eLearning eVolution

I always get a little giddy on Fridays, looking forward to the weekend after a week of hard work at Elluminate from my home office in Arizona. However, this Friday was extra special.

One of our sales reps sent a few execs the link to an NBC affiliate story about an autistic boy in Philadelphia who is using a webcam with Elluminate Live! to train for the Special Olympics. The sessions include virtual exercises and lessons on sportsmanship. View “The Teacher Says: Special Olympics Training.”

Within seconds, our president had sent the link to the entire company, and the response emails started pouring in. Even though a significant number of our employees work virtually, the feelings expressed in the emails were mutual. We are all so proud to be working for a company that makes a difference!

We also had another great news clip this week from NBC World News with Charles Gibson. This video showcases Elluminate customer Georgia Virtual Academy, the state’s largest public school. View “School 2.0: Kids Go Online to Learn.”

Enjoy the videos. We sure did!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Many of you know that Elluminate integrates with many of the popular learning and content management systems, like ANGEL, Blackboard, Moodle, eCollege, and Sakai. But did you know that the virtual classroom is also integrated with a number of social networking and collaborative online communities as well?

Elluminate Community Partners, including Classroom 2.0, Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), and the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), have integrated Elluminate vRoom™ into their online communities, providing thousands of members with access to a virtual meeting room that enables them to expand educational boundaries and interact with more peers and experts. Learn more.

Get ready for EDU 2.0!

And keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Georgia Virtual Academy is the state’s largest public school with 4,400 students, and they use Elluminate Live! to add real-time interaction to their online classes. Recently the school was featured on ABC World News with Charles Gibson, who asked, “It’s a way for school districts to cut costs but does online education work?” The answer is a resounding YES! Read article/view video.

Plus, you may also want to check out the academy’s “Myths About Online Schools” page.

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Gary here. Giving Beth a break today.

For those of you that don’t know, Seth Godin, marketing guru, has a blog. And he also answers all his e-mail. In fact, in one of them, he turned down the opportunity to use Elluminate gratis for some of his web interaction with his clients.

I got the feeling from his reply to me and from reading his posts and his books (and this is my feeling, not a quote or paraphrase from Seth) that Seth doesn’t like the “webinar format” because of some of the plaque surrounding the typical “bad” webinar:

• bad powerpoint
• no interactivity
• bad powerpoint
• and bad powerpoint

So when I saw this post by him, I was intrigued.

Has Seth begun to come around? Does he not realize that chat, sychronized with audio, is the beginning of true collaboration on the web? That web collaboration NEEDN’T BE ABOUT POWERPOINT?

It is kind of hard to get across that my product is really useful since I am vendor scum and people assume I will lie, but I and my peers live ALL DAY on Elluminate Live! and an as yet unannounced new product from Elluminate (ahem…) and I really HATE the phone. If I am on the phone with somebody doing work or teaching or even just shooting the breeze – I want to draw! I want to take notes! I want to see their notes! I want to make snide comments from the peanut gallery (when appropriate)! I want to show my desktop or a web page or an application I am working on!

Not to mention, that with my cool Yamaha PJP-25UR echo cancelling mic and speaker, I get better audio quality across VoIP on my PC than I do on my standard phone. (I feel like Liz Lemon on 30 Rock pitching Snapple.)

So Seth, the door is still open. Redefine the word webinar to yourself. In fact, throw it out! Use Elluminate (or, G-d forbid, another tool) on your Mac or your PC and truly collaborate in real time beyond your phone and text chat. Think the phone and text chat are great for creative thinkers and teachers? Wait til you take the next step.

Cheers,

Gary Dietz

The Elluminate Center of Excellence program recognizes achievement in live eLearning and web collaboration, highlights best practices, and showcases those organization on the “learning-edge” of adopting synchronous pedagogies for teaching, learning, and related business processes.

This year’s 2009 Elluminate Centers of Excellence include:

- Broward County Public Schools for utilizing Web 2.0 and distance learning technologies to manage organizational change while implementing a structured approach to training to reach a large volume of individuals needing just-in-time training.

- Center for Distance Learning and Innovation for providing equitable access to educational opportunities to almost 1000 students in 113 schools throughout Newfoundland and Labrador in a way that makes distance transparent.

- eLearning Broward for significantly increasing attendance of live and recorded online workshops to include thousands of adult students, enabling them to improve academic skills, increase proficiency and confidence with technology, and increase number of diplomas earned.

- McMaster University for achieving an accelerated adoption rate of live eLearning and web collaboration technology system wide for distance education, research, and administration, while increasing efficiency and reducing costs for a number of high-profile projects on a global level.

- University Alliance for delivering professional development programs that lower training costs and reduce loss of productivity, while meeting or exceeding traditional face-to-face programs and maintaining level of excellence required by a Fortune 500 company.

- University of Hertfordshire for upporting mission of Blended Learning Unit to motivate and enable academic staff to transform their teaching and learning, engage with colleagues across the higher education sector, and participate in professional development activities.

Click here to read all about their individual achievements and view their recorded submission sessions. Prepare to be inspired!

Have you achieved real-world results using Elluminate technologies? Apply now for 2010.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication