The Internet is going ga ga about it; the mobile lovers can’t seem to get enough of it; the Apple fanboys have already bought it; while the rest have been writing about it. So what is the deal with iPad 2 that had led to a mania of sorts? We give you the lowdown on this new tab – find all that you need to know before spending your dollars on it. More on tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of your iPad, digital story telling and the future of the tablet.

Speaking of the iPad, the growth of mobile devices has led to an increase in social and informal learning. Know how you can evaluate this new form of learning effectively. Also, find interesting reads on eLearning and technology sprinkled finely throughout this post.

Read it all here in our Weekly Digest – a collection of our top 16 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

Need to quench your thirst for the latest in learning, technology and media links further? You can dig into our previous lists here.

I came across this mind map by Cammy Bean which covers nearly all the tools available for creating/authoring eLearning content. She tries to find answers to three simple questions regarding each tools mentioned in the mind map –

- When do I use it?
- What do I like about it?
- What do I not like about it?

After a few years of hype, mobile learning has now started flourishing; the advent of new generation of mobile devices, high-speed network access, powerful mobile browsers and better native apps are all contributing to this. There is still a lack of standardization across devices and amongst networks across geographical areas resulting in mlearning content development being somewhat constrained.

Before beginning to develop mLearning on their own, they should keep in mind some technical considerations. Earlier we’ve mentioned some tools that can assist you in mLearning applications. However, each one needs a fair bit of knowledge and skills before they can actually implement solutions using these tools.

Previously when I discussed freeform and template-based rapid content authoring tools, I kept software simulation tools aside.

The main reason was that such simulation tools are not always used for developing just any type of learning but focused on training content creation for a specific software application or system.

While working on rapid authored courses (courses authored using rapid authoring tools), I often encounter the decision point of whether to use freeform rapid authoring tools or the traditional template-based tools. Both have their own pros and cons. In this post, I attempt to discuss more on these.

Last year, we mentioned that there is a time and place for rapid authoring while opting for it.

I have been involved with Rapid eLearning Projects at Upside and also creation of our own Rapid Authoring Framework that sits in our LMS (UpsideLMS). Naturally I do a lot of sifting around Rapid eLearning. I thought it would be a good idea to share my list of top 25 blog posts on the subject. These posts cover varied topics around rapid eLearning including authoring tools, effective techniques, and decision considerations. Some of the posts are on specific tools (like Articulate) but generally you will find them equally useful for any rapid tool/framework you use.