Learning and the Future of Learning

Training by Design

New open German e-learning portal: Find free e-learning courses, learn how to create effective e-learning by design and get connected with people of the e-learning universe!

Added: 22 November 2007
Reviewer's Note:

E-Learning & the Power of Images

"This is an article about our companies research findings in the use of imagery in e-learning for corporate/leaedrship/management training and coaching "

Added: 1st August 2007
Reviewer's Note:
Keith Bound explains his research journey into using imagery and technology to accelerate learning.

Connectivism: Learning as network creation

"The domain of learning is significantly hampered by progressive revisions of what it means to learn, to know, and to understand. A subset of connectivism, network forming, is presented as an accurate model for addressing how people learn. The test of any theory is the degree to which it solves problems and incongruities within a domain." George Siemens, Learning Circuits, November 2005

Added: 19 November 2005
Reviewer's Note:
"The shortcomings of behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist ideologies of learning are answered in light of learning as a connection-forming (network-creation) process."

The future of the profession formerly known as training

"There is no topic that inflames more passion at the moment than what to call the profession formerly known as training. Medieval theologians debating the number of angels that could dance on the head of a pin could not marshal more arguments than the defenders of competing nomenclatures. Is it performance? Is it intellectual capital development? Is it knowledge management? Is it learning facilitation? Is it human process engineering? Is it workforce development? Is it organizational stewardship and transformation?" Pat Galagan, December 2003

Added: 10 December 2003
Reviewer's Note:
At the e-Learning Centre, we think the profession should be known as Learning Engineering.
Also see Product knowledge e-learning, done rapidly in Kineo Tips.

What is Learning Engineering?

"In conclusion, then a technology-driven, ad hoc approach to developing and building learning solutions is not the way forward. There needs to be some order and discipline in this area of work. In fact it is time to recognise that there is a need for a new breed of professionals called LEARNING ENGINEERS who have a clear set of knowledge and skills." Jane Knight, e-Learning Centre

Added: 2003
Reviewer's Note:
Jane's thoughts on the new breed of professionals

Learning strategies

"The model presented in "A Model for Self-Paced Technology-Based Training" specifies that adult learning begins with and is sustained by self-assessment and self-correction (metacognition). The model also indicates that in addition to metacognition, adults consistently use the following learning strategies: reflection, prior experiences, conversations, and authentic experiences. Here are specific techniques adults use when they apply these five learning strategies." Jackie Dobrovolny, Learning Circuits, 27 October 2003

Added: 7 November 2003
Reviewer's Note:
Also contains recommendations for Instructional designers on how they can support these learning strategies

Another look at elearning

"Our era could well be called The Age of Networks. Humanity is awakening to the realization that everything's connected. If something's not a node, it's a connection. Each of us is enmeshed in social, communications, information, and neural networks." Jay Cross, Internet Time Group, 29 June 2003

Added: 30 June 2003
Reviewer's Note:
A clear and succinct summary of learning

Knowledge management in education

"...is a monograph that makes eminent sense - a wonderful combination of good intuition, practical know-how, and a feel for what might be best described as a set of emerging theories focusing on the effective management of knowledge in educational institutions." Lisa A Petrides and Thad R Nodine

Added: 10 May 2003
Reviewer's Note:
"describes the opportunities and challenges faced by those working to improve the use and sharing of information in education through practices that have come to be known as knowledge management"

New technologies, new ways to learn

"Is the availability of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) changing the ways in which people acquire knowledge and skills? To what extent are our mental processes able to adapt to technological change?" Web Tools Newsletter, 28 April 2003

Added: 3 May 2003
Reviewer's Note:
This newsletter "looks at changing perceptions of the nature of learning processes and how they may best be served by contemporary technologies"

Educational psychology and the nature of e-learning

"Charles Low explains the influence of cognitive psychology on training and education in order to highlight how we can improve the process of e-learning." Charles Low, Training Journal, January 2003

Added: 10 January 2003
Reviewer's Note:
"The article begins with a whirlwind tour of the history of cognitive psychology and its influence on training and education. It then looks at how we can use this information to improve e-learning. The author outlines six key points that arise from research undertaken in the last ten years on what makes 'good' e-learning. He then examines how to create and sustain motivation in learners for the full length of any courses they are taking. Finally, he tells us that the power of the human mind to process information is phenomenal and persuades us that we can harness this power to great effect."

Learning to Unlearn and Relearn

"In 1970 Alvin Toffler's 'Future Shock' presented a new theory of social adaptation, along with strategies for coping with rapid change; inevitably many of his insights involve the roles of education in the adaptive process. One of his most quoted projections redefines literacy in an increasingly pertinent way - he says: 'The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.'" Graeme Daniel and Kevin Cox, Web Tools Newsletter, 10 September

Added: 10 September 2002
Reviewer's Note:
A collection of thoughts and links about "unlearning"

How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school

"How People Learn is the product of a 2-year project during which 16 individuals, as a committee, evaluated new developments in the science of learning." John D Bransford, Ann L Brown and Rodney R Cocking Editors

Added: 17 August 2002
Reviewer's Note:
This book is referred to by Jay Cross in his thoughts in the item immediately below.

How people learn

Updated: 27 May 2002
Reviewer's Note:
Jay Cross' thoughts on learning

Serving the Total Learner: The time has finally come!

"If we've learned anything in the past 18 years at Element K, we've learned that adult learners are VERY complex "beasts." Years of adult learning theory also has taught us the same." Bob Mosher, Element K

Added: 7 May 2002
Reviewer's Note:
Identifies 5 types of learning: Initial, Continued, Remedial, Upgrade and Transferred

Lippman on Learning: Fundamental changes

"Syllabus interviews Andrew Lippman, founding associate director of MIT's renowned Media Laboratory, to explore how technology will transform our notions of teaching and learning." Syllabus Magazine, February 2002

Added: 15 February 2002
Reviewer's Note:
Summary: "Syllabus interviews Andrew Lippman, founding associate director of MIT's renowned Media Laboratory, to explore how technology will transform our notions of teaching and learning."

The Future of Learning Program

"The Future of Learning Program has been created in response to this situation with a three-part mission: critical, conceptual and activist. The critical mission is to recognize and break the mindsets that limit systemic, global thinking about the latent learning potential of the planet; The conceptual mission is to elaborate the conceptual framework and the language to support thinking on a more holistic, systemic level about what being digital can mean for learning; The activist mission has two parts based on a distinction between micro-mathetics (actions directed at affecting learning on a level of individuals or small groups) and macro-mathetics (actions directed at affecting the way a country or, indeed, the entire planet, deals with learning.)

Added: 3 February 2002
Reviewer's Note:
A very inspiring program run by a group from the MIT Media Lab

Linking their thinking

"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab work to link burgeoning technologies to education." Andrew Trotter, Education Week on the Web, 30 January 2002

Added: 3 February 2002
Reviewer's Note:
Some of the work into learning taking place at MIT Media Lab

In practice ...

"What does it mean to talk about learner centered learning? I think that at least a part of it means something very different from the traditional system of classes and courses." Stephen Downes, 28 January 2002

Added: 3 February 2002
Reviewer's Note:
"The prediction is this: as online learning takes hold, fewer and fewer people will opt for traditional courses and classes, opting instead for less formal learner driven forms of learning."

The next society

"Tomorrow is closer than you think. Peter Drucker explains how it will differ from today, and what needs to be done to prepare for it"

Added: 10 November 2001
Reviewer's Note:
As always Peter Drucker is worth listening to. One of the sidebars shows "Knowledge technologists are likely to become the dominant social-and perhaps also political-force over the next decades

A Time Capsule of Training and Learning

Written by Don Clark at Big Dog's Bowl of Biscuits

Added: 11 October 2001
Reviewer's Note:
The past as well as the future of learning. Available in two ways: "global" to allow easy "bouncing back and forth" and linear version. Fascinating

Guilds and the future of learning

"Learning can be a charged term for today's workers. In an information economy, the ability to master new skills throughout one's career is crucial. But when this learning requirement is added to ever more demanding job performance standards, and the need to fit in family responsibilities and personal life, it can all feel like too much. Between long hours on the job and the home front, who can find time to bone up on those new skills?" LineZine, Summer 2001

Added: 21 August 2001
Reviewer's Note:
One approach for addressing this problem lies in new kinds of organizations - "guilds"

Four fictional views on the future of learnng

"We are at a critical moment in the history of human learning, and in the history of humans. Learning is very important in our future. With six billion people on earth, going to nine billion by the middle of the century, current educational systems everywhere at all levels have major problems, probably not solvable with present approaches. In many areas little education is available. We need new learning modes and structures, and we need them quickly and globally." Alfred Bork, Educational Technology Center, Information and Computer Science,University of California

Added: 21 August 2001
Reviewer's Note:
"This editorial is based on four accounts, three from science fiction and one from fictional chapters in a nonfiction book"

How people learn

"Learning about learning is occupying my thoughts these days (mid 2001) and I expect to spew lots of ideas on the topic in the next few months." Jay Cross, Internet Time Group

Added: 17 July 2001
Reviewer's Note:
Some interesting thoughts on e-learning

The changing face of learning

"During the last ten years or so, two things have brought about a transformational change to learning from which there is no going back. The first is that perceptions about the importance of learning for society, organisations and for individuals, have changed. At long last learning has become 'respectable' and is enjoying centre stage as the undisputed key to sustainable performance and competitiveness. The emphasis has moved from training (an input still with a part to play), to learning (both a process and an output). This paradigm shift has many welcome implications. ... The second big change is, of course, technology that has suddenly enabled learning to become more convenient and more readily accessible than ever before. E-learning (learning note, not training) is the latest addition to what was already a long list of learning opportunities." Peter Honey, June 2001

Added: 16 July 2001
Reviewer's Note:
Peter Honey describes how two things have brought about a transformational change to learning

e-Learning for adults: who has the goods

"The advent of the Internet as a means of delivering and facilitating learning is blurring the line between traditional academic education, held away from the job and focused more on ideas than on the application of ideas, and traditional job training, held at work and focused more on applied skills than on the mastery of a body of knowledge. This change in the very definition of education is reflected in current terminology: the term "learning" has come to mean improving one's skills through training as well as deepening one's understanding in a particular field of knowledge, an evolution of phraseology to which I adhere in this article." Robert M Burnside, the technology source, July/August 2001

Added: 5 July 2001
Reviewer's Note:
this article explores the relationship between academic and corporate learning

Learning 101

"Learn how learning is changing, how you can promote learning, and how you can become a better learner." By Lucy McCauley Fast Company, October 2000

Updated: July 2001
Reviewer's Note:
a collection of thoughts from eminent educationalists on learning