Meeting Face to Face

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working on-site with a client for the day.

This is a group I've been working very closely with for the past year. Although I talk to many of these people on an almost daily basis, I had never met most of them in person before. Nevertheless, their voices are deeply etched in my brain, and I could have picked any of them out of a lineup if we were going by voice and not visual.

When you don't meet someone in person, you still paint a picture of them in your mind.

So yesterday, I got to meet these people and see their real faces -- not my made up ones. The universe has shifted slightly as I've adjusted my images. It was a bit disconcerting at first. I had to keep staring at each of them hard as I replaced my old pictures. More hair. Younger. Older. Unexpected beards.

The bonus of so many of the social media tools we use is that our pictures are attached. It's nice to know who you're really talking to.

This is me, in case you were wondering:

I still haven't bothered trying to figure out how to change my blogger image from that damn apple!

Best Online Collaboration Tools with Robin Good

Live blogging this session from the Corporate Learning Trends & Innovation Conference with Robin Good.

The end of the content God. The teacher now serves as mentor to help us create the best thing together.

So now we're going to edit a mind map together using mindmeister.

Login issues -- Robin says, "when you're trying something new, we've all got to be patient..."

Everyone's adding tools to the different categories on the MindMap -- whoa. Lots happening all over the place.

This is my first mind mapping experience so I'm mostly learning how to use a mind mapping tool.

Together we're producing something new and unique -- 150 users adding tools and URLs to the mindmap at the same time.

Feeling like the exercise itself is the learning event -- not so much the listing of individual tools (although that's a bonus) -- but seeing how everyone's collaborating. Very cool.

Robin really goes with the flow when things aren't working well on the technical side. Very enthusiastic -- fun presenter...

Robin's Summary:

Learning collaboration is all about trying new things, making mistakes, experimenting. When we come together with such energy, we can really create fantastic work. When we catalyze about something we enjoy, it's really fantastic.

Check out the mind map we created here.

Whew! What a whirlwind.

Webinosh with Dr. Will Thalheimer: Smile Sheets

I sat in on a great lunchtime webinosh with Dr. Will Thalheimer on smile sheets.

My live blogged notes were beautiful and then poof -- my machine crashed and my notes are gone. The sorrow.

(Please oh please can I throw this laptop out the window now?)

I won't attempt to recreate them -- don't have the time.

But it was great, and I highly recommend you attend his next session on context.

Dr. Thalheimer's focus is on bridging the gap between research and practice. That's the kind of theory I can sink my fingers into.

Bottom line on smile sheets:

Favorable returns on smile sheets have little correlation with the overall value of the learning experience.

Dr. Thalheimer talked about ways he's been trying to make smile sheets more effective so that they can be used to tell us something valuable about the learning experience.

Look for a sample smile sheet on Dr. Thalheimer's site (type smile sheet in the search field).

If you're lucky enough to be going to DevLearn next week, Dr. Thalheimer will be presenting. Make a point of sitting in .

Technorati Tags: smile_sheets

Learning About eLearning: Browse My Stuff

Tony Karrer has just rebranded and launched eLearning Learning. It's kind of like Technorati, but community focused around the singular topic of eLearning.

I've added a widget to my blog's sidebar that lets you browse my stuff (it does the tagging for me, so I don't have to). If you click on a topic you'll go to the hub, where you can access posts by others on the same topic.

Let me (and Tony) know what you think!

Blogger's Hut in Second Life

Scott Merrick (also check out Scott's SecondLife Blog) runs the ISTE's Blogger's Hut in Second Life. Scott's Twitter bio describes him as a "teacher, learner,...old hippy." Just the kind I like!

I hadn't heard of Blogger's Hut before I got Scott's email telling me I'd been nominated as Blog-O'-the-Month. How kind!

If you spend any time in Second Life, all November visiting avatars will have the opportunity to click on the polling object in the Hut and vote for a blog to be featured throughout the next month in the RSS feed located within the hut.

Stop by the Blogger's Hut at http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/6/129/22, to vote!

The Blog-o'-the-Month for November is Dr. Z Reflects, Leigh Zeitz's stellar offering to the educational community.

At the very least, check out these blogs, some of which are new to me.

Blogs up this month:

• Learning Visions"--Cammy Bean
  http://learningvisions.blogspot.com/
• "HeyJude"--Judy O'Connell
  http://heyjude.wordpress.com/
• "Bud the Teacher"--Bud Hunt
  http://budtheteacher.typepad.com/
• "A Piece of My Mind"--Scott S. Floyd
  http://scottsfloyd.edublogs.org/

It's been awhile since I've stepped a virtual foot in SL (my ancient laptop does not have the right video card for SL), but I have blogged my past experiences in SL. Check out my forays into SecondLife.

SecondLife has sort of slipped off my radar these days. How about you? Is it something you're still thinking about? Has SL lost some of its traction over the last year?