Tag Archives: resources

Well Read: The Creative Habit

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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I’m starting to feel like all I’ve posted here in the past month is that I’m writing or talking in other places; it’s been a very busy month. And I will get back to writing here soon, but first, today’s announcement is the biggest of all. I’m thrilled to share that I’m starting a new monthly column for Learning Solutions Magazine: Well Read.

Well Read will highlight books that are outside of the traditional learning milieu but that have an impact on our practice. The idea is to explore the many aspects of our work through experts in other fields, then apply this expertise in a meaningful way to our challenges. Kind of a Liberal Arts approach to the field of learning.

One of the first topics I wanted to explore was the creative element of learning design — and in particular, how to help creativity thrive with the fluorescent lights and deadline pressures that most learning designers labor under. So the initial installment explores The Creative Habit with choreographer Twyla Tharp.

I discovered when writing this first installment that there were far more takeaways in the book than I could address in the normal column length, so I encourage you to read the book and add to the comments what you found you could apply to your own work. And if you have ideas for future installments, feel free to leave a comment here or get in touch on Twitter (@jkunrein).

Enjoy!

Reader Mail: Which Version of IE?

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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Here’s a question from Monique at Visa, who attended my DevLearn session on HTML5 authoring tools:

What is the best version of IE to begin practicing with? IE10 seems to be out in developer version only and was wondering if you felt IE9 would be sufficient.

If you’re doing internal corporate training, you need to first focus on the browsers that your company provides or allows. There’s no point in developing something for IE9 if your company standard is still IE6 (and I really hope it’s not).

caniuse.com is an excellent resource for checking browser compatibility with modern web technologies. If you have the ability to influence browser adoption at your company and are asking which one to recommend, compare browsers based on specific technologies that you want to deliver (or that your authoring tool delivers). You’re going to find that often, the answer to “which version of IE?” is “not IE”.

My guess, though, is that most of us are in a situation of just delivering to the browser(s) that our companies allow and/or provide. The trend I’ve seen with clients is that companies are allowing and accommodating different operating systems, different browsers, and different versions, including those that might be on different devices (such as tablets). That means testing our content in multiple environments and choosing tools and processes that enable us to deliver to those environments successfully.

A Few Resources to Make the Most of DevLearn

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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Classic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign with DevLearn logo instead of Las Vegas.So many smart people in our industry are heading to Las Vegas in just a few days! Here are a few of the resources on my mind as I gear up to get the most from the experience:

5 Things You Should Never Do In Your Presentation. From Ethos3, a new resource for me but one I’ll be returning to.

The latest episode of Back to Work. Merlin and Dan share thoughts on presentation culture, for presenters and their hosts.

The DevLearn Conference Backchannel. The eLearning Guild has taken an extremely proactive approach toward spreading the knowledge shared at DevLearn. Contribute and make it easy for everyone else to do so by using #devlearn or #devlearn-xxx (xxx = the session number). Presenters, encourage participation by including your session number and your Twitter name on the first slide of your visuals.

See you next week!

Update: One more great one… Writing (And Reading) Conference Session Descriptions, by Clark Quinn, in eLearn Magazine. This is a topic rarely addressed, and Clark gives some great tips.

Photo credit: Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas! by Amyn Kassam. Altered under a Creative Commons license.