Adventures at MLDC2012

mLearning DevCon 2012 (http://www.mlearningdevcon.com), happening in Philadephia, PA, October 2-5, 2012, is sure to be an exciting event this year with many great topics and speakers.  As we close on the final hours before the big event, ICF will be well-represented with three speakers and four topics.

Greg Gardner will present two separate topics:

• 10-03 S5 - How to skin mLearning content with your own CSS
• 10-05 S29 - Creating iBooks Content for iPad

Mike Raines will present:

• 10-03 S3 - A 'Flash' of Freshness: Repurposing Existing Flash Content for Use in Mobile

Michael Sheyahshe (that's me!) will present on:

• 10-04 S12 - Nuff Said: Tips/Tricks from Digital Comics to Breathe Life into Your HTML5 mLearning

Here's what you can expect to see with my 'Nuff Said' presentation topic:

• Stan Lee (well...not 'in the flesh', as it were...)
• Print Comics
• Digital Comics
• Comic Book 'Language'
• Theoretical Ideas of Visual Rhetoric/Presentation
• Comic Book 'Apps'
• The Hulk !
• The Android Logo (heh)
• Real-World HTML5 Examples
• JavaScript/jQuery Code
• Advanced Online Examples
• ...and so much more !

Be sure to join us at MLDC2012, if possible.  You can also follow our Philly adventures on Twitter: @mas_edev, @eLearnDevGeek, & @gardelearndev.  Excelsior !

iBooks Author - what do you want to know?

I am giving a presentation on Oct 5 at mLearningDevCon in Philadelphia called "Creating iBooks Content for iPad".  I know what I want to present but more importantly, what would you expect or want to learn from a presentation like this?

Four mobile learning presentations

After "pulling technological rabbits out hats", "leaping tall requirements documents", and "turning back timelines" in order to provide the highest quality online and mobile web products for our clients what else has this Tech Team been up to?

A-conferencing we go, a-conferencing we go…..that's right, after giving 12 presentations at two national conferences  and two nationally available webcasts already this year, the Tech Team is back at it. 

Mike Raines, Michael Sheyahshe and Greg Gardner will be speaking at mLearningDevCon Oct 2-5 in Philadelphia.  We will be giving the following four presentations:

1. Creating iBooks Content for iPad – Greg Gardner
2. 'Nuff Said: Tips & Tricks from Digital Comics to Breathe Life into Your HTML5 mLearning – Michael Sheyahshe
3. A "Flash" of Freshness: Repurposing Existing Flash Content for Use in Mobile Development – Mike Raines
4. How to Skin mLearning Content with Your Own CSS – Greg Gardner

Greg will also be leading a mLearning Strategies roundtable session.
 
ICF has posted a web page for you to review the presentations:

http://www.icfi.com/events/conferences-and-trade-shows/2012/10/mlearning-devcon-2012 

You can also link to this page from the Training and Technical Assistance and Organizational Learning and Performance pages on the ICF web site in the Related Events sections of those pages.

ICF, the Tech Team and mLearningDevCon will use social media to announce what we are doing.

Feel free to connect with us at any of these sites.

Twitter accounts to follow:@ICFI, @gardelearndev, @eLearnDevGeek, @mas_edev , @mLearningdevcon, and #MLDC2012
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/ICFINternational/  and  http://www.facebook.com/mLearningDevCon
LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/company/icf-international/
Google+ - https://plus.google.com/117972905686513925698/posts
Conference Web site - http://mlearningdevcon.com/

Customize Lectora’s Table of Contents with Visited-page and Chapter Icons

Learning Solutions Magazine @LearningSolMag published my article "Customize Lectora’s Table of Contents with Visited-page and Chapter Icons" today.  Check it out at  http://bit.ly/Scw3cO  This is my first published magazine article.

Reducing my electronic footprint

Looking for ways to reduce your electronic footprint?  I was.  My desk was a cluttered mess on multiple laptops, four large monitors, four power strips and more cords than you could count.  But I needed it all.  Mac for iOS development (xCode, iBooks Author, etc...) Windows for Lectora, MobiOne, Articulate Storyline, MS SQL and as a test platform.

I finally installed Parallels Virtual Machine with Windows 7 on it.  I then loaded Lectora, Articualte Storyline and Studio, Microsoft SQL Studio 2012, and MobiOne onto the Windows 7 instance.  I installed my Adobe CS6 suite of software onto the Mac as well as MySQL.  I am able to VPN into the home office with both Mac and Windows and share files between the two OS instances.  Very cool. 

Now, I can see my desk again. I removed one laptop, two external monitors, an armful of plugins and cords, several power strips, one extra headset and was finally able to move my printer to the other side of the room since it can now be fully wireless (the Windows laptop had to be USB connected to it).  I have room to spread out a bit and I have not reduced my capabilities to create awesome e- or m-Learning at all.  In face, I think its better because I can share files and test across plaforms with greater efficiency.

The eLearning Programmer’s Toolbox: Choosing the Right Tool

Programming eLearning is often the easy part of the project.  Determining which tool or tools to use however, could make or break your project. Could the tool do what the client wanted? Did the programmer have the correct skill set to use that tool?  Today I gave a webinar, sponsored by mLearningDevCon  where I walked through a unique process flow using criteria such as 

1. Client requirements,
2.  Tools in your toolbox, 
3. Employee skill sets with tools, 
4. Project budget and time constraints. 

Combining these inputs into the process flow will provide you with the ability to choose the right tool – or tools to be successful with your project. 

Select this link to get a zip file (16MB) of the presentation and spreadsheets covered in the webinar.

Select this link to download a zip file (58MB) containing the webinar in wmv format.

HTML5 or Flash ?

Ok. I'll admit, right up front, that I'm not going to take sides on this one.  I've been a long-time developer using both HTML-based and Flash-based solutions. I'm quite comfortable using either technology to get the job done.

To use a mechanical analogy: Say you hand me either a pair of needle-nose pliers OR a pair of lineman's (or "combination") pliers. These are certainly different tools and have different functions...but, I can sure squeeze/pinch/etc. the heck out of something with either one. The same can be said for HTML5 or Flash; each have their own specific set of advantages, but both come in quite handy, when it comes to getting the job done, especially from a software solutions perspective.

A recent blog article on http://www.trainingindustry.com further discusses HTML5 and Flash's differences, but supports the above idea that either/both technologies work well. The article goes on to discuss "HTML5 in Learning Solutions" and highlights some advantages. Namely, Semantics, Multimedia, Graphics, Device access, and Offline Storage. I'd suggest viewing the article at http://www.trainingindustry.com/learning-technologies/articles/using-html5-in-learning-solutions.aspx to get the full description behind these.
One part of the article stands out to me, which I will quote here:

HTML5 in Learning Solutions: Collaborative Learning
There is yet another aspect to the learning equation and how HTML5 can play a role that is quite distinct in the world of learning solutions, with respect to social collaboration. Just about everyone is familiar with social networks these days and the benefits of staying connected in the personal and professional world. HTML5 makes it easy to build solutions around collaboration among a group of experts and learners. Collaboration in the online world is so powerful that it can change the way everything works.

I agree with much of this. Thinking towards social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or other, it becomes clear that we developers need to plan for implementation of these technologies, not matter what platform for which we are creating content. Take the JSFiddle example below, showing how easy it is to grab Tweets using jQuery. Click the 'Result' button to run the simple script.

 Of course, this is a rudimentary example, but think of the possibilities implementing the social aspect for our clients, as we deploy to desktop units or even mobile devices, using HTML5.  Certainly, I am not taking sides here - I will continue to use both Flash and/or HTML5 where needed...however, I use the example above to remind us, as developers, that we can continue to think past our current technological reach.


For now, we'll see how the comparison between the two solutions work out. I'd wager that both will be around for quite some time, for us to all argue over, even if one dies on the vine. (...I mean, there are still developers out there programming in Authorware, right?)

How to Replace the Master Page in SmartBuilder

I recently found myself in a situation where I needed to update the Master Page on 5 different lessons.  Through client revisions and added functionality, the original Master Page had evolved a great deal. I was frustrated to learn that although you can copy entire pages via the Page Sequence List (Edit/Page Sequence from the Authoring Stage), the Master Page is not included in this functionality. Faced with the prospect of recreating all of the actions in the Master Page across all 5 lessons I decided to search for a more efficient solution to no avail. My search was not completely fruitless as I did turn up a few capabilities that when combined can produce the same effect.

7 steps to Replacing your Master Page

1. Open your lesson and save a copy.
   
2. In your new saved copy, open the Page Sequence dialog and delete all of the pages in your lesson. (You will need to be viewing the Master Page to accomplish this as SmartBuilder will not allow you to delete a page you are currently viewing)
   
3. Save this cleaned out lesson as a template
   
   
   
   
   
4. Publish your new template. (found in My Content / Work in Progress /Templates) This will place your template in My Published Content / Templates allowing you to apply this template to a lesson.
   
   
   
5. Open your lesson that needs the Master Page replaced, choose to view/edit the Master Page. On the Authoring Stage, press CTRL A (select all) and then Delete.
   
   
6. Delete your Actions.  If you view your Action list you will see that all of the actions are now colored red.  This is because all of the objects these items were tied to have been deleted. Delete all of these Actions.
   
   
   
7. The final step is to apply your saved template to your now cleaned out Master Page. From the Design Tab in the Template Pane, (on the bottom right) click on Apply Template. Locate and select your template in the Select Template dialog box.
   
   

You have now replaced your Master Page!  To apply this method to additional lessons simply repeat steps 5-7 on the desired lessons.

Know of an easier process?  I would love to hear it!