I'm making this entry from Arlington, Virginia. I arrived to do customer training last Monday, Memorial Day here in the U.S. My hotel is near the Arlington National Cemetery, I visited the cemetary and attended the service at the Women's Memorial. It was moving to hear the tributes to the men and women from a number of countries who had lost their lives in conflicts dating back to the World Wars.

Sadly there were a number of tributes to women and men lost in the Sept 11 attack on the nearby Pentagon. It was also noteworthy -- to me at least -- that the Queen Mother was also recognized, due to her stalwart support of the fighting effort in the second World War. "America has lost a true friend."

I was also moved by the ceremony and the scope of the cemetery itself. Row upon row, acre upon acre, of crosses marking the graves of those who gave their lives in service of their country is something I'll not forget. A very sobering and awe-inspiring experience.

Follow this link to access a PDF version of the SMART Education Object SMARTEO "whitepaper."

Those that need it can click here to access Acrobat (i.e., PDF) Reader.

Well, I finally got my paper for OISE/UT CTL 1606 submitted. It presents the research behind the SMART Education Object (SMARTEO) -- my proposal for an object-based educational strategy for my employer SMART Technologies, Inc. I'll post a link to the paper when it's ready for public consumption

NOTE: I offer this public apology to Professor Owen for the paper's state as it arrived in his inbox last eve. Given it was overdue I sent it without a "printed edit." My printer is out of ink and I didn't want to leave it to this morning to get it off to him. It'd been due the previous Wed. and I was anxious to get it submitted ASAP. I found a few minor edits I needed to make. I guess my excuses are indeed my own and there's mine.

This link outlines the SMARTEO in its current (06 May 02) state.
I used the post as HTML function of SMART Ideas^(R) to make the model. It is extremely basic -- some might say crude -- by design. The goal is to provide enough of a framework to be useful without being overly prescriptive. The hope is that this will facilitate constructivist object building for both technical and non-technical learners. Pick a subject and your choice of media and make a SMARTEO.

A good link on task analysis "strategies and practices" by Bettina Lankard Brown.

Of course an important first step in determining the training or education needs of a population is to define what I expect them to be able to do. "What tasks need to be accomplished?" Once this determination has been made, then I can begin to assess the learning/training "gaps" or "needs" of each individual learner.

This will allow me to apply a construcitivist or problem-based approach to group-based information communication technologies (ICT) learning. Once the tasks (problems) to be accomplished have been defined, I can begin to define a strategy to address these same needs.

More extremely cool stuff -- here's the link Wiley et al. reference in the granularity paper.