Last week, I had the good fortune to speak with George Siemens for an upcoming Xyleme Voices podcast. The opportunity to speak one-on-one with so many industry luminaries is easily the best part of my job given the lively debates that often flow from these discussions. My conversation with George was no exception as we spoke at length about Connectivism, social learning networks, and the future of current learning technologies (LMS, LCMS, etc.) in light of social media. It was this last point where our discussion got quite animated.

While there are countless articles about the future of the LMS, it was arguably George’s blog post titled Future of learning: LMS or SNS? which kicked this discussion into high gear. So, I was not going to let the opportunity to debate this topic pass me by.
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Technorati Tags: Connectivism, Dan Pontefract, Gartner, George Siemens, LCMS, LMS, Social Learning

Dawn Learning Technologies, Social Learning Connectivism, Dan Pontefract, Gartner, George Siemens, LCMS, LMS, Social Learning

For those of you who read my blog, have seen any of my blog comments, or follow me on twitter, you’ll know that I’m a fairly big critic of training departments that still tend to disconnect themselves from the rest of the enterprise, be it stand-alone learning content development processes, and now much to my chagrin, siloed social learning initiatives. Today, I’m going to talk about learning content management (ECM) and enterprise content management (LCM).

The enterprise content management software market currently exceeds $4B, so it’s quite clear that the vast majority of organizations place strong emphasis on their ECM strategy – a strategy that the training organization unfortunately typically takes no part in. In his paper At the Intersection of Learning and Enterprise Content Management (available for download at the resource library section of our web site), Chapman Alliance analyst and Brandon Hall associate Bryan Chapman makes clear the repercussions of such a strategy:

1. The training department cannot leverage content used in other parts of the organization,
2. There is limited or no collaboration between training and other enterprise functions,
3. Training have limited influence on the enterprise content strategy.

If there is any question as to why the training department has become increasingly marginalized and the CLO role quickly diminishing, this should provide some good insight.

But this blog post isn’t about why learning needs to engage with the enterprise. I’ve already written about this extensively in my Plugging Learning into ECM white paper (also available for download at the resource library section of our web site). What his blog post is about is what happens when the training function actually engages with the rest of the organization to take a leading role in the enterprise content management strategy and radically grows its sphere of influence to elevate learning from riding the bench to a star player within the enterprise.

In mid-May, along with Xyleme CEO, Mark Hellinger, I attended EMC World where one of our enterprise customers, Informa, had the opportunity to showcase their integrated Xyleme LCMS / EMC Documentum solution to the ECM community. For those of you unfamiliar with scope of this event, EMC World 2010 boasted about 8,000 attendees, filled up the entire Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for four days, and closed down Faneuil Marketplace, one of Boston’s biggest tourist destinations, for a private party for event attendees. It was very different from the typical training conferences that we regularly attend.

In front of an audience consisting of the people responsible for developing and executing on their company’s ECM strategy, Bob Hecht, Senior Vice President of Publishing Technologies at Informa, presented on how Informa’s performance improvement businesses, the groups responsible for the development of the company’s training content, transformed the company’s content-driven business through an enterprise project they dubbed “Olympus”. So how did they do it and what were the results? Read on!
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Technorati Tags: Documentum, ECM, EMC World, enterprise content management, Informa, learning content management, Single Source

Dawn ECM, Learning Content Management Documentum, ECM, EMC World, enterprise content management, Informa, learning content management, Single Source

I was on Nigel Paine’s blog on Friday when I saw and commented on his post The Mash-up Begins. There have been countless blog posts about the theoretical potential of the iPad on mainstream media, most notably eBooks, so it was nice to see a real-world example of static content and video done in a way that equals, and even improves upon, the quality and design of the magazine layout.

Obviously, my mind shifted to learning as Nigel’s example got me immediately thinking about how we can apply these same mash-up concepts to traditional instructor-led training materials like study guides, manuals, and presentations. While training departments have been busy spending ridiculous amounts of time and money converting these training materials to e-Learning, Steve Jobs has (surprise!) changed the game by providing us with a new direct channel for ILT materials – the eBook. While eBooks of course aren’t new, the iPad now affords training departments the opportunity to add dynamic and interactive media to textbooks and other traditional learning media. In his insightful Influential Marketing blog post How The iPad Will Transform Mainstream Media (But NOT The Web), Rohit Bhargava provides a great description how the iPad will affect traditional textbooks:
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Technorati Tags: eBooks, elearning, ePub, ILT, iPad, learning content, Single Source

Dawn Single Source, Standards eBooks, elearning, ePub, ILT, iPad, learning content, Single Source

A couple of weeks ago, Xyleme presented at Intelligent Content conference hosted by the Rockley Group. Intelligent Content isn’t a training event; rather it’s a small conference showcasing how leading edge companies are exploiting the value of content through XML, open formats, and standards. I think the Rockley Group’s definition hits the nail on the head:
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Technorati Tags: Ann Rockley, blended learning, content reuse, Intelligent Content, multi-channel publishing, Single Source

Dawn Instructional Design, Learning Content Management Ann Rockley, blended learning, content reuse, Intelligent Content, multi-channel publishing, Single Source

This past week, I’ve been reading and referring to Jane Hart’s article The State of Social Learning Today and some Thoughts for the Future of L&D in 2010 quite a bit. As always, Jane combines a wealth of information with some remarkable insights on where organizational learning is (or should be) headed.

One thing that has always been of great interest to me is what I’ll refer to as the integration of social and formal learning content. So when I got to the part of Jane’s article that said it’s time to re-think the design and delivery of formal learning initiatives, I felt we were on to something. Jane nails it when she says:
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Technorati Tags: formal learning, learning content management, Social Learning, subject matter networks, user generated content

Dawn Learning Content Management, Social Learning formal learning, learning content management, Social Learning, subject matter networks, user generated content

Time to cast your vote for the 2009 Edublog Awards! Voting closes Tuesday, Dec 15 (tomorrow) at 8pm EST.

Congratulations to all of those nominated. It’s an impressive list of bloggers, Tweeters (is that a word?) and other social media leaders who I plan to now read regularly and follow if I’m not already.

This year, our educational podcast library Xyleme Voices was nominated and shortlisted in the category of Best Educational Use of Audio. I’m very honored and thrilled and if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to give a shout-out to our spectacular team here at Xyleme. While I am the host of this library, there are a number of people in the background who put tremendous time, effort, and pride into researching, recruiting, and producing these terrific podcasts.
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Technorati Tags: CLO, Edublog Awards, learning networks, performance support, podcasts, Xyleme Voices

Dawn Executive Perspective, News CLO, Edublog Awards, learning networks, performance support, podcasts, Xyleme Voices

There is no question that the rise of social networks is creating a profound shift in the way training departments are delivering knowledge to their employees, partners, and customers. According to a McKinsey executive survey, a whopping 71% of enterprises are using Web 2.0 tools for training purposes and this figure is rising fast. While I could write an entire blog post on the reasons for this, I think Clark Quinn summarizes it quite nicely:
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Technorati Tags: LCMS, learning objects, LMS, Social Learning, social media, social networks

Dawn Social Learning LCMS, learning objects, LMS, Social Learning, social media, social networks

I’m going to gloat a little bit. Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with training industry luminaries Jay Cross, Charles Jennings, Harold Jarche, and Clark Quinn of the Internet Time Alliance or ITA (formerly known as TogetherLearn) to record a podcast on collaborative and social learning in the workplace (if you would like to listen to the podcast, here it is in its 5 parts: part I – managing collaboration, part II – CLO’s and the needs of business, part III – collaborative learning in a corporate setting, part IV – social media in corporations, and part V – integrating learning in the enterprise).
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Technorati Tags: Charles Jennings, Clark Quinn, CLO, collaborative learning, Harold Jarche, informal learning, Jay Cross, Social Learning

Dawn Social Learning Charles Jennings, Clark Quinn, CLO, collaborative learning, Harold Jarche, informal learning, Jay Cross, Social Learning

Harold Jarche is blogging about the future of the training department, briefly looking back at the pre-training age and then at how training has evolved after its invention in the 20th century. He explains how today’s complex environments demand emergent practices and why a new training model and a new form of workplace have to be adopted to ensure the survival of the training department.

Learning technologies are not adopted similarly by all types of people. Karl Kapp is grouping technology adopters in five different types: Technology enthusiasts or Techies, Visionaries, Pragmatists, Conservatives, and Skeptics. In another related posting, Karl goes on to explain how learning technologies should be sold to each one of the groups listed.

According to Jesse Erwin’s review in the Association for Psychological Sciences, “social cognition can be boiled down into judgments of two key elements: warmth and competence.” Will Thalheimer is digging deeper into how this can affect learning and e-learning and what trainers should do to achieve higher learning engagement.

“E-learning in the workplace used to be the preserve of the large corporate or public body”. Clive Shepherd is blogging on how this has changed in 2009. “But this year we have seen a major shift. I personally have been working with a wide range of smaller companies and training providers who want to establish an e-learning delivery capability. Many of my colleagues are doing the same.”

Technorati Tags: Clive Shepherd, e-learning, Harold Jarche, Karl Kapp, technology adoption, training department, Will Thalheimer, workplace training

Despoina Industry Talk Clive Shepherd, e-learning, Harold Jarche, Karl Kapp, technology adoption, training department, Will Thalheimer, workplace training

Talk has been heating up lately regarding the use of open source versus proprietary systems for learning. For example, if you check out Michael Hanley’s blog, you’ll see that he’s dedicated most of his recent posts to this subject. Sophia Peters provides another interesting post entitled Deciding Between Open Source and Proprietary Software? In her article, she makes the following assertions:

• Open source software has grown to include […] an adherence to established standards, which is a high priority for open source software development.
• Proprietary software has closed standards that hinder further development.

The debate regarding open source versus proprietary is one that will rage on for a long time and it is not really black or white. However, I think there is one thing that most people can agree upon:
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Technorati Tags: e-learning, LCMS, learning standards, LMS, Moodle, open source, SCORM

Dawn Learning Technologies, Standards e-learning, LCMS, learning standards, LMS, Moodle, open source, SCORM