It also helped that, in writing to me,  the company positioned their software, Meglobe, as a language immersion tool and suggested that Mission to Learn Readers might find it “to be a useful tool to assist in improving their … language proficiency.” In other words, they had taken at least a little bit of time to figure out what might be of interest to readers here.

I don’t know whether the company’s claims about the effectiveness of the application as a language learning tool are valid, but I am at least intrigued by the possibilities.  I’m also interested to see how well it performs initially and how it improves over time - the application is designed to learn as the number of users increases and as users edit the auto-translations that are provided by the technology.

I plan to to test it out for use in the Arabic-English project, so I’ll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, if you try Meglobe or already have experience with it, please share your impressions with other readers in the comments here. 

Also, check out the tutorial video below (click if you don’t see it) as well as a video on how users can edit translations.

Jeff Cobb
Mission to Learn

• 100 Killer Web Accessibility Resources: Blogs, Forums and Tutorials

Click it. Click it now. If you already know about Web accessibility, this is a great link to bookmark on Del.icio.us or whatever you use. If you don’t know about Web accessibility, all the more reason to click it. It needs to be part of your mission to learn.

I’d even advocate giving this one a Digg.

JTC

You can find my list in the Top Tools for Learning section of the site, but I thought I’d also recount it here with a bit more commentary and a few extras. Here goes:

1. Del.icio.us – Del.icio.us has become one of my primary tools for personal knowledge management. Pretty much anything I find interesting and worth returning to is bookmarked there. I’ve been consistently adding to the list I keep here on Mission to Learn in the resources area and have added a number of new tags as well.
2. Google Reader – Another key tool for personal knowledge management and daily learning. I hope to start taking more advantage of some of the sharing functionality soon.
3. Audacity – I’m starting to do much more with audio, and Audacity really is a pretty incredible piece of free recording and editing software. I’ll be speaking at a technology showcase for the Association Executives of North Carolina in a couple of weeks, and Jim Thompson, their Executive Director, and I did a podcast preview for the event using Audacity.
4. iTunes – iTunes, in combination with my iPod, is the source for a lot of the content I listen to and view when traveling. I’m particularly fond of Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast and Sound Opinions from Chicago Public Radio.
5. Slideshare – Perhaps dangerous as a way of proliferating bad presentations, but also a great resources for finding and sharing great content. My Learning 2.0 presentation is posted here. Happy to say it has been viewed nearly 1400 times as of this post.
6. WordPress – My blogging platform of choice and the backbone of Mission to Learn. I prefer to have my own installation rather than using WordPress.com. I’ve been accumulating some WordPress related links on my Del.icio.us account.
7. Ning – I have yet to built a Ning community, but I have participated in a few, and really like this as a tool for setting up a focused social network.
8. PBWiki – A couple of projects I have worked on lately have used PBWiki as a collaboration tool. It’s hard to beat for ease of use. Dave Sabol also recently turned me on to Wik.is and we’ll be using that to collaborate on an upcoming speaking engagement.
9. Articulate Presenter – For the clients I work with, a tool like Articulate is like a gift from heaven. Combined with Quizmaker and Engage, you can transform PowerPoint into a pretty incredible production tool. I mentioned Articulate way back when Tom Kuhlman launched the Rapid E-learning blog. (Funny, when I went back to look at that post I realized I had mentioned Jane Hart and her Top 10 list there.)
10. StumbleUpon – I am a fan of formal and informal learning. I’m also a fan of flat out random learning that can help prompt new ideas and catalyze creativity. StumbleUpon is a great tool for this purpose. I’ve been using it a lot more lately and have come across several items that I have added to my More than 100 Free Places to Learn post.

What else? I mentioned I would throw in some extras. Well, one would be Scribd. In a comment on an earlier posting someone suggested that I post the Learning 2.0 eBook there. I did. Scribd transmogrified it into a Flash file that can be read online. And, of course, you become part of a community when you join Scribd, so you can comment on other postings, mark things as favorites, etc.

In spite of my lousy follow up on my list of 22 Things to Help the Environment from back on last year’s Blog Action Day, I’m still a fan of 43 Things as a learning tool. And perhaps writing about it again in one of my main learning tools - this blog - will inspire me to get back to my list. (Come join me!)

So, what are your favorite learning tools?

JTC

P.S. If you enjoy what you read here on Mission to Learn, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed or use the e-mail subscription form at the top right side of this page.

Well, there are certainly plenty of them our there, and Gabe Anderson over at Articulate’s Word of Mouth blog has recently put together a list of his top eight e-learning blogs. Perhaps not surprisingly, Articulate’s own Rapid eLearning Blog tops the list, but I have to hand it to them–it is a pretty useful blog. I have even written about it before here on Mission to Learn. and it is in my personal list of frequent reads.

In general, there is almost complete overlap between Gabe’s eight and the RSS feeds that I frequently read. Just more evidence of the social filtering that goes on in the blogosophere, I suppose. Stephen Downes, Tony Karrer, and Cathy Moore, in particular, often rise to the top in my daily perusal of postings in the learning world.

There is also a fair amount of overlap between Gabe’s extended list and my broader reading habits, though I might throw in a few others. ZaidLearn, for instance, or eLearn Magazine’s RSS feed. Tom Werner over at Brandon-Hall also has good things to say, and I’ve started keeping up with Ellen Behrens in the association world.

Have a look, and if you have others to suggest–particularly in the nonprofit and association world–please submit a comment with a link either here or on Gabe’s blog.

JTC

• Check out Ellen Behrens’ commentary on the ASAE conference on her aLearning Blog.

• Cathy Moore (whose posting on the humorous I’M IN YOUR LMS presentation was noted earlier on Mission to Learn) has posted a great collection of e-learning samples: “interactive graphics, simulations, and other materials that could give you ideas for your own projects.”

• Finally, slides for an adaptation of the presentation I did for the ASAE e-learning conference are available on Slideshare.Net as well as posted below. The download of these on Slideshare contains the presentation script. Additional resources are available at www.missiontolearn.com/resources.

| View | Upload your own

JTC

JTC

First:

Blog Spottings and Other News

As I have mentioned before on Mission to Learn, how to market and sell e-learning is one of the main areas of concern for my clients. While not specific to online learning (or any other product or service, for that matter), what Seth Godin has to say about marketing in general is worth reading and applying to your e-learning marketing efforts. I’ve mentioned his Purple Cow concept elsewhere. More recently, Godin has jumped on the customer evangelism bandwagon and published a new e-book called Flipping the Funnel. I recommend this as well his recent posting on The Scarcity Shortage . Nonprofit readers may also appreciate the take on this concept at What is Scarce in Advocacy and Campaigns?

Speaking of Purple Cows. I’d like to renew my general call for Purple Cows of the nonprofit online learning world. See E-learning: Where are the Nonprofit Purple Cows, post your examples, and please spread the word.

Now:

Second Life Second Hand

I have been planning for some time now to explore and write about Second Life, but one thing or another has held me back. For those unfamiliar with it, Second Life is a 3D virtual world, or multi-user virtual environment (M.U.V.E) in which participants literally set up a “second life,” complete with a new, virtual identity, and interact with other users in many of the same ways that people interact in a real world, i.e., buying things, selling things, socializing, teach, learning, and so on (with “and so on” including some of the inevitable shadier sides of the Web).

Not the least of the factors holding me back from exploring Second Life has been the sheer amount of time and effort that doing so in any depth would seem to require. I have enough going on in my first life without trying to maintain a second one. Still, the enticement has been strong. When I noticed that Brandon Hall had set up a research office in Second Life I almost made the leap. And when I saw that Karl Kapp was conducting a summer class on Learning in 3D. I was once again almost lured into the light. But still I clung to this life.

Recently I began to think that perhaps my doubts have been justified. In August, Wired published an article portraying Second Life as a virtual wasteland –one that is “slurping up corporate dollars and delivering little in return.” To add insult to injury, Chris Anderson, who is both the acclaimed author of The Long Tail and the Wired editor who commissioned the article, roundly dissed Second Life in a recent posting on his blog and has closed down the magazine’s virtual office there. In the world of higher learning, the Chronicle of Education’s Wired Campus blog has picked up on the debate and is asking what value is being realized by the more than 100 colleges that have set up a presence in Second Life are realizing.

At this point, it might be wiser to join the doubters, spare myself the time and effort of a closer look at Second Life, and move on to other topics. The problem is that much of the debate sparked by Wired, Anderson, the Chronicle and others misses the mark. As some of the commentators on Anderson’s blog have noted (rightly, in my opinion) the Long Tail author himself discounts the potentially large long tail impact of Second Life. Perhaps more importantly from the perspective of education, however, Second Life at this point is primarily an event-driven medium. While it may aspire to being a culture and an economy (and with more than 9 million users, it may be making some progress), what appears to work best there right now is a virtualization of that classic human communication modality—the meeting. Corporations (the main stakeholders addressed in the Wired article) that are expecting big marketing returns and universities that are expecting to build a virtual campus life are almost certain to be disappointed in the short term.

This is not to say that Second Life does not resonate well beyond the virtual walls of a single event, particularly when other social media tools or Second Life-friendly techniques like machinima are used along with it. Indeed, at this point, it probably works best as an educational medium when blended with these other tools. In any case, given the amount of traffic I have seen on the education listserv for Second Life (up to volume 459 as of this posting), what appears to be solid interest in the education track at the Second Life annual conference (37 paper submissions), and a vibrant emerging discussion of the pedagogical value of the 3D medium (see more Karl Kapp, for instance, as well as a recent posting on Educause’s HiredEd blog there appears be ample interest in the potential value of Second Life for learning, if not for marketing.

Of course, whether Second Life itself will ultimately be the delivery medium in which new pedagogical approaches are realized is an open question. A recent posting at TeleRead asks “Could it be, as some have suggested, that you should consider Second Life to be just a set of training wheels for less proprietary alternatives?“ I won’t pretend to have an answer to that one yet, but I am convinced my original plan to explore Second Life first hand is still worth pursuing. As of this posting, I have created my virtual identity (to be revealed at a later time) and am in the process of tricking out my avatar. Stay tuned for dispatches from the virtual frontier soon.

JTC

Books mentioned in this posting:

Still, it would be a bit disingenuous for the average blogger to complain too loudly about this fascination with technology. The array of tools now available is indeed amazing, and it is no wonder that the tools themselves–rather than the results they are intended to achieve–often become the focus of conversation. Today’s Mission to Learn posting certainly leans in that direction—though I hope with a little insight into why the particular tools mentioned might be of strategic value.

First up, I want to mention two new resources from Articulate Global, makers of Articulate Presenter, one of my personal favorites among e-learning authoring tools. Articulate recently launched The Rapid E-Learning Blog and simultaneously published a new, free e-book by itshost, Tom Kulhman, titled An Insiders Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-LearningPro. For those unfamiliar with rapid e-learning, my personal definition of it is that it takes advantage of easy-to-use authoring tools and a well-defined, templated development process to produce reasonably high quality e-learning experiences in a short period of time. For organizations that must supply a constant stream of new knowledge and learning to an employee or membership base, a “rapid” approach to e-learning
can provide not only speed but affordability.

If you feel that some of the terms within my definition above are vague, I am certain you are not alone. “Rapid e-learning” is a somewhat slippery term, and in recognition of that fact, the current posting on the Articulate blog (August 21) is titled “What’s the Definition of Rapid Learning? You Decide.” There is only one comment so far, but readers from the nonprofit world may appreciate that part of the definition offered in the comment is “…no need to wait for a bunch of committees.”

The blog looks like it will be a good resource. As for the book: I have not yet had time to go through it thoroughly, but it too looks good—particularly given that it is free. Like most resources of this type, it is geared towards internal-facing e-learning initiatives rather than the external-facing initiatives that are more common among membership organizations. Nonetheless, most of the advice in it can be applied in either scenario. To get a copy of the book, you have to subscribe to the blog (a bit annoying for those of us who prefer RSS, but hey, it’s a small price to pay.)

Both the blog and the book can be found at http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/.

On other fronts, I became aware last week of a posting by Rosetta Thurman on her blog, Perspectives from the Pipeline, titled “Blogs as Online Learning and Low Cost Nonprofit Professional Development.” In her posting, Rosetta addresses the merits of online learning, explains briefly what blogs are, and offers her perspective (naturally) on why blogs can be effective learning tools for nonprofit professionals. A sampling:

…they are a very accessible entry point to begin learning about particular fields and topics using a non-intimidating Web 2.0 tool. Blogs are a fantastic alternative to traditional classroom learning because most bloggers are publishing content that is on the leading edge of the field, not old techniques found in outdated textbooks. Readers are getting the best, real-time information on a topic with the opportunity to further engage the blogger through comments or email to learn even more from their expertise.

Take a look at Rosetta’s blog for more. It is well worth the visit.

A couple of closing items:

For those interested in learning management systems (and if you are interested in measuring the outcomes and strategic impact of thee-learning you are offering, you should be interested in learning management systems), Talent Management magazine will be offering a free Webinar on September 12 at 2:00 PM eastern titled Selecting an On-Demand LMS: A Litmus Test for Separating Hype from Reality in the World of SaaS. The session will be lead by well-known e-learning consultant Josh Bersin of Bersin & Associates. (For those unfamiliar with the acronym “SaaS” stands for Software as a Service.)

Finally, since we have talked about various other tools and resources today, I thought I’d mention one that has been popping up on other blogs lately. Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has been asking learning professionals to contribute a list of their top 10 tools. At last count, more than 100 learning professional had contributed. See the results at http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/index.html#1.

Please use comments to contribute any tools, resources, or opinions about the above that you think other readers would find valuable.

Jeff Cobb

Now, Guy speaks from the perspective of a venture investor
and suggests that his rule is applicable to any situation in which reaching an
agreement is the goal. That doesn’t really describe most training and education
situations, and yet I can’t help but think that the spirit of Guy’s advice applies
well in situations where PowerPoint forms the primary source material for an online
learning module—as it does for organizations that are making use of online course and presentation development tools like
Adobe Breeze and Articulate Presenter.

The key to something like Guy’s 10/20/30 rule is not that it
needs to be followed dogmatically, but that is suggests a disciplined framework
in which thoughtful design of each presentation slide becomes much more
important that the total quantity of slides of the quantity of text on each
slide. Karl Kapp’s
excellent presentation “avoiding death by PowerPoint” really helps to bring this
point home in the context of presentations for training and education, whether online or off. Karl
uses more than 10 slides, but I think you will agree that he uses them very
effectively and he comes in at under 10 minutes for the entire presentation. It is itself an enjoyable and effective e-learning experience based on PowerPoint.

If you’ve developed PowerPoint learning modules for online learning that are in
the spirit of the approaches described above, I’d love to hear about them.
Please sign in and share a link with Mission to Learn readers.

JTC

Related Posts:

PowerPoint Again: Sex and the Grimm Facts
Tools and Temptations