Notes from Dave Cormiers 5 points about PLEs and PLNs

I have decided to store this type of note, as well as my Session notes in a Google Doc. You can access this note in particular here.

To see all my notes, consult the link on the side.

PLENK2010 - A World Wide Course!!!

Am looking at the course intros…. Very cool we have learners from all over the world, Germany, Mexico, Fiji, Argentina, Australia, UAE, Oman, Philippines, Hungary, Georgia, Portugal, Canada, Uruguay, Greece, England, Ireland, Romania, China, Spain, Chile, and the USA just to name a few!!

UPDATE (2010-16-09): Just came across this map in the Moodle Forum. Very cool.

Am back...

Well what can I say... I am not much of blogger, but I have chance to bring this unused blog back into action. I have signed up for a MOOC on Personal Learning Networks, Personal Learning Environments and Networks Knowledge 2010. I think registration is till open.

Starting out in Flash and Google Wave

Over the past two weeks I have finally gotten my Flash training and received my Google Wave invites, two new tools in two weeks.... I like it.

Flash training..... a big aha moment on Day 1. I really did not understand the timeline, or how the frames worked before. But now I do! And I already have my first project to develop in Flash. It will be essentially a slideshow, but with some audio and animation worked in. Probably a good starting point for me. I believe that my next project is going to be updating and expanding an existing Flash-based course, and that may be more problematic. I am not sure my Flash knowledge is that great yet, but as a friend of mine says, "Fake it until you make it!"

I also thought I would but out a Public Wave in Google Wave, looking for some good Flash resources, and I have made three new contacts as a result. 1 in Australia and 2 in the UK. I have not had a chance to use Wave much, mostly because my contact list is depressingly small. But I think this will be a great tool as time goes on and the population using grows.

Embed Captivate file into a pdf

Saw this on Tweeter a few weeks ago, and finally had a use for it. To create a really great set of instructions, create a Captivate project which demos the steps you want taken. Publish it as you normally would. Then publish your project, again, to Word (or pdf if you have that option) as a set of Step by Step instructions. Adjust and fill out the instructions as necessary in word, then publish it as a .pdf. Open the pdf in Acrobat Professional and then embed the .swf file from your original publication.

Voila, there you have it!

Hmmm maybe I will try and make one with the instructions on how to make one... LOL!

Must remember to Google first....

hmm been a while since my last post... guess I was on summer holidays. :o)


I had an interesting experience the other day. I was tasked with getting some graphics out a pdf. I thought that, if it was possible, it would take me a couple of hours working photoshop in order to lift the graphics. Not something I was looking forward to doing. I started on the first graphic and after about 10 minutes realized that this was not going to work. Then on a whim figuring someone else had done this before, I googled my problem... it turns out there is menu tab that enables you to lift the images from a pdf. 10 minutes later, I was finished.

This for some reason drove home the notion that it may be worth while to check out Google whenever I get a new request..

Must remember to Google first...
Must remember to Google first...
Must remember to Google first...
Must remember to Google first...

Customer Service through Twitter

Last Wednesday, I was working at home using a trial version of CodeBaby (great piece of software!). However, when I went to export my project, I got a series of errors and the files it produced were not usable, the image and sound were all garbled. So I went on line to check the website to see if there was a solution.

Now, earlier in the day, I had twittered about using CodeBaby and went I went back online, someone named Patrick had twittered me back, asking what kind of project I was working on. I responded an introduction for a conference, but that I was having some export issues. Patrick responded that they would be glad to help me, and suggested that I contact, via Twitter, Amanda in Customer Service.

So I contacted Amanda and sent her a screen capture of what I was seeing.
As she was looking for a solution, Patrick twitter me back and asked if I was using a purchased or trial version and noted that I had spoken with Doug, one the VPs and asked if I would like Doug to give me a call. Twenty minutes later, I was speaking with Doug, and five minutes after that I was speaking with Joe, another one of the Customer Service Reps. Joe helped me trouble shoot the problem and we figured out what was causing my exports to fail.

What I did not realize until somewhere in the middle, was that Charles was the CEO of the CodeBaby!

Further more even though, I was only using a Trial version, he and the rest of the company was willing to assist me. Working at Service Canada and being one of the Learning Consultants for our Service Excellence Program, I find I am now much more attuned to Good Customer Service, and this was definitely for me a good experience. And to think I did most of my initial interactions using Twitter.