Make the Windows Start Screen More Like the Start Menu

I’ve figured out a way to make the Windows 8 Start screen more like the traditional Windows Start menu.  By adding shortcuts to the typical items you would find such as My Computer, or your User folder you can easily access them without too much difficulty.

In addition, I added shortcuts to the power options used for restart and shutdown, thanks to an article I found on How-to Geek.  Just add shortcuts to the following commands:

Shutdown Computer

Shutdown.exe -s -t 00

Restart Computer

Shutdown.exe -r -t 00

You can use alternate icons by going to the properties window of these new shortcuts and selecting a new icon such as I have in the screenshot above.

Windows 8 Again

I've been using Windows 8 again.  I know, I must be a glutton for punishment, but I really want to try and make a go of it. 

I was amazed today when I had to Google how to log off of my user account.  They really have “reimagined” Windows.  Logging off was tied to shutting down and restarting, however now to log off you click on the tile that represents you as a user in the upper right corner of the Start screen. A drop down appears with the options for Change account picture, Lock and Sign out.

Is this all a cruel prank by Steven Sinofsky on the eve of his departure from Microsoft?

5 Things to Never Put in eLearning

Actual employees

When you use photographs or videos of actual company employees, you run several risks.  When that employee is fired for stealing money out of the petty cash fund, your eLearning will suddenly look very inappropriate.

Content you don’t own the rights to

Whether you are a contractor or an employee, this could get you in hot water when the actual content owner decides to sue the company or you. Watch the video below to learn how you can embed a YouTube video into your course and avoid the risk of using someone else's intellectual property.

Pop Culture References

No matter how popular the pop culture reference is, there will always be one or two people who don’t understand it. This will alienate your audience.

Humour (in bad taste)

Similar to the pop culture reference, you run the risk of alienating anyone for who the humour goes over their head.  Not to mention the problems you might face if your joke actually offends one or more from your audience.

Optional content

Online learning should be clear and concise.  Any nice to have’s are simply wasting your audiences time.  Stick to the learning objectives, and if you do put optional content in the course, clearly mark it as something that can be skipped.

Offer Office 2013 Training To Your Employees Right Now

For those of you who are not aware, Microsoft provides the Office suite of products available to employees of corporations who subscribe to Microsoft’s volume license agreements.  The idea is that if you make the software available to employees for a really great price for their home PCs, they will learn how to use the software at home on their own time.  This keeps the cost of training for an organization low, and keeps the workforce up to date on the latest software.  This is a really good example of informal learning.

I was listening to one of my favourite tech podcasts, Windows Weekly, when I heard mention that the Home Use Program for Office 2013 was already available.  I checked my company’s HUP website and sure enough, Office 2013 was available to purchase.  I believe in the United States it sells through this program for $10; In Canada it sells for $11.

If you are responsible for Office training in your organization, check with your IT department if you have access to this great program.  It’s a excellent way to get employees comfortable with the newest office software.

Adobe Software for Free!

Like most people in their professions, instructional designers rely on a certain set of tools to get their jobs done. For me it is Microsoft Office, and the Adobe eLearning Suite. I currently have e-Learning Suite 2.5 which includes Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, and of course Adobe Captivate. Many newer instructional designers have often asked if there are free alternatives to the software I use. I have never found an eLearning authoring tool that is truly free, however Gimp is a decent Photoshop alternative. For Dreamweaver, which is an HTML authoring tool, there are many choices. I personally have used KompoZer before, and it does a decent job.

Of course now I would answer a little differently. It seems that Adobe has decided to make the Creative Suite CS2 software all freely available to download. Creative Suite is a bundle of some of Adobe’s popular software, which includes, Adobe Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro and more. Perhaps this is a mistake, perhaps not. I personally would download this software and copy down the posted serial numbers as soon as possible, just in case. You can find all this software bundled together, or available to download separately from here:

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

Update
So it seems that Adobe have added the following comment to this page since I published my blog post:


Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers below should only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.

Copyrighted Material

For years I worked in an organization that only developed internal training.  The risk that my training materials would be seen by anyone outside the organization, let alone by anyone whose copyrighted material may have found its way into my training, was pretty close to zero.  Of course this doesn’t make it right to use someone else's stuff in your course.  I certainly wouldn’t want someone to take my material and use it how they wished.

I touched on this briefly in an entry I did on the topic of eLearning on a shoestring budget, but you really need to watch where all your photos, graphics, and even concepts and ideas come from.  They are all potentially someone’s intellectual property.

I think this is especially important for the designers who are working as contractors or sub-contractors as I have done.  I have charged customers thousands of dollars for the courseware I have developed.  I’d hate to have to give it all back if my client was sued, and thereby I would be sued for steeling someone else’s material.  Make sure you have the rights to use the material you put in your courses.  In the long run, it may just save your bacon.

In the following video, I show you how you can embed a YouTube video into your course. In the second half of the video, I talk about how you can do this without putting yourself at risk.

My Windows 8 Verdict

For about a year now, I have been playing with Windows 8 in its various forms.  The long and the short of it is that to take advantage of the new features of Windows 8, you need new hardware.  If you have an existing PC, you certainly can use Windows 8, however you may find it cumbersome and much of the interface and new style metro apps may not make a lot of sense.

I have three PCs in my home.  The first is an aging desktop PC, which today is little more than my media streaming and download PC. It probably doesn't have a lot of years left in it and while I have Windows 7 running reasonably well on it, I can't imagine it running well with 8.

The second PC in my home is the main PC I use for work.  It's a 15 inch Sony VAIO laptop that could certainly support Windows 8 from a specification perspective; however I feel that the additional features don't offer any value to me.  The work I do is primarily with software that would run equally well with Windows 7 as it would with Windows 8 so I don't see why I should part with the $40, no matter how much of a good deal that is.

The third PC in my home is an Acer netbook that is about a year old.  It's primarily used by my wife and is the one machine that I seriously thought about upgrading.  Since it’s a netbook, it came with Windows 7 Starter Edition. Windows 7 Starter Edition is a pretty basic version of Windows and the upgrade would provide additional functionality.  That said, the resolution of the netbook will mean that it doesn't natively support the metro environment so again, I’m not sure it’s a good choice here as well.

So I've read the reviews and played with the previews and I have come to the conclusion that Windows 8 is not a great upgrade path for those with existing hardware.  You next PC or PC-like device will come with Windows 8 installed, however I just don't see the value for me right now.

Four Stage Training Cycle For New Trainers

I wrote this in the intro of a recent facilitator's guide.  I realized that instinctively this was something that I do, however formalizing it was something useful for some inexperienced facilitators who had to work with my material.  It's a simple four stage cycle to teach content in a classroom setting.

Explanation
You start out with a few minutes explaining what the class is about to learn.  It's not enough to simply introduce that the class will learn how to run reports, for example.  You need to explain why you run reports and perhaps give an example of a time when you would run reports.  Also provide them with what the benefit of this knowledge is to them and to the organization.  Without the benefit, they won't be interested in learning.

Demonstration
Demonstrate the procedure to the class.  Either have them follow along in their student guides, or better yet, have a volunteer perform the procedure while the students instruct them what the steps are according to the student guide.  Having the class instruct the volunteer is more engaging than simply watching you perform the steps.

Practice
Once the learners have seen the demonstration, give them a few minutes to try the procedure on their own.  Walk around the class and assist individuals who may be having difficulties.

Confirmation
Before moving on to the next topic, ask if there are any concerns or questions.  Briefly address these or write them down on the parking lot for later follow up.

This simple formula for training can be used if you are a new instructor, a subject matter expert with little or no facilitation experience, or if you are an instructor who hasn't been provided very good facilitation guides.  Repeat this cycle for all the content that needs to be taught and you will get through the training without too much difficulty.

Time Machine for Windows

I remember when Time Machine for Apple’s Mac OS X was announced.  It was heralded as an extraordinary accomplishment in computer technology.  Turns out Windows has had a similar feature called ‘Previous Versions’ since about 2003 that was originally available in their server line of operating systems and has quietly made it’s way into the consumer line of operating systems such as Windows 7.  Nobody knows about this feature as it’s kind of buried in the operating system’s features and not as flashy as Time Machine for Mac OS X. 

To access it, you simply right click on the file you would like to revert to a previous version and click on properties.  Select the Previous Versions tab to see any previous versions that exist for that file.  You may need to turn this feature on, which you can do by navigating through the link on this tab entitled How do I use previous versions?

The reason I am mentioning this here is the usefulness of this feature when developing materials for training.  Having the Previous Versions feature turned on, allows to recall versions that you may have written over with new material.  It happens, from time to time, that your stake holders may request you changing a document back to the way it was last week.  If you haven’t saved that version as a separate document, using Previous Versions in Windows could help you get that information back.

Can Music Teach More than Just Music?

I love the work that Symphony of Science does with their music.  I’m not certain if what they do teaches any science, however it probably reinforces learning that may have already occurred.  In either case I love these videos.  Here is once that I watched the other day:

Symphony of Science–the Quantum World

While it may not be for everyone, if you subscribe to the theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner, this would be a great application of the musical intelligence.  He proposed that learners who respond to the musical intelligence learn best when there are elements of sound, rhythms and obviously music.

I also think this could be used as an example of informal learning as well.  Making corporate videos that narrate the key message of a company’s mission, vision, or values could be a great way to reinforce those messages.

If you want to see more examples of this type of song/video, search YouTube for Symphony of Science.