Trainers Talk Tech

Quick Note: If you liked my Podcast interview with Roger Courville, then you will love his new book: The Virtual Presenter's Handbook. The book just got released and is available for you to purchase.

If you are looking to improve your ability as an online facilitator, or if your company is considering bringing synchronous learning to the firm, this book is fantastic.

A full table of contents is available here!

You can get more info and order the book by clicking here!

The next edition of the Trainers Talk Tech podcast is here! The topic of this podcast is synchronous learning. You can call it synchronous learning, web seminars, webinars or even edu-marketing, but I was fortunate enough to interview an expert in this area: Roger Courville.

Roger is a trainer, blogger at TheVirtualPresenter.com, and principal of 1080 Group, an independent training firm that helps companies learn and optimize online presentations and webinars. Together with his co-founder, they have created one of the industry's first independent curricula to teach trainers how to organize and accelerate their synchronous training and edu-marketing efforts.

Listen to it here:

Subscribe to the Trainers Talk Tech podcast here:
http://dwebstudios.hipcast.com/rss/trainerstalktech.xml

During the podcast, Roger and I talked about various books, websites and vendors. Below are the links:

Roger's Resources

• Roger's Blog: www.thevirtualpresenter.com
• Roger's Company: The 1080 Group
• Roger's Toolkit: www.webseminartoolkit.com
• Roger's Tips: www.webseminartips.com
• Follow Roger on Twitter: 1080group

Synchronous Learning (Web Seminar) Software

• Microsoft LiveMeeting
• WebEx
• Acrobat Connect Pro
• Acrobat.com
• Dimdim
• Yugma
• Elluminate
• Saba Centra
• Citrix GoToWebinar

Books

• Work Naked: Eight Essential Principles for Peak Performance in the Virtual Workplace by Cynthia Froggatt
• Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer

PowerPoint Tips

• Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 rule
• 5X5 rule of PowerPoint - no more than 5 words across, and five lines down

Please enjoy the podcast and subscribe if you like it! I'm going to be accelerating the frequency of the casts to one every two-three weeks instead of monthly. I have my next interview lined up for the first week in March!

Thank you for reading and listening...I hope you enjoy the podcast. Also, a sincere thank you to Roger for sharing your expertise and experience.

I wanted to give a heads up that I am interviewing another amazing expert for the Trainers Talk Tech podcast tomorrow morning. If you've ever wondered about the secrets of good synchronous learning, this is the podcast for you! Tips, tricks and secrets to maximizing your synchronous learning experience as an instructional designer and facilitator will all be discussed. It's going to be great!

If you want to subscribe to the podcast feed, use this link:
http://dwebstudios.hipcast.com/rss/trainerstalktech.xml .

I'm conducting the interview in the morning and after production, it should be up before noon MST. Be sure to subscribe or come back to this site to hear the podcast.

If you missed the first edition covering online social networking with Jenna Papakalos, you can read about it and listen to it here.

I have received a mountain of emails, hits and link backs regarding our first podcast with Jenna. The responses have been extremely positive. Thank you to YOU for tuning in, and thanks again to Jenna for an awesome interview.

In some of the email's I've been receiving, people have asked me what I used to record the session and how I got it all online. Here are the details:

I used Skype. Yes, the free software you can download to make calls using voice over IP. Jenna did not have a Skype account, so I called her cell phone using Skype's land line service - at a whopping .02 cents per minute.

I recorded it using a cool $15.00 tool called Call Recorder from eCamm. It plugs right into Skype and is easy to use:

1. Login to Skype
2. Call the person you want to talk with
3. Click the record button

It's just that easy! It records any conversation in Skype, land line or Skype to Skype.

It saves the recording as a .mov file which I gets into Quicktime Pro and converted to a .wav file. I then took the .wav file and dropped into Adobe Soundbooth. I found some copyright free music, added 4 seconds to the front and back of the Skype recording and then exported it as a .mp3 file.

I use a podcasting host called HipCast to store and catalog my podcasts. Its $9.95 per month and is a killer deal. I uploaded the mp3 recording to hipcast and then embedded it into my site.

In an earlier post, I talked about adding Web 2.0 functionality to your eLearning. I spent $20 on a microphone, $15.00 on the Skype recorder and Soundbooth came with my CS4 purchase. For less than $100, I recorded an interesting conversation and shared it with the world. It took less time to produce it then it did to record it! You can do it too!

Add podcast functionality to your LMS. If you use SharePoint, you can connect to the HipCast stream from the RSS Web Object that comes with it. If you blog, HipCast can auto-feed into your blog. Imagine an eLearning program around leadership that comes with a weekly or monthly leadership podcast, where you interview leaders around the firm. What about a customer service program that allows users to register for the Customer Service Podcast where you interview people in the firm who are doing a great job with customer service. The possibilities are amazing, but you must figure out how to make it work in your environment. The investment is very small, but the impact can be huge!

Now...go build something cool! I'm boarding a plane to ASTD TK 09 in Vegas!

Our first Trainers Talk Tech podcast is here! The topic for this first podcast is online social networking. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenna Papakalos, President of JRMP Enterprises, an expert on the topic of social networking. During this session we talk about Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, and how the HR or Training professional can start creating an online network of people.

Listen to it here:

Subscribe to the Trainers Talk Tech podcast here:
http://dwebstudios.hipcast.com/rss/trainerstalktech.xml

During the podcast, Jenna and I talk about various books and websites. Below are links to everything we discussed:

Websites

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• MySpace
• Twitter

Books

• I'm on Facebook - Now What by Jason Alba and Jesse Stay
• I'm on LinkedIn - Now What by Jason Alba
• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and Talh Raz

Please enjoy the podcast, and if you like it, then please subscribe. I plan on interviewing movers and shakers in the eLearning industry, as well as create solo broadcasts.

Thank you for reading...I hope you enjoy the podcast, and thank you Jenna for sharing your expertise!

I'm very excited about ASTD TK 09 this year. I'm looking for some new ideas and new ways of thinking and programming, and I hope that you will tune into my daily reporting from the conference. I plan on writing each day, providing you with "on the scene" details, information and opinions.

Also, I am happy to be presenting on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. I will be sharing my presentation notes and materials on this site. I have a fun ActionScript 3.0 primer and an analysis and demonstration of the Adobe Creative Suite 4, specifically Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks and Soundbooth. I know...the eLearning Suite just came out...why don't I feature that? Two reasons:

1. ASTD already published the conference materials
2. My MacBook Pro can't run Captivate or Presenter without Parallels and an installation of Windows. My Mac Pro has the Windows "Virus" installed on it, and I just cannot bear to subject my mobile silver brain to that kind of abuse.

More news: Tomorrow morning, I am recording the first edition of the Trainers Talk Tech's Podcast. I'm interviewing an expert in the area of electronic social networking. I'm interested in her opinions about the trend and the methods and implications for the eLearning developer. Look for links to the podcast links soon.