Dave Denz will be speaking at the upcoming ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) 2010 Regional Conference & Exposition (December 8, 2010 7:30 a.m - 5:00 p.m.). Dave will be presenting and have a workshop titled Parallel and Concurrent Learning.
Illumen’s David Charney has recently been asked to join the Harper College Advisory Committee. David will advise the Graphic Arts program’s multimedia initiative which is focused on adding interactive technology to their program. This new degree will bring creative design and interaction skills to web development and programming. These skills will prepare students for careers at a multitude of jobs and positions including everything from web developers at ad agencies to design developers at companies such as Google, Apple, or Microsoft.
David has also been on advisory boards for both Purdue University and the ITT Technical Institute and enjoys working with students on projects when possible. Illumen enjoys Harper College’s eagerness to develop new programs, stay technologically advanced, and focus on the students careers as alumni. And for such a large campus full of beautiful buildings, they have better parking than any school we have seen.
Illumen has updated our demo reel with a few new projects to show off some of our current work. We are excited and proud to show off what we have worked so hard on. We always strive to push ourselves harder and create better and better work that is always educational, informative, engaging, and flat out enjoyable to look at and fun to interact with. We are keeping busy so expect this reel to be updated again soon. Check it out!
When defining the best solution to any project, one step within the discovery process is the creation and use of personas. User personas are fictitious characters who represent unique groups of users. We use personas to understand how different groups of users will use a website and application. By focusing on how a persona interacts with a website, navigates to content and through content, understands and retains the content, we can begin to understand the different user experiences that occur. These user experiences must fulfill the goals, objectives, and needs. This step can also help determine new goals, objectives, and needs as well as limitations users may have.
It is a good practice to find two or three user personas and one or two administrative personas. But each opportunity is unique and can derive any number of unique persona. First we must understand the different user personas. To do this we must understand the audience(s). This can be done by talking with our clients, their audiences, defining surveys, focus groups, looking at demographics, and general research. A lot of specific information can arise such as (to name a few):
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 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.
You saw this paradigm shift coming – now it’s here! 6 steps to catching up.
In my hands is a tube of Crest and a tube of Colgate toothpaste. Chances are better than 50/50 (Colgate 32 share; Crest 27 share) that you’re using one or the other, but do you know why?
Toothpaste is a relatively low-involvement decision and you probably made your choice years ago based on criteria like brand recognition, price, taste, efficacy, the fact that your significant other likes the smell of your breath in the morning… it’s a growing reality of the marketplace however, that as products become increasingly similar to one another in features, quality and price (commoditization), the more important it becomes for marketers to differentiate through education. The speed, impact and efficiency with which product knowledge can be delivered to a target audience will increasingly identify leaders and followers.
Here are six suggestions that should help move the process in the right direction:
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We’re well beyond the debate as to whether games-that-teach enhance the delivery of learning content (they do), so why aren’t we seeing more of them? The two biggest challenges we encounter are:
We were at an educational gaming conference a couple years back, where a grant was awarded for the design and production of a game prototype in support of a specific curriculum. Twenty-seven months and tens of thousands of dollars later the project is still in development. The developers are the only beneficiaries of learning in that scenario.
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Illumen is very happy to hear that the Technology Innovation Center has been selected by Forbes to be on their list of Top 10 Technology Incubators That Are Changing The World.
Illumen has worked with the Technology Innovation Center for many years on brand, marketing, and the full development of their website.
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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