Greetings from Seattle! It’s been a helluva long time since I last posted to the Shady Learning Blog.  Around a year ago, I started a new job as Project Manager for a high-end e-learning company out here in Western Washington. Knowing it would take awhile to get up to speed, I intentionally pulled back from the blogosphere (both posting and reading) in order to also nurture a non-work, offline life balance. I think I mentioned that in my very last post.

Not long after that, the global financial crisis happened, and I found myself spending a lot of free time studying economics and investment strategies – out of a commitment rebuild a sad portfolio and to NOT rely on generic Wall Street spin ever again. But that’s grist for another mill!  Bottom line, I’ve been busy.

On the Realization the Blogging is Good for My Health

Alas, I have missed blogging and staying connected with the instructional design/adult learning/ and e-learning world “out there.”  I didn’t realize before the true importance of networking, even in a virtual world. And I didn’t realize how much blogging (both reading and writing) benefited me. Being with a small company, it’s difficult to find the time and resourcing to go to conferences, workshops, etc. So over the past year, I have sadly gotten too disconnected from the big picture of adult learning.

I want to keep sharing what I have to share, and learning what I can from other bloggers eager to share as well. That’s one of the great things about learning via social networking, etc – we are no longer limited to the four walls of our own offices for good ideas, feedback, letting off steam, etc.

So, I’m back in the saddle and looking forward to reconnecting. It’s been too long.

Enough with the sentiment…..now, let’s sing along with Mr. Autrey:

I love exploring the Web 2.0 thing and the possibilities it offers the world of workplace learning. I love that blogging gives me access to information and connects me with others in such awesome ways. But I am starting to feel a strong need to draw a line. Enough is enough! What I’m talking about is the increasing amount of time and energy it all takes. Screen suck, blather, aighhhh!!!!

Work/life, online/offline — we need balance, folks!

Although I have long been a proponent of work/life balance, I’m now seeing the need for more virtual life/ real life balance. And I’m finding that balance a bit more difficult now that I have gotten into blogging. It takes a lot of time to read even the headers of the main 10 or so blogs I subscribe to. Trying to write my own regular posts takes even more time, especially if I am creating something original, and not just gabbing about something I read somewhere else.

After seeing the odd hours at which some folks have commented to my posts, and the volume of posts on some of the blogs I follow, it is clear that it consumes a lot of time for a lot of people. The way I see it, the only way to really read/post regularly is to:

1. Get paid officially to blog
2. Blog on the clock at work
3. Blog on your free time

1 and 2 are not options for me, except for the odd times when I need to conduct a bit of research for a professional reason. That means I blog at home. No big deal, but I need boundaries. You may or may not know it yet, but you need boundaries, too. It’s healthy.

Here are some nagging questions. Do you have answers?

1. What ways have you found to effectively manage your blogging time?
2. How do you stay tuned in the on-line world, without dropping out of your “real” world?
3. How do you keep a work/life, online/offline balance?

What would Yoda do?

I’m always happy to find tools that aren’t just cool, but actually improve my productivity or ability to communicate more effectively. Here are two tools I discovered just this week.

Jing

From the folks that brought you Camtasia and Snagit comes Jing- a very nifty screen capture application that has me salivating. Techsmith describes it as “an always ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video..from your computer to anywhere.”  Videos or images taken of your desktop can be uploaded to screencast.comand linked to from your blog or wherever. You can also save files locally or send it out immediately via email or instant messenger. Sweet.

In terms of It’s raw functionality, Jing is a bit like a scaled down version of SnagIt and Camtasia. But the value-add here is how it improves your workflow. As the FAQ puts it, Jing is designed to be “fast visual communication shared with others in a variety of locations.” So while I wouldn’t use it for for a technical writing or software training project, it is an awesome way to quickly take a picture or video that I want to share with a colleague, the IT help desk, or my Aunt Virginia. You can also annotate the images with text, highlighting, arrows, and other nifty things. All in a manner of seconds. Extra sweet. That’s just the kind of scrappy, seamless workflow I want.

I often question the “ease of use”  and speed that software companies brag about in marketing spin. So I’m gonna test out how easy it is to quickly add a insert on this page a screen capture of my current desktop, along with a simple annotation. OK…here I go….

Yup. That was pretty easy! I was able to snap a picture of a custom region, annotate it, upload it, and paste the embed URL (which was saved automatically to the clipboard) — all in about 2 minutes. Nice.

PowerPoint’s Slide Show Pointer Tool – Great for Storyboard Sketches

When I’m doing instructional design, I storyboard a lot in PPT. Usually I’ll mockup a screen layout and make some attempt at describing an image that I want an artist to create for me. Wouldn’t it be easier if I could just draw a crude stick person, instead of searching for lame clip art? Yes it would! Well, now I know how to do that right in PPT. I don’t even need to switch to another application. Here’s how:

1. Switch to Slide Show mode.
2. Go to the slide you want to design.
3. Right click.
4. Point to Pointer Options.
5. Select a style (I like Felt Tip Pen).
6. Use your mouse and cursor to sketch your image.

Now exit out of slide show mode.

You will be asked if you want to save the ink annotations. You do.

Voila! The slide now has a nice, simple sketch that you can use to communicate your idea with your artist, programmer, or whomever. Below is a sketch I did in just a few seconds. A big benefit of this approach is that I don’t have to switch to another application. I also don’t have to save the image to a folder somewhere and then insert it. It is saved automatically right in PPT. That’s a big time saver. In the example below, I want to convey to the media guy that I want an image indicating that a badly written report is not useful to the audience and ends up as total waste. For our team, a simple picture tells a story easier than describing it in text. 

Another benefit is that a sketch like this could be used in a rapid prototype to share with a client. They’ll get the idea better than they would with just text-based storyboard, and you potentially save cash by not wasting expensive graphics time in case they don’t like the storyboard.

 This blog is another voice in the online, dynamic conversation around workplace learning. There are broadly three things on my mind these days that have me excited (yes, I’m a geek like that):  Emerging technologies, informal learning, and “lean.”  While there is a great deal of talk about Web 2.0 and other technologies implications on learning, I haven’t seen too much talk about how we might apply lean principles to instructional design.

First things first.

Things are changing. Not just the technologies, but assumptions and mindsets. Web 2.0 is empowering a new way of learning. This new way is one that lets ME decide what I want to learn, when I want to learn it, and connect with whomever I want (or whomever wants to connect with me!) to share ideas. I don’t have to wait for some training director or departmental boss to dictate what, how, when. While there is certainly a place for that and for formal, push-from-the-top training, there is a great need to balance that with informal and “pull-from-where-I-am-now” learning.

Speaking of “pull,”  what is Lean and why should you care?

“Lean” is short for “Lean manufacturing” and is a process management philosophy that grew out of the “Toyota Production System. “  Lean thinking is powerful stuff and has transformed the way a lot of companies in the manufacturing world operate. Some of the core principles focus on waste reduction and continous problem-solving by all team members, pull processing, flow and visual control. While the concepts and tools were developed for manufacturing processes, they have been applied to administrative and office processes with amazingly effective results.

As an instructional designer and learning consultant, it didn’t take long before I started seeing implications for workplace learning and instructional design. Like what? Well, that’s what I’ll be gabbing about in the days ahead, sharing what I know and hopefully learning some stuff from you as well.

’til then, Happy Learning….