Getting the Right Touch Screen for the Job

When your project requires a touch screen, getting what you need is kind of a big deal. To do this you need to understand your application, the environment the screen will be placed into, and the audience. With the the apple iOS for iphones and iPads, Android from Google, and Microsoft’s new Windows 7 Phone based devices, the media is all a stir about multi-touch based screens. Multi-touch is the ability to touch the screen in more than one place and have both points recognized as an interaction at the same time. This sure does come in handy if you are going to resize a photo by putting two fingers on screen and bringing them towards or away from each other, but, to be honest, not always needed for most kiosk based applications. As prices for all devices are dropping, you still shouldn’t pay for something you don’t need. If your application requires a simple touch of a button or sliding of a scroll bar, single-touch might be right up your alley.

Is your device going to be used in an industry, such as medical, that might require latex gloves to be worn? Perhaps cleaning fluids like water and soap are going to be making an appearance on the hand? You might need to check out a resistive touchscreen over a capacitive touchscreen. Capacitive touchscreens are seen with your iPhone or iPad. Notice that you can’t touch the device with any object and hope for recognition. Resistive touchscreens recognize a press between two plates and therefor recognize any object that can put force on the screen. This is ideal for glove wearers or if you need to cover the device with a clear material to protect it from the elements. There are many other types of screens as well and there is a lot of great information online about them.

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5 Tricks to Developing Better eLearning Experiences

1. Be Your Student
Try viewing your course as your student would. Look at the user interface (design and navigation). Do you know what section you are in? Do you know how many sections there are? Do you know how to review previous content? Here is a big one — Does your student know their goals and objectives for the course or the section they are in? Do they know why they are even there? Look at the content. Is it too high level? Where are the basics? What questions does the content raise? Let the questions flow and try and answer them all.

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A Great Learning Resource - Khan Academy

I have been showing off Khan Academy to friends for many months now and I must apologize for not pointing you all to such an informative and interesting site any sooner. If you want to refresh your skills in math, science, chemistry, economics, finance, history, physics… the list goes on and on, go to this site: www.khanacademy.org. Scroll down the page and be amazed at all the educational videos. This is a great resources for you to learn a few new things or refresh your memory, or for your kids to enjoy learning even the most complex of subjects in a fun way.

Illumen at the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase

Illumen was thrilled to be back the the third annual Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase. We both sponsored and presented this year, which gave us the opportunity to meet some great people. David Denz presented Blending Creativity and Technology to Optimize eLearning Delivery to a packed room. The summary for Dave’s presentation breaks down like this:

Learners are individuals with vastly different learning styles, preferences, and conditions. Through a careful blend of purposeful imagination and technology, educators can use e-learning to allow learners to customize their learning experience and optimize knowledge transfer. At the start of this session, participants will take a survey to identify their learning styles and preferences. Then Dave will use the survey results and interactive demonstrations to show how different learning styles manifest themselves in online learning. Dave will also explain which delivery approaches support which learning styles and how multiple delivery approaches can be incorporated into e-courses.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Explain how several creative approaches support different learning styles and how to efficiently and effectively build e-courses that incorporate multiple approaches
• Build a framework for developing and/or evaluating creative e-learning delivery concepts

Dave also provided a short survey which provided a quick glance at how different people there may learn differently.

We also had a great time at the Illumen booth and had many brilliant people wander by. It was great connecting with friends and meeting others in the business.

You can find out more about the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase by visiting their website, www.chicagoelearningshowcase.com.

Celebrate the emergence of Chicago as a world-class center for elearning. Join hosts CCASTD, CISPI, STC Chicago, and Roosevelt University at the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase on August 11 for a cutting-edge exploration of new media and interactive elearning tools.

Part 4 - Illumen’s Guide to eLearning - Types of Learners

There are libraries of books defining the many types of learners. We can usually drill down to three categories which are: Auditory, Visual, Tactile.

Listening, Verbal or Auditory Learners connect more dots through listening. Audio descriptions, storytelling, sound effects, and audio cues are better comprehended. If you want to connect better with this type of learner, try using voice over or record a podcast. When using a spacial based learning environment, sound effects and environmental noises that relate to your topic can often help your user focus as it will immerse them in the content.

If you want to teach someone how to change a bicycle tire, record audio that gives a very detailed description of what they are in store for. Make sure you pace the audio appropriately and be specific between one step and the next. Using just audio to explain to someone how to change a bike tire may not sound like the best approach, but what if you created a phone number for people to call into if they are stranded on the road and can’t recall the steps. They might not have a device that can show images and in an emergency situation it might be the best option.

Seeing or Visual Learners learn through imagery. They make better connections between information and themselves through seeing. Examples include videos, animations, infographics, photos, charts, graphs, and even visually laid out text. There are many ways to better connect with your user such as making a video that shows a process or shows motion graphics that represent the information being presented. Draw out what is being explained or use images that represent each step or the details of a product or theory.

If you want to teach someone how to change a bicycle tire, play a video showing all the steps. Show close up images of the tools and display text for key steps along the way.

Touching, Tactile and Kinesthetic Learners learn through interaction or by doing. The hands-on style of learning often allows for mistakes and changes to variables which express the cause and effect of the subject at hand. To connect with a tactile learner, create an interactive experience. Let the user make choices or interactively explore.

If you want to teach someone how to change a bicycle tire, give them a virtual tire to change and allow them to click the proper tools, click and drag the tire and flat tube off the rim in the proper order. You can even make a learning game by timing them and scoring them.

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Illumen Brings Products to Augmented Reality

Illumen recently completed three augmented reality (AR) projects for a leading orthopaedic company. These augmented reality projects were a marketing and education tool focused on giving a virtual hands-on showcase of their medical implants at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2010 conference. Augmented reality creates a live real-time view of a virtual object overlaid upon a real environment. By simply holding a card with a specific pattern, a product can be placed on top of it. Product animations and video can add to the experience by providing additional detailed information. This gives anyone a feeling of having a product placed in their hands, without it actually being there. They can move it around and explore it.

To use augmented reality, all you need is a web cam and a card that can be printed on any paper from any printer. Hold the printed card up to the cam and wherever the small pattern on the card is seen, a 3D product can be placed. Rotate the pattern or move closer the cam and you will see your product rotate and zoom in real-time 3D.

Based on the angle of the card, for example, the product could animate into an exploded view or video can be played. Move the card towards your cam and see product details.

We will have samples available soon.

Part 1 - Illumen’s Guide to eLearning - The Beginning

eLearning is a vague term which Wikipidia defines as Learning conducted via electronic media, especially via the Internet. And of course, Wikipidia knows everything. When we talk about eLearning it can be easy to focus on the “e” which stands for electronic. Through electronic means we have the ability to be educated through, TV, mobile devices, digital notepads, CD-ROM, DVD, and any other Internet capable device. Through these devices we have the tools to educate through a combination of mediums (text, video, animation, audio, 3D, interactivity), derive analytics, and deliver information through a highly accessible platform. But, we must remember that the e really does just mean the delivery platform and our real focus needs to be on the Learning part of eLearning. Through Learning, our focus should be to create engaging, memorable experiences that lead our audience to better understand information, improve performance, manage situations, think critically, problem solve, and make decisions.

eLearning starts with a need or an idea and from there we can begin to develop goals, objectives, and strategy. Through this series, we are going to look at the process of creating an eLearning application that teaches the user how to change a bicycle or bike tire. Each part in the series will focus on a specific eLearning topic or step in the process. We will explore different technologies and different approaches to creating a simple course that does nothing more than teach our audience how to change a bike tire.

Oh, That’s Interesting:
The term eLearning is often written eLearning or e-learning. Which is correct? The good news is that they are both accepted among professionals, although if you look at Google Trends you will see that eLearning may be taking the cake. Google Trends: eLearning and e-Learning

Bringing Note Taking to eLearning - Part 1

Go into any classroom and you will see students taking notes. What do we do when we need to remember things? We write them down.  We all retain and gain our understanding of information differently and so we all take notes differently. So, with note taking being such an important tool in education and training, it is important that, as we move learning to the Internet, we have the tools available to allow us to take notes online.

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Developing for Training & Education

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. - Albert Einstein

Knowledge is obviously a big ingredient when it comes to our ideas and actions. It is the foundation to what we do, how we think, and how we interact. Knowledge is often accrued through the presentation of materials, through self exploration, through mentoring, or through trial and error. Personally, I learn most of my lessons through screw ups. This knowledge forms the foundation we need to understand a situation, think critically, and make the decisions we need to grow and succeed.

When developing educational or training based applications we tend to look at three key ideas involved with understanding and applying knowledge: developing state-of-mind, problem solving skills, and experience.

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Make a Meal, Not a Shopping List

When starting a project, it is easy for us to gather up a shopping list of goals, wants, needs, and ideas. We may say “I want a chat room, a product configurator, a calendar, a blog, a forum,…”  - you get the idea. In fact this list is a great component when within the discovery and defining process. The more information and ideas we can put on paper, the better. But this is shopping list. It is a list of ingredients that don’t necessarily relate to each other. We buy ingredients to create a meal. There are a lot of ingredients we like but we must understand the that not all good ingredients can be put together to create a great meal. We choose ingredients that have their own unique flavors, textures, and colors, that intermingle to form the perfect tasting meal. This same idea can be applied within training, educational, and marketing applications. It is important that we not only define and develop the individual components, but how these components work together to form a comprehensive, cohesive experience.

When we make a meal we pay attention to how it tastes. We make adjustments to the ingredients to make the next meal even better. Metrics, or measurements do the same for your applications. We don’t make a meal and not wonder what people think of it. We don’t give it to someone and not ask how it tasted. The process continues past the development of your application. Use it yourself, find out what others think, and review the analytics.

If we focus both bottom-up and top-down, explore ideas that are detailed while stepping back to review the big picture, there will be no stopping our pursuit in creating more engaging, better measurable, and more delicious applications.