Category Archives: Tools

Zebra’s Out of the Bag!

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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Two years ago, Allen Interactions showed Zebra publicly for the first time, at ASTD ICE. By sheer dumb luck, I was there. So were Diane Elkins and Desiree Ward, the owners of the company I now work for. I’ve been experimenting with Zebra in its various incarnations ever since, and recently have been working on Zebra resources for instructional designers for our E-Learning Uncovered website.

Yesterday, I (and I don’t know who else) received word that we can talk about it publicly, which I’ve been eager to do for quite a while. My first post on Zebra is live on the E-Learning Uncovered blog now, and there will be more over the next few weeks.

I look forward to your thoughts!

The Way We Work at Pixar

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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I’m sometimes mistaken for a developer instead of a designer because of my interest in software, but I’m mainly interested in software because of how it serves — and sometimes influences — design.

It was a struggle to put into words my thoughts about how authoring tools and learning design are related, as I attempted to do in the article in Learning Solutions on Monday, but someone going by the screen name synapps left a comment that sums it up pretty darn well:

“Art challenges technology, and technology inspires the art. That’s it in a nutshell the way we work at Pixar.”

- John Lasseter

Well put, John. To me, this seems like the ideal situation… I’m not particularly convinced it’s the one we have in the mainstream elearning world, but it’s certainly a good vision of the future.

Which New Tools Do You Want?

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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There were a lot of impressive tools demonstrated and discussed at the conference, whether in the expo hall, education sessions, or tweetstream. Personally, I am really excited by the number of tool vendors making great strides toward tools that make it easier and easier to create great learning experiences. This blog will probably focus quite a bit on them in the coming months.

Also, my company publishes the E-Learning Uncovered series of resources (books, reference guides, etc.) for instructional designers and developers, and we’re wondering: Which tools are you most excited about right now? Which would you most like to see resources for?

Looking forward to your feedback!