Jane's Pick of the Day

October review

October is drawing to a close, and this year I'm in the US, which is where they really know how to celebrate  Halloween!

My October Reading List isn't quite as long as usual this month, so in this month's review I'm just going to mention 3 articles/postings that I really enjoyed this month:

1. The value of social media to learning, Nick Shackleton-Jones, aconventional, 3 October 2010
2. Is Your Training Path Full of Traffic Lights (Instead of Roads)? Trina Rimmer, Mindflash, 18 October 2010
3. Network Learning: Working Smarter, Harold Jarche, 22 October 2010

If you'd like to see all 16 articles on this month's list, you can find it HERE.

mWomen Connect : Empowering women through mobile technology

I found out about this site a couple of days ago.  It looks a really interesting community, so sharing it with you today.

"mWomen Connect is an online community for everyone who is interested in mWomen and increasing mobile access to women in the developing world for their socio-economic advancement.

The site pulls together research and information on mWomen , the learnings of the pioneers and experts in this field both from the GSMA’s mWomen team and a number of other sources.

It’s the place to look up the answers to immediate and pressing problems; it's a place to talk, and a place to listen. It’s somewhere to post your understandings and learn from others."

Find out more at www.mwomen.org

World questions |King's answers.

I studied for my first degree at King's College, University of London (a good few years ago now!) but I  have just received the latest alumni newsletter telling me about the launch of  World questions|Kings answers on Wednesday 3 November. 

This  is a  global fundraising campaign with a difference, so I thought I would share it with you today.  The video below explains the questions they're asking and how to help find the answers. 

You can ask your world question on the discussion board or join the debate on Twitter or Facebook.

For more information about the campaign visit the www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers website

The Future of Revenue

JESS3 and Eloqua have recently put together a video entitled the Future of Revenue which walks the viewer through the history of business and revenue management and hypothesizes on what the future holds.

It's sort of a "School of Rock," but without the catchy songs, and aimed at business and marketing students.

You can view it, along with twitter conversation about key business terms at the mini site at http://www.eloqua.com/futureofrevenue/ . 

Top Tools for Learning : Emerging Trends

Yesterday I announced the fact that the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 list had been finalised. 

Did you notice any interesting trends in the popularity of tools for learning over the last 4 years?

I identified four key trends:

1. The increasing consumerization of IT
2. Learning, working and personal tools are merging
3. Social tools predominate
4. Personal (informal) learning is under the control of the learner

I think these trends are making a significant impact on the how we define learning, how learning is supported and "managed".

In a recent article Top Tools for Learning: Emerging Trends I looked at these four trends in more detail, and asked what this means for the future of workplace learning and also the Learning and Development profession, which I then address in a second article, The New Era of Workplace Learning,

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010: Final list, presentation and more

Yesterday I finalised the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 list.  Many thanks to the 545 people who shared their Top 10 Tools for Learning and contributed to the building of the list.   Although this list is available online, I also created this presentation which provides the information as a slideset - embedded below.

Last year's presentation has been viewed over 90,000 times on Slideshare, so I hope this one is equally useful. 

I have also produced a number of other pages that offer different view on the results.

The Winners & Losers 2010 page shows the tools that have gone up and down the list or fallen off it completely or are new entrants this year.  So for instance here you can find out:

• Which was the highest ranked new tool this year?
• Which tool climbest the most places on the list this year?
• Which tool descended the most on the list this year?
• Which was the highest ranking tool on the 2009 list that lost its place this year?

The Best in Breed 2010 page displays the tools list in tools categories, so for instance you can find the top blogging tools or top wiki tools or top screencasting tools.

A further page provides a list of all the tools that have appeared in the Top 100 Tools list between 2007 and 2010, which makes for interesting reading and analysis of trends.  For example, which of the 172 tools listed have consistently appeared on each of the 4 year's lists?  You can find out HERE.

Going forward into 2011

It was suggested to me by a number of people that rather than closing this list, I should keep it open and continue to evolve and build the list.  The Emerging 2011 list is therefore already online, and open for anyone to share their Top 10 Tools in the usual way.  In fact there have already been a few contributions!  So feel free to add your own at any time.

Slideshare's World's Best Presentation Contest 2010

Slideshare is holding its annual presentation contest - and this year I'm very pleased to be one of the judges. 

Prizes are ...

Here's a slideshow about the contest, which provides more information ...

To find out more about how to enter and how to vote, go to the World's Best Presentation Contest 2010

The E-Learning Debate 2010 #elearningdebate

Yesterday I attended this year's E-Learning Debate, hosted by Epic, which took place again at the Oxford Union, and was once again chaired by Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC Technology Correspondent. 

Here's a pic of the empty Debating Chamber:

This year's motion was "This house believes that technology-based informal learning is more style than substance".

Speaking FOR the motion were Prof Allison Rossett, Nancy Lewis and Mark Doughty.  Speaking AGAINST the motion were Prof William Dutton, Jay Cross and David Wilson.

Here's a picture of Jay speaking:

Rather than summarise the debate here -  you can see the Twitter stream  at #elearningdebate with comments from those in the room and elsewhere -  I'm going to point you to Epic's ELearningDebate.com site, since from this afternoon (7 October) video highlights of the Debate will be available there.

What I will say is that in the Debating Chamber the voting was as follows:

Ayes - 54
Noes - 259

But if you want to continue the debate and vote on the motion yourself, you can also do that at the E-Learning Debate site.

Hotseat and Mixable - social learning in and out of the classroom

Purdue University are doing some very interesting things to incorporate Facebook, Twitter and other social media into activities both in and outside of the classroom.

I've already posted about Hotseat, which is described as follow

Wa social networking-powered mobile Web application, creates a collaborative classroom, allowing students to provide near real-time feedback during class and enabling professors to adjust the course content and improve the learning experience. Students can post messages to Hotseat using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, sending text messages, or logging in to the Hotseat Web site."

Now, there is also Mixable (see image above)

"Mixable acts as social overlay that students can use to connect with Facebook friends who share the same courses and learning communities. Also like Facebook, these class connections are not limited by semester, but exists throughout the student’s academic care.

Mixable is available as an independent Web application for those students who don’t have, or wish to use, their Facebook account.

Didn’t bring your laptop with you? Mixable provides access to conversations and resources from many smartphones - including Android and iPhone."

Purdue have clearly (and cleverly) realised that it is no longer about forcing students to use standalone learning systems but to integrate learning into the systems that students  actually use on a daily basis.  I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of this - both in education and in the workplace.

[For more on using Facebook for learning, take a look at Facebook as a social learning environment page in my How to use Facebook for Social Learning guide]

[Via Mixable PR release]

Your last chance to vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010

This is the 4th year I have compiled the Top 100 Tools for Learning list from the contributions of learning professionals worldwide.  This year there have been over 450 contributions so far - and you can view the emerging list HERE.

 Although there are some clear frontrunners, with Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs, Delicious and Slideshare in the Top 5 positions, there is still a lot of movement further down the list. 

I'm going to be finalising this year's list in two weeks time on 17 October, so if you would like to contribute this year, then there is still time.  You can do this by sharing your Top 10 Tools HERE. 

Every contribution is very much appreciated and valued, and as I would really like to reach 500 contributions this year, please do consider taking part.  Many thanks in advance.