New society to join
As a professional, there are always new societies and institutes to join. Some have benefits of varying value, and all seem to want dues. Others pledge certification programs leading to certifications that promise more income to the certified.
This one’s different. It is the International Institute of Not Doing Much. I think I will join. Later.
Just “vid-it”: quick informal learning
Here is a quick way to capture information from SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) or others so it can be shared quickly for documentation or learning:
- Get an inexpensive video camera. The Fip and the similar Kodak are good examples.
- Interview the SME asking questions learners or users need to know. Try to keep the SME on track. You can do a “nice to know” session later.
- Edit the video so it is in small pieces. People have a hard time watching and absorbing long videos. I think 20 minutes would be a good length, if you can.
- Post the video(s) on a wiki or blog so people can comment and share knowledge.
- Repeat as necessary.
If you want to get fancy, you can put titles on the video. It’s up to you. Video editing software these days makes that very easy. Just save the main title scenes and edit them as you need.
Quick and easy.
Does “used” mean “useless”?
I was on LinkedIn today and answered a question about improv (improvisational theatre). The questioner wanted help including improv in a training event she was designing. I recomended the work of Viola Spolin. I suggested going to her site and I also suggested checking out some of her books.
My suggestion included the comment that one could find her books used at numerous places including Amazon. That got me to thinking: why would someone get rid of a really good book? Surely it is not because the material is suddenly useless. OK, I do have some old computer books that are not all that useful. I mean a book on using Netscape 1.0 is kind of out of date…
So, why do people get rid of useful books? Lack of space? The couple of dollars they’ll bring? To share with others? I’d love to hear what you have to say.
What do you remember from high school?
I was reading a book about history this morning. More than a history book it was a discussion about the accuracy of some accounts/analyses of history. It made me wonder about what I actually rembered from high school history and then what I remembered about the courses I took in high school, in general.
I did use the high school math and omputer programming knowledge when I was in college. I even used the programming I learned when I went to work after grad school. But I can honestly say that I don’t think I remember anything specific that I learned in high school English or history. Hmmm, well I do remember reading Beowulf and Ivanhoe. But I’m not sure what I gained from doing so.
I learned way more about world geography when I got software to explore the world.
The theatre and journalism courses did give me a foundation for learning more about theatre and writing later. In fact, I learned more about writing in my journalism course than I did in English class, I think. (Although it was not until college that I learned that good journalistic writing is useless in freshman English!)
This has made me think more about what high school classes should be. I’m still working on that, and I’d appreciate your comments.
OK, I’m a blogging bum. Reform is my goal.
I admit it. I’ve been a bum when it comes to blogging. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking, I just haven’t been writing. This post is a public vow to change. My goal is to stop sending my thoughts only to friends and collegues and to post them here for all.
My iPhone is broken!
Here is a screenshot of my iPhone: 
It looks right. And in fact it is. The problem with it is that there is no flash video support. Maybe that’s a good thing and maybe not, but it got me thinking about videos on the web.
I just watched a one hour video with about two minutes of content. I could have scanned a PDF and pulled it out in about two minutes total. I could even have pasted the valuable parts into some note taking software so I could access it again. It is pretty hard to do that quickly with a video.
Lots of sites are using video to convey a message. It feels good and videos are easy to make and upload. The presenter gets her camera-time, there is no need to proofread, and in general videos can be fun to watch.
But the downside is pretty big. My iPhone can only play some videos. Videos take a while to load and on my 1Mb connection, some vids start and stop making them pretty annoying. On top of all that videos tend to be a very slow way to deliver most content. Most people read much faster than normal speech rates. Sure you can speed up plain audio with FasterAudio, and some videos can be sped up, too, but in general web videos play at “natural speed”. This means that the meat of the content is much slower to access than if it had been written down.
There are times when video is not only appropriate, but wonderful. If there is something to show the viewer, and still pictures are not enough, then video is great. Some examples might be: how to fold oragami, how to use some software package, how to paint, and so forth.
So, should we think more about how we present information? You bet. Video is cool (or hot), but it needs to be used appropriately. What do you think?
What is a Furoshiki?
I was reading MAKE:’s blog today and came across an article on Furoshiki! This is way cool. The idea is that you take a large piece of lightweight cloth (cotton, rayon, nylon, or more traditionally, silk) and fold it and tie it to make a bag, a bottle holder, package wrapping or whatever. The demo video on the MAKE: site (Furoshiki link above) shows how to use one to carry groceries, among other things.
The custom seems to be about 600 years old. I guess even then they recognized the need for reusable packaging.
Here is an interesting ecerpt from The Japanese Ministry of the Environment site’s article on Furoshiki. They are trying to promote some made not of silk, but of recycled plastic:
I’ve created what you might call a “mottainai furoshiki”. The Japanese word mottainai means it’s a shame for something to go to waste without having made use of its potential in full. The furoshiki is made of a fiber manufactured from recycled PET bottles, and has a birds-and-flowers motif drawn by Itoh Jakuchu, a painter of the mid-Edo era.
These seem especially handy to carry around in case a bag is necessary. Who wants to carry an empty bag to dinner when on vacation? Bring one of these in your pocket or purse and Presto! a way to carry back that spontaneous purchase. No more “oh, I wish I had a way to carry that back”. I wish every travel site had them. Here is a picture, again from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment
along with folding instructions (she’s wrapping a bottle).
The Ministry is promoting them as a replacement for paper and plastic bags for shoppers. That seems reasonable, but I can’t seem to imagine tying a dozen or more on a regular trip to the grocery…
You can find furoshikis on the web for prices ranging from USD10 up. I think I will get one for my wife, but don’t tell her.
Can we talk?
I like to talk. Some of my friends say I talk too much, but that’s not what I mean. I mean I like to talk to learn. I like to talk to friends, colleagues and clients.
My office is in my home and I live in a mountain community. There are very few other training or computer professionals around: live, in-person networking is limited. I want to discuss some of the issues of my profession. I want to know what others think and their solutions to problems I might have. Likewise I want to try to help them with their problems. “Two heads are better than one” and all that.
So I tend to network on the Internet. The problem I’m having is finding a venue for experienced training (or, more accurately, WLP) professionals to network. There are a few, but they’re low-volume. Sometimes posts go unanswered for a couple of weeks. I need something more active
What do you suggest?
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog! Watch for the first post on July 8th…