5 Awesome Tools to Engage & Gamify Talks

Your Secret Recipe to Engage?

Rediscovering Curt Bonk's Extreme Learning World!

Move Aside TEDx, Here Comes The Learning Innovation Talks (LIT)!

ICE Breakers - A Fish That Barks and The Moonwalking Bear!

When the cat reaches the fishbowl, then pause the video and ask your Students/Participants (S/P) to figure out what happens next. Most likely you will get S/P's attention, and stimulate their minds to think creatively about what happens next in a competitive but enjoyable way. If you break S/P up into groups, and then give each group say 2 minutes to come up with their answer, you will get collaborative fun.



WARM UP S/P FIRST, OR THEY WILL ________!
Using short videos found on the Internet as icebreakers to stimulate thinking and help people to get familiar with each other in new situations and environments is today easier than ever, because of the millions (I mean billions!) of videos freely available on sites like YouTube.

More importantly, before you engage your S/P to learn and interact with the subject matter in a face-to-face session (or online session), it is important to warm them up first, or awaken them from their sleep (or whatever they are doing/thinking). It is obvious in sports that we need to warm our relevant muscles before playing a particular activity; otherwise the likelihood of getting injuries increases significantly. Though, strangely enough not all lecturers/educators/facilitators apply this common sense idea to learning. Let's not forget that our Brain is also a muscle that needs to warm up too, or it would probably fall asleep (not literally!), or be in another dimension beyond the subject paradigm.



AWARENESS TEST

Remember to pause after the first scene when the passes have been made, and then ask 'How many passes does the team in white make?' Most S/P will probably answer correctly, and then you ask 'Did you see the Moonwalking bear?' And unless they have already seen this video (12+ million have already on YouTube alone!), they would have ignored that particular incident. Although, this is labelled as an awareness test, it is also a great short video to warm up students' minds before getting them busy with the subject matter.



IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE SKILLS

This one is a classic, which I commonly use to emphasize the importance, relationship, and connection of language with understanding and thinking. Instead of being really serious about it, and making people uncomfortable when talking about such matters, you could use videos such as the one above to make a point (that probably sticks better, too).

I have watched this scene (above) from 'The Pink Panther 2' a bazillion times, but I still laugh every time I watch it. I have used this video in several workshops to indirectly encourage S/P to work on their English accents as that might hamper their communication with others (e.g. lectures and discussions), and that new accents can be learned (although it could take time).

These are just four examples of using short videos (less than 5 minutes) found on the Internet to stimulate S/P to think, and break down communication barriers. The best part is that there are thousands, if not millions of freely available videos ready to be plucked from video sharing sites.

If you have any experiences, or discovered some mind stimulating short videos to share, please share it in the comments section (That would be great!).



HOW TO DOWNLOAD VIDEOS FROM YOUTUBE?
I knew that question was coming (obviously!), and here is the answer (link below):

The Real Way to Download-Convert-Insert YouTube Videos into PowerPoint!

What about downloading and copyright? I discuss this issue a bit here.

Don't worry, be happy, and take calculated risks using short videos to stimulate thinking and breaking down communication barriers (though, please consider sensitivities to religion, culture and race).

It is amazing how fun a learning session can become by taking a few risks in the way we facilitate learning :)

The Real Way to Download-Convert-Insert YouTube Videos into PowerPoint!

HOW DO YOU...

1. DOWNLOAD YouTube videos?
2. CONVERT YouTube videos into a format supported by PowerPoint?
3. INSERT YouTube videos into PowerPoint (and run it offline smoothly)?

Since I am always asked those three (3) questions above, why not screencast it once for ALL! This screencast explores these questions:

(Click here to download this screencast)

TOOLS?
Tools recommended:

• RealPlayer - Downloading videos from YouTube and Converting them into other formats (e.g. wmv).
  
• Format Factory - Converting videos to any other video format you can imagine.
  

If you are using PowerPoint 2003 (or 2010) no worries, because inserting videos into PowerPoint is as easy as toasting...Insert > Movies and Sounds > Movie from File (2003)...

You might also want to check out my previous article entitled 2 Juicy Ways to Insert YouTube Videos into PowerPoint, but I believe the tips shared above is even juicier. Trust me!

Finally, if you have a cooler or more efficient way of doing it for free, please share it with us. Now that would be AWESOME :)

#icel5 Learning Stream, Here I Come! Who Cares!

WHAT?

I will be attending the 5th International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL 2010) at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, 12-13 July 2010. No, I won't be presenting any paper or Keynote (I wish!!!), but instead I will be sharing my discoveries, reflections, and ideas during these two, hopefully explosively enriching, inspiring and encapsulating learning days.



HOW?
Last year, I attended an interesting e-learning conference, and used Twitter to capture my learning notes. It was an awesome and valuable learning experience! Not only did Twitter capture my learning notes, it also enabled me to spiral off to spontaneous and enriching learning conversations with others out there in the Twitter world.

So, I will hopefully be doing the same tweet thing this time around, too. But, wait a minute! Let's make it a bit more interesting...and create a Twitter hashtag for the whole conference (unofficial one!) and invite others to join this intelligent collaborative and connective learning sharing stream. What do you think?

Anyway, whatever you think, I will be learning away using the #icel5 hashtag during this conference.

If you are confused on how to use or follow the #icel5 hashtag, please watch this video tutorial:

Tools mentioned in the video tutorial:

• Twitter
• Monitter

PLEASE JOIN!
So, if you are there, and going to Twitter your own little twitter learning stream, let's join forces and have some fun with #icel5. Think about it for a second (or a minute)! Imagine, everyone out there (whoever that may be) interested to discover and learn something from this conference, can enjoy at least one inspiring #icel5 learning sharing stream contributed by you and me. I am 99% confirmed, but are you?

IF YOU ARE THERE, PLEASE JOIN... #icel5 ...

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PART II - #ICEL5 RESULTS & FINDINGS

The Vanishing Art of Lecturing (Prof. K. Ramnarayan)

PURPOSE OF A LECTURE?

1. Inspire
2. Influence
3. Inform

On the 24th May 2010, Prof. K. Ramnarayan (Vice Chancellor of Manipal University) conducted an inspiring lecture entitled 'The Vanishing Art of Lecturing' at the International Medical University (IMU), Bukit Jalil (Main Campus).

To cut the story short, let's enjoy and reflect this amazing and inspiring lecture below, chunked into three (3) parts:

PART I




PART II



PART III



To summarize in his own words, lectures should be:

Lively
Educative
Creative
Thought (provoking)
Understandable
Relevant
Enjoyable

Let's scrutinize and reflect his lecture a couple of times (or more), and then ask ourselves, "How can I be more inspiring uncovering what I am covering in a more exciting manner..."

Click here, to discover and enjoy IMU's inspiring e-Learning stream on Facebook :)