Some questions from blog readers have alerted me to the fact that when Apple “upgraded” Keynote 08 to create Keynote 09, they removed the ability to export slideshows as interactive Flash files. I’ve written a bit on this blog about how great it is that you can export from Keynote to Flash but…now you can’t! So:

• If you currently have Keynote 08, don’t upgrade.
• If you’re new to the Mac, you’ll get iWork 09 by default, which contains the unfortunate Keynote 09. You could buy iWork 08 through eBay or a similar outlet. Current prices appear to be $16-55.

Some posts in discussion forums suggest that you can export Keynote 09 slideshows as QuickTime files and then save those as Flash, but apparently you lose all interactivity, so there’s no point.

Shame on Apple for again removing useful features during an “upgrade.” iMovie recently suffered a similar fate. I don’t understand Apple’s reasoning at all.

Some more complex alternatives could be Adobe Captivate for Mac, which is looking for beta testers, and Techsmith’s Camtasia Studio for Mac, which is scheduled to be released in mid-2009.

Here are two clever tools that could give you ideas for ways to support your learners.

1. What’s that bird?

We’re out in the woods and hear a bird.

“Red-legged wrangler?” I say.

“I don’t think so,” you say. “Maybe a sharp-eared snipper.”

I pull out my iFlyer scanning wand and field guide. I scan the bar codes next to the wrangler and snipper. The wand plays each bird’s song and we discover that, as usual, you’re right. And now we’ve reinforced our knowledge of two more bird songs.

How could this technology help your organization? Language learning? Pronunciation help? Verbal instructions so people can focus on the procedure and not have to keep looking at text? Explanations of unusual items or tools?

2. Your external brain (more…)

Quick! Design some elearning that has compelling activities and a real business impact!

How? Try action mapping.

I’ve been using a quick, visual process to design projects. I call it action mapping because it helps you change what people do, not just what they know. It helps you design action-packed materials that are 100% dedicated to improving business performance, and it can keep stakeholders from adding extraneous information.

Here’s a slideshow with an overview. You can also download a PDF of the slides.

| View | Upload your own

How does it work in the real world?

For me, the map fills three roles: (more…)

How good is your ear for dialog? Find out with Dude or Droid, a simple drag-and-drop activity I created to try out Dragster.

As you decide who said each blurb, notice the cues that you’re responding to. What makes dialog sound natural, and what makes it sound stiff?

Click the image to start the activity, and pretend the “TRIAL” watermark isn’t there. Then come back here for some dialog tips and a mini-review of Dragster.

What did you notice about the dialog?

In the droid’s lines, you probably saw these symptoms of unnatural dialog: (more…)

Patient: It seemed perfectly normal at first. HR wrote a new policy about computer use, and we could have just sent everyone an email about it. But…but…

Doctor: Yes?

Patient: But then I thought, what if people don’t read the email? Or maybe they won’t understand it! So I decided to do a course. Just a little one.

Doctor: Go on.

Patient: So I put together all the screens and set up a menu. And then I thought…what if they skip a screen? So I took away the menu and just gave them a Next button. And then I thought…

Doctor: Yes?

Patient: What if they don’t read every word? So I added narration and didn’t let them click the Next button until the narrator had read everything on the screen.

Doctor: And how did that make you feel? (more…)

We interrupt this blog for a commercial announcement.

Elearning Blueprints are online tools that walk you through the process of designing and writing lively elearning content. They’re my latest project, and the first blueprint goes into beta in about two weeks. So I’m looking for beta testers who are willing to trade their opinions for free access to the tool.

As a beta tester, you’ll get access to an easy-to-use web site that will help you:

• Design and write clear, engaging elearning materials on any subject
• Immediately apply the ideas to your current project
• Use research-based best practices that will make your elearning more powerful
• Find and share creative ideas
• Streamline your elearning development

(more…)

Today’s post is a Flash that shows a few effects you can create using Keynote, a slideshow product for the Mac (edit in May 2009: doesn’t work with Keynote 09! Only Keynote 08). For more examples of Flashes created with Keynote, see the following posts:
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Here are two tools that can help you visualize your learners’ experience as they go through your materials, plus some ideas for other visualization techniques.

Three-dimensional graph

You can use a simple spreadsheet in Excel or Open Office to produce a graph like this:

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Looking for a way to create interactive graphs? Check out Many Eyes, a free service from IBM’s Collaborative User Experience Group.

Here’s an example that shows how class and gender appear to have influenced survival on the Titanic. Play with the visualization on the Many Eyes site to see the data from different perspectives.

At this point, the visualizations you create must be posted publicly on the site. The people behind the service are considering offering access controls.