This one's for you, Cammy Bean! Or, is the role of the instructional designer changing?

I've never shied away from my adoration of Cammy Bean and her Learning Visions blog. If you don't know who she is, she describes herself by saying:

I'm Cammy Bean, the author of Learning Visions. My business card currently says "Manager of Instructional Design", but I do a bit of everything. If you're interested, read my current job description.

Learning Visions is my place to explore topics related to e-Learning, including things like web 2.0 technologies, Second Life, wikis, Facebook, and other new tools that can be used for training and development. I attempt to share my experiences with current e-Learning projects and challenges I might be facing. I ask a lot of questions. Like most bloggers, I also tend to write about blogging.

I've been working in the corporate training field since the early- to mid-90's. Most of that time, I've been working for the e-Learning vendors: companies that design and develop e-Learning programs for a wide variety of projects. I've served as instructional designer and project manager on programs for banks, airlines, department stores, consulting firms, construction companies, training companies, and more. These days I work at InVision Learning in Westborough, Massachusetts (USA).

I started blogging in earnest in February 2006. A lot of really smart people were talking about some really interesting things and I wanted in! Every day I learn something new from the blogs I read and from the comments people leave here.

Please join in the conversation and leave a comment on my blog if you've got something to say. Don't be shy!

I think the thing that I love most about Cammy's blog is that she does what I do, and yet, I went to school and earned a Ph.D. that says I'm an instructional designer, and she didn't. I don't know why that to me is so fascinating, but it is. I've often thought that in academia we act too much like we're curing cancer when, in fact, we're not. I think instructional design is something that is a talent. Some can do it without the training. I could. I knew what effective instruction was before I ever took a class. At the same time, however, I also think it is a skill that can be developed. I've told my students for years, "I can teach anyone to hit a golf ball, but Tiger Woods was born to be who he is." I can teach anyone the clinical side to instructional design, and they'll be able to write good behavioral objectives, align it to a proper assessment, etc., but if they don't just *get it*, I can't teach them to.

Here are two links for Marci Scott

I specifically saved two links for one of my former teaching assistants, Marci Scott (she was Judd to me). Marci is the type of gal I pray my Natalie grows up to be. She's beautiful, sweet, spiritual, and is one of the most genuinely caring people I've ever met. She keeps a great blog where she brightens the world with her cheery outlook. One of her favorite things is finding a new great recipe, and when I found these, I decided Marci got her own post.

So Marci, I know you read this blog, so I want an update on whether or not these are worth the time!

• Chocolate Chip French Vanilla Pudding Cookies. Do you think these should be served with an angioplasty on the side?


• Homemade Apple Jelly Makes a Great Gift. Video on how to make homemade apple jelly. It looks good!

So here's to you, Marci. I hope you enjoy these!

Links for 1-6-08 to 1-12-08

Here are my links for this week. I have to warn you, there are more than a few. I wonder if I should post them all or be more selective? At any rate, here's what I found interesting this week:

• Remove Clutter in the Background of Photographs. I stink at photo editing, so I'm always looking for tips.


• The Secret to Creating your own PowerPoint Templates for e-Learning. Again, I'm no graphics expert, so I appreciate someone telling me how to be better.


• Social Networks, or "I'm a Hermit." Dave Warlick at the 2¢ Worth blog tries to wrap his mind around Facebook and other social networks. I've already blogged about my usage of Facebook and how it has enhanced my interaction with students and about my thoughts for Facebook as a CMS. It's interesting to me to see other's opinions about something I feel strongly about.


• The Bamboo Project Readers' Guide to Getting Back Your Creative Mojo. Ever get stuck in a rut and you can't get your juices flowing to get things done? Here are some suggestions. Me? I throw darts in my office.


• The Value of Instructional Designers. Okay, I have to admit I'm geeking out COMPLETELY about Cammy Bean's Learning Visions blog. It's all things instructional design! The interesting thing about this post is that it attacks a question my fellow students and I grappled with while in graduate school. What good are we as instructional designers? I think I'm going to need a full post on this one. (You know, in my immense free time!)


• How to Avoid the 10 Worst Energy Zappers. I'm always looking to be more productive, and I've tried to start implementing some of these suggestions to see if they help. I particularly like the Toxic People suggestion. Sometimes I let others control me way too much.


• Quickly Install the Best OpenSource Apps with WinLibre and MacLibre. I love OpenSource technologies, and I'm all about getting the newest things easily. I haven't downloaded and used these yet, but when I do, I'll let you know how it went.


• Convert any Audio File with MediaEncoder Audio Edition. I've got some files I need converting, so I'm going to give this one a whirl.


• Instructional Design and Market Sector Differences. Another post by Cammy Bean that I need to follow up on. This one asks the question, "Just what is it that you do, Dr. Curry?" Actually, it asks what those of us in academia do.


• New Blogs for Learning. Jeff Utecht at the Thinking Stick blog talks about the power of putting the technology in student hands.


• Download and Listen to Free Music on the Web. Great overview of the different places to get music on the web. I do so much podcasting with my students that I'm always looking out for buffer music. Granted, I have something like 10,000 songs on my iPod, but you can never have too much music. You have to have something for every occasion. Plus, I try to make my buffer music apply to the topic. I'm quirky that way.


• Top Ten Underhyped Web Apps. The best web applications you've never heard of.


• Watch Full-Length TV Online with Fancast. This one's just for fun . . .


• Edit PDFs Online with PDFHammer. A neat looking new tool for editing PDFs online.


• PRISM Video Converter. I've been having problems with Handbrake as of late, so I'm going to give this one a try. Thanks, Neil, for the tip! It seems they also have an audio converter as well. YEE HA!


• See Real Recent Car Sale Prices at PriceHub. I've got to get a new car, so I need some help countering the dreaded car salesmen of the world . . .


• NEULIO. I'm not going to use this to publish a course, but I'm interested in seeing how it works.


• Convert WMV files to MOV Files for Free. Another interesting-looking tool.


• Getting Productive in 2008 with JOTT. Now this looks COOL. This is a longer post about one of the above mentioned underhyped web apps. I will DEFINITELY use this one. Basically, you call a toll-free number, leave yourself a message, and it sends you a reminder (text-based) via e-mail.


• Social Networking in Education. Steve Hargadon provides a HUGE list of social networking sites specific to education.

And my links from my del.icio.us account:

• Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do. This is video of a TED talk given by Gever Tulley. Very insightful and entertaining.


• Blue Moon of Kentucky performed by Conan O'Brien. HILARIOUS. Great, but hilarious.


• Technology Skills for Instructional Designers. This parallels the conversation Cammy Bean has above.


• Dizzler.com. Free music and video with the MySpace player.


• Taxonomy of Technology Integration. I'm working on an article that deals with levels of technology integration, and this proved helpful.


• CARET. ISTE's Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology's research database.


• 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes. Who knows, maybe one of these will show up on here one day.


• Five Effective e-Learning Design Strategies. Webinar given by Karl Kapp.

Links for 01-01-08 to 01-05-08

Here's what I found interesting this week:

• Top Ten Obscure Google Search Tricks. I thought I knew a lot, but even I learned something here ;-).


• Keep Your Weight Loss Plan Simple to See Results. Ugh. I'm the heaviest I've ever been, and I'll take any help I can get . . . you know, except for eating less and exercising more.


• A chance to contribute to Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day's Top 10 Tools for Learning 2008. I submitted my list (albeit late) last year, but I'm interested to see how things change this year.


• KeyJNote. A tool I read about on the above mentioned Jane's website. Looks like an interesting (more interesting I should say) way to view slides online.


• Grab Music from your Browser with FreeMusicZilla. I've always wanted to know how to do this, and I now know! I'll let you know how it works when I try it.


• The Ethics of Wi-Fi Stealing. I know I've done this before. But I've just always assumed (and had heard) that it was wrong. This got me thinking: is it?


• Trick Yourself into Eating Less. Yep, more weight loss. Like I've changed anything this week . . .


• Instructional Designers with Degrees: Survey Update. Cammy Bean at Learning Visions has some really nice insights in to what instructional design as a career is all about. I find her blog to be very interesting. I filled out the survey, and I felt sheepish about having a Ph.D. in the field. Great work there.

And from my del.icio.us bookmarks:

• BAIDU. A Chinese search engine where you can search for and find .mp3 files? How is this legal? Is it?

Which blogs do I look forward to reading?

Right now my Google Reader has a total of 132 subscriptions. Some are news sites, some are sports sites, some blogs of family or friends, but mostly they are blogs dealing some way with Educational Technology. Some blogs are ones that post sporadically, others have information that I find tangentially applicable to what I do, and yet others are ones that I just like. But which ones are the one that I look forward to reading? Which ones are the ones that I get giddy as I go through my RSS feeds and get closer to them? Here they are:

HIT: Hokanson's Instructional Technology -- nice mixture of tools, work, and life
LifeHacker -- Just what it says: how to hack life. It's sweet.
Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day -- Cool tools.
Stephen's Web ~ OLD Daily -- Wanna think? Read here.

These are all work-related, but I seriously look forward to reading these every day.

Blogs, RSS feeds, and Del.icio.us

I remember last October giggling as I read Trey Martindale's blog post stating (follow the link to read the whole thing):

My friend John Curry reminded me that I’m not posting very often on my blog these days, and he’s right. It seems I’m taking a shorter route–kind of “mini-blogging”. Basically I’m just saving and tagging interesting net resources in my delicious bookmarks account. I now have over 1000 items in that account, and it’s been useful for me, and for students–sort of like my external long-term memory. So, if you would like to know what I’m reading about, investigating, or find interesting, that’s the place.

Addicted to Blogging?

I was going through my Google Reader after class this morning, and I ran across a Bloggers Anonymous post from Doug Johnson at the Blue Skunk Blog. He references a short quiz he found thanks to Jeff Utecht at the Thinking Stick (I hadn't got that far down on my reader). Doug was 55% addicted to blogging; Jeff was 90% addicted. Well, these are guys whose blogs I read, so I know there is no way I'm that addicted.

My results?

Me in four slides

So a few weeks ago Dan Meyer, who writes dy/dan, held a four slide contest. The purpose was to see if you could represent yourself completely in four slides. Now the problem for me is that I have NO TALENT when it comes to visual representation, but I want my grad students in my online EDTC 5203: Foundations of Educational Technology course to do it as a way of getting to know each other. So, I made mine to serve as an example. I don't know how good they are (actually, I know they're not good), and they would certainly never win any awards, but they do represent me. See them after the jump.

Site updates

Man, this term has been BUSY. I've been reading a lot, but I haven't been posting. I'm trying to keep up with what's going on, and I've been updating my Del.icio.us bookmarks (as well as those for our undergrad EdTech course), but blogging hasn't been in the schedule this week.

I have added some blogs to my EdTech blogs page, and I'm trying to find a Del.icio.us plugin that I like for WordPress.

At any rate, here are some of the new websites I've found:

A GREAT new blog!

I found a great new EdTech blog today: Alvin's Educational Technology Blog. It's full of many, many tips on how to be more efficient, etc. when computing.

I highly recommend it!

Crash course in Learning Theory

I just ran across this, and I think it's great. Go see the Crash Course in Learning Theory. Talk about tailoring instruction to today's crowd!

BTW, I've also started browsing the blog it comes from, Creating Passionate Users. It's a hoot!