Using the Task Management Features in MindManager 8

For small to medium businesses who are using MindManager 8 for project planning and keeping tabs on projects, one feature which you will want to explore is the Task Management features built into MindManager 8. As a consultant and small business owner I often am doing small projects that may not require a dedicated project management tool- but I still will need a way to keep on top of my projects and tasks. For this reason, one of new features which I am using more and more in MindManager 8 is the ability to use the Roll Up feature when using the Task Information pane. If you are like me and using MindManager 8 to help you plan and keep on task, then you will find the the new Roll Up feature to be indispensable. All of the task information features can be found in the Task Info pane within MindManager 8.

To get started use MindManager 8 to brainstorm the tasks for the project. Once you have organized the tasks and sequenced them in the order that you will perform the task, select the Central topic and Open the Task Info Pane. In my example, I selected the central topic, Revise Assistive Technology DVD and from the Task Info Pane selected "Roll up task info to here." You also want to make sure that you have checked off Show past-due as: and Show as-risk as:- which I will explain later.

Next go through your tasks and set the number of days each task will take in your mind map. For the first task, you can use the Calendar to set the Start date for the project. It is best to leave the end date blank and let MindManager 8 calculate the end dates based on your task dependencies. By default MindManager 8 will set each task to 1 day duration which is easily changed in the Task Info Pane. For the final step you will use the Relationship feature to link your tasks in the order that you would like to complete them. By default MindManager 8 will set the dependency to Finishto Start and you will see a little FS icon on the relationship line to denote this. If you would like to fine tune the dependency relationship this too can be done in the Task Info Pane. Once you have set the dependencies for your tasks you will see that under your Central topic the Start date and calculated finish date with the cumulative number of work days to complete the task under the topic.

Once you start using your mind map to track your project's progress you will begin to see the real value of the Roll Up feature in MindManager 8. As you input the task completion percentages into your mind map, MindManager 8 will roll up the information to the central topic allowing you to get a quick overview of your overall progress and visually see which tasks are past due or at risk of not completing on time. MindManager 8 will display icons on those task which may be past due or at risk of not be completed which can give you a quick overview of where you need to concentrate your efforts. You can watch the video tutorial here to see how to use the Roll Up feature. I welcome your comment and how you are using this powerful feature in MindManager 8.

Metalearning

I just got through reading Jay's post and article (with Clark Quinn) around Become a chief meta-learning officer – one of the hot list items from two weeks ago.  It's a great article, definitely worth a read.  It discusses the needed transition in focus of a CLO

The scope of the job of the CLO is mushrooming. CLOs will neither prosper nor even survive if they fail to take responsibility for the overall learning process within their organizations.

…

Your charter as Chief Meta-Learning Officer is to optimize learning throughout the organization, not just in the pockets that once belonged to HR. This takes a broader perspective than what you deal with day-to-day. You’ve got to rise above the noise to see the underlying patterns, and then optimize them.

The reality is that this equally applies to Learning Organizations and Learning Professionals.  The broader perspective he is talking about is to look beyond formal learning to informal learning, social learning, collaborative learning, and personal learning. 

What was particularly interesting about his article was the use of the term meta-learning.

Wikipedia defines meta-learning (in education) as:

The idea of metalearning was originally used by John Biggs (1985) to describe the state of ‘being aware of and taking control of one’s own learning’. you can define metalearning as an awareness and understanding of the phenomenon of learning itself as opposed to subject knowledge. Implicit in this definition is the learner’s perception of the learning context, which includes knowing what the expectations of the discipline are and, more narrowly, the demands of a given learning task. Within this context, metalearning depends on the learner’s conceptions of learning, epistemological beliefs, learning processes and academic skills, summarized here as a learning approach. A student who has a high level of metalearning awareness is able to assess the effectiveness of her/his learning approach and regulate it according to the demands of the learning task.

Jay's article is really using metalearning in a different way – take responsibility for learning across the organization.  Look at all the different ways learning can occur.  Close the training department.  Etc.

Still, when I read the title, I couldn't help but think that Chief MetaLearning Officer was particularly apt, especially when you take "metalearning" according to its definition above.  Metalearning is really about:

being aware and taking control of one's own learning

It is a critical element to success moving forward.  And it's exactly what I've been talking about over the past few years.  The only way to handle long tail learning is to focus on providing the tool set and personal learning and working skills (work literacy) that are central to concept work.  Where work and learning are not separate, metalearning is really the focus of performance improvement. 

In Learning, Extended Brain and Topic Hubs, the focus is really on a new process for learning.  Being aware and in control of the process is metalearning.  Nancy Devine in a comment suggested "schema building" which is similar to pattern identification.  But all of this is really about metalearning.

Way back in 2006, I wrote Improving Personal Learning - A Continuing Challenge for Learning Professionals, that also cited a CLO article on Implementing Learning How-to-Learn Strategies (which doesn't seem to exist anymore).  Three years later, we recognize the increasing importance, and the need for greater metalearning development opportunities and the role of learning professionals and learning organizations in this.

Is metalearning a good term to encapsulate what we are talking about?

Twitter TechSmith LinkedIn Learning Strategy

Hot List - May 8, 2009 to May 15, 2009

Once again, used eLearning Learning to generate a list of the best from last week.

The following are the top posts from featured sources based on social signals.

1. The Truth About Twitter- Social Enterprise Blog, May 11, 2009
2. Twitter Tips: for Teachers & Educators- Don't Waste Your Time, May 9, 2009
3. Twitter and Webinars- eLearning Technology, May 14, 2009
4. Developing a PLE Using Web 2.0 Tools- Don't Waste Your Time, May 10, 2009
5. Informal Learning Technology- eLearning Technology, May 11, 2009
6. Presentation: Social Bookmarking with Delicious- Don't Waste Your Time, May 15, 2009
7. The Ten Commandments of eLearning- Upside Learning Blog, May 8, 2009
8. Online Coaching- eLearning Technology, May 13, 2009
9. Audio in eLearning: Cultural Differences?- Learning Visions, May 12, 2009
10. Presentation: Twitter in Education- Don't Waste Your Time, May 12, 2009
11. Overcoming Objections to Social Learning - One Week at at Time- Engaged Learning, May 8, 2009
12. The Challenge of Training the PlayStation Generation- The E-Learning Curve, May 15, 2009
13. Presentation: Social Bookmarking with Delicious- Don't Waste Your Time, May 15, 2009
14. Designing engaging e-learning- Clive on Learning, May 11, 2009
15. Lies, damned lies, and Wikipedia…- ThirdForce Blog, May 8, 2009
16. Hashtags in Twitter and walls, fountains, ways to keep everyone's remarks in the picture- Ignatia Webs, May 15, 2009
17. Social learning adoption?- Road to Learning, May 8, 2009
18. Learning, Models and Other Tricks- Blogger in Middle-earth, May 9, 2009

The following are the top other items based on social signals.

1. The Eight Classic e-Learning publications? | Tony Bates, May 8, 2009
2. The End in Mind " A Post-LMS Manifesto, May 8, 2009
3. Does technology change the nature of knowledge? | Tony Bates, May 8, 2009
4. Engage Your Learners By Mimicking the Real World, May 12, 2009
5. A closer look at using a social media platform ..., May 10, 2009
6. The Twitter Book, May 15, 2009
7. The Learning Age, May 14, 2009
8. All information is suspect, May 12, 2009
9. How to Get the Most Out of a Conference, May 7, 2009
10. Designing Authentic Learning Tasks, May 11, 2009
11. Jing - The Missing Manual, May 10, 2009
12. Coaching informal learning, May 9, 2009
13. Adding value to information, May 12, 2009

Hot Keywords for the Week

• Twitter (35)
• TechSmith (3)
• LinkedIn (13)
• Social Learning (14)
• Learning Strategy (5)
• Social Media (17)

Using Variables in Adobe Captivate 4

One of the really exciting new features in Adobe Captivate 4 is variables. Using variables allows the developer to personalize the experience when the user is interacting with your video. Adobe Captivate 4 allows you to use both User Variables as well as built in System Variables in your projects. While working with ConceptDraw for MindMap Projects, I created a short video which shows you just how easy it is to go from the ConceptDraw Mindmap to ConceptDraw Project. Using User Variables I captured the user's full name in a User Variable called v_Name which then gets stored, and is then used throughout the simulation video to personalize the experience. You will see once you enter your name that the guiding captions now include your name at the beginning of each prompt. This is a really nice touch to your simulation videos and one I know I will be using more and more. In a future video I will show you just how easy it is to create the User variable and then use it within your video. Click here to view the simulation video.

In addition to personalizing the video simulation, I also demonstrate how I can use a widget which is a new feature found in Adobe Captivate 4. Using the Certificate widget, in conjunction with the Quizzing feature found in Adobe Captivate 4, I was able to create two questions which were then followed up with a certificate which included the users name, the name of the course, their score, and grade on the quiz. The Certificate widget uses variables that a passed along to the certificate from within Adobe Captivate 4 which make this a rather easy task to accomplish. So when you run the simulation, enter your full name and then watch as it is populated throughout the session. When you get to the end of the quiz notice how the certificate includes all the information which can then be printed out for the user. Adobe Captivate 4 has numerous widgets and system variables that can be used in your projects. I hope this gives you some idea of the power of these two features and I welcome your feedback.

Learning, Extended Brain and Topic Hubs

I hope you will bear with me on this post.  There's a bit of a back story, but I think it helps to paint the picture of a learning pattern that I'm finding myself using and the resulting topics hub and how they act as an extended brain.

A few weeks ago, I was asked about presenting to the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Speakers Association.   One of their members had seen me present and thought that my presentation around the use of Social Media would be a good topic for their group.  Since, I wasn't familiar with the National Speakers Association, I asked a lot of questions about the group and who would be attending and making sure that my presentation would be on the mark.

I'm guessing that many of you, like me, have never heard of the National Speakers Association.   It's a membership organization for professional speakers or aspiring professional speakers.  And to be considered a professional speaker, here's some of the qualifying criteria:

• $25,000 or more giving presentations within the 12 months prior to application, OR
• compensation for 20 or more presentations within the 12 months prior to application

So, actual members of the NSA are pretty serious paid speakers.  I know a few folks who would qualify, but the list of people I know is not that long.

Part of this conversation really struck me and was a bit of a wake up call.  I do paid speaking, not enough to qualify for NSA membership.  But I've never thought of that part of my work in the same way that I think about consulting or CTO-for-Hire.  Those I treat as professional activities.  Paid speaking has always been in-bound requests based on word-of-mouth.

The organizer explained that a lot of what NSA discusses is how to run your paid speaking like a business.

A light bulb went off in my head.  But not the good kind where you have a great idea.  Rather it was a more like the realization that there were some empty sockets that needed light bulbs.  Or maybe you could say I quickly found a few great questions, a new set of items for my  To Learn List, or what I just called a Learning Ignition Point:

• What do professional speakers really do to generate paid speaking?  To make money?
• Should I be doing something different about my paid speaking?  Should I treat it more professionally?
• How can and should professional speakers use social media to help their business?

While the organizer assured me that my presentation would be just great.  The presenting what I presented to Management Consultants and Training Consultants would equally apply to professional speakers, I didn't feel comfortable with that as the answer.

What to Do When Learning Something New?

The answer of how to attack a new set of personal learning objectives is going to be quite different each time. 

I just talked about this in Online Coaching where I discussed aspects of what to do when your hit one of these learning ignition points.  What I described there holds for how I went about learning about this topic:

I take any new learning need and consider whether it's something I can likely just find through search, or if it's more complex, then I quickly move for learning need to the key question:

Who do I know who can help me figure out how to learn about this?

In practice here, I did some of the normal kinds of searches you would expect.  I found some okay resources, but the reality is that I didn't find quite what I was expecting.  When I shifted from searching to the question of Who – I found myself a bit at a loss.  As I mentioned, I know a few people who would qualify as NSA members.  I sent out a few emails and had one conversation, but it didn't help that much.

One thing I did find during my searching was that there were quite a few bloggers who talked about aspects of the business of paid speaking. 

So a light bulb went off (not an empty socket this time).  I realized that I could possibly create a Topic Hub that would:

• Bring together and organize the content of the bloggers and other sources
• Use social signals (page views, clicks, bookmarking) to help find the "good stuff"
• Add to my list of people that I could contact as I had specific questions

I reached out to one of the bloggers who looked to be a very good central point in the discussion, who had good content, and who seemed approachable.  I basically asked.  Do you think this is a good idea?  Is there already a hub like this?  The response I received was that there really wasn't anything and it seemed like a good idea.

Speaking Topic Hub

Really that's the story behind today's launch of Speaking Pro Central.   I connected with a few of the leading bloggers in the space.  Most jumped in and also pointed me to other good sources of information.  Through existing social signals that will get better over time, it is helping to find good stuff.

As an example, I already used the capabilities to help me with my post Twitter and Webinars where the Twitter – Speaking Pro Central page pointed me to all sorts of useful posts.  Based on response on Twitter to the post, it seems like other people found value in that list of posts as well.

I'm looking forward to exploring a bit around topics like: Speaking Fees, Speaking Circuits, Back-of-Room/BOR Sales, and, of course, all the stuff around Social Media.

The other important aspect is that I've already had several great conversations with people who know about professional speaking and are quite willing to answer questions as they come up.

Extended Brain

I'm not 100% sure I can capture and explain what's going on here, but I'm convinced there's an interesting new learning pattern emerging out of this.

If you step back, what I'm doing is enlisting online coaches (Online Coaching) and I'm also leveraging an approach similar to what I discussed in Informal Learning Technology.  I'm enlisting the aid of other people to help identify good content.  And I'm enlisting a very broad set of users to help surface the good stuff.  And the social signals occur without them even knowing it – just by doing what they already do.

There's another aspect to this as well.  I firmly believe that having this resource (Speaking Pro Central) is much like having my blog and having eLearning Learning.  It is my extended brain on the subject.  It's amazing how often someone asks me a question about a topic and I am able to say – I don't remember but I posted about that in my blog, or I know you can find it on eLearning Learning.  Quite literally, this morning I pointed someone to the Social Learning and Informal Learning pages on eLearning Learning as an answer to their inquiry about resources on that subject.  No, it's not a complete answer, but since I bring across a lot of the good stuff that I encounter into eLearning Learning, it's a close approximation to what I've seen that seems to be good.

In a New Way of Learning, the crux of the discussion is that there's something other than learning – as committing to long-term memory – that we are seeking.  Instead, the heart of it is seeking a result of:

subsequently be used for solving problems, making decisions, and creating new knowledge

We seek a future ability to retrieve and use the information.  See Better Memory.

I'm thinking that there's merit to this approach far beyond this specific example.

Because this is not well formed in my mind – I really hope you will chime in.

Also, I'm constantly looking for people who want to apply this to other domains.  I've been very fortunate to have people helping me to create very interesting information sources on Communities and Networks, Mobile Learning, HR Technology and many others.  If you have ideas on a domain where this makes sense, feel free to drop me an email.

Nominate XMind for Best OpenSource Application

My colleague Stephen Zhu from XMind wanted to let you know that XMind has been nominated by SourceForge as one of the best Open Source Projects. If you enjoy using XMind then here is your opportunity to nominate it for the best Open Source project. You can vote for XMind at the following address. Please vote for XMind at- sourceforge.net

Good luck to XMind!

Google - Wonder Wheel Search View

It looks like even Google has gotten the idea that it is better to visually see the results of your keyword search. Just this week, Google now gives you the option to view your search results in what they are calling the Wonder Wheel view-which looks and behaves very much like mind mapping software that you would use on your computer. You can quickly drill down on a search term by clicking on it and watch as the mind map grows showing you new ideas. Wonder wheel gives you a rudimentary view but it is nice to be able to see the links and connections of ideas as you click on the terms. Check it out if you have had a chance to look at it. You can view this video to show you how its done by clicking here.