Leisurely Theorems

This blog is looking pretty dead, isn't it?

2010-12-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

Too much Twitter and Facebook, too much other stuff demanding my attention. I am re-evaluating what I am doing and how, so this one might go away.

If you came here from a link in one of my profiles, I apologize for wasting your time. I'll try not to do it again.

Bill

New voice services in Second Life

2009-05-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

Basic information: https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/05/20/over-15-billion-voice-minutes-served and http://lindenlab.com/pressroom/releases/19_05_09

I sat in on a conference in-world today with Joel Savard (Metanomics) and about 20 SL users (several pretty expert). The topic was the new voice services that Linden Labs announced Tuesday.

These services are still in beta, estimated release is Q3. Some will be of no interest for business or for e-Learning, some have potential, some seem to be just the beginning of probable future developments. All are currently free, this will probably change. Definitely worth keeping an eye on. Of the ones in the press release, we really talked mostly about four:

Voice fonts, aka voice morphing: This is not new technology (screaming bee is an app that has been out for a while). It enables the user to change his/her voice — trans-gender, foreign accents, “AM Radio”, elf, etc. Probably mostly for use in role play environment and machinama. It may be the first step to building voice plug-ins (voice fonts), possibly may lead to text2voice/voice2text apps (interesting for vision-impaired and hearing-impaired). Potential for criminal misuse. Of course, as it is now, when the other person is typing, you don’t know whether their gender in RL matches their avatar’s gender (and with Furries, who the hell knows?), so normal cautious behavior with people you don’t know is still called for.

Avaline: Most of the discussion was about this. Avaline is basically a phone number and voicemail for your avatar. The system gives you an avaline token, which provides a phone number that is good for a specified period of time — hour, day, week. The phone number is good for inbound (to SL) calls only. Calls go to you in-world, and may be made from any phone (landline or mobile), and (I’m not clear on this) from Skype. An IM window will pop up where you are, looks much like text chat (or voice chat request) box now, with a button to hit to accept the call. From that point, it works just like voice chat does now. You can record the call. If you are not in-world when the call comes in, it will go to a voice mailbox in-world, and you also have the option of having the voicemail sent as an MP3 to your email. (Joel has experimented with this — he says the MP3 feature is pretty sucky at this point — the MP3s seem to play back at higher speed than normal.) Apparently the calls into SL can be heard by others in the area (this is just like voice chat — not private), and the tricky thing is that if 10 people are listening to the call, the minutes used (remember that the token is only valid for a limited time) count individually. In other words, 10 listeners for 1 minute = 10 minutes deducted from the value of the token. Not so bad while this service is free, but when you’re paying for the minutes ... Some concerns expressed about the legal implications and possible abuses of the ability to record conversations — will it be obvious that the call is being recorded, does the law require you to notify the other person, etc. Considering this will go on across jurisdictional boundaries, everyone agreed that caution will be required. And maybe an attorney on retainer. This one is available to Linden’s beta testers, including some who were in the meeting who said it does work well.

SLim: One-to-one text and voice app that enables Residents to interact with other Second Life users without needing to have the viewer open. Essentially, this sits on your desktop like any other IM client. Several people in the meeting had tried this out in beta, and they all agreed that it doesn’t work very well yet. Still, something to keep an eye on for folks who live as much in-world as in RL.

Client-side Recording: This is, at the same time, the most potentially useful and the most potentially scary one. It enables Residents to record voice conversations for playback later. It is all client-side. Which means if you are having a voice chat with someone, ANYONE in hearing range can record your conversation — for their own (not necessarily ethical) purposes. YOU WILL NOT KNOW THE CONVERSATION IS BEING RECORDED UNLESS THE PERSON RECORDING IT TELLS YOU. There would be plenty of uses for this in e-Learning and business. Same legal questions, but since the recording is client-side, jurisdiction is potentially a minefield. The app has not been made available to beta testers, so nobody really knows how well it works.

SMS Out: This was in the press release, but nobody has used it and there aren’t many details. It will allow Residents to send SMS messages from SLim to any phone in RL.

The press release notes that in 2010 Linden plans to add conference calls, group chats, and browser-based voice applets on the SL Web site. Will have to wait and see.

ADDED 5/22/09: Dusan Writer has additional details: http://dusanwriter.com/index.php/2009/05/20/second-life-to-add-voice-morphing-controls-voice-mail-and-avatar-phone-numbers/

Twitter yourself a job

2009-01-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

Yet another way to use social media -- finding work after a layoff.

See this article.

Twitter for Business

2009-01-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

Know someone who just doesn't get Twitter? Here's an O'Reilly Media webcast that is well worth watching. Just over an hour long, so make some popcorn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUR2E8l3bi8

Wondering how to use Twitter?

2008-12-31T14:30:00.001-08:00

Many professionals have asked me if Twitter isn't just a big waste of time. I don't think so. Here's an answer to this question that I recently posted in The eLearning Guild's group on LinkedIn.

It's like blogs, only shorter. Some people use their blogs to document and share their professional work, and some use their blogs to contemplate their own navels. It's like email. Some people use email to further their professional contacts, some use it to send spam and inbox clutter. Many of us use Twitter productively in our work. It's not the same thing for everyone. It's certainly not the End of Civilization As We Know It.

Some observations and some things you can do (if you want) that *might* help you find value in Twitter in 2009:

- Remember that it's more important to follow than to be followed.
- Remember that it's important to be selective about who you follow.
- Remember that you can UN-follow people if you are more distracted than informed by their tweets.
- Post useful stuff; minimize the number of "Putting on my socks" tweets you leave -- no point contributing to the noise.
- Learn how to use @, DM, hash tags, and RT to carry on a conversation and to share resources.
- Get familiar with the #lrn and #edu hash tags, and use http://search.twitter.com to filter out a lot of the noise.
- During eLearning Guild conferences, use the hash tags designated for that conference to follow what is going on -- lots of good stuff gets reported this way, in real time. Better than reading the blog posts from conferences, in many cases.
- Suggest relevant hash tags to your friends (colleagues) on Twitter, so that you can, as a group, develop your own topics.
- Use Tweetdeck to further filter and organize your timeline -- this may be the most important Twitter management tool available for busy people.

I think that should get you started. There are a lot of good, solid Learning and OD professionals using Twitter. Here are some you might want to follow for starters (and don't be dismayed by the fact that even the pros use Twitter as a social chat channel -- many of us work from home or travel and we miss the chatter and bonding that people who work in offices enjoy).

Me -- @billbrandon
Brent Schlenker -- @bschlenker
Mark Oehlert -- @moehlert
Marcia Conner -- @marciamarcia
Tony Karrer -- @tonykarrer
George Siemens -- @gsiemens
Alan Levine -- @cogdog
Tim O'Reilly -- @timoreilly
Tawny Press -- @tawnypress
Scott Leslie -- @sleslie
Will Thalheimer -- @WillWorkLearn
Cammy Bean -- @cammybean
Jay Cross -- @jaycross
Kathy Sierra -- @KathySierra
Clark Quinn -- @Quinnovator
Inge de Waard -- @Ignatia

... and there are many, many others -- these are just a few of the ones out of the almost 500 people that I follow (and I am nowhere near saturated). When you follow someone, check out the people that they are sending @'s to. If they are interesting to you, follow them.

I hope this helps. Twitter is what you make of it. You really ought to check out how other professionals are using it before deciding that it isn't for you.

Why Twitter matters

2008-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

http://tiny.cc/9Vu7G or http://tinyurl.com/55y48h

Even Business Week gets it. Why doesn't everybody?

Flip Video: How is it?

2008-05-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

I bought a Flip Video (the 60-minute version) about six weeks ago. My observations:

Good quality video and audio for everyday use and for basic e-Learning apps, but certainly not to compare even with most consumer-grade camcorders. Better than most cell phone video, however. Be sure that you are shooting in a place with enough light: this is not a night-vision camera.

Controls are very basic. Holding camera steady while zooming in or out takes practice. On my camera, the red button is tricky -- hard to stop recording, takes several presses of the button, which is frustrating and also makes for more camera shake.

Editing software does not function on a Mac. Works well on a PC, though it is pretty basic. You can upload to your Mac easily, however. The instructions for converting the video to QuickTime format are pretty confusing, and I still have trouble -- the manual is not much help.

Files are very large, with no way to compress them unless you use third-party software. This means upload times to YouTube can be quite long, ditto for emailing your videos.

I overspent. Considering that most of what I've shot so far has been 1- to 3-minute segments, and I am never far from my PC or my MacBook, I could have saved myself $70 and bought the 30-minute Flip.

Bottom line: The Flip is a nice little camera, just don't expect too much from it. (My cell phone actually makes videos that are as good or better, but of course my phone cost about twice what the Flip did, so it better be good!) Good for interviews, getting video of expert performance/needs assessment examples, plus all the usual informal and family video opportunities. Think of it as being the early 21st century version of the Brownie box camera.

Just for fun

2008-03-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Awareness Test

Milestone

2008-03-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Exactly six years ago today, The eLearning Guild web site went live. This morning, The eLearning Guild officially recorded 29,000 members worldwide.

If it wasn't so early, I'd crack open a bottle of champagne to celebrate -- maybe at lunch ...

Cheers!

Do we still need "courses"?

2008-03-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

George Siemens raises an interesting question. Here's my contribution to the conversation:

Courses make sense when you've got canonical content and a prescribed/required outcome, and when "packaging" a set of learning experiences and assessments serves the stakeholder(s) who are paying to have their achievement documented and certified. It seems to me that if any of those conditions is n/a, then a course might be a less than optimum approach (if not an outright waste of time, money, and effort).

It also seems to me that, increasingly, we have fewer situations in which "canonical" and "prescribed/required" are not debateable. In spite of the best efforts of legislatures to require certification and accountability for *everything* citizens do.

My biggest worry about how to tie all the stuff together (including content) has to do with changing technology. PageFlakes may only be around briefly. Any given proprietary element of a PLE (there's that word again!) can disappear. Some ambitious, unknown, tiny legal entity can finagle a patent that shuts down all accreditation methods unless the accrediting entities pay Big Bucks for a license. And so on. It's still an uncertain world. Not that it wasn't always, of course.

Don't be so quick to dump systematic design

2008-02-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

I need to write a longer post about this, but systematic design (the idea behind ISD, ADDIE, HPT, etc.) is not a bad thing. The bad thing is getting caught up in the "grain of sand" syndrome, whereby the designer gets locked into endless analysis and research (even for instructional problems where excellent solutions are well-known).

This is an issue that has been bugging me for several years now. Maybe it's time I got it out of my system. Or maybe I just need to get over it.

First shot at this month's Big Question

2008-02-01T14:50:00.000-08:00

Tony Karrer has posted the Big Question for February: For a given project, how do you determine if, when, and how much instructional designer and instructional design are needed.

My first thought off the top of my head is that the answer is about expertise. The reason there are instructional designers is the same as the reason there are engineers: they have developed expertise at getting to outcomes.

Our expertise is the value we add. That value comes at a cost -- it isn't free. If the cost of the expertise (plus whatever other resources are needed) is less than the cost of the problem, and less than any other solution to the problem, then it's a good value and the ID gets hired. Otherwise the ID is a bad deal. We get into trouble when we "assume" that the ID is always the right answer. Organizations get into trouble when they "assume" that the SME is always the right answer. And by the way, whether the development is "rapid" (however you measure that) or not makes no difference. An ID can "do rapid development" -- it's not like being an ID requires being committed to "agonizingly slow development." An IDs rapid development product might (or might not) give better results than the product of a SME using the same tools. It all depends on expertise, and on the nature of the solution being required (see "good enough," media, and cost comments below).

A little more thought: There are questions a manager can ask that will start leading toward a defensible answer to The Big Question.

- Can you define "good enough" and is good enough sufficient? Nobody will get killed or injured, the company won't be exposed to some intolerable downside or consequence, the business mission and objectives will be supported? If so, can a SME give you "good enough" in an acceptable length of time -- a day, a week, a month?

- Does the desired outcome require media to support learning? Does your SME have the necessary skills? If not, and if the ID does have the skills, use the ID.

- Considering the loaded cost (salary + benefits) and the opportunity cost, is it cheaper to have an SME do this, or an ID? Use the one that will get you the results you need at the lowest (loaded + opportunity) cost.

- Are there "standard" (proven and effective) ways to teach the topic (e.g. speaking French well enough to travel to Paris, check into a hotel, order a meal, ask for and comprehend directions)? Does your SME know those paradigms?

- Is this a topic where there are no paradigms for teaching, but one for which there are strategies that have been researched? Does your SME know the research and how to apply it?

This isn't all that organized, but it's a start. The objective is to avoid spending $100 fixing a $0.02 problem. And you can spend that $100 on an SME, inappropriately tasked, just as quickly as you can spend it on an ID.

More later. Maybe. I need to go walk this 110 pound Labradoodle that is bumping my elbow and making it difficult to type.

Eduspaces to shut down

2007-12-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

In an unexpected announcement this morning at 9 am CST, it was learned that Eduspaces will close on January 10. No reason was given, and apparently elgg is not affected. Watch www.eduspaces.net for any forthcoming explanation. This is very short notice, and not well-timed for educators who have resources on Eduspaces.

Part of the key to an enterprise learning strategy

2007-08-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

From The eLearning Guild's new 360 Report on Mobile Learning:

"[C]onsider what Dr. Conrad Gottfredson calls the
'Five Moments of Learning Need,' as enumerated below:

1. When learning for the first time
2. When wanting to learn more
3. When trying to remember
4. When things change
5. When something goes wrong

Is there a way to better meet some or all of these needs by combining learning expertise and mobile devices?"

Dave Winer: Open Identity in 2007

2007-08-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Thoughtful blog post, thoughtful podcast. Read it here.

More on this later from me. Deadline snapping at my heels right now.

Where did the name of this weblog come from?

2007-08-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

Tom Gilbert, the "Father of Human Performance Technology," published a book in 1974 titled Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performnance. This (in my opinion) belongs on the shelf of every instructional designer. In it, Gilbert defines performance as the accomplishments we value. He then goes on to lay out four "Leisurely Theorems" that are at the heart of what we do.

I wonder whether we should look again at the Leisurely Theorems, in light of changes in the environment over the last forty years. How much has technology, and the possibility of global collaboration without traditional management structures driving things, affected "worthy performance"?

Here are Gilbert's Leisurely Theorems:

First Leisurely Theorem: Human competence is a function of worthy performance (W), which is measured by the ratio of valuable accomplishments (A) to costly behavior (B). That is, W = A/B

Second Leisurely Theorem: Typical competence is inversely proportional to the performance improvement potential (PIP). The PIP is the ratio of exemplary performance to typical performance. The ratio must be stated for an identifiable accomplishment -- there is no general quality of "competence." That is, PIP = W(e)/W(t)

Third Leisurely Theorem: For any accomplishment, a deficiency in performance always has an immediate cause in a deficiency in the performer's behavior repertory (P), or a deficiency in the environment supporting the repertory (E), or both. The ultimate cause is always a deficiency in the management system (M). That is, W = A/B = A/(P + E + M)

Fourth Leisurely Theorem: There are a number of views of human accomplishments, at different levels of generality. The values we assign to those accomplishments are derived from the level just above them.

Doing my homework

2007-08-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Dare Obasanjo has posted some intriguing analysis of what an "open social network" is. Read it here.

Obasanjo is in charge of the social networking aspects of Windows Live.

Here is a pretty complete (if admittedly biased) presentation of what's wrong with closed social networks (e.g., Orkut, MySpace). This is by Richard McManus, who has a business connection to one of the aggregators.

And there's this by Scott Gilbertson of Wired.

Social networks + collaborative learning + self-guided learning = ?

2007-08-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

Maybe The Next Big Thing?

I'm studying up on the interactions between these developments and such movements as OpenID. I was thinking nobody else was paying attention to them, but then this morning I saw Clive Shepherd's post about Harbinger's Flockpod, so now I know that Clive is looking, and that Harbinger is too.

Quoting my comment on Clive's post: So what worries me about things like Flockpod is that this particular application is just another closed silo on a proprietary platform. Your "stuff" goes in, but you can't get it back out. It's not open. Will Harbinger expose their API? I don't see anyone in e-Learning worrying much about this right now, but they will. If not, then we are back to the same mess we have now with LMS and LCMS.

Scoble interview: m-Learning

2007-08-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

In the Shared Items on the right side, there's an item "Larry Page's teacher." This links to a video interview, part of which deals with e-Learning and m-Learning (cell phone division) in K-12 education. Nothing earth-shaking, but it indicates that the idea is making headway.

Hey! I figured it out!

2007-08-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

PeopleAggregator does not support Safari, the browser that comes built in on the Macbook. Everything works wonderfully well under Firefox, however.

I might make deadline with this story after all.

PeopleAggregator

2007-08-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

I spent a couple of hours this morning fooling around with PeopleAggregator. I managed to set up an account, set up a group (Collective Wisdom), and make a blog post to the group blog. I have not been able, for the life of me, to figure out how to set up a personal blog there or to post to it or to the Community blog.

What is PeopleAggregator? According to its developers, PeopleAggregator has a number of different purposes:

- It is a social networking applicationthat runs at http://www.peopleaggregator.net.
- It is also a do-it-yourself social networking system. You can create your own community at the click of a button - no coding required.
- It is a development platform - the entire source code is available for download (free for charities and non-profits). You can also modify the code, for example to extend the functionality or create a new user interface.
- PeopleAggregator exposes open APIs and supports open standards. So all web applications that support these APIs can seamlessly share data between themselves. We also support open standards like microformats and OpenID.

All very interesting, but not so easy to use. If I figure it out in time to make today's deadline, you can read about it in Learning Solutions come Monday, August 13. But for now, it's not looking like I'm going to get it figured out in time. I'm testing the social network to see if I can get any help.

Intense Debate

2007-08-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

Spotted this at TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/07/intense-debate-soups-up-your-blog-comments/

While threaded comments might be overkill on most Weblogs, I can't help but think that for collaborative learning designs it might be an incredibly valuable tool.

First Post

2007-07-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

More to come later ...