Trainers Talk Tech

I'll be running around like a crazy man at ASTD TK 2010 this year (what else is new) and I look forward to seeing friends and associates I only see at these shows! If I haven't yet met you in person, PLEASE take a second to say hello. If you have a burning questions about eLearning technology, please come up and ask. I love to talk tech!

I have three main questions that I will be asking folks at the conference. These will also be a big part of the video blogging I will be doing on site. Here they are:

1) Is Crapid eLearning an issue for you in your firm? Almost a year ago, I predicted a decline in the quality and interactivity of eLearning programs because companies will no longer be investing the time and energy into high quality design and development of their online training programs. Instead, they spend $2000 on a piece of "do it yourself" eLearning development software and telling their ID and training folks to learn it and use it. Other bloggers have coined the phrase Crapid eLearning, and I like it so much, I'm going to continue the trend. However, I'm interested in hearing opinions about whether or not you are investing in big budget eLearning, or whether or not you have purchased a development tool to "rapidly develop" eLearning. Of course, your honest opinions about whether or not its Crapid eLearning s up to you!

2) Is SCORM and development standards such a big deal anymore? I don't know...they seem to have fallen out of favor. If so, what are all the LMS folks doing about it? I develop a ton of eLearning every year...only three or four programs have to be wrapped in a SCORM wrapper for delivery. What else is going on? Am I missing something?

3) Are we seeing a loosening of budgets around professional development, either stand up or via eLearning? Are companies still leaning towards a "wait and see" model? Have they opened the door for contractors/consultants again? Are job req's coming for Training and Development folks? I have folks I mentor and coach who are graduating MA Ed's and are wondering what the market will look like in 4-6 months when they walk down the aisle and flip their tassel. I'm the eternal optimist...I want to be able to give these folks real answers rather than the typical rosy Thomas perspective.

I'm at the airport getting on the plane to Vegas. The Force of Nature will be landing at 1:00 Vegas time...Look Out Sin City!!! Training and Development People are coming to TAKE OVER!!!

It's that time of the year again, when Vegas calls the educational technologists out from their dark work rooms, and when instructional designers and facilitators alike decide to figure out this eLearning stuff and come out to Las Vegas for the ASTD TechKnowledge Conference.

This is going to be another great year with ASTD, and I wanted to let everyone know that I will be presenting three separate sessions regarding Flash CS4.

I'll be presenting a "Getting Started with Flash" pre-conference session on 1/26/10! Its a fun primer to get you up and running using Flash, but is targeted towards the eLearning professional. It's for the new learners, but will be a full day of Flash related fun. (Can you say "Flash Related Fun" ten times fast?)

Also, I will have two Creation Stations on Flash called "Flash Animation: Basics of Making Things Move" on Wednesday the 27th and Friday the 29th of January. This is a 90 minute hands-on session where you will learn the basics of symbols and tweening in Flash CS4. Yes, it's pretty basic, but will be a blast, especially if you are brand new to Flash CS4.

I'll be blogging and podcasting from the General Sessions and sometimes from the concurrent sessions I'll be attending.

I am coming into Vegas on Monday night and leaving on Friday afternoon, and I am usually walking the floor or expo when I'm not in session. Feel free to say "hello" if you see me wandering around! Also, I will be attending the "Meet to Eat"sessions in the evenings, so if you want to connect with me ~ I'd love to talk tech!

As always, ASTD put on a great show in Vegas. I am looking forward to following up with all the new people I met and learned with. I cannot wait until '10!

I had three sessions I conducted: Two Creation Stations and a Tech Intensive. I have to say that the Tech Intensive was a blast. I had about 80 people in the room, and we talked at length about the Adobe CS4 Web Suite. 90% of it went well, but I had one SoundBooth snafu and one Flash ActionScript 3.0 snafu. Before the session, I said to myself that I'd create an interaction using ActionScript 2.0 because I know that cold, but then reminded myself that I made a pact to only program in ActionScript 3.0. I know how to get things built, but some of the calls are still new to me. I forgot to add the

(event:MouseEvent):void 

to my function call. Grr...Oh well. We laughed and got it working when I finally relaxed enough to think clearly. Building a site in the privacy of your office is much different than building in front of a room of learners!

Here are links to my materials from the sessions. If you were not able to attend, I understand! Here are the materials in PDF format:

Creation Station
Flash CS4: Get a Taste of ActionScript 3.0 Hands On! : PDF File

Tech Intensive
Integrating Adobe Creative Suite to Maximize E-Learning Development
PDF File
PowerPoint File

Also, if you attended my Tech Intensive, you remember that we built a "New Hire Orientation" online guide for Tommy Gun's Garage, a dinner theater and "speakeasy" out of Chicago. I thought you might like to see what I built for the client.

View the comp here.

Its just the prototype in a flat Photoshop file, but you can see what a little time and attention can do for good web design.

Thanks for talking with me, laughing with (at) me and having a great time in Vegas at the ASTD TK show.

Now, go build something cool!

P.S. I haven't forgotten to put the David Pogue Web 2.0 list up from the first day of the conference...It will be up soon...