Friday, April 24, 2009

eLearning by iPhone

Can you feel the excitement in the air?  The Europeans can, and it's called Mohive!
The new mobile capability allows company training managers to offer end-users high-definition interactive learning content, video, and graphics via iPhones without adding any additional steps to existing content-creation processes. End-users choosing Mohive for iPhone versions of their course material simply point their iPhone browser to a designated link and view the content.

It was only a matter of time, and as a course developer, and an iPhone owner, I can't wait to see if it lives up to the hype.

For more information, read the article here.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Social Learning

This presentation really represents where my job has evolved - instead of creating day to week-long classroom sessions, I'm helping folks understand how/where they can share their knowledge with the rest of the organization - via wikis, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

Social Learning is really the key for sharing knowledge across a dispersed organization...

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Meshing My Web/Blog Worlds

If you've ever been looking at a web page, and thought, "Gee, I should write about this in my blog, but I don't want to flip from screen to screen" ScribeFire is the tool for you. I just loaded this into Firefox, and am trying it out.

It basically gives you a split screen so you still have the browser open to the page you were looking at, but below you can type whatever suits your fancy and publish right to the blog. It can also give you a live preview in case you change your mind.

This may cure my laziness when it comes to posting! Voila! I'm prolific!

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

HR Futures Conference Feb09

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

eLearning 2.0 is the latest buzz, and how learning is evolving from the more traditional linear to the realm of bite sized chunks via social networks.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Making Web 2.0 Work for your Company

This article describes the six ways for management to gain participation in the Web 2.0 initiatives (which in turn, increase their "eLearning 2.0" results):

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Six_ways_to_make_Web_20_work_2294

In summary:
1.The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top. Even though it may start grassroots, someone up top has to do some watering to bless the activity, even becoming a role model in its usage.

2. The best uses come from users—but they require help to scale. People will use tools the way they want to use the tools, and it may not be predictable. Management shouldn't dictate usage, but support expanded usage and see where it leads.

3. What’s in the workflow is what gets used. Social tools and technologies have the highest chance of success when incorporated into a user’s daily workflow, and not "another" to do item.

4. Appeal to the participants’ egos and needs—not just their wallets. Appeal to the Web’s ethos and the participants’ desire for recognition. Gen X'ers and younger want to contribute and be acknowledged for their contributions - not forced to participate as part of the performance metrics.

5. The right solution comes from the right participants. Select users who help drive a self-sustaining effort (often enthusiastic early technology adopters who have rich personal networks and will thus share knowledge and exchange ideas).

6. Balance the top-down and self-management of risk. Maintain the right balance of freedom and control. Work with the legal, HR, and IT security functions to establish reasonable policies, such as prohibiting anonymous posting.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Love this title - "Chief Process and Innovation Officer (CPIO)"

I got an email recently that had this description - I think this is my new dream job - having the authority to actually improve processes BEFORE implementing systems.

Chief Process and Innovation Officer (CPIO) or sometimes just Chief Process Officer (CPO) is a corporate C-level position that calls for a leader who is able to identify which parts of a company's business processes could be improved and identify specific ways to make them work better. Industry watchers like author Peter Hinssen and Michael Hammer propose that as IT moves towards a more service-oriented architecture and cloud computing, the traditional role of CIO as technology expert will evolve into that of a more process-oriented business supervisory role and the CIO will become the CPIO. Industry watchers like author Peter Hinssen and Michael Hammer propose that as IT moves towards a more service-oriented architecture and the cloud, the traditional role of CIO as technology expert will evolve into that of a more process-oriented business supervisory role, the CPIO.

Core competencies for a CPIO include:

Professional - The CPIO knows how his business works, is aware of innovations in Information Technology and is familiar with relevant IT service providers and vendors.

Social - The CPIO demonstrates leadership skills, including the ability to listen to employees, collaborate and network with other C-level managers and negotiate with vendors.

Managerial - The CPIO is able to run a department, oversee staff development, balance a budget and manage IT as part of a business function.

Transformational - The CPIO is comfortable with managing change -- both low-tech and high-tech change and changes in business goals.

Business - The CPIO is familiar with his market and actively monitors the competition.

Innovation - The CPIO is able to demonstrate which innovations will be worthwhile, determine how technology can further improve the business process and successfully market his ideas for change.

Click here for source article.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Measurement still matters!

While I've been working full time in the technology field again, I've had plenty of opportunity to play with some new training tools. Notice my use of the verb "play". That has to be the best part of my job, taking time to try out some new toys, all in the name of work.

My latest toy is using a virtual cloud of systems for a virtual training lab. Skytap, the awesome vendor that I've been working with, asked me to write up what I found important about using a virtual environment.

You can read the article here!

Happy learning!