What I Like About eLearning March 22, 2011
Posted by Eric Matas in eLearning, Theory.Tags: Captivate, Cathy Moore, Litmos, Screenr, StrengthsFinder, Twitter
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I was never really good in art class growing up. I’d immerse myself in the project of the day and be proud of what I’d made, only to look up at the end and discover that everyone else had glued their macaroni or painted their plate just a little better than I.
I particularly liked collages, I think, because they offered the less talented more room for error — mistakes just look like creativity in a collage. Maybe elearning is like a collage. Some text here, a photo there. Some images I cut and paste along the edge.
And then maybe I move everything around and try another lay-out.
I like that. I like strategy and learning by experience. So mapping out a template and building it 14 ways definitely floats my boat. Rapid-prototyping was practically invented for the strategist and activator (StrengthsFinder) in me.
And I like a lot of other things about elearning:
Having all these programs, and multiple instances of some, open at once: Captivate, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Word, TweetDeck, Handbrake, Dropbox, Excel, and Project.- The Rapid eLearning Blog and tips like how to make a PowerPoint template.
- Cathy Moore’s dedication to language.
- That elearning people are into Twitter and Facebook (community from Cali to London to Austrailia).
- Creative elearning people coming up with cool logos like the awesome little Litmos monster and the ninja photo of the eLearning Brothers.
- Cammy Bean.
- The beautiful, sleek, amazing app machine known as the iPad.
- Screenr.
- Saying, “How about a hover over?”
- The writers I’ve read the most: B.J. Schone, Jane Hart, Tom Kuhlmann, and Clive Shepherd.
- Nudging assets on the screen.
- Tahoma, Verdana, and Kristen ITC.
- Articulate — the authoring tools, the company, the blogs, and the online presence.
- Drop shadows.
- PNG files.
- Editing the Captivate files being discussed during the conference call.
- Putting secret doors throughout my elearning modules, mainly so I can jump around quickly, but also the occasional surprise room I hope some learner finds.
- Absorb, the best LMS on earth.
B.J. Schone
Eric Matas
kevinthorn
eLearning Weekly 
haha i was nodding my head along with the first 4 paragraph and then was nodding PRETTY hard by the time i got the part about the ninja brother. great logo!
That’s so nice, Eric! I’m way behind in my Google Reader and just spending a little morning this Friday catching up — and there I am on your list! Nice way to start the day — and what a great list of people to be included with 🙂
[…] cursed myself in a current post (What I Like About eLearning) when I included a semi-sarcastic comment about having umpteen programs open on my computer every […]
Your post about why you like elearning seriously cracks me up. I really chuckled because I was the same kid in art class…so proud of my projects just to look around the room and oh, not quite as good as the rest. I feel like the same kid after reading your list! I thought I knew a bit about the topic, but clearly, I don’t. I just try to attend any conference that I can remotely to continue my education. It just makes my life easier being that I am a working mother. As a matter of fact, I am thinking of registering for an elearning conference this September put on by 2elearning.com. Have you heard anything about it?