In the event you want to catch up with everything that happened at the eLearning Guild’s DevLearn conference this week you don’t have to read through a ton of blogs and tweets. It’s all aggregated here and David Kelly has also posted many conference resources from the backchannel. Thanks!
Top 100 Tools for Learning Pros
Jane Hart recently published her annual Top 100 Tools for Learning Professionals. For 2011 Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs, Skype and WordPress are the top 5. She includes the purpose of the the tool in the descriptions.
Link: Top 100 Tools for Learning Professionals 2011, Jane Hart, November 13, 2011
ARG – Canaries in a Coalmine
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has come out with an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) called Canaries in a Coal Mine. Created by EdGE (Educational Gaming Environments), the game starts with a futuristic video which, after viewing, players then act on messages in the ‘real world.’ In the game, players can also play some mini-games about birds including Name That Tune. There’s a map of community members and bird sightings, chat, forums, new feed, and activities. The mission of the game is to work as a group to solve the mystery behind the video message. It appears to be a work in progress. Registration is required to play. EdGE is located at TERC (Technical Education Research Centers) a not-for-profit math and science education organization and received funding for the came from the National Science Foundation. An interesting new learning environment worth exploring.
The eLearning Atlas
Ooh. Aah.
How about a map of the eLearning industry with all the products on the market? OK, maybe not all but over 3,000. And what if it came with a commenting tool and a way to filter tools?
From the site: “The eLearning Atlas is a free service brought to you by Rustici Software, LLC and SCORM.com. The purpose of the eLearning Atlas is to utilize our uniquely neutral position in the market to bring together all of the products and vendors in the eLearning world.”
I take back anything negative I’ve ever said about SCORM : )
Let’s hope it doesn’t get all mucked up with self-serving and/or unproductive comments.
Link: Atlas in Wonderland, Rustici Software, Jenna Lawing and Chris Tompkins 10/26/11
Photo: Toy Story, Disney
Innovation Isn’t Always What You Think It Is
I haven’t tried to disable a zombie with a screwdriver but I have used PowerPoint for telling stories (vs. just using it as presentation software). That’s the gist (kinda) of Tom Kuhlmann’s post on rapid e-learning tools. Tom illustrates how you can extend tools – like using PowerPoint to create Flash files that can be used in other applications, using labels as clickable choices, and using a quiz application to build a branching scenario. Innovation exists everywhere. And, as Tom notes, the innovation often comes from user communities. Are you a member of the communities for the tools you use? If not, why?
Link: Are You Getting the Most Value Out of Your Rapid E-Learning Tools? Tom Kuhlmann 10/25/11