One of the apps I use every day to keep everything moving smoothly is Keyboard Maestro by Stairways Software.
Features that I use everyday:
macros to quickly perform several actions without having to manually get in the way, ie launching an app, export or annotating with one keystroke, function key or mapped to a StreamDeck key
OCR, pulling text from an image, screenshot or photo with a keystroke which is helpful during wireframing
Ending a Zoom and starting the next one without having to think
For $36, you can also test drive it with a free trial, it will help you be more productive if you are looking to combine or automate several actions together.
Over the past several weeks The Learning Guild has been alternating between their Friday 2 pm Twitter Chat and a Zoom based event where a guest explains, dives deeper and answers chat questions on topics that were presented during online events this year. I was a guest and this is a summary of several of the topics we covered and wanted to provide a summary along with links. A video will be shared on YouTube later this month so keep an eye out if you missed the session today.
providing feedback – be sure to allow the user to fail and learn from their mistakes.
don’t just say that’s incorrect.
look for ways to provide users a way to dive deeper, explore and share what they learn
provide tools for managers and leaders to utilize content to connect, blend and refresh on key elements they want to utilize in their toolbox
Keeping Up to Date
Growing up in a household of a teaching sparked a interest to always ask why, how, can I do it? So always be thinking about and breaking down what you do, why, how it works and what can you apply to your next learning experience? Tools that I use to keep up to date:
Feedly.com is my favorite tool to stay up to date with topics, I try to check in 1-3 times a day on my phone in-between meetings, tasks and typically will review on a tablet in the evening. You can organize contents, tags, keywords, you can even remove words that you do not want to be included which is handy when you want to focus on a particular top or area. With the paid version you unlock more functionality with team sharing, annotation. Check it out, free to download or try via the web site.
Sidebar.io is the second resource I use daily to keep inspired for creative ideas and to keep learning. You can sign up for a free email that delivers the 5 latest stories to your inbox which I love and will review weekly what I missed.
TechSmith Tools
We got a question about using Snagit and Camtasia for creating, capturing, and building media. We use Snagit just about every day and Camtasia as needed, one thing I wanted to make sure you check out is their community support, blog, education (for registered users) via TechSmith Academy and resources. Make sure to follow Matt Pierce @piercemr on Twitter.
During the last part of the session, we invited 30+ attendees to experiment and add their thoughts around what they learned, what they wanted to share, and access to the resources. You can view the board and a gif below which shows the magic of 30+ people adding what they learned.
Please reach out to twitter.com/learningguild or @learningguild on Twitter to share your thoughts if they should continue the series. I VOTE YES and would love to see more interactions to continue and dive deeper into the latest community challenges, sharing ideas, and looking at how we can continue to grow.
Miro is one of those tools that gets me so excited about the possibilities and how it can help teams get stuff done because it works transparently, for the most part, and allows you to create, brainstorm, gather feedback or quickly collaborate on the next steps. The tool works via your browser or you can download an app for your desktop or mobile device. If you have an Apple Pencil, Surface Pen, or similar you can draw, annotate more naturally on screengrabs, elements, or just write some notes.
In the past 90 days Miro has launched several new features:
It allows you to invite additional non-registered users for collaborating, gathering data, and participation without having to add them to a paid plan. This is a game-changer that opens up the possibilities of how you utilize the platform outside your primary team.
Visual tables which allow you to use rows and columns to organize text, graphics, icons, and screengrabs
Attention management which allows the board owner to gather all collaborators to a particular part fo the board to focus their attention
More integrations including Jira, Confluence, Trello, Airtable, Notion
Use your mobile device to convert handwritten stickies to virtual sticky notes that are editable
How I Use Miro:
Team brainstorming where we review concepts, gather ideas, organize concepts
Tracking stakeholder meetings, notes, and export as PDFs to share post meetings
Brainstorming: voting via collaborators
Quick wireframing using the PEN tool and lo-fi using the add-on
Creating tables to organize ideas
Moodboards to capture concepts, research, and feedback
Webinars to involve participants in sharing, brainstorming and collaborating
Working with journey mapping and mind maps for projects
Capturing stickies from my wall to share with remote team
This week launched a new MIROVERSE where you can share your templates with the community so that they can learn, get new ideas and personalize for your team.
Why are you still reading this? Jump over to Miro.com, sign up for a free account, and start to plan your team’s next collaboration session.
If you are looking for some more L+D content to absorb, learn, and get inspired check out Jacqueline Hutchinson‘s site discussing hot topics and several interviews covering sales, SME’s, PLNs, AI, and a whole lot more.
RISC has been curating content to help L+D professionals stay ahead of the curve and learn, expand and grow their knowledge-based from creating content, UX, designing for every screen, to how to conduct interviews to learning about AI just to name a few of the topics:
I’ve watched and taken notes on sessions from JD, Kevin, Kristen, and Sarah’s so far. Join me for my live broadcast on Getting Started with Prototyping using Adobe XD, we’ll cover the basics to get you launched as well as share several resources and our favorite tips, tricks and plugins. May 20th at 10am ET.
Two resources for learning and planning around designing for everyone. Understanding the possibilities during planning will lead to a more usable experience.
Accessibility Do’s and Don’ts
Thinking about best practice do’s and don’ts check out this blog post.
Thinking about Accessibility for Teams during planning and workflows.
Developed by the US.gov for assisting teams around inclusive design. check out this quick start guide.
One of my favorite parts of eLearning Guild events is DemoFest. During Learning Solutions last week, it provided an opportunity to look, learn, share and hear what worked, what didn’t and how a project evolves from concept to launch. There were over 50 tables to visit, and you learn about this year’s favorites on a complimentary Best of DemoFest Webinar on Thursday, April 12 at 10:00 AM PT.
We’ll be presenting our project which won an award for Best Social Collaboration Solution for Community Dashboard for C-Suite Idea Exchange.
Register below to learn about the award-winning projects in several categories and get some great ideas to apply to your work!
Watch the Recording at https://www.elearningguild.com/olfarchives/1586/best-of-learning-solutions-demofest-2018/