Session 108::Special Session for Learning Suppliers, Vendors, and Freelancers.
Elliott Masie and Cushing Anderson got us (learning vendors) together to give us some of their insights on the industry. Again, more thinking follows, but the biggest thought for me was this (again, paraphrased)
We need to find a way to allow for the creation of contextualized, user created and edited content.
User created isn’t new. It’s not done well yet, but we’re all talking about that already. What’s exciting here is thinking about how users (the source of much expertise) can actually contextualize and edit the content itself. This is so counter to the technical aspects of SCORM. This is why we’re spending a lot of time thinking about breaking down further barriers between online learning systems.
Further comments from Elliott that caught my attention:
- Users would love to buy content to which they can add the last mile.
- The level of innovation from us (vendors) appears to be lacking.
Elliott implied that we were innovating, but not marketing it well. I question that. I think the level of innovation in eLearning is lacking. And, we need to market that better when we do it.
No Comments | Post a comment »
Sorry for the loss of momentum… lack of connectivity is a blogging killer.
We got started this morning at 8am with another excellent general session. Again, great guests.
Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, was certainly interesting. He had a number of interesting things to say, discussing the need for play, design, symphony, and other items. Facts, for example, are easy to come by. He shared an example (paraphrased below)
Imagine a librarian at Cambridge and a 15 year old in Tanzania, circa 1990. If asked to find the GDP of Belgium in the prior year, the competition would have been a laugher.Jump forward 15 years… The same competition is a completely different story. As is well established, the internet has democratized facts. It is no longer the facts that are differentiating individuals and companies.
The skill that he seemed to say was most important was the one that was “difficult to outsource, difficult to teach“.
Dan was followed by Jane McGonigal who was fascinating as well. Jane does really cool stuff around Alternate Reality, which some might simply call simulations, but are games of a different ilk. Check out “World Without Oil”, an imagined scenario where the impacts of an oil shortage are played out in real life. Posts around the internet, puppet masters governing the situation, it’s a wild expansion of learning… This is where I start to get excited.
I think there are ways where technology can improve learning in a simple, linear fashion. Say, for example, direct grading of a test with statistics for a teacher (rather than requiring the teacher to grade and aggregate data).
But the things McGonigal talked about are non-linear improvements to learning. New stuff, wild stuff. I don’t know, 3 hours after she talked, exactly what I’ll ever do with this sort of Alternate Reality game, but I do like that I’ll be thinking about it.
No Comments | Post a comment »
Part of the excitement about attending a conference like Learning 2007 is that it isn’t about SCORM and the related technologies exclusively.
Highlights of the session for me:
- Elliott, as he is wont to do, sent us to talk to two people we didn’t know. In each case, when I told them that we (Rustici Software) help people with SCORM, they both said, “We need help with that!”
- Pat, who I spoke to first, indicated her biggest desire it to allow her experts, her SME’s, to be able to produce content. Get the technology out of the way and let those people with the expertise put together the content.
- Dr. “Butch” Rosser does some interesting work. More or less, he’s figured out that games and simulations (fancy word for games) help surgeons achieve at higher levels. Dr. Rosser seemed to me a unique combination of surgeon, teacher, researcher, and Southern Baptist preacher.
- As part of Learning 2007, the Masie’s are donating a malaria net on behalf of each attendee to Malaria No More. At 2087 attendees, that’s $21,o00 worth of mosquito netting. Pretty cool.
- Jenny Zhu from ChinesePod.com was fascinating, and I never would have guessed it. Jenny’s site is a great example of how content will be created. We, at Rustici Software, need to be producing the tools that will accommodate, discover, and distribute this content for learning. We’re working on it.
- To this point (early in the conference) Jenny and her content are the enduring image from this conference for me.
- Doug Lynch spoke about ROI. While I recognize the importance of this… I got distracted with this blog post… Funny, though, was when he referred to Elliott as the “Willy Wonka of Learning”, noting that if everyone came along with Elliott, we’d be a lot farther along.
No Comments | Post a comment »
A quick note of warning… several posts are forthcoming on Learning 2007, a conference put on by Elliott Masie and his crew. Each year, I attend several conferences related to SCORM and the eLearning industry. Some are exciting, others are not.
Put simply, this is a conference I’m attending because I want to learn, not because I want to sell. I’m excited to be here for a bunch of reasons, but here are a couple…
- Elliott Masie and his crew seem to really live this learning stuff… They will do everything they can to keep it interesting… engaging… I’m really looking forward to it.
- We (Rustici Software) always looking to see what’s coming, and this is a great place to do that.
- Bobby Flay is going to be making dinner… Somehow, I’m told, this will relate to learning. Me? I don’t really care… I just think Bobby Flay is cool.
I’ll do my best to post a few interesting tidbits throughout the conference.
If you’re here at Learning 2007 and you keep up with this blog, certainly seek me out. I’d love to talk to you about what you’re learning.
No Comments | Post a comment »
It may be a little late to invite you, but we have a new exhibit opening today at a joint military training conference (known as I/ITSEC) in Orlando. The conference brings together all segments of the military with industry, academia and non-military government agencies to pursue improvements in training and education.
If you miss us in Orlando, maybe you can catch us late in January at ASTD TechKnowledge 2007 in Las Vegas. We’ve attended several ASTD conferences, but began exhibiting only last year. As one of the largest e-learning conferences in the industry, it’s a great place to network with others who are seeking, or providing, e-learning solutions.
No Comments | Post a comment »
« Newer Posts — Older Posts »
