It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Jane Hart's Top Tools for Learning for 2010
Jane Hart's annual list, "Top 100 Tools for Learning," is now complete, and she has posted this year’s results online. As she has done in previous years, she has provided the complete list of results and also created a SlideShare presentation. This year she had more contributions than ever -- a total of 545 from learning professionals worldwide. Interestingly, the top tool from 2009 retained its crown: Twitter. Seven of the top ten from 2009 remained in the top ten for 2010, though rankings shifted up or down for each. Newcomers to the top ten this year are Skype at 6th place, Facebook at 9th, and Moodle at 10th. Hart has analyzed the results further by providing the following three resource pages:
Elliott Masie Launches a New E-Book
Elliott Masie and The MASIE Center have published a free, Open Source book for and by learning professionals titled "Learning Perspectives: 2010." The book includes contributions by 40 global learning leaders, and its articles cover a wide range of viewpoints and perspectives on the changing nature of learning. It includes articles from both Learning and Development veterans such as Allison Anderson, Larry Israelite, and Nigel Paine, as well as new voices coming from their "30 Under 30 Learning Leaders." Contributors come from organizations such as Google, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Accenture, Alliance Pipeline, Farmers Insurance, Veterans Administration, Cleveland Clinic, CNN, Liberty Mutual, CIA, and Luxottica.
Jane Bozarth on Accessibility and Evaluating E-Learning
Jane Bozarth's two most recent “Nuts and Bolts” columns at Learning Solutions Magazine are again excellent reads. In "How to Evaluate e-Learning," Bozarth provides and summarizes the approaches of Kirkpatrick, Brinkerhoff, and Stufflebeam, and urges instructional designers and training practitioners to stop treating evaluation as an afterthought and choose the approach that is most relevant to your specific needs. In "Do You See?" Bozarth then tackles another common subject in e-Learning design and development: the issue of designing content that is accessible to all. She focuses on the issue of the use of color in e-Learning content, and gives instructive examples that demonstrate best practices designers should be following.
More on the Great LMS Debate
Back in June of this year, I wrote a posting titled "The Great LMS Debate," which noted a growing debate in the Learning and Development industry about the future of Learning Management Systems (LMS). I linked to several prominent thought leaders who had shared their perspectives on this timely subject from a variety of viewpoints. One thing is certain: the debate is far from dead, as noted by the October issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, which included the article "Is the LMS Dead?" by Ed Cohen.
The Need for a Core Set of Flexible Skills
Charles Jennings makes a persuasive case that we need to help workers develop a core set of flexible skills in his article "Key Skills for High Performance" in the Fall issue of Training Industry Quarterly. The skills he focuses on include search and "find" skills, critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, analytical skills, networking and people skills, and logic skills. I've been arguing for much the same thing to anyone who will listen for a long time, and not just noting this need for corporate learning, but arguing that much of these same skills need to be focused on in the K-12 education system as well. This has long been true, and Jennings is correct to note that these needs are becoming ever more intense because of the Internet and the ubiquity of content and information.
The Latest on Mobile Learning
This year has seen increasing interest in mobile learning -- leveraging the many mobile devices in our lives for Learning and Development purposes. Here are some of the best writings on this subject from recent weeks.
- Mobile Learning Edge -- the website for the book of the same name by L&D industry researcher Gary Woodill. See also Karl Kapp's book review and interview with Woodill, Clark Quinn's book review, and Janet Clarey's book review.
- "Who Owns Mobile Learning in Your Organization?" -- by John Feser, at Learning Solutions Magazine.
- "Mobile Platforms and mLearning: Challenges and Solutions" -- by Bill Brandon, at Learning Solutions Magazine.
The Latest on Social Learning
There continues to be a great flow of good articles, blog postings, and resources on this popular and important subject, so I will again list a few of the best from recent weeks here.
- "The Value of Social Media to Learning" -- an insightful blog post from Nick Shackleton-Jones, Manager of Online and Informal Learning at the BBC.
- "2010 Update on IBM Social Software Efforts" (Part 1 and Part 2) -- by Bill Ives. Reviews the widespread use of social software at IBM.
- "The Special Sauce of Social Learning" -- by Marc Rosenberg, at Learning Solutions Magazine. Provides "eight ingredients of great social learning."
- "Are Employees Twittering Away Productivity?" -- a blog post by Marcia Conner, where she tackles three common questions from microsharing skeptics.
- "eLearning Thought Leaders: Jane Bozarth DevLearn Preview" -- although presented as a preview to the DevLearn 2010 conference, this interview with Jane Bozarth, author of Social Media for Trainers, has intrinsic value.
- "E-learning Goes Social" -- by Anne Pauker Kreitzberg and Charles B. Kreitzberg, in the Sept/Oct. issue of Elearning! Magazine. Points out several common areas of resistance to social learning, and gives ten tips to getting started.
Updates from Element K
As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched last year. Each newsletter includes several articles of relevance to the Learning and Development field, as well as updates about Element K events and our latest product releases. You can see the latest newsletters here: August, September, October, and November.
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
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