This month, guest contributor Jenny Holt explores the helpfulness of technology in supporting both virtual learners and virtual teams.

Studies show that conversation between colleagues boosts performance by 20%, but this can be challenging to make the most of when remote teams are increasingly split across the globe.

Training is an area of business where communication is absolutely key - the prevalence of remote and virtual teams places even more responsibility on the virtual trainer to bring teams together regularly and enable meaningful interaction between members. There are various aspects of technology that can be used effectively to make the training experience more streamlined, while also boosting overall team performance in the process.

Virtually There Session Recap

When thinking about designing or facilitating live online learning, what scares you the most? For many, the technology feels like an intimidating part of the equation.

• What if learners can’t navigate the environment?
• What if we lose audio in the middle of the Subject Matter Expert presenting key information?
• What if the slide deck fails to load within the platform?

In the spirit of sharing tips and tricks for working with video and audio, we reached back into a featured series of InSync blog posts on technology tools for modern blended learning.

From the series “Sorting through the Technology Toolbox,” here are some of my favorite tips and tools for you to explore so you can be on your way to creating interactive eLearning, audio, video, and screencasting learning assets.

The last (but not least) compartment in our EdTech toolbox is curation tools. We use these tools and apps to explore the web to find resources related to specific topics that we can save, reference or share out through other channels. In any modern blended learning program, a curation strategy can improve the outcomes for your learners.  

According to Anders Pink, curation for learning means:

• Finding the best content from multiple sources, usually external content.
• Filtering it so only the most relevant content makes it through.
• Sharing it with the right internal audiences, at the right time, in the right places.
• Adding value to that content with commentary, context or organization.

Can we possibly know what the future holds? I don’t think we can, but we can certainly look to the horizon and consider what may be coming. We can use data, history, and recent trends to guide our forecasts. I am not a futurist, but I do see three distinct visions for the future of EdTech swirling around in the haze out there.

The Connected Future

The Internet of Things (IoT) is real. Our homes talk to our phones, and our watches talk to our refrigerators. Our objects (wearable and embedded) are talking to each other – collecting and exchanging data. Machines connected to machines, constantly passing information back and forth. The Gartner Group published a study back in 2015 which estimated that 20 billion devices would be connected to the Internet of Things by 2020. Will we lose our human touch here? I don’t think so.

As a Learning Experience Designer, I am always promoting the theory and research behind the work that I do, and stressing that “it’s not about the technology." We create learning solutions that meet the needs of our learners through mindful approaches, not through technology. 

At the same time, I’m a geek. I love my tech, and I love how technology enables me to think differently about the learning experiences that I create for my clients. I’m always on the lookout for new EdTech, or any technology that I can shape to meet my instructional needs.

Last week, we looked at assessment and evaluation EdTech tools and apps. This week, we continue our series by diving deeper into augmented and virtual reality tools and apps. 

These tools and apps enable us to create immersive learning experiences for our learners. Simulations have been around for a long time, but newer tools and apps enable us to engage our learners in immersive experiences on a much lower budget. What was once a highly segmented toolset is now available for us to explore and integrate into our toolboxes!

Last week, we looked at social and community EdTech tools and apps. This week, we continue our series on our EdTech toolboxes by diving deeper into assessment and evaluation tools and apps.

The tools that focus on quantifying or qualifying the impact of learning fall into this toolbox compartment. We use this array of tech tools and apps for tests, surveys, and assignments, as well as for determining the value of our learning initiatives. Adaptive learning is a hot topic these days, and the data and reporting tools that drive adaptive content are found in this area as well.

For some of us, these tools inform the effectiveness of our learning solutions, for others these tools indicate our business impact. Simply put, we are using them to measure, validate, forecast, and inform.

Last week, we looked at communication and interaction EdTech tools and apps. This week, we continue our series by diving deeper into social and community tools and apps.

Again, some of the tools and apps you find here stretch across multiple categories. We use social media to share content, communicate, and interact. Sometimes creating a community of practice or personalized learning network is not a project goal or objective, but we know that putting one in place will certainly promote knowledge and skill acquisition in our learner’s moments of need. These social and community tools and apps can help us do just that.

I’m going to approach this post a bit differently than the other posts in this series, as this category is broad, deep, and touches so many other compartments that I’ve established in our toolboxes. Instead of sharing my preferences of specific tools (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Slack, Yammer, etc.), I’m going to concentrate on overall features to look for, considerations, what you might want to learn more about, and my vision for the future of social and community tools and apps.

Last week, we looked at knowledge and content EdTech tools and apps. This week, we continue our series by diving deeper into communication and interaction tools and apps that will help you support your blended learning campaigns.

Again, these are the tools and apps you use to reach your learners – via email, announcements, and any other outreach broadcast media in this toolbox compartment, along with discussion forums, chat, collaboration, and virtual classroom meeting tools and apps.

At the core of each of these tools is functionality that enables us to talk to each other and share.