Last month I was approached by a clueless vendor at the Learning Solutions Conference in Orlando, Florida. After making small talk he said, “Well if you’re an Actionscript programmer, you NEED to see our product.”
He proceeded to demonstrate the typical Powerpoint plug in approach, which had some canned Flash text effects and fades. I tried to explain that while his product had some nice effects, and certainly would save time for someone doing animation to enhance their eLearning presentation, it did not at all tap in to the power of Actionscript.
I just completed presenting and attending the BYOL eLearning conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Having an opportunity to present for the attendees as well as attend a few sessions I had a unique perspective on the conference and came away with a few revelations about eLearning in general.
This is the second eLearning focused conference I have presented at and certainly will not be the last. I enjoyed the interaction with the others at the conference and enjoyed teaching two Actionscript Sessions and a shorter introductory session on Flex.
I’m not an instructional designer, however, I do teach and have an expertise in the technologies used to produce eLearning, so, hopefully, you’ll find these tips useful!
I will be presenting at this year’s BYOL: eLearning 2009 in Salt Lake City. I have been invited to present training sessions on Adobe Actionscript and Adobe Flex. The BYOL conferences have a unique concept– The session are in-depth and hands-on. Participants will go through what are essentially technical training sessions in all areas of eLearning. Other presenters are discussing everything from Captivate to enterprise LMS systems to the design of eLearning courses.