Enterprise learning
Jay Cross summarizes an Elearning Forum on enterprise learning. Some notables:
- User collaboration and personalization will be key
- eLearning technologies are now very mature, but customers still have a very unsophisticated understanding of how to use them -- especially analytic functionality.
- SCORM is here to stay. The onus is on vendors to make it work -- not customers or content developers.
- Learning is now becoming a more important focus than training in training departments.
- Training managers need to reposition themselves as IT experts, and ensure influence over the architecture of eLearning technologies.
- In order to become a core business process, elearning solutions need to be able to integrate and make sense of information stored and processed in other enterprise databases and applications.
- Instructional design is becoming more important than innovative technology in elearning. Training people should focus on that area -- their area -- of expertise.
The discussion was obviously geared towards corporate training and elearning...even though over time, I'm sure educational markets will become more corporate...and vice versa. While all of the above points are thought provoking, two in particular stick out for me: the need for trainers to become IT experts...and the ability for elearning to better integrate with corporate data and strategies. I completely agree with the latter...but not with the former.
I think trainers need to be aware of the what and not the how of technology. A trainer should know what the main tools will do, understand standards, concepts of integration, learning objects, etc. But the trainer should not have to become a technologist in order to use and manage elearning. "Every trainer as a technologist" gives technology too much control in the elearning process. Training needs and strategic focuses should be defined first...and then technology should be selected based on the degree to which it fulfills requirements.
The language we use shapes the conversation. In elearning (at least my experience when I first started with it), the language used is very technical. As a result, the conversations too often hinge on death by acronyms...and concepts of technology, not learning. Rather than talking about learning theories...we talk about integration. Rather than talking about learning design...we talk about technical standards. Rather than creating a robust brain-compatible learning environment...we talk LMS.
Posted by gsiemens at June 15, 2003 2:55 PM