NASAGA Rocks !

This year I decided to treat myself with a conference I always wanted to go ... well I had in wish list attend a conference of Sivasailam Thiagarajan (a.k.a. Thiagi). I have been following his newsletters and activities in www.thiagi.com since 1998.

Attending to this year NASAGA conference (originally in my quest to listen to Thiagi live!) exceeded my expectations. All the professionals (speakers and attendees) were very enthusiastic about sharing ideas. This conference not only filled my mind but also my soul ...

... and empty my pockets in an auction ;-P to provide scholarships to first time attendees to the next year event (just kidding I gladly contributed).

NAGASA 2008 was a truly open & honest collaboration space ... tossing and getting ideas in each session, break and presentation. An experience very far from these places where everybody is trying to sell their products.

All the ideas in the sessions had a lot of applicability in training and facilitation. In fact I had the chance to know about a game called "The beer game" that reproduce a supply chain for my logistics courses.

And the Aha! of the conference for me was the "debrief" and techniques to enhance it.

The title GAS: Games, Activities & Simulations, was more than appropriate considering that the conference was in Indianapolis !

I recommend you NASAGA conferences. The next one will be on October 2009 in Washington D.C.

Stay tuned, visiting their website for more info: www.nasaga.org

Versatility ... something to keep in mind

Through the ColourLovers Blog (which I religiously read) ... I came across with a link to some Chinese people who designed this puzzles ("TOYPOGRAPHY" -- A TOY of TYPOGRAPHY) .

Check out their website (most of it is in Chinese, click on about, and look for subtle button that reads "English"). I wish that they have their website translated in full.

Each of the puzzles' pieces can build a word (apparently only animals) in English, with the same group pieces you can "write" the same word in Chinese, and also you can create some kind of "draw"/picture of the animal.

You can see animations of the puzzles and its transformations in the website (look for the words in the same line where "About" is)

I was very surprise about the level of versatility that these pieces have, and I remember the numerous discussions I had with colleagues about learning objects and how little or how can be should be the object to be really reusable & interchangeable. This puzzle is the proof that in any mass of content, is possible get the common denominator.


Because they only have puzzle with animal words, I just keep wondering if it was a design/audience decision, or if this versatility formula only apply for certain things ...

Which also might be something to consider in instructional design ... maybe not all the contents are suitable for learning objects after all.

Copyright & Tears

Currently I am developing curriculum, to create a 2-year program in a community college. I have great ideas to use articles, movies, etc. However I am hitting the wall of copyright issues.

My coworker Lora, point me to this website from Purdue University (http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/), which explains very well about the copyright issues especially for distance learning.

The director & creator or the site (Kenneth D. Crews) changed jobs and now is at Columbia University. However his legacy - despite the note in red in the home page - is still alive in the Purdue site. I'm glad that such a great job is still online. I am planning to buy his book.

Check the already praised website (I am creating this link to the page that contains a useful checklist to assess fair use. However, feel free to navigate it with the links located in the left side. You will probably like all the pages).

All depends of where you are

"Upside-Down" North America
Originally uploaded by Claire L. Evans

The other day, surfing the web, I ended up in the Claire L. Evans' Flickr account ... where I found this picture. The caption read "From the maps section of Scandinavian Airlines' magazine. Very exciting! Very humbling! East coast becomes west coast and vice versa."

For those that haven't realized it yet ... North America is "Upside-Down".

The fact that we see life and the "world" - in this case literally - based on our present circumstances ... let me reflecting about how many times our instructional products do not take that into account.

Sometimes what we need is some activity, sometimes even just one, to address this and have everybody in the same page with an increased level of awareness.

One of my favorites site to get ideas and activities is Thiagi's website. Check it out !

That's the secret ... Watch less TV

When I read in Learningtown the comment associated with this video "Where do people find the time to do things like edit the Wikipedia?" and the answer ("They watch less television ...") I just felt relief !!!

Unfortunately in my case there is still a lot of shows that I do not want to miss, so in my case ... as many teenagers I end up multitasking.

I am not sure how successful I am in all the simultaneous tasks, but oh well , after a hard day at work, I am convinced that I deserve my TV time.

This is a great video! I am even curious about his book, and even though I don't do what he says I agree that we should use the surplus of our time in more productive tasks than master the couch potato skill set.




If you cannot see the video in my blog try here:
http://www.learningtown.com/video/video/show?id=2039019:Video:27685

(you might need to sign up for free to see the video)

Web 2.0 - Nice explanation

Some parts of the video are a little bit cheesy for my taste, HOWEVER I think they do a great job explaining what (in the world) is the famous Web 2.0



I hope that you enjoy it