For some reason the link isn't working here, but if you copy and paste it into your web browser, it should bring up a dialog box asking if you want to open the file.
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
Also, another great web site but not training related, per se, is University of Michigan's American Sign Language Browser. It's an online dictionary that shows streaming video of someone signing the word you click on. It's awesome!

I have more but will need to share them later.

More tools

I just returned from a two-day beginner and intermediate training session on a new CBT design tool. I made an interesting discovery. I had taken their five-part on-line CBT to learn the tool, but finished the CBT without knowing how to create anything. The CBT's major shortcoming is that it didn't allow for any practice, and the parts weren't consistent. I didn't have a completed title to show for it. Going to the class and building a title myself gave me the confidence to begin a new title myself. Which I tried to do today, but couldn't access the tool because of some funky computer settings. I need to have my people talk to their people to make it work, but I am looking forward to being able to put my newfound knowledge to work.

On a deeper level, it gave me a very real-world example of how important interaction and practice are in any learning. CBTs are fine, but opportunities for practice need to be included or it's just fact regurgitation. I need to remember this experience as I continue building training interventions for others.