We also wrote an article about this topic that goes with this video. If you would like to check it out, here it is:
Archives for March 2015
Eight eLearning Skills and Roles You Need to Know About
As I was sitting in the various discussions of the 2011 Learning Solutions conference, it became clear to me that my career path was in a huge state of flux. I was both excited and scared at the same time. At my office, for quite some time, I was the sole Instructional Designer/Media Developer for my team. I handle the eLearning development of content for two enterprise systems that serve the financial industry. We had other people with the same role as I held throughout other areas of the company, but in our group, I was the only one. In my role, I use at least eight different eLearning skills and roles on a regular basis.
IT ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH TO CHANGE JUST ONE THING OR LEARN ONE NEW SKILL/
What had me a little concerned about all this change was that it was so interconnected that it wasn’t like you could really just pick up one thing, change that, and be done.
If I wanted to discuss eventually implementing xAPI, I had to bring the discussion of updating our Learning Management System to the table. I had to be able to understand how xAPI worked and it wasn’t documented clean enough for us non-programmer types.
If I wanted to bring video production into our deliverables, I needed to learn motion graphics, new video editing software, purchase the necessary equipment, and have a reliable way to deliver this content to my audience.
If I wanted to discuss implementing mLearning, we needed tablets to test on, we needed a familiarity with HTML5, we needed tools that could publish in that format, and we needed web servers we had ready access to use for testing.
Of course, the overarching concern in all of this was internet/data security. Being part of a financial services company requires a very high level of security. No direct access to WiFi, levels of control as to how large of a file you can put on a web server, and an LMS that affects multiple training and IT groups within the company.
Mobile Technology is Changing Our World at Blinding Speed
LEARNING AS YOU KNOW IT IS CHANGING…FAST!
Every so often, there is a moment in time that changes your perspective on what you do and how you do it. Mine occurred in March 2011.
That day, I walked into the eLearning Guild’s conference here in Orlando, Learning Solutions. I had a mission from my manager – learn about mobile technology and learning (also referred to as mLearning). We were starting to do research into what it would take to start delivering training to our clients on mobile devices. These devices would either be a tablet (probably an iPad) or maybe on a phone. What I did not expect was the actual conversation that was really happening at that conference.
What I learned was that social media, the flipped classroom model, storytelling, and hand-held devices were changing the way people acted, thought, and learned. It was as if someone had literally dropped a bomb on the world I was familiar with.
All of a sudden, I needed to be thinking about was bite-sized learning, HTML 5, video production, social media in the workplace, learning environments, and responsive web design.
BOOM! I knew my world changed immediately and I needed to bring the message back to the office that I had seen a shockwave on the horizon of the training industry and that we better start thinking about it immediately or we would be hit with a tsunami of change and we would get run over in a few years.
eLearning Deconstructed Can Make You a Rockstar!
Technology is moving at a pace we can barely keep up with. We can’t control that.
The role of the Learning Professional is in a state of change due to the changes in technology and how adults are choosing to take in information. Another thing we can’t control.
What can we control? Ourselves and how we address these changes to our world and our profession. You can take it upon yourself to stay current with technology, industry, and brain science.
It is no longer acceptable to sit back and say “these changes won’t affect me” or “I don’t need to learn about that”. If you take this approach, you will become stagnant in your career and you might potentially end up in the bargain bin.
DO YOU WANT TO BE A ROCKSTAR?
eLearning Mindset – Learning Something New Is Valuable
A haunted attraction is potentially one of the hardest locations to shoot photography and video. There’s fog, rapid action, actors that like to lunge at the camera, and extremely low light environments. At the end of the 2012 Halloween season, I knew I needed to actually learn to be a better photographer if I intended to succeed in my role as the media specialist for a Halloween attraction I work with on the side.
I was noticing that most of my photos were blurry or that my camera wasn’t even letting me press the button to take the photo. It was possibly some of the most frustrating photo shoots I had been on.
Understand, I know my way around a video camera. I was in the television industry for about five years working for local news organizations and as an in-house video camera operator for a hotel convention center. I have rarely had issues with cameras. So, this was really getting me upset. Was I actually going to need to be learning something new?
VIDEO – Color Schemes with PowerPoint and Photo
We also wrote an article about this topic that goes with this video. If you would like to check it out, here it is: