Second Life - This I believe

In a forum I participate, somebody asked:
"Has anyone used Second Life as a training tool? Do any of you know of any training-specific companies who develop this technology and then integrate it into either ILT or online training?"

For those of you who doesn't know what Second Life is, Second Life (SL) is a free 3D virtual world (you have to be connected to the Internet) where several users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat at the same time.
See more at their official website http://secondlife.com/


This was my answer to the question:

Back in 2005 I used SL as a part of the assignments in one of the courses of my Master in Educational Technology. At that time we had to create an instructional activity within SL.

Then in 2007 in the community college where I work[ed], a person had a similar initiative, and to my despair some of the same problems arose.

Even though was not in a corporate training environment, I think that the lessons learned in my master's project are totally transferable:

Lesson learned # 1 - You will need very good and updated computers
SL software consume a great deal of resources from the computers, you need new/powerful computers with great video cards. In both cases we had to use lab computers dedicated to that program, so they will not crash.

Lesson learned # 2 - First time users need time to learn how to move/interact in SL
In both cases people spend a lot of time customizing their own avatar (you can change all the possible things you can imagine - from your eyebrows, to the size and shape of your boobs).

Also learning how to move in the environment took some time (at the beginning many were naked and flying and crashing everywhere). in fact in my master in the second edition of that course, they pre-created avatars, and had a small workshop where people will solely learn how to walk, run, fly, grab objects, etc.

Lesson learned # 3 - For serious training is better have a "private" space
In order to have a private space, you will need to buy land and build a minimum place with objects based on your training needs. Otherwise if you have your class in any public space you can have anybody stepping in, interrupting and even boycotting your activity

Lesson learned # 4 - Don't be afraid to outsource "construction"
In my masters they decided for future editions create a virtual classroom. The learning curve to program/create the objects, houses, and artifacts was steep, so the teacher got some money to pay someone to do it. They found and hired the "builders" searching in SL forums.

Lesson learned #5 - Mastering SL requires time
Whoever is in charge to develop the training in addition to the instructional portion to design the activities, will need to learn the tool. That is time consuming, so is better allocate resources that can devote enough time to learn the capabilities of the SL environment and then create the instructional activities.

Lesson learned #6 - Use all the SL potential
SL will take time to develop and to have students get accustomed of how to operate/ interact in that virtual world, so don't design something that can also be done in more low tech solution (i.e. through chats or even asynchronous solutions).
Take advantage of the capabilities that SL has (i.e. walking, traveling, taking pictures, interact in different ways with others).

Marketing for teenagers

Way back before the presidential elections of 2009, started circulating this video and others done by the Leonardo DiCaprio's production Company (Appian Way). "These non-partisan public service announcements wanted to encourage American youth to register to vote in the upcoming election."



Every time I have to design marketing pieces for young people I still scratch my head, because seems to be difficult (for me) how to capture their attention and keep them interested. They are certainly different teenagers of what I used to be. So I thought that a similar approach to this video will be good to apply for other purposes (career awareness, mandatory training, etc.)

Granted that besides the idea itself, the cast is a luxury that I certainly will not have :0)

Side note:My favorite is like the backstage of the shooting ;0)

About risk in a learning enviroment

Even though the presenter talks about a camps for kids. I think that presents a couple of valid points for any learning experience (despite the age of the learner). Some that come to mind are:
- Design your activities include moments to let the learner explore and learn on their own
- With direct involvement (lighting the fire, don't getting burn, put the fire down) you learn the whole process, not just disconnected steps.
- Foster the sense that everything is "knowable"
- Learn the boundaries of our new digital word

Enjoy the video :0)

Defining Moments

When I see something I like in a magazine, because I am almost always too busy but I don't want to loose the information I like for future reference, I automatically rip the page, and goes to my pile of things for "process"(&).

The other day, thumbing through part of the "process" pile, I found an article from the July 2007 REAL SIMPLE magazine. Wrote by Gail Blanke (a life's coach) the article talks about the defining moments in everybody lives!

According to Gail Blanke (author of the article) ...

A defining moment is 'an occasion when you found something in yourself you didn't know you had, or forgot you had, and pulled it out. As a result you changed an outcome from negative to positive.
A defining moment is when you said, "Yes, I will" or "No, I won't." It's when you drew a line. Or erased one, if that was what needed to be done. It's a moment after which you never thought of yourself in quite the same way'.

Thinking about it, here are some of my defining moments:

* When I quit my job in a company where a coworker was stealing merchandise and I caught him and reported him with superiors, instead of look away

* When I pulled myself out of boredom - in jobs where I was over qualify - , and proposed new products to offer or ways to do things instead of be a conformist and just do the bare minimum

* When I worked 24 hours without sleep for the first time in my life in a project designing and developing a computer based training, the adrenalin of the commitment of team was stronger that the physical need of sleep ... however the next day I crashed pretty hard :0)



(&) I learned that in the David Allen's "Getting Things Done" (GTD) philosophy.

Storytelling - Part 2 (Pecha Kucha)

The brother of my last boss used Pecha Kucha with his students. He passed the tip to my boss and he passed to me.

The concept was challenging, "convey your message in 20 images (slides) 20 seconds each, so your whole presentation will be 6 minutes and 40 seconds".

We tried the technique for a presentation to community college advisors about the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Career Field (I crafted the presentation and my boss was the presenter).

As the crafter of the presentation I have to admit that at some points was hard to come up with a visual that will convey the message, specially when i was not going to be the presenter (in fact in the revisions meetings we had some changes of images because my boss didn't agree with them). The presentation was a success! (you can see the ppt in my portfolio) We stand out because the content and also as a contrasting alternative to dry full of text PowerPoint slides.

We plan to use this technique as often as possible.

Here is my favorite Pecha Kucha explanation video:

Storytelling - Part 1

Slideshare is an application to share PowerPoint Presentations online without having to send it to each person by email (especially if the presentation is rather more than a couple of Mb).

I started to use it while I was doing my masters in Educational Technology at San Diego State University.

In they May 2009 newsletter their were promoting a storytelling contest. the rules were simple "[the] entry to the contest can be about anything. A story about you, your travels, or something you love. Just tell it with words and pictures and in 30 slides."

These days despite the type of audience you have, capture and hold their attention is key. be short and concise, and use more images than text in the slides has been I trend I came in contact with from different sources (see future postings).

For now I will let you with a nice presentation about storytelling using PowerPoint that I found in Slideshare!

Note: at some points the presentation goes slower than the narrator, so bear with it, because I still think that provide good info. and also is good example of storytelling itself :0)

Storytelling 101

View more presentations from Scott Schwertly.

Another video that I like (instructionally speaking)

This video talks about bacteria that normally lives in our skin. I liked how they mixed a typical talking head footage with the drawings, sounds, and pictures.

From the instructional point of view ... just right !

I was exploring some shorts (very short) by Isabella Rosellini about how some animals reproduce.

With a witty catchy tittle (Green Porno), the videos are great and engaging about the explanations.

I think they have and excellent mix of good attributes of learning objects: short, reusable, visually appealing, the image reinforce the explanation and suitable for mobile devices (small screens).

The videos were showcased in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Here are the links for all of them ...

How earthworms, drangonflies, bees, fireflies, snails, spiders, flies, praying mantis reproduce?