Know Thy Audience: Float Mobile Learning

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

Know your audience is Step One in your efforts to embrace mobile learning. Having a good understanding of your audience will influence almost all of your decisions. It will have a bearing on your curriculum…
Via floatlearning.com

Learn HTML5 Online Free – 15 HTML5 Tutorials for You to Master Web Development |

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

HTML5 can gain a lot of traction in the development of mobile learning and mobile performance support. “In this post, we’ve gathered 15 useful tutorials that will help you achieve a good command of HTML5. You can learn HTML5 online free.”
Via www.flash-to-html5.net

Mobile Learning: The more things change… – Purple Learning

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

There is no doubt that mobile devices are increasingly ubiquitous in our everyday life, but can they be used as mobile learning devices?
Via www.purplelearning.com.au

mLearning Trends: Enterprise mLearning Predictions for 2012

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design
Here on the last day of the year, I offer my predications for the big and shaping trends we’ll see in the enterprise mobile learning space for 2012. As in the past, this year’s list includes predictions across a gamut of new technologies, consumer/buyer trends plus a few anticipated seismic shifts in the world of business that should collectively reshape the landscape for the adoption and accelerated growth of mobile learning for businesses.
Via mlearningtrends.blogspot.com

Effective Mobile Learning: 50+ Tips & Resources Ebook | Scribd

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design
Effective Mobile Learning: 50+ Tips & Resources Ebook | Scribd  
Via www.scribd.com

MOBILE LEARNING 21: Six Emerging Technologies in Education

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

Via moblearn21.blogspot.com

Mobile users lean toward apps over browsers

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

Mobile users love their apps and that love affair has outstripped our interest in browsers.
Via gigaom.com

Fancy Mobile Layouts with the Foundation Phone Grid by ZURB

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

We’ve had a great response to Foundation so far (thanks everyone!) but one piece of feedback we’ve received is that the small device layout for the Grid is too limiting. Currently, everything just stacks up, and sometimes you need more.
Via www.zurb.com

Mobile Learning Strategy | XpertLearning Blog

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

Infographic Complements SkillSoft’s Mobile Learning Whitepaper, “Five Calls To Make When Developing a Mobile Learning Strategy”
Via www.blog.xpertlearning.com

24 benefits of mobile learning |

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

marcus boyes provides 24 tips on moble learning.
Via insights.elearningnetwork.org

Mobile Learning Content Made Easy! | Cogentys

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design
According to Gartner research, employees have taken control from corporate IT departments. In the future, employees will be using multiple devices including tablets and smart phones of their choosing. What this means is corporate training departments will need to be able to deliver eLearning content to multiple devices
Via www.cogentys.com

Getting ready for m-learning and HTML5 | E-Learning Academy

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

HTML5 is an emerging specification. Here are some considerations for planning staff access to e-learning through iPads and other tablets.
Via www.elearningacademy.com.au

links for 2011-07-29

• USA State
  (tags: genealogy family_history)

ADL Mobile Learning Newsletter #55 – 18 July 2011

Via Scoop.it – Mobile Learning Design

Show original

5 Ways to Improve Bad eLearning

Via Scoop.it – eLearning
Using time constraints is wise. If you are an elearning designer or developer, I don’t think you’ll have any trouble making this claim. So, point to the lack of time for revision and then recommend some or all of these five simple ways to improve the bad elearning.
Show original

links for 2011-07-25

• DoppelMe – Free Dynamic Avatars
  (tags: avatar generator Web2.0 avatars tools gaming gbl)

links for 2011-07-18

• Managing your Social Graph with Google [Google Plus] – Life With Alacrity
  (tags: Google socialnetwork)
• Roundup: 11 Handy Tools for Distraction-Free Writing | arkarthick.com
  quick description of downloadable and online "distraction free" tools – intended to help you focus on the task at hand: writing, and minimize if not eliminate other distractions onscreen
  (tags: tools writing blogging)

A rush to be rash

Donald Clark posts a bit of a rant regarding an announcement from the Vatican for

Plans … for information to be posted on an Internet learning center and in a database that will involve cooperation with medical schools and universities and will be accessible, in part, to the public (NY Times June 18, 2011)

as part of recommendations coming out of a symposium this past February regarding the clergy sexual abuse scandals. The question is posed if such an initiative – that is, creating a “multilingual internet database and learning center that will “involve cooperation with medical schools and universities and will be accessible, in part, to the public.” (Care2 June 19, 2011) – is (or could be) helpful or useful, or if it is some “on-going PR campaign.”

Now there are some issues with Mr Clark’s understanding of ecclesiology and from his limited number of assertions regarding creedal statements, but that would be a whole other post … indeed, perhaps a string of several posts.

This response is only concerned with whether or not a proposed elearning would be, could be, helpful regarding the clergy abuse scandals.

In the interest of full disclosure … I volunteer as a catechist at my local parish in the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. I teach 8th-graders, who are 13 and 14-year olds. I’ve done so for nearly 10 years. And it is in this capacity that I can speak with some personal point of reference as well as in the context of one whose profession is the designing and developing of elearning programs.

A little bit of background

At the beginning of my tenure as a volunteer catechist, we were informed of a required training program that was part of the Bishop’s response to the sexual abuse scandals (and it is worth noting that at that time, the scandals were thought to be a uniquely American phenomenon, which we have since learned to be wrong as this has reached into much of Europe).

The training was required of all individuals in the diocese who had any contact whatsoever with young people.

The training began with a several-hour classroom session and then an online certification program. This program used scenarios as the primary means of conveying the information. Each scenario included several questions asking for appropriate responses to the situations presented.

Additionally, a monthly elearning module is required. The monthly modules include an article, some study of recent findings, or snips of news articles. It ends with a brief scenario with a question.

All of this information (that I completed the modules and my answers to the questions) are kept and maintained at the diocese as there are periodic audits performed.

Then once per year I am required to be re-certified via an extensive set of elearning scenario-based questions. These scenarios cover all of the material presented in the monthly modules of the past year.

And it’s part of a comprehensive blend

Besides the elearning programs which must be completed, there are additional aspects to the diocesan program. 

Every two years I am fingerprinted and a criminal background check is conducted.

The director of religious education at the parish is required to ensure all of us are certified – paperwork is kept at the diocesan center.

There is a clear set of guidelines and policies in place at both the diocese and our parish outlining roles, responsibilities and procedures when interacting with young people. We are required to read these policies.

Regular, weekly communications are sent from the director of religious education and/or our pastor to the catechists reminding us of the policies and our responsibilities.

So the elearning programs are not isolated, discrete training events. But rather, they are a part of a more comprehensive blend of training and communication along with involvement and cooperation of law enforcement officials (vis-a-vis fingerprinting and background checks).

Now to the point

So, what is the point of all this training? And can any elearning program be effective in this, which is the primary assertion posed by Donald Clark?

Well, there are a few points.

The elearning programs are designed to provide awareness of the issues … not so much being aware of the sex abuse scandals themselves, but of the issues regarding

• how to keep our young people safe by being able to identify behaviors of potential abusers,
• how to create a safer environment for the children and the adult staff such as myself,
• how to identify behaviors on the part of a young person that could indicate the possibility of ongoing abuse,
• how to report my suspicions,
• and what my legal responsibilities are (thereby eliminating the excuse of not knowing reporting requirements)

And this is kept front of mind in that there are regular elearning modules delivered to my email inbox as well as regular communications from those in charge of the parish programs.

Elearning programs are part of the mix … not merely a one-shot inoculation that gives an impression of action and nothing else. They are ongoing; and we are held accountable for their content as we must apply the principles to how we interact with young people at the parish.

And I would hope that the Vatican’s recently announced initiative follows a similar approach of continuous learning and application and accountability. And this would be only one step in the right direction. But details of the program are not available (at least I can’t find the details). That makes sense insofar as it is only proposed at this time. It will be designed and implemented, and time will tell if it is effective or not.

I would hope that given the announcement indicating that this will be implemented in consultation with universities, medical professionals and such that it is part of a larger blend of training, communications, etc.

So I reserve judgment on whether this is merely a PR stunt or not.

links for 2011-06-12

• Family Tree Magazine – The Leading Family History Magazine
  webinars, online classes, forms, research tools
  (tags: genealogy)
• ShoeString Genealogy
  (tags: genealogy)
• GenealogyGenius Home Page.aspx
  page regarding records and record searching in Michigan
  (tags: Genealogy family history charts worksheets)
• Free Family Tree PDF Charts
  (tags: Genealogy family history tools charts)
• TechTips | Technology tips for genealogists and family historians.
  part of FamilySearch – technology page with articles and tips
  (tags: genealogical techtips tips family history)

links for 2011-05-30

• Family Tree Templates
  More than 60 family tree templates you can download and print for free. Or, download customizable versions for just $4.
  (tags: templates Genealogy Charts familytree)