RKCS Learning Solutions

It’s an excellent thing when companies actually listen to their consumer base and incorporate the features that they are asking for. TechSmith released its version of Camtasia for the Mac a few months ago and “wowed” many with its release. The interface was very un-Windows like and appealed to many dedicated Mac users. Most of these user had been using Telestream’s Screenflow and in fact compared Camtasia to this application. In many ways they were very similar and for the most part a ScreenFlow user had no pressing reason to switch over to Camtasia.

Well, here’s the game changer. TechSmith has just released its 1.1 update for Camtasia for Mac. Prior to this update, Camtasia could only record in full-screen mode. This is also the case with ScreenFlow. Mac users who take advantage of Expose found this fine and worked around it. But if you wanted to record only one specific portion of your screen, you were out of luck or you could use TechSmith’s limited freeware, Jing. Now, with the 1.1 update, TechSmith has included region capture. For those that do not get the difference here, when you have to record full screen, then zoom and crop, aside from the additional steps you must perform, there are subtle differences in pixel clarity. It’s like being forced to take a picture of a crowd and zoom in to one person when you only wanted to take a picture of the one person anyway.

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There is always something new, isn’t there? There is always a new toy, new app, something new to learn. The intent is that if you use all of these apps, you will be uber-productive, be ahead of the curve, on the cutting edge of tech and be raking in tons of dough. OK, so I may have been slightly tongue-in-cheek. But, two of the latest bits of tech that some have been buzzing about (awful pun) are the iPad and Google Buzz.

Now, Google Buzz, if you have not checked your gmail account recently, is a stripped down version of the GoogleWave that many have been patiently awaiting. This looks to be a competitor to Twitter. However, so far, although I’m sure that one can use anything productively if they try, I just have not gotten the Buzz as yet. The drawback for some is that you have to have a gmail account and the people you “buzz” and follow must also have a gmail account. Now, how is that different from Twitter, you say? On a basic level, it’s not…really. The winning assets for me currently are usability and availability. Many more folks are on Twitter it seems and it has become a social networking bear. Although, you can do the same things with Buzz, at the end of the day, on a business level, it becomes about reach. Right now, Twitter has the REACH that Buzz does not. Of course, humans are fickle and that could change at any minute.

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As an e-learning developer, it makes sense for me to look ahead while also taking the current temperature of the industry. Figuring out what people are doing now and learning the ins and outs of education, training and development helps me to remain relevant and useful. From strictly a business perspective, looking ahead helps me figure out the moves I should be making now so that when “ahead” comes, I won’t be behind. If I am still storyboarding and developing in Word when everyone else is using Flash CS-25, then fairly soon (if not already), I will have be out of a job or out of business.

So what are the trends? What is the future of eLearning, really? With regard to education specifically, elearners.com notes that “corporations will compete directly with colleges and k-12 schools.” I’ll take it a step further and say that some colleges and k-12 schools will become corporations. I believe that “opinion” is bolstered by the fact that an NFL team already plays in an arena called the University of Phoenix stadium. This also goes to the second point that I noted from elearners.com: “Partnerships and mergers between learning institutions, publishers, technology companies, learning providers will consolidate the marketplace.” I add that the partnerships will take place between companies and organizations that at first glance might not seem like they would have anything to do with each other. Football? Online education? Nahhh. It just doesn’t make sense.

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As this is an e-learning blog, the majority of the topics I write about deal directly with e-learning, software, processes and things that have to do directly with e-learning. Most of the other blogs/bloggers that I am connected to do the same. However, this morning, I decided to veer in a slightly different direction. One of the things that I do as part of my daily routine is some general surfing, getting familiar with other blogs, randomly looking at information that may or may not apply to me. Why? It’s sometimes in this randomness that I find things that make life a bit clearer or even provide a perspective that I had either forgotten about or did not realize previously. This morning, I came across an article on health. It pertained specifically to men, but we are all adults here, so I figured I would link the article so that you could read it at your leisure. The article listed 25 health tips, but a few points hit home specifically. The first was #10 – Don’t be an island. As someone who works virtually a great deal of the time, it is extremely easy to become isolated. With the advent of social networking, twitter, Facebook, etc, it is also easy to trick yourself into feeling like you are connecting with people because you have sent them a text, posted a message on their wall, sent them a Mafia Wars or Farmville request, or some other action that may or may not provide specific interaction with other people. But the truth of the matter is, we all need human connection. It’s healthy for us. If we are not healthy, then this work that we do is not going to be at it’s best anyway. Yesterday, I had an issue that I was thinking about and because I had formed a connection with someone, I was able to speak to them via Skype and get another perspective. This helped to ease some anxiety and also let me know that I was not alone.

The second one that connected with me was #3 – Hit the sack. #10, then #3?? OK, so I read backwards a little. In any case, the benefits of getting to bed at a certain time and getting a sufficient amount of sleep cannot be denied. I have 3 young kids and so I am definitely guilty of not getting enough sleep on a regular basis. In fact, I often wonder if it is even possible to get everything done, take care of a family and still get enough sleep. Yeah, it is. I definitely have to re-prioritize some things. But, it definitely is possible.

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