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Posts from May 2012

SKILLS, INTELLIGENCE & LEADERSHIP

Appearing in “The Commercial Appeal” of Memphis, TN this week was a most interesting column by Robert J. Samuelson. As a former educator, I found it unusually edifying and I urge you to read it. Samuelson’s initial paragraph serves as an introduction: The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it’s now doing more harm than good. It looms as the...

“THE FORMULAS FOR CHOICE”

Are you tasked with strengthening your organization’s training program through the purchase of E-Learning courseware? In today’s world that is going to be difficult to do — if learning and retention are your ultimate objectives. Oh sure, you can purchase courseware “titles” that purport to address your needs — but, in most such instances the content presentation will be far removed from the learning culture of most of your trainees. Why? Today,...

“LOOK TO ‘THE FEW’”

Learning is not merely memorization of information. Learning is the mental response to informational stimulation, which turns into reflection and new awareness. Meaningful learning initiates action and change, which results in heightened values and skills. Very few individuals will possess the gifts necessary to create meaningful instructional design. And that fact, coupled with high production costs, is why the “do-it-yourself” purveyors will fail. Today, learner-controlled E-Learning is the best answer for effective...

“ICING THE CAKE”

The importance of aesthetics in E-Learning design is often ignored. For some unknown reasons, the creative artistry that more often distinguishes the great learning experience lies unexplored. And yet, every program or production that we remember is most often the one that appealed to our senses — that, in turn, stimulated our mind to learn, absorb and retain. While we all know the importance of the SME, the computer programmer, and the...

“USABILITY & E-LEARNING”

In simple terms, we define “usability” as how user-friendly or appealing a program is to its users. In practice, usability goes deeper than this, and is closely related to how much users actually learn from using their E-Learning courseware. Many of the usability concepts that need to be considered from the end-user’s perspective are closely linked to the instructional design and learning objectives of the program. These include whether learners are kept...

“ASTD, DENVER “

The annual ASTD International Conference took place in Denver last week. Without question, it is the world’s largest gathering of training professionals. Although cut short by an unexpected trip to an Emergency Room, I was in attendance for about the thirtieth time. As a longtime participant at ASTD, I am aware of several changes taking place in our industry — most of which are very healthy for the future of training. While...

“THE ENEMY IS POWERPOINT”

PowerPoint is the major enemy of E-Learning. It has distorted the learning values of this new education/training tool. It has turned off millions of individuals who would otherwise be motivated by the potential of the E-Learning medium. In short, PowerPoint has done much more harm to the reputation of E-Learning than most of us can possibly imagine. Why!?! Too few, charged with making training initiative decisions for their organization, have very little...

“ANOTHER FORTUNATE EXPERIENCE”

Along with Adam Kovic, my friend and colleague at ITC, I have just returned from two most stimulating weeks in the Middle East. As guests of Dubai-headquartered Human Capital Management Solutions (HCMS), we visited Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE during the first week, holding meetings in the private sector as well as with several universities. The bulk of week two was spent in Doha where HCMS was hosting their second annual “Training...