eLearning eVolution

Earlier this month I attended a great conference here in Phoenix. ”The Marketing Revolution – Exploring the Impact of Social Media” was loaded with information and resources for someone like me who is just getting started in the blogsphere. (Can you tell?)

Speakers included Robert Scoble (blogger extraordinaire) and Chris Heuer (co-founder of the Social Media Club). And two panels covered launching social media campaigns (lively interaction) and shared social media case studies (great examples).

Presentations, video, and audio are available for your edification and enjoyment. Check ‘em out!

One of the conference partners was Social Media Club Phoenix, which has a blog and wiki, of course! These local organizations are a great way to get together with other enthusiasts for a lively discussion about all things social media.

 And one last thought (shameless promotion, actually). I’m thinking that web collaboration tools (like Elluminate Live! and Elluminate vRoom) would be a great additions to your social media toolset. Offering online access is also a good way for social media groups to get more attendees at their meetings and events.

- Beth (Elluminate “Goddess of Communication”)

Hi. This is Gary coming to you from Milledgeville, Georgia at Georgia College & State University.

First, I’d like to welcome the new Digital Innovations Group at GCSU to the Elluminate Community Partner program!

Next, thanks to those that stayed and participated in my session about 34 unexpected uses of webconferencing.

Third, please comment on the presentation with your own ideas. (A trackback or two would be cool as well. Not that I get paid by the trackback or anything, but hey, the number of trackbacks a post gets has some value [this month at least]).

Fourth, I promised you that I would reveal a big secret if you actually visited Elluminate’s blog. So, here it is! (It could be worth $250 or $500 to you or one of your students!)

Fifth, well, there is no fifth.

Thanks GCSU for your hospitality and warmth and keep onlinin’,
Gary Dietz

EDIT: 22-Mar-07 9:38am EST -  Here is the link to the ADCLI conference blog: http://podcaster.gcsu.edu/weblog/

If you are a WebEx customer, news of the recent buyout by Cisco probably left you a bit unsettled, especially if you are an academic institution, rather than a typical, large-company Cisco customer.

Our advice is to stay calm and check out Elluminate vRoom. It’s a free virtual meeting room that’s always available for up to three users, with voice, whiteboard, chat, app sharing, video, and more. Give us a try, and let us know what you think.

- Rajeev at Elluminate

Great news for educators out there who are using the Blackboard course management system. Many of you have already been using Blackboard and Elluminate together for online learning, but today, Elluminate announced enhancements to its Blackboard integration, or Building Block. This upgrade makes it easier to create Elluminate Live! sessions, include recordings of live classrooms, create virtual rooms and officices, and more.

Check out the release for more information.  

-Erica Salamida for Elluminate

Gary here. Almost every day, I hear from people who say “Yeah, but can you really teach with this?” or “Why would I want to do that online?” I have some really great answers, but then someone will tell me that of course I feel that way, I sell the stuff! (This, even though I am not a sales dude – plus I am also sincerely concerned about maximizing the use of my education tax dollars and increasing the efficacy of learning – but that is another post altogether [that I hope my boss will approve].)

Lucky for me, at Elluminate we have customers and partners like Dr. J Ricky Cox at Murray State University in Kentucky, USA. I got on a web conference with him, hoping to get a few anecdotes about either pen computing or interactive whiteboards and his use of them with real time collaboration for a presentation I am working on.

I literally asked Dr. Cox one question, and here was his answer. (The content pretty is much unedited except to make it shorter.)

(Click image to pop the 5 minute presentation )

Warm regards, and “keep onlinin’ ”

Gary Dietz

P.S. I really like conversing with people online and whipping out Adobe Audition or Techsmith Camtasia and editing together a nice story. I can even do this over the phone with my handy-dandy Olympus digital audio recorder. If you want to create a story with me this way, drop me a line at gdietz@elluminate.com

Hi all, it’s Beth again. Just the other day, Elluminate put on a webinar for new vRoom users with guest speaker Jonathan Finkelstein of LearningTimes who shared a number of great ideas about how to use live eLearning technology. Here are just a few creative uses from Jonathan and some of the 140 session attendees:

• Collaborate on storyboard design
• Catch up with friends from grad school
• Hold theatre auditions
• Conduct job interview
• Bring a guest expert into physical classroom
• Assess reading and writing skills for K-12
• Bring remote panelist to conference

Get the picture? These are great ideas no matter what product you use!

If you have any creative ideas for the virtual classroom or meeting room, please share. And if you want to access the recording from Jonathan’s session, just click here.

- Beth at Elluminate

Great BBC video about how students who can’t be in a physical school setting (due to health or other reasons) are really getting “Real Education” even when at a distance. Thanks to our UK partner, Accipio Learning for this video. Check it out at http://youtube.com/watch?v=4hMGbTPnWIc

Rajeev

For those of you who like bargains/getting a lot of value for FREE, check out Elluminate’s latest offering, vRoom – “Three for free” web conferencing.

Elluminate Announces Free, Full-function Web Conferencing vRoom

Hello from all of us at Elluminate! This is our first attempt at blogging as we try to understand how this new (to us!) medium can be used to provide value and start a dialogue with those who are as passionate about live eLearning and web collaboration as we are. This blog is a team effort from contributors throughout the company, each with a different perspective. Please join us as we begin to experiment with this exciting forum. And if you want more information about us, visit http://www.elluminate.com.

- Beth at Elluminate