Learn. Show. Repeat.

Tag: blogging

  • Happy New Year!

    Another year begins.

    A fresh start.

    A new page.

    I’ve always liked this time of year because it feels like so much is possible. Looking back and last year is done and like the years before we can’t change what has happened. The past is in the past as they say. But this year is just getting started and I’m feeling optimistic about the coming year because to a large extent what I want the year to be is up to me.

    Last year was a quiet one for me on the blogging and sharing front (I’m feeling rusty writing this post). This was partly due to having a young child which brings about a shift in priorities in a good way. The need for sleep becomes way more important. Despite this, I tried to stay in touch with the happenings in the learning field when I could by reading articles/posts and listening to podcasts here and there. There still seems to be a lot of people talking about what L&D needs to do, with far fewer sharing the how.

    My other reason for less blogging was that I felt flat, lacked motivation and that I’d lost my purpose for writing. I was tired of the constant content focus in learning – the course as the default. I was tired of creating eLearning content dumps where more meaningless interactivity was the goal. Unfortunately, the content design approach is still widespread and as a result we’ve conditioned stakeholders, SME’s, clients and decision makers that this is what we do. The people that suffer are those taking the modules.

    I’ve said before that our role is to support the people in our organisations who do the actual work. Working in learning presents an opportunity to get closer to our organisations and find out what people do, how they do it and what their challenges are. Then we’ll be better placed to offer solutions and experiences that have real impact rather than focusing on the number of objects we produce.

    Nothing will change if we keep doing the same thing. So that’s my goal for this year, to do things differently, evolve my practice and to reflect and share via this blog.

    Happy 2019!

    Image source: Canva

  • Looking Back at 2017

    As the end of another year approaches, I like many bloggers look back on the year that was. It’s been a quieter year on the blogging front for me as my wife and I welcomed the birth of our first child in May, a beautiful baby girl – Eva Rose – who has kept us busy and we’re learning lots!

    Here’s all of my 2017 posts (select a title to read):

    10 Blogs Every eLearning Professional Should Read

    Working with Images in eLearning (part 1)

    Working with Images in eLearning (part 2)

    Valuing all Sources of Learning

    Accessing Curated Content – Experimenting with Rise

    Learning and Development: You Have One Job

    Letter to an eLearning Creator (this was my most popular post EVER!)

    Response from an eLearning Creator

    Sharpening Your Axe

    A Little Help from Your Friends

    I also spent time creating more Storyline tutorials (which now stand at 38).

    Thanks for reading and all the best for the festive season from my family to yours! Catch you in 2018!

  • My Word for 2017

    Towards the end of last year I starting thinking about my word for the coming year. I’ve seen posts on this before and recently I even came across the hashtag #oneword. Essentially, you choose a word that will guide your actions over the coming 12 months.

    Last year, I chose ‘build’ as my word which you can read about here. I felt I had mixed results with what I wanted to achieve last year so initially my word for this year was going to be ‘habit’. But on reflection, habits don’t just happen, I really need to develop the behaviours that become habits.

    So my word for 2017 is: Discipline

    In order to build good habits in learning and in life, you need to have discipline. Many of the goals I had last year, are still relevant. I want to further explore and grow and keep learning but sometimes I get caught up doing the things that I’m comfortable with. This year I want to be more disciplined in my approach – to make time for learning new things, reflecting, blogging, sharing and hopefully creating opportunities. I also want to be more disciplined with my own health and well-being (yes I know, everyone says that!).

    I like the beginning of a new year, it’s a fresh start and full of possibilities. So what’s your word for the year?

    Image source: Shutterstock

  • Looking Back at 2016

    tools for building

    Another year is almost over and it’s time to look back on the year that was. At the beginning of 2016 I chose a word for the year which was ‘Build’. Specifically, my aim was to build my skills in some different areas which I’ve listed here as well as some reflections on what I did and didn’t quite do:

    Coding

    I stared an online HTML 5 coding course via Code Academy which I began in earnest. There we small lesson that started with some simple programming and gradually built from there. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with it and it fell by the wayside but it’s still on my list of this to learn about for next year.

    Webinar Delivery

    My role at work changed and as a result I didn’t deliver as many webinars as I thought but before this happened I bought a copy of Donald Taylor’s ‘Webinar Master’ eBook. It’s got lots of practical tips and advice from someone who has delivered many webinars himself. It’ll be my go to resource when I start presenting more webinars.

    Screencasting

    Earlier this year, David Anderson ran a few screencasting challenges via E-Learning Heroes and the timing was just perfect as it gave me a chance to build some skills in this area. I wrote some initial reflections in a post Learning About Screencasting. I’ve also found that a good way to build skills in screencasting is to watch others do it and make notes – what works well, things to avoid etc.

    Since the challenges ended I’ve continued to record screencasts on using Storyline and I also discovered that if you have a Google account, you also have a YouTube channel which is where I upload all my recordings. You can take a look at what I’ve created at my YouTube Channel. I plan to record more next year but include other topic areas such as learning theory and design tips.

    Learning Theory

    This will continue to be an area to explore for me and I came across a presentation by Donald Clark called ‘2,500 Years of Learning Theory’ which has given me some avenues to pursue.

    Curation

    I keep seeing curation being mentioned as an L&D skill but at the time of writing this not being able to find many examples of curated content. I started to think about curation in this post: Getting Started with Content Curation.

    In a follow-up post Continuing with Content Curation I curated some posts on content curation.

    I’ve also curated some content via topic area in this case accessibility in eLearning for Everyone.

    I have been experimenting with some curation apps – Anders Pink, Pocket and Flipboard – they’re ok but I find that they filter the content they show so will keep playing with them because maybe I’m not using them properly?

    Build Connections

    This is something that I always want to do and while the number of my connections has grown I’d like to deepen those relationships by more face-to-face meet ups. I didn’t do much of this in 2016.

    Fitness

    My goal was to complete the City2Surf run in Sydney and while I didn’t train as hard as I should have I still completed the 14km run!

     

    So a mixed bag in terms of building in all areas but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made and having a focus does help. I already have a word in mind for next year.

    This year, I didn’t complete as many ELH challenges as I wanted to focus on other areas but here’s a couple of posts about ones that I did participate in:

    4 Ideas for Combining Text and Images in eLearning

    Sliding Along with the Force

    Looking Closer at Images

    How I created a custom Quiz style Interaction (not a challenge but Storyline related)

    I also started the year with a post called Happy Same Year!? and I wonder if much has really changed at all in the world of L&D…

    Thanks to everyone who has read or commented or liked or shared something from this site, I really appreciate it and I hope it was helpful. I’d like to wish you all the best for the festive season and I’ll catch you in 2017 🙂

  • Looking Back at 2015

    Well another year has just about come and gone and at this time of year like many folks who write blogs I like to look back and reflect on the posts I’ve written. Blog writing is a personal thing and everyone has their own style and approach which makes the diversity between writers and topics both interesting and thought-provoking. If I had to sum up where I’m at with my blogging and the style of posts I write in one word, it would be Practicality.

    I read a lot of posts and tweets that are critical of eLearning modules (some for good reasons) and I often tell people that an eLearning module is a learning solution it’s not always the learning solution. But it does have a purpose, so instead of constantly bagging it out, my approach is: Why don’t we do something about improving the standard of eLearning?

    So that’s why I like to share posts that explain how to do something and allow the reader to take something away and maybe use in their own course development. Sure, at the moment there’s a focus on using the tool which is important but I intend to expand this next year because eLearning is much more than knowing how to use an authoring tool.

    I’m learning stuff all the time so why not share the knowledge and put it back into the community so here’s my posts from the year that was, grouped by topic area. Click on a title to view the post.

    Storyline 2

    These posts are about things I’ve learned about or discovered in Storyline 2:

    More than One Way with Storyline 2 – How I updated a slider-based interaction to a button and number variable interaction.

    Template Facelift – How I redesigned my ‘Meet the Team’ interaction.

    Spinning Around with Storyline 2 – How I created a carousel-style interaction using a slider and layers.

    3 Things I’ve Just Discovered in Storyline 2 – I’d just started a new job and my colleagues made me aware of these three handy features.

    E-Learning Heroes Challenges

    These posts take a behind-the-scenes look at how I created some of my challenge demos. I used to call them ‘Showing My Work #x’ but I didn’t think it was helpful to the reader plus it sounded a bit wanky so I started to give them a catchy name:

    Pushing My Buttons – ELH Challenge #89: Creative Button Styles.

    100 Not Out – Celebrating 100 ELH Challenges.

    Bingo Time! – ELH Challenge #98: E-Learning Bingo Games.

    Making Videos Interactive – ELH Challenge #94: Interactive Video.

    Showing My Work #11 – ELH Challenge #18: Using Characters in E-Learning.

    Showing My Work #10 – ELH Challenge #52: Using Interactive Sliders in E-Learning.

    Showing My Work #9 – ELH Challenge #71: Teaching Math Concepts with E-Learning.

    Theoretical

    These posts delve into the area of information processing and cognitive load which are important areas to know about when creating eLearning:

    Designing Effective Multimedia Lessons for Learning – a university essay I wrote about the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and research-based principles that will improve eLearning design.

    The Human Memory System – a university essay I wrote about human cognitive architecture.

    Reflective

    Sometimes I just reflected and put down my thoughts and ideas. I’d like to do more of this next year:

    Half-baked Ideas – a few random thoughts that may become posts of their own in the future.

    Looking Behind the Façade – my thoughts on showing your work and working out loud.

    Evolution – about how my career has changed for the better.

    Practice and Sharing: The Keys to Success – an older post with my two takeaways from LearnX.

    Flipped Networking – about how it’s becoming more common meet people online via social media before in person at a conference.

     

    Thanks to everyone who has read or commented or liked or shared something from this site, I really appreciate it. I’d like to wish you all the best for the festive season and for the new year ahead.

    Who knows what 2016 will hold…

    Ideas for 2016