I'm quoting an article on a study of Google use for learning purposes here. Researchers at Penn State University found that instead of looking for new information, search engines are primarily used to fact check information that you already know."Not just a place to find facts, but to show that you know the facts"
More here.
Feb 7, 2010
Jan 27, 2010
Dokeos open course LMS becomes Chamilo
There are a few dozen open source Learning Management Systems out there like Moodle (most popular), ILIAS, aTutor, etc. For years I kept an eye on what Dokeos did, an open source from Belgium that did quite well. Dokeos I believe itself was a fork of the Claroline system because of some difference in view. For the last years Dokeos has gone more and more into a commercial direction, with a stripped free version. And now the community of Dokeos developers thinks that has gone too far, so meet the newest fork: chamilo. A few weeks ago this new project kicked off, bringing the old Dokeos code back to a 'real' open source and free community. It is so interesting to see what is going on with socially developed software and their communities. It's not Coronation street, but it is its own kind of soap :) .
Jan 17, 2010
Five trends for brainstorming on learning innovation
Disclaimer: written with dictation software
Last week I lead a brainstorming session for the learning innovation stream at work. It is based on the methods of the corporate GPS by the district of creativity. That method works pretty well because at the end of the afternoon or table was literally full of yellow sticky notes. the GPS brainstorming works with one central question and six themes. The central question was our department's motto "better learning for a smarter workforce", and one of the teams or trends is an open category. I wanted to share with you the five trends chosen.
We learning
We tend to have individual development plans, individual learning, individual assessment, leading to individual behavior and individual performance. for the large majority of services however individual performance doesn't matter. Unless you are an artist or a blacksmith, what counts is the performance of the team. There is not so much you can do just on your own. So this trend investigates what we can do to help the team learn better, and how to assess the competence of the team rather than the individual.
Gesture, touch and voice
This year we expect major breakthroughs in the interaction between people and computer systems. Just look at these videos of Microsoft's project not tell or debt TED video on sixth sense. so far in the learning we have worked primarily with audio and vision. What can these new interfaces do for learning?
More with less
There is increasing pressure on the learning and development department to do more with less, to become more productive. That demand becomes stronger in an economic crisis, but never ever goes away. The credo more with less is not only valid for the production side of learning programs, learners also need more relevant learning and have less time for the learning activity.
Not computers
This trend is about using any learning technology, but not the traditional computer or laptop system. Think about mobiles, think about TV, think about tablets, think about RFID tags, think about e-readers, think about augmented reality goggles, anything but computers.
Learning friendly
For this trend, try to get content out of your head, and focus on creating a learning friendly environment where the context and collaboration aspects are suited for optimal learning. What makes an organization in learning friendly environment?
I'm using a trial version of the site teepin.com to capture all ideas for our innovation work. So far feedback from people has been positive, and the ideas keep streaming in.
Last week I lead a brainstorming session for the learning innovation stream at work. It is based on the methods of the corporate GPS by the district of creativity. That method works pretty well because at the end of the afternoon or table was literally full of yellow sticky notes. the GPS brainstorming works with one central question and six themes. The central question was our department's motto "better learning for a smarter workforce", and one of the teams or trends is an open category. I wanted to share with you the five trends chosen.
We learning
We tend to have individual development plans, individual learning, individual assessment, leading to individual behavior and individual performance. for the large majority of services however individual performance doesn't matter. Unless you are an artist or a blacksmith, what counts is the performance of the team. There is not so much you can do just on your own. So this trend investigates what we can do to help the team learn better, and how to assess the competence of the team rather than the individual.
Gesture, touch and voice
This year we expect major breakthroughs in the interaction between people and computer systems. Just look at these videos of Microsoft's project not tell or debt TED video on sixth sense. so far in the learning we have worked primarily with audio and vision. What can these new interfaces do for learning?
More with less
There is increasing pressure on the learning and development department to do more with less, to become more productive. That demand becomes stronger in an economic crisis, but never ever goes away. The credo more with less is not only valid for the production side of learning programs, learners also need more relevant learning and have less time for the learning activity.
Not computers
This trend is about using any learning technology, but not the traditional computer or laptop system. Think about mobiles, think about TV, think about tablets, think about RFID tags, think about e-readers, think about augmented reality goggles, anything but computers.
Learning friendly
For this trend, try to get content out of your head, and focus on creating a learning friendly environment where the context and collaboration aspects are suited for optimal learning. What makes an organization in learning friendly environment?
I'm using a trial version of the site teepin.com to capture all ideas for our innovation work. So far feedback from people has been positive, and the ideas keep streaming in.
Jan 13, 2010
My take on 2010
Now it's my turn to make some predictions on this new year. I guess my main observation is this one: there is not one dominant trend for this year. Everything that was, will continue.
Technology
There are new emerging ways to interact with computer systems, and they are targeted for a breakthrough this year. I'm thinking off Microsoft's project Natal, and the sixth sense video on TED. Touching screens will become more commonplace, on traditional computers and all new toys like tablets. Speaking of toys: Google released one, and Apple might soon. Once again, this is the year that mobile learning is supposed to have a breakthrough. for the software part of technology, the bet is clear. if you still twitter is cooled this year, you will have missed the wave.
Integration
Within corporations learning and development and is encapsulates it evermore within the broader spectrum of talent management. That trend will continue in process, in platforms, and in departmental structures.
Productivity
This one never goes away: doing more with less. Crisis or no crisis, there will always be pressure on the learning folks to achieve more [and measurable] results in less time, which has budget, and less people. Don't just think of doing the same stings better, but doing other things. The way retrained 10 years ago will never return.
Multi-generations
The debate we had a few years ago about a new generation of learners entering the workforce, was not an accurate one. I'm not contributing to the big question whether learning styles in new generations really exists, and ig generations are defined by age. Research is not conclusive on that. What we will need to deal with in corporations is developing and transferring skills between at least four generations of workers, which may because of their history have different expectations and/or styles. So far boat education and training have mainly dealt with one dominant generation at the time. This simplified life is over, at least for the corporate world. It is not about new generations, it's about accommodating multiple generations, also in your training programs. my hope is that our solution will not be like the one we invent it to accommodate people with all kinds of disabilities for learning. Because of cost reasons, we don't often go for a one-size-fits-all, boring, least common denominator approach. I would hope that we find ways to generate a set of learning activities on the same topic, where people with different preferences and backgrounds will all find the learning they deserve.
And now for the big theme
So there is no single dominant theme. Big deal. Let's invent one. I declared this to be my theme for learning in 2010: learning for a better world. We tend to focus a lot on all the things that are wrong with learning or not adjusted to the current times anymore. But on a positive spin, learning has made a hell of a lot of difference over the years. We did fulfil on our potential to unlock talent and give it access to education and opportunity to florish. Not for all (yet), but for many more than ever before. We did achieve productivty gains in the learning administration and delivery. We did apply new technology and new insights for the better. I like to think that learning in all its forms does make a difference for the better in this world. So let's focus on that. Let us think about all the great things we have achieved, while also carefully considering where we might have done better, and should do so in the future. Learning makes the world a better place. Let us make that the theme of this year. It immediatly answers the ever heard cry for the results and impact of our profession.
PS Made with dictation software, so sorry for all the odd words I didn't spot before I pushed the publish button.
Technology
There are new emerging ways to interact with computer systems, and they are targeted for a breakthrough this year. I'm thinking off Microsoft's project Natal, and the sixth sense video on TED. Touching screens will become more commonplace, on traditional computers and all new toys like tablets. Speaking of toys: Google released one, and Apple might soon. Once again, this is the year that mobile learning is supposed to have a breakthrough. for the software part of technology, the bet is clear. if you still twitter is cooled this year, you will have missed the wave.
Integration
Within corporations learning and development and is encapsulates it evermore within the broader spectrum of talent management. That trend will continue in process, in platforms, and in departmental structures.
Productivity
This one never goes away: doing more with less. Crisis or no crisis, there will always be pressure on the learning folks to achieve more [and measurable] results in less time, which has budget, and less people. Don't just think of doing the same stings better, but doing other things. The way retrained 10 years ago will never return.
Multi-generations
The debate we had a few years ago about a new generation of learners entering the workforce, was not an accurate one. I'm not contributing to the big question whether learning styles in new generations really exists, and ig generations are defined by age. Research is not conclusive on that. What we will need to deal with in corporations is developing and transferring skills between at least four generations of workers, which may because of their history have different expectations and/or styles. So far boat education and training have mainly dealt with one dominant generation at the time. This simplified life is over, at least for the corporate world. It is not about new generations, it's about accommodating multiple generations, also in your training programs. my hope is that our solution will not be like the one we invent it to accommodate people with all kinds of disabilities for learning. Because of cost reasons, we don't often go for a one-size-fits-all, boring, least common denominator approach. I would hope that we find ways to generate a set of learning activities on the same topic, where people with different preferences and backgrounds will all find the learning they deserve.
And now for the big theme
So there is no single dominant theme. Big deal. Let's invent one. I declared this to be my theme for learning in 2010: learning for a better world. We tend to focus a lot on all the things that are wrong with learning or not adjusted to the current times anymore. But on a positive spin, learning has made a hell of a lot of difference over the years. We did fulfil on our potential to unlock talent and give it access to education and opportunity to florish. Not for all (yet), but for many more than ever before. We did achieve productivty gains in the learning administration and delivery. We did apply new technology and new insights for the better. I like to think that learning in all its forms does make a difference for the better in this world. So let's focus on that. Let us think about all the great things we have achieved, while also carefully considering where we might have done better, and should do so in the future. Learning makes the world a better place. Let us make that the theme of this year. It immediatly answers the ever heard cry for the results and impact of our profession.
PS Made with dictation software, so sorry for all the odd words I didn't spot before I pushed the publish button.
What other people predict for 2010
Disclaimer: I'm still playing with my dictation software. If you see any odd words, that's the reason.
By now, most people have reflected on learning in 2009, and made some predictions for learning in 2010. Some brave people even compared their own predictions which the reality of 2009. in this article, I'm going over some quotes that I found about what people think 2010 will bring in learning land.
Bersin: Josh Bersin released a report in December entitled "corporate learning and talent management predictions for 2010". here are the predictions that strike me:
Jeanne Meister: she describes corporate learning in 2010 with five words: social, mobile, collaborative, engaging, fun. Was engaging and fun not a promise we made about e-learning a long, long, long time ago? It's probably one of those good intentions you repeat every year, like doing more sports.
Learning Solutions Magazine (Bill Brandon): I think this one nails it: "for most e-learning practitioners, 2010 will be the same as 2009, with no significant changes in practice or tools. However, the need to cut costs will drive constant incremental changes in several areas." Other quotes that strike me:
And those are just a few. So what to make of all of that? Where do you put your money?
By now, most people have reflected on learning in 2009, and made some predictions for learning in 2010. Some brave people even compared their own predictions which the reality of 2009. in this article, I'm going over some quotes that I found about what people think 2010 will bring in learning land.
Bersin: Josh Bersin released a report in December entitled "corporate learning and talent management predictions for 2010". here are the predictions that strike me:
- Human resources starts a major transformation from strategic to business driven
- Leadership development programs focus on first-line management
- A shift from e-learning to we learning
- More integration of talent management systems and the acquisition of stand-alone vendors
- Measurement of human resources and learning alike is a major priority
Jeanne Meister: she describes corporate learning in 2010 with five words: social, mobile, collaborative, engaging, fun. Was engaging and fun not a promise we made about e-learning a long, long, long time ago? It's probably one of those good intentions you repeat every year, like doing more sports.
Learning Solutions Magazine (Bill Brandon): I think this one nails it: "for most e-learning practitioners, 2010 will be the same as 2009, with no significant changes in practice or tools. However, the need to cut costs will drive constant incremental changes in several areas." Other quotes that strike me:
- the area where management sees the most opportunity to cut learning costs is design and production.
- Most notable for tools is the shift of high-cost applications to cloud.(That's a substitution of tools.)
- subject matter networks as opposed to subject matter experts (via Mark Oehlert)
- Google wave
- and then the usual stuff about mobile learning, games and simulations, and augmented reality
And those are just a few. So what to make of all of that? Where do you put your money?
Jan 3, 2010
I'm reading work smarter by Jay cross and friends
I've just read the first hundred pages of the un-book Work Smarter, written by Jay cross and friends. It is a self published book on lulu.com. Up to page 100 [where I am now] it is surprisingly good for a beta book. I will not write a review here. Instead, I will present you with some key sentences and slogans that have catched my eye. I'm a sucker for a good slogan, it will give you an idea of what the book is about as much as a review would do. I'm a reader of Jay's blog, so I am familiar with his thinking already.
The workplace is an open book exam. Indeed, why stuff all necessarily knowledge in your poor head? Nowadays it's more important to find out at the moment of needs by leveraging your connections and all the web content that is available at your fingertips.
Continual learning to problem solving and collaboration is the key. Again, I agree. You can give them a fish, or you can teach them how to fish. The likelihood that we can train people to deal with the exact situations we intend to train for, is small. It is better to train people how to cope with situations they might encounter.
Knowledge workers need leaders, not managers. Their work is better driven by values done by rules. Managing is not anymore when it's used to be. What does a manager know about the ever-changing world of the professional? These days, your hierarchical supervisor can tell you what needs to be done and where to end up, but not how to get there anymore.
Informal learning, the major source of knowledge and innovation, is left to chance. I'm not an advocate of turning in formal learning in perform on learning. Instead, I favor informal learning to be supported, encouraged, made visible, and in the end make it count.
Executives don't want learning: they want execution, they want performance. In a business setting, it's indeed all about performance and the value that performance will generate. In my book Homo competence, I use the picture below. Learning is only important in so far it helps competence.
Modern instructional design needs to focus on creating flexible environments that nurture learning, rather than rigid programs that attempt to force lessons into the head of learners. Maybe we should have a label "learning friendly", awarded by the learners themselves?
Performance support trumps training every time.but there is a lot of pressure to do the training thing. Even if we know we are overloading people at a moment they will forget because not relevant yet. In the defense of the training folks: they don't really get to say whether the training will go ahead, they just get to make it and deliver it.
Your charter as chief learning Officer is to optimize learning throughout the organization, not just in the pockets that once belonged to HR.The attention of learning folks should indeed spend outside of their traditional kingdom into all corners of the organization, its partners, and its customers.
Free range learners. I just like the terminology I can picture them in my head :-)
Too many people who talk about the ROI of learning are focused on being precisely wrong rather than directionally correct. The ancient 'impact of learning' debate.
You must manage what you can't measure. In the industrial age it used to be the other way around: you can't manage what you can't measure. Now you need to. But how? And how to do it in a meaningful and trusted way?
These are the slogans and key sentences that I wrote down until page 100. As I said before, there's nothing major I disagree which. I like his work. But I'm not part of the group that wants a revolution. I rather pragmatic and how we get to the promised land based on what we have today. You can't change false systems like education and corporate training in a small time frame. Not even if you shout at it.
The workplace is an open book exam. Indeed, why stuff all necessarily knowledge in your poor head? Nowadays it's more important to find out at the moment of needs by leveraging your connections and all the web content that is available at your fingertips.
Continual learning to problem solving and collaboration is the key. Again, I agree. You can give them a fish, or you can teach them how to fish. The likelihood that we can train people to deal with the exact situations we intend to train for, is small. It is better to train people how to cope with situations they might encounter.
Knowledge workers need leaders, not managers. Their work is better driven by values done by rules. Managing is not anymore when it's used to be. What does a manager know about the ever-changing world of the professional? These days, your hierarchical supervisor can tell you what needs to be done and where to end up, but not how to get there anymore.
Informal learning, the major source of knowledge and innovation, is left to chance. I'm not an advocate of turning in formal learning in perform on learning. Instead, I favor informal learning to be supported, encouraged, made visible, and in the end make it count.
Executives don't want learning: they want execution, they want performance. In a business setting, it's indeed all about performance and the value that performance will generate. In my book Homo competence, I use the picture below. Learning is only important in so far it helps competence.
Modern instructional design needs to focus on creating flexible environments that nurture learning, rather than rigid programs that attempt to force lessons into the head of learners. Maybe we should have a label "learning friendly", awarded by the learners themselves?
Performance support trumps training every time.but there is a lot of pressure to do the training thing. Even if we know we are overloading people at a moment they will forget because not relevant yet. In the defense of the training folks: they don't really get to say whether the training will go ahead, they just get to make it and deliver it.
Your charter as chief learning Officer is to optimize learning throughout the organization, not just in the pockets that once belonged to HR.The attention of learning folks should indeed spend outside of their traditional kingdom into all corners of the organization, its partners, and its customers.
Free range learners. I just like the terminology I can picture them in my head :-)
Too many people who talk about the ROI of learning are focused on being precisely wrong rather than directionally correct. The ancient 'impact of learning' debate.
You must manage what you can't measure. In the industrial age it used to be the other way around: you can't manage what you can't measure. Now you need to. But how? And how to do it in a meaningful and trusted way?
These are the slogans and key sentences that I wrote down until page 100. As I said before, there's nothing major I disagree which. I like his work. But I'm not part of the group that wants a revolution. I rather pragmatic and how we get to the promised land based on what we have today. You can't change false systems like education and corporate training in a small time frame. Not even if you shout at it.
Dec 31, 2009
The end of 2009 and the start of dictation
I've got a new toy for Christmas. This is the first article I am dictating instead of writing. For Christmas, I got speech recognition software. It actually works quite well. The software is called Dragon Naturally Speaking and it is actually a continuation of the software of L&H that was sold off when they got bankrupt. One thing bugs me: it assumes that people speak only one language. It's not possible to buy another language to add to your system, you have to buy the software again, including a new microphone, for every other language you want to speak. If my computer had actually shipped with the English copy of Windows Vista, I would have had speech recognition all along. But my Windows copy is in Dutch, so it is impossible to get the English speech recognition engine to run on it. What's up with that? Again, some company assumes that I only speak one language. Since I was an adolescent, I am a multilingual person. I speak Dutch, French and English and then some. Operating systems and programs want to reduce me to a one language man. So on my wish list for 2010 I hope software will recognize the reality that most people on this planet speak more than one language.
Speaking of 2010, what else can we hope for? Is this going to be the year that an LMS system becomes less important? It is going to be the year that the we take care of collaboration and connections more and focus a little less on content in our education and training programs? Is it the year we will discover that training individuals doesn't really matter because everything is done in a team? Is it the year we will come out of a crisis which fresh ideas or will we continue where we left off? Is it going to be the year of the final breakthrough of e-books and e-readers, making books as free and as pirated as music in the process? Will this be the year where we will interact with computer systems through gestures and touch rather than mouse clicks? We'll see it all when it happens.
Have a great year end and a good start of 2010!
Bert
PS: I did manually correct the dictation. The software [or my voice] is not perfect.
Speaking of 2010, what else can we hope for? Is this going to be the year that an LMS system becomes less important? It is going to be the year that the we take care of collaboration and connections more and focus a little less on content in our education and training programs? Is it the year we will discover that training individuals doesn't really matter because everything is done in a team? Is it the year we will come out of a crisis which fresh ideas or will we continue where we left off? Is it going to be the year of the final breakthrough of e-books and e-readers, making books as free and as pirated as music in the process? Will this be the year where we will interact with computer systems through gestures and touch rather than mouse clicks? We'll see it all when it happens.
Have a great year end and a good start of 2010!
Bert
PS: I did manually correct the dictation. The software [or my voice] is not perfect.
Dec 18, 2009
Conference replays : Learning 2009 and Learntrends
Around the new year, there is some more time to look up from our busy busy projects and jobs to what is happening in learning land. That's probably why that is also the conference season for a lot of learning conferences. Traditionally, I only visit one conference in the flesh: Online Educa Berlin. But I've attended some others 'virtually', as they post replays of their sessions for free on the web. I wanted to share those:
- Learntrends: this was a completely online free conference done by Jay Cross, George Siemens and Tony Karrer. Replays for most sessions at the learntrends site.
- Learning 2009: This is Elliott Masie's conference in Orlando every year. He posted some video of the major sessions too. Go here.
If I don't find the time to blog before Christmas: have a merry one.
- Learntrends: this was a completely online free conference done by Jay Cross, George Siemens and Tony Karrer. Replays for most sessions at the learntrends site.
- Learning 2009: This is Elliott Masie's conference in Orlando every year. He posted some video of the major sessions too. Go here.
If I don't find the time to blog before Christmas: have a merry one.
Dec 8, 2009
Battle of the bloggers 2009
I realise it has been ages since I blogged on this one. In 2009 I did a lot of internal blogging inside the firewall of IBM, and on my homocompetens blog, but less here.
Anyway, I've done it again. I mean hosting the battle of the bloggers at Online Educa Berlin. This year the panel had well known bloggers Clive Shepherd, Donald Clark, Ellen D Wagner and Jane Hart. Here is the presentation with the 5 topics of the 'battle'.
The title of the session is just great of course, and we all know it doesn't cover it. It's not a real battle (luckily :-) ) and it's not just about bloggers. The audience was even less talking and more into typing on the backchannel than last year. It was an honor to host it again.
Update: I realise you need more than the slides to get this year's battle topics. So here is how to replay your own battle of the bloggers.
On a sidenote: when I logged into slideshare.net to upload my presentation, my picture had changed. Is that a new feature? I don't care how much more you like that picture over my face, it's not me!
Update: I realise you need more than the slides to get this year's battle topics. So here is how to replay your own battle of the bloggers.
- Warm up : In December 2012 (according to the calendar of the Mayas) the world will end. How will learning/teaching/tools/training be different between now and when the world ends? Look around what lives in research, what vendors are vending, the trends of learning land, etc.
- Round 1 : About the brain. There has been a lot of talk about the brain and learning this year. We still don't know much about the brain. The rest of the body is easy: that's just mechanics really. But there is so little we know about the working of the gray matter. The picture on slide 9 is taken from an art exhibition. It's a new ultra portable device that scans for brain activity. Based on what part of the brain is active, metal plates on the ceiling make noise. The press article mentionned potential application in the field of e-learning: you can tell when a learner is distracted and respond to that in the e-learning course. Mmmm. Scary thought. "Mr Stevens, I don't know what you are thinking right know, but I know it's not mathematics."... At the one hand there are books such as 'brain rules' that provide practical tips for learning based on brain research. At the other hand, it's not because we know how two neurons communicate in the brain, that we can sensibly make any extrapolation on complex processes such as learning. What if anything can we use from brain science to make learning better?
- Round 2 : The picture on slide 12 is one of 'the oldest profession'. But that is not correct. If you ask me, our profession is the oldest. And with 1/60 Americans in the education business, I'd argue we are not only the oldest, but also biggest profession of them all. But we don't seem to agree on anything. At the one hand we celebrate 50 years of Kirkpatrick's 4 level learning assessment, but at the other hand you'll find a lot of reasons why that model is crap. There seem to be so many urban legends in learning: left/right brain, you remember 50% of what you smell, learning styles, etc. Is there a common language in learning? Do we agree on anything or are we all working in our little corners? Having common understanding and common language can lead to scale and scope effects and make our profession stand out more and more productive. At the other hand, a highly fragmented and unregulated profession that doesn't have a common language or understanding has more diversity. Or maybe we should keep using models even when they are crap, just because these half lies are the only thing that keeps our profession together. What do you think about the common language of the learning profession? Whe hold these truths to be self evident...
- Round 3: The picture on slide 15 is 'a fool with a tool'. Don't you find it strange? People will always tell you 'it's not the tool, it's what you do with it', and then go into a 1 hour discussion on specific features of specific tools. What's with that? The observation here is on the top 100 most used e-learning tools as traced by the Queen of e-learning tools, Jane Hart. Only one of them, on place 14, is a pure and hardcore learning tool. It's moodle. All the others are tools that at the best have learning as some by-product. Should we have more dedicated tools for proper learning? Or should we move more into the direction of finding learning uses in everyday tools? If we go for the latter, what with all the research funding and corporate R&D on the many learning tools, not to mention the dear old LMS?
- Round 4: This round in short is about the central question: will we have more success with instructionally sound or with contextually relevant learning? Instructionally sound is good content, with proper pedagogical models behind, and proven impact. It's the learning we would all like to develop and diffuse. It's the learning that gets awards. Contextually relevant learning is good enough learning but at the exact moment of need. The world moves at hyperspeed. Is there still time to create pedagogically sound material? Do monkeys run the show instead of professionals?
- Round 5: The wall. It has been 20 years since the Berlin wall came down. In our field, there are many walls. There are walls between the education and the corporate training world. There are walls between individual institutions in the education chain, as there are walls between the corporate divisional kingdoms that have their own learning organisation. There are walls between learning and the other functions of talent management and HR. There are walls between related (or equal?) fields as knowledge management and training. You can do two things with walls: keep (or enforce) them or demolish them. It's very popular to bring down walls, certainly in a world that is increasingly interconnected. Breaking walls in our field means open standards, open content, an education chain, learning integrated in the work, etc. But maybe some walls are there to protect us? What if you are not an English speaking culture, should you have walls to protect you against the flood of the wisdom of English speaking crowd? What if the walls keep us together instead of spreading us out in all directions? What if they keep out evil or ensure you can charge for your service instead of drowning in the all-for-free world? In short, this round is about walls, and which walls to keep, and which to destroy.
Oct 25, 2009
Learning outsourcing hits the classroom
The learning outsourcing that I know about deals mostly with the learning administration. When your students call the enrolment office, little do they realise they are being served out of India or the Philippines. It is common for multinationals to either group their learning administration and IT where is is cheap, or to outsource that purely operational side of learning to others.
In last week's Data News (a local IT magazine here), I read that learning outsourcing has hit the classroom training. It is actually cheaper for IT administrators to get their Microsoft, Cisco or other certification by flying all the way to India and do the courses and exams over there. With the airline fee and hotel included, that's still cheaper than earning the title in the local country.
So now learning outsourcing gets very physical...
In last week's Data News (a local IT magazine here), I read that learning outsourcing has hit the classroom training. It is actually cheaper for IT administrators to get their Microsoft, Cisco or other certification by flying all the way to India and do the courses and exams over there. With the airline fee and hotel included, that's still cheaper than earning the title in the local country.
So now learning outsourcing gets very physical...
Oct 4, 2009
I know what you're thinking...
In the arts centre STUK here in Leuven there's a special installation by artist Christoph De Boeck. You can actually listen to your brain. Here's how it works: the visitor puts on a new technical innovation made by Imec on his head. That device measures brain waves and sends those signals to hammers that hit metal plates on the ceiling.
The reason I tell this in my learning blog is because of what I read at the end of the corresponding newspaper article: Imec lists as a potential use for its device, next to all kinds of medical usage, e-learning. The device can see when you are distracted and at that moment the course may react with an interruption or engaging activity. Fiction? Soon reality?
The reason I tell this in my learning blog is because of what I read at the end of the corresponding newspaper article: Imec lists as a potential use for its device, next to all kinds of medical usage, e-learning. The device can see when you are distracted and at that moment the course may react with an interruption or engaging activity. Fiction? Soon reality?
Sep 19, 2009
Phoebe pedagogic planner
Phoebe is a Jisc project in the UK. It calls itself a pedagogic planner, and you can create/view/share lesson plans that are structured around templates.
Free/open source elearning authoring tool MOS
I haven't tried it out, but it looks good on screen: MOS.
In their own words:
"MOS Solo is a Windows application to create learning courses, presentations, assessments and surveys. The courses created are SCORM conformant and can be viewed in a LMS or directly on the Internet."
You can download and use it for free, but it is made by a company with add-on products, so not a Linux-like open source movement. And I couldn't see where to get the source code either, so I'm not sure where to place this one relates in the open source / commercial spectrum. Tut then again, I wouldn't know what to do with it.
In their own words:
"MOS Solo is a Windows application to create learning courses, presentations, assessments and surveys. The courses created are SCORM conformant and can be viewed in a LMS or directly on the Internet."
You can download and use it for free, but it is made by a company with add-on products, so not a Linux-like open source movement. And I couldn't see where to get the source code either, so I'm not sure where to place this one relates in the open source / commercial spectrum. Tut then again, I wouldn't know what to do with it.
50 sites for educational games
This site lists 50 places to get your educational game. It includes some that I know of, like the IBM Innov8 game that is free for academic use, or PowerUp, but most of them were new to me. Interesting list.
Link:
Online Colleges
Link:
Online Colleges
May 20, 2009
Social learning
(Taken from my internal blog at work.)
This is a blog post 'on demand'. There is this new thing out from IBM Research, called the 'blog muse' that lets people request others to blog about a certain topic. The tool will find the 'experts' on the topic and ask them to dedicate an article on is. As I like the approach of 'blogging on demand' a lot, here is my view on 'social learning':
This is a blog post 'on demand'. There is this new thing out from IBM Research, called the 'blog muse' that lets people request others to blog about a certain topic. The tool will find the 'experts' on the topic and ask them to dedicate an article on is. As I like the approach of 'blogging on demand' a lot, here is my view on 'social learning':
Social learning is not new at all. Some call it informal learning. I think learning is the oldest profession in the world (yes, not the other on), and it has mostly been a social activity until the mass education system of the industrial age changed that somewhat to a sender/receiver happening. What is the most natural thing you do when you are stuck at whatever you are doing at work? You ask the ones next to you. Conversation is social learning (and as Jay Cross called it a lost art.) The thing is that the person next to you is probably not the best person to ask, just the most availabe one. Enter technology. We have a lot of technology now that enables us to make social leaning work better. Social learning has always existed, social networking technology makes it work more and better.
- We have always been able to ask someone for guidance. But now we have technology to ask people far away (IM), asynchrounously (forums, email), to search for experts, etc
- We have always been able to coach people. Now we can do it remote, virtual, faster and further.
- We have alway been able to write down our experience in journals.Now with blogs people can follow our journey and learn from that anywhere and all time.
- We have always been able to work together on documents. Now we can do that remote in real time via whiteboards, wikis, etc
- We have always been able to search for expertise. Now a system can link us in real time with available experts via social networking and profiles.
- We have always been able to bookmark interesting information and learning. Now social bookmarking makes that availabe to the crowd, and the crowd tells us what is worthwhile.
The hugh potential of social learning or informal learning is not to make it formal (and kill it), but to unlock the potential of 70 to 80% of learning on the workplace. Do that by supporting it instead of forbidding it (install your own social software instead of blocking access to facebook), by making it visible, and by making it count.
May 15, 2009
Reflection
This quote deserves its own post:
It's true, we all too often do. Protecting learners from the vast amount of unnecessary content would be one good place to start. It's not because the content exists, or someone thinks it wouldn't hurt to know that everyone needs it. Is there an 80/20 rule here that enables us to cut 80% of the content and allow people still to do the actions we wanted them to do by giving the training?
All too often, we support content, not learners.
(Patti Shank)
It's true, we all too often do. Protecting learners from the vast amount of unnecessary content would be one good place to start. It's not because the content exists, or someone thinks it wouldn't hurt to know that everyone needs it. Is there an 80/20 rule here that enables us to cut 80% of the content and allow people still to do the actions we wanted them to do by giving the training?
I3 change implementation model
The May edition of 'E-learn magazine' mentions the I3 Change Implementation model in its article 'e-learning means change'. In the 6c learning model, I refer to 4C as context, and adapting to your company's context. Change management is one of the ways to do that. I3 simplifies change implementation to inform, involve, integrate.
- Phase 1: Inform, generate awareness = answering the what, why, how, who, when and whatsinitforme questions, via posters, emails, presentations, speeches, etc
- Phase 2: Involve, generate involvement = change attitudes and behaviors and start with key influencers. You can use meetings, road shows, lunches, etc
- Phase 3: Integrate, generate commitment = make sure the change is accepted as the norm, for example linking it in with the current performance evaluation, key initiatives, processes, etc
May 13, 2009
Weird. Left brain or right brain test.
I'm not a firm believer that artistic and mathematical skills are neatly split among right and left brain. The different halves don't do exactly the same, but the simplistic picture that is sometimes put up of it is an urban legend of learning if you ask me (and read 'brain rules' book by John Medina).
But that's not the point, have a look at this site, and tell if the lady spins clockwise or counterclockwise. That says if you are right (rechts) or left (links) brained. The weird thing is that if you do some other activity she might suddenly change rotation. Is this really a proof that we use right/left brain for different activities? Or some other weird experiment? It does freak me out...
http://content.jobat.be/nl/artikels/ben-jij-een-linker-of-rechterdenker/?utm_source=jobat&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=2009-05-13&utm_campaign=jobat-tipvandeweek
But that's not the point, have a look at this site, and tell if the lady spins clockwise or counterclockwise. That says if you are right (rechts) or left (links) brained. The weird thing is that if you do some other activity she might suddenly change rotation. Is this really a proof that we use right/left brain for different activities? Or some other weird experiment? It does freak me out...
http://content.jobat.be/nl/artikels/ben-jij-een-linker-of-rechterdenker/?utm_source=jobat&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=2009-05-13&utm_campaign=jobat-tipvandeweek
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
