Sentence Diagramming

Here is a nicely done instructional video on sentence diagramming. It's part of a series on this topic.

What really jazzes me about this series is the simplicity: these are just a bunch of videos...but because of the content, your brain is compelled to apply the lessons as you go...making them even more powerful!

The other interesting thing is that by reading the comments, it's clear that these are very helpful to a number of learners.

I can think of a handful of ways this could be improved instructionally, but as components of learning, these simple explanations are excellent!

Google Wave Book

Okay, I'll admit it...even though I have a Google Wave account, I haven't done much with it.

So I'm excited to learn about this guide. It claim comprehensivity, which I don't doubt at all. But perhaps the most interesting thing about the book to non-Wavers is the publishing model. You will note, when you follow the link, that the book's contents are freely available online, but you also can purchase the book, if you like.

I really like this model. It's a nice balance between openness and entrepreneurial thinking. While I might not shell over the bucks for this specific book, there are plenty that I want to have in my hand as I apply the concepts and the learning.

Open Source e-Learning Tools

Great post by Michael Hanley on the e-Learning Curve blog. You made the blogroll.

Learning Leaders Launched

Just launched a new "pod-blog" project called "The Learning Leaders."

The first interview is with Brent Schlenker of the e-Learning Guild. He's got some great insights on the future of learning and some of the things we should give a listen to.

Jump in and join the conversation...and let me know if you have some others you'd like to hear from on "The Learning Leaders."

Thanks, Joe

Spot Learning: the book

So, I'm caving in to my inner scribe. I've decided to take the plunge and write another book. It's not that I'm a glutton for punishment or that I can't stand to have down time; the problem is that we are in a really important transition and a lot of people don't know how to handle it.

We are moving from a monolithic ivory-towered training paradigm where all knowledge, processes, and expertise is filtered down to a more distributed, real-time, learned-this-earlier-today sourcing of learning content...and candidly, it's a scary space to navigate for many otherwise very competent learning pros.

On the flipside, those who blindly dive into this transition with a jump-first; then-check-for-parachute mentality are doomed to failure or harm--not out of ill-intent; you just don't know what you don't know.

"Spot Learning" will bridge the gap and bring together much rational thinking about this shift we find ourselves in. I'm sure I'll test out many ideas here, so don't hesitate to weigh in.

The conversation is young, and your ideas are relevant.

Finding Fellow Tweeters

Whether you are interested in e-learning or little league baseball, there are people out there who want to talk to you...whether you know it or not. Fortunately, there are some tools that will help you find each other so you can wile away the wee hours talking about things that nobody outside your virtual circles could quite possibly be interested in.

Here are some of the tools that bring like-minded Tweeters together:

Twellow - one of my personal favorites, this tool quickly returns lists based on location, industry, and keyword search, and lets you follow with a click. While I haven't personally used it for prospecting, it looks promising for that purpose.

Nearby Tweets - lets you find Tweeple near you...or anywhere really.

TwitterPacks - find Twitter groups by interest.

TwitterLocal - an Adobe AIR application that lets you filter tweets by location.

TweetMondo - cool visual application with a map (I like gadgety stuff)

ChirpCity - city-specific tweets and tweeple...good for a quick peak at the local twittersphere

Local Tweeps - find and get found

Another great way to find other Tweeters is by the conversation.

TweetChat - lets you follow any conversation by its hash tag.

Tweetbeep - gives you Twitter alerts by e-mail when conversations mention you, your company, your products...or anything else; so if you're tracking a hot topic, like "spot learning", you can find out who else is talking about it...quickly.

Social Certification

Great posting over at Search Engine Watch by Erik Qualman in which he describes key statistics from Social Media.



One of the implications is that we ultimately will see a change in the construction of learning content from being centered around institutional processes to evolving out of individual and socially collaborative processes. And perhaps we'll even how some certifications are granted.

Imagine, if you will, a social certification of sorts where individuals rate others on special competencies. Say, for example, you do some killer SEO work for me and I give you a 5-star rating. Why wouldn't that rating be more relevant than your MEd from Indiana...at least as it relates to SEO work.

I'm not saying certificates are bad; I'm just thinking the world is moving too fast for anything but the social internet to keep up with the changes, and if I want a Google Wave-proficient programmer, there's no way today to be sure I'm getting one aside from the certification of experience.

In the meantime, I advise you to get your portfolio updated; until we standard of social certification, that may be the best viable alternative. It's less and less about who you are and more and more about what you've done. And in the social web, it's virtually always about who you know knows you.