Have you taken the pinning plunge into the profoundly popular Pinterest? We have – click the button:    Pins have been popping up everywhere, if you ever check your Facebook or Twitter account.  It seems that photosharing has caught the popular interest and doesn’y seem to show any signs of slowing. Will Pinterest be a new staple like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?  Or, do you see this more of a flash in the pan? If you are trying to figure out what Pinterest is all about or how to just use it better, I have included an infographic that should help.  Please pin it: 1.3 million visitors a day is a tremendous 1st act.  Does Pinterest have the staying power to rank among the leading social … Continue Reading »

If you are using a learning management system (LMS) at your company, or access your college courses on your iPad, one famous quote rings true: “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once and awhile, you might miss it.” - Ferris Bueller OK, there may be better quotes, but anytime I get to work in that quote, I take the opportunity.  I think you get the point. Learning technology has changed quickly, but it is important to remember its roots.  The infographic below, created by Rasmussen College, charts the vast changes in learning systems starting all the way back to the first known ‘distance learning’ course conducted via standard mail. While I understand that this infographic is designed … Continue Reading »

        It’s that time of year to vote for the best-in-class learning management systems (LMS). We are asking for your vote. In its 7th year, the Best of Elearning! Awards are the exclusive reader’s choice awards program for e-learning products and services. No short lists of products. All, 100% of the nominations, are reader nominated and selected. Readers and users of e-learning solutions nominate and vote for solutions across 26 different categories. TOPYX social LMS has been honored with Best of Elearning! awards in 2009, 2010 and 2011.  Help TOPYX be recognized again in 2012! Please cast your vote at: http://www.b2bmediaco.com/fileadmin/php/ballot.php The most relevant categories where we would appreciate your vote are: 1.Best Learning Management System (SaaS, Cloud-based, or open-source only) 16. Best Social Learning … Continue Reading »

The infographic above and the article below are from our friends at onlinecolleges.net.  As always, if you are interested in meteoric growth in social learning, you may want to review our social learning management system (LMS) TOPYX to see how you can start using the latest tools to increase collaboration and help you reach your learning management goals. We hope you enjoy the infographic and these tips and resources to get more out of LinkedIn: Tips Whether you’re a LinkedIn newbie or just need to become more effective on the site, these tips offer great ideas for LinkedIn networking as a new grad. Use it: Too often, students and recent grads shy away from LinkedIn, preferring to use Facebook or Twitter … Continue Reading »

Student engagement and how to make your social media “learning” environment secure in academia We are often asked what benefits social media “learning” brings to an academic environment?  Where are the boundaries between learning and distraction?  If students are using social media to post photos and chat with friends, is this really learning or just another social distraction from academic studies? Many Professors might be sceptical about ‘encouraging’  their students to further engage in social media, seeing it as purely a distraction from their studies. Social media in its traditional sense might be just that ‘social’: it allows people to connect and chat together.  As seen in How the Social Network is Enriching the College Experience infographic below, there is a … Continue Reading »

It sounds like an oxymoron a “lost smartphone” how can that happen?  But wait until you read the statistics supplied by our friends at Background Check (http://www.backgroundcheck.org).  Each day $7 million worth of phones are lost around the globe and two-thirds of those are lost between 9PM and 2AM, hmmm!! Read on and shake your head and if you are one of those who have lost your phone the rest of us really do feel your pain.  We have all become so dependent on technology; it is so very helpful (most of it) for our everyday lives. We have become a society with access to an incomprehensible amount a data right at our figure tips, as long as we keep or hands … Continue Reading »

Social media has made me better at my job. Through networks I’ve built online, I’ve developed new relationships, learned new skills and built a group of people who are always available to provide feedback and resources. With a global economy and tough competition in every sector, corporations struggle to do more with less – and social networks are an opportunity to unlock learning at an infinite scale. When I work with businesses to assist them in developing learning and development programs, I am shocked to discover how many organizations are stuck in an old-fashioned mindset. They’re focused not on building networks to share information but instead are concerned about losing productivity and controlling the message when employees communicate with each … Continue Reading »