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.

New Tools = Better Learning?

The e- and m-learning communities have been blessed with several new tools this summer. Most notably Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate 6. A a technical director, I am charged with evaluating and discerning the best way to spend my budget on new tools and/or upgrades to my toolset. As an old programmer I love all the new ways to do things, improved efficiencies, and easier solutions for non technical people to handle lower level programming tasks. New tools generally open new ideas, improve work flows and even improve profit. But, I'm not just looking at tools from a programming point of view anymore. I am, after all, in the learning business and my eduction degree kicks in and asks the question "how is learning being improved?" At elearndevcon this past month, I had a long conversation with Art Kohn. We discussed this question in depth. I think many people have varying thoughts. What are your thoughts on this topic. Do the new tools help with learners retention and do they change behavior? If so, how? Thanks,

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?)