In my ongoing love affair with Quora, I recently joined the discussion on a new question: Can specialised social networks replace learning management systems? This question really captures my interest. Of course the LMS is a topic of (sometimes justified) opprobrium – but can large organizations really leave the LMS behind? After some consideration, I… Read more »
If you’re like me, you’re an app addict. Always downloading something new and creating an endless assortment of folders on your mobile device. While some apps are just silly – like the one that turns my phone into a gesture-responsive light saber – some have real benefits for staying organized, connecting with friends and colleagues… Read more »
This week, the OpenSesame crew is celebrating not only our successful April Fools’ Day prank but our partnership eith ej4, an elearning content developer. The ej4 team uses snappy writing and creative video production to create engaging elearning courses. We’re now featuring more than 400 courses from ej4 in the OpenSesame library, and I took the opportunity to… Read more »
OpenSesame is proud to announce that we’re founding a new conference, mLearnSocialDevConLearnGame, which will focus on connections between social learning environments, mobile technologies, instructional design and online learning. From October 29-31, 2011 in Trinidad & Tobago, we’ll convene thought leaders in the elearning, gaming, mobile technology and social media sectors to share ideas and brainstorm… Read more »
OpenSesame is an elearning marketplace with two audiences: the buyers and sellers of elearning. The sellers in our marketplace are content developers and subject matter experts who work hard to create high quality elearning content. Sellers are valued partners for us, and we take our responsibility to safeguard your intellectual property extremely seriously. I wanted… Read more »
“I need to give a training course to the executive team,” someone recently said to me. “Do you have anything good?” Of course I said yes. OpenSesame is in the business of selling elearning courses, and just about every organization needs top elearning courses for managers. But what’s wrong with this picture? This training professional… Read more »
As professional training and instruction moves online, subject matter experts, in-person instructors and offline trainers are facing new obstacles as they reinvent their offline content. As Lesley Price noted on Twitter on Monday, your elearning resources won’t succeed if they’re just “paper behind glass”: they need to be more than your old paper resources or… Read more »
Wouldn’t you love to make a difference in the world? OpenSesame makes it really easy for you to use your instructional design and development skills to make a meaningful difference promoting international development, humanitarian relief, social justice and protecting the environment around the world. OpenSesame is proud to partner with LINGOs (Learning in Non Governmental… Read more »
Last week, I blogged about two of the broken systems in education – timing and testing – and established some possible roles for technology and game mechanics to improve them. It’s time to get serious about short term ways to improve learning systems for learners of all ages. At SXSW, Jillian Darwish of KnowledgeWorks shared… Read more »
At SXSW and at TED, researchers, game designers and teachers (and a former hedge fund analyst) shared diverse visions for the future of education. They got started by explaining what’s broken in our current vision for education systems. These discussions are focused on K-12 and college level education, but we have an opportunity in the… Read more »
Last week, I blogged about three emerging trends in elearning, as revealed by the annual Horizon Report, which analyzes potential uses of emerging technology for learning. While the paper was very insightful, it had one omission: a discussion of the opportunity to use games for learning.
The Horizon Report is an annual report describing emerging technologies and their potential applications in learning and education, produced in collaboration between The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. This report is infinitely useful for prodding thought about what we need to be working on today to ensure elearning continues to evolve to… Read more »
OpenSesame is proud to announce updated user profiles, with many new features. I’ve created a screencast with my completed profile to provide an example of the possible features in a completed author profile, including a logo, bio, employment history, education history and links to your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles: For sellers, the more comprehensive profiles… Read more »
A few #lrnchats ago we discussed how learning professionals themselves learn. Someone (forgive me, I can’t remember who) recommended that, to learn new things, we should occasionally set out to be the dumbest person in the room – to admit what you don’t understand in order to gain understanding. Of course, intermittent “dumbness” comes naturally… Read more »
In Part 1 of this series on creating the social learning workplace, I defined social learning and social media, and set you on your way to choosing the tools. I’m assuming you’re reading this post because you’ve decided that social learning is a good idea for you and your organization. It isn’t enough to create… Read more »
Video game camera technology like the Kinect creates engaging, interactive virtual experiences for games like Dance Central, Soccer and Motion Workout 2, andit’s also inspiring really cool hackslike this one: Little Magic Stories from Chris O’Shea on Vimeo. Not only are these kids almost criminally adorable, this use of consumer video game technology is amazing.… Read more »
Social learning. We’re all talking about it, wishing for it and hoping to facilitate it in our offices. But what is it, exactly? I participated in a webinar a few weeks ago in which the speaker used “social learning” and “social media” interchangeably, creating a confusing mishmash of misinformation. It’s a common misconception, so let’s… Read more »
While suffering from the unavoidable nasty winter cold this month, I have spent many cozy hours on my couch rereading the Harry Potter canon. I’ve been mulling over all the examples the Harry Potter story offers of how motivated people can create learning opportunities and collaborate to accomplish team goals. Spoilers follow, if you are… Read more »
OpenSesame is a new tech company, and we’re embracing social media outreach to connect with the elearning community. It’s my job to put OpenSesame in front of the people who can benefit from participating in our marketplace. I do that primarily through blogs and social networks, as well as direct outreach. My participation in the… Read more »
Enhancing the learning experience and capturing the virtual student’s attention often requires tangible items. These tangible items can be in the form of templates and tools the students can use during the course and after the course when they apply what was learned. The question becomes, “How can these items be included in a SCORM… Read more »
