This is a cross post. Original at Bersin & Associates. We know from our LMS 2011 research that the LMS market is experiencing more fragmentation, specialization, and globalization. We also know that we primarily see this in three overlapping spaces: (1) integrated talent management suite providers (the fastest growing space, especially for large organizations and where we are also seeing mega LMS/TMS mergers), (2) social learning platform providers, and (3) providers specializing in niche solutions (i.e., specific vertical markets like healthcare, unique needs like extended enterprise learning, and specialized delivery methods like mobile). However, for such a mature market, we also know that many buyers of LMSs are generally frustrated with their systems and that is one reason we are seeing these changes - you are driving them. As the character Howard Beale said in the movie Network, "WE’RE MAD AS HELL AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE." That’s probably why I sat up in my seat a bit during my briefing with Intellum when I learned that they had a 98 percent renewal rate. 98. Percent. Not many frustrated buyers there. Intellum has been around since 2000. My briefing was on its Rollbook LMS with a sneak peak at something call GroupDock. Here are some of my rough notes from the Rollbook LMS briefing: Add users (or have them self register) Specify data capture requirements Put users in groups if needed (by manager, by geographic regions, etc.) Simple upload of courses (taken a YouTube and an iTunes-like feel) for learners. (i.e., what learners are used to) Don’t have to use "slideware" (built-in capabilities) They will host video courses (overcome the video issue organizations face) eCommerce capabilities 3P integration with Exam Builder (confirmation button or testing/assessment) Creator of content sees what the student will see as they are creating a course They sell everything offered and customer decides what to turn off Can send data to other systems Partner with several 3P COTS courseware providers. Can just buy courses. Create learning paths Intellum also does custom content. Implementation is 1 day. My impression is that it is ridiculously easy to use. That’s really their value proposition. Now if you’re a small or medium sized business shopping for an LMS to administer and track training and create and serve up e-learning you can use the following tips for avoiding long sales cycles and complicated comparisons. You must be able to answer these two questions: "What do I want the system to do?" and "What business problem am I trying to solve?" Do not pass GO if you can’t answer those questions. Do not collect $200. Go directly to jail and do your homework. Homework may involve the investigation of things like "What is an LMS and how is it different than an LCMS, virtual classroom, or authoring tool?" (We have a primer on that.) Make a decision on how much you want to spend. And remember even "free" solutions have a cost (support, documentation, add-ons, etc.). Our LMS report includes cost considerations. Look for easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain systems. In the words of Homer Simpson, Doh! Yes, that’s common sense but I am reminded of a quote from Steve Krug’s awesome book "Don’t Make Me Think": "If something is hard to use, I just don’t use it as much." So…when you’re "trying on" systems, move along if it is hard to use. Go with a hosted system. ‘Nuff said. Evaluate the system against your use case(s) not just an RFP response or demo. Comparing which-systems-do-what using a checklist can be a painstaking and futile exercise (OMG…all boxes are checked for all of these!). Use case = here’s what I need it to do (from Q#1), can you do it? Good. Now show me or better yet, let me try. Separate "must have" and "nice to have" features. "Nice to haves" are the tiebreakers. Must haves are well, *must* haves. You might just want a couple of basic reports not über analytics. Keep track of demos using some sort of scorecard. Have you ever bought a house? How easy is it to remember which one had the upstairs laundry room? So like that. Leverage industry research. Check references. Most companies have clients listed on their website or just ask them. Yes, Intellum will accommodate any organization’s years-long sales cycle. Yes, Intellum can crank out an RFP response if that’s what you require (and you’ll find a wealth of info in that link). But you can also just test drive Rollbook, buy it online (SaaS), and be up and running without even talking to a sales rep. I once bought a minivan on my lunch break. Now I can buy an LMS that way. There are many organizations - especially small and medium sized - that won’t find that a maddening experience AT ALL.

Alternate Reality Game (ARG)…an interactive story-based game, delivered through multiple "real world" modes (i.e., text, phone, Internet, print, and others) within which players must participate interactively and work collectively to solve "real world" problems the story presents. In our most recent High-Impact Learning Organization research, to be published shortly, we asked organizations to rate themselves from poor to excellent on their e-learning capabilities. Not surprisingly, the entry point for e-learning - the creation of simple, self-paced e-learning - isn’t viewed as something too difficult to do. On the other hand, expertise in things like serious games is viewed by most organizations as very difficult to do. Over 81 percent of organizations rated themselves as either "poor" or "below average" and just 6 percent rated themselves as "excellent." 81 percent. Wow. Why, do you think? I imagine when I dig a little deeper I’ll hear things like "we don’t have the capacity," "what’s a serious game?", "we don’t have anyone on staff with specialized gaming skills," "they’re too hard to create" and "the cost is too high." I probably won’t hear someone say "they scare the bejesus out of me." I don’t know about you but just a few years ago if you said "serious games" to me I’d think about simulations in a 3D virtual world. Maybe even head gear. That would be cool. Head gear. Scary but cool. Games. Fun for kids. Scary at work. What happened? Let’s reminisce about games… Remember playing games as children where you undermined the rules at the start of the game or even during the game (hey, you’re cheating!). It was fun - you could make the game entirely different just by changing a few of the rules. Today, as technology has become ubiquitous in our lives, games have become more complex (even Lego games) . For instance, "Geek Dad" Daniel Donahoo recently wrote about an alternate reality game (ARG) his 7 and 9 year old boys played to learn how languages are structured . The game started with a letter in the mail (a Chinese character with a URL) that would lead the boys to a "rabbit hole " that then immersed them in a game  (FYI…the entrance point for an ARG is called a "rabbit hole." It is usually an online site. "Down the rabbit hole" is a metaphor for adventure to the unknown, from its use in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You knew that but I thought I’d tell you anyway.) Donahoo noted that through Skype sessions with "virtual agents" and missions, the kids felt they were part of the story; it felt real. That is the essence of an ARG. Of course ARGs are not just for kids. Today we see them used extensively in marketing campaigns (Catch the Mini and Why So Serious ), events (the Olympics ) and now we see it in workplace learning. ARG stands for alternate reality game (not to be confused with augmented reality). ARGs have been around for ten years. Back then (and today still) they were used to promote movies, video games and music. Dr. Jane McGonigal, a world-renowned ARG guru, defined ARGs in 2008 as "an interactive drama played out online and in real-world spaces, taking place over several weeks or months, in which dozens, hundreds, thousands of players come together online, form collaborative social networks, and work together to solve a mystery or problem that would be absolutely impossible to solve alone ." That is a great definition, especially for the type of ARGs Dr. McGonigal designs -games that focus on improving the quality of life and the greater good - but it may be a bit onerous for a group of 20 sales executives at an organization. A simpler definition  for workplace learning might be something like… "…an interactive story-based game, delivered through multiple "real world" modes (i.e., text, phone, Internet, print, and others) within which players must participate interactively and work collectively to solve "real world" problems the story presents." Based on my reading, talking to organizations and the research work of others, I see the following as elements of an ARG. These games aren’t scary. While they can involve  3D virtual worlds, they can also be as simple as combining a page on your intranet and Skype (or any other communication tool for that matter) and a document. Now designing ARGs can be challenging and requires special skills but it DOES NOT mean you need extensive technology skills. Web page + Phone +Piece of Paper + Sound Game Design + Whatever = Serious Game. It’s do-able. This post is a tad long so we’ll call it part 1. In part 2, I’ll give you some examples of ARGs for workplace learning and share with you my thoughts on why they might be a great fit for L&D. References Bersin & Associates, The High-Impact Learning Organization 2012 (in press and you’re gonna love it!) Büscher, M., Ellis, R., Ferrario, M., Kortuem, G., Whittle, J., Schorch, M. & Zimmerman, A. (2011). Collective Intelligence and CSCW in Crisis Situations. Retrieved December 21, 2011 from http://www.ecscw2011.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ws5.pdf Kim, J., Lee, E., Thomas, T. & Dombrowski, C. (2009) Storytelling in new media: The case of alternate reality games, 2001-2009. First Monday, Volume 14, Number 6, June 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2011 from http://frodo.lib.uic.edu/ojsjournals/index.php/fm/article/view/2484/2199 Szulborski, D. (2005) This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming (2nd Digital Edition) (2005) Lulu.com. Retrieved December 21, 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=M7VwtUa2TYAC&lpg=PP10&ots=QfFCDisjY2&dq=alternate%20reality%20games&lr&pg=PP10#v=onepage&q=alternate%20reality%20games&f=false . EDUCAUSE: 7 Things You Should Know About Alternate Reality Games (2009) http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7045.pdf

I have been playing around with Curatr for a few weeks now not only as a platform for social learning but as a social publishing tool as well. Curatr is a stand-alone or integrated (with API) cloud-based platform that allows you to browse content  in a more visible fashion and more… Publishing research and publishing self-paced, text- and image-based e-learning are similar. Over time, you end up with a great deal of content. Search for something broad like "RSS" and you’ll likely find links to documents, videos, presentation, case studies, research reports, tools, answers to questions, etc. It can be a  bit onerous leaving one rummaging through links asking questions like ‘what should I read first?,’ ‘where can I find examples of how specific companies are using RSS?’, ‘what do analysts say about RSS in 2012?’. I found that with Curatr, I could arrange various research objects in such a way that they would flow together a bit better in a nice visual format (which looks great on an iPad BTW). Take for example the topic of virtual instructor-led training. That’s a topic that goes back for years. I could lay out content as objects that one  could choose - from ‘primer’ to ‘case study’ to ‘definition’ to ‘research study’ to ‘video’ to ‘webcast’ to ‘benchmarking data’ to ‘training and development’ to ‘ask the expert’ question responses. These are some of our assets our members know well. What makes it social is that I can interact with each asset - leave comments, add content, share, etc. - they become more alive that way. There are gamification elements as well - "leveling up" based on difficulty and interactions. Below is a pretty basic look of just a few Bersin & Associates assets. If you want to really see it in action, take a look at some  videos Curatr has produced or you could even set up a demo account and play around. Put a time limit on it though…it’s easy to get carried away. Here’s a screen shot with just 4 assets. I could easily add our BersinBasics, Tools, Answers to "Ask the Expert" Questions, etc. (click to make larger) Here is a recent video from founder Ben Betts and a link to the iPad app. Have fun and let me know what you think of published content presented in this way.

Blackboard’s statement of principles about open source says it is "committed to supporting the growth, development and use of open source technologies in education worldwide." Blackboard also says it "expects to make significant contributions to the community to help ensure that open source options remain strong, reliable and sustainable for all."  To that end, Blackboard has launched a new business called Blackboard Education Open Source Services - a good thing, right? Read on… In support of this broader vision, Blackboard announced on Monday that it had acquired two companies - the first, Moodlerooms and the second, NetSpot. Moodlerooms is a solution provider that hosts Moodle for organizations, integrates enterprise features for Moodle, and provides consultation service and training for organizations interested in the low-cost, popular open-source Moodle LMS (they call is a CMS) and also customization, flexibility and extended features for the enterprise.  So, a competitor in the LMS space made up of customers that likely were trying to avoid Blackboard in the first place. Can you taste the irony? By way of background, and in the event you don’t know much about open source LMSs, Moodle came on to open-source scene several years ago as an LMS/CMS used primarily by schools (K-12 to higher education) often as an alternative to Blackboard. (Perhaps the strategy here is if you can’t beat them, join them.). Anyway, over the years, as more corporations started using Moodle as an enterprise LMS, not surprisingly a Moodle services market sprang up which today includes several solution providers - like Moodlerooms and NetSpot. Back to the acquisitions… and moving on to the second one, NetSpot. Like Moodlerooms, NetSpot is a Moodle Partner however; it is located in Australia servicing the Asia Pacific region. Like Moodlerooms (which BTW is based in Maryland), NetSpot provides services like hosting, support and help desk and integration and migration. So a global move too. What the heck does all this mean? I found myself agreeing with Christopher Dawson’s summary at ZDNet Education about these acquisitions. He wonders, "Is this a major play for market share, a genuine effort to promote development and cross-pollination in the LMS market, or a bit of both?" None of us are naïve enough to not realize that Blackboard is no longer publicly traded but owned by a private equity firm. But…still. ? For now, enterprise users of Moodlerooms and NetSpot can rest easy knowing that Blackboard plans on letting them run as they are now vs. swallowing them whole as they did with Elluminate, the virtual classroom. Enterprise users of Blackboard might look forward to more options. That’s a good thing. I’m just  going to make a bag of popcorn and watch it play out. Here’s some interesting reads on this topic:  This kids, is why hallucinogenics and the internet don’t mix by George Siemens at elearnspace  (higher ed-focus and funny) Blackboard Acquires Moodlerooms, NetSpot To Offer Open Source Learning Technology, Leena Rao at TechCrunch Blackboard buys Moodlerooms…And no, this isn’t an early April Fools by Christopher Dawson, ZDNet Education Evolution Unbound: Blackboard embraces open source. By Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard Learn Blackboard Confronts Erosion of Market Share, Makes a Major Change in Strategy by Phil Hill at e-Literate Blackboard Education Open Source Services - a personal view by Mark Drechsler, Director, Consulting NetSpot Pty Ltd  

I read the article Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years"  and, coupled with some research on mobile video I’m doing, paused because I suddenly felt like I was missing something. It was one of those "wait - what?" moments that I sometimes get as an analyst because you know, I have to know this stuff. Anyway, the author of the article, Eric Jackson, shares two schools of thought - first, the outsized influence management teams have on organizational outcomes and second, the idea that managers don’t really matter all that much because organizational outcomes have more to do with industry effects. He admits to not thinking much of the latter (which comes from organizational ecology research) until recently. He believes that… "More and more in tech, it seems that your long-term viability as a company is dependent on when you were born." In the tech world, Jackson identifies 3 generations: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Mobile and suggests that prior generations of organizations can’t quite see the subtle changes between generations. He goes on to say that social companies born since 2010 (i.e. Instagram), view mobile as the primary (often exclusive) platform for their application. [Those companies born since 2010] "don’t even think of launching via a web site.  They assume, over time, people will use their mobile applications almost entirely instead of websites." There’s an interesting tidbit in the article that comes from Tim Cook (CEO, Apple) about the speed of change… "…through the last quarter [Q2 2012], I should say, which is just 2 years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. And to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones." We don’t know the reason(s) why Facebook bought Instagram (born after 2010) for $1 Billion. Plenty of folks have opinions about it. Perhaps it’s because Instagram’s mobile  app doesn’t blow. Perhaps it’s Facebook’s mobile strategy in action. That’s my take FWIW. What does this mean for L&D? We  have e-Learning 1.0 and e-Learning 2.0 and now have mobile learning -but are we just taking the 1.0 and 2.0 elements and putting them in mobile form? It seems we have to make sure our mobile learning can stand alone…you know, not totally blow. (NOTE TO SELF: Change  personal website name  to Flushing the Social Web)

Six months ago Thomas Suarez, a 6th grader from Los Angeles, spoke at a TEDS event about the making and sale of an "app"  he created on his own - "Bustin Jieber" (a whack-a-mole type anti-Justin-Bieber game.)  (There’s nearly 2 million views of the video on YouTube so you may have seen it.) Anyway, he’s quite eloquent and now owns his own company. While he’s clearly much further ahead than the majority of 6th graders I know, his actions offer a glimpse of our future workforce. Suarez, who is self taught, started to build, create and sell his own apps and even created a club for fellow students where he shares what he knows about programming.  He thinks "students are a valuable new technology resource to teachers, and should be empowered to offer assistance in developing the technology curriculum and also assist in delivering the lessons." Amen. He’s taught himself Python, Java, and C "just to get the basics down" according to his bio.This DIY mentality is why online learning from CodeAcademy and Kahn Academy, are so popular. Here’s his talk: I had a glimpse of that kind of thing in my house two weeks ago. My son is a gamer. His current game of choice is Call of Duty (COD). He plays LIVE with various friends. He decided he wanted to record the game play so he Googled it ("How to…") and ended up finding something called  Dazzle (about $50 US), a video capture device. He asked ‘guilted’ me into buying it for him as repayment for the iPod Touch I accidentally dropped, cracking the screen. (He said since a lot of people have small cracks in their screen, he’d rather I not pay to get it fixed but instead buy this Dazzle thingy. This is extortion mixed with love and guilt.) So off we went to BestBuy  and, as it turned out, Radio Shack after that for the right connectors which we couldn’t find at BestBuy. (Dazzle is not created for the purpose of recording XBox play…it just does but you need to add some cords.) Oh, and we went to Wendy’s too. Why not make a day of it? Back from the road trip….so my son often helps his friends out when they are first learning to play (they help each other) so he thought he’d record a tutorial. I’m not making this up. Using Dazzle’s software, he couldn’t figure out why the audio control was grayed out (I suspect it had something to do with the default setting on the computer) and since I didn’t want to stop watching the Stanley Cup playoffs to mess with this audio glitch, I told him to look at Audacity (open source audio recording). Unassisted (except for the Audacity tip), he recorded the audio, saved it as a file type he could import (because I later asked and learned Audacity saves with a AUP file type...so he figured that out) , narrated his video recording, set up his own YouTube channel and uploaded it. All in the  course of an evening…basically unassisted. He’s 13! Amazing since a few folks in the industry (no one reading this of course : ) still say "http what?" So…later that night, I was watching some lame Stanley Cup Western division playoff game that was boring so I looked up his channel on the iPad and watched what he did. Did I tell you he is in middle school! Yes, these kids are our future workforce. Neither Suarez nor my son would have learned this in school. There’s no app class. There’s no live online collaboration and video recording class (and least in our school district in NY State). Do you have a similar story? (As an aside…I know there are people who would not let a 13 year old play a game rated "M" -whether live or not - but my personal approach is one of involvement  - Why is the game "M"? Is he mature enough? Do I know who he is playing with? Do I monitor that? Have guidelines and expectations been set along with what will happen if those are disregarded? Am I prepared to recognize the signs that the game is having a negative effect? Is he getting enough physical activity to stay healthy?, etc. The research is mixed on video games, especially violent games.)  

For me, 2012 will go down as a year I basically went dark publicly. While I wrote a lot for my work, I think I posted here just 5 times.  Good grief, three or four years ago I probably was posting 5 times in a week! As 2013  begins, it seems an ideal time to reflect back on 2012, share some observations and predictions, and get blogging again. LCMSs are alive and well and the market will grow. In December, I wrote about Bankia’s learning content management architecture and how its use of a single source, asset-based approach to content led to huge cost savings and greater efficiency. I predict large organizations will increasingly utilize LCMSs  for mobile content development and deployment and to provide on-demand performance support for employees. LMSs are also alive and well and the market will continue to grow. Over the course of four months in late summer and early fall, I gathered data from nearly 100 systems and had demo’s with over 40 vendors for Bersin’s 2013 LMS Industry Study. I learned that there are more than 400 LMS solutions (probably more) in this growing $1.8 billion dollar market with the growth coming from outside North America and from SMBs. The market is very fragmented and can be broken down into integrated talent management suites and specialized LMS (extended enterprise, healthcare, etc.). The market is also being reinvented by social learning tools. Of course, 2012 brought consolidation among vendors driven by integrated talent management  (i.e., Oracle, SAP). Functionality is increasing commoditized with SaaS delivery models becoming the norm. I was stunned by the stark differences in the user interface. There are some really elegant systems out there and some real ugly ones.  I also saw deeper capabilities in analytics. Put the harps away, this is a growing, but changing market. A social talent management strategy will positively effect business results. At first this struck me as a fluffy marketing term but…as I went a little deeper I found in our research that organizations that were not excelling at social learning and integrated talent management, are less likely to be have a big impact on business outcomes. Fundamental to that success is the ability to drive value from a well-designed, well-adopted and sustainable use of profile and competency frameworks. Extended enterprise learning needs have sprung up as business networks grow. L&D will have to expand its footprint to support new communities of learners outside the organization. In the fall, I wrote about Booz Allen Hamilton’s use of Diversity Mentoring Circles to develop a diverse talent pipeline. Diversity and inclusion will become more important as we become a more diverse society. L&D will be expected to support strategies related to diversity and increasingly measure their effectiveness against different types of metrics. I wrote  about video and mobile video usage this year and definitely see growth here. There has been an increase in professional-looking  videos and the use of experts as green screens and tools become more attainable. Content vendors are springing up as organizations demand better quality e-learning. I think commercial off-the-shelf self-paced elearning content is dying albeit slowly. On-demand learning and performance support, especially in the context of mobile learning, will be more front and center for organizations as they struggle to keep up with the needs of employees for reliable, easily accessible information. Global learning will remain a big challenge for organizations. I spoke about that at our IMPACT conference in the Spring. We came up with a Global Learning Capability Index that differentiates high and low functioning organizations. Key to success include language expertise, localizing content and empowering local customization of content, assessing regional and cultural effects on learning success differences, core/regional alignment, and collaboration among others. Please join us this spring for another great conference. We continued our high-impact learning organization research building on a decade of research in this area. This is basically a how-to on doing L&D right with lots of examples. Efficiency, effectiveness, and alignment are still our key roles. Finally, I went to a few conferences this year and was struck by the number of women that are blazing new trails in our industry and will continue to do so. Clearly, goddesses will run the world shortly So that’s a ridiculously long post that I hope will serve as a catalyst for your own reflections on 2012. I hope you’ll share your own additions to this list. I’m currently finishing up our Mobile Learning Cookbook, the first in a series. Mobile, mobile, mobile. Huge. I’ll share some highlights from that after its release.

While  writing our Mobile Learning Cookbook, I tweeted that… This simple statement served as a catalyst for debate of sorts that extended to Facebook and then back to Twitter. Andy Black jabbed at me a bit saying mobile learning has been around for a long time and that wearable integrated tech is the next wave.  (There’s almost always a snark.) Yup, mobile learning has been around a long time but in reality, mobile learning hasn’t been implemented at the majority of organizations hence my discussion. (I don’t disagree that wearable integrated tech is here now and probably in the future for many organizations.) Geordie Guy suggested that mobile means ‘able to be moved’ and what I was talking about is more portable. Geordie suggested I get in touch with John Traxler about definitions and classifications. I was already connected to John so I sat down at my ball and chain (laptop), and I reached out to him. He preferred to have a conversation on my Facebook wall. I’ve summarized it here in an interview-like format which included Dave Ferguson and Aape Pohjavirta. Me: Do you classify devices as portable or mobile? What are your definitions? Dave: I think the usage is shifting a bit. "Device" used to be a slightly techno word for "thing." A pacemaker, for instance, is a medical device. I wish that here in the US the term "mobile" had caught on, instead of "cell," for phones, but it didn’t, and I’m not going to try and change people’s minds. I’d say define your terms at the outset and people will follow. If I were pontificating (which I’m not; can’t find my special hat), I’d say that a mobile device fits into a pocket (cell phone, smartphone) while a portable device fits into your hand or your carry-on (tablet). But that’d be only if I were making a distinction between the two. I haven’t seen an actual iPad mini, or whatever it’s called, so I don’t know how that works out sizewise. Let’s face it; some of this is the 5.25 - 3.5 inch floppy debate (remember them?), which was won by the CD, yet another storage device now in its sunset years. Or months. John: Devices and technology as the core of definitions is a blind alley. What used to matter was the mobility of learners and learning. Now what matters is whether learning is credible, authentic and aligned to societies, communities and cultures for whom mobility and connectedness are taken-for-granted, not-worth-mentioning. Dave: I get John’s blind-alley point, though I think it’s very situational. People in different kinds of jobs may not be able to access particular types of information (whether formal training, take-on-your-own-time stuff, job aids). If you’re on the road a lot, fewer employers are going to condone using a device while driving. If you’re in a public-facing job, interactions with peers and customers as well as limits on how much crap you can have in the workspace may hinder your ability to access what some AVP dreamed up after spending too much time with vendors. Not that you need to be reminded of this, Janet, but your READERS may: none of this stuff makes learning happen. For fifty years we’ve struggled against the myth that instruction means learning, that courses mean learning, that testing means learning, that digitized content means learning. So the real question for devices, or anything else that’s intended to help support improved performance in the workplace (the main reason employers tolerate anything called "learning" or "training" in the first place) is "How is this going to help that happen?" Even then, it’s a never-ending battle against the "they-had-to-look-it-up" crowd. Me: I found a 2005 definition of mobile learning from you John. At that time you said mobile learning was "…any education provision where the sole or dominant technologies are handheld or palmtop devices." John: 2005 was quite a while ago. Me: It’s helpful to look back at some early definition just to see how far the conversation has progressed. John: The phrase ‘mobile learning’ portrays it as a version of learning, the mobile version. It ignores the transformative effect of mobility on the nature of learning and of learners and on the wider society; it might be easier to see not as the mobile bit of learning but the learning bit of mobile and mobile is the defining characteristic of our societies. ‘Mobile learning’ seems too often preoccupied with enhancing the existing curriculum for the existing institutions and their professionals and maybe extending the reach of the existing education system. Me: I like that…mobile as a defining characteristic of our societies. Spot on too with the preoccupation. John: I think in some ways Dave is saying that cultures is not coherent or consistent and fragmented by attitude, ownership, experience of digital technology and individuals are quite happy to hold mutually exclusive and irreconcilable points of view; once we mention jobs we mention differentials in socio-economic power. My friend Aape Pohjavirta always has thoughts about these issues! John: Maybe obliquely I’m saying education and/ or technology are not ethically or politically benign or even neutral thus mobile learning won’t be either. Aape: This discussion is interesting and should probably happen face-2-face but here a couple of comments: -          I am thinking of starting to use the term connected learning = you log in to any content on any connected device and voilà - you have accessed your personal curriculum, the system giving you access to everything you need to continue learning here and now, recognizing the device, network etc. and giving you an optimized user experience for your specific environment. -          As John rightly says, the advancements in mobile technologies have made "everything technically possible" thus moving the focus to the question of how to deliver actual learning to users of those connected devices. But there are not just one type of users - if you use your connected device as an "interactive textbook" in a classroom setting that usage is completely different from the usage patterns of the "lonely, mobile learners" who access the courses alone with no teacher / trainer present. When we started creating the mobile media in 2003 we noticed that mobile is used "when you happen have the time" and only for a short period of time. This would mean that the mobile curriculum needs to consist of small pieces (5-8 minutes) of learning material including theory, examples & exercises. In addition to this the social aspects & a possibility for mentor-access would also be good to have - and some sort of a gamification too. I think that this should be an easy thing to formulate to corporations, one big challenge though is that there is a very very very limited number of service & technology providers who can produce stuff that actually works across the majority of devices at reasonable costs. John: I think implicitly I was also saying that the affordances of mobile technologies change our epistemology… what we know, how we know it, how we come to know, what we help others know, how we assess the worth and credibility of the known, what it is valuable to know for aesthetic, economic, cultural and any other reasons and who decides the worth of knowing… Aape: John, very much so and also moving from for "Just In Case" to "Just In Time" learning - very complex, very complex. John: Thanks Aape. Very coincidentally I just read an editorial saying, Epistemology deals with questions of what knowledge is, what counts as knowledge, the sources of knowledge, the different kinds of knowledge, and what we can know, or the boundaries of knowledge (Wiersma and Jurs 2009). And I should have added the impact of mobile technologies on existing epistemologies, which are a central and defining characteristic of each and every culture, sub-culture and counter-culture. John: BTW I guess in the sense I’m meaning it, each corporation & company as well as every community, caste and culture have their own ever-evolving epistemology. My conclusion: Classifying what is and what is not a mobile device is not very useful. The ultimate goal of mobile learning may be to deliver on the promise to ‘make learning happen’ through credible, authentic and aligned content. Mobile learning is transformative because it impacts existing epistemologies. Mobile learning is a characteristic not a version. What say you? ** Andy Black has been writing about technology futures since (at least) 2005. At one time he was technology research manager at Becta. Australia’s Geordie Guy has been writing for years about privacy, censorship, copyright and technology. John Traxler is Professor of Mobile Learning, Director of the International Association for Mobile Learning and author of Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers Dave Ferguson is an experienced, straight-talking and well-round learning professional specializing in solving on-the-job performance problems. Aape Pohjavirta has worked 25 years in digital media, 15 in mobile and invented the mobile magazine (=app) in 2003. He’s a technology visionary & evangelist with a strong-ish belief in science & research with a conviction that anything good now is preferred to waiting for perfect forever.

I was in San Francisco in 2003 at a conference that was held at the same time as The eLearning Guild’s "Annual Conference." I remember sitting in a cable car that was loaded with the Guild’s conference attendees and wondered how I could bail on my conference and attend the Guild’s conference instead. The eLearning Guild’s conference seemed to be much cooler - lots of instructional design and e-Learning types. The theme of the conference I was trapped in was blended learning. I sat in a room and watched PowerPoint presentation after PowerPoint presentation about how to combine self-paced e-learning and face-to-face training (as IF that’s blended). Fast forward a decade and next week I’ll be sitting in a cable car as an eLearning Guild employee. This past decade that has been nothing short of amazing. I don’t know what big thing I’ll learn in 2013 yet, but here are ten from ten years: Keep it simple. In 2012 I realized that "everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler." That’s an Einstein quote. I’m trying to work to that standard. Keep it real. In 2011 I became more business-focused. There’s a whole lot of awesomeness out there that seems somewhat separated from reality. Accept learning on your own terms. In 2010 I left my PhD program. At first this felt like a crushing defeat. In truth, it was empowering and made me realize that an education is not a degree or title. Understand the value of humility. In 2009 I became acutely aware of weaknesses. Painful and valuable. Pay it forward. In 2008 I shared a lot of my research publicly after a year of benefiting from others doing the same. Reflect openly. 2007 was the year I started this blog and the year I began to understand the spirit and value of inquiry in an open, online environment. If given a choice, take the chance. In 2006 I decided to work virtually from home for a very small company. This decision opened endless windows and doors. Value practice. In 2005 I realized "in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not."  Another Einstein quote. Always work to perfect your craft. In 2004 I invested in my future by enrolling in a master’s program in instructional design. I learned from experts. Choose to be influenced by the right people. In 2003 I realized that if I’m going to travel 1000′s of miles to a conference, I better make it a good one. I’m looking forward to what lies ahead this year as I join The eLearning Guild.

My colleague, Bill Brandon, brought Brian Hall’s post 10 Technology Skills That Will No Longer Help You Get A Job to my attention when I was looking for feedback on what the most relevant and valuable professional development needs are of today’s training and learning technologies practitioners. Hall’s post ends with this: "To justify any salary, it’s not only about what you know - now - but what you can learn going forward. The key to a long career in Silicon Valley, or anywhere in the tech world, is showing that you can learn and adapt - and master - constant change." OK, I’m nodding. It’s easy to agree. But how do you show that you can learn and adapt (and master) constant change? Do you just keep crossing out and adding on like this to show you can adapt to to change? Adobe Flash Developer/Designer  HTML 5 Developer/Designer Mastering constant change is not illustrated this way. I’m reminded of a JFK quote: "And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future." So my two-part question to you…(1) what are the most relevant and valuable professional development needs for today’s training and learning technologies practitioners and then (2) how do YOU show a potential employer that you’re progressing?

If I had known that Magic Mike was on HBO at 11 PM, I would have made plans to be there. But I actually had stumbled upon it quite by accident. "Cool. Magic Mike is just starting." I actually said that. I was alone. The only thing more sad than saying that would be saying that while looking up from reading 50 Shades of Grey. Not that I was. I was, in fact, settling into my room at an airport hotel near SFO to catch an early flight the next day. I was at the end of a heavy travel schedule - 40 nights away from home in the past three months - and this movie was one I wouldn’t expect my husband would want to watch with me. First, I don’t subscribe to HBO (because I can’t stomach sending any more money to my cable company), second it’s not on Netflix yet and third… So again, COOL. This is like old time scheduled TV I thought. You know…quiet everyone…it’s starting. Scheduled TV viewing is dying. More people are accessing on-demand entertainment from a streaming service or web TV. Even LIVE TV sporting events (which are scheduled) are changing because more people are watching these events while using a second or third screen. These are the same challenges we face in L&D where we have traditionally scheduled courses, classes, programs, and event where you pretty much have someone’s attention. Some folks would suggest that you don’t need to schedule anything anymore and that you can train yourself to do anything - like learn new software or critical thinking - simply by firing up a browser and viewing a series of short videos (or maybe entering code and having it auto graded). Is that enough? If it is, I guess we don’t need any more instructors or trainers. EVER. Ha! Ha! Good one. At the eLearning Guild Academy, our goal is to help build mastery so an on-demand video library would only be part of any solution we offered.  Same for discussions and live ILT - part of the solution. I personally love video and use it for things quick things like fixing a zipper on my laptop bag. So, the first Guild Academy offering was a 30-day software training  course on Articulate Storyline held last month. We ran it as a pilot course. The training involved four live, interactive two-hour sessions (via Adobe Connect) led by a top-notch instructor who is also a Storyline SME and practitioner (the amazing Ron Price at Yukon Learning). It included a host/producer. I chose not to record the live sessions because we felt it was important for people to be able to experience live feedback while they are actually DOING something with the software. My experience is that people are too busy and many will opt for watching a recording later (or not). Temptation gone. We also used a cloud-based knowledge sharing platform (Bloomfire) that plays well on mobile devices and that also has social elements necessary for people to share, discuss, ask or answer a question, and access resources at any time from anywhere . Resources included recorded video tutorials the instructor posted after the live sessions along with assignments where you could focus on application. There were also many job aids and actual Storyline files containing examples which helped me a great deal in comparing my work. Imagine then my reaction to this email which came from an email about the course: I think your prices are way too high. I’ll wait for the training to come out on . Hey dude. You get what you pay for. Maybe a couple hours of video tutorials is good enough for you. I don’t think it’s going to get most people to the mastery level. And you know what? The pilot course ended weeks ago but the conversations continue in Bloomfire. I feel good about how this pilot turned out and am excited about the next. We are adding Cameo, a reinforcement technology tool to the mix for the next course. There are just a couple of spots left for the next Basic session. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how people master new software at your organization. Next up is a pilot for our Advanced Storyline offering.

What’s your earliest memory of school? Mine is the school bus. Of course this "memory" might not be a true memory but me internalizing my mother’s story of her four-year old girl who was so small she had to board the bus knees first. She told it many times - mostly for encouragement or as a reminder of an independence streak (apparently, I didn’t look back). True memory or just true-ish, that act of climbing the stairs vs. walking them has become symbolic. It’s volunteering for a promotion even though the boss was nasty piece of work, running a long race without training at all, being a foreign exchange student without being fluent in the language, giving a keynote address, moving somewhere blindly, and to a lesser extent traveling alone (although I can maneuver the plane’s stairway now, I can barely get that damn carry-on in the overhead). Climb and don’t look back and appreciate those lower steps is what I got out of a nice post titled  One Rung At A Time by Andrew Wittman. He’s writing about a nutritional plan which isn’t related to my work at all but his words really resonated with me based on what I’m doing now - developing The Guild Academy. I think many of us in learning and development are trying to climb as we try new things and adapt to the changing workplace. After the first two rungs, you are far enough off the ground to start thinking about not going any higher, and you aren’t high enough up the ladder to experience greatness in your life.  These lower level rungs are where most folks stop ascending, get jittery, and descend back to mediocrity. - Andrew Wittman Never settle for mediocrity. Look ahead and look up.

I had the pleasure of attending a speech by Hillary Clinton a few weeks ago. One phrase she used was "evidence-free zone" and I couldn’t help but think about it in the context of the L&D industry. Here’s what Clinton said: "Increasingly, we have emphasized scorched earth over common ground. Many of our public debates are happening in what I like to call an evidence-free zone, where ideology trumps data and common sense." - Hillary Clinton, Hamilton College I can’t count how many times I’ve cringed when someone stands in front of a group and says "…organization’s should.." or "organization’s need to.." while knowing that they work for exactly *one* organization. I’ve cringed at models that aren’t models at all or when models meant for one thing are lifted and used for something else entirely - bastardized. I’ve cringed when just *one* research study was relied on as absolute fact. Interestingly, when challenged with questions like "can you give some examples?" or "is there any research that supports what your saying?" the ideologue can turn combative and defensive and the questioner will be viewed the villain. Think Eric Cartman…Respect my Authoritah! Then watch them circle the wagons. This is why I liked Reuben Tozman’s opening comments at DevLearn last week in Las Vegas. He challenged people to not be passive observers at the conference but challenge each other and speakers and shape what happens next. How do you do this in your daily work? You should know something about the subject if you’re looking to engage in a meaningful dialogue. Having some basis for asking for evidence will more likely give you the results you’re looking for. For example, if you’re trying to create a more collaborative learning environment but know that openness is a problem in your organization, you might want to ask for specific examples of what other organizations are doing to create a more open environment. Or you might want to ask for links to any research or sources indicating why collaboration and openness is good/not good for organizations. Don’t be afraid to ask direct, non-confrontational questions: What methods do you use? Why did/didn’t that work? What would you do differently/the same? Where do you get the information you rely on to make decisions? Don’t  make your default deception. It’s hard to do today when art of verification is slipping. Trust and then verify. You don’t want to spend money are a big initiative just because someone stood up in front of a groups and said "organizations should do this…" You owe it to your organization to gather the evidence.  

A guest post on VB Business titled Coming 2014: a smarter, interconnected you identified four changes to keep an eye on next year. The last paragraph under the first  prediction says: …a new era of social experiences around activities that were previously done individually; those experiences will no longer be consumed in isolation, but in a living, breathing network. The writer doesn’t give any examples of the specific types of activities that will no longer be done individually but this prediction made me wonder about the loss of what I would call healthy isolation - the act of contemplating, reflecting, or just processing things alone. I’m not talking about the type of isolation discussed in Bowling Alone - how we are becoming disconnected from one another and how social structures have disintegrated. That I agree is problematic. I’m talking about the good type of alone. Sadly enough, I’m actually having a hard time thinking about what I do consume in isolation. Yes, I would consider checking in on FourSquare while on top of a mountain I just climbed alone.  Yes, I would consider taking a picture of leaves falling while walking in the woods alone and posting it on Instagram.  What do we lose when we do that? Is it insignificant compared to what we gain? I don’t think it is. My goals for 2014  now includes some healthy isolation.

Started by Jeremiah Owyang in 2010, today is Community Manager Appreciation Day - a day to say thanks! I’ve been a "part-time" community manager for the past six months supporting the Bloomfire communities that supplement Guild Academy live online courses. I was reflecting on the role of community manager and ran across this slide presentation from The Community Roundtable on ‘the dark side of community management.’ According to the eBook, a result of discussion among members, the biggest challenges community managers face: Lack of or limited resources Lack of executive support. Resistance to social technology in an organization. In support of this appreciation day here is a great slide deck from TheCR Network with strategies to avoid burnout associated with community management. The Dark Side of Community Management from The Community Roundtable

If you’re in the profession of learning & development you would no doubt select "TRUE" to the following statement if it was presented as a test question: We know that instruction, when spaced over time, produces substantial learning benefits (i.e., better retention) than instruction delivered at one-time. (follow that link to a great paper by Will Thalheimer - worth your time) That said, it seems there are still a fair amount of one-time events being developed. One course. One class. One workshop. One time. At the eLearning Guild Academy, I work with experienced, professional instructors so when they’re developing courses I find they naturally support their live sessions with activities and enriching resources spaced over the duration- ideally using a students actual work projects. Because most of our courses are virtual, I have had to search for technology that can support our top-notch instructors’ efforts. I’ve found that selecting the ‘right’ technology is less of a daunting task when you realize there really is no ONE right platform. The platform must suit the activities. Yet many still have a  desire to find the holy grail of learning platforms.  They seek rather than search. Seeking suggests you’ll find what you’re looking for. When you search you’re looking for something…not necessarily finding "it." We need to always be in search mode. Of course it’s not easy continuously searching for platforms and then supporting those platforms. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it though. For Guild Academy courses we use one of two of our virtual classroom platforms - either Adobe Connect 9 or Cisco WebEx Training Center (sometimes both for our train-the-trainer virtual classroom courses). We supplement with either Bloomfire or LearningStone. We use Cameo too for our Articulate Storyline courses to provide scenario-based reinforcement after training. This is powered by Cameo and supports our Articulate Storyline courses. It can be considered a tool for subscription learning. Our use of platforms is like a tapas bar for learning : )  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Elemaki Because we use multiple trainers located worldwide and have new groups of learners worldwide for each session, I need platforms that are easy to use. If I have to provide a lot of training on how to use a training platform, I’m out. I wanted instructors and students to be able to get in, get out, and not be frustrated. There’s a certain discomfort using any new platform but it shouldn’t be overly frustrating. "If something is hard to use, I just don’t use it as much." - Steve Krug’s wife in "Don’t Make Me Think" For the virtual classroom, our instructors use the platform that best supports their planned interactivities like chat (group and private), downloading and uploading files, sharing screens, collaborating on whiteboards, breaking up into separate ‘rooms’, application sharing, use of video, etc. (Note: We have a course that, among other things, helps you compare platforms.) Ditto for the supplemental platforms. Pick the best tool for the job. We started using Bloomfire for our first software training courses. They are based in Austin, Texas and have been around since 2010. I used the platform in an action learning project while at Bersin & Associates. While Bloomfire is not designed to support instructor-led training (it’s marketed as web-based knowledge management software) it can be adapted for it. There are some things I really like about Bloomfire: The ability to record from within the platform via a web cam without additional software. This has proven valuable for a student to receive feedback on something (like their facilitation skills) or to record a welcome video before a course starts. The above is an example of a welcome video recorded by Dr. Pooja Jaisingh who teaches our Adobe courses. The ability to upload any type of file of any size. This has proven valuable for uploading work created with a tool like Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate. The instructor is able to provide feedback on your actual work. For example, a .story file is shared below in one of our Articulate Storyline courses. Easy to use. Because we have different independent instructors for each course and a new group of mixed students for each session of a course, we need something that was relatively intuitive. I’ve found that instructors and students have been able to use the platform with limited support. Group announcements and ask/answer questions. We don’t use a traditional LMS where someone can login and see their courses and course access information. We’re able to use Bloomfire to send mass announcements and answer quick questions about the course logistics, content, and activities. Social features. Students can easily come together in this platform with properly designed activities requiring threaded discussions (and threaded within a thread). It’s easy to follow others, receive notifications, high-five good responses, upload assignments for feedback, and share LinkedIn profiles for continued conversations after the course concludes. Branding. Because Bloomfire is outside of the eLearning Guild’s website, it was important to be able to customize the appearance. I used the same banners and logos we use on our website. The navigation is much different but at least there’s some continuity between sites. Mobile support. I like Bloomfire’s mobile app. I can’t imagine using a platform today that doesn’t support on-the-go learning. I’ve answered quick questions and viewed videos and discussions from the comfort of my couch. Managing a community built around a course isn’t a one-time thing either - you must be available when help is needed and this mobile app makes it easier. They offer a free trial. Private or public. I like that I can use this for private courses and, if desired, for public use. As much as I like Bloomfire, it isn’t designed for supporting instructor-led training so it can get kind of messy for some programs. My search mode led me to LearningStone. LearningStone is actually designed for supporting instructor-led training so we started using it for many of our courses when Bloomfire wasn’t the best fit. There are many things I really like about LearningStone.  Clean interface, easy to use. As I mentioned above, we have different instructors for each course and a new group of mixed students for each session of a course. I’ve found that instructors and students have been able to use LearningStone with very limited support. Attentive to our needs. LearningStone is a brand spanking’ new platform, the brainchild of internet and learning entrepreneurs Michiel Klønhammer and Sjoerd Boersma who are based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. While we needed almost no real support, when we did these guys were on it. Like immediately. They even did some tweaking to fit our needs and made the product better. I like this in a technology partner. The ability to organize and structure content in a timeline. I think this is what really sets this platform apart. It’s logical and simple. The example below comes from Megan Torrance’s Agile Project Management course. Social timeline. This platform has a Facebook-like wall that allows for ongoing messaging. Lots of "I found this…". I really feel like I’m part of the group and can see people making great connections this way- both with peers and the instructor. Reuse of course timelines. Once an instructor has organized their course, they can easily reuse the same timeline…or tweak it. What a time saver. Public and private feature. I like that I can set up my home page for anyone to see and then allow people to access the course group to which they belong. I can actually have something of substance there and I’m sure some trainers or training groups could actually use it as a webpage. Support for spaced learning activities and materials to support live sessions. The example below comes from Dr. Catherine Lombardozzi’s Designing Environments for Learning course. Video and resource integration. We’ve been able to upload external content like YouTube videos and our own content including videos, images, documents, etc. Free version is available. Overall, this is a very affordable platform. Calendar. When you don’t use a central LMS you have to really on your calendar to keep track of course meeting times and assignment due dates. I like the ability to subscribe to a calendar. Language support. I think 10 or so which is important when serving and international audience. Support for surveys. I like that this is integrated saving me from using an independent survey tool. Admin side is easy to use. Sometimes we overlook clunky administration. No clunkiness here. You organize members by just dragging their picture around. Love. I’m really happy with the variety of tools we’ve been able to use. We’re not locked in and can be agile enough to make changes based on what the instructor needs. Keep searching my friends and know that you’ll never find the ONE learning technology to meet all your needs. Like tapas, you need more.

As every scuba diver knows, panic is your worst enemy: when it hits, your mind starts to thrash and you are likely to do something really stupid and self-destructive. - Daniel Dennett, Philosopher To a lesser extent, it’s like that feeling I get walking through a store full of crystal and china. I think suddenly I’ll start flailing my arms around and break everything. Aaahhhh what have I done! Story time. Over 15 years ago (!!!) I developed a fear of running out of air after losing the ability to breath during a supposedly simple, yet botched, routine medical procedure. This fear essentially put the kabbash on scuba diving for me, something I enjoyed doing. End of story time (it was a short story). So, naturally we planned yet another vacation to Grand Cayman, a popular scuba destination. Hmmm. I wrote about failed scuba training  three years ago yet here I was again.What to do? In preparation I tried to put on scuba gear again - in the safety of a 12-foot pool at the YMCA. But I couldn’t do it. I was irrational and freaked out just by the very act of putting a breathing regulator in my mouth and sticking my head under water. I felt like a failure. I could swim, why not scuba dive? What the hell? Well, I realized the only way I was going to get over this was to actually expose myself to real-life diving again. I had to build resilience. Luckily my husband was thinking this too and eased me into it. He’s a gem and apparently has little regard for his own underwater safety. Either that or he has tremendous confidence in his ability to save me from self-destructing in 20 feet of water near the shore. We went for dinner at a popular shore dive spot and saw people that looked just like me diving all smiles and thumbs up. The next night we went for drinks at the same spot and watched the sunset and people night diving. After we got home that night I mentioned that it might be fun to go to that spot early in the morning and I could try to dive while it was really quiet. We wouldn’t tell the kids…just go. It felt safe to fail. That’s me in the picture up above. Thumbs up. Smiling-ish. I was so nervous I forgot to take my shirt off. Luckily it was not dry clean only. Lacking resiliency can be a problem at work too. Especially when learning something new. Today, resilience seems to be a necessity for us to do our jobs well. It seems people question their methods and approaches continually. Things are changing too fast. Failure lurks around every corner. The ability to see failure as a form of feedback is one factor that makes someone resilient. I think we should make a point to expose ourselves - and others - to potential failure. It’s OK to fail. We’ll learn something in the process.

I know that online learning is not the same as reading a newspaper article or watching news online (or at least I hope not) but I have always been interested in the similarities of two of their associated professions  - instructional designer and journalist - especially how they are evolving; presenting meaningful content that elicits less passive and less controlled behaviors. When it comes right down to it, both instructional designers and journalists are responsible for putting content on screens - just with different objectives (or at least I hope so). Three similarities (or challenges if you like) caught my eye this week while consuming "news." They strike me as key to the evolution of L&D. 1.) Recognition of society’s dwindling attention span. The Daily Show’s "Less is More" content is video clips of "recent episodes tailored for the Internet’s attention span." One Episode in One Minute they call it. One minute. It’s all we have time for. I’ll be trying to do the same with video content that is around one-hour - whittle it down to meaningful segments that are less than 3 minutes in length. Maybe that’s too long. Supplemental content and enrichment activities will be needed (obviously) to accomplish the learning objectives. The Daily Show gives you the option of taking a deeper dive by watching a particular segment in its entirely or the whole show. One 22 minute show broken down several ways. What skills are needed? Likely a hybrid mix of instructional designer, content curator, project manager, and content developer. (Have I left some skills out?) 2.) Recognition of our society’s obsession with the now - this minute, this second. Something I write here will automatically post to Twitter and someone will favorite it or share it immediately. My narcissistic self says thanks. But it will only be good for a minute, maybe a few hours at the most. It will be picked up and mixed up with other news of the day in people’s daily papers and aggregators. Then it’s gone. Old news. But since it was shared, it’s good right? Right? What skills are needed? Some include understanding the technology that will get the content in front of people in as many ways as possible and good content curation skill - the ability to identify what’s relevant and good. What have I missed? 3.) Recognition of the growing passiveness associated with the quality of content. Here’s an entertaining, but NSFW (lot of bleeps and mentions of things like side boob), segment from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that includes a bunch of journalism students and former editor Neetzan Zimmerman from that news aggregator/blog Gawker ("Today’s gossip is tomorrow’s news"). I’m not proud of the fact that I click on Gawker headlines on my Facebook feed. Increasingly when I do so I feel like I’m wasting my life, wasting my time. Defeated. Nothing accomplished. The headline made me do it (click)! Ruth Bader Ginsburg Endorses the Whole "Notorious R.B.G." Thing > I clicked on that. I think RBG is one cool lady. In the segment, Zimmerman says, "If a person is not sharing a news article then it is, at its core, it’s not news. Nowadays, it’s not important that the story’s real; the only thing that really matters is that people click on it." An education in journalism, he says is not worth anything unless you’re learning how to craft headlines for the viral web. Of course, that’s Gawker. There is quality reporting out there, you just have to find it. Of course someone has to create that quality content before the aggregators will then pick up - ultimately making more money than the creator. You can easily make an argument that this is stifling quality writing. That’s a different discussion. The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook Is content only as good as its shareability? Maybe for driving people to a website, yes. What about online learning? Platforms host content that can be ranked, rated, and shared. It doesn’t mean the highest quality content is being driven to the top. We need to recognize our challenges and develop the skills that will help recognize quality content because there’s just too much bad content out there. Thoughts?

Yes, that’s what Bloomfire wants me to do. Apparently I’ve got two weeks make up my mind. If I don’t it looks like my rate may triple. Yup. Triple. I do not feel like a customer right now even though the company I work for pays them several thousand dollars each year. Let me back up… Bloomfire is a knowledge sharing platform but how I use it has been a bit unusual - I’m not the typical use case. To support the activities that happen between live vILT sessions, I set up a new Bloomfire sub-community for each session. In that sub-community, students have discussions, share work, comment, ask questions, submit assignments, and download course materials. As a result, I can end up with 100 sub-communities per year but only six or so active at any one time. Each only stays open a few weeks after a course ends then it’s deactivated. So I’ve got a bunch of deactivated communities. One of the features I liked about Bloomfire when I started using it was unlimited sub-communities. Imagine my surprise when I noticed little locks on top of several features when I went to set a new one up. Clicking on it brought up a message that this was a premium feature and I should contact sales. WTF? I had no notice of this change. I submitted a support ticket. It was fixed. Then next time…you guessed it, locked again. And fixed. And so on. Then I heard from sales. Adversarial would be the best adjective to describe this call. I expect to pay more for new features. I don’t expect to have features shut off and then have to pay to turn them back on. I expect to see a solution provider raise their rates - it’s the nature of business. But I expect to have adequate time to make a decision and adjust. Thank goodness I’ve got a second platform I’ve been using more and more of. Otherwise I’d be left high and dry. "You’re messin’ with the wrong guy!" (because I blog). Just moments ago.. Here’s the response I received within their public community when I mentioned this. I hope to hear from other users as well.

I’ve recently been given the opportunity to oversee The eLearning Guild’s research function, while continuing to oversee the Guild Academy, an opportunity I’m both grateful for and extremely excited about. In the past, as an analyst and industry researcher, I’ve generally followed the hourglass structure for conducting research; however, I’ve been uninspired by the lowest part of the hourglass - the output for communicating findings, insights, and recommendations. In my experience, research is often presented to users via a lengthy PDF document. I’ve written many. For years, I’ve kept a folder full of PDF files and just never seem to find the time to read them.  I will scan the abstract and the conclusions and tuck it away for future reference. Maybe that’s just me but I suspect there are others that do the same thing. We’ve become a scanning society with so much content at our fingertips. My hope is to present Guild research through multiple channels: Infographics Video interviews Executive summaries PPT templates for presenting the findings to others Graphs Listing of whom to follow in the topic area Research summary (pdf) In the future I’d also like to offer prediction graphs. Of course, not all topics warrant all of those assets but I think it will make the research more consumable. Do you agree or disagree? What else would you like to see? What else have you seen? I’d appreciate your feedback.  

In 2015, I traveled roughly ten weeks for work and went on some solo backpacking camping trips for pleasure and sanity. Backpacking alone was new to me and it really turned me on to minimalist camping where ounces matter. I missed having my husband/manservant lugging all the big, heavy stuff about 3 miles into my first hike. I had no idea! So selfish! After that first solo camping experience, I became an avid (maybe rabid) consumer of small, lightweight things and quickly learned to separate critical items from unnecessary items like deodorant.  As a result, I dropped about a third of the weight of the pack. I used the experience to lighten my business travel bag. Here’s what I’ll be grabbing from my camping backpack when I travel to New York City next week. I haven’t gone to the extreme of cutting the handle off my toothbrush but I’m getting there. Item Rank I Like Weight Cost Winter Coat Critical Packable Calvin Klein down coat Shipping weight is 11 ounces Around $100 Rain Jacket Suggested Packable Guide Series rain jacket Estimate at 10 ounces Around $25 Day Pack Optional Packable Hikpro backpack 6.5 ounces Under $20 Glow Stick Suggested Any like this 1.6 ounces Pack of 2 for $2 Sneakers Critical Skechers GOwalk 4.2 ounces each shoe for women's size 6 Under $50 e-reader Optional Kindle Paperwhite 7.2 ounces Around $120 Portable Power Critical Jackery Mini 2.72 ounces Less than $15 Sleep mask Suggested Alaska Bear silk sleep mask Shipping weight .6 ounces About $10   Winter coat: My home airport is Syracuse NY where the average low temperature in December is 22 degrees F / -5 C. In the past when I’ve traveled in December, I left my "real" winter coat in the car and traveled with something too light. This packable winter coat packs into a little bag the size of a football and can be jammed into the corner of my bag no problem. It looks good on and it’s warm but not too warm. Plus I’m going to a NY Rangers hockey game and I can safely tuck it away in the bag and avoid spilling beer on it. My daughter tells me people bring these to frat parties (maybe for the same reason). Rain Jacket: I prefer a rain jacket over an umbrella. It’s hard to walk in crowds with an umbrella, especially when you’re short like I am. I’ll take someone’s eye out! This packable rain jacket comes with a little carrying bag and can fit inside a shoe. Day Pack: I love this little backpack. It rolls up into one of its own pockets and is about the size of a pack of cards. Open it, stuff your jacket, purse/wallet, purchases, water, and explore handsfree. You’ll feel like a magician when pulling this out in public and packing it up. Glow Stick: If you’re ever in a hotel when there’s a power outage, this will help you get around and may help others exit the building. Sneakers: Hands-down the most comfortable, lightweight shoe for walking - whether the streets of NY or a conference. I have the GOwalk 3 slip-on walking sneakers. Not super attractive but I’m over 50 so practically invisible anyway.  e-reader: I read a lot. A lot. This is so much less bulky than the iPad and better reading. I bought the wifi only. Portable Power: This is powerful and tiny (3.7 inches). Sleep mask: Super smooth and lightweight. Blocks the light and no one will bug you on a redeye. Doubles as a blindfold. Just sayin’ ; ) I have yet to bring my one camping luxury on a business trip - a portable French Press - but am considering it. Coffee’s kind of a non-negotiable for me. What space and weight saving tips do you have for business travel? Note: I received absolutely nothing for linking to these products. I share specific products because I did a little research and relied on the ratings and reviews of others.

I’m thrilled to return to Bersin by Deloitte after a nearly three-year stint at The eLearning Guild. It sure feels nice (and unexpectedly cathartic) to see those "Welcome back!" messages. I’ll be working alongside great minds like Dani Johnson and David Mallon writing about and conducting research in enterprise learning. Deloitte is an amazing company to work for. My husband Andy and I decided this would be a good time to rent shared office space too. Sometimes you just need quiet space away from the home office you know? Here are my dogs checking out the view. I’ve ordered a SKARSTA sit-or-stand desk from IKEA because the evidence suggests active desks are a win for the body and at least a push for the mind. What a great way to start the upstate NY winter. Onward.  

Serious trouble. Difficulty. Deep doo doo. Why do I think this? Here’s just a sampling. This: The next shooting is happening soon. This online course isn’t helping. The Washington Post, by Dan Zak. December 3, 2015. Quote>>>"Mass shootings, in the parlance of Human Resources. Part of work. Part of life. America, 2015." - Dan Zak A reporter notes his experience taking a Homeland Security / FEMA online course called "Active Shooter: What You Can Do." It’s a printable, one-hour self-paced course with T/F questions (which most people could easily answer without taking the course) and narrated "video" presentations with photos/text/transcript. There is a final exam and links to supplemental content. The course is typical of the type of courses one creates using rapid eLearning development tools. Stock photos are predictable -keys in doors, a woman cowering behind a desk, fist bumps for working together, etc.  There are many statements that are obligatory: i.e., "Call 911 when it is safe to do so!" (Gee, thanks. I would not have thought of that  but for this course.) I’m not being irreverent on the topic, the fact that we need a course because we (in the US) have so many active shooter incidents is appalling and tragic, but I am being irreverent about the online course. While I imagine the course is part of a larger plan for the organization-real drills, planning, etc., what irks me is that this >>read/listen to narrated text with stock photos/click next/take an exam/read some more<< model might be the only contribution L&D made or paid someone else to make. The way I see it, L&D consistently under-delivers-the curse of developing "easy" compliance training. It bleeds to other areas. If I’m right, L&D is in trouble. I do apologize for singling out this one course but they are a dime a dozen.  This: Align L&D to the Broader Organization, Bersin by Deloitte (my new employer) by Dani Johnson. December 3, 2015. Quote>>>"…business leadership has completely lost confidence in L&D." - Dani Johnson Dani Johnson, VP, Learning & Development Research, writes about hearing how "L&D is not keeping up with the needs of the business, how employees are turning to outside sources to spend their developmental hours, and how business leadership has completely lost confidence in L&D. She says L&D, as a function, is in crisis mode. Dani has some great observations and advice for organizations to get on the right track (it’s all about alignment). And this: On alignment and more…an eLearning Guild - Adobe Systems study I co-wrote with Sharon Vipond before leaving the eLearning Guild revealed some dismal findings. Many organization say they are failing to meet their learning challenges… 25% Unable to justify their current learning investment 41% Unable to tie learning outcomes and activities to their business objectives 52% Unable to keep their learners fully engaged and motivated to actively participate in learning 67% Unable to determine the impact of learning on their employee’s performance What other industries would say these percentage are acceptable. They’re not.  

I recently had to answer a question for a presentation: "What will L&D need the most help with to be successful over the next 10 years?" I came up with six areas: L&D needs to get "unstuck." There are many, many smart L&D people who (I think) know the way they’re working today isn’t going to hold 10 years from now but can’t move to the next level. They’re stuck. There’s a MUST READ Fast Company article, Why We Hate HR, that I highly recommend which touches on this. It’s an incendiary article. Be warned. Within it, you’ll see a reference to "educated incapacity." The original phrase, "trained incapacity," comes from the economist Thorstein Veblen. Basically, "training does come at some costs by narrowing the perspectives of the individuals concerned." You must read The Expert and Educated Incapacity. L&D needs to refocus. I read a terrific article by Con Gottfredson, Now’s the Time for Performance Support, about "reconceiving learning to influence the primary purpose of the organization: to perform effectively and efficiently." Although the article was written nearly three years ago, I think it’s sends an important message about focusing on L&D’s role is in the organization. L&D needs to improve the way learning is measured and linked to business performance. I’m not sure L&D does a great job measuring learning outcomes and linking metrics to business performance. This has been a recurring problem for years. I’ll bet at least half of organization don’t do or don’t know how to do this well. L&D needs to analyze and use data to improve performance. Invest in tools and people who can analyze data and use it to improve performance. Data! It’s everywhere. L&D needs to deal with disruption. Does it seem to you that there is a narrow point of view about the future and how organizations (and their jobs) are going to change? If you’re only reading content from people who work in L&D, expand your reading. From Risk to Resilience: Learning to Deal With Disruption (do you understand your vulnerabilities?) How "Focused Priorities" Deal With Disruption L&D needs to develop business acumen. For the most part, I think L&D is ill-equipped to help make the business effective and successful. There’s a great need to get equipped to do business…you work in a business! Here’s some great reading on that TWO VITAL STEPS FOR FIXING YOUR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROBLEM.