Bottom-Line Performance

Each week Brandon Penticuff, Bottom-Line Performance’s Director of Technology and admitted app-obsessed iOS user will share an app that he is using that week. Whether it is an app to make you more productive, teach you something, or simply entertain you, we hope that you’ll enjoy learning about them!

This week’s app is “SayHi Translate”, an extremely impressive “Pocket Interpreter” that will enable you to quickly translate phrases that you speak out loud into many different languages. Your conversation can also be translated the other way, with your communication partner’s response also being translated back into your primary language.

It may sound complicated, but it really isn’t. The app’s design is incredible, it’s hard to imagine it being any more simple to use. The design mimics a text-messaging conversation between two people (one blue, one green). The blue represents the Primary language chosen, and the green side represents the Secondary language. The application defaults to English and Spanish respectively, but you can set either to one of over 30 available languages in the settings menu. When you tap one of the supported languages and speak it, it automatically translates the text of what you said into the message window, and then speaks your phrase out loud and provides the text of the translation as well. This let’s you not only confirm what it is attempting to translate, but visually see the translation once it is completed. An entire conversation can be maintained within the app, and then selectively shared via email, text message, Twitter, or Facebook.

In addition to providing a handy way for you to quickly communicate with someone that doesn’t speak your language, you can also use this app to practice your fluency and pronunciation with a foreign language you are trying to learn. By tapping on the Secondary button you can speak in that language and have it confirm with you what it heard, and then translate it back into your Primary chosen language. By using the tool this way, you can practice your speaking skills and work to perfect your intonation and clarity.

I absolutely love apps like this that provide multiple uses, are cleverly designed, and leverage the ability of my iOS devices in new and interesting ways. Throw in the fact that it’s a universal app that works on both the iPad and iPhone with a single purchase and this one is easy to recommend.

SayHi Translate – [.99] (Universal App)

Note: This app is currently on sale for .99 and will be $2.99 after a introductory period.

Follow Brandon on Twitter for more tips and tracks on all things App related. Got an app you want featured? Send him a tweet to have it considered!

Each week Brandon Penticuff, Bottom-Line Performance’s Director of Technology and admitted app-obsessed iOS user will share an app that he is using that week. Whether it is an app to make you more productive, teach you something, or simply entertain you, we hope that you’ll enjoy learning about them!

This week’s app is “Art Authority for iPad”, an amazing virtual museum that will put over 50,000 of the worlds best artistic works at your fingertips on your iPad (a separate app is available for iPhone). You can browse the app by it’s 8 period-specific rooms that each contain a museum’s worth of content, or you can search an artist by name and view all the available pieces from their collection. The app is incredibly robust, featuring art from over 2,000 museums from across the globe.

In addition to giving you with a virtual museum to explore, the app also provides other clever features to help you get the most out of your experience. “Art Like This” let’s you immediately bring up similar pieces to your current selection, expanding your awareness of other works and artists that you might have otherwise not easily found. “Art Near Me” is a location based feature that helps alert you to what pieces are near your current location, giving you options to consider for making a day-trip to your local museum to see something first hand. You’ll likely be amazed by the number of pieces that are within a couple miles of your location! These features are part of the reason that the New York Times reported that for art on your iPad, Art Authority for the iPad has no rival.

In addition to increasing your personal cultural awareness and art appreciation, the arts have role to play in sparking our creativity and informing our designs. I’d like to share two quotes with you that I think speak to this better than I could:

“In my own philanthropy and business endeavors, I have seen the critical role that the arts play in stimulating creativity and in developing vital communities….the arts have a crucial impact on our economy and are an important catalyst for learning, discovery, and achievement in our country.”
–Paul G. Allen, Co-Founder, Microsoft

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have lots of dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solution without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”
–Steve Jobs

So maybe you haven’t made time in quite a while to visit a museum or perhaps that Bachelor of the Arts degree could use a refresher. An app like this one lets you use the most cutting edge technology of today to bring some of history’s best works to you.

Art Authority for iPad- [$4.99 (Currently on sale half-price)]

Follow Brandon on Twitter for more tips and tracks on all things App related. Got an app you want featured? Send him a tweet to have it considered!

Each week Brandon Penticuff, Bottom-Line Performance’s Director of Technology and admitted app-obsessed iOS user will share an app that he is using that week. Whether it is an app to make you more productive, teach you something, or simply entertain you, we hope that you’ll enjoy learning about them!

This week’s app is “Pocket”, an really cool way for you to store various content that you find on-line and want to read or watch later. Perhaps the best way to think of Pocket is to imagine it as a DVR for the internet. Let’s say you were reading Steve Boller’s great post “Trainers: Is Gladwell’s 10,000 Rule a Hoax? ” and didn’t have time to finish it. With Pocket, you would just save it for later and finish it when you had time, across any of your devices or computers.

Now your first thought might be “I can just bookmark a link in my browser”, and of course that’s true. However a browser bookmark typically stays tied to that browser and that computer, you likely aren’t setup to have it automatically populated out to each of your devices. Also, when your app syncs on a given device, it also stores the data locally so you don’t have to have a constant internet connection to read what’s in your Pocket. There are other apps out there like Instapaper that provide similar services, however with it’s recent redesign, Pocket (formerly “Read it Later”) has absolutely raised the bar in design and functionality. Extending the value of Pocket, many of the most popular Apps for content consumption like FlipBoard, Zite, Twitter, and more provide methods for saving your content directly into your Pocket account.

While some have expressed concern about the negative impact that technology and the internet in particular has had on long-form reading, there have been indications that the iPad is providing some relief to this trend. Apps like Pocket can help you save meaningful content for later and get the most out of your digital tools. When viewing your content you can sort it by image, video, or text and you can even apply tags to your content to help with later sorting and retrieval.

So what will you keep in your Pocket? Do you think apps like this can help sustain long-form content in a byte-size world?

Pocket – [FREE] (Universal App)

Follow Brandon on Twitter for more tips and tracks on all things App related. Got an app you want featured? Send him a tweet to have it considered!

Each week Brandon Penticuff, Bottom-Line Performance’s Director of Technology and admitted app-obsessed iOS user will share an app that he is using that week. Whether it is an app to make you more productive, teach you something, or simply entertain you, we hope that you’ll enjoy learning about them!

This week’s app is “Make My Own Puzzles“, a handy puzzle creation tool from Jeff Lowry. This very easy to use app will let you quickly build simple or complex word search or crossword style puzzles that feature content that you provide!

However, the puzzles that you create aren’t for playing in the app or even on your device. Instead the app provides you with the ability to export your puzzles as PDF, PNG, or JPG images that you can then print out or include as part of other material. You aren’t just restricted to exporting the puzzles either, the app also allows you to generate a version with hints or a full answer key as well. You can specify the grid-size of your puzzles and dictate the order of the content and the directions that your entries are displayed within the puzzle.

Our fantastic learning experts at Bottom-Line Performance have talked in depth about the fundamentals of gamification in learning, and one could argue that traditional puzzles like word search or crossword apply the some of these techniques in a fundamental way that has helped them stay relevant for over 100 years. Do you think your next training event would benefit from using an app like this one to create a customized puzzle with your content?

Care to try your hand at my technology-influenced crossword (hints provided!)? I will gift a copy of the app to the first person that provides the correct answers in the comments, think you can solve it??

Make My Own Puzzles – [.99 (Limited time)] (Universal App)

Follow Brandon on Twitter for more tips and tracks on all things App related. Got an app you want featured? Send him a tweet to have it considered!

Each week Brandon Penticuff, Bottom-Line Performance’s Director of Technology and admitted app-obsessed iOS user will share an app that he is using that week. Whether it is an app to make you more productive, teach you something, or simply entertain you, we hope that you’ll enjoy learning about them!

This weeks’ app is Infographics, which provides you with an ongoing selection of informative and fun infographics from Column Five. Whether your interested in learning more about the “Profile of a Self-Described Mac User Vs. PC User“, or you want to dive into the demographic makeup of “Who Are Social Gamers?“, you’re bound to find great content that you’ll find useful and entertaining.

Packaged in a simple, but effective design, the app gives you with most of the features and functionality that you are likely to want.  Your primary navigation is by topic, including News, Business, Tech, Education, Offbeat, and more.  In addition to providing a search field for you to seek out specify content that you are interested in, you can also mark your favorites for later retrieval or share them via Twitter, Facebook, or email.

With the abundance of information in my regular data stream, I find reviewing a well-designed infographic to be a refreshing way to absorb data and consider the relational impact that the designer is using the data to convey.  If you do too, I encourage you to download this app and check it out for yourself!

If you do install it and find an info graphic you think is particularly effective, share it with me on Twitter (@bpenticuff) and let me know what you found most compelling about it’s design.  I’d enjoy hearing from you!

Infographics – [FREE]

Follow Brandon on Twitter for more tips and tracks on all things App related. Got an app you want featured? Send him a tweet to have it considered!

How many years of formal education have you received in your life? 16? 18? 20? We like to think we are pretty smart, but what did we really learn?

 

The technological advances of the industrial revolution created huge demand for a certain type of individual: follows instructions, sticks to procedure, generates predictable results, easy to manage. The pedagogical practices of schools adapted to meet these demands. Think about standing in straight lines, sitting in rows of desks, or reciting things as a group. Ever wonder why?

Unschooling is essentially the idea that an educational system which is founded on the age of industrialism trains students to achieve in only a strict narrow focus. The lack of freedom in choosing the path of education and the constraints of focusing on what is deemed important by industry or society, squashes.  Ewan McIntosh on edu.blog laments that the failure of a factory style, one size fits all education became “depressingly clear” when an elementary aged child expressed his sole learning goal was to “get a five” on a standardized test. Gone is the ability to express free thoughts or articulate a higher level goal for learning than to “get a five.” Proponents of unschooling argue that the output of our education is people unable to operate without strict regimens and parameters. In contrast, an education where students are free to create, find their talents and focus on what they enjoy and our naturally good at creates people who are more confident, creative and entrepreneurial.

So this got me thinking about organizational learning. If 70-80% of an employee’s learning occurs through informal networks and people do learn without a learning intervention, do we really need to put more structure around these informal networks? The corporate side of me wants to put a framework and structure around informal learning. After all, unfocused, misdirected learning is a road to inefficiency – right? Or wrong – is it actually a road to discovery, creativity, and self confidence? Should we unschool our corporate learning and how much do we unschool it?

In business we like to say we give freedom to team members; set them loose to identify creative solutions; “think outside the box.” However, getting outside the box at work has risks associated with it. When you step outside the box you may come against deeply ingrained corporate culture. You risk ridicule, even failure. Is the message people hear more like … think outside the box, but don’t go too far outside the box, at least be anchored to the box?

If I think about applying structure and framework to informal learning, am I really saying to put a box around it, so that everyone feels safe, but little is actually gained? Where do the entrepreneurial ideas come from if people aren’t confident in expressing new ideas or they aren’t free to discover things on their own?

How much structure is the right amount? Is the best thing we can do for informal learning to just get out of the way? What is the best path to effective learning without inhibiting discovery? Considering the drastic shifts we have seen in the economic landscape, perhaps it is time to allow ourselves to step off the assembly line and back in the sandbox, free to imagine and create.

 

Most of us think of QR codes as that goofy looking bar code in the bottom corner of advertisements. Or maybe you have noticed them slapped on billboards that you could not possibly have time to stop and scan. Either way, chances are you have seen a QR Code recently!

For those who haven’t been exposed, a QR code is a two dimensional code  that can hold thousands of characters of information. They can be easily generated using numerous free online services and easily scanned with one of many free QR readers out there. QR Codes will easily link to text, an image, or a website.

It may seem like QR codes are just another marketing gimick, but not so fast: in his recent New York Times blog, Gene Marks offers an interesting insight:

“The QR code was actually invented by Denso — a Toyota company — to track automotive parts during the manufacturing process, but has since gained popularity as a marketing tool. QR codes can be used for just about anything you can think of.”

So while marketers are using QR codes almost everywhere you look, there are many ways QR codes can be put to work in your business…like in your training program.

On February 28th, BLP is hosting a Lunch and Learn at the Downtown Central Library sponsored by CIASTD. It’s an interactive scavenger hunt through the library where you will have the opportunity to scan QR Codes and reveal the next clue. By the end of our hour, you might know your way around better than the reference librarian!

QR Codes (particularly scavenger hunts) can be a fun tool to integrate into a corporate learning environment. Imagine using QR codes to:

• Create an interactive employee orientation scavenger hunt.
• Provide easily accessible reference materials for sales reps.
• Keep company policies within easy access.

Okay, so maybe 67.5% of statistics are made up. Nevertheless, it is commonly quoted that 75% of what we learn is “informal.” (See Marcia Connor’s 2004 article on Informal Learning to see the research on this.) Connor explains:

“Most learning doesn’t occur during formal training programs. It happens through processes not structured or sponsored by an employer or a school. Informal learning is…what happens the rest of the time.”

She goes on to explain that companies invest all their $$ and time in creating formal learning programs when informal learning is where companies are going to get the most bang for their buck.

Connor further distinguishes between what is intentional learning and accidental learning with this helpful graphic:

Notice that she categorizes “informal” and yet “intentional” learning as that which occurs via community, teaming, and playing. There is also informal, yet ”accidental” learning that comes from self-study, exploring, and internet surfing. This intentional learning is going to come from blogs, social networks, project opportunities at work, and interactive opportunities (i.e. playing). Social media was just starting to appear when this graphic was produced in 2004. It will be especially interesting to see how social learning applications evolve as social platforms achieve increasingly high levels of saturation.

The concept of informal learning is quite the rage these days as everyone talks about Web 2.0′s ability to make informal learning easier. At BLP, we have even launched our own Learning Lab to explore the possibilities mobile, social, and gaming platforms hold for learning. (You can play “Gridiron Guru” here)  While I myself am excited by the various Web 2.0 applications I see, I’m starting to have my doubts as to how easily these applications will make informal learning EASIER. Will the inundation of social communities cause us to opt out entirely? Where is the saturation point? As our attention becomes more fragmented, how can authentic “learning” occur? And what is “authentic learning,” anyway?

Many of us find ourselves sticking our toes into the water of social media without making a significant enough investment to drive value. I “dabble” rather than dive deep.

Companies who see informal learning as the Holy Grail that will eliminate the need for expensive, formal training need to think carefully. Informal learning IS largely what self-motivated people do.  Often, this description of “self-motivated” is not one that fits the profile of people who come to formal learning opportunities. If an “informal” forum exists, a non-motivated learner isn’t likely to seek it out even if it exists. A self-motivated employee likely will…if he/she can find information easily.  If various departments and pockets all set up their own social networks – or create collaboaration sites – suddenly we’ve created a nightmare for employees who are drowning in information. We’ve bombarded them with STUFF…much of which they won’t have time to use.

Companies need to give intentional, planned consideration to how they want informal learning to take place in their organizations – at least the part of it that involves online communities. One or two are great…there is a huge drop-off in ability to participate beyond that point. The same truth goes with blogs…exactly how many blogs can you keep up with? Again – planned consideration is the key. Creating a bazillion sites and blogs – just because it’s easy to do – sets companies up for disappointment. Always remember that LEARNING is the goal and all of these tools are just a means to an end.

As always, I’m interested in views that either contradict or support my own. Tell us what you think of the growing interest in informal learning…and social. networks as a means to facilitate it?

We’d also love to also have your participation in our social learning lab. Give Gridiron Guru a shot by clicking the image below:

Yes, we’re all hearing the buzz. The holy grail of learning is shifting to games/gamification, mobile, and social. Within my team at BLP, we actually are already believers of the value that blending these three things together can have on a learning experience….but we want proof, not just gut feelings about this. So – we invite you to join our newly-created “learning laboratory” at Bottom-Line Performance and be part of a little three-part experiment we’re going to do.

Part 1 coincides with the Professional Football Championship Not to Be Named for Copyright Purposes. Since it’s in Indianapolis this year and so are we, we felt it was a perfect fit. We’re creating a game called Gridiron Guru that targets the casual football fan. If you can already explain how teams score, but you’re clueless or unsure when you hear things like intentional grounding, pass interference, 4-3 defensive formation, nickel defense, etc., then this game should help you learn…while you also have fun and engage with other people who are doing the same thing as you.

We chose a fun theme and approach, but our goal is serious. How well does a social/mobile/gaming approach work in helping people learn…particularly when no one is pushing them to learn? You get to opt into our little experiment – and you only play as far as you want to play. Yeah, we are providing a small incentive (Top 3 scores entered into drawing for $25 App Store card), but there is only ONE winner and, hopefully, lots of learners/players. Let’s see how much learning happens with this format.

Our game begins Monday, January 30th. If you want to play (and we hope you do), start following @thekguru on Twitter. He’ll announce the game’s start and send out the game link on the 30th.  You will need to create an account to play – but you only provide a name and email…and we aren’t adding you to any contact list. This is just for the game. Ideally, you’ll play on your iPad. If you aren’t lucky enough to have an iPad yet, you can play on your desktop. Android is not an option for this little experiment of ours….yet.

Our game ends at kickoff time Sunday, February 5th. We’ll tweet out the winner (as well as posting on the Knowledge Guru game site). We’ll analyze our first round of data and send out the results.

For Part 2 of our experiment, you can expect a college basketball-themed game (in March, of course) that focuses on the game of basketball for the casual college b-ball lover. We’ll deliver Part 3 at the end of April or beginning of May, and focus on the far more serious topic of  effective learning design. We’ll use the Knowledge Guru game engine again for our March game – and then go 100% social at the end of April when we play our learning design game on Twitter.

So – come play with us and learn with us. We’ll share our results after each game – and then results overall. We’ll share what people seem to retain, like, dislike, etc. and how much people learn (our game engine has some wonderful reports we can share!!).

 

 

 

We’ll be back in the near future with more on our short series of social media tips. For now, let’s talk about synchronous eLearning.

Synchronous eLearning (Distance Learning) was a hot topic at 2011′s DevLearn conference. Today, I want to talk about how to actually design synchronous e-learning courses. There are many elements of course design that need to be taken into consideration for synchronous e-learning. However, here are just a few questions to consider:

1. Technology

• Is there someone who can act as a “host” on the session and manage technical issues and questions?
• Is the technology that we’re using stable and robust enough to allow for interaction?
• Is the technology intuitive enough that it is a help and not a distraction to facilitators or participants?

2. Facilitators

• Are the facilitators comfortable using the technology?
• Can the facilitators offer feedback to participants on activities in real time?
• Are facilitators willing to take the additional time needed to practice and prepare for a synchronous e-learning course?
• Do facilitators have clear instructions on how to facilitate the activity? Below is an example of a duel facilitator guide we created for a client recently. In this situation, the course will be taught both face to face and online. Facilitators make the choice on how to facilitate based on their situation.

3. Participants 

• Have participants been given enough time to practice using the technology?
• Are participants given opportunities to interact with each other, not just with the facilitator?

4. Content

• Have I avoided the temptation to make synchronous e-Learning more about lecture than exploration? While it can seem “easier” to take this route, in reality synchronous e-learning requires MORE interaction and opportunities to ensure that participants are engaged.

• Is the course chunked into management bites? As much as possible, shorter modules are preferable in synchronous e-learning to avoid the dreaded multitasking of participants!
• Is the course designer/writer familiar with the technology? Has she/he ensured that what is written is actually feasible?

What do you think of my list? What’s missing that you always consider when developing synchronous e-learning?