It's Happening in the Learning Industry: Training Magazine and Web Site Shutting Down

Apparently, it is not just the newspaper business that is in trouble, the trade publication magazine business isn't so hot either. Training Magazine and the associated web site are being moth balled at the end of March.

As a sometimes contributor to the TrainingDay blog, it is will be sad to see it closed as well.

Here is an excerpt from Nielsen shuts down 'Training'

Nielsen Business Media told employees Tuesday that it is shutting down Training magazine and its companion Web site, trainingmag.com, according to a Nielsen Co. spokesperson.

The March issue will be the publication's last. The move includes the elimination of 11 positions, the spokesperson said

What does this mean for the learning and development industry? I don't think it will mean a whole lot as much of the monies and advertising dollars in the past few years have gone toward technology focused trade publications in our industry. Tech always seems to have money for advertising.

One of the items that led to lower trade publication subscription rates is that a lot of information that use to be found only in the trade publication can now be found all over the Internet with no cost to the person who needs to learn the information or become part of a community of practice.

Learning communities around topics traditionally covered in trade publications are readily available and, because it is a community, more content is available.

Case in point, a source has told me that the Training Magazine Network with over 12,000 members will continue into the future.


__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Learning in 3D Week 6 Stops for "Learning in 3D" Blog Book Tour

Here we are for week six, the final week of the blog book tour. The tour has been such a wonderful experience with many great comments and enlightening discussions about the book. So here are the final "official" stops.

We have a couple more surprises in store this week so stay tuned.

Week Six

Day Twenty-Six 02/15/10 Chris Brannigan at Thinking Worlds blog.

Day Twenty-Seven 02/16/10 Brian Miller at his blog Cognitive Technologies.

Day Twenty-Eight 02/17/10 Roland Legrand at Mixed Realities.

Day Twenty-Nine 02/18/10 Robyn DeFelice of DishingDesign.

Day Thirty 02/19/10 Randy Hinrichs Reflections on Virtual Worlds.

***With special guest blog this week by Jay Cross.

And don't forget to become a fan, we only need a few more to reach 200. Thanks in advance for your support!!!

Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collabora

Become a Fan Today!

Here is a tiny URL for this post http://tinyurl.com/3dweeksix
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

April Speaking Engagement

In April, I will be appearing on a panel with a couple of blogging pros to talk about learning with New Media. Below is all the marketing information with links for registering.



Is Twitter or, even, the iPad a viable learning technology? What's real, what's buzz?

Register today for our 5th annual users conference – "Learn & Know 2010," and you'll see the elearning industry's top bloggers break through the buzz and sift fact from fad when it comes to learning technology. If you've registered for our conference, this is your chance to sign up a colleague for "Learn & Know 2010," which runs from April 20 – 21, 2010, at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Va.

Our Buzz-Breaker panel of elearning pros will give you their best insights about what defines learning technology, and what it's really capable of. Don't miss this one-hour session packed with viewpoints and sage advice that'll make you a learning technology buzz-breaker, too.

Who are the Buzz Breakers?

Susan Smith Nash blogs for the "E-learning Queen" as well as elearners.com. Her most recent books include "Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques" and the "E-Learner Survival Guide."

Karl Kapp is a professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University; you'll find his musings at the elearning blog "Kapp Notes." He's co-author of the newly released book "Learning in 3D," and the widely popular book "Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning."

Bower blogs at "Learning Leaders Forum." Mark has over 20 years of experience as a learning management executive and consultant for companies like IBM.  He writes about learning and performance management solutions when he's not solving his clients' workforce challenges.

Along with the Buzz Breakers, you'll see our keynote speaker James "Butch" Lumpkin.  Butch is an expert at turning nothing into something.  Born without arms, Butch learned to play golf at nearly par and achieve notoriety as a tennis instructor!  His accomplishments were showcased on the Golf Channel, and he'll show us his secret for learning the impossible.  Watch Butch on the Golf Channel here:http://www.thegolfchannel.com/golf-videos/meet-butch-lumpkin-9477/?ref=26000

Along with Butch and the "Buzz Breakers," you'll also get: 

• An in-depth, first-look at the latest technology behind Meridian Global LMS.
• A tour of the latest editions to the Meridian Virtual Library (over 15,000 titles!). 
• Customer case studies presented by your peers.  Our customers will highlight how they have creatively solved top training and business challenges during the past year.

To attend this year's users conference, please visit http://www.meridianksi.com/registration/, or email Rhonda Penders, Meridian Marketing Associate, at rpenders@meridianksi.com.  You'll find the conference agenda at: http://www.meridianksi.com/registration/agenda.asp

Blog Book Tour Recap Week Five: Immersive

Week five was a busy week with a webinar about Learning in 3D sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton and guest appearance on the popular and innovative Metanomics in-world TV show. The tour had great stops this week as well as a couple more "misses" but it is still a lot of fun and seems to be picking up steam as the tour moves forward. Here is a quick recap of this week's activities--starting with the live events.

The first live stop this week was with Dan Bliton and Charles Gluck of Booz Allen Hamilton who had Tony and Karl to present a webinar entitled "Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds." The presentation was attended by over 100 people (not too bad in the middle of Snowmageddon).

You can see some screen captures of the presentation at Images from Resources for "Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds" Webinar and you can get the slides and a list of resources related to the presentation at Images from "Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds" Webinar. The recording of the entire webinar will be made available shortly and I'll post it so you can check out the webinar.

Tony and Karl talk about "Learning in 3D"

The second live stop this week was at Metanomics where Tony and I appeared to discuss the book.

An image of our discussion is below and you can see some photographs I took at Metanomics Presentation Photographs. To see a recording of the show go to archive for Learning in 3D--Immersive Environments in Training and Education.

Recap of Blog Stops

Day Twenty-One John Rice at the Educational Games Research blog wrote a post titled New 3D Learning Book by Karl Kapp. Make sure you check out the post and the comments, he generated a great discussion about technology in schools.

Day Twenty-Two This was the stop at Booz Allen Hamilton discussed above.

Day Twenty-Three Connie Malamed at the The eLearning Coach and the stop at Metanomics. At The eLearning Coach, Connie wrote a post titled Your Brain on 3D. The post described how thinking about 3D has rewired her brain and then gave some pointed examples of affordances of 3D. Check it out, it is a great read and check out the rest of her site, some great stuff.

Day Twenty-Four This stop was missed.

Day Twenty-Five This stop was a book review of Learning in 3D and will be available in the near future.

Recap of all the tour stops so far:
Blog Book Tour Recap Week One: Awesome!
Blog Book Tour Recap Week Two: Fabulous!!
Blog Book Tour Recap Week Three: hectic
Blog Book Tour Recap Week Four: Interesting

The Book Behind the Tour


Become a fan on Facebook of the book!!

And follow the tour on Twitter at #lrn3d

__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Skillsoft Goes Private

SkillSoft (Nasdaq: SKIL) a provider of e-learning and performance support solutions for global enterprises, government, education and small to medium-sized businesses with a huge catalog of "off-the-shelf" courses in a variety of subjects from IT to business skills announced today that it will no longer be publicly held.

In an announcement today, Skillsoft stated that a group of independent investors (investment firms) including Berkshire Partners LLC, Advent International Corporation and Bain Capital Partners, LLC will take Skillsoft private.

Under the terms of the acquisition, SkillSoft shareholders will receive $10.80 in cash for each SkillSoft ordinary share or American Depositary Share ("ADS"), representing a 26% premium to the average closing price of SkillSoft's ADS over the one-year period ended on February 11, 2010 and a 49% premium to the average closing price of SkillSoft's ADS over the five-year period ended on February 11, 2010. The fully diluted equity value of the transaction is approximately $1.1 billion.

This is a huge, apparently friendly, takeover of Skillsoft and a shift from a publicly held company to a privately held company.

What does this mean for Skillsoft customers? Apparently the investment team will keep the current Skillsoft team in place and they haven't formally announced any plans but I think the key question will be how much equity will the new owners invest in maintaining and updating Skillsoft courses? As content and styles age and progress, subscription based models require the company to continually invest and innovate.

Time will tell in terms of the investors intentions for Skillsoft.

Read more at the Skillsoft press release on the topic.

As stated in the DailyFinance

Through...dealmaking, SkillSoft now has a platform that includes more than 30,000 education titles in 19 languages and a sophisticated learning management system. Its focus is on corporate topics, like Six Sigma, project management and IT skills.

SkillSoft also has a salesforce of more than 240 and over 3,000 customers, of which 55% are in the Fortune 500 and 24% from the Global 2000.

The problem? The recession has been grueling. As unemployment ballooned, the need for employee education has deteriorated. At the same time, customers needed to find ways to cut back on costs.

Even so, SkillSoft has been able to generate strong cash flows. It helps that the company has lots of scale and a large base of customers that continue to buy software.

Take a look at SkillSoft's latest quarterly report. While revenues declined 3% to $80.4 million, net income was $19.6 million, or $0.21 per share, up from $12 million or $0.12 per share in the same period a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $32.1 million. No doubt, it certainly helps that the company has gross margins at a juicy 91%.

See the article Private Equity Firm Taking SkillSoft Private for more details.

The deal is valued at about $1.1 billion dollars. According to the Wall Street Journal:

The trio of private-equity buyers are all headquartered in Boston. Though smaller in scale, the deal still ranks as the second-largest going-private transaction since the beginning of 2009, ranking behind the $4 billion takeover of IMS Health Inc. led by buyout shop TPG Inc

In November, SkillSoft posted higher-than-expected results in its fiscal third quarter amid higher margins and boosted its outlook for the year. The company cut jobs and costs last year as customers trimmed the size of contracts because of the recession.

Still, the Standard & Poor's Ratings Services put SkillSoft's ratings—already at junk level—on its watch list, saying a downgrade was highly likely because the deal would significantly weaken the company's credit metrics.

See the entire Wall Street Journal article here. It seems that e-learning firms are struggling in the economy even though they hold a great deal of potential.
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Metanomics Presentation Photographs

Today, Tony and Karl gave an interview as part of the Learning in 3D Blog book tour at Metanomics

Tony has spoken with the group several times. It was a lively presentation with great audience participation and interaction. Many good points and research mentioned by attendees and lively chat discussion. Here are some images from the presenter's perspective.

Had to find just the right shirt

 to wear (settled on the famous blue one)

and I was told I needed shoes (insurance reasons).

Now, all dressed and waiting for the event to start.

Audience slowly begins to arrive.

Lots of avatars in attendance for discussion.

A bird's eye view of the show.

Robert (aka Beyers Sellers) asks 

Tony and Karl about learning archetypes.

Beyers giving a thoughtful wrap up of the discussion.

All in all a great stop on the tour with engaging discussion and thoughtful questions.
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Images from Resources for "Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds" Webinar

Just got done with a great webinar with BAH, great audience members who had plenty of questions, insights, ideas and comments that really added to the rich discussion. Very engaged and "on top of it" group of people. Here are a couple of pics from the presentation.

Introducing the Webinar.

Special thanks for Chuck and Dan for all their help!

Showing a case study from the book.

Here is a link to Resources for the presentation.

Also, check out Twitter conversation with hashtags #lrn3d and #lrm3d for great tweets!

__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Resources for "Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds" Webinar

Dan Bliton of Booz Allen Hamilton asked Tony and Karl to present a webinar entitled "Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds." The presentation promises to be a lot of fun. Here are the supporting resources.

Slides
Here are the slides from the presentation.

Bah Learning In 3 D

View more presentations from kkapp.

Resources:
Alternatives to Second Life

A Few More Alternatives to Second Life

Applying ADDIE to 3D Worlds

Questions about Second Life

Virtual Worlds Worth Billions in the New Year

Save Yourself Time and Money--Before Implementing a Virtual World, Do an Analysis

Recent Second Life Happenings: Going Corporate

Resources for Researching Virtual Worlds

Examples of Using Virtual 3D Spaces for Learning

Video discussing the Seven Sensibilities of 3D Virtual Immersive Environments


Video comparing 2D and 3D environments for learning.


Web site for the book Learning in 3D.

If you would like to purchase the book, you can receive a 20% discount directly from the publisher. Go to the publisher's web site for Learning in 3D and then go to the Shopping Cart and type in the code L3D1.

You can read Chapter One of the book to get a sense of what the book is about.

Become a fan on Learning in 3D's Facebook Page.

If you'd like to check out the 3D learning archetypes for yourself, go to Download a Trial Version of ProtonSphere and, once inside, go to the menu item on the top bar on the window called Locations and then select Learning Archetypes and you will be transported to a space where you can check out the learning archetypes in the book. It is a great opportunity to you to check out a "corporate" virtual world and to try out some of the learning archetypes first hand. Take some time and go visit, it is well worth the trip.

Book





__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Learning in 3D Week 5 Stops for Blog Book Tour and Webinars

Here are the great stops for week 5 of the blog book tour.

Also, follow the tour on Twitter with hashtag #lrn3d. And, join us on Facebook at the Learning in 3D page. We are trying to hit 200 fans by the end of the week. Can you help? Invite your colleagues, friends and relatives to become a fan.

Also, if you like, stop by our Amazon web page and leave a review.

Tour Stops

Day Twenty-One 02/08/10 John Rice at the Educational Games Research blog.

Day Twenty-Two 02/09/10 (actually, this stop with Dan Bliton is with Booz Allen and Hamilton (see below). It is a sold out event, however, it will be made available as a link in the next recap and portions of the audio will be converted into a podcast and that link will be available in the future as well.

Day Twenty-Three 02/10/10 Connie Malamed at the The eLearning Coach

Day Twenty-Four 02/11/10 Mark Oehlert at e-Clippings (Learning as Art).

Day Twenty-Five 02/12/10 eLearn Magazine will have a review of the book.

Live Web Stops

Tuesday
SOLD OUT
Tony and Karl are presenting free webinar called Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds courtesy of Booz Allen Hamilton. Unfortunately all 290 slots are taken.

Wednesday

Tony and Karl are appearing at Metanomics with Metanomics host Robert Bloomfield who will interview Tony O’Driscoll and Karl Kapp on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 12 p.m. PST. The interview will discuss learning, training and education in 3D environment

See you around the web!
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Blog Book Tour Recap Week Four: Interesting

Week four was a busy week with an interesting development in the virtual world space. The biggest news was that Forterra Systems assets and intellectual property was sold to SAIC and about a dozen Forterra employees will be joining SAIC.

In the book tour we had some interesting stops but a few stops were missed as well.

Day Sixteen Gordon Snyder's at Information & Communications Technology Blog brought in the interesting idea of Cyberbullies in a virtual world and the impact they can have and did have on a young girl and the tragic results. It was a moving post.

Day Seventeen Over at Koreen Olbrich's Learning in Tandem she discussed her interesting and, as she calls it, "fanatical rantings" about about the future of virtual worlds and how those view fit into the context of the book in her post Why You Should Be Learning in 3D.

Day Eighteen Bart Pursel at Virtual Learning Worlds wrote an indepth post describing three area of virtual worlds: User Interfaces, Informal Learning and Characters.

Day Nineteen Clive Shepherd at Clive on Learning wrote a post a little early since he was leaving for a little vacation in the Canary Islands. His post is called Learning in 3D: a stop on the world blog book tour.

Day Twenty We didn't have a post on Day 20. Unfortunately, Tom Werner who has a Brandon Hall Research blog wasn't able to post this week but hopefully we'll see a post from Tom in the near future. Also, Course Director Daniel M. Siegel of Full Sail University will be posting in the future at his blog Captivation in Education.

Recaps:
Blog Book Tour Recap Week One: Awesome!
Blog Book Tour Recap Week Two: Fabulous!!
Blog Book Tour Recap Week Three: hectic

Accolades
This week Kapp Notes was named as one of the Top 50 Global Education Blogs by Sir Learnalot, I am sure the blog book tour played some part in that recognition. Thanks Sir Learnalot!

The Book Behind the Tour

__

__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Virtual World Vendor Forterra Systems Purchased by SAIC.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post called Not a Good Week for the Virtual Worlds Space where I reported, based on other reports, that Forterra Systems had laid off some of its workforce. It now looks like the large consultancy firm SAIC has purchased Forterra and is going to leverage the 3D capabilities as part of its offerings. I think this sends a signal to both large consultancy firms that they also better get onto the virtual immersive environment opportunity

Here is the press release:

FORTERRA SYSTEMS ACQUIRED BY SAIC

Forterra Systems is pleased to announce that effective today, all assets of the company have been acquired by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). SAIC is a FORTUNE 500® scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, health, and select commercial markets.

The company is headquartered in McLean, VA, has approximately 45,000 employees and annual revenues of $10.1 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2009. Forterra personnel and the OLIVE product line will be absorbed into SAIC's Analysis, Simulations, Systems Engineering and Training (ASSET) Business Unit based in Orlando, FL.

SAIC has been following the opportunity presented by the growth in virtual world technologies to support collaboration and training/learning and saw the acquisition of Forterra as an aggressive way to enter the market. They felt Forterra had by far the best technology and business model to match key customer requirements and that Forterra was addressing synergistic markets. SAIC fully intends to continue development and the commercial sale of the OLIVE platform to all interested parties – both in the public sector and in commercial, enterprise markets. “We look forward to working with current and future OLIVE license holders to support and extend the platform,” said Bev Seay, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager. “We see virtual worlds as the direction of the future in modeling and simulation – emphasis on interpersonal interaction and collaboration enables us to take our products in new directions, and to new markets.”

We see SAIC as the type of strategic partner that will enable us to continue shaping the virtual world marketplace and the OLIVE product line. With a complementary customer base and access to opportunities by virtue of its size and relationships, SAIC provides an opportunity for us to support existing customers as well as to work with new ones in new markets. Having the financial stability afforded by a large company puts us in a strong position to continue offering world class solutions for all our customers. Where we’re sure to expect some organizational bumps in the road typical of any acquisition, we’re sure the end result will position us strongly for the future.

This will be interesting for both Virtual World Vendors and Consulting firms.
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Learning in 3D Week 4 Stops for Blog Book Tour

Here are the great stops for week 4 of the blog book tour.

Also, follow the tour on Twitter with hashtag #lrn3d. And, join us on Facebook at the Learning in 3D page.

Tour Stops

Day Sixteen 02/01/10 Gordon Snyder's blog Information & Communications Technology Blog

Day Seventeen 02/02/10 Koreen Olbrich's Learning in Tandem

Day Eighteen 02/03/10 Bart Pursel at Virtual Learning Worlds.

Day Nineteen 02/04/10 Clive Shepherd(already posted due to a vacation) Learning in 3D: a stop on the world blog book tour

Day Twenty 02/05/10 Tom Werner who has a Brandon Hall Research blog.

***With special guest blog this week by Course Director Daniel M. Siegel of Full Sail University at his blog Captivation in Education

Webinar
Also, on Feb 9th, a free webinar called Enterprise Learning and Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds will be presented by Tony and I courtesy of Booz Allen Hamilton. They invite book tour followers to attend the complimentary Webinar.

Join us on Tuesday, February 9th to learn:

• Value of Social Learning for your organization
  
• The impact of Virtual Immersive Environments
  
• 3D Learning Experience Design Principles and Sensibilities

Tony and I will cover key concepts from our new book and explain the impact that 3D environments, virtual worlds, and immersive learning spaces will have on society, business, and learning. Specifically, we will discuss practical, research-based recommendations and techniques for integrating existing training and business into productive 3D virtual work environments. The 45 minute session includes a presentation by the authors and conversation with the hosts, followed by 10 minutes of questions and answers with the audience. 

The event is Tuesday, February 9, 2010 12:30 to 1:30 pm ET
Register HERE!

Recap In case you missed the first three weeks, here is a recap.
Blog Book Tour Recap Week One: Awesome!
Blog Book Tour Recap Week Two: Fabulous!!
Blog Book Tour Recap Week Three: hectic


  Books
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content Guide

Blog Book Tour Recap Week Three: hectic

Week three was a bit hectic for the tour. First, Tony and I both had live appearances and then we had an early post, a post-poned post and a Saturday post...hectic but exciting. Here is the re-cap.

Day Eleven: Randy Hinrichs at his 2b3D's blog. Had an entry titled Welcome to 2b3d 3D Learning Blog Time where he talked about the fact that "3D virtual learning is about the experience" and not about the technology. He gives some great analogies so you want to check that out.

Day Twelve: Mike Qaissaunee at Frequently Asked Q wasn't able to post this week due to some "firefighting" at his place of work (those crazy "real jobs") but look for a post from him in the near future. We did, however, have an innovative post Mark Copeman at Being Smarter who created a mash up of Skype and his video program for an interesting discussion about the book tour itself. Take a few moments to view the video at A Blog Book Tour, Thinking Outside the Box.

Day Thirteen: Tom Haskins at his blog Growing, Changing, Learning, Creating focused his blog entry on the structure of the book. He did a wonderful job of describing the necessary dimensions of writing an effective, meaningful and helpful professional book in his post Learning in 3D Hits a Home Run. It turns out that Tony and I covered all the core areas indicated by Tom. At the time is was unknowingly but if Tony and I ever write another book, we are definitely following Tom's structure and so should you for your next book.

Day Fourteen: Janet Clarey who has a Brandon Hall Research Blog added a great case study (complete with video teaser) to the many examples of successful use of virtual immersive environments for learning in her post A peak at “Learning in 3D”

Day Fifteen: Was at Cammy Bean's blog, Learning Visions. I had hoped to catch up with Cammy when I was in Las Vegas this week for the ASTD TechKnowledge conference but, alas, we did not meet. Still only blog buddies and have never met face-to-face. Her entry Blog Book Tour: Learning in 3D #lrn3d. Also, I put a cameo of Cammy in the book, see if you can find her avatar Bliss You in the book:)

A Special Stop was posted by Stan Yann at The Ignorant Immigrant called Learning in 3D at this stop I did a guest post and wrote about my view of the writing process. If you are thinking of writing a book, you might be interested in how I approach writing.

Surprise Appearance: Also, this week, Clive Shepherd at Clive on Learning, jumped the gun a little and posted early because on his stop date he will be walking in the Canary Islands enjoying a real immersive experience sounds nice. Check out his entry Learning in 3D: a stop on the world blog book tour

Accolades:
Also, e-Learning Tyro over at e-Learning Planet named Karl Kapp one of the best bloggers of the week from January 17-24 which I can only assume was because of the book tour blog post entries.

Sales!
In terms of sales, we had a great week, check out Tony's post Learning in 3D #1 Kindle Sales in Training and HR!


Live Tour Stops were:

Tony O'Driscoll presenting at Training Conference and Expo 2010. He did a keynote on January 31st called "Learning in 3D: How Web 2.0 is Changing the Game for Learning."

At the ASTD's TechKnowledge Conference in Las Vegas I gave a presentation on Friday morning, titled "Learning in 3D: Using Virtual Immersive Environments to add a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning."
_

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

ASTD TechKnowledge Learning in 3D Resources

Here are the resources for the Learning in 3D presentation at ASTD TechKnowledge 2010.

Here are the slides.

Learning in 3D

View more presentations from kkapp.

Resources:
Alternatives to Second Life

A Few More Alternatives to Second Life

Applying ADDIE to 3D Worlds

Questions about Second Life

Virtual Worlds Worth Billions in the New Year

Save Yourself Time and Money--Before Implementing a Virtual World, Do an Analysis

Recent Second Life Happenings: Going Corporate

Resources for Researching Virtual Worlds

Examples of Using Virtual 3D Spaces for Learning

Video comparing 2D and 3D environments for learning.


Web site for the book Learning in 3D.

If you would like to purchase the book, you can receive a 20% discount directly from the publisher. Go to the publisher's web site for Learning in 3D and then go to the Shopping Cart and type in the code L3D1.

You can read Chapter One of the book to get a sense of what the book is about.

Become a fan on Learning in 3D's Facebook Page.

If you'd like to check out the 3D learning archetypes for yourself, go to Download a Trial Version of ProtonSphere and, once inside, go to the menu item on the top bar on the window called Locations and then select Learning Archetypes and you will be transported to a space where you can check out the learning archetypes in the book. It is a great opportunity to you to check out a "corporate" virtual world and to try out some of the learning archetypes first hand. Take some time and go visit, it is well worth the trip.

Books




__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Blog Book Tour Offers 3D Software 15% Discount (sort of)

As part of the Learning in 3D book blog book tour, I've met some amazing folks and seen some amazing software. I am not a programmer myself so if something is easy to use and can make me look good, I like it.

One such software is called ThinkingWorlds--a program that lets you create 3D simulations with characters, scenes and branching interactions with great ease.(so easy I could do it.)

Top down view of 3D environment for simulation I've built.

ThinkingWorlds blog will be a stop on the tour in the upcoming weeks (stop 26) but for now, I wanted to let you know that in parallel with the tour, they are offering a 15% discount on their 3D software for two days only. As a designer or developer of instruction, you might want to take advantage of this great offer.

Here are the details.
On January 27th and 28th, Caspian Learning, the developers of Thinking Worlds, will be offering 15% off of Thinking Worlds licenses.

It's easy to claim your 15% off. All you need to do is log on to the Thinking Worlds website on January 27th or January 28th. Choose the license you want and add to your shopping cart and 15% will automatically be taken off the product price. To buy the license, simply follow the checkout process.

This promotion, as part of the book tour, is only valid for two days.

Object oriented programing for developing 

the logic behind the simulation.

Ok, confession time.

This discount is REAL but...sadly...it is not in conjunction with the tour. It is a separate deal but still valid for us.

Caspian is offering the 15% discount because they are exhibiting at the Learning Technologies Conference to be held at Olympia 2 in London. Learning Technologies is Europe's leading showcase of technology supported workplace learning.

So, because the timing is almost perfect, I've gotten on the bandwagon and have "piggybacked" on the 15% offer and am letting the followers of the Learning in 3D Blog Book Tour know about it. So we can benefit from the offer as well.

The software is not a metaverse or virtual world but it is a 3D immersive environment for quickly building simulations and games. Check out the demos.

I have been playing with it and very easily built some really cool (and instructional) stuff.

Cool explosion I made with pre-built particle system.

__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Week 3 Blog Book Tour Stops

Here are the stops for week three of the Blog Book Tour.

Blog Tour Stops

Day Eleven: 01/25/10 Randy Hinrichs at his 2b3D's blog. (He has another stop later in the tour as well.)

Day Twelve: 01/26/10 Mike Qaissaunee's Frequently Asked Q. Also on this day of the tour we will have a special guest blog post by Mark Copeman at Being Smarter discussing the book tour itself, how the idea came about and how it is progressing and advice for authors who want to do a similar tour.

Day Thirteen: 01/27/10 Tom Haskins at his blog Growing, Changing, Learning, Creating.

Day Fourteen: 01/28/10 Janet Clarey who has a Brandon Hall Research Blog.

Day Fifteen: 01/29/10 Cammy Bean's blog Learning Visions.

**Special Saturday (01/30/10) post by Stan Yann at The Ignorant Immigrant.

Live Tour Stops
In addition to the blog tour, we have two live stops this week.

Tony O'Driscoll will be at the Training Conference and Expo 2010 doing a keynote on Sunday January 31st called Learning in 3D: How Web 2.0 is Changing the Game for Learning from 4:15 PM - 5:30 PM.

Karl Kapp will be at ASTD's TechKnowledge Conference in Las Vegas giving a presentation on Friday morning, January 29th from 10:00-11:30 AM titled Learning in 3D: Using Virtual Immersive Environments to add a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning.

Karl will also be leading a Closing Session Discussion group at TechKnowledge on the topic of Virtual Delivery & Facilitation:Value Proposition: Virtual Worlds as a Delivery Platform and Virtual Classrooms: Web-conferencing and beyond.

Please if you are at either conference, stop by and see us. We'd love to say hello!

Recaps

Here is a recap of Week One of the tour.

Here is is a recap of Week Two of the tour.
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Blog Book Tour Recap Week Two: Fabulous!!

Week two of the blog book tour was hectic. We had five fabulous online stops, live stops and even webinars and in-worldinars (yes, I made that word up, feel free to dismiss it).

We also announced the first two winners of the Twitter #lrn3d hashtag award, finally got a badge for tour stops and a number of blogsophere folks commented on the tour on their blogs.

If you missed last week's blog book tour recap, here it is.

Here is the recap for week 2.

Day Six
Jane Bozarth at The Bozarth Zone in her blog entry Learning in 3D Blog Book Tour Stop pulled a particularly interesting post from the book and asked her readers to think about technology in general and not to blame technology when poor instructional design is at the foundation of a "technology" failure.

Day Seven
Mark Viquesney over at his tour stop Learning in 3D blog Tour - Here at TechSpectives! took a slightly different approach. As a writer, himself, Mark thought that rather than writing about the book, he asked us about the writing process. His questions provoked the two of us to reflect on the writing of Learning in 3D. One of the first questions he asked was "What parts of the book did you best like writing?"

Day Eight
Rupa Rajagopalan at The Writer's Gateway created a post Learning in 3D is Fascinating! that picked up some interesting quotes and tidbits from the book and added her thoughts and insights into some of the content. She also liked how the book had lots of tips for instructional designers who are going to create a 3D Learning Environment.

Day Nine
At Brent Schlenker's blog Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development, he wrote about his long wait for 3D learning environments to finally take off. He is a big fan of 3D virtual learning environments and he hopes that with the book Learning in 3D we will begin to see the acceptance of VIEs in corporate training. That's our hope as well, let's keep our fingers crossed. Although, interestingly, Koreen Olbrish, a contributor to the book and future tour stop, wonders aloud Do virtual world evangelists REALLY want them to go mainstream?

Day Ten
In the tour stop, Instructional Design for a Virtual World, Christy Tucker over at Experiencing E-Learning does a great job of dissecting the chapter on ADDIE. She lists six design principles we identified in the book and the provides her own ideas on those principles.

Winners Announced
We choose from random two folks who have tweated about the book using the hashtag #lrn3d. The winner for week one is Paul Simbeck-Hampson.

The winner for week two is Barry Shields who also took one of Tony's tweets from the book and expanded the idea in his blog entry What strategic value does the central learning function provide?

Live and Online Presentations
Tony and I were also busy with online and live presentations.

On Tuesday, Day Seven of the tour, Tony appeared live at the ProtonMedia Life Sciences 2010 event (see the video) held in Malvern, Pa., in partnership with Microsoft. Attending the event was Brian Miller of Cognitive Technologies who wrote about the event in Virtual Mind Folders.

Also on Tuesday, Day Seven of the tour, Karl presented a keynote address titled "Understanding Digital Diversity" at Bloomfield College's Faculty Technology Showcase. See the slides and resources here.

That same day, Tuesday, Day Seven of the tour, Karl presented at the eLearning Guild's Thought Leader Series. You can see the resources for the event here.

On Thursday, Day Nine of the tour, Tony and I met with the Train for Success group lead by Anders Gronstedt of The Gronstedt Group as part of our online book tour. You can read about the meeting at Train for Success Meeting was a Success!

On Friday, Day Ten of the tour, Karl presented at The Learning Tree International's Learning Leader's Forum. He met up with some alumni and had a great time you can read about it at Presentation Resources for Learning Tree Presentation.

Word Cloud
Tony created a cool word cloud for chapter one of the book.

Visit a Virtual World
The Learning Archetypes from Chapter 5 can be seen in ProtonMedia by logging into their demo build and going to Learning Archetypes under Location.

Facebook
Fans on the Facebook page for Learning in 3D grew to 90 this week.

Amazon
Learning in 3D got as high as 29,289 on Amazon and was finally released on Amazon! and the Kindle version is selling extremely well also.

If you are interested in the book, check out the web site,Learningin3d.info or consider purchasing a copy for yourself.


__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide

Presentation Resources for Learning Tree Presentation

Today, I met some wonderful folks at at Learning Tree International's Learning Leader's Forum. I presented on the topic of "Innovations in Technology and the Impact on Organizational Learning" at an early morning breakfast meeting which was a little early considering I met up the night before with some alumni and had a great dinner at a wonderful Italian Restaurant.

Chris, Jenna and Karl 

at the Learning Tree presentation.*

Here are links and a copy of the slides from the presentation:

Presentation Learning Tree

View more presentations from kkapp.

iPhone
Incorrectly Predicting the Future of the iPhone

Games/Simulations
Medical Related Edheads

Games for Health

Energyville Game

ThinkingWorlds Simulation development software.

Fraud Scene Investigator Game

West Point Bridge Builder Game

Questions and Answers about Video Games in the Classroom.

Discussion of some of the key value of games for learning.

An entry called It's All Fun and Games...And Then Students Learn

Play Games, Become an Engineer


Here is a link for using Games, Gadgets and Gizmos for Learning with examples of some interesting game.

Learning Spanish in 3D



Learning as a Process
Here is a blog entry about "Learning as a process"

Web 2.0
Here are some statistics about Web 2.0 and Social Media in a post called Random Web 2.0 Statistics.

Here are some ideas for selling social media for learning.

Here is a link to the Facebook page of Learning in 3D.

Here is a link to a post describing how many different organizations are using Wikis to foster collaboration and learning called Pedia Palooza (ok, maybe not the best name for a post)

Virtual Worlds
Alternatives to Second Life

A Few More Alternatives to Second Life

Applying ADDIE to 3D Worlds

Questions about Second Life

Virtual Worlds Worth Billions in the New Year

Save Yourself Time and Money--Before Implementing a Virtual World, Do an Analysis

Recent Second Life Happenings: Going Corporate

Resources for Researching Virtual Worlds

Examples of Using Virtual 3D Spaces for Learning

Video comparing 2D and 3D environments for learning.


Web site for the book Learning in 3D.

If you would like to purchase the book, you can receive a 20% discount directly from the publisher. Go to the publisher's web site for Learning in 3D and then go to the Shopping Cart and type in the code L3D1.

You can read Chapter One of the book to get a sense of what the book is about.

Become a fan on Learning in 3D's Facebook Page.

If you'd like to check out the 3D learning archetypes for yourself, go to Download a Trial Version of ProtonSphere and, once inside, go to the menu item on the top bar on the window called Locations and then select Learning Archetypes and you will be transported to a space where you can check out the learning archetypes in the book. It is a great opportunity to you to check out a "corporate" virtual world and to try out some of the learning archetypes first hand. Take some time and go visit, it is well worth the trip.

Books





Miscellaneous Items:
Ingredients of a Big Mac
Sprint Now Network Commercial with Flava Flav

Questions:

What is one thing you can do to incorporate effective technology into organizational learning?

What is one technique you can borrow from another industry to add to your toolkit?

Name one thing you will do differently as a result of this presentation?

Jump In-Action Items:

So here is a little homework.

1) Comment on a blog.
2) Send a Tweet.
3) Dis-assemble your favorite training course and think of breaking into small 15 minute chunks
4) Start your class with the culminating activity.

*Ken also went out to dinner with us but I forgot to take a picture at dinner:(
__

Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets
Recommended Games and Gadgets
Recommended Books
Content Guide