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.
Read more…

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

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:
Read more…

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

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:
Read more…

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