It's time for another edition of the “Learning and Development Roundup”! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Talking about Blended Learning Learning and development expert Clive Shepherd recently provided a series of videos that give an extensive overview of blended learning. You can watch either the entire 43 minute interview or you can view it broken up into five parts: Foundations, Analyzing the situation, Selecting methods, Selecting media, and In conclusion. Along the way, he shares his perspective on a couple of dozen specific questions, such as: What's the case for blended learning? When is blended learning appropriate? How should someone set about designing a blended solution? How do you begin deciding which methods to use? Why start with methods rather than technologies for learning? What guarantee is there that you'll end up with a solution that is both effective and efficient?
The Working Smarter Glossary In the April issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, industry expert Jay Cross's column provided an outstanding resource called the "Working Smarter Glossary." Provocative even when providing an alphabetized reference, learning professionals would be wise to consider carefully Jay's perspective.
Learning and Forgetting Curves As noted in the previous "Learning and Development Roundup," Will Thalheimer provides interesting research results in the L&D field. I noted his recent blog posting "How Much Do People Forget?," but since then he has released a very interesting video titled "Learning and Forgetting Curves -- In Depth" This is a great video for all learning professionals, from instructional designers and trainers all the way up to Chief Learning Officers.
The Latest on Mobile Learning The past 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 the past few months:
"2011: The Year of the Media Tablet as a Learning Tool" -- by Jeanne C. Meister, Evgeny Kaganer, and Rick Von Feldt, in the April issue of T+D magazine. This article provides some key industry data about the rise of the iPad and other tablet devices, and their relevance for learning and development. See the link for buying the article from ASTD, as well as this blog posting by Jeanne Meister with highlights from the article.
"The Pad and the Pod" -- a blog posting by Clark Quinn, author of the new book Designing mLearning. Here he shares some of his tentative thoughts about the differences in using a smartphone and tablet for mobile learning and support. See also his recent posting "10 Mobile Questions."
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 the past couple of months:
"Undeniable Connector" -- by Marcia Conner in the March 2011 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.
"Building a Personal Learning Network (PLN)" -- Jane Bozarth's latest "Nuts and Bolts" column at Learning Solutions Magazine gives tips on how to build your personal learning network, with special emphasis on Twitter and the benefits of the weekly #lrnchat as an example.
"Social Networks Enhance Employee Learning" -- Phaedra Brotherton's Intelligence column in the April issue of T+D magazine reports on recent survey data on the use of social media to enhance informal learning.
"Mapping Informal and Formal Learning Strategies to Real Work" -- a blog posting by Tom Gram that provides a categorization of typical job roles into routine, technician, craft, and knowledge work areas, and then considers each in terms of learning approaches (informal learning, formal learning, performance support, and more.)
"Should Employees Be Incented to Use Social Technologies?" -- a blog posting by Dan Pontefract, which gives a balanced consideration of a controversial but important question for any organization considering or already using social technologies.
Updates from Element K As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to the latest editions of our newsletter, which include 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: March, April, and May.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Training Top 125 We'd like to congratulate all of the organizations in the latest class of "Training Top 125," as recently announced by Training magazine. An interesting article in the January/February issue provided "Training Visions" from the leadership at these best-in-class organizations, giving readers a glimpse of their key learning and development initiatives, agendas, and trends. The responses were varied, but of those that mentioned modalities, technologies, and focus areas for their L&D efforts in the coming year, the following were some of the recurring items:
Social/informal learning
Measurement, with a focus on connecting with real business value
Leadership development/the war for talent
"Learner at the center"/personalization/individual development plans
Mobile learning
Quick and relevant video clips
Shorter content
Blended learning
Performance support
Trainers and the L&D group more broadly becoming "facilitators" and "enablers"
Horizon Report 2011 The New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE have recently published their annual Horizon Report 2011 (PDF). This volume "examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry. It is the eighth in the annual series of reports focused on emerging technology in the higher education environment." For those in academia, this is must-reading. But even for those in L&D roles in corporate or government contexts, the Horizon Report is a great read, as a glimpse into the future of learning technologies for people who will soon be joining the workforce. For 2011, the report indicates two technologies in each mainstream time adoption period:
Time to adoption of one year or less: Electronic Books and Mobiles
Time to adoption of two to three years: Augmented Reality and Games-Based Learning
Time to adoption of four to five years: Gesture-Based Computing and Learning Analytics
March's Big Question: Assessing Learning Initiatives The ASTD Learning Circuit's "Big Question" for March is "How do you assess whether your informal learning, social learning, continuous learning, and performance support initiatives have the desired impact or achieve the desired results?" See the initial responses from such industry thought leaders as Jay Cross, Clark Quinn, Tom Gram, and others.
Research on Forgetting Will Thalheimer provides interesting research results in the L&D field, and a posting from December was on a topic important to anyone in the field: "How Much Do People Forget." That is, how much do learners forget from training/learning programs, and specifically, what are the factors involved and to what degree do they vary? This blog post provides some key summary points, and a link to the longer report.
The Latest on Mobile Learning The past 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 the past few months:
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 the past couple of months here:
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: January, February, and March.
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.
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.
"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.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Measuring the Impact of Learning and Development Two recent items of note on the always challenging issue of measuring the impact of training, or learning and development activities more broadly. First, Josh Bersin's August column in the August issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, "A Memorandum on Metrics," describes three trends found through his firm's ongoing research on training measurement. These describe the continuing challenge that good measurement continues to pose for most organizations, the fact that the tools available continue to change (forcing organizations to adopt a variety in an attempt to obtain a complete picture), and lastly, the need to expand measurement initiatives to include informal learning.
The second recent article is "ROE's Rising Star: Why Return on Expectations is Getting So Much Attention," by James D. Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick, in the August issue of T+D magazine. This is a deeper dive on the subject, walking through what ROE is and how it contrasts with the more traditional ROI. The authors detail several key principles, including why:
The end is the beginning.
ROE is the ultimate indicator of value.
Business partnership is necessary to bring about positive ROE.
Value must be created before it can be demonstrated.
A compelling chain of evidence demonstrates your bottom line value.
How Long Does it Take to Create Learning? As noted in my previous roundup, Bryan Chapman recently performed a survey of the Learning and Development industry, asking how long it takes to develop various kinds of learning content. This was an update to his earlier survey results from several years ago. The results are now in, and he has provided them in a presentation hosted at SlideShare. Included are separate results for the creation of content for ILT, three levels of e-Learning development, and blended learning. These are very interesting survey results, and very valuable information for all in the L&D field.
Formal vs. Informal, or a New Taxonomy for Learning? Rob Pannoni and Grant Ricketts in the August issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine wrote an interesting article titled "A New Taxonomy for Learning." I can agree with the authors that terms like formal and informal learning are used inconsistently at times in the Learning and Development industry. But with my background in philosophy, I am a stickler for clearly defining my concepts, and so I don't personally struggle with the formal vs. informal distinction and the line between them. That said, I think Rob and Grant have done us a service by clearly laying out a "new taxonomy for learning," that maps both learning modalities and organizational needs onto a two-by-two grid created by crossing organization-driven vs. learner-driven with developed resources vs. ad hoc resources. This mapping and terminology is easy to understand and I think should be helpful for many L&D professionals.
Tips for Effective Online Conferences The amazingly prolific Tony Karrer recently provided two blog posts to help you create better online conferences and learning webinars. The first was "19 Tips for Effective Online Conferences" and the other is a list of links to other resources, "Effective Web Conferences - 41 resources." If you have had inconsistent results with synchronous or so-called "virtual classroom" e-Learning, then these two resources should be very helpful!
The Pros and Cons of Podcasting Have you been considering the use of podcasts for learning and development? I recently described some of the many podcasts available for learning professionals, but if you are considering the use of podcasts for your own organization's L&D needs, you might find value in Mike Petersell's recent blog post "The Pros and Cons of Podcasting." Not all of his listed pros and cons will be relevant for your organization, but he provides good lists to get you started.
Rossett's Ode to Mobile Performance Support The eLearning Guild's Learning Solutions Magazine recently included Allison Rossett's article "Ode to Mobile Performance Support." In this excellent article, Rossett describes the important differences between mobile learning and mobile performance support. It is a must-read for anyone pursuing the use of mobile devices for learning and development purposes in their organization.
The Latest on Social Learning There continues to be a great flow of good articles, blog postings, and resources on this important subject, so I will again list a few from recent weeks here.
TheNewSocialLearning.com - The website for the new book of the same name, written by ASTD President Tony Bingham and consultant and social media expert Marcia Conner.
Enterprise Microlearning - Marcia Conner on the enterprise use of both Twitter and similar internal microsharing platforms.
The Evolving Social Organization - Harold Jarche gives an interesting history of enterprise evolution, describes the importance of social learning for modern organizations, and gives several examples of success stories.
Social Networking: A Platform for Training New Managers Online? - Bill Brandon considers first some history of informal learning groups from several centuries ago, and then provides insights on what makes such groups successful -- including those that are further enabled today by social media technologies.
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: June, July, August, and September.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Elliott Masie on Facetime for Learning Elliott Masie recently posted an interesting video on the "Facetime" feature of the new iPhone 4 device. As many others have done, he provides a simple demonstration of the two-way video feature. But he does so in the context of learning and development, giving examples such as leadership programs that are blended programs including traditional e-Learning and then a conversation with a mentor or coach. Masie notes the current limitations of Facetime, but predicts that those limitations will be short-lived. For instance, he suggests that the future will bring a combination of high-quality telepresence suites combined with Facetime-like two-way video conversations. He also notes that in learning and development contexts, you could record the conversations and then use them as on-demand support content. There clearly is a lot of potential with this kind of technology!
How Long Does it Take to Create Content? Bryan Chapman, in association with Brandon Hall, has long provided some data about "How long does it take to create content?" This has included ILT content, PowerPoint-to-eLearning conversions, standard e-Learning, and robust simulations. He is now (from Aug. 4 - Aug. 31) updating his data with a new industry survey. You can participate in this survey, which he indicates should only take 5-10 minutes.
On the Potential Value of Avatars The eLearning Guild's Learning Solutions Magazine recently included "Animated Characters in E-Learning: The Benefits and Social Roles," by Audrey Dalton and Brian Friedlander. Read this short but excellent article to learn more about how animated characters (such as so-called "avatars"), when used properly, can enhance e-Learning by "providing a social context that motivates learners, thereby improving cognition and recall."
Tips on Getting Management Support for Training As Jane Bozarth puts it, "A thousand things stand between a learner and performance; among the biggest of these is the learner's manager." In one of her recent “Nuts and Bolts” columns at Learning Solutions Magazine provides lots of tips on this common challenge for L&D professionals: How can you get better management support for training? After all, you are working to improve their most important asset -- their people. So involving them in a team effort is natural and will produce the best results.
On 10 Lenses in Learning and Development Clark Aldrich wrote a very useful blog posting titled “The 10 Lenses to Overcome Blind Spots and See Opportunities in Organizational Learning.” He summarizes ten perspectives on learning and development needs and programs that any learning leader should consider when planning a new initiative or responding to a request for a new training solution.
On Evaluating Non-formal Learning Programs As I noted in my previous L&D Roundup, Michael Hanley of the E-Learning Curve Blog has been writing on the thorny issue of how to evaluate non-formal learning programs. He concludes this amazing series of 19 postings with a helpful table of contents with links to each.
The Latest on Social Learning There continues to be a great flow of good articles, blog postings, and resources on this important subject, so I will again list a few from recent weeks here.
“Facilitating Learning with Social Media” -- From ASTD's Learning Circuits, by Michele B. Medved and Terrence Wing. Includes a helpful list of ten key considerations.
“Looking Ahead at Social Learning: 10 Predictions” -- From the July issue of T+D magazine, by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd, authors of the new book The 2020 Workplace. An interesting list of 10 predictions, although not all are focused on what is usually meant by "social learning."
“Collaboration and Social Networking in Today's Enterprises" - An article from Elearning!, and Government Elearning! magazines, summarizing the results of their Enterprise Social Collaboration Research conducted in May 2010. There are some interesting numbers, but this summary seems to mix the critical distinction between consumer tools and internal tools.
“The Human Factor: Creating Opportunities to Participate in Social Learning” -- by Mary Arnold, at Learning Solutions Magazine. A short but helpful article that gives warnings on why some organizations struggle or fail when implementing technology-enabled social learning, with insights on what you can do to be successful.
“Why Focus on Informal and Social Learning” -- Insights from Charles Jennings at the Internet Time Alliance blog, providing eight key reasons to focus on informal and social learning in your organization.
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: May, June, July, and August.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Top Tools for Learning 2010 I'll start by again noting that Jane Hart's annual "Top Tools for Learning" survey is well underway. For this survey, Hart asks industry experts and practitioners to list their top 10 tools for learning (broadly defined). Back in December, I wrote about her final survey results for 2009. I've participated in this survey since 2007, and have already updated my personal list in her index for this year. Read her recent blog entry on the subject and then join in the survey yourself!
On Cognitive Overload and Finding Your 20% Jane Bozarth's latest column at Learning Solutions Magazine is titled "Find Your 20%" and it hits on a critical subject for any instructional designer or learning professional: cognitive overload and the need to, as Bozarth puts it, "cull the must-know from the nice-to-know." After noting all of the common stakeholders and people who typically have input on a learning program, she advises "Before you begin designing, identify the two or three points most critical to successful performance on the job. What must the learner know? I call this 'finding your 20%'… Design starts here. Rather than take everything there is to know and try to capture it all in the course, start in the center – with the critical content – and work your way out. Once you have found the critical content, add on only what truly supports understanding of it." Read the rest of the column for Bozarth's specific pieces of advice on how to tackle this common challenge.
How Many Ways Can You Effectively Use Tables in E-Learning Courses? Tom Kuhlmann of the Rapid E-Learning blog wrote another wonderful, examples-filled blog posting, this time providing "10 tips on using tables in your e-learning courses." Any of us could think of several approaches to the use of tables, but 10? Given the amount of e-Learning that Element K has produced over the years -- both as catalog courses and as custom development -- I suspect our army of instructional designers and media developers have collectively used all 10 of Kuhlmann's techniques (and then some!) But I've never seen someone describe so many techniques in one place before, and do so as well as Kuhlmann has here. A great read!
When Mobile Learning is the Entire Show Determining when we'll see an inflection point in the uptick of mobile learning solutions by L&D departments continues to be hard to predict: where are we on the industry-wide adoption curve exactly? That said, there continues to be significant -- and clearly increasing -- interest in the possibilities for mobile learning. The eLearning Guild recognized this and so decided to hold a conference dedicated solely to mobile learning: mLearnCon, held June 15-17 in San Diego. If you missed the event, and didn't follow tweets that emerged from it either, you can still get a sense for the goings-on by reading the following excellent blog postings from the industry leaders who were heavily involved:
More on Mobile Learning The eLearning Guild didn't only hold a conference dedicated to mobile learning, their online Learning Solutions Magazine also ran a series of excellent articles on mobile learning as well. These have included:
Mobile Learning: Obstacles and Solutions - by Joe Ganci, wherein he asks three questions of seven experts, including Judy Brown, David Metcalf, Clark Quinn, and others.
The Latest Social Learning There continues to be a great flow of good articles, blog postings, and resources on this important subject, so I will again list a few from recent weeks here. The first two are from Talent Management magazine's June issue:
Just Read the Wiki - by Elaine Lees and Elissa Gavette. Includes two sidebars on the use of Web 2.0 tools at Swiss Re and Intel.
Taking Talent Inventory - by Grant Ricketts and Rob Pannoni. Considers both the benefits and range of use of social media tools in an organization, and also the role that metadata -- through social networking analytics -- can play in talent management.
Transforming the Learning Organization (PDF) - in the June issue of ASTD's LX Briefing newsletter, there is an interview with ASTD President Tony Bingham and social media expert Marcia Conner, specifically in regard to their upcoming book The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media.
Try Yammer, Maybe You'll Learn Something - Mike Petersell briefly explains how Pitney Bowes uses the micro-blogging/micro-messaging tool Yammer for learning purposes.
Michael Hanley on Evaluating Non-Formal Learning - a series of blog postings on this timely topic:
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: April, May, June, and July.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Jane Bozarth Introduces TrainingBookReview.com Industry veteran and expert author Jane Bozarth has started a new website called TrainingBookReview.com. This is a new blog, sponsored by HRDQ. Bozarth was for some 10 years a book review writer for Training magazine, and describes that at this new blog she will be reviewing "a few new books," but also have a focus, at least to start, "on some classics in the L&D literature." She has kicked things off with a review of Figuring Things Out: A Trainer’s Guide to Needs and Task Analysis (Zemke & Kramlinger, 1982). For fans of Jane's book reviews, know that she continues to also review books focused on e-Learning at her new column with Learning Solutions magazine, the latest of which is a review of Clark Aldrich's new book The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games. Keep up the great work Jane!
Ten Myths About Video in E-Learning And speaking of the online Learning Solutions magazine, it recently had a two-part article by Stephen Haskin titled "Ten Myths About Video in E-Learning." In part 1, he takes on what he considers to be myths such as the issue of Mac versus PC for creating videos, the software available, whether you need a streaming server to play your videos, and the issue of mobile devices. In part 2, he covers topics including HD, internal networks, frame rates, and importantly, the cost and skills required for video production. Although the topics covered are broader than the use of video in e-Learning contexts alone, Haskin has done e-Learning developers a service by sharing insights on so many issues of video production in one place.
What Will Workplace Learning Technology Look Like in 2015? That was the "big" question posed for the month of May at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog. Responses to this provocative question came pouring in, and by now include postings from Tony Karrer, Clark Quinn, Clive Shepherd, and many others. Note to self: check back in five years to see who was correct!
Better Design Doesn't Take Longer And speaking of Clark Quinn, in a recent article at eLearn magazine, "Better Design Doesn't Take Longer!", he argues in favor of better design in the development of learning content. He makes his case on the grounds that it really doesn't take any longer to produce well-designed content and learning experiences, and obviously (almost by definition) good designs will yield better outcomes. He admits the one caveat to his position about it not taking any longer: "after an initial transition period." That is, he is arguing for a long-range perspective, by noting that an investment in some time up front can be more than justified by the benefits you will reap in the future.
An Interesting Take on the iPad from a Usability Guru And speaking of design, Jakob Nielsen is a very well-known usability expert. So when he publishes a 93-page report on the usability of the latest technology wonder device, it is worth your time to pause and at least hear what he has to say. You can download this report for free, or if time is short at the moment, start by simply reading this article from the Guardian, "Jakob Nielsen critiques the iPad's usability failings." Lots of food for thought, as the Learning and Development industry begins to consider the use cases for the iPad, and future competing tablet devices too.
On the Forgetting Curve and Ways to Improve Retention Although I recently wrote a post that linked to these two items, I wanted to again draw attention to them. On May 28, both Charles Jennings and Donald Clark wrote about a similar topic, both invoking what is known as "the Forgetting Curve." These postings are both worth reading, so here again are the links:
On Mobile Learning Are you up to speed on the current state, and the possibilities for the future, of mobile learning? If not, then I encourage you to read Ellen Wagner's article "When Mobility Meets Learning" from the April/May issue of Elearning! magazine. After setting the stage with a typical run down of the explosive growth of mobile devices, Wagner provides several reasons why mobile learning hasn't taken off equally as quickly. She then describes several attributes that a rich mobile learning experience will involve: ubiquity, access, richness, efficiency, flexibility, security, reliability, and interactivity. She then shares nine critical questions to ask when you are planning a mobile learning initiative -- a good list!
The Latest on Social Learning As I noted in my reflections on the recent ASTD ICE 2010 conference, social learning is one of the hottest topics in the L&D industry today. There continues to be a great flow of good articles, postings, and resources on this important subject, so I will again list a few from recent weeks here. See also the many links in my blog posting "The Great LMS Debate," in which social learning plays a central role.
"Implementing Social Learning" -- from the April/May issue of Elearning! magazine, this article includes descriptions of social learning from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and Telus Corporation. The latter's success with social learning was also recently described in a case-study from Microsoft here.
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: March, April, May, and June.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
ASTD ICE Program Guide Now Available! The 2010 American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) International Conference and Exposition is almost here! This event is the largest U.S. event in the training, learning, and development industry, and this year it is being held in Chicago, IL from May 16-19. In recent weeks ASTD released the online Program Guide, which includes both the schedule of conference sessions and a map and details regarding the massive expo hall. Element K will be in Booth 233, which is near the cyber center, in the second row on the left as you enter the expo hall. If you will be attending this conference, be sure to stop by our booth and say hello!
Jane Bozarth's New Column: Nuts and Bolts My friend Jane Bozarth has a new column at Learning Solutions Magazine, called "Nuts and Bolts." In her first two columns, she takes on ADDIE in "When Training Works" and "Principles of Multimedia Learning". Jane writes clearly, sometimes provocatively, but always on topics of great interest to those in the L&D industry. So keep up the good work Jane, I look forward to your next columns!
On Virtual Worlds for One or Many Clark Aldrich, an industry expert on simulations and the use of games for learning, wrote a brief but helpful blog posting titled "How should virtual worlds that are designed for one person differ than those designed for one thousand?" In this posting he makes clear some key design distinctions for several virtual world scenarios: to be used by one person, one person with a coach, a small group of people (say 3-8 people), or a large or very large group.
The New iPhone OS and Mobile Learning Bill Brandon of Learning Solutions Magazine wrote an excellent article that considers the impacts for mobile learning scenarios of Apple's recently announced upcoming 4.0 operating system for its popular iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices. The mobile learning landscape continues to evolve, and even if your organization isn't doing much in this space at present, you are wise to stay on top of the latest developments.
On Micro-Messaging, Micro-Blogging, Social-Messaging, Micro-Sharing It goes by various names, but so-called "micro-messaging," "micro-blogging," and "social-messaging" is an increasingly popular topic for organizations looking for the latest way to increase internal communications and workforce productivity. Led by Yammer and similar providers, many enterprise organizations are moving beyond the "testing" stage, having found significant value from these "internal Twitter-like" tools. A couple of good articles on this subject recently include:
The Latest Insights on Social Learning I continue to find the flow of good articles, postings, and resources on social learning to be almost overwhelming. So as I did in the last several round-ups, I'll provide some of the latest "gems" for you here.
“Rethinking e-Learning," by Clark Quinn, which makes important points about social learning and more.
“Difference Between Personal and Professional Uses of Social Media: It's All in Your Head," by Kevin Jones, which provides a brief but excellent description of a problem that I know both he and I face often when presenting on social media, social learning, and Web 2.0 technologies. Simply stated, this is the confusion between personal use of public social media tools and how that differs from business uses of the same types of technology (wikis, blogs, forums, social networking profiles, micro-messaging, etc.) but in an internal-to-the-enterprise context.
“Enterprise 2.0: Questions Answered, Part 1," again by Kevin Jones, where he launches a new series of blog postings, starting for now with his thoughts on the questions: “What is the big picture for social media in organizations (for E2.0 purposes)?” and “Is social media replacing something we have, or adding a new thing?”
“Social Learning = New Toolset + New Mindset + New Skillset," by Jane Hart, where she briefly breaks down her previously outlined five types of social learning that occur in organizations by mapping these to what she calls the new toolset, new mindset, and new skillset that each involve. See also her regularly updated webpage on this topic.
“Agility and Autonomy," by Harold Jarche, which follows Jane's thoughts with comments on one specific new mindset (agility) and one specific new skillset (autonomy) that are critical for social learning to flourish.
“Social Learning Unleashed," by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd, who share numerous examples of social learning in organizations, and provide 10 guidelines to consider in "creating, organizing and planning the rollout of an enterprise 2.0 initiative." See also the sidebar article "The Launch of Planet Blue," where Meister interviews Allison Anderson, manager of learning and development at Intel.
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: February, March, April, and May.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
The iPad Is Here! The biggest tech-related news in recent weeks is of course the launch of Apple's latest device, the iPad tablet. Some prominent reviews include those from David Pogue of the The New York Times, Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, and the popular website Engadget. For a convenient table comparing some aspects of these and other popular product reviewers, see the table at this posting to O’Reilly Answers. And although clearly created for marketing purposes, the Guided Tour videos from Apple are quite powerful and give you a glimpse of what is possible with this new device (and therefore worth watching even if you do not intend to use an iPad anytime soon).
Amongst the many L&D leaders diving right in, Elliott Masie has created an "iPad Learning Lab initiative" at the MASIE Center. As Masie describes: "We'll be doing immediate testing on the 'affordances' for learning that may be created by this new device. Jonathan Kayes (our CLO), Lauren Boughton (our Producer), Tom King (MASIE Fellow for ePubs), Erin Anderson (our recent college graduate editor) and Elliott Masie, will do a series of immediate experiments on the iPad." There are already many good postings at their iPad Learning Lab blog, so be sure to check it out soon and add it to your RSS feed reader.
David Mallon on 2010's Top Training Technology Trends In previous editions of the L&D Roundup (see vol. 9 and vol. 10), I linked to many industry experts who were providing their new year's predictions, top-10 lists, and so on. One that I haven't yet included is quite worthy, and that is David Mallon's 2010 Top Training Technology Trends in the electronic magazine Training Industry Quarterly. Mallon directs research in enterprise learning for Bersin & Associates, and is a keen interpreter of industry trends.
New Blog: Instructional Design By Example With her typical wit, Brandon Hall research associate Janet Clarey started her new blog with a posting titled "Corporate e-Learning needs another blog. Oh yes. It does." While it is true we are blessed with numerous expert blogs already, Clarey is quite focused with her new blog Instructional Design By Example. As she describes, in this new blog "you'll find examples of e-learning courses and details about the instructional design process used in creating them. You'll also find specifics about the logistics of the courses." She is already off and running with several interesting postings, so check it out and add it to your RSS feed reader.
Twitter Resources Galore! Two prominent industry experts have recently put together some outstanding resources to help L&D professionals who are new to Twitter—or even those who use Twitter but want to know more about it.
Twitter for Learning -- 55 Great Articles - Tony Karrer has done us all a service by bringing together links to 55 articles, and then categorizing them for us: Twitter and Teaching; Tips on Twitter Use; Twitter and Conferences, Webinars and Backchannel; Twitter and eLearning; People to Follow on Twitter; Using Twitter as a Learning Tool especially for Learning Professionals; Twitter Guides; Twitter Tools; Yammer; and More on Twitter for Learning.
How to Use Twitter for Social Learning - Jane Hart also has done us all a service, by gradually creating a great set of resources on Twitter. Included are introductory pages, reading lists, and information on Twitter use in contexts such as presentations, events, classes, and training.
The Latest Insights on Social Learning I continue to find the flow of good articles, postings, and resources on social learning to be almost overwhelming. So as I did in the last several round-ups, I'll provide some of the latest "gems" for you here. Since the March 2010 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine focused on this subject, I'll include only those great articles this time around:
Verifying Virtual Value, by Eric Davidove and Craig Mindrum, takes on the common but challenging question of how to measure the value of social learning.
The Social LMS, by Bill Sherman, provides many insights on changes in the corporate LMS to support social learning. See also the sidebar Sales Training Gets Social at ASM, which provides a good example from Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC.
Updates from Element K As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched earlier this 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: January, February, March, and April (coming soon).
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Training Magazine, Goodbye Old Friend A great many print publications are struggling financially these days, with some becoming online-only publications and others closing down entirely -- so each new announcement does not come as a complete surprise. But for many veterans in the training and development field, the recent news of Training magazine folding up shop came as sad news indeed. Over several decades, many have received significant education through its pages, while others were given a platform to share their knowledge or first spread their wings as industry experts.
Karl Kapp has done a good job of bringing together the reflections of a half-dozen people who have blogged at the news of the demise of Training magazine. His blog posting also provides a solid list of alternate resources that remain as outstanding sources of learning, training, and development articles and news. If you aren't subscribed to most or all of these, definitely check them out!
Learning Circuit's February Big Question: Instruction in an Information Snacking Culture? At the ASTD Learning Circuit's Blog, Tony Karrer noted a trend that many of us are seeing lately: "we seem to be snacking on information, not consuming it in big chunks." As the February "Big Question," he then asks us all to reflect on this phenomenon: Are people really "snacking" more? Do we therefore need to think about instruction differently, and if so, in what ways? Is this shift a problem, and if it is, how so exactly? See the blog posting links to the blog responses so far.
Two Recent Articles on Mobile Learning ASTD's T+D magazine has recently had two good articles about the growing trend of mobile learning. In my view, both are worth your time to read:
"Smartphones Make IBM Smarter, But Not As Expected," by Nabeel Ahmad and Peter Orton. Appropriately enough, ASTD has made this article available as an audio podcast so that you can listen to it on your favorite mobile device!
"Can You Hear Me Now?" (PDF), by mobile learning expert Judy Brown. She asks: "Is mobile access to learning and performance support a part of your learning architecture? If not, you may want to re-evaluate."
On Learning Styles Will Thalheimer writes a good blog called Will at Work Learning, which he describes as being "Will Thalheimer's research-based commentary on learning, performance, and the industry thereof." He recently authored a post titled "Learning Styles Reviewed by Association for Psychological Science AND FOUND WANTING". In short, Will is reporting on a recent review of the evidence (commissioned by the Association of Psychological Science) for the benefits of using "learning styles" in creating instructional content. Interestingly, the review found that "there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice." Read his posting for more on the findings -- including the scope of what can be concluded from the review and what cannot -- as well as Will's thoughts as both a researcher and consultant.
The Latest Insights on Social Learning I continue to find the flow of good articles, postings, and resources on social learning to be almost overwhelming. So as I did in the last two round-ups, I'll provide some of the latest "gems" for you here:
Updates from Element K As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched in 2009. 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: December, January, February, and March.
