Concurrent learning sessions
How many sessions can a conference manager crowd into two and a half days? How about 113 concurrent sessions, plus 36 Breakfast Bytes, plus wall-to-wall special programs (Master Classes, Serious Games Zone, Social Learning Camp, and the Mobile Learning Jam).
Among the concurrent sessions, several drew very large shares of participants across all session blocks. Most popular was "Catch the WAVE: Google Wave and e-Learning Applications," which was presented by Adam Lasnik, Google's Search Evangelist and one of the leaders on the WAVE team. This session drew a SRO crowd, all of whom received much-sought-after WAVE invitations. Other very large sessions included:
- Ruth Clark, "Evidence-based e-Learning: Beyond Fads and Fiction"
- Ethan Edwards, " Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Creating Meaningful e-Learning Interactions″
- Carmen Taran, " Better Beginnings: How to Capture your Audience in 30 S econds″
- The Research Panel (Kevin Martin, Aberdeen Group; David Mallon, Bersin & Associates; Colleen Carmean, Sage Road Solutions/ eLearning Guild Research; and Janet Clarey, Brandon Hall Research), " Emerging Technologies and the Future of e-Learning″
- Cammy Bean and Steven Lowenthal, " Moodle: How it's Changing the Face of Corporate e-Learning″
- Chris Ayers, " Learning Reinforcement 2.0: How to Strengthen Learning after Course Completion″
- Lance Dublin, " Overview of Latest Learning Trends: What's Hot, What's Not, and Why″
- Dave Ragan, " Learning Outside the Bun: Designing Scenario-based Experiential e-Learning″
- Panel discussion (Bob Mosher; David Metcalf; Joe Ganci; Lance Dublin; Ruth Clark; Tony Karrer; Tridib Roy Chowdhury), " From Learning to Performance – Using Technology to Make it Happen″
Many thanks to all the great presenters who helped to make this conference such a success!
Extra events
DevLearn 2009 had a different energy, in a positive sense, from previous conferences. Much of the excitement came from interest in emerging areas of e-Learning: Mobile Learning, Serious Games, and Social Learning. These three channels each had a special series of sessions devoted to it, and those sessions were conducted in three areas out in the wide passageways of the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. The sessions were well-attended, drawing up to a hundred attendees each at various times, and they contributed greatly to the buzz at the conference.
The Serious Games Zone had two objectives, related to helping attendees discover how to solve corporate learning challenges through the innovative use of games and simulations. First, the Zone gave everyone an opportunity to see and to play some of the latest and most instructionally-sound serious games. Second, it delivered information about how game design strategies can impact learning in a positive way. Dr. Alicia Sanchez, Games Czar at the Defense Acquisition University, hosted the Serious Games Zone.
The Mobile Learning Jam provided a venue where participants could explore mobile learning opportunities and potentials. Those who attended saw examples of actual mobile learning applications, learned how to get started, found out about the available tools, and discussed future directions for mobile learning. Judy Brown hosted the Mobile Learning Jam. Judy is focused entirely on the mobile learning area, working with ADL on the Immersive Learning Team, and also with the Army Education Advisory Committee. She coordinates the mLearnopedia.com and cc.mLearnopedia.com sites.
The Social Learning Camp (see Figure 5) was attended by many who came to the conference. Here, participants got " up to speed″ on the latest social media technology. They were able to think through ways that they could incorporate this technology into their e-Learning applications. They learned about available tools, explored best practices, and got their questions answered by experts. Mark Oehlert, Innovation Evangelist at the Defense Acquisition University, hosted the Social Learning Camp, where he brings his unique insight as a trained historian and anthropologist.
Zombies!
This year, DevLearn 09 featured an alternate-reality game (ARG) that ran throughout the conference ... a zombie apocalypse game. The goal of the game was for teams to learn how to more effectively use social media tools for collaboration, communication, and learning, while fighting zombies together. To play, teams had to find and log clues hidden throughout the conference and on affiliated social media sites. Each clue was a piece of data or metric related to social media.
The game had its own social networking site ( http://za.hybrid-dev.com/za/default.aspx ), where players could connect with each other, add associates, view profiles, and send short messages to each other. There was also a DL09 Zombie Apocalypse Channel on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/user/DL09ZombieApocalypse#p/a/u/1/MgaKvOrKOcM ) that was used to further explain the game to players.
By the end of the game, 195 players had formed 18 teams. The Cerebral Corps had accumulated the largest number of points. During the debriefing session held at the close of the conference, about 30 of the players gathered to compare notes and lessons learned. All agreed that the game had reached its objective, and that the experience illustrated that an ARG resulted in a considerable amount of team-building. There seemed to be a consensus that ARGs are a good vehicle for e-Learning, and many of the players said they intended to create their own as part of future projects. In view of the success of the game, you can probably expect to continue to see ARGs as part of eLearning Guild and Learning Solutions conferences. (And thanks to Koreen Olbrish, Brent Schlenker, and the crew at Hybrid Learning who put the game together, as well as to all the players who made it a highly engaging, successful experiment!)
Expo
The Expo at DevLearn 2009 showcased 40 exhibitors, offering a wide range of development tools and other products, as well as services and consulting. (See Figure 6.)
DemoFest
DemoFest has been an extremely popular feature of DevLearn conferences for several years. It is a response to what eLearning Guild members asked for: " Lots and lots of e-Learning examples!″ This year, there were 31 demos of many different types of e-Learning shown by their developers. It was a fun evening of sharing and discussion about choices and challenges, and those who participated came away with expanded e-Learning design and development horizons. (See Figure 7).
While all of the DemoFest contributors showed outstanding applications, The eLearning Guild staff and a small group of e-Learning experts would like to recognize these four as having been exceptional in content and execution ( listed by table number at DemoFest – the order here does not imply any sort of ranking):
- Cammy Bean, Kineo: Nikon Dealer Training, for Nikon (built with Moodle and Flash!)
- Teri Gutierrez, Oregon Center for Applied Science, Inc.: iPhone App – Helping Parents – Grades K-5, a mobile application created as an enhancement for the Center's Web-based parenting program (tools included Django 1.1, Apple iPhone SDK, X Code for Web version, Apache Server, MySQL Database, Javascript, Flash!, Python, Ajax, and JQuery)
- John Gillmore and Andrea Stone, University of Central Oklahoma – Center for Professional and Distance Education: Using Green Screen Video to Add Personality to Online Courses, created for instructor use at the University (tools included Adobe Flash!, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver; Boris FX Chroma Key Plug-in; prosumer - quality digital video recorder, lighting kit, wireless lavaliere microphone, portable green screen, laptop, and external monitor)
- Nick Floro, Sealworks Interactive Studios: Connect Writing, designed and optimized for McGraw-Hill's development programs (tools included Adobe ColdFusion, Flash! and Air for delivering the content; audio was mastered in Logic and Peak; interactive exercises were developed in Flash!)
Breakfast Bytes
Breakfast Bytes have always been an important part of eLearning Guild conferences. These are facilitated discussions among colleagues in a relaxed, open environment, around topics of common interest. (See Figure 8.) Participants share best practices, tips, and insights as they learn from each other.
