Trainers Talk Tech

My friend Ginger sent me another cool note with more online applications - this time focused on the world of flow charting.

From a web design perspective, flow charting can be an excellent way to "map" the user experience through your site. From an eLearning perspective, flow charting can be a way to visualize complex interactions or simulations, making it easier to program these necessary elements.

I recently completed a very complex interviewing simulation : You (the learner) have to interview four different candidates using the same set of six questions. When you click on the question, the interview candidate responds. You then rate those responses on a scale of 1-5. You then interview the next person with the same rating scale until all four candidates are interviewed. The person with the highest score gets "hired" in the simulation. Hire the best candidate who gave the best responses and you get an "email" from the president of the firm congratulating you on your hire. If you hire the worst candidate (by rating their bad responses highly), that person leaves the firm after two months. The simulation is awesome and the client went crazy for it!

Which brings me back to flow charting...without a flow chart, a complex simulation like the one above can be very painful to create, both for the instructional designer and for the programmer. Lots of diagrams and communication needs to occur to make sure that every moving part is tracked and everyone understands how all the elements interact. It's no fun to go through a simulation without it impacting the learner somehow - flow charting can help tremendously.

Gliffy
Gliffy is a true application working "in the cloud." Its free for 30 days and if you want to purchase it, a single user license is just $5.00 per month. For an online app, it is very robust - most of the common functions you'd find in a Visio or Omni-graffle are all here. Some of the cooler functions I didn't expect to find were fill and stroke color adjustments, lots and lots of shapes and images, and the ability to upload your own images. You can share the flow chart online, as well as export to .png, .jpg and the Visio .svg file. I was VERY impressed with this tool.

Flowchart.com
Flowchart.com is in BETA, so it's a bit harder to get access to it. You give them your email, and they send you credentials to log in. The have an interactive demo online, but it doesn't show much from a development perspective. As they get closer to launch, I'll edit this post to include my opinions. (I haven't been approved as a beta tester yet). Sign up and tell me what you think.

I'm getting close to finishing this series of Netbook software items. I have two categories left to dig up: online image editing and online animation software. I hope I don't have to rely on download and launch software (like the HTML software), but if I find some items with small footprints, I'll be sure to post.

Let me know if you have found this series useful! Post a comment or send me a note. And again, thanks again Ginger!

I have to admit I'm a bit saddened by the face that I could not find a single WYSIWYG HTML writing software that works in the cloud. Maybe the requirements are too high for an online app...I don't know. However I did find some tiny footprint programs that can be downloaded from the web and installed on the Netbook. If you don't want to have the power of Dreamweaver installed on your Netbook (or the amount of space this application takes up - 500MB and counting), here are some software recommendations for you.

KompoZer
KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

KompoZer has both a WYSIWYG mode AND a coding mode, just like the big guys. It has a Site Manager function with built in FTP, and is available for PC, Mac and Linux machines. The best part is that KompoZer has a tiny download size (7.6 MB for Windows, 11.0 MB for Mac and 10.3 MB for Linux) - perfect for the Netbook!

SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey calls itself a "suite" of software packages built on the Mozilla source code. It contains a browser, email client, newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools. All I'm concerned about it whether or not it can write code in both a WYSIWYG format and code view. Composer is the name of the application included in the SeaMonkey application. It can do both, but they are not very robust. While utilizing a "tab" approach, the application does its job and nothing more. Many of the color cues in the code and basic features aren't there. It lets you write code and then preview it. Not bad, but just not interesting. It's just the basics.

SeaMonkey is larger than KompoZer (13MB for Windows, 23MB for Mac and 14MB for Linux) but contains all the applications in one download. Installation was easy. Check it out! At least the price is right!

Bluefish
The last one I want to bring to your attention is Bluefish. Although it is not a WYSIWYG writer (they call it a What You See is What You Need (WYSIWYN) interface!!!!!), it is an amazingly powerful text editor. If you started by writing your own code by hand, then this application will bring you back to those days. It's not only for writing web page code, but can also handle other programming languages as well. As a web guy, I appreciate the table and frame wizards and lots of tool-bars created especially for me. I loved this tool, but it can be intimidating for people who don't want to know code. I thought I would include it here for powerusers who may be thinking about a Netbook.

In my quest to find good Netbook software that runs in the "cloud" a friend told me about two sites that replace Captivate. Yes, the screen capture software, allowing you to record content on your computer screen. I am experimenting with this software now and cannot wait to report on it.

The first is called Screencast-o-matic.
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/
From their home page: "Screencast-O-Matic is the free and easy way to create a video recording of your screen (aka screencast) and upload it for free hosting all from your browser with no install!" It looks like it needs Java, and seemed to work fine on my Mac using Firefox.

The second is called Jing
http://www.jingproject.com/
From their home page: "Jing is free software that adds visuals to your online conversations. Instead of typing a people, show them what you are talking about...pronto." Looks like it does screen capture in addition to "screencasting" and sharing of your video. Jing works on both Mac's and PCs.

Looks like this software may be a good alternative for Captivate, Camtasia or Snagit! Try these and tell me about your experiences or post a comment!

Special thank you to Ginger for sending these my way! You are a rock star!

Still looking for HTML writing software in the "cloud"...

I was reading this article in Wired Magazine The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time and started to think about all the traveling I am going to do over the summer. I'm not concerned about being able to work from a hotel room, as I've outfit my MacBook Pro with a fully licensed version of the Adobe CS4 suite. Yes, its expensive to have such a nice laptop AND such nice software just to work remotely, and the idea of a Netbook and that article got me thinking about the potential of taking my online learning development completely, well, online. Through a browser. With NO installed software. Could it be done?

And so begins my quest...over the next few days, I'm going to attempt to find online software solutions that do everything I need to build eLearning programs so I can buy a Netbook and just go. Here is the types of software I will need to find:

• WYSIWYG HTML Editor: I use Dreamweaver in split view: code and design view. Is there browser based software that will allow me to create web pages?
• Graphic Editor: I use Photoshop to create graphics. The article refers to FotoFlexer as a browser based Photoshop alternative. I'll try it out and let you know this week.
• Animation Editor: As I've said in the past, Flash is my primary creator of content for my eLearning clients. Is there something out there that's browser based that will allow me to create Flash like interfaces, interactions and programs? I'm doubtful that any web based app will allow me to create like I do in Flash, but let's see what I can find!
• Content: My clients and I use Pages, Keynote, PowerPoint and Word to create our static content. I lift the content out of these pages and paste into Dreamweaver or Flash. Google Docs is out there as a browser based alternative, but I haven't tried it...I will and tell you how it goes.

That's the major functionality I will be looking for in online applications. I want to get a Netbook purely because its new and cool (and I have a problem with wanted all the tech I can get my hands on), but if I can validate it by finding these online solutions, well, then its a purchase worth making! I know...who am I kidding...

I'll keep you posted all week with what I find.