Defining an E-Learning Strategy by Godfrey Parkin
I know that you are all just fed up with these cornerstione like kind of articles, but believe me this one is worth reading.
Parkin points to some a very comprehensive path to put an eLearning strategy in place and mentions very relevant pitfalls.
Although I strongly advice everybody to read the whole article(it's quite a short one), I'll just mention the need to link the eLearning strategy to the Learning one and that to the organization's whole strategy and not to buy a technology tool and than start acting like " a solution looking for a problem"…
http://parkinslot.blogspot.com/2005/04/defining-e-learning-strategy.html
Some Principles of Effective E-Learning – by Stephen Dowes
Not some principles (as Dowes so modestly states), but THE principles.
Interaction, Usability and Relevance.
That's all – read the article, think about it and you'll see!
I've done it and can't wait to share it with my instructional designer friends.
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/view.cgi?dbs=Article&key=1114559592
M-learning - makes me wonder...
A new buzz wonder kid is in town...m-learning. A flood of articles starts promising every possible improvement in the corporate learning arena. You just have to read the article: "Optimizing Your Sales Workforce through Mobile Learning by Christopher von Koschembahr ( http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/apr2005/vonKoschembahr.htm )" to quickly move aside so you don't disturb the making of history…
Well, I beg to differ…
I totally agree that we are moving towards JIT learning, which relies a lot upon informal tools and makes use of wireless/mobile components, but we'd better first study these possibilities very carefully !
M-learning is a means to an end of having anywhere-anytime learning. Maybe a good mean, but no more than that. I feel that we're just starting to understand what the new paradigms of corporate learning are and it's early to get excited about the tools of the trade.
I've been around for long enough not to get scared when hearing these excited noises once again, learn about pilots sprouting everywhere and then see the enthusiasm die with a bang…
Let's, for once, build this building from the basement up!
'Infomania' worse than marijuana - study by HP reveals
and I'm one of these!!!
Hot Careers in e-Learning - Fact or Fad?!?
Syed Amir Ali Hashmi, Sify Companies and educational institutes have realised the need for constant upgradation of knowledge, and e-learning is the easiest way to achieve it.E-learning not only saves time and energy, but also helps to upgrade knowledge
24x7. In the process, e-learning has opened up a barrage of job opportunities for the skilled. A couple of years ago, careers in technology-based training were, perhaps, interesting to those in the business, but essentially limited to the esoteric few. After all training, just like education, suffered from a credibility and prestige problem. But in spite of the odds, e-learning picked up and career opportunities grew. E-learning enables learning from material provided through the internet, intranet and CDs. The trend has picked up in recent years.
(http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13714454)
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WHOW People Let's EAT - Thank you jay Cross!!!
Stranger Than Fiction, Fat Boy 
Remember the scene in Woody Allen's wonderful movie Sleeper, where the scientists in the distant future chuckle about the old days in the twentieth century when people foolishly thought that chocolate, smoking, and junk food were bad for you? This morning's New York Times carried just such a story.
Some Extra Heft May Be Helpful, New Study Says
eople who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today.
The new study, considered by many independent scientists to be the most rigorous yet on the effects of weight, controlled for factors like smoking, age, race and alcohol consumption in a sophisticated analysis derived from a well-known method that has been used to predict cancer risk.
It also used the federal government's own weight categories, which define fatness and thinness according to a "body mass index" correlating weight to height, regardless of sex. For example, 5-foot-8 people weighing less than 122 pounds are underweight. If they weighed 122 to 164 pounds, their weight would be normal. They would be overweight at 165 to 196, obese at 197 to 229, and extremely obese at 230 or over.
Uh huh.
I happen to be 5-foot-8. I am at the lower end of the overweight range for that height. I am seriously trying to lose weight. I just lost a lot of motivation.
Maybe tomorrow I'll check out the new food pyramid. " ( brought by Jay Cross -
http://metatime.blogspot.com/ )
Training Positions - Career dead ends or fast speed tracks?
Clark Aldrich in the Learning Circuits Blog ( http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/ ) posted the following question :
"Canary in the Coal Mine Part II: Promotions out of Training Positions
I had a friend who suggested that training groups were career dead-ends. The cases of professionals for whom success at a high level in a training unit led to a position at an even higher level in the organization outside of training were few and far between.
If that is true, that is very frightening indeed. But if that is a false perception, it is also dangerous. Can readers comment on this, either agreeing or disagreeing with the premise, ideally with specifics as data points? "
This is a very interesting, important and complicated question and I'll try and summarize my experience on it: I was the CLO of a very big Israeli bank and was appointed to the post after being an outstanding banker. After leaving the post I became the CEO of an eLearning company; my successor was an area manager (a very senior position) and became the CEO of one of the subsidiaries of the bank in
Europe ; his successor was also an area manager. The head of Training Designing in the Training Division has just been appointed to a very strategic position in a non training related unit.
So when looking upon these cases you don't understand why there isn't a stampede to the training units…The problem is that parallel to these cases, I can mention many others that training employees found themselves in a dead end situation.
The main differentiator between these two possibilities is the positioning of the training division in the organization and the manager's position prior to coming to the training position.
When someone is appointed to an IT or financial position, this usually is looked upon as a promotion in his career. In the training field it's not automatically the case. We have to bring our own prestige with us. We depend too much upon the good will of other Executives in the organization.
So in summary, I'd say that the true (as always) is somewhere in between the dead end and the fsat track. But being totally sincere much more towards the dead end point…Sorry…
Training Pays Off
(out of The Learning Circuits Blog - http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/ )
CDW does not just let new telephone reps loose, first they must complete a six and half week training course. And their training continues with a six-month Academy and then a Master's Curriculum. While the stock market has gone down over the last five years, CDW's stock price is up fifty percent.
This is because they, like others, see training as an investment rather than an operating expense. Laurie Bassi, one-time professor of economics at Georgetown University and former vice president of ASTD says that organizations that make large investments in people do much better than others. She further says that the education and training variable is the most significant predictor of an organization's success as compared to price-to-earning ratios, price-to-book statistics, and measures of risk and volatility.
Bassi puts her theories to the test -- her and a fellow partner launched an investment firm that buys stocks in companies, such as CDW, that invest heavily in employee training. It has returned 24 percent a year over the past two years, topping the S&P by four percentage points.
In the Human Equation, Jeffery Pfeffer writes, "Virtually all descriptions of high performance management practices emphasize training" (p.85). Yet, on the very next page he writes that in times of economic stringency, many U.S. organizations reduce training to make profit goals.
Training works, yet it remains at the bottom of the pole in many an organization. But my guess is that it will not remain this way for long. The baby-boomers are starting to retire. There may be quite a few people out of work now, but when the pool of workers slowly starts to dry-up, then it is going to make the labor shortages of the late 90s look like a small bump in the road. How do we best prepare for it?
Cheers,
Donald Clark
For more on Bassi, see:
Carnahan, Ira (2005). Forbes. "Blame the Accountants". April 25, 2005, p. 48.
Delahoussaye, M & Ellis, K. & Bolch, M. (2002). Training Magazine. "Measuring Corporate Smarts." August 2002, pp. 20-35.
What is Podcasting and how can it be used in education and training?
Podcasting consist of the use of audio over the internet. The term comes
from the iPOD and broadcasting but it can be done with any MP3 player. It
is fairly easy to do podcasting and it enables users to not just listen
to audio while at their computers, a capability we all had for some time,
but it also enables download and payback in MP3 players and iPODs.
Why is podcasting important in e-learning? Simply because it is one more
form of media to use. This can be used to enhance what is already delivered
online, for example. Not only will the leaner read your web pages, interact
with software or simulation online, watch streaming video, exchange posts
with classmates, and go to live chat, but now they will also carry your
comments or lessons on their iPod or MP3 player. This provides grater time
exposure to your content and reinforces what was learned by other means
or provides significant learning in auditory learners.
In certain training situations an audio guide of how to do a certain task
could be provided. This would enable the learner to play the steps while
performing a job, for example, extending the learning into performance support.
Think creatively, podcasting has huge potential for e-learning and e-training. Gray's E-Learning Blog
http://www.grayharriman.com/blogger.html
America’s high schools are obsolete - says...Bill Gates
A very compelling and "on the dot" speech. Let's all stop and think how we can make the system better in our different countries and specific commuinities :
"By obsolete, I don’t just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed, and under-funded – though a case could be made for every one of those points.
By obsolete, I mean that our high schools – even when they’re working exactly as designed – cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.
Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today’s computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. It’s the wrong tool for the times.
Our high schools were designed fifty years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting – even ruining – the lives of millions of Americans every year.
Today, only one-third of our students graduate from high school ready for college, work, and citizenship.
The other two-thirds, most of them low-income and minority students, are tracked into courses that won’t ever get them ready for college or prepare them for a family-wage job – no matter how well the students learn or the teachers teach.
This isn’t an accident or a flaw in the system; it is the system. "
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/MediaCenter/Speeches/BillgSpeeches/BGSpeechNGA-050226.htm
