By Jeffrey Katzman

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jeanne Meister for Xyleme Voices. Based on insights from her book, the podcast looks at trends and predictions about what the workforce will look like in 2020. Jeanne packs a tremendous amount of valuable information into a 19 minute podcast, so it’s worth a full listen, but here is a small glimpse:

• In 2020, there will be five generations in the workplace. 50% will be Millennials and Gen 2020 will just be entering the workforce. This means that over half an organization’s workforce will have been hyper-connected since birth.
• By 2020, the workplace will be highly personalized and social. Social networks will be the first point of contact between companies and their future employees and internal social networks will be the primary way that workers communicate, connect and collaborate.
• Smart phones and tablets will replace personal computers as the internet connection devices of choice. The mobile device will become an office, a classroom and a concierge.
• Employee engagement will be a key driver in helping workers more efficiently find information and increase productivity.

However, before Jeanne’s hopeful predictions of the highly agile and fluid 2020 workforce connected by mobile social networks can come to fruition, the dependence on the enterprise LMS and the old modes of training delivery needs to be broken. Read more…

Technorati Tags: 2020 Workforce, elearning, Jeanne Meister, learning content, LMS, Social Learning, social networks

Jeff Katzman 2020 Workforce 2020 Workforce, elearning, Jeanne Meister, learning content, LMS, Social Learning, social networks

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

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

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