75 Coolest iPhone Apps for Lifelong Learners

Article provided by Guest Blog Contributor Amber Johnson.

In today’s technology age, man’s best friend has a QWERTY key pad instead of four legs. For the academic, an iPhone can be a foe just as easily, with its various interesting but distracting capabilities. In order to use the iPhone to its fullest potential, learners should use it for work as well as play, and thanks to these application creators, that task is not only possible, it is fun as well. From reading worldwide news to creating budgets, from learning foreign languages to appreciating the arts, these applications contain everything you need to feed your superior intellect.

News

Know the market like the back of your hand…or the face of your phone! Keep up with today’s business news here:

1. Reuters: Get the official Reuters mobile site on your iPhone or iPodTouch. Get news, sports, entertainment, business information and tons more.
2. WashingtonPost Mobile: Read breaking news as soon as it’s released with WashingtonPost Mobile.
3. Marketing Forecast: Marketing Forecast provides a continuous stream of forward-looking marketing and consumer insights from Ad-ology Research and other top research firms.
4. iActu: iActu allows user to access the world information in only one touch. Discover more than 500 newspapers and pass from New York Times to Japan Times.
5. One News Page: One News Page is a leading global news portal offering live news with more than 20,000 news headlines being added each day.
6. NPR: This application gives you the option to hear audio podcasts like the NPR Hourly News and your local NPR Radio station news. Additionally you can browse all news stories by category including local news, most SMSed stories, story of the day, song of the day, politics, business, and science.
7. CBS News Mobile: Read breaking news, and developing stories from CBS News.
8. AP Mobile News: The Mobile News Network, powered by the Associated Press, helps you keep up-to-date with what’s happening anywhere, from your hometown to your favorite locale.
9. ESPN iPhone: Get the most comprehensive sports coverage on your iPhone from ESPN Mobile Web for free, including breaking news and analysis, up to the minute scores, and more.
10. NYTimes Mobile: The NYTimes application allows you to enjoy the professional journalism of The New York Times on your iPhone, wherever you are.

Travel

Don’t let anything go unnoticed when you leave town. To stay in-the-know, all you need is your phone and these applications.

11. Speeek!: Contains over 1,500 useful phrases while traveling overseas. By simply talking into your iPhone in English, Speeek! will find the phrase and speak it in Chinese.
12. Events Finder: Provides events from multiple event sources, such as Upcoming, Eventbrite, and TicketStumbler, all in one application.
13. iSayHello: Speak German, English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish or Polish. Choose your language course and off you go with the language travel guide. This easy-to-use talking travel dictionary with superb audio output is more of a vocabulary trainer and dictionary than a translation program.
14. New York on Tap: New York on Tap was designed to help people find great bars in New York City. It’ll also help you locate the nearest subway and help you figure out where to go next.
15. Payless Car Rental: Rent a Car using your iPhone. Travelers can view, modify, or cancel their reservation using the iPhone. "Call to Book" button connects the customer directly to Payless Car Rental’s call center.
16. Bell Hop: Find photos, information, rates and more on this fast, easy-to-use lodging mobile search.
17. London Travel Guide: Packed full of cool features our London Travel Guides are everything you that would expect from an electronic tour guide, only it’s free.
18. Good Food: GoodFood by Goodrec is the best way to find great places to eat! See what other users love and hate.
19. TripIt: Use your iPhone to access your TripIt itineraries whether you’re online, offline or in airplane mode. TripIt is the best way to organize and share your travel plans. Forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com, and TripIt automatically creates a master itinerary for your trip, with detailed information about flights, hotels, rental cars and much more. It also includes maps, driving directions and local weather.
20. SushiGuru: Take SushiGuru with you to sound like a pro when you order sushi. SushiGuru provides you with a searchable database of over 200 entries of Japanese and English names of sushi and sushi rolls.

Arts

The following apps range from learning about famous paintings by the masters to creating art through a variety of media.

21. Art. Learn all about great artists and their works with this factbook app that also lets you quiz yourself to see how much you are learning.
22. Art Gallery Premium. With over 7,500 works of art in their database, you can bring up your favorite famous work of art on your iPhone or browse to learn about artists you might not know.
23. Art Envi Deluxe. Like having a giant museum in your phone, this app contains works by famous artists as well as specialized categories such as Japanese art.
24. Kaleido. While not high on boosting knowledge, any art lover will appreciate taking photos and creating kaleidoscope effects with them.
25. Photo Lab Daily. This free version allow you to take a photo with your iPhone and once a day you can use the Photo Lab tools to enhance your photos. There is a version available for a fee if you want to do more than one a day.
26. MyPaint Free. Finger paint on a blank canvas or use one of your photos from your photo roll to find your artistic talent with this app.
27. Pencil Pusher. This app allows you to draw as if with a pencil. Write, erase, choose from a variety of backgrounds, choose colors, and more.
28. Bonsai. Learn the traditional art of bonsai care with this app that provides you the opportunity to adjust water, trim the tree, and monitor its overall health.

Medicine

Whether you are a medical professional or just want to expand your personal knowledge, these apps are sure to provide plenty of knowledge.

29. Taber’s Medical Dictionary. Touting 30% more medical terms than other medical dictionaries, this one offers definitions, photos, Patient Care Statements, and more.
30. Registered Nurse. Any nurse studying for the NCLEX exam will love this app that provides a practice exam that tests you in over 20 different subjects.
31. Normal Lab Values. Medical professionals or anyone interested in learning more about laboratory results will appreciate having normal values readily available.
32. Medical Drugs. This app provides detailed information on hundreds of pharmaceutical medications.
33. Diagnosaurus DDx. With over 1,000 diagnoses, anyone can perform differential diagnosis quickly and easily with this app.
34. MedCards. This app replaces the laminated cards physicians carry around and also allows anyone interested in learning to have instant reference to such things as EKG values, Mental Status Exam guide, Snellen chart, and more.
35. MedAbbreviations. Get over 13,000 medical abbreviations with definitions, explanations, a search feature, and more.
36. Skyscape Medical Resources. Find all kinds of medical information such as drug information, evidence-based clinical information, medical calculator, and a med-alert based on a specialty of your choosing.
37. Human Atlas. Geared for medical professionals, patients, and consumers, get a 3D explanation along with over 150 common medical treatments and conditions.
38. Medical Exam. Whether you are studying for your medical exam or just want to have a profound knowledge of medicine, this app helps you learn from 14 different categories.

Fun

Don’t take life so seriously! Have a little fun with your phone here:

39. Where to Golf: Gives golfers all the information about a golf course and how to get there. Whether on business, on vacation or in your home town, you’re only a touch away from finding the course you’re looking for.
40. Tetris: Take Tetris for a spin on your iPhone and iPod Touch to experience new twists and enhanced graphics. Drag, Flick and Poke your way through 15 challenging levels.
41. Sudoku: This application has more than 10,000 puzzles. So enjoy one of America’s favorite games, but try to get some work done, too.
42. Crossword: This is a very thorough Crossword application with various levels of difficulty.
43. Word Warp: Make words out of the six jumbled letters provided at each game’s start.
44. Cube Runner: Think eSnakei for current generation telephones. Boatloads of fun, just don’t run your boat into the cubes.
45. Topple: Topple is a quick, tower building game that is theoretically simple yet surprisingly addictive.
46. Trism: A little bit like Bejeweled meets Tetris, Trism stands alone as a distinctive, fun and brain-taxing challenge.
47. Wurdle: a Boggle-like word game available in the iTunes app store. The game is jammed-packed with features, challenging, and most of all, it’s fun.
48. 400 Free iPhone Games: The perfect cure for boredom. This go-to site has 400 free games, from logic cames to old-school arcade games.

Reference

Keep these reference tools close so that you’re prepared to discuss constellations, the periodic table, or world facts.

49. USA Factbook Free: This reference packet is great for anyone in a civics, history or political science course that covers the U.S. Access key documents, lists of the flags, state capitals and other stats.
50. Stars: Anatomy students can use this tool as a resource when studying constellations.
51. The Chemical Tough: Lite Edition: View the periodic table when you download this free app.
52. Formulas Free: This app brings you free calculus formulas.
53. iQuotations: Look up quotes to use in papers or just as general inspiration.
54. Math Ref Free: Get free reference packs for geometry, algebra, trig, derivatives and more.
55. AllTheCountries: Get facts about literacy rate, economy, population, area and more for every country.
56. Your Rights: Use this app for political science courses or just as backup when you get into trouble at school.
57. iTranslator: Study abroad students and panicked foreign language students can use this tool to connect to Google Translator, Babel Fish or Free Translation.
58. Quickpedia Lite: This app makes it easier and faster to use Wikipedia.

Foreign Languages

Whether you are planning to travel or just love learning languages, these apps will help you learn to speak whatever language your heart desires.

59. Jourist Visual PhraseBook English. Use this visual aid with 20 different languages to help you show the person what you mean. It also include the written phrase in both English and your target language.
60. iTranslate Ultimate. Translate words between English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian, then have the words repeated back to you in the target language with this app.
61. Translator with Voice. Get translations in 34 different languages with voice support on most of them.
62. DragonDian. Use this dictionary to draw Chinese characters to quickly and easily find an English translation.
63. WordPower Lite – Italian. This free app gives you one Italian word a day to practice and master by listening to audio, recording and playing back your own voice, and using flashcards.
64. iSpeak Spanish. Translate between Spanish and English with this app that also allows you to hear words spoken in high quality English and Spanish voices.
65. Gengo Flashcards – French. This app uses visual cues and the voices of native French speakers with flashcards to help you learn French. Take a picture of any object, then add the French and English words to it, and you have created your own flashcard to add to the stack.
66. Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook. Whether traveling or learning Japanese, use this app to get over 600 written and spoken Japanese phrases.
67. Byki German. Learn German in no time with this app that includes native speakers, quizzes, and a phrasebook.
68. WordPower – Thai. Listen to 2000 Thai words for proper pronunciation and see the words and phrases in three versions–original Thai, Romanized, and English.

Search

Let your iPhone guide you in general searches, job hunts and more.

69. Inquisitor: This super fast search tool also makes suggestions for your searches.
70. Last.fm: Search music, artists and more with Last.fm for the iPhone.
71. Repairpal: This app will help you find auto repair shop and support.
72. Job Search: Indeed.com’s search application lets you find jobs by location and job description.
73. SearchMe: SearchMe is a new way to search the web on your phone. Unlike all other search engines that return a bunch of links, SearchMe lets you see a "coverflow" of pages that match your search results.
74. U.S. Historical Documents: U.S. Historical Documents contains over 100 of the most influential documents in U.S. history and they will be stored directly on your iPhone/iTouch. Quickly and easily find any text from any document with the fastest and most powerful search engine available on the iPhone.
75. 3GPS OS 3.0: 3GPS OS 3.0 tells you how fast, high and where you are. Whether you’re climbing a hill, touring or running a marathon, with 3GPS OS 3.0 your iPhone shows your current altitude, speed and course.

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:

This post is from Amber Johnson, who also writes for OnlineDegreePrograms.org, an accredited online college resource. Link to original article: http://onlinedegreeprograms.org/blog/2009/75-coolest-iphone-apps-for-lifelong-learners/

20 Free eLearning and Corporate Training Resources

Article by Guest Blog Contributor Karen Schweitzer.

Are you an instructor or trainer looking for new ways to entertain and engage your students online? The Internet is loaded with free tools, blogs, and informational sites that are designed to aid and improve your courses. Here is a list of 20 free eLearning and training resources worth checking out:

Tools

• CourseLab - CourseLab offers a free eLearning authoring tool that can be used to effectively create web-based training. Some of the features users will find with this system include layout, editing, rich-media support, rapid development, testing, and interactivity.
• MyiCourse - Instructors can use this site to create free online courses or universities for educational material. MyiCourse gives users the ability to create public or private courses on just about anything.
• Utilium - Utilium is a free beta site that provides instructors with the tools they need for organizing and sharing learning materials. This site makes it easy to inspire and engage students through videos, articles, podcasts, and other rich sources.
• Prezi - Prezi is a unique presentation tool that uses zooming technology instead of slides. With Prezi your ideas flow freely on a stage that can be zoomed in on and out of for further explanation.
• Yugma - This free online conferencing tool makes it easy to host web conferences and online meetings. With Yugma Free, users can share their desktop with up to 20 attendees.
• Open Huddle - Open Huddle is a beta site for presenting or instructing people online. This site provides you with files, video, audio, chat, and drawing boards for interacting and collaborating with your students.
• Campfire - Campfire can be used for online group chat and education. This site allows users to instantly create password-protected chat rooms for collaborating and working out important questions. Campfire comes at a cost, but users can try it free for 30 days.
• Slideshare - Slideshare provides a way to upload and share presentations. Once the presentations are uploaded, they can be shared privately or publicly and work well for webinars.
• SourceForge - This site provides a free authoring application that can be used to assist instructors in creating free eLearning seminars. SourceForge employs the eXeLearning tool which provides the ability to publish web content without knowing HTML or XML markup.
• ClassMarker - ClassMarker features a free way for instructors or presenters to test students online. Simply sign up for a free account for access to an array a quiz creating materials. The quizzes can even be linked directly to websites or emails.

Blogs

• eLearningLearning - eLearningLearning is an online community blog dedicated to organizing and collecting material about eLearning. Within this blog, users can find information about eLearning technology and media, events, and ideas.
• eLearning Technology - eLearning Technology is a blog that provides information and resources on the latest in the business of learning. Just a few of the concepts discussed in this blog include trends, software, rapid eLearning tools, and open source eLearning.
• eLearningSpace - The eLearningSpace blog offers information, knowledge, and networks that are specifically designed for eLearning instructors.
• Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development - This blog provides information that explores technology for eLearning. Within this blog, instructors can find resources, ideas, technology, and more.
• Thoughts from Training Time - This blog deals with the issues and ideas that can be found in corporate and government training.

Informational Sites

• eLearningPost - The eLearningPost site provides blogs and articles that instructors and trainers can use for information. Within this site, users can explore views, news, and stories that surround eLearning, corporate training, instructional design, and much more.
• eLearning Magazine - eLearning Magazine offers a free place for instructors and trainers to find a wealth of information through articles, reviews, case studies, and more. This public information center is also an excellent place to find forums and exchange ideas with others.
• Web-Based Training Information Center - This free info center provides information and resources on web-based training trends, surveys, and more.
• Learning Circuits - Learning Circuits is a free informational site from the ASTD. The goal of this site is to provide a large database of eLearning and training knowledge as well as efficient training technology.
• BusinessBalls.com - BusinessBalls.com provides free materials, exercises, tools, ideas, and templates that instructors and other eLearning professionals may find helpful.

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:

This post is from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is with the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes for OnlineCollege.org, an accredited online college resource.

25 Essential iPhone Apps for Lifelong Learners

For those of us who are iPhone users, I asked Jimmy Atkinson at Edu-Tastic to share a list similar to the one I posted for you yesterday but for the iPhone. Here it is! (The link to the webpage is: http://toponlineuniversityreviews.com/2009/25-essential-free-iphone-apps-for-lifelong-learners/

by Miranda on July 14, 2009

iPhone applications are becoming increasingly useful, from providing ways for you to track your efforts to pay off debt, to allowing you to write emails and surf the Web. iPhone apps have gone way beyond making light saber noises and playing Sudoku. Do you have a passion for learning? If so, your iPhone can help you be better informed — by keeping vital information at your fingertips. Here are 25 iPhone apps that can help the lifelong learner explore the world:

Literature, Language and Art

If you are interested in learning more about literature, foreign languages and art, the iPhone can help you out.

1. Stanza: Get access to thousands of books and periodicals. You can download books, both paid versions and free versions, to your iPhone and then peruse them at your leisure.
2. Margins: If you are looking for a way to keep your notes organized, you can do so. This iPhone app is specifically designed for those who take notes in the margins of their books. It makes your thoughts much easier to organize — and find later.
3. Aristotle’s Complete Works: One of the developers of Western thought is Aristotle. You can get his complete works, fully searchable, for your iPhone.
4. Art Envi: If you want to learn more about art and artists, this iPhone app can help you out. You have access to thousands of art masterpieces, and you can sort them by genre. Art Envi Deluxe takes things up a notch.
5. Love Art: This iPhone app is centered around helping you learn about art. You can learn about the lives of great artists, and the stories behind their works. Quizzes are offered to help you gauge how much you have learned.
6. iTranslate Ultimate: You can translate between English, French, Spanish, German and Italian using this iPhone app.
7. WordPower Lite: This iPhone app is more of a series. You can use it to practice a number of languages, including Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and a host of other languages. You receive new words to practice, flashcards, audio and can even record yourself saying the words so that you can get a better idea of how you sound.
8. 20/20: 20 of the most useful phrase that you can use while traveling — in 20 different languages.

Math and Science

You have the opportunity to learn more about the world around you when you take advantage of iPhone applications centered around math and science. You can even learn about the related subject of medicine.

9. Science Quiz: Receive different quizzes about a variety of science subjects. Astronomy, anatomy, biology, chemistry, technology and zoology are all included in these quizzes.
10. Science Fact of the Day: If you are interested in learning something new every day, you can get a daily science fact delivered straight to your iPhone.
11. EleMints: Learn the Periodic Table of Elements in an interactive manner, with interesting facts about the elements and a fun way to learn.
12. Math Quizzes for All Ages: Brush up on your math skills, taking quizzes that include basic math concepts on up to more advanced problems and solutions.
13. Exambusters Chemistry Cards: Flashcards that help with chemistry concepts from Exambusters. Exambusters also offers helpful cards for Trig, Algebra, Physics and Biology.
14. Star Walk: Learn about the night sky with help from this iPhone app. Find constellations and their names, and learn more about what you see when you look to the stars.
15. Peterson Field Guide to Backyard Birds: Put this famous field on your iPhone. Includes a search feature that allows you to narrow down birds by your area, and also provides images and information about birds you are likely to see. Also cool: Recordings of bird song.
16. Human Atlas: See the human body in detail — and 3D. Also included in this iPhone app are common ailments, as well as their treatments.
17. Medical Exam: A convenient tool that can help you enlarge your knowledge of medicine in 14 categories. It is also a great study aid for taking an actual medical.

Reference Materials

If you want to know something — and you want to know it now — here are some great reference materials that you can access right from your iPhone.

18. WordBook English Dictionary & Thesaurus: Look up thousands of words and learn their meanings. You can also use the thesaurus to get ideas for replacement words. Pronunciation help is also included in this iPhone app.
19. Spell Checker: If you are unsure of how to spell a word, simply type it into your iPhone, and find out if you are right. The application corrects misspelled words, and provides alternative ways to spell.
20. Wikipedia Mobile: Access Wikipedia easily from your iPhone, wherever you go. Wiki Mobile is formatted especially for iPhone, making it easy to use and read on the go.
21. 15,000 Useful Phrases: Looking for just the right phrase? You can find it with a little help from your iPhone. Extremely helpful for public speakers, writers and conversationalists.
22. Financial Glossary: Learn what hundreds of financial words mean. Very helpful for those trying to sort out the current mess.
23. World Proverbs: Access wit and wisdom across cultures and countries with this iPhone app. Learn a little bit about others, and find the right lesson, with a little help. Shaking your iPhone pops up a random proverb.
24. MedCards: Physicians carry around laminated cards for quick reference. Now you can have that same reference information on your iPhone. While this application could be of great use to doctors, you don’t have to be a doctor to benefit from it.
25. BibleXpress: For Christians who want to learn more about the Bible, or find passages quickly, BibleXpress can be invaluable. Includes a number of versions of the Bible, from the King James Version to the New Revised Standard Version to the New American Standard Bible to the New Authorized Version of the Bible and more.

Top 25 Free Palm Pre Apps for e-Learners -

Edu-tastic's Jimmy Atkinson has shared their favorite free Palm Pre apps for e-learners. He thought my readers would be interested in these apps. The text is below and here is the link as well: http://bestonlineuniversities.com/2009/top-25-free-palm-pre-apps-for-e-learners/. Enjoy!

by Miranda on July 20, 2009

Sure, the iPhone is pretty great. However, not everyone is into the iPhone. There are other smart phones. One of those is the Palm Pre. Applications have been developed for the Palm Pre, and there are fast becoming plenty of interesting ways to carry your personality around with you. You can even use the Palm Pre to help you learn better. Here are 25 free Palm Pre apps that can help you be a better e-learner.

Language Arts

Improve your command of the language — and even learn other languages — with the Palm Pre. You can also learn about other countries and customs, increasing your knowledge of the world. Language arts have been shown to be helpful in developing creativity and increasing one’s mental capacity. Plus, you’ll sound smarter.

1. eReader allows access to free ebooks that can help you enhance your learning and become better acquainted with literature — no matter where you are.
2. Charming increases your literary prowess by helping you learn all of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
3. Talking English-Japanese Dictionary Phrasebook helps you learn basic and useful Japanese phrases. This application speaks to you, so that you can learn proper pronunciation. There are also Palm Pre language applications for other tongues.
4. TranslatorPlus Online Translation Tool helps you translate between different languages. English, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish are all supported. You can also get Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional.
5. World Pro Edition Encyclopedia offers you insight into other countries and cultures. Look at maps, including physical and political, and learn facts about 220 countries.
6. Madrid DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide and Map can help you learn more about Madrid, Spain. You can even find your way around. Palm Pre apps for other cities (such as Vienna and Paris) are also available.

Math and Science

Access to math and science right at your fingertips. Improve your skills, or just have handy information readily available. Science and math are often overlooked, but these are important components of a well-rounded education. Palm Pre makes it easy to study anytime, anywhere.

7. Periodic Table of Chemical Elements offers you an easy way to learn about all of the chemical elements. This Palm Pre app includes details about each of the elements, and shares atomic numbers and chemical symbols.
8. iFD Convert for Palm is a handy tool that provides you with the means to convert measurements between different units of mass, length and volume.
9. Math456 allows you to brush up on your multiplication and division skills. These are valuable math skills that provide the basis for many other types of applications — and something that you can use almost everyday.
10. TouchMaths is more advanced than Math456. TouchMaths allows you to use graphs, conversions and more as you work out problems and learn concepts.
11. Human Biology Quiz can help you learn more about what makes humans “tick”.
12. Science Manual offers you access to a number of helpful science facts, equations and constants. Also includes a unit converter and information on the elements.

Reference Materials

Get the information you need quickly with Palm Pre reference apps. Very helpful for when you are looking for just the right thing to say, or if you need to find the meaning of something that may not be entirely clear. Also, you can get quick and easy access to information that might help your personal spiritual study.

13. MSDict Advanced English Dictionary and Thesaurus provides you with definitions for 140,000 words. Additionally, you can find words with similar meanings by using the thesaurus feature.
14. Marketing Terms Dictionary for Palm OS offers you access to a number of marketing terms that you might come across. Not only is this valuable for business, marketing and PR types, but it can also be helpful for the consumer.
15. LexSpell is a spell checker that can help you proof what you are writing, and help you find the correct way to express yourself. Multiple languages are supported with this spell checker.
16. Vocabulary Ample can help you find just the right word. Access to this vocabulary reference ensures that you are unlikely to be stuck searching for the words to convey what you are trying to say.
17. Holidays and Holidates provides access to a number of holidays and dates of interest from all of the world — and from a variety of religious traditions.
18. Streams in the Desert comes in both English and Chinese versions. This is a devotional that provides inspirational Christian insights into God’s purposes and plans.
19. Bible Verse provides you with easy access to the Word. Learn Bible verses and references with the easy categorizing offered by this Palm Pre app.
20. Prayer Times Athan and Qibla is perfect for Muslims looking for prayer times during the day. Automatic alerts for different cites can be set.

Study Aids

Get help with your learning ability. There are several Palm Pre apps that can help you become a better e-learner, enhancing your study skills and your ability to organize and retrieve information.

21. DicMake v1.5 is designed to help you build your vocabulary. This study aid is one that can help you actively increase your ability to use words.
22. Homework Helper helps you organize your study agenda and keep track of what you have been learning.
23. SpellIt coaches you in proper spelling and testing, as well as helps you build vocabulary.
24. QuizWiz allows you to import quizzes or make up your own. A great way to study and test what you have learned.
25. LiteNotes lets you take notes easily, saving your observations and what you have learned for later study.

Training Budgets Adjust Due to the Economy

An online survey conducted by ASTD asked people what changes have been implemented within their companies’ training departments to weather today’s turbulent economy. What have you seen in your company, and how does that compare to what these statistics show?

• 49.7% reduced travel of learners for training
• 42.5% reduced travel of instructors for training
• 27.5% moved instructor-led courses to e-learning or web-based courses
• 17.4% made no adjustments
• 16.2% moved training in-house (instead of off-site)
  
• Creation of new content – 15.6% reduced
• Reuse of existing programs or courses – 15.6% increased
• Training dollars per employee – 20.4% reduced; 0.6% increased
• Expenditures for external services – 33.5% reduced; 1.2% increased
• Training budgets for the remainder of the year – 34.5% reduced; 2.4% increased
• Training hours per employee – 13.2% reduced; 4.8% increased
• Tuition reimbursement – 6.0% reduced; 1.8% increased

Need-to-Know Training

Everyone feels pinched these days, with most organizations cutting way back on training expenditures. Many companies seek newer, cheaper ways to deliver necessary training, with an emphasis on necessary. (Training topics considered “unnecessary” can include communications, interpersonal skills, negotiating, and general finance.) Some companies require a minimum number of participants in each class, others have limited the frequency of training events, and others are eliminating those non-essential topics.

On the other hand, companies must not lose sight of the fact that some training is essential. This includes training that is mandated by law or compliance requirements, training that impacts the customer or brand, courses that are safety-related or government regulated, and those that may mitigate risk.

Here is an example. More discrimination claims are filed during poor economic times. It is important for organizations to be able to provide proof of training on such topics as ethics, harassment, discrimination, and wage and hour compliance. Such proof will provide crucial defense in the event of litigation. It is important to spend money as wisely as possible and determine what is essential to your company’s survival – what courses are truly need-to-know vs. nice-to-know.

HR Magazine provides the following ideas for cutting back creatively:

• Cut travel costs – use e-learning, videoconferences
• Piggyback training – provide a class on the same day as a regional meeting
• Increase classroom fill rates – run fewer and larger classes
• Shift schedules – provide training during breaks, lunches, before/after hours
• Eliminate catering – have brown-bag lunch sessions
• Maximize employee knowledge – via mentoring, coaching, shadowing
• Develop a wiki database – create an open-source (free) database/knowledgebase for employees
• Put training online – convert existing classroom courses to e-learning
• Implement free communication tools – such as Skype, Moodle
• Encourage free courses provided by top universities (MIT, UC Berkeley), free downloadable podcasts of business lectures (Stanford U), free software training courses (Microsoft, Free-Ed.net)

Keep an open mind and you will be able to find even more ways to save money while still providing the training your organization needs to succeed during these tough times.

Let's Talk Terminology

Many new and potentially confusing terms and phrases have been coming across my desk lately. I presume you have been seeing them as well, and you may wonder what they all mean. I thought I would offer some short explanations of them for you here.

Cloud computing refers to the invisible "cloud" of data and applications available anywhere and anytime. Mobile devices are the most pervasive in terms of accessing this ever-growing cloud of information that is, by its own nature, everywhere.

As defined in a Brandon Hall research paper on the subject, mobile learning is "personalized learning that unites the learner's context with cloud computing using a mobile device."

Also defined in the same paper is ambient intelligence (AmI): smart interactive technology that is both invisible and ubiquitous (omnipresent) and that adapts to its environment and users.

Mobi-sodes are short episodes of mobile learning, while an intraverse is the online universe that is available through your company's intranet.

Notice this growing list of similar terms:
E-Learning: electronic (online) learning
M-Learning: mobile learning (on handheld devices and cell phones)
V-Learning: learning inside a virtual world (such as Second Life)
G-Learning: learning via computer games
C-Learning: learning via collaboration with co-workers and associates

And of course you have all seen references to Web 2.0 and E-Learning 2.0. Web 2.0 is the stage of the World Wide Web where the Internet has become a platform for users to create, upload, and share content with others, versus simply downloading content. E-Learning 2.0 is the idea of learning through digital connections and peer collaboration enhanced by technologies driving Web 2.0. Users/learners are empowered to search, create, and collaborate in order to fulfill intrinsic needs to learn new information.

Finally, more businesses are concentrating on the bottom line and their return on investment (ROI) from their organization's training efforts and expenses. As a result, you will continue to hear more about Performance-Based Learning (PBL), which focuses learners on what they need "to do" to drive business results and delivers learning aligned closely to actual need.

I hope these explanations help. As I come upon new terms and phrases in our industry, I will be sure to share and explain them.

WHAT Do You Do For a Living?

"Did you say instructional design? What the heck is that?" Most of the time when I am asked by a layperson what we do here at CramerSweeney Instructional Design, I do NOT answer "We do instructional design" - a non-answer which would generate the above reaction. Instead, I answer something like this: "We write and develop classroom and online training programs on any topic for corporations of all sizes." I may even follow that extremely brief answer with the names of a few of our better-known (household name) clients. Hey, who doesn't like to name drop occasionally?

But what IS instructional design (really) and what is its true purpose? First consider the fact that we, as humans, are all learning all of the time. It's what we all do, even though we are not always (or even often) conscious of doing it. Most of our learning happens on the fly - through our experiences, our senses (what we see, hear, touch), our interactions and conversations. This is our natural way of learning. Sitting in a classroom or taking an e-learning course are other ways that we learn, but they are not natural to us. The purpose of instructional design, then, is to package these formal learning experiences in the most useful, effective, and engaging manner possible.

1. Good instructional design helps learners make sense of new information being taught. Training should never be just a dump of information.
2. To make sure learners understand what they need to learn, good instructional design provides clear learning goals. This ensures that learners will not focus on the wrong things and will focus on the appropriate specific pieces of information they need to learn.
3. By including examples, practices, exercises, and discussions (interactivity) throughout the training, good instructional design provides the context and perspective (real meaning) learners need in order to understand and process (remember) new information.
4. Using information from the subject matter expert(s) and compressing it into a streamlined course saves learners a lot of time (and saves companies a lot of money).
5. By designing and developing engaging learning experiences, good instructional design better engages learners and provides more effective learning.

Learning is a natural and complex process that we engage in all the time. Yet, to make learning happen in an unnatural, formal environment, we need to package the learning using good instructional design! The next time someone asks me what instructional design is, I may add this to my previous answer: It requires pulling together relevant content to create effective, focused, and meaningful courses.

Make e-Learning Engaging - Please!

We've all seen dead-boring e-learning courses. Heck, many of us have probably been involved in creating less than stellar e-learning. But we all have had to start somewhere. And we have all seen (or at least heard about) the high drop-out rates of e-learners. Today, of course, we find ourselves in the new world of "e-learning 2.0" with uncountable tools at our disposable (including the web), some of which make developing effective and engaging e-courses not only easy but pleasurable! But what can we really do to keep learners engaged and ensure that they will complete their e-learning modules?

Allison Rossett and Antonia Chan wrote a useful white paper for Adobe Systems, called Engaging with the New eLearning, in which they offer 12 great suggestions. These are the high-level highlights:

1. Participants must believe the e-learning will be useful to them.
2. If value for the participants is not obvious, provide a vivid example to make it obvious.
3. The program must provide opportunities for success, never failure or uncertainty.
4. Make the program real to participants by, for example, anchoring the topic to something familiar to them.
5. Since participant involvement will be required, demonstrate what that participation might look like.
6. Make the program active and thought-provoking - keep participants doing and thinking.
7. Make it human by including stories, lessons learned, quotes, anecdotal trivia, etc.
8. Guide and track participants.
9. Blend your e-learning program with other learning tools and opportunities, such as blogs, a performance support tool, an online assessment, online chats with fellow learners, a forum, videos, etc.
10. Use online communities to help participants form relationships, collaborate, and work as a team with others - by using a blog, wiki, discussion board, and other online tools.
11. Make it POP! Add some WOW! This requires creating something dramatic, compelling, and authentic that is still also perceived as valuable to the learner.
12. Measure results and effectiveness, and keep on improving.

You don't have to begin implementing all 12 of these recommendations at once. Ease into them and have fun. If you're having fun, chances are better that your learners will have fun. Good luck!

Update on Mobile Learning

I don't know how many of you have been able to read The eLearning Guild's 90-page 360 Report on Mobile Learning. If you haven't seen it, I want to share with you some of the most interesting highlights.

• Of the eLearning Guild members surveyed, 17.3% use mobile learning (m-learning) sometimes or often.
• Members with 7+ years of experience use m-learning 25.6% more often than members with 6 years of experience or less.
• Of the Guild members who took the survey, 37.5% said they plan to do more m-learning in the next 12 months.
• The most popular m-learning platform used by survey responders is Blackberry (46.6%), with Windows Mobile being used by 26.9% and iPhone 15.2%.
• The majority (81.4%) of members who have implemented m-learning have seen improvements in learner/user access and availability, with 59.4% seeing improved user performance.

This is an avenue for learning dissemination that will, I have no doubt, continue to grow exponentially, especially as more development tools/software continue to pop into the marketplace!

Blending Corporate Training Smoothly

Article by Guest Blog Contributor Heather Johnson.

Corporate training is necessary for a variety of reasons, from focusing on a company’s critical needs to empowering employees to take control of their responsibilities and help improve business performance. Each organization follows its own methods to impart this training, both to new hires and existing personnel according to the needs of the company. E-learning programs, once considered the outcast in the training world, has gained in popularity for more reasons than one:

• The software and resources needed are cost effective.
• They can be designed and tailor-made to suit the needs of your organization.
• They can be altered and changed as the nature of jobs and responsibilities morph to adapt to changing expectations and policies.
• They can be implemented rapidly.
• These programs are standardized, which means employees across the board are provided with the same instructions in the same form of delivery. Your company is thus more cohesive as a unit.
• They allow trainers to cut back on travel costs and time.
• With the Internet and the Intranet offering the advantage of connectivity anywhere and everywhere, employees can train on the job or at home at their leisure.
• E-learning development can be outsourced leaving your staff free to handle other responsibilities.

In spite of all these advantages that e-learning offers, organizations have moved on to a newer form of training, one which blends traditional and e-learning methods and takes the best of both to impart training to corporate circles. In other words, it’s old wine in a new bottle. Blended training came into its own when people started realizing that one size does not fit all and that each company’s needs are different.

Blended training sought to maximize returns on training programs from the organization’s point of view – it followed the principle that training programs exist not to educate employees and make them experts in their jobs but to help improve their performance in such a way that the business is profitable and that the organization’s goals are met.

With more emphasis on increased performance and maximum returns at the lowest cost, organizations are turning to a mixture of media and tools to impart training. Depending on their size and turnover, they adopt a blend of electronic and human training methods – the electronic aspect ensures that there is an element of standardization while the human aspect ensures that the process is accountable and the returns measurable. Formal classes, PowerPoint presentations, seminars on the web, manuals and discs with study material, books, meetings, conferences, hands-on experiences and simulations are all adopted in varying degrees by organizations, all of whom are striving to find the optimal combination that provides the best impact.


Guest Blog Contributor By-line:

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on California teacher certification. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

Mobile Learning's Slow Birth

Imagine a birth taking 10 years. Can't imagine it? Neither can I, but that is how long it has taken mobile learning (m-learning) to finally begin to make a visible appearance. M-learning has been discussed for amost 10 years, yet is only now approaching actual deployment.

Why now? Simply because the portable devices needed to deploy m-learning are finally here. They include smart phones, ultra-portable computers, and iPods/iPhones. And the number of learners who have them grows every day. In fact, there are more people with two mobile devices than there are people with just one (i.e., a Blackberry + an iPod).

Increasing numbers of handhelds offer internet access (the "mobile web"), further unleashing learners from their desktop or laptop computers. Today, over half a billion mobile phones connect to the internet each day, bringing information to where it's needed or wanted - anytime, anywhere. In addition to text, this information is in the form of images, animations, games, movies, videos, music, even maps and location services. IBM's Institute for Business Value predicts that a billion people will be accessing the mobile internet by 2011 - only 3 years away! At that time, our mobile transactions and interactions will generate $80 billion for the web services industry.

OK, so how quickly can the training industry accept, adopt, and truly implement m-learning?

Very soon, I hope. First, we must begin with enterprise acceptance, including executives and IT professionals willing to support a mobile infrastructure. These individuals have already seen the value of being "unplugged" as desktop computers have converted to laptops and notebook computers. Mobility has already become a focus for IT departments. Adoption of enterprise mobility is all about increasing workforce productivity - certainly not a hard sell.

As learning professionals, the more we can demonstrate productivity gains from m-learning, the more likely companies will be to support m-learning implementations. And to do so sooner instead of later.

What technologies do the IT folks need in order to support enterprise mobility and m-learning? Wireless networks, mobile applications, middleware, devices, and security and management software. They are confused, however, over which wireless networks need to support specific kinds of enterprise mobility needs, especially where new technologies are involved. Plus executives want to know the pros, cons, and deployment issues associated with the many wireless network options. Organizations must also decide who should have access to them (the entire workforce, or just select groups) and how best to cost-effectively deploy and maintain these systems. Finally, what should they do when new mobile devices come to market (such as the iPhone)? Do they support those as well?

As a newborn, m-learning has been focusing on providing performance support and information to mobile workers. Unfortunately, there are those who believe that is not the same thing as "learning". In fact, it is learning - it is a learning intervention that is accessible at the exact time and place it is needed.

Time will tell how readily accepted and integrated m-learning will become in our careers and our lives. I am quite hopeful and excited about it. I believe we need to see the introduction of more mainstream tools that produce mobile output. As Ellen Wagner said in a recent eLearning Guild article, "We all acknowledge that mobile learning is a many-splendored thing that has the potential to truly rock our professional practice."

Training Is Useless Unless...

T&D magazine published an interesting article titled "Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time." David H. Maister offered some compelling insights that I would like to share with you:

• True long-term changes in any organization need to begin with changes at the top - in managerial behavior.


• Training should not be used as a first (or stand-alone) step to long-term change, but as part of a process toward organizational change.


• Training is a waste of time and money if what is taught is never put into practice.


• Too often, companies will train people in new areas but then send them back to their original jobs - where little of what was taught ever gets implemented.


• "There is no point in offering skills training if there is no incentive for people to engage in the desired behavior."


• Some business skills can be explained/taught but not effectively learned through mere discussion/lecture, such as being able to manage. You can learn a lot about management, but that doesn't mean you will be any good at doing it. "No amount of understanding, knowledge, or intelligence will help if you are unable to interact with people" and influence them. These kinds of skills need to be learned slowly and by doing/practicing them, not just learning about them.


• Training should only be scheduled on topics that can be applied immediately - not days, weeks, months, or years before it will applied.


• Training programs should have mandatory prereading and pretesting, with everyone coming to the session fully prepared.


• Work groups/departments should be trained together - and with the group's manager present. This way they can immediately begin to discuss how they plan to integrate the training's ideas into their practices.


• "If it's worth doing training, it's worth doing it in a way that's going to make a difference."

The "Value" of Learning?

Company business units all over are being expected to demonstrate and document their value to justify the investment their company is making to operate them. This includes training functions and departments. How on earth should we be expected to measure the value (ROI) of our efforts? What measures should we capture? What business result indicators should we focus on? We are training experts, not business analysts. But we are being asked to determine and measure business impacts that are extremely difficult to measure.

A Summer 2008 article published in Training Industry Quarterly gave me a few insights into this increasingly common dilemma. Some of the difficulties right out of the gate are that senior management is asking for measurements that aren’t necessarily practical for training divisions to measure. Their perspective is too “big picture” and conceptual, when what we are in fact able to measure is not. The business measures that we may be able to capture are on a much smaller scale, so we must first decide what business outcome(s) to measure and then get senior management to agree. In other words, “get them to align around some intermediate business impact parameters that are indeed measurable.”

The article goes on to offer a couple of good examples. At Halliburton, the leaders decided that the outcomes most important to them are employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow. Customer satisfaction and cash flow are relatively easy to measure. Why employee engagement? Halliburton has had evidence that employee engagement is critical to their financial and market performance. They have successfully measured it and they link leadership development programs to the impact they have on the employee engagement index.

The second example provided is from Sun Microsystems, where they discovered a link between mentoring programs and employee performance. A key step in their research was to relate mentoring to measurable performance improvement agreed to by Sun’s senior management. The metrics included rate of promotions and salary increases, as well as bonuses. They found that those who were mentored received more rapid pay raises and promotions – that they were higher performers than the control group. They also found that the mentees had similar superior performance. So Sun’s “senior managers were aligned around the business outcomes measurements based on compensation and promotion.”

Measuring the impact of learning on a business is not an exact science – nor is it the same across businesses or even industries. There is no prescribed way of doing it. You just need to figure out what is best to measure, get senior management’s agreement on it, measure it, then report on your findings. Easy, right?

So what skills do we need to be able to do this? First we need the ability to have a conversation about business impact - to understand it well enough to discuss it. We also need the ability to design a learning intervention experiment with control groups and statistical techniques. If these are not our strong skills, we need to align ourselves with people inside the organization (or outside) who can help us. The article mentions that CLO Institute offers a fully online CLO Certification program to teach some of these business skills that people who have come up through the training organization ranks may not have.

The bottom line is that training organizations are expected to change from being tactical/reactive to being more strategic. We all need to embrace this and learn how to move forward with it.