Pink Pachyderms?

"The name Pachyderm came from a Thai restaurant called Arawan in Sausalito, California. Using that as the code name for our authoring and publishing tool was the result of thirty minutes of debate, and while that decision was perhaps made with haste, the desire to build a custom tool came from five years of multimedia development experience at the museum." -- from the opening paragraph of "The Why, What, and How of a Custom Authoring and Publishing System: The Creation of Pachyderm."

I first posted about Pachyderm some time ago. My frustration then was that it was impossible to find out anything about how the critter works. After doing some more digging, I have come up with the link to an article that explains it. Pachyderm is, essentially, flat text files in Flash templates. There is no metadata. I am still in the dark as to just how interactive the resulting applications are, except that they seem to be similar to an educational exhibit in a museum (allowing more for exploration within the limits of the underlying database than for instruction). I think the exploration is limited just to the database, not allowing for searches out into the Web, but I could be wrong about that. It sounds like the museums that are working with Pachyderm are trying to make it more of an actual e-Learning tool, but to me, at the moment, it looks more like a tool for publishing reference resources. But it is an interesting relative of the Canadian Learning Object Repositories and worth understanding. -- BB

1/31/2004 Update: Pachyderm storyboards. May help explain things.

The Pachyderm is Coming to Town.

No, this is not about the circus. Well, we hope not. Tomorrow (Jan 30) is our Pachyderm: Building Meaningful Content with Learning Objects Dialogue Day event for about 70 registered participants from our colleges, held at Paradise Valley Community College (our "Dialogue Days" are one day special events, workshops, etc that are organized by our office in response to requests of faculty or promising trends, etc).

Pachyderm is one of the most promising tools that would actually be able to build something useful from so-called Learning Objects. Developed by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as a vehicle to allow non-technical staff (museum curators) to create rich multimedia web/CD/kiosk experiences that add layers of context around the museum exhibits, and it is constructed via a web interface that accesses a database of digitized assets. It is not a small leap to say this is a similar need for faculty, so SFMOMA in conjunction with the New Media Consortium (NMC) have launched the Pachyderm 2.0 project with this goal in mind- to create an open-source authoring platform for educators.

5:13:45 PM    

The eLearning Guild continues to grow, develops new programs.

In an article to be published Monday, The eLearning Guild notes its second anniversary is coming in March. In two years, The Guild has grown to over 10,000 members worldwide, and has expanded its online and onsite offerings.

In addition to the weekly eLearning Developers' Journal, The Guild provides a Resource Directory, Info Exchange, and Job Board on its Web site. The organization has also added a Research Director to develop, analyze, and report to the membership on a number of topics. Last year's popular Salary Survey is to be conducted again this year.

The Guild's annual event, The eLearning Producer Conference, will be conducted for the third time this October; last year's event in San Francisco attracted hundreds of people and the attendance is projected to increase in 2004. Also being repeated in June is The eLearning Instructional Design Symposium. Last year's symposium was attended by 100 people on site, and by over 30 people who logged in to the simultaneous Web-cast. 

The Guild is adding another symposium in 2004: The eLearning Flash Developer's Symposium (April 19-21 in Boston). both symposia will be Web-cast. Organizations can opt to purchase a Site Registration that allows an entire team to participate.

Finally, The Guild is launching a new series of online events this year. The eLearning Guild Online Forums will be held on the second Thursday of each month starting in February. Each Online Forum will address one topic, and consists of four 75 minute sessions that drill into specific areas of the subject. A different speaker presents each session, and an experienced professional online facilitator will host and moderate the events. The first Online Forum, on February 12, will address Managing and Delivering High-Impact Synchronous Learning. The other topics are listed in the article to be published on Monday.

Full membership and associate membership details are available on The Guild Web site. It is not necessary to join in order to attend Guild events and to participate in symposia, but members receive a large discount on the price, as do academic institutions.

[The editor of this weblog is also the editor of The eLearning Developers' Journal. Just to be perfectly upfront about the relationship and all. However, this weblog is not affiliated with or funded by The Guild. I am highlighting this information as I highlight information about other conferences, events, and organizations of interest to e-Learning entrepreneurs.]

10:34:50 AM    

RFPs: Government Online Learning Center.

Heads up! (Thanks, Gord)-- BB

Feds search for Online Training Services. Federal Computer Week reports that the Office of Personnel Management is seeking ideas from contractors and academic institutions to develop a task order for online training, products and services for the Government Online Learning Center.

"Known as GoLearn, the program provides Web-based human capital performance tools such as academic, technical and organizational courses for federal workers ... The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts would be for services such as learning management systems, content management, Web collaboration software, licensing, credentials and online academic degrees ... according to an OPM announcement released on Jan. 21."

The RFPs will be available electronically in 45 days, and small businesses whose annual revenues are less than $21 million, as well as colleges, universities and professional schools are encouraged to submit a proposal.

FCW Article: "Wanted: GoLearn thoughts" [e-Learning Eclectic]

11:05:00 PM